The Art & Times of William Farley : 04 of 07
By Robert Anbian, Release Print, Vol. XVIII No. 9, November 1995In broke as in so many of your pieces, you have some very impressive collaborators. Tell us about these relationships.
I think I throw myself into it with such abandon that it tends to draw in other people who work with enormous intensity. Your own intensity creates a momentum. And then it's friends. I talked to a friend who is on the Kronos [Quartet] board. And the Kronos knew me because I had worked with Terry Riley. With [poet] Lyn Hejinian, I'm a friend of Doug Hall, her brother . [Composer] Todd Boekelheide I didn't know at all. But I went to Todd and told him what I was doing. Actually, he didn't like the film very much, but as he stared scoring it, he got into it. [laughter] I'll be forever grateful for what he brought to the piece. So I think, because I've been in the Bay Area long enough, I've created some momentum in relations to other creative people.
What do you hope for this short?There are two levels. It will be a miracle if I ever get my money back, and I don't have any expectation of doing so. If it works, it will show in the [Film Arts] Festival and someone may reassess their point of view about the problem. Somebody called me who wasn't sure if they liked the film. They said, "Wow, it came back to me in my dreams." The film succeeds if it creates discussion about one's perspective on the problem. Urban poverty isn't going away. And, in a selfish way, it's affecting the quality of all of our lives. But to be organized, and to put your attention on the problem, collectively that is, takes great concentration. It's something about the landscape of being alive in this part of the 20th Century that you have an obligation to consider in more than a superficial way. If I could bring up these kind of issues for any individuals, I would be very pleased. To have made the film is of great satisfaction. To make it work for other people would be extraordinary. [laughter]
Can you keep your shorts in circulation?They're all at Canyon Cinema and some prints are owned by museums here and there. Unfortunately, I'm not very organized in self-promotion and [the films] are souvenirs of a life led. Sometimes they're shown, they're rented. But I haven't gone out and sold myself which, in some way, is an obligation I am eventually obligated to take on.
Have your films been too esoteric for TV?I've had things on television, but unless you are out there putting the effort into getting them seen and distributed, you can't expect the people to be knocking at your door. I hope to cut out some time to place the films. I mean, this film I'd like it to find its way into the high school curriculum, to stimulate the students to talk about their point of view of poverty.
I think it should be on P.O.V.I sent it to them [laughter].
Citizen was in 1982. That must make it a granddaddy of independent feature filmmaking in the Bay Area?Oh no, no. Rick Schmidt, Jon Jost, there have been lots of pathfinders. I also was friends with George Manupelli who did a Dr. Chicago series in the '60s with Alvin Lucier, which is one of the funniest series of feature films you'll never see, because it's not in distribution. So I had friends who were doing it for many years, who, in the face of all common sense, continued to tell stories about being alive. I'm part of a whole group of people. I'm part of a stream.
Well, I still say you're a modernist despite Citizen picaresque post-modernism.By the early '80s I had several films out, shown on the film festival circuit and in museums, and I wanted to take on the longer form. The funny part about Citizen is I did a lot of research on anarchy. I even went to the jail in cast Boston where Sacco and Vanzetti were held. The robbery took place where I grew up. I was born in Quincy but I grew up in Braintree. The robbery allegedly by Sacco and Vanzetti was in Braintree. So I did research on anarchy, thinking that I was making a film about anarchy. After all was said and done the film wasn't about anarchy, but the making of the film was anarchy. It was a free-for-0. I intentionally kept the camera away from everybody. The style of the film is kind of a homage to Bertolt Brecht. I didn't want any close-ups. Well, not having close-ups has helped keep this film out of distribution for over 20 years. Hollywood people look at it and they say, "Well, we'd have to electronically rephotograph some of the shots for the close-ups and it would cost too much money." Citizen is raw as hell. But I think the energy in it, the records of these people walking the planet in the early '80s, alienated from institutions, is itself a raucous account of being alive. [laughter]