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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the bob Lefsets Podcast. My

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Speaker 1: guests today are the team behind the documentary Billy Preston.

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Speaker 1: That's the way God planned it. We have three people

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Speaker 1: on the podcast, so I'm going to have everybody introduced

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Speaker 1: themselves individually. Let's start is the order they are on

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Speaker 1: my screen. Paris Barklay, tell me about yourself and how

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Speaker 1: you got involved in this movie.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm Paris Barclay. I'm a director, producer, a writer,

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Speaker 2: and generally a very busy guy. And I got involved

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Speaker 2: in this when Stephanie Elaine gave me a call and said,

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Speaker 2: wouldn't you love to do a documentary? And I said what?

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Speaker 2: And she said, no, it's about Billy Preston. I'm making

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Speaker 2: up this converse. There wasn't quite as much fun as that,

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Speaker 2: but nevertheless I was enthralled. I know Billy Preston just

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Speaker 2: like we do a a certain generation, but I didn't

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Speaker 2: know a full story. And the deeper I got into it,

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Speaker 2: the more I read about it, the more I said,

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Speaker 2: you know, I meant this guy is a parallel person

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Speaker 2: to me, and I identify with him in so many

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Speaker 2: different ways. I got to do this documentary.

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Speaker 1: How long ago was that conversation?

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Speaker 2: About four years ago? Now, right, ladies, I think it

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Speaker 2: was about four years ago, is just before COVID. If

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Speaker 2: you can remember those days before COVID where we actually

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Speaker 2: met live and we didn't do zoom and all that stuff.

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Speaker 1: It was in that time. I have to ask you, say,

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Speaker 1: you see parallels you identify can you expand on that?

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Speaker 2: Oh, Billy Preston, I had the records, I knew the

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Speaker 2: hit songs, but since I didn't know about his life.

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Speaker 2: It took Daniel Shaw, who was a writer and a

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Speaker 2: great friend of the entire enterprise, who had written a

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Speaker 2: book proposal that really laid out some of the stories

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Speaker 2: of his life and how he developed and part of

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Speaker 2: his genius that we didn't all see. And as I

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Speaker 2: got into it, I realized, Wow, I grew up in

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Speaker 2: the church, Catholic church versus Baptist. I was a piano

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Speaker 2: player and an organist, not anything like Billy Preston, but

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Speaker 2: you know I did have those skills. I do have

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Speaker 2: those skills actually to this day, and I had a

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Speaker 2: lot of parallels in my life. My brother died at

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Speaker 2: a young age around the same time as Billy Preston's

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Speaker 2: brother died, and I think that was a seminole thing

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Speaker 2: in his life. I had some abusive situations in my

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Speaker 2: life that I have always remembered, and I have always left

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Speaker 2: a little bit of a dent in my personality which

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Speaker 2: I've been dealing with. And I was an alcoholic and

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Speaker 2: a recovering drug add just like Billy. So just like

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Speaker 2: time and time again, as we went into the instance

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Speaker 2: of his personal story, I felt a parallel. I felt

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Speaker 2: a kinship, and it made it easier for me to

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Speaker 2: be empathetic person and can tell me my audience a

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Speaker 2: little of your history in the movie.

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Speaker 1: Business, my history in the movie business, Well, I was

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Speaker 1: in advertising before I did this whole thing.

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Speaker 2: I spent ten years working in advertising in New York,

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Speaker 2: which has really stood me in good stead in the

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Speaker 2: movie business. And I left advertising my job as a

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Speaker 2: creative supervisor to help a new struggling music video company

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Speaker 2: called Black and White Television. I was the black and

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Speaker 2: my partner Joe was the white, and we created a

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Speaker 2: company that was primarily about getting minorities behind scenes and

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Speaker 2: music videos because there were none for very very few,

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Speaker 2: and all these great hip hop videos in the early

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Speaker 2: nineties were being directed by white men, which we thought

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Speaker 2: was okay, but I think we could do better, and

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Speaker 2: eventually I got all Kool Jay as a client and

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Speaker 2: did ten videos with him, including Mamison Knock You Out,

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Speaker 2: which threw the attention of the people on the West coast.

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Speaker 2: They said, this guy's a storyteller. He's not just doing

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Speaker 2: a video, He's telling a story, which led to my

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Speaker 2: first job in television, and from there I pretty much

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Speaker 2: have stayed in television other than a couple of departures.

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Speaker 2: I did a feature film called Don't Be a Menace

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Speaker 2: to South Central Audrickeye or Juice in the Hood, which

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Speaker 2: is a cult favorite. And you know, I've done some

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Speaker 2: television movies, but primarily I've done series now one hundred

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Speaker 2: and ninety two of them, most recently The Night Agent,

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Speaker 2: which is on now Brilliant Binds. I did The Menenda

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Speaker 2: Story and Domer Monster, lots of shows, and from there

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Speaker 2: I've learned that there's a story and then there's a story,

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Speaker 2: which is part of the reason why Billy Press was

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Speaker 2: both a challenge for me and of the light.

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Speaker 1: Okay, where are you from?

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Speaker 2: Originally Chicago, Illinois, which is a great place to be

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Speaker 2: from Okay to Chicago. There's the South Side and there's

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Speaker 2: the suburbs.

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Speaker 1: Where did you grow up?

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Speaker 2: I was in the South Suburbs, which was, you know, nice,

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Speaker 2: but a little ghetto. It started out, as I grew

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Speaker 2: up as a very nice suburban suburb. By the time

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Speaker 2: I left, it was drugs and coke and everything and criminality.

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Speaker 2: And now the town that I grew up in is

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Speaker 2: the murder capital of the South Suburbs, which is something

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Speaker 2: that they hold a great deal of private.

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Speaker 1: Stephanie, it looks to me like, wow, that's a title. Okay,

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Speaker 1: and this is gonna sound very general, But to what

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Speaker 1: degree have you experienced racism in your life and career

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Speaker 1: and has that affected you or held you back? That's

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Speaker 1: a deep question. I have experienced some racism, but not

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Speaker 1: as much as some friends of mine, to be honest.

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Speaker 1: Part of the reason why I had success fairly early.

