Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Thanks for replying to my post.  I have to say that my initial rave
experiences did seem like a solution to a problem in my life.  It indeed
bring about a lot of closure and growth.
Another question I had is more of a personal one.  The characters in the
movie, are they based on any friends of yours?  Are some of the things that
happen in the movie based on things that actually happened to you or your
friends? (I imagine they might be, ravers tend to go through a lot of
interesting things in their journeys).  Just curious about who and what you
based the story on.
  

    
I thought there was a balanced view of drugs -- I am remembering the scene
in the basement, where a guy has OD'd on something and the rave producer
leaves him with one of his partners and tells her not to let him fall
asleep, and she almost does, and it's scary for a moment there. Also the
rave producer kicks out the people who brought nitrous. The drug-expert 
guy (one of my favorite characters) makes some informative little
speeches, too. 
  

    
The drug-expert guy (Cliff) is a TA in a college chemistry class and
is played by Ari Gold, who is apparently also a filmmaker. Presskit
says, "His most recent film, CULTURE, was called 'the best sixty
seconds of film you'll see at Sundance.'"

I finally saw the trailer for "Groove" last night before "Mission:
Impossible 2." I'd only seen it on the website before now. It got a
good response--a little murmuring and no hisses--that's good for
Berkeley!

Greg, how much input did you have into the structure and content of
the trailer? I know you have done trailers for other films.
  

    
By the way, the Chronicle pink pages had two articles on "Groove"
yesterday, on the film and on the music in the film.
  

    

Dang, I tossed it.  What'd they say?
  

    
Here's the URLs to those stories:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/06/04/PK82995.DTL


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/06/04/PK13205.DTL

(each of those should be on one line)
  

    
see em online:

<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2000/06/05/entert
ainment1538EDT0292.DTL>

and

<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/06/04/P
K13205.DTL>


I'm curious about the theater company experience, too, Greg.  When you get
to it.

What was your work at The Next Stage like?  Did you work with Marcia?
  

    
Ooops, Cynthia slipped ahead of me after doing the same seach at the same
time!
  

    
Poor Greg has at least a dozen questions to deal with at this point!
  

    

And today's the premiere, so I'd guess he's a busy boy!

Is anybody from the WELL covering the premiere?
  

    
I was hoping to get a report from Greg himself and perhaps other
WELLites. I've seen it twice, couldn't see a third movie today
unfortunately!
  

    
Hi, Greg! Glad you're here. I really enjoyed Groove (thanks, Frako).
I've also enjoyed following the making and marketing of the film, and
am happy to hear you're so busy with it. Now, to add to your
ever-expanding list of questions:

I'd read and heard it said, mostly at Sundance, that Groove is as much
a "San Francisco" movie as it is a "rave" movie. While there are
plenty of universal and unifying elements common to rave culture, could
you talk a little bit about the "regionality" of the scene, and how it
influenced your writing of the script? 

Good luck, Greg! Hope to see you all at the Premiere party. That's one
highly-impressive DJ round-up!
  

    
Bill Gallo has a rave review of "Groove" in the current SF Weekly:

http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2000-06-07/film.html

And Andrew Strickman writes about the music in "Groove" in the same
issue:

http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2000-06-07/music.html
  

    
I have a grudge against talkiness and preachiness in American movies
that feature subcultures, so one thing I found so refreshing about
"Groove" is its lack of speeches. In fact, the rave organizer Ernie's
reward for all his work and troubles, he says, is "the Nod," which is a
wordless appreciation for the pleasure and joy he's brought all the
participants.
  

    
Another interview with Greg on indieWire.com:

http://216.33.148.250:80/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=&lah=011e5d749a3d576857236ab8a12
f0f97&lat=960397321&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eindiewire%2ecom%2ffilm%2fin
terviews%2fint_Harris_Greg_000607%2ehtml
  

    
Quite the frenzy last night getting into the showcase showing (Sony apparently
didn't realize what the hometown response would be, and the RSVP list
was oversubscribed well in advance, leading to chaos getting sorted
out for passes to the show at the Metreon), but it ended up with 600
enthusiastic viewers in the audience, and a blessedly low-key night for
Danielle and Greg, who told me it was nice to get out from under the
relentless publicity grind and just chat with people last night.

I don't know how much time he'll have to check in here over the next
couple of days, but I hope he'll be able to do so.

In the meantime, the New Yorker gave it pretty much a favorable
once-over including a display graphic (page 26, June 12 issue).
It's kind of weird to see people I really know well like Dmitri from the
Lower Haight depicted in New Yorker drawings :)

The Bay Guardian's Johnny Ray Huston gives it not so much a pan as a dis:

http://www.sfbg.com/AandE/34/36/party.html
  

    
I'm actually relieved to see a pan, even one so snide as Johnny Ray's!
He musta been talking with <um>, to bring up the "Thank God It's
Friday" comparison so often.
  

    

Whenever someone says "Bill Gallo" I always think of the New York Daily
News' cartoonist and illustrator. 
  

    

How was the audience response, phred?
  

    
Dennis Lim of the Village Voice calls "Groove" "a curiously dorky act
of hipster sincerity":

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0023/lim.shtml

The Chronicle Little Man sits:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/06/08/D
D91031.DTL
  

    
The audience was pretty enthusiastic, but you have to remember half the
people there knew people in the movie :)  On the other hand, many of them
hadn't seen it before.
  

    

Well, I wouldn't worry too much about the Little Man.  It seems that the
less enthusiastic he is about something, the more I like it.

What strikes me about these reviews - and all reviews in general - is that
they feel the need to review this film in comparison to some other film,
rather than letting it stand on its own.  And the tone of the Voice review
is so jaded - whoever wrote it has had far too much experience with raves
and with movies about raves to see this film for itself.

IMHO and all that.

I would love to see reviews from middle America, and from people for whom
the movie was a first peek into the rave scene - people like me.
  

    
Yes, like all "introduction to a subculture" movies that feature a
main character who is new to the scene, "Groove" isn't really aimed at
veterans. Maybe their main pleasure at seeing this comes from an
elegaic or nostalgic attitude toward it ("the good old days of rave")
that novices wouldn't even notice.
  

    
I'm sorry I've been remissin responding to some of the questions here,
but this week has been the world premiere week.  I just got back from
LA and am leaving again tomorrow for yet another week of travel.  My
laptop wasn't working, but has been repaired, so I shall be online when
travelling again.

I shall catch up with all of you over the weekend.
  

    
Great, Greg! Good to hear that you're still alive.