Easy Rider, the iconic film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, roars into Radio City Music Hall on Friday, September 20th to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The film released in 1969, was one of the very first independent movies and was revolutionary for its time.
Most people know the Easy Rider story but just in case: Wyatt (Fonda) and Billy (Hopper) are hippies who have scored in a big drug deal, and with the cash they earned plan to retire to Florida. But they are taking one last trip from LA to New Orleans to go to Mardi Gras. Along the way they meet up with George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), a square who is tired of small town life. The three set off to “look for America” and as they roll down the highway, they discover that they America they are looking for isn’t actually there. They may not have found America, but Billie and Wyatt rode into the American psyche and the movie remains as relevant today as it was in 1969.
To prove that point, Jason Miller of Live Nation and Peter Shapiro of Dayglo Presents have teamed up to present Easy Rider Live. The evening, originally planned to include opening remarks by Peter Fonda, will celebrate Fonda’s major cinematic achievement with the legendary soundtrack performed live onstage, featuring John Kay of Steppenwolf, Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, along with special guests, and produced by T Bone Burnett. Says Shapiro, “Peter was so excited about doing this for the 50th, I know he will be there with us in spirit. This is the coolest film ever made, and we are so excited to bring it to the audience with live music.” Miller and Shapiro were thrilled to bring this film to such a revered venue as Radio City Music Hall. Says Miller, “They have the world’s largest floating LED screen, so we really couldn’t think of a better place to screen Easy Rider.”
Fonda, sadly, passed away at the age of 79, on August 16, 2019, of respiratory failure due to lung cancer. During the planning of this event he said, “What a ride it’s been! From a funky motel room in Toronto, in ‘67 to a roar on the shore at Cannes, in May 1969. A wild ride up the stairs at the Palais into the history books of cinema. Looking for America. Would we find it today? I think not. Did we really “blow it?” You bet. 50 years later, are we blowing it now? You bet. Enjoy the new print. Sing along with the songs. Laugh with the humor! Remember the spirit! Find the love.” He is survived by his wife, Parky, who says of the event, ““We are all still healing from Peter’s sudden passing, but he would insist that the message of Easy Rider and the culture for which it stands carry on. The celebration of a cinematic masterpiece, a Hollywood icon, and my beloved husband will not only be one of a kind, but exactly what he wanted.”
I was ten years old on September 11th, 2001. It was a big day of firsts for me. It was, for example, the first time that I experienced a feeling of unreality surrounding an unbelievable moment. I was, however, very young and 130 miles away, watching the collapse of the towers on television at a family friend’s house after my Jewish elementary school evacuated in the hour after the first attack.
“In the Shadow of the Towers” focuses on the experiences of students at Stuyvesant High School, a commuter school only a few blocks away from the twin towers. Through interviews, pictures, and videos, they retrace that day from the perspective of children close enough to see the planes hit the twin towers from the windows of their classrooms, and the reflections of those students who have long-since grown up.
The documentary, which is only half-an-hour long, doesn’t expand much past that day. It spends a few minutes in the end on reflection, from the bigotry experienced by some of the students of color–many of whom were the children of immigrants–to the ways they memorialize that day. The film feels almost understated in a post-9/11 world saturated with portrayals, documentaries, and commentaries. That focus aids the narrative. It knows you know the story, so it skips the broad strokes. Instead, it offers intimate recollections and personal disclosures of how that day changed the interviewees, and the ways they saw their world change in its wake.
It is likely not a mistake that many interviewees for “In The Shadow” were the children of immigrants. The film isn’t afraid to contrast the emotional impact of the 9/11 tragedy on these students with the otherizing they experienced after the fact. Two of the men recall a man shouting anti-muslim slurs at a classmate as they fled the destruction. She was wearing a hijab, and the man shouted at her to “go back where she came from.” One of those two men became a rapper, and the documentary ends on one of his songs. The lyrics recount the experience of his middle-eastern family shopping for American flags after 9/11, both out of patriotism and the desire to show that they belong. It’s a sentiment echoed by other interviewees, all of whom make a call for unity and an end to post-9-11 racial paranoia.