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Speaker 1: And once you're successful, color seems to sort of fade away.

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Speaker 1: But when you're struggling, it's a very important thing. This

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Speaker 1: is a black director. I don't know if we need

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Speaker 1: you know, it becomes a thing. It becomes a thing

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Speaker 1: that makes people decide to work with you or not.

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Speaker 1: I dealt with much more homophobia.

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Speaker 2: Than I dealt with actual racism in my career, and

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Speaker 2: that has been a struggle. It led me to coming

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Speaker 2: out quite early, unlike Billy Preston, to be openly gay

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Speaker 2: seem to be the best solution to me. So I

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Speaker 2: would say homophobia top racism when it comes to obst Okay,

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Speaker 2: did you go to.

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Speaker 1: College after being in South Chicago? Yes, I did. I

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Speaker 1: went to a little known college called Harvard, which is

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Speaker 1: in Boston area, which took me five years to graduate

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Speaker 1: from because A I did go to class, and B

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Speaker 1: I was much more interested in music and theater than

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Speaker 1: I was in the many great professors that I had.

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Speaker 1: And if I had it to do all over again,

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Speaker 1: I would certainly go to class. And so if you're

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Speaker 1: at Harvard, now go to class, because you'll wish you

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Speaker 1: did when you're my age. Yeah, I went there, and

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Speaker 1: then then I went to New York. And how did

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Speaker 1: you end up in advertising? I just thought it.

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Speaker 2: Would be easy. Also, I love Bewitched, and Bewitched was

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Speaker 2: filled with Darren Stevens, and you know, they always had martinis.

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Speaker 2: Samantha was making him a martini as he came home

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Speaker 2: and it just made advertising look so delightful and as

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Speaker 2: you can tell him fairly talk to it him pretty glib.

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Speaker 2: And so it became a good job for me. And

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Speaker 2: also I could do my musical you to work at

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Speaker 2: night because the job was relatively easy, and I could

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Speaker 2: then work on musical theater and shows in New York,

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Speaker 2: which is really what I wanted to do.

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Speaker 1: Okay, And how do you know, when did you meet Stephanie? Wow?

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Speaker 1: When did I first meet Stephanie? A very long time.

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Speaker 2: I think we were children back in the day. She's

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Speaker 2: a producer. I've always admired She produced a lot of

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Speaker 2: things that I thought were essential viewing for people, especially

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Speaker 2: for black people, but for everyone. Her work with John

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Speaker 2: Singleton and bringing him to the four was a very

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Speaker 2: big deal. So she was a sort of celebrity.

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Speaker 1: In my world.

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Speaker 2: And her husband, Stephen Bray, is a friend of mine,

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Speaker 2: and we've met socially and so we never we hadn't

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Speaker 2: worked on anything together before. We just knew each other

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Speaker 2: and had a mutual admiration society.

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Speaker 1: So, Stephanie, where are you from?

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Speaker 3: I am from New Orleans.

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Speaker 1: New Orleans, Okay. What was growing up in New Orleans.

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Speaker 4: Like well, I spent a couple of years in New Orleans,

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Speaker 4: but my father, who was in school, drove us to

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Speaker 4: California in nineteen sixty five, so I pretty much grew

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Speaker 4: up in LA. I spent the summers in New Orleans

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Speaker 4: with my grandma, and.

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Speaker 1: We're in La Miracle Mile, Miracle Miles. So what was

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Speaker 1: it like growing up there? And this was before or

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Speaker 1: after the watch riots that you give this.

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Speaker 4: We came the summer of the riots, so I think

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Speaker 4: it was in July or Yeah, it was pretty it

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Speaker 4: was a big deal, I remember.

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Speaker 3: But you know, we grew up in Wiltshire area.

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Speaker 4: You know, I went to Catholic school, like I don't

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Speaker 4: know if Paris went to Catholic school when you were young.

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Speaker 1: I did, of course, so in my high school too.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and I went to all girl Catholic High school

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Speaker 4: in Inglewood Saint Mary's And uh yeah. My father is

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Speaker 4: a was a biochemist. My mother's an educ cater. But

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Speaker 4: I just fell in love with books. I fell in

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Speaker 4: love with reading, and I fell in love with movies

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Speaker 4: at a very very young age. So and I didn't

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Speaker 4: even know there was a movie business, to be honest,

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Speaker 4: I didn't know what a direct. I didn't know anything

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Speaker 4: except for when I read The Godfather and then saw

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Speaker 4: it on the screen, or when I read The Exorcist

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Speaker 4: and saw it on the screen. I just there was

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Speaker 4: a connection there. So I went to USC, I dropped out,

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Speaker 4: moved to Hawaii.

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Speaker 1: I waited a couple of questions. One what's better Godfather

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Speaker 1: one or two?

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Speaker 4: I don't know.

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Speaker 5: One is so classic, but two is even better.

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Speaker 1: I agree. Okay, when you went to USC, I mean

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Speaker 1: USC is legendary on the West Coast for film studies.

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Speaker 1: Were you in that division?

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Speaker 4: No, I was pre law I was I was in

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Speaker 4: I was yeah. I was taking and ethics and political

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Speaker 4: science and things that I had no idea.

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Speaker 5: I was very unhappy.

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Speaker 4: I went to see the counselor and he said, well

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Speaker 4: quit and I said really, he said yeah.

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Speaker 5: So I dropped out and I moved to Hawaio.

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Speaker 1: How long did you go before you dropped out? And

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Speaker 1: what did your parents say?

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Speaker 4: I was I went for a year and a half.

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Speaker 4: My mother cried. My father I can't remember what he said,

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Speaker 4: but I just I was so unhappy. So I moved

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Speaker 4: to Hawaii, which created a lifelong connection with Hawaii. It's

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Speaker 4: still my happy place, and I realized that I actually

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Speaker 4: could be in the arts. Because my parents like a

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Speaker 4: lot of folks law, medicine, smart things, you know, things,

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Speaker 4: professional things. There were no artists in my family. So

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Speaker 4: then I realized I was transferring. I transferred to UCEE

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Speaker 4: Santa Cruz, which was very hippie dippy. I got a

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Speaker 4: degree in poetry, which was even more hippie dippy.

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Speaker 5: And then I followed that by going to Cowarts for dance.

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Speaker 6: Okay, ground producer might when you're finished with Cowlarts for dance,

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Speaker 6: what year are we in nineteen eighty three and you

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Speaker 6: graduate from cal Arts?

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Speaker 1: Do you pursue a career in dance?

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Speaker 5: I did for a second, but then I got pregnant,

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Speaker 5: and so.

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Speaker 1: Well, hold on a second, wait a second, assuming that

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Speaker 1: baby was born, who is the father of that child?

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Speaker 4: The father of the child was a fellow UC Santa

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Speaker 4: Cruzian who I ended up marrying and have two kids with,

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Speaker 4: and then divorced and then married Stephen Bray, who, by

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Speaker 4: the way, thanks you for your colonoscopee piece.

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Speaker 1: Well, before we got to Stephen Bray, how long were

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Speaker 1: you married to the first husband? Ten years? Ten years?

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Speaker 1: And what was he up to? Who is he?

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Speaker 3: He's a director, He's a writer director.

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Speaker 4: He has a movie now on streaming called I Don't

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Speaker 4: Love You Anymore. And he's a writer director. He's a

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Speaker 4: fabulous guy. He's my best friend. He got married at

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Speaker 4: my house, at me and Stephen's house at our house.

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Speaker 4: He lives walking distance from me, and we just made

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Speaker 4: a pact when we got divorced that we were always

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Speaker 4: going to be friends, and we've stayed friends.

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Speaker 1: Then what are your two kids up to?

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Speaker 4: My youngest son is Emmy nominated editor for sixteen nineteen.

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Speaker 4: He lives in Brooklyn. He's going to Hunter College to

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Speaker 4: get a master's in experimental filmmaking.

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Speaker 5: I don't know.

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Speaker 4: And my oldest son is a writer, director, actor from

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Speaker 4: He was on Insecure for six years as an actor.

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Speaker 4: But he just directed the remake of Don't Tell Mom

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Speaker 4: The Babysitters Day. He's also a TV writer and he

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Speaker 4: has my two delicious granddaughters.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and how do you meet Stephen Bray?

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Speaker 5: This was my only blind date?

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Speaker 1: Who set you up?

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Speaker 4: We got set up by three different people who didn't

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Speaker 4: know each other, but who knew us and said you

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Speaker 4: guys would be perfect. We met in the middle of

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Speaker 4: one of my movies because he was making the color

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Speaker 4: Purple on Broadway, and Donald Byrd, who's a very famous

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Speaker 4: choreographer who was doing the choreography, said, and who I

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Speaker 4: dance with, said, you guys have to meet. We met,

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Speaker 4: we had dinner, and we've been together twenty years.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so you have this parapatetic lifestyle. How do you

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Speaker 1: end up in the entertainment business.

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Speaker 4: Well, when I was pregnant with my first son, Wade,

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Speaker 4: the only thing I knew how to do was read.

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Speaker 4: And then I heard there was a job called reader,

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Speaker 4: and I thought, perfect, I'm a reader.

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Speaker 3: I can read.

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Speaker 4: And my first job was at CIA in the story department.

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Speaker 4: So I read books and then wrote up.

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Speaker 1: Robert, Let's start a little erway. How'd you get the

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Speaker 1: job at CIA?

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Speaker 4: I knew one person in the movie business, my first

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Speaker 4: husband's father's friend, Mike Glick, who was a line producer,

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Speaker 4: and I don't know. He said, well, there is a

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Speaker 4: story department. He called. I had to call every other

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Speaker 4: week for three or four months to get that job,

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Speaker 4: until finally they were like, okay, stop calling.

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Speaker 3: Take the job. It was the best job ever because.

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Speaker 4: I learned how the written word gets looked at by

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Speaker 4: a reader, which is what I was, and broken down

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Speaker 4: into the possibilities of being a film So and this

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Speaker 4: is when there were no computers, there were typewriters. So

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Speaker 4: I'd read a book, I'd go into the writing room

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Speaker 4: and just bang out the synopsis in the comments and

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Speaker 4: then walk it upstairs to Mike Ovitz or you know,

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Speaker 4: Rick Mesita or whoever was you know, requesting my coverage.

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Speaker 5: And I was quite good at it.

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Speaker 4: So the next step, the next step is I went

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Speaker 4: from that job to being a professional story analyst at

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Speaker 4: twentieth Century Fox. And my mentor person who I credit

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Speaker 4: with really opening the doors was Amy Pascal, and Amy

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Speaker 4: Pascal hired me when she went to work for Dawn

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Speaker 4: at Warner Brothers. Was Warner Brothers, Yeah, And I went

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Speaker 4: along as a reader. And then when I read for

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Speaker 4: a year, they promoted Dawn promoted me to a creative executive,

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Speaker 4: and five months later I was reading to replace myself

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Speaker 4: in the story department with a young guy named John

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Speaker 4: Singleton who really didn't want the job. He really just

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Speaker 4: wanted to talk about this script he'd written, Boys in

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Speaker 4: the Hood.

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Speaker 1: Okay, just to be clear from my audience, What does

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Speaker 1: the story analysts do?

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Speaker 4: A story analyst is basically a reader, a reader of books,

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Speaker 4: of articles, of screenplays, and then once you read it,

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Speaker 4: you condense it down.

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Speaker 3: To a two or three page book report.

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Speaker 4: Basically it's a synopsis and then a page of comments

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Speaker 4: how well will this translate into a movie or television show?

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Speaker 1: So how does John Singleton walk in the door?

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Speaker 4: John Singleton is a senior at USC and he already

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Speaker 4: had an agent, believe it or not, a CAA agent,

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Speaker 4: Brad Smith. And because he had won the Nicholson screenwriting

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Speaker 4: competition two years in a row, and the one that

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Speaker 4: he had just won for was Boys in the Hood,

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Speaker 4: So he was you know, USC is a school in town.

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Speaker 4: They matriculate folks and really try to place them and

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Speaker 4: find jobs. He'd heard that, you know, we were looking

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Speaker 4: for a reader position through some friend of his, and

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Speaker 4: showed up in my office because I was tasked with

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Speaker 4: replacing myself in the story department.

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Speaker 1: So how did Boys in the Hood get made? Boys?

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Speaker 5: And the hook got made?

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Speaker 4: Because once I read it, I flipped out and I

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Speaker 4: had the big Oprah Winfrey aha moment and it was like,

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Speaker 4: this is why I am here. It was just very

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Speaker 4: clear to me that I had to get this movie made.

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Speaker 4: So I went to every single executive at the time.

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Speaker 4: It was like Michael Nathanson and Lorenzo Debana Ventura. It

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Speaker 4: was all in dawn, and I said, we have to

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Speaker 4: make this movie. And then one week later the company

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Speaker 4: was sold down, was fired.

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Speaker 5: John and Peter came in.

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Speaker 4: We moved all the way from Warner Brothers, where we

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Speaker 4: were sharing the lot with Warner Brothers, to Culver City and.

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Speaker 5: Frank Price was in charge.

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Speaker 4: This all happened within like a month, and so I

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Speaker 4: finally waited until everybody had read it. I put it

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Speaker 4: on Weekend Read and the next day I came into

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Speaker 4: that room where everybody promised they were going to be supportive,

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Speaker 4: and they all trashed it except for Amy and Frank.

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Speaker 4: And Frank said, we're going to make it, and we

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Speaker 4: any did and I said, oh, but by the way,

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Speaker 4: John's going to direct it. And John had never really

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Speaker 4: directed anything except for a terrible music video, which I'm

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Speaker 4: sure Paris would have borne apart. I said, we're not

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Speaker 4: showing this to anybody, We're just saying you're directing.

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Speaker 1: Okay. There are many steps between a good idea and

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Speaker 1: a good story and a good screenplay to a good movie.

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Speaker 1: So that movie came out lauded everywhere, successful commercially. Was

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Speaker 1: it like your first time and this looked easy or exactly?

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Speaker 3: Bob, I was like, this shit is easy. I'm just

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Speaker 3: going to do this again. I've never had.

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Speaker 4: That level of success in a movie that I've I

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Speaker 4: mean I've had I've had successes, but never that.

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Speaker 5: And that was nineteen ninety one.

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Speaker 3: So there you go.

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Speaker 1: Okay, the thirty five years that have ensued, give us

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Speaker 1: your greatest hits, greatest.

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Speaker 3: Hits, hustle and flow. Dear White People.

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Speaker 4: I produced the Oscars twenty twenty Oscars, which was pretty fabulous.

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Speaker 4: I also did the TV show for Dear White People.

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Speaker 4: My last movie I love. My last movie is this movie,

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Speaker 4: which I love, love, love Billy Preston. But right before that,

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Speaker 4: I did a beautiful movie called Exhibiting Forgiveness. So I

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Speaker 4: produced twenty thirty I don't know movies and a little

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Speaker 4: bit of television and really spent at least a quarter

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Speaker 4: of my time working on inclusion and belonging and diversity

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Speaker 4: within the industry. Right now, I'm the president of the

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Speaker 4: producer's guilt. I've been president for four years. I've been

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Speaker 4: on the boards of Women in Film, Film, Independent, Cast

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Speaker 4: and Crew. Right now I sit on the board of

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Speaker 4: American Cinema Tech. Our mission is to save theaters that

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Speaker 4: save that movie experience. So I'm a grandmother mother.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, my mother, she was still alive. She heard all that.

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Speaker 1: She would say, well, what else have you done?

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Speaker 3: And I'll tell you. I read a children I do

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Speaker 3: want to say.

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Speaker 4: I wrote a children's book for my granddaughter called Who's

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Speaker 4: in Charge About Body Autonomy? And it's it's It's Penguin

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Speaker 4: published it. It's doing very well.

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Speaker 1: Okay, just so I don't mangle it. How do you

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Speaker 1: pronounce your last name?

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Speaker 5: Helene?

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Speaker 1: That's what I would have said. I'm not good with French,

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Speaker 1: but okay, Gene, Am I correct in saying your name

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Speaker 1: is Jeene Elphon Festa.

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Speaker 5: Yes, yeah, you're fine. You could call me Jane or Gene.

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Speaker 1: Okay, wait, wait, why three names?

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Speaker 5: Because my my my name is Elfon. I was born

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Speaker 5: with Elfon, I married a Festa.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so it's not a middle name or something.

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Speaker 5: So my middle name is Royce.

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Speaker 1: So how some people use you know, both names other

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Speaker 1: people don't. How did you decide to use it?

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Speaker 5: Because my parents were so influential in my life in

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Speaker 5: a very very positive way, you know, even this film,

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Speaker 5: how this film came about. They were both very, very

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Speaker 5: big into music and had a massive record collection. They

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Speaker 5: are they, you know, really from relatively meager beginnings, from

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Speaker 5: both from Brooklyn, uh in a very My mom lived

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Speaker 5: in a tenement building and my dad lived in forty

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Speaker 5: second forty second in Utrecht. I hope I had that

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Speaker 5: correct my Brooklyn nights. And they dreamed big and they

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Speaker 5: pushed me out. I was I was a stutter growing up.

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Speaker 5: They pushed me out into just living what I wanted

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Speaker 5: to live, and it was very I was very lucky.

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Speaker 5: I'm the youngest of three kids, and I was very lucky.

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Speaker 1: Okay, you say they came from humble beginnings. What did

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Speaker 1: they end up doing for money?

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Speaker 5: My dad wanted to be a saxophone flair, but he

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Speaker 5: ended up going to med school and became a p

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Speaker 5: diatrist and a quite well known one in Pacific Palisades

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Speaker 5: when Pacific Palisades was like Mayberry RFD. And they bought

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Speaker 5: a fourteen hundred square foot house and actually They started

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Speaker 5: in apartments and then eventually bought a fourteen hundred square

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Speaker 5: foot house where it would have still be standing had

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Speaker 5: the fire not burned the whole town down. But yeah,

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Speaker 5: they were, and my mom sold real estate. My mom

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Speaker 5: sold real estate before that, she did books. She did that,

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Speaker 5: you know, taxes and things like that.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So were you born in the Palisades or living

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Speaker 1: in that area?

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Speaker 5: Born in born and raised in Santa Monica. But yes,

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Speaker 5: Pacific policies. I am a native Californian.

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Speaker 1: Okay. So you go to school, and then where do

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Speaker 1: you go to college?

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Speaker 5: I went to Wright, went to Pali High. I went

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Speaker 5: to the Fashion Institute of Design Merchandising, where I learned

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Speaker 5: marketing and factoring and selling friends lines. I wrapped a

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Speaker 5: children's clothing line for years called step by Step, which

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Speaker 5: was in direct competition with with a Spree. I don't

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Speaker 5: know if anyone remembers children's.

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Speaker 1: But we took over Slippers roller Disco at Losiena against Sannic.

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Speaker 5: Yes they did. I know, it was sad. I remember

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Speaker 5: when that happened. And they also took over place here

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Speaker 5: in Hollywood that I remember. Yeah, Well, I didn't wrap

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Speaker 5: a spray I reapped side by side so and and

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Speaker 5: it was it was a really fun time in my

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Speaker 5: life creating. And I too got married very young and

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Speaker 5: I'm still married. He'll be married forty years this September

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Speaker 5: and have two kids. And yeah, so that was that

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Speaker 5: part of my life. And then I had another part

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Speaker 5: of my life.

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Speaker 1: Okay, what does your husband do for a living?

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Speaker 5: He's an insurance agent.

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Speaker 1: And how did you meet him? Yep?

438
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:22,240
Speaker 5: Really, my mom fixed us up on a date when

439
00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:24,359
Speaker 5: I was seventeen, in eleventh grade.

440
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:26,480
Speaker 1: And it's lasting all this time.

441
00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:28,359
Speaker 5: It's last.

442
00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:31,000
Speaker 1: So what's the keto of forty year relationship?

443
00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:38,280
Speaker 5: You know, forgiveness for sure, and allowing the person to grow,

444
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:41,760
Speaker 5: just allowing it and know that there be know who

445
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:44,160
Speaker 5: you are so that you're comfortable.

446
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:45,240
Speaker 3: That is key.

447
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:48,320
Speaker 5: And knowing that that person needs to do what they

448
00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:51,720
Speaker 5: need to do and they allow it. And that is

449
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 5: what we have always done.

450
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:57,360
Speaker 1: Okay, so you started fit.

451
00:24:57,840 --> 00:24:59,200
Speaker 5: Fit them fashions?

452
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:02,360
Speaker 1: How does that lead to Billy Preston?

453
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:08,480
Speaker 5: Well, it was another life. I mean, certainly, factoring is

454
00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:12,800
Speaker 5: very similar to doing do factoring in a movie. You know,

455
00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:15,520
Speaker 5: you're looking at trends, you're looking at what is the

456
00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:19,720
Speaker 5: fact factoring is it's very similar to what we do

457
00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 5: when we're looking at you know, you're like thinking about

458
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:27,040
Speaker 5: pre selling your film. Maybe not so much as it

459
00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:29,960
Speaker 5: is with jocks, although at the very beginning we did

460
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,920
Speaker 5: want to always test the marketplace to see whether or

461
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:38,040
Speaker 5: not something would sell. So, Uh, at the beginning when

462
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:41,440
Speaker 5: of this business, that I learned from Nigel Sinclair Whitehorse Pictures.

463
00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:45,480
Speaker 5: Prior to that he was doing this company, his documentary

464
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:49,439
Speaker 5: division was Spidfire Pictures that did Bob Dylan, No Direction

465
00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:54,879
Speaker 5: Home and George arsenaling Material World. Uh, that I had learned,

466
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 5: I took the tools that I learned at the Fashion Institute,

467
00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:03,400
Speaker 5: a design merchandising with me to filmmaking by knowing how

468
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:08,560
Speaker 5: to market something, knowing what people pullp I guess pulling

469
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:13,520
Speaker 5: on your heartstrings, and really becoming committed into a project.

470
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:17,440
Speaker 5: And when I mean committed, it's it's it's a passion.

471
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:21,879
Speaker 5: And if you don't have have that passion for a project,

472
00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:27,160
Speaker 5: you cannot bring people to it. How else to describe that?

473
00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:31,399
Speaker 1: Okay, just to close this loop is in factory Basically,

474
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 1: you know, in the fashion business it takes so long

475
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 1: to get paid if there's a company that will buy

476
00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:37,840
Speaker 1: your receipts at a.

477
00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:42,040
Speaker 5: Discuss exactly exactly. Now, that's not exactly the same thing

478
00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:45,040
Speaker 5: as a business that we're that with film business, but

479
00:26:45,119 --> 00:26:48,520
Speaker 5: you certainly are going to factor in what it is

480
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:50,639
Speaker 5: that you think that you could sell something for and

481
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 5: what do you think you could make it. Oh okay,

482
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:53,640
Speaker 5: so it's still similar.

483
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:58,959
Speaker 1: How do you get from the clothing business to work

484
00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:03,119
Speaker 1: in the film business.

485
00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:06,720
Speaker 5: Yeah, I had a lot of life in between. I

486
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 5: had a family, I had kids, I had uh life

487
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:16,040
Speaker 5: and death. It has a happy ending, but it didn't.

488
00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:18,480
Speaker 5: You know, my my husband was very ill for quite

489
00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 5: some time. When the world became chaotic, I went and

490
00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:26,880
Speaker 5: felt I needed to control things. And I went and thought, well,

491
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:28,840
Speaker 5: you know what, what's going to help me. I'm going

492
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:31,159
Speaker 5: to go into stand up comedy. And I went to

493
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:36,240
Speaker 5: stand up comedy just to give myself a release. I

494
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:40,840
Speaker 5: ended up meeting a lot of people who actors, started

495
00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:44,560
Speaker 5: taking acting classes, did a couple of commercials, obviously nothing major,

496
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:50,560
Speaker 5: and and I went to UH to. I actually was

497
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 5: much better at selling my friends uh you know one

498
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 5: act shows than I was at anything else. I had

499
00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:01,640
Speaker 5: met a group of players who had a who were

500
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:04,159
Speaker 5: trying to put on a play. And I produced this

501
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:07,240
Speaker 5: play for years and tried to get it onto Broadway.

