Photos of Michael Dean taken by Lydia Lunch in March, 2002, Los Angeles
Michael W. Dean talks about filmmaking, art, life and politics
podcast episode 38
Michael W. Dean sits in his back yard on a glorious spring day, pets his cats and talks about digital filmmaking, art, life and politics…while answering interview questions from a college student in India. His name is Anamitra Roy and he’s no-budget filmmaker from Kolkata, Westbengal, India and a student of film studies at the Jadavpur University. He has sent me these questions while preparing his dissertation paper on no-budget film making worldwide.
Michael talks about his motivations in making DIY or DIE, How to Survive as an Independent Artist, Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow, Living Through Steve Diet Goedde, and $30 Film School. He also talks about what has changed in his life since then.
Questions I was asked, then talked for 40 minutes:
1) What does it mean by ‘no-budget film’ ? ( Definition or the concept)
2) What is the philosophical aspect of these non/anti-industrial films? (Marxism, people’s art or Post-modern individual effort / potential role in a democratic state)
3) What Cameras and Edit suits have you used for your films? Why? (availability of digital technology in today’s world)
4) Unless there have been a DV revolution, do you think that the concept of no-budget had flourished to this extent? (The festivals organized all over the world, people making films on their own — could this be real in the era of celluloid too. Please elaborate.)
5) Will you go to Hollywood if they call you? Why? (center – periphery relationship / cultural hegemony)
(I forgot to answer this one, but the answer is “No.” I plan to never ever set foot in the state of California again, mainly because it’s a dangerous place and I can’t legally bring my guns. The California chapter in my life is over. I lived there from 1986 to 2009. That’s well long enough.)
6) How does Digital technology help in organizing screenings? (budget)
The interview is research for his term paper, masters degree dissertation. His blog is http://littlefisheatbigfish.blogspot.com/ and his film group’s channel on YouTube is http://www.youtube.com/anamitra007
After the interview, we hear the Right Arm of Wyoming song, “Government is a Collective Hallucination.” (Lyrics here.)
One small correction in this…I mistakenly said in the podcast that phone calls from America to South Africa were ten dollars an hour in 1974. It was actually ten dollars a MINUTE back then.
MWD