Show and Tell 2018: Scott Fitzpatrick
Scott Fitzpatrick
Filmmaker, Programmer, office worker
http://www.vimeo.com/artbarbarian
1. What’s your idea of perfect happiness?:
Doing what I love and finding adequate compensation for my labour.
2. What drives you to make films?:
Impulse and the audience.
3. Where in the world would you most like to be right now?:
I dunno, at home working on some stuff; there are some places in Colorado I really like. I want to make a movie in Florida, maybe there.
4. When inspiration is waning, and you feel creatively sapped, what do you do to stay motivated?:
Apply for grants or find a commission; nothing motivates better than a deadline. Also, it’s OK to not be motivated sometimes too.
5. What films are the most inspiring or influential to you at the moment, and why?:
Curt McDowell’s film ‘Confessions’ (1972) is a huge inspiration for me, and especially over the last year or two I’ve been rewatching a lot of Duke and Battersby videos; ‘Lesser Apes’ (2013) is particularly great, and ‘Here Is Everything’ (2013) is like my bible. I recently saw Dani and Sheilah Restack’s video ‘Strangely Ordinary This Devotion,’ and that was really inspiring too. I want to make work that takes risks like that.
Your top 3 favourite music tracks?:
OH GOD. Ok, so I love movies, but I live for music; 3 favourite tracks is way too hard. It’s hard to even say my 3 favourite disco tracks, but I’ll try .. right now it’s probably ‘Shoot the Pump’ (1981) by Joey Negro and the Loose Jointz. This song is incredible, and I actually just recently discovered it right after I finished editing my new film Trigger Warning, which is about objects mistaken for guns during shootings of civilians by the police in the US since 2001; I couldn’t believe when I heard this song, it blew my mind. ‘I Need Somebody to Love Tonight’ (1979) by Sylvester (and Patrick Cowley) is just completely essential, and I want to make a movie about both those guys. Then I’ll go with ‘Hustle Latino’ (1975) by Liz Torres. I’ve been obsessed with this one for a while but you can’t find it online anymore. My 7” copy gets played daily. Fun fact: Torres was a comedian and this was the only record she released; she later had a career in acting and wound up with a recurring role as the music teacher on Gilmore Girls for a number of years.
7. What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done?:
Spend a week in county jail in the poorest county in Missouri.
8. What’s your greatest extravagance?:
Like every experimental filmmaker, submission fees. (just kidding I don’t do those.)
9. What turns you on – creatively, spiritually or emotionally?:
Disco, weed, and deductive reasoning.
A final word?
I hope that everyone interested in the kind of experimental cinema that will be shown at Alchemy this year remembers that the artists responsible for that work and the systems in place which bring it to the screen are not divorced from economic reality, and that it’s OK to question these systems. Remember to ask things like, Who’s being paid for their work? Who had to pay to be seen? Are these transactions equitable? and, Who’s this all for? Don’t be shy about asking a filmmaker if they’re being paid for their labour, and don’t be shy about asking a curator either.
P.S. Do you have any favourites or highlights from this year’s Alchemy programme that you’d love to give a shoutout to here?
ABSOLUTELY – – Speculations by Ben Balcom is great and features appearances by some of my other favourite filmmakers, so that’s fun (you def want to catch Sky Hopinka’s star turn). Michael Robinson’s Onward Lossless Follows is killer, my favourite movie of his since Light Is Waiting; this has to be the most fun flick at the show. I saw Michel Klöfkorn’s All My Phone Numbers Drowned In at WNDX last year and was fascinated; I feel like it’s full of ethical problems, but you won’t forget it anytime soon. I haven’t seen Lauren Cook’s piece Dot Matrix yet, but based on her previous work I bet that’s a stunner. Oh, and I hear that Zombie, Pt. 1 is decent.