502
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:07,960
Speaker 2: You know.

503
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:10,439
Speaker 5: It was that is really how I came to be.

504
00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:14,919
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're selling this play. What's the step after that?

505
00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:19,200
Speaker 5: The step after that was the people that I literally

506
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,560
Speaker 5: brought intooth and nail. One of my friends and neighbors

507
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:27,159
Speaker 5: was Missus Nigel Sinclair, Pat Sinclair, and they came to

508
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:31,680
Speaker 5: this play. And in the meantime, I was also doing commercials,

509
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:35,440
Speaker 5: so I was I was also meeting directors. I brought

510
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:39,080
Speaker 5: them to the play and I was trying to pitch

511
00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:44,120
Speaker 5: a story about this man, George Moses Horton, who was

512
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:47,840
Speaker 5: the first African American male whoever was published in the

513
00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 5: United States of America. And I could not get the

514
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:54,880
Speaker 5: script off the ground. That brought me into a lot

515
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 5: of rooms, and that is I hopefully can make that

516
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 5: movie one day. And that is what I have a

517
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 5: lot of KTA and I pick up phones and just

518
00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 5: call people. And I literally got people like Jimmy Iven

519
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 5: to show up to this play, and I got, you know,

520
00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 5: a Christiemonian to show up to this play. A lot

521
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:21,560
Speaker 5: of you know, people at C a. It was quite remarkable.

522
00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:22,800
Speaker 5: I was very proud of myself.

523
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 1: Okay, that play fizzles, ultimately, it does, So what's your

524
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 1: next job?

525
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:38,360
Speaker 5: My next job was putting this action into the into film.

526
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:43,400
Speaker 5: My Nigel was talking to the Weekend, you know, just

527
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,360
Speaker 5: on the street. I don't remember how it actually came

528
00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 5: to be. I think it was, Oh, I know what

529
00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:51,480
Speaker 5: it was. I was here, I was at the offices

530
00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:55,720
Speaker 5: and and you know it was I was pushing George

531
00:29:55,720 --> 00:30:00,320
Speaker 5: Moses Horton and he had said that Dave Grohl had

532
00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 5: called the office to have them do a documentary about

533
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:07,040
Speaker 5: the making of the Foo Fighters, and I chimed in

534
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:10,720
Speaker 5: and literally pushed my way into that project, quite literally,

535
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 5: and I felt that was that was definitely my my

536
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:18,400
Speaker 5: shove into the room, and I was brought in on

537
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:18,840
Speaker 5: that team.

538
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 1: Okay, approximately three decades ago. Bring us up to today.

539
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:29,840
Speaker 5: Let's see, after the Food Fighters we rolled into I

540
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:31,960
Speaker 5: had forgot. I did get a first look deal at

541
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 5: Exclusive Media. A lot of failed things and a lot

542
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 5: of great things we did. The Beg's had them mend

543
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 5: a broken heart. I'm trying to go in order here.

544
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 5: We did the Beatles eight days a week. I was

545
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:49,479
Speaker 5: part of that team Pavarotti with Ron Howard directly.

546
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:52,920
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, you do all those things. What's your special sauce,

547
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:56,040
Speaker 1: what do you bring to these projects?

548
00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:59,920
Speaker 5: I think I'm really good at team building at the

549
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:06,800
Speaker 5: great with client relations, developing trust, that is I think

550
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:10,600
Speaker 5: a key thing in this world and in this business.

551
00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:19,800
Speaker 5: I organize the the the basic research and and if

552
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:21,960
Speaker 5: you're able to go on a deep dive, I'm very

553
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:25,640
Speaker 5: because I'm dyslexic. I think I do these research documents

554
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:28,640
Speaker 5: that are very easy, easy to deep dive in it,

555
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:31,200
Speaker 5: you know, with lengths and things, so you can kind

556
00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:34,320
Speaker 5: of go in and out of this of somebody's life

557
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:38,480
Speaker 5: and not get bored. So I think that's my expertise.

558
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:41,360
Speaker 5: And of course because that helps engage director.

559
00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:45,440
Speaker 1: Okay, let's get back to the Billy Preston movie. Where

560
00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 1: does it start? Now? Everybody's involved, everybody get participate. Where

561
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:51,160
Speaker 1: does it start?

562
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 5: Starts with Jeanie. So yeah, it started the first time.

563
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:00,959
Speaker 5: I mean that I can't It started the first time

564
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:02,600
Speaker 5: sitting down in the living room when I was a

565
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:05,600
Speaker 5: young kid and listening to my parents' record collection and

566
00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:09,080
Speaker 5: my dad loved Sam Cook and anything Sam Cook loved

567
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:12,240
Speaker 5: my dad loved he had Billy Preston's sixteen year old soul.

568
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 1: And where I grew up in the East Coast, that

569
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 1: was meaningless on the East Coast. Your father was a

570
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:23,120
Speaker 1: white guy in Pacific Palisades. How does he even know

571
00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:24,280
Speaker 1: about that record?

572
00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 5: Well, he was a he loved Heartlem and he loved

573
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 5: you know. When I lost my dad when I was

574
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:36,440
Speaker 5: like twenty six years old. He was a massive influence

575
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:38,280
Speaker 5: on my life. And he used to recall me was

576
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:41,920
Speaker 5: regale us. It was very legendary with stories about him

577
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,880
Speaker 5: taking his saxophone and waiting for musicians to come out

578
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:49,600
Speaker 5: of the Apollo Theater so he could play with anyone,

579
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:55,280
Speaker 5: and sometimes he would and sometimes he couldn't. But he

580
00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:58,800
Speaker 5: ended up going to pu Dietary School and doing his

581
00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:03,440
Speaker 5: residency in Heartlem and absolutely loved Harlem. They fell into

582
00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:07,720
Speaker 5: Pacific Palisades. You know, that is a murky story, what

583
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:12,240
Speaker 5: Pacific Palisades. They were also, you know, very involved in

584
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:15,800
Speaker 5: theater in their own in their own Jewish group. So

585
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:20,320
Speaker 5: one of their friends was Virginia Munchin, who was an

586
00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:23,920
Speaker 5: actress and her father, her parents. I'm named after her,

587
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 5: So that's why I know her name. Her father was

588
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 5: Royce of Royce Hall. That is my real mental name,

589
00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:33,480
Speaker 5: Geene Royce. She had found this little town called Pacific Palsades,

590
00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:36,400
Speaker 5: rented a tiny apartment for them. They left the same

591
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:40,920
Speaker 5: year that the Brooklyn Dodgers left four Pacific Palisades. But

592
00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:45,280
Speaker 5: that's how you know fifty I think it was earlier

593
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:45,960
Speaker 5: than fifty eight.