The story of “In the Shadow of the Towers” is one of vivid recollection and resiliency. It’s the story of the last, youngest, people to clearly remember the pre-9/11 United States. These teens were as much at the epicenter culturally as they were physically– I’m sure some of their classmates signed up for the subsequent war in Afghanistan. “In the Shadow” is a perfect vehicle to share their experiences. It is an important watch for those able to reflect on such things as the 17th anniversary approaches.
In the Shadow of the Towers: Stuyvesant High on 9/11 will air on HBO tomorrow, Wednesday September 11th, at 9:00 pm Eastern Time. The film will be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand and partners’ streaming platforms.
Four hundred years ago we were introduced to Don Quixote, an adventurer who fled the mundane world for imagined battles with wizards and giants. From the opening of “I’m Leaving Now,” it is clear that directors Lindsey Cordero and Armando Croda see their subject as another adventurer. Felipe, an undocumented worker, whistles and sings to himself as he drags a cart full of collected bottles behind him.
“We left each other long ago
But now it’s my time to go back.
You were right, I’m going to listen to my heart,
Because I’m dying to go back. I’m an adventurer, And I don’t even care.”
Unlike Don Quixote, Felipe’s adventure is only too rooted in the mundane. He left his home for the US after the birth of his youngest son, living in Brooklyn without papers to raise money for his family. He works at least three jobs, including collecting cans and cleaning bathrooms at a Hassidic synagogue. He wires as much money as he can back home to his wife.
Felipe Hernandez goes for a swim in Coney Island. Photo from IMDB.com
“I’m Leaving Now” picks up at what seems to be the end of his journey. After 16 years, he has purchased his ticket home and will be leaving shortly. We see the charismatic migrant celebrating a victory lap, saying goodbye to the friends he’s made along the way.
Then disaster strikes. One of his sons tells him that the family is swimming in debt and they need him to stay in Brooklyn. So starts a two-year journey in which Felipe, perhaps for the first time, considers staying in New York. Should he stay with his friends, his jobs, and a budding romance, or return home to the family which lost his money and a son who has only ever heard his voice.
Some of the footage feels forced, or even invasive. One scene in particular, in which Felipe is nuzzled between the breasts of a prostitute, made me wonder how much control Felipe had of his own privacy during the filming process. Other scenes feel scripted or directed, with forced dialogue and emotions. The directors do not attempt to hide manipulation, with details like the weather revealing a jumbled timeline forced to fit a more narrative structure.
In spite of that, it is easy to feel for Felipe in his most genuine scenes. He seems very happy with Dionicia, a girlfriend who he acquires over the course of the film, and feels torn and hurt in conversation with friends. “I’m Leaving Now” is a window into the life of an undocumented worker in the US, telling a unique story of a much more mundane adventure.
A still from the film Desolation Center. Image from IMDB.com
Blixa Bargeld and FM Einheit of German band Einstürzende Neubauten, performing at an event in the Mojave Desert. Photo credit: Fredrik NIlsen (1984)
The story of punk rock in the US reads a bit like the story of jazz: a time of musical experimentation where even influential moments and artists can slip through the cracks of history. Many stories were never written down, and many artists failed to leave a trace: no recordings, few pictures–only the memories of those who were there to see and know them.
That’s part of what makes Desolation Center such a treat. The documentary is a wealth of never-before-seen pictures and videos, revealing a near-forgotten story about a series of guerrilla music and art performances in 1980’s Southern California that changed the music world. Director and sometimes-protagonist Stuart Swezey mixes buried photos and live performance footage with interviews of attending musicians and concert-goers. The result is a brilliant, if sometimes hyper-focused, story of youthful innovation and rebellion, and which directly inspired projects like Lollapalooza, Burning Man, and Coachella.
