By Erica Dunton, director of The 27 Club
(from Tribeca Film Festival 2008, Discovery Section) My film The 27 Club is about music. It is about a musician who, at the age of 27, cannot hear the music anymore, and his friend whom he leaves behind. Tom and Elliot are in a band called Finn. When Tom dies, Elliot is left alone. Elliot first stocks up on drugs and then hires a grocery store clerk to be his driver. Together, they drive across America to Tom's funeral. When I was writing this story, I absorbed different parts of different worlds I found myself in. This was a road movie, and the story could go wherever I wanted it to. Elliot could meet whomever I decided it was important for him to meet. At the time, my previous film, Find Love, was doing very well on the festival circuit, and I was traveling with it to many new places. My eyes were opened to new stories and my ears heard new notes that all wove their way into the script. At Vail Film Festival, I watched a choir in a documentary by Soozie Eastman called "By The Wayside." It was a Christian Mission choir, made up mainly of recovering addicts. Through music, they were maintaining their sobriety. Their addiction was so strong, but their conviction was more powerful. Even though they were a million miles away from Elliot's life - he is a rich and successful musician and they barely have a roof over their head - they shared two things: music and addiction. It was a common link that filled their heads. And so now, Elliot's journey would take him through Louisville, Kentucky, to meet this choir. And when the time came for the written words to come alive in the camera, we brought the same choir from Soozie's documentary, and they sang with Elliot in the film. It was one of the most moving filmmaking experiences I have ever had. In Sarasota Film Festival, I met Peter Stampfel. He was singing a song before his film, Holy Modal Rounders, directed by Paul Lovelace and Sam Wainwright Douglas. Peter had written and performed the legendary song "Fly Like a Bird" that scores the iconic images of Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda on their motorbikes in the ultimate road movie, Easy Rider. The song I heard Peter sing at Sarasota was called "Take Me Away." Post-success of Easy Rider, Peter had struggled with a drug habit for 22 years, and, after he attended his first NA meeting, he came straight home and wrote the song. Every lyric fit perfectly into Elliot's state of mind; it was simply wondrous. I realized it was important for Elliot to hear this song, so I wrote Peter and his song into the script, and, when we were shooting, Peter came down and performed the song on camera for us. Another wonderful moment. |