594
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:52,200
Speaker 7: Continue whatever, But anyway, anyway, and and you know, then sadly,

595
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:54,400
Speaker 7: my dad was in the City of Hope because he

596
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 7: had he had he came down with tuberculosis, so what we.

597
00:33:57,840 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 5: Didn't know whether or I was going to live or die.

598
00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:03,000
Speaker 5: But his love for music was incredibly deep. And my

599
00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:11,239
Speaker 5: parents were very, very liberal, very well. Ready you didn't

600
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:14,480
Speaker 5: know they came from Brooklyn. They really took that accent out.

601
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:18,359
Speaker 5: They sounded like they were from the Upper West Side.

602
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:23,080
Speaker 5: They just were you know, my mom looked like June Cleaver,

603
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:28,600
Speaker 5: but her her politics were incredibly left, very very good.

604
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,480
Speaker 1: Just for one stay second. Do you have any siblings?

605
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:32,919
Speaker 5: I do?

606
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:33,399
Speaker 1: How many?

607
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:35,200
Speaker 5: I have an older sister and older brother. I'm the

608
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:35,839
Speaker 5: youngest of them.

609
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:37,520
Speaker 1: You're the youngest, So what are they up to?

610
00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:43,120
Speaker 5: My brother and sister went to Ucla, my sisters in marketing,

611
00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:44,200
Speaker 5: and my brother's a lawyer.

612
00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:47,719
Speaker 1: Okay, so you grew up with all this music in

613
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:51,120
Speaker 1: the background. How does that bring us to wanting to

614
00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:53,000
Speaker 1: make a movie about Billie Preston.

615
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:58,400
Speaker 5: Well, I always loved music, and I've always loved storytelling,

616
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:02,759
Speaker 5: and I've always loved the movies. And uh, when you know,

617
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:07,360
Speaker 5: you know, you could ask my business partner here, Nigel Sinclair.

618
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:12,200
Speaker 5: I loved Billy. I love Billy Preston. His story is

619
00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:16,320
Speaker 5: sad and sweet. And he was an LA native or

620
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:18,960
Speaker 5: not from when I before I did all the research,

621
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:21,480
Speaker 5: I thought he was born and born in in in

622
00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:24,600
Speaker 5: LA but he was actually born in Texas. But his

623
00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:28,279
Speaker 5: formative years were here in Los Angeles. So we knew

624
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:30,680
Speaker 5: about the good stuff and we knew about the not

625
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:35,359
Speaker 5: so good stuff, the complexities of his life. We uh,

626
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:37,879
Speaker 5: this was he was always on this list that I've

627
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:40,080
Speaker 5: got in my head of the artists that I've always

628
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:44,920
Speaker 5: wanted to tell their story because it's a because it's heartbreaking,

629
00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:48,399
Speaker 5: but it's also beautiful because he did he touched upon

630
00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:50,320
Speaker 5: so many genres in music.

631
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:53,880
Speaker 1: Is this your job such a that you're always looking

632
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:57,600
Speaker 1: for material or did you have a special identification with

633
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:00,880
Speaker 1: Billy Preston from his heyday in the seventies.

634
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:07,919
Speaker 5: I had a special connection to him because I heard him,

635
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:13,120
Speaker 5: because it was because of his seeing him on that

636
00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:16,880
Speaker 5: I remember. I remember sitting on the floor watching that

637
00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:20,120
Speaker 5: first SNL and I remember my dad humming nothing from

638
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:23,400
Speaker 5: nothing means nothing. I just it was ingrained in me

639
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:24,319
Speaker 5: in a beautiful way.

640
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:30,480
Speaker 1: Okay, this movie actually got made. The nature of the movie.

641
00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:36,360
Speaker 1: Business people are juggling projects. So what was the next step?

642
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:38,279
Speaker 1: You had this idea, it was on your list. How'd

643
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:39,080
Speaker 1: you gain traction?

644
00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:42,919
Speaker 5: Here's what happened. I'm driving home after a really long

645
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:45,640
Speaker 5: day and I get a phone call from my partner

646
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:51,520
Speaker 5: coming back from the mclark tunner going through pch And

647
00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:55,120
Speaker 5: and he said, I you won't believe. I just got

648
00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:57,120
Speaker 5: off the phone with our friend Gilly, who got off

649
00:36:57,120 --> 00:36:59,640
Speaker 5: the phone with his friend Daniel Shaw, who wrote this

650
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:03,400
Speaker 5: book Proposal about Billy Preston. And he reads me the

651
00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:06,239
Speaker 5: first page, which is amazing first page, and I wish

652
00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:07,600
Speaker 5: ahead in front of me, I would have read it

653
00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:11,200
Speaker 5: to you. But it reads like, uh, you know, like

654
00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:14,680
Speaker 5: a Zelig type of character who has been in a

655
00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:18,200
Speaker 5: weaven woven inside all of these woven through all of

656
00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:21,760
Speaker 5: these incredible people, and and uh and I said, okay, great,

657
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:24,440
Speaker 5: so it's a great book proposal, but I don't have it.

658
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:26,440
Speaker 5: How are we going to get to the powers that

659
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:28,719
Speaker 5: be who are running his you know, who are in

660
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:32,960
Speaker 5: charge of his leg you know his the share that

661
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,759
Speaker 5: people were running his life right And we knew he

662
00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:38,400
Speaker 5: had passed away already. So I didn't know his manager,

663
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:42,160
Speaker 5: but Daniel did. Daniel wrote this, which I did not

664
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:44,759
Speaker 5: listen because it takes me three times to hear hear

665
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 5: something before I, you know, comprehend it. I did not

666
00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:52,520
Speaker 5: hear that Daniel Shaw and Joyce Moore, who is his

667
00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:57,320
Speaker 5: Billy's manager, had written this, this, this book proposal together.

