I have above me, on my shelf, a photo that needs repair. It's over 15 years old and at some point in its life, got wet and stuck to the back of another photo. It should be easy to fix, I just need some free time to go to the photo shop and get a particular fluid for it.
But I'm looking at this photo (photographer: Cathy Hubach) and suddenly realize that the three people in it are all dead. And they weren't that old, either. It brings home to me all the people who have passed away since starting this project. The dedication list grows longer each year. Fading memories that are still loved.
Since 9/11/2001, I've been working on a music video for the Rhythm Rats' cover of Blaze's WW3.
Around the time that the US went to war in Afghanistan, I thought, "Rats, there goes out window of opportunity" for the video. But sadly, I realize that the window of opportunity will likely never be closed. So earlier this year, I re-started production of the video and have a couple scenes left to film. By end of year, the video should be finished and I'll have a link to it from the website.
Lately, I've been contacted by the Chicago band Outlaw Family Band who have recorded a "rocking version" of WW3 which will be included on their next CD, to be released within the month. The Rhythm Rats cover of WW3 can be found on the second Blaze Foley Tribute CD from Deep South Productions.
About a year ago, we successfully requested the District Attorney's files on the trial of Blaze's killer who, as many people know, was acquitted. After pouring over the copious documents and listening to the testimony of friends of Blaze, several things appear evident to me.
First -- I believe the jury delivered the correct verdict. Second -- I believe he was killed out of rage. Third -- everyone in the house was to blame. Fourth -- no one is to blame.
I have a feeling that these statements are strong and might be difficult to understand, and that's understandable. I'll take each one and explain -- and I apologize for the academic nature of these statements, they're not meant to explain what happened as nothing can explain his death, we can only feel it.
"The jury delivered the correct verdict." Based on the evidence the DA was allowed to present to the jury, the ease with which the defense attorney was able to discredit the state's witnesses, the racial and socioeconomic composition of the jury, and the fact that Blaze had been arrested for illegally carrying a weapon (an axe handle) four months earlier after he chased his assailant off the assailant's father's property. Based on all this, it's hard to imagine a jury, who didn't know either the victim or the defendent, coming back with any other verdict than Not Guilty.
"He was killed out of rage." Blaze was well known for his anger and method of intimidation when he perceived an injustice. Learning that an elderly man was being physically forced to give up his pension check moved him so deeply taht he fought with his entire heart, not willing to back down no matter the opposition he faced. Being over six feet tall and 250 pounds, he had the bulk to back up his "angry face." That morning, according to testimony by the father, Blaze entered the house and chased away the father's son with a broom handle and yelled insults at his retreat. I'm speculating here, but after six months of this treatment by Blaze, the son returned with a .22 rifle and shot him, having warned him beforehand that he would shoot him. In his rage, I'm sure he felt justified even though he wasn't.
"Everyone was to blame." Everyone in that house had been drinking. Alcohol, in my opinion, is one of the worst legal drugs -- in some people it promotes aggression and reduces inhibition and diminishes rational judgment. Everyone's actions and behaviors were degraded through their level of intoxication.
"No one was to blame." Again, alcoholism is probably the worst drug to O.D. on. It's physiologically addictive and can remove a sigificant amount of judgment from a person.
Not offering an excuse, but Blaze's assailant grew up as a minority in central Texas during the 50's and 60's. I grew up in east Texas during the 60's and 70's and I've witnessed a portion of the majority culture being unfriendly toward minorities and at times downright inhumane.
Mars is in the house! She's helping with media management, making sure clips are following our naming convention, files are stored in the right folders, and capturing clips for Kai. We had a nice visit with friends from Georgia and they gave us useful feedback on the intros we're developing for the documentary. Will begin to contact more people about video and archival news footage from 1980 and 1989. Finally saw "The Kid Stays in the Picture" and liked its use of photographs to convey action and hold interest. It worked in the context of the documentary subject, but not sure if it will work for Blaze. The experimental aspect was subtle, Blaze will probably demand more weirdness with unconventional storytelling and imagery. Spoke with the producer of the Robert Johnson documentary, "Can't You Hear the Wind Howl" and gained some insight into rights, promotion and distribution. He recommended Shout! Factory for distrubtion, started by folks from Rykodiscs, a good sign. You can find the Robert Johnson documentary at their website.