The ‘80s So Cal punk scene, as Swezey remembers it, was a hotbed of diversity and musical experimentation. It was also a favorite raiding target for the police, who were looking to drum up headlines and media attention. At 20 years old, Swezey founded a production company, Desolation Center, aiming to produce shows where the police wouldn’t find them. Early attempts focused on obscure Los Angeles locations, with no success. As long as they were in the city, he decided, the police would find them.
The solution he came up with was a secret concert in an undisclosed location in the Mojave Desert. Punks clamored onto bright yellow school busses for an hours-long drive into the wilderness. The “stage” was small and ran on a generator that barely worked. The wind and sand were so severe that Swezey had to reposition the busses to protect the stage. Nobody made any money; everyone was dehydrated; it was a huge success.
Over the next few years, Desolation Center produced only a few more shows. A second desert show featured pyrotechnics artists Survival Research Laboratories, and German experimental band Einstürzende Neubauten, who made music with scrap metal and construction tools. Another show performed on a hastily-crafted stage built onto a whale-watching ship. Each attracted more attention while focusing–for the most part–on the local punk rock scene.
Punks exit a bus after an hours-long trip into the desert. Photo from IMDB.com
We are lucky that so much of these events were preserved. Desolation Center disbanded after only a half-dozen shows–long before they reached the mainstream–leaving the underground sensation to fade into obscurity. As of this writing, neither the film nor the production company have wikipedia pages. If the performances had happened a decade earlier, the documentary probably wouldn’t exist. Instead, home video technology captured rare performances, reactions, and emotions in ways that the cameras of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s could not have. It is one thing to hear about Survival Research Laboratories blowing up a cave, or to see a picture of Einstürzende Neubauten banging rocks on sheet metal. The videos bring the stories to life.
If the documentary suffers from anything, it is overly-focus and a sometimes-monotonous pace. The story marches from one performance to the next, start to finish, with little consideration for a larger story or evolving cultural context. For such an influential series of events, there is little discussion of changing culture until modern festival founders pop up at the end to cite Desolation Center as an inspiration. The format, at times, feels like a count-by-numbers procession of events which begins to become tedious as the story goes on.
Overall, Desolation Center is still a fascinating watch. If you’re a punk rock enthusiast, you’ll love the never-before-seen footage and reflections into an influential music scene. If punk rock is not your thing, there is still a wealth of hilarious, absurd, and sometimes heartfelt anecdotes of a movement full of anarchic experimentation and youthful rebellion. If you’ve never given much thought to punk rock before, bring a pen. You might want to write down a band name or two for later.
Courtesy of IMDB.com
Rooftop Films
Desolation Center made its New York premiere at the Greenwood Cemetery as part of the Rooftop Films’ 2019 Summer Series. The event featured a Q&A with filmmaker Stuart Swezey, Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Lydia Lunch Retrovirus, Wolfmanhattan Project). If you’re interested in attending a Rooftop Films event, check it out here.
Lenae Day (left) and Wendy McColm (right) in Birds Without Feathers.
Neil gets Jo to pose for her instagram in Birds Without Feathers.
Cinema reflects an idealized world. Films tend to project an ease of existence that ignores the awkward parts of life: the pauses, the tangents, the missed cues and forced repetitions. Cool characters don’t stumble. Even “awkward” characters never mumble unless they’re supposed to. Characters are perfectly crafted to travel from the beginning of the story to the end.
Birds Without Feathers, the directorial debut of actress Wendy McColm, chooses instead to look those awkward moments in the face. In this black comedy, characters wrestle with stilted attempts at conversation to agonizing moments of aborted self-reflection. The realism with which McColm and co-writer Lenae Day pull this off is uncanny, and makes for some good laughs.
