Screening in Narrative Competition at SXSW, Paul Cotter’s Bomber is a family roadtrip comedy about a “lovelorn and useless” adult son who agrees to drive his father to the village in Germany that he accidentally bombed during World War II. Below the jump, Cotter answers The 5 Questions We Ask Everyone, with thoughts on Kurosawa and Kieslowski, working with actors and non-actors, and the politics of festivals. The trailer’s down there, too.
Tell us about your movie. Who did you work with, why did you make it? Give us the reductive, 25-word or less, “It’s like [pop culture reference a] meets [pop culture reference b]!” pitch, then explain what the quick and dirty sell leaves out.
Bomber’s a bittersweet comedy about an 83 year old man who goes back to Germany to apologise to a village he accidentally bombed during the war.
I grew the film from ground up, convincing a group of 10 people to come with me to Germany for a month to make a film. Three of them were English actors. Almost everyone else who acts in the film is a real person. From in and around the village we shot in.
I made it because I’ve done 5 shorts that had given me the confidence to go for something bigger. I just needed to get my feet wet with making a feature. No one was going to help me make it, so i just made it myself.
I find it hard to do the reductive cross reference thing. Anything I compare it to just makes me feel not worthy. I think other people might be better placed to say what it is. What I can tell you is that I’m very influenced by Kurosawa, Ashby, Payne, Kieslowski and Polanksi… so maybe a bit of their stuff creeps into my work. Maybe.
Do you have a day job/a non-filmmaking occupation that raises money for your filmmaking efforts? Tell us about it.
Considering I haven’t worked in 12 months apart from on Bomber… that’s a hard one to say with any accuracy. I’ve saved like crazy for the past few years to give me the breathing space to do this. Last job I did was to write a radio play for the BBC. That was my first, so hopefully I’ll get more.
Have you been to SXSW before? If so, tell us about your funniest story from the experience. If not, what are you looking forward to re: the festival and/or the city of Austin?
No. Never. I had a short film in the festival last year, but I was delivering the radio play, so I couldn’t come. This will be my first time.
Let’s get hypothetical: You’re on death row. The night of your execution, you’re allowed to watch any two films of your choice. What would you pick for your last-night-on-Earth double feature?
Ikiru (aka “Living”) by Akira Kurosawa. This is the greatest film I’ve ever watched, and I never tire of seeing it. It’s so small, yet so big. A tiny film about a clerk in a city municipal office who is dying of cancer. It is small in where the plot goes, but massive in where it takes you as a human being. If I could ever get close to what Kurosawa did in that film, I would die a happy man.
The second film would be harder to say. Kieslowski’s Dekalog maybe, because there’s a lot in there, but that’s kind of a depressing collection isn’t it. So maybe “Zulu” because it’s a mindless war film with lots of bright colours and that might cheer me up - especially if I’m about to get executed.
There’s been some criticism that the only way to get into SXSW is by being a part of an “incestuous scene where everybody knows everybody.” So who did *you* have to sleep with to get in? (Metaphorically or literally: are there any SXSW filmmaker(s) past or present that you’re close with personally and/or professionally, and how have those relationships helped or hurt the process of producing your film and getting it seen?)
I read this article and it’s a hard one for me to judge, as I don’t know SXSW that well. I can tell you this. I made 5 short films over the past 5 years and entered all of them into SXSW. The first 4 were rejected and the final one was accepted, by Matt Dentler, last year. This year I entered my first feature, and Janet Pierson accepted it.
I do know some of the filmmakers mentioned because we’ve met each other on the festival circuit. The Duplass Brothers, Joe Swanberg - they are stellar guys. Really good people. And inspirational too. Making an independent feature is such a massive undertaking, and these guys are nothing but supportive. You can call them and they share tips, lend you knowledge. Even lend you gear. I’ve found some really good allies, but whether that extends to getting you into festivals, I’m not sure. Festivals are a funny old beast. I’ve played a lot of them with my shorts, but what people don’t see is the ones you get rejected from. I’d say for every one I’ve been accepted into, I’ve been rejected by four. But that’s okay. That’s just the way it is.
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SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth