me in the beat-up old truck with a canopy over the top they
called “The Dolphin” and threw me in the back. And I just
laid there going down Franklin Boulevard heading toward
Hwy. 58, and I just realized my life had changed forever. I
was drunk and going to some place I had no idea where or
what kind of people they were going to be. But I just knew
it was the kind of adventure that would probably change my
life. And it did.
Didn’t you mention once something happened with
your brother that made you dubious about the cops?
There are different stories on how Roger died when he
was 23. The story we were told was that it was malnutrition
and a drug overdose in Amsterdam in 1971 or 1972. His
body was cremated; we never saw his body.
We knew that he was running drugs from Afghanistan
and Morocco; he was a pretty dynamic cat. He used to
beat up cops when he was young and was thrown in jail in
Cottage Grove and Lane County a few times.
Friends of his would talk to me and said the DEA killed
Roger for the drug running. So it was questionable in my
mind. He was huge, 6-foot-7, and really intelligent. He was
not the kind of guy who was going to die of malnutrition
in Amsterdam. He was the black sheep of the family at the
time. I was 16 when he died.
I’m fourth generation in Oregon, born in Roseburg,
grew up in Eugene, went to North Eugene High School.
Prefontaine was my hero as well as my mom and dad. Five
boys and one girl in the family. My dad played semi-pro
baseball and was an insurance salesman. My mom was an
RN. They were ass-kicking parents.
My mom died last year, while I was at Sundance Film
Festival for If A Tree Falls. She died Jan. 24. And Jan. 24
this year was the morning my sister called and said, “Tim,
you’re going to Hollywood.” That was an omen; maybe
we’re going to kick ass in Hollywood. My mom was
defi nitely excited about the whole Sundance thing. It’s sort
of a drag she can’t see what’s going on now, but that’s the
way it works.
How was Sundance?
What I can remember of it! Micah, my running buddy
from PictureEugene, our YouTube site — we decided we’d
drive the beat-up old Toyota truck there, and just tear it
up, and we did. We went for fi ve days, went to four or fi ve
showings of If a Tree Falls. It was like a big ego stroke
because people would come out and recognize me and go
“That’s the dude” and I’d just go “Yeah, that’s me, man.” It
was fun. Got a lot of drinks bought for us. Got wasted and
did that for fi ve or six days. The truck broke down on the
way back.
So are you going to the Oscars?
Yes, it’s a once in a lifetime thing. We’re going down in
Micah’s greasemobile. It’s sort of an outside chance we’re
going to get into the show, but Marshall Curry said he’d try.
I want Blair (his daughter) to go down there. As much
as I hate Hollywood and what they do in creating memories
and creating stories for people instead of people creating
their own stories, this is something I can do with Blair and
these kids. At least it’s our memories we’re creating.
Oh, and Blair will say “there was that time my dad
was in the Academy Award-nominated film …”
Yeah, and “he was hanging from the balcony and we
scooped him up and he almost died!”
What did you think of the film?
Sam Cullman showed me a rough cut at my house about
four or fi ve months before it was ready for Sundance. I felt
like it was really weak, and I didn’t realize it was going to be
showing so much of Daniel; I thought it would be showing
the overall scene.
So initially I didn’t like it that much, but Marshall and I
talked for about three hours and we talked about some of my
views. I started to realize that I was too close to it.
I hear someone talking about burning down a mill and
for me it’s not such a huge step. But for someone in Iowa,
for someone in middle America, that’s a huge step and it
probably intrigues them. For me, it’s just something we
talked about back in the day about whether that’s a good
tactic or not.
Daniel, obviously while they were fi lming him, didn’t
know if he would go to prison for life. He played it close to
the chest. He didn’t really want to own what they did. And
also he’d transitioned into a different period of his life.
I wanted him to own what they did. It was hard for me
to see people backing off from that period of time and not
really owning it. Then after I saw it at Sundance and saw a
little but more about how this character, this sort of average
Joe could go from graduating college in business and go
to what’s called sabotaging mills throughout the Northwest,
and how that would intrigue people.
Objective reporting to me is just bullshit, frankly, but I
think Marshall did it in a pure way, allowing each side to
tell their story and letting the viewers decide for themselves.
You sort of leave the theater thinking, instead of feeling
hate for the mill owner or hate for the saboteurs. You’re sort
of confused a little bit — most viewers — and I like that. I
think that’s maybe the power of it; maybe that’s why it was
nominated.
So one thing that comes up in the film is Daniel
waiting being told by Eugene-based federal judge
Ann Aiken that he and the other eco-saboteurs
were terrorists. What did you think about that?
It’s just so silly these kids, in their 20s, being tagged
with this. We all know why — it’s just to put pressure on
anybody who’s thinking about doing anything like this, and
trying to convince the public who terrorists really are.
Classifying these kids and this type of thing as terrorism
is totally absurd. As Americans, or just average Joes on
the street just trying to make it, we all know who the real
terrorists are. I mean the big bankers and like they say in
the fi lm about the oil spills in the Gulf, these CEOs, they
aren’t threatened with life in prison or with any of this stuff.
And they are the ones causing this planet to go and just be
fucked, for the lack of better term.
You almost have to go and own the motherfucker. If
they’re calling us and these kids terrorists then we have
to own it. Country folk own “redneck”; gay people own
“queer”; black people call themselves “niggers.”
Take it away from the Ann Aikens, and go, “Yeah, fuck
you. I am a terrorist.” We know who the real terrorists are,
but it’s all part of the system. I think we should own it.
Freedom fi ghter, that’s almost too poofy. Terrorist sounds
a lot better. It’s got a real punch to it. Domestic terrorist. It’s
got a nice punch.
Do you think what Daniel and the others did changed
anything?
We need to create change in our own little world, our
own little areas, our family, our friends, our land. I try to stay
focused on that but also instigate a little here and there. But
it also requires good homegrown beer and homegrown pot.
I guess what I’ve been trying to do with my daughter
is create a sense of place … where she knows that tree or
where her dog is buried. When I look out the window and
see three dogs, four kids run down a trail and over a creek
and up the other side, I know I’m doing something right.
I’m not trying to live with this tunnel vision of these
“isms” any more. Politics, radicalism, anarchism, liberalism,
Occupyism — you have to able to look outside that tunnel
and live your life.
Did it create change? It created change in people’s
individual lives and we still see all sort of ELF actions still
going on. As people get poorer and poorer and thrown out
of their homes maybe we will see a lot more of this kind of
shit. Creating real change. Or at least more prisons.
I really do like that quote from the movie: “One man’s
freedom fi ghter is another man’s terrorist.” I think that’s
pretty accurate.
If a Tree Falls is up for an Academy Award on Feb. 26.
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