The film centers around the mostly-disconnected stories of six isolated individuals searching for meaning. There is Sam (William Gabriel Grier), a wanna-be comedian with stage fright. He briefly dates Janet AKA Neil (Wendy McColm), who dreams of Instagram stardom. Neil meets and befriends Jo (Lenae Day), a desert-dwelling identity thief with more wigs than cigarettes, whose ex, Daniel, (Cooper Oznowicz) is a self-help motivational speaker with no social or communication skills. She also meets Tom (Alexander Stasko), a Russian man trying to become an American cowboy and meet his idol Jeff Goldblum. Sam, on the other hand, runs into Marty (Sara Estefanos) a self-victimizing nurse at a home for the elderly.
Tom meets the wrong Jeff Goldblum in Birds Without Feathers.
If that sounds confusing, it can be. Feathers wanders between these stories, with the “friendship” between Neil and Jo being the most significant crossover. When they do cross over, they rarely share the space. Instead, the story leans into one perspective or the other. There is one scene, between Neil and Tom, which does feel shared, but it is perhaps the strangest in the film. I won’t say which it is, but I think you’ll know it when you see it.
Birds Without Feathers is, for the most part, a fascinating exploration of the awkwardness of searching for identity in isolation. The sometimes-absurd and very personal stories give us the opportunity to laugh at our own most awkward moments and insecurities–if we’re brave enough–without falling into the tired trope of “Black Mirror” social media critique. The meandering plotlines occasionally leave you feeling lost but, for the most part, hold together Feathers’ bizarre yet fun plot. I will be interested to see where McColm goes next.
Birds Without Feathers will be playing at the Roxy Theater for the next week. Get tickets here.
"One day I'd like to use a lightsaber." Photography by Noah Asanias | Grooming by Marlayna Pincott
Downtown chats with actor Nicholas Coombe about his role in Dora and the Lost City of Gold, his acting journey, and his love for the arts.
Nicholas Coombe Photography by Noah Asanias | Grooming by Marlayna Pincott
Nicholas Coombe grew up in Perth, one of the world most isolated cities. From the time he was six, he has thrown himself into the performing arts: tap, jazz, ballet, acting, and musical theater. He loves singing, dancing, and playing music, but it was his acting which has taken him from Perth, Australia to Vancouver, Canada, where he lives now.
Coombe’s latest project, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, is set to come out tomorrow. He plays the role of Randy, an awkward high schooler who gets swept up in an adventure when his new classmate sets off to rescue her parents and solve the mystery of the lost city of gold.
Dan Metz: You’ve been in other films and television before. How was working on the set of Dora different from other productions you’ve worked on?
Nicholas Coombe: Honestly? This film was incredible. It’s definitely one of the biggest productions I’ve been a part of, which was really exciting. It was such a big project. There were so many incredible sets. The crew was massive. Everyone who was working on the film was renowned artists: the director James Bobin and the actors and actresses on the film. So it was really just an amazing experience. It was a larger scale than I’ve ever been a part of, and that was cool.
DM: There are some big names in Dora, and you got to work with a lot of them. How was that?
NC: Incredible. It was like a masterclass in acting. I spent a lot of time working with Eugenio Derbez and he’s like the king of comedy. He’s such a funny man. I learned a lot from him and we spent a lot of time improvising at each other and trying to make each other laugh. We made a pretty fun game of that.
Eva Longoria and Michael Peña, when they were there, were extremely nice people. They are extremely down to earth and they are hilarious and amazing performers. So just being able to stand across from them in a scene and witness them do their job was a really cool experience.
Dora and the Lost City of Gold comes out on August 9th, 2019. Photo courtesy of IMDB
DM: What was your favorite part of working on Dora?
NC: I’d say the comedy, and also being able to film it in Australia. Because I’m Australian myself, it was really nice to go back to my home country, to be able to run through the jungle for four months and shoot a bunch of action sequences and be a jokester. It was a really cool opportunity.
DM: Where in Australia was it?
