According to the typically preposterously effusive Sundance catalogue entry, Bill Benenson and Eugene Rosow’s documentary Dirt! The Movie, based on William Bryant Logan’s book Dirt, The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth “posses[es] both a cosmic perspective that reaches into the vastness of time and space, and the kind of warm, earnest energy that inspires small revolutions inside human hearts.” We like cosmic revolutions! When Benenson and Rosow answered the 4 Questions We Ask Everybody, they namechecked Buster Keaton, quoted Margaret Atwood, and made a lot of “dirty” puns.
Tell us about your movie: who did you work with, what did you shoot on, 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.
Benenson: We worked with Dirt around the world, wherever there was Dirt we considered going there but choose only the most impressive Dirty Countries to film in, with support from our local “participants” on the ground (and under) around the world. Our film is like What the Bleep… meets Michael Moore on a good day.
Rosow: We’re currently on the only planet we know of that’s got dirt and us humans. Without dirt humans couldn’t survive. Without humans dirt stands a chance….
DIRT! The Movie tells the story of humans trying to re-connect to Dirt – the living skin of the earth. For thousands of years we humans got along very well with this magical matrix of all life on land. Then we grew apart. DIRT! The Movie explores how we can restore and repair this broken relationship…before it’s too late.
If you funded your film through a “day job” or through working on projects that were not your own, tell us about that. If not, tell us a story from your past work life, before you became a professional filmmaker.
Benenson: I have a day job at times but it isn’t Dirty enough for me to very happy in. I never had a life before Dirt as we are all come from Dirt.
Rosow: As a producer of independent documentaries I’ve done my fair share of fundraising. How you collect funding is different for every project you do, especially now with how much and how fast media and entertainment are changing. When I started out I used Mel Brooks’ Producers as the model. Did it different ways. Raised money from studios, pre sales etc. Beg, borrow, sell… well… just sell. This project has one funder whose commitment and willingness to take a big risk made it happen. Dirt is a great story, and one we feel has yet to be told — when you’ve got that you’ve got something worth making. People see that. Then they give you money. Only it’s never that simple or that easy.
Have you been to Sundance before? If so, tell us your best moment (or worst, which ever is funnier).
Benenson: I’ve been to Sundance several times before but am now looking forward to getting Dirty there, before it was always too clean for my taste.
Rosow: I’ve been to Sundance before as a producer with bigger movies. (Sam Shepard’s Silent Tongue) and smaller ones (Britney Baby One More Time) It’s exciting to return to the festival as a director — at least you get flown in, and they seem to feed you at more events. It’s always a crazy time there, no matter who you are.
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?
Benenson: Chinatown because of the water in LA, needs cleaning up and my previous PBS documentaries, The Marginal Way and Diamond Rivers, which were Environmental films before there were explicit Environmental films.
Rosow: Death row? Last night on earth? Sheesh, why watch a movie… but if so, there’s always Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton etc. to take you to the afterlife. Then there’s After Life the movie…
Margaret Atwood quote, thought i’d send: “in the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”
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