COOLSVILLE is a feature film in the making, the repository of all these passionate experiences and memories we've summoned during the Kerouac Fests. It will soon be available on DVD.
(Blair Murphy)
Earlier Editing Notes:
I am currently cutting the footage for the film Coolsville. It is my goal to screen an early pre-release version for everyone at the next Kerouac Fest, probably that Friday night. The footage has been pretty much entirely shot here at the hotel during all the earlier Kerouac Fests, so anyone coming here to watch it during Kerouac, in the location of it's shooting surrounded by the people within the film, should have a pretty unique experience. (Perhaps we should all pass around big jugs of wine like Kerouac did at the first HOWL reading.)
I've been combing through all the footage from all the earlier Kerouac Fests and structuring the film. Jaemi Elia's footage has been a great help as well. What a trip to be seeing all these little gem moments of everyone. My favorite moment so far is the last morning Riccardo got up early and with guitar in hand serenaded guests as they woke in their beds. Another wild moment is Michael Dennison departing for Beirut within a thunderstorm now with all the implications in the air. Coolsville is not so much a film about the Beats. It is really a film about our event here, which was inspired by the Beats. The structure reminds me a little of The Big Chill.
I'm cutting this on Final Cut Pro, by the way, if anyone out there is curious. I love Final Cut. It's a godsend to anyone that had to cut on flatbeds back in the day.
(Damien Youth)
The look of the film is like an old black scratchy vinyl record. It's very simple and raw. I've converted all the footage into black and white, which has given it a wonderful 'film' feel. Isn't the black and white look of Woody Allen's Stardust Memories or Scorsese's Raging Bull just delicious? Or in Stranger Than Paradise?
"Beautiful wild," as said in Rumblefish.
The version of Coolsville you'll see at Kerouac Fest won't be the final version as we will be shooting some events of this final fest to drop into the final edit. So, anyone at the screening, you'll be seeing a version no one else will ever see again.
(Aimee Kast)
Our 'Holy Circle' First Screening:
It was a TRIP watching the film projected in the hotel bar full of all our friends. Talk about a holy circle! I stood there in the back pacing, looking at all your necks and shoulders, while also running upstairs to download the next reel. I was still editing in titles and the drum circle footage from earlier that day the hour before the screening. It was crazy(!), but glorious too, because it forced me to be so fully naked within my artwork. It's really all our artwork because it is such an expression of our entire group. I like that time is roaring on and I am forced to continue immediately.
(Dylan Fornoff)
Interview Question notes:
--Why did you make this particular film? Genre?
I lived in Los Angeles for many years in the center of the film industry. I found my fellow artists and the business end very discouraging in that people were so mean to each other and there was so much ego there instead of support. I temporarily relocated to this area creating a kind of artist colony in an old hotel. I am a huge fan of the 1950 American Beat writers. This includes Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Neal Cassady, among others. What I love about their works is they created this mythology using all their friends in each other's works, so you can read a poem or book by one of them and see their pals mentioned as characters within it. Regardless of their stories, I liked their interaction as friends. I wanted to feel and manifest that kind of communion for myself in the Arts.
(John Cassady)
So, taking off from the American Beat writers, we started the Kerouac Festivals. We did four of them, one each year, here in Windber. They were really cool events. People came from all over the USA, stayed at the hotel for days, and just shared whatever art or talent they had -ALL FOR FREE- and it was a great example of that kind of artistic communion. There is a quote by Christ that goes, "Teach what you would learn." So, using that as a guide, I hosted these Kerouac Fests. It was rich and cool, created from genuine convictions, with a lot of energy all made as an offering, and it all took place in some sleepy little mysterious town that one had to travel to to find, thus the name Coolsville.
(John Shaffer)
--What perception do you want people to have once they view this film?
Inspired. There is a quote by the painter Alex Grey from his book The Mission of Art, which asks, "Can we transform the art world, or our attitude toward the art world, to the degree that we can regard it as a spiritual community?" And in my film, to Grey's question I wish to answer that with our example. We did something and then made a public example of our actions. It is important for artists to make examples of themselves, and not just create beautiful works on assignment for others. I tried to celebrate in the film some of the artists that came, asking, "What is profound that is happening within you?"
We are created in our creator's image, thus we are a part of that unlimited creation process. We are an extension of that unlimited power. The arts to me are the fuel of our beings, our birthright. What we manifest with our hearts and our minds is everything. I want that conviction, and example of what we aspired toward, and attempt to summon that holy fire, reaches the viewers.
(Matt Fox)
--What were some of the challenges you faced? What were some of the rewards?
The challenges? Initially it was simply trying to inspire local people to attend a strange event and do things for free. It was like some foreign concept. I'd call artists and say, "We are throwing a party for artists, by artists. It is designed after a pot luck. Want to come join the fun and add something?" And I'd get the same response from everyone, "What are you paying. No pay? Can't help you." That was infuriating the first year as far as local musicians went. Finally the legendary multi-instrumentalist David Amram heard of us, and came on board, saying he loved what we were doing and drove himself here from New York to perform for a full intense, personal weekend. Then the gates broke open and suddenly we had lots of people traveling to enjoy and add to the Kerouac Fest weekends. Artists came from California and Texas and Connecticut and New York. All of that is in the past now. The event has grown huge and pretty much anymore as soon as we set a date we have a full house. It has grown to a week long event with average some 150 guests participating.
Also, another challenge... the worst phone call of my life came the morning of the second Kerouac Fest. My little brother Brett was killed by a drunk driver. This was like a hammer coming through the phone, devastating my family, and I had to host this happy festival for three more days in my hotel before I could leave the State to join them. So, obviously that entered the story of the film. It changed the film.
(Skot Jones)
The rewards? Very talented generous people came from all over the country to add to the soup. Filmmaker Baird Bryant, who shot the graveyard sequence in Easy Rider, came all four years. Actress Maggie McOmie, who starred in George Lucas' first feature film THX-1138, came. Comic book artist Chris Yambar, who created Mr. Beat and writes for The Simpsons, came and gave away his artwork all weekend for free. Jerry Cimino, Director of the Beat Museum in San Francisco, drove his Beat Mobile on Wheels here and hosted an evening at the Arcadia Theater as part of our event. (They are now creating an exhibit in their museum about our event). Terry Stewart, President of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Judith Krug, Director of the American Library Association, both allowed me to interview for the film. Musician David Amram, who was one of the original Beats and performed with Jack Kerouac, came and played all weekend one year. John Cassady, the son of Beat superstar Neal Cassady who was the Dean Moriarty character in the book On The Road, came several years in a row to celebrate his birthday in the little town of Windber. It was a blast. So many cool and interesting guests came here to just "pass the torch" as they'd say, what an honor to have them in my home!
(Manuel Ibarra)
Also, I met a entire small army of new artists -painters, musicians, filmmakers, actors, photographers- who have become these legendary characters in our own mythology. We aren't the American Beat writers, but for a little while, we experienced a similar endearing communion. So in terms of the quote, Teach what you would learn, the new friendships alone were very rewarding, all rewards for aspiring to embody that kind of example toward one another in the arts. A lot of networking has come out of these events. Now new larger artworks are growing out of them.
(Sarah Ireland)
And finally, I made a film I could never have created in Hollywood. This was a work of passion, saturated with people I love, unrelated to competition or finance in the arts. So the experience was very unique, and rogue, and magical.
(The Grand Midway Hotel during Kerouac Fest)