Met Margaret Brown this week -- she's directing and co-producing the Townes Van Zandt documentary entitled FLYING SHOES. Saw an impressive trailer for it that was produced two years ago and which attracted the director Rick Linklater. They're now operating out of his production offices, 'Detour." Margaret is really nice and offered all kinds of good leads and information on potential Blaze material. We commiserated over their good fortune to have Townes interviews and our lack of any Blaze interview. I turned her onto the Austin Pickers clips of Townes and Blaze by Ed Hefflefinger. FLYING SHOES is almost finished, she's working toward the Sundance film festival submission deadline, so Townes will be out there, coming to you soon!
One of the things I've been wrestling with is how to tell Blaze's story. His life was so unconventional that telling it through a conventional documentary sounds deadly boring to me.
Was having a homebrew this evening with Joey at the Draught House in Austin, a great place to grab a quality homebrew. We got to talking about how Margaret Brown's documentary on Townes Van Zandt (FLYING SHOES) has the advantage of Townes interviews produced while he was alive. Blaze was shot before even a journalist could interview him (Lee Nichols of the Austin Chronicle was all set to do a feature story on him the week he died). All that's left of Blaze are audio tracks and videotape of him talking between songs.
We got to talking about a recent documentary where all the filmmakers had of their subject were photographs and the subject narrating his life story (the subject is not dead). Joey said (and I haven't seen the doc) that it's an experimental documentary in the storytelling structure and composition. That's when it suddenly dawned on me that experimental storytelling style would be ideal for Blaze's life story -- it seems only appropriate for such an unconventional character.
I'm not sure what this means, there are lots of ways to tell a story and some of them are experimental -- Errol Morris is the king (in my opinion) of experimental documentaries that still find a wide audience. It seems only in character that we find some way to tell his story in the style that would best fit his character and yet expose him to the broadest audience possible. Two criteria that should be possible to satisfy.
Had a phone conversation with Austin Film Society's Elisabeth Sikes to find out why we weren't awarded a Texas Filmmakers Production Fund grant. First of all, there were 181 applicants and 17 awards, so slightly less than 10% were awarded.
Second, the panelist reviewing our paper application had doubts that, although Blaze sounded like an interesting character, a film about an obscure, dead musician would be difficult to watch for 110 minutes. That was my fault, I arbitrarily picked 110 minutes as the finished length of the film when actually I have no idea, at this point, how long it's going to be.
But the panelist did make a valid point -- mostly what we have are people talking about Blaze. We've been fairly successful at finding videotape of Blaze performing and there are audio tapes of him talking with friends but very little videotape of him off stage. This is something I've been aware of for several years and have been thinking about -- how to tell his story and keep the audience engaged throughout the entire movie.
It's an interesting and challenging conundrum. I've been told by several people that the finished length should be 60 minutes. 70 minutes will get us into most film festivals as a feature-length movie, so the festival circuit version may be over 70 minutes while the distributed version is less than 60 minutes long. That's one solution -- limit the amount of people talking about Blaze.
There's also his music -- like Robert Johnson, he wrote songs about his life. So incorporating his songs throughout the story (which we intended to do from the start) is like having him tell his story autobiographically. I've always wanted it to be over 50% music, thus making it elligible for the Grammy long-format music video award. (Gotta aim high if we're going to break this movie into the mainstream.)
So a bummer that we didn't get the grant, we were counting on it, but good that we got feedback to push the story further onto solid ground.
Damon has finished his rough assembly -- Mike and Kai are in the process of capturing footage into the computer -- and Aaron is back in New York working on another documentary about a musician but will be back in either late October or early November. I'm busy wrapping up a feature-length documentary of a historic home in Granger, Texas and hope to back on Blaze this week. Mars is joining us in the editing suite as media manager, a much welcome addition to the team!
Aaron is gone and he leaves behind many rough assemblies. We're making progress, which is very encouraging. But time is beginning to run short for the movie if we want to finish it by mid-February. Aaron is talking about Fall of 2004 if we continue running at this rate.
There are three characteristics for any project: Speed, Quality, Expense and BLAZE is no exception. We can choose only two positive aspects of the three, the third must be negative. For instance, we can finish the movie with high quality and low cost (two positives) but it will take time (a negative). I'm not compromising on Quality, so that leaves Speed and Expense.
I'm trying my best to speed it up, so wish us luck!