NC: We were filming on the Gold Coast, in Queensland. So we filmed a bunch in the studios out there, and then also in the surrounding jungle areas.
DM: So not exactly close to where you were living before.
NC: No. I’m originally from Perth, Western Australia, so it’s still a solid six-hour flight. But in saying that, my mom was a lot happier to catch a six-hour flight than a three-day trip to get to Canada.
DM: How did you get involved with Dora?
NC: Originally it was just an audition that came through from my team. So I did my self tape and I sent it off to LA, and then I didn’t hear anything for a few weeks. Then they got back to me. And they were like, “Hey we liked what you did. Can you re-tape it a different way?” and I was like “Yeah, of course.” So I sent that off and then I didn’t hear anything again for a bit, and then one day my manager called me and was like, “Hey! We’re setting up a skype call with James Bobin, the director of Dora,” and I was like “Wow, that’s amazing. Okay.” He gave me a few notes and I retaped it one more time and then I didn’t hear anything again, and I was like, “Oh no. I don’t think I got it.” And then I got another phone call from my manager, and he was like, “Nick! You booked the role of Randy. They want you to fly out in two days’ time.” and I was like, “This is amazing and terrifying and exciting.”
DM: Oh man. I can’t imagine.
NC: Yeah. It was pretty life-changing.
DM: But you’ve been in all kinds of projects before. You’ve done voice acting with Spy Kids. You even directed and wrote a little bit a few years ago. That was cool.
NC: Yeah. I’ve been blessed to be a part of a bunch of different projects, like Spy Kids. I got to do the voiceover, which was awesome. I got to play an Australian in that, and I had a great time doing the accent.
I’ve dabbled in directing and writing. Cinema Town (a miniseries where Coombe wrote one episode and directed two) was one of my first projects. But I still have so much to learn, so it will probably be a while before I dive into that again. For now, I’m trying my best to make the most of every experience I have and learn.
DM: Would you be interested in doing more directing and writing eventually down the line?
NC: Yeah, in the future. At the moment I’m focused on acting, but down the line, I would love to write and direct my own movies. I love films like those by Wes Anderson. I think his movies are incredible and I love the idea of using colors and music to tell a story. So, if I do get into directing, I think that is the path I’d want to pursue.
DM: What are some of your dream roles?
NC: I have so many. I’ve always wanted to do a big epic fantasy franchise, like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. I’ve also always loved war films, and that would be a really cool opportunity to tell one of those stories.
DM: What appeals to you about those two?
NC: I love fantasy and sci-fi. I grew up watching Star Wars. So ever since day one, it’s been like “One day I’d like to use a lightsaber.” And the idea of jumping into this alternate universe and telling different stories, and being able to play characters that are not like your everyday person, is a really fun experience and something that I hope to do.
DM: What’s the most fun role that you’ve played so far.
So ever since day one, it’s been like, “One day, I’d like to use a lightsaber.” Photography by Noah Asanias | Grooming by Marlayna Pincott
NC: Randy, in Dora. He’s a really funny guy. I found myself laughing in every scene. There’s a lot of improvisation; James Bobin let us do a lot of improvisation throughout the film. I found myself giggling a lot, or trying to keep a straight face while bantering back and forth with the other actors. Randy has been a dream, and I’ve had a blast messing around with him.
DM: What’s next for you after this movie?
NC: There are a bunch of things coming up in the pipeline that I can’t talk about yet.
The one thing I can talk about, though, is that I have a band. We’re called The Beanie Kids and we are recording and releasing an EP soon. I think our first song will be out in August. I’m very excited. These are songs that I’ve been writing ever since I was in high school. It’s really exciting to put them together and release them to the world.
DM: Do you see yourself staying in the Vancouver scene?
NC: Maybe. I would like to move to LA for a period of time. I’m not sure when, but it’s definitely on my options. The thing about film is that everything shoots everywhere around the world. So you never really know where you’re gonna end up, which is exciting.