668
00:37:57,520 --> 00:37:59,520
Speaker 1: Just to be clear for those weapons in the movie.

669
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 1: He is the wife of Sam Moore, of Sam and Day.

670
00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:03,400
Speaker 5: Correct.

671
00:38:03,680 --> 00:38:07,480
Speaker 1: Okay, so now you know there's the manager. What happens then?

672
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:14,080
Speaker 5: So I we I mean literally the next day we

673
00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:17,000
Speaker 5: spoke to Daniels, We had a phone call with Joyce

674
00:38:17,239 --> 00:38:20,920
Speaker 5: Brett per cursed cursory phone call with Joyce, and then

675
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:23,480
Speaker 5: I want to build my team. All I'm thinking was

676
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:27,840
Speaker 5: there's a person that I no shit, this isn't dribble.

677
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:30,439
Speaker 5: There's a person that I always wanted to work with,

678
00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:33,840
Speaker 5: and when you're building a team, you want to build.

679
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:37,200
Speaker 5: I just thought this person would be an amazing person.

680
00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:41,600
Speaker 5: And her name was Stephanie Elaine. And we cold called

681
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:45,960
Speaker 5: Stephanie Elaine with this idea to see what she thought

682
00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:50,640
Speaker 5: of it, and then the connection was just amazing.

683
00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:53,479
Speaker 1: Okay, it's twenty twenty six.

684
00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:58,719
Speaker 5: When was that conversation twenty end of twenty twenty.

685
00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:03,239
Speaker 1: Relatively recently under the circumstances. So you call Stephanie and

686
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:04,880
Speaker 1: how does a conversation go?

687
00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 5: It went amazing? It was like it was, it was great.

688
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:13,040
Speaker 5: I mean, Steph, do you I mean, I just remember

689
00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 5: feeling the first time I spoke to you, feeling like

690
00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:20,920
Speaker 5: you hear me. It was almost like what I can

691
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:25,360
Speaker 5: get emotional. It was almost like the way Olivia said,

692
00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:28,200
Speaker 5: I'm gonna cry. I never thought of it. That's a

693
00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:30,960
Speaker 5: good question. It was almost the way Olivia said that

694
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:38,200
Speaker 5: George said of George and Billy, Yeah you saw me,

695
00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:54,040
Speaker 5: Stephanie saw me, and yeah.

696
00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:51,840
Speaker 1: Okay, Stephanie, we'd established you don't have much of a

697
00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:56,040
Speaker 1: resume and no one calls you, so you know, people

698
00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:59,959
Speaker 1: are working for you morning the night. What about this problem?

699
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:03,360
Speaker 1: Jack said that you wanted to give it your attention.

700
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,120
Speaker 4: That's really funny. Nobody calls me. Is this is the

701
00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:10,560
Speaker 4: life I live. Nobody calls me, And the.

702
00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:13,600
Speaker 1: Wait, is it because they email you or they don't

703
00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:14,680
Speaker 1: contact you.

704
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:17,320
Speaker 4: No, it's because I generate a lot of my own stuff,

705
00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:19,840
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. It's and also, like you

706
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:24,440
Speaker 4: were asking Paris, do you experience you know, racism and

707
00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:29,840
Speaker 4: you said homophobia. Well, sexism is very real in Hollywood, okay,

708
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:34,680
Speaker 4: And so as a black woman, I am pretty much

709
00:40:34,719 --> 00:40:38,160
Speaker 4: on my own, to be honest. And so I got

710
00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:40,560
Speaker 4: this call from Jeanie and I had met with them before,

711
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:42,839
Speaker 4: maybe a year before that, because they were trying to

712
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:46,239
Speaker 4: do something with Billy Holliday, who's also like my all

713
00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:49,200
Speaker 4: time favorite. So when she called me about Billy, first

714
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:51,680
Speaker 4: of all, I knew their reputation. I knew that White

715
00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:55,719
Speaker 4: Horse was the shous nizzle when it comes to music docs, right,

716
00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:58,520
Speaker 4: And I had never made a doc. I didn't know

717
00:40:58,560 --> 00:41:02,200
Speaker 4: anything about making documentaries. And then you know, Jeanie and

718
00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:05,239
Speaker 4: I have girl crush, so we we just we just

719
00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:07,759
Speaker 4: hit it off. And I was like, and also I

720
00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:10,279
Speaker 4: grew up the same I'm saying Age's Paris. You know,

721
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:14,000
Speaker 4: I grew up in la in the seventies, dancing in

722
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:18,239
Speaker 4: the Baldwin Hills basements to his music, right and so,

723
00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:20,720
Speaker 4: but I didn't know his story.

724
00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:21,960
Speaker 5: I don't even think I knew he.

725
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:25,880
Speaker 4: Was the fifth Beatle until I read Daniel's proposal and

726
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:30,759
Speaker 4: I saw, wow, there's a lot here, and so you know,

727
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:33,080
Speaker 4: I said, okay, I'm in. What's the first thing we need?

728
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:35,640
Speaker 4: And Nije and Jeanie said a director.

729
00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:39,600
Speaker 3: So I was like, okay, wait when he isn't the

730
00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:40,160
Speaker 3: first thing?

731
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:41,240
Speaker 1: You need money?

732
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:44,880
Speaker 4: Actually, no, you need the director and the concept to

733
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:49,440
Speaker 4: go get the money. So we needed a director to sery.

734
00:41:49,239 --> 00:41:51,319
Speaker 1: Okay before we tut time out, before we get to

735
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:56,560
Speaker 1: the director. Genie, when you contacted Stephanie, what were you

736
00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:58,040
Speaker 1: exactly looking for?

737
00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:01,280
Speaker 5: What was your team mate? Team leader?

738
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:02,320
Speaker 1: Really? A goal?

739
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:05,960
Speaker 5: My goal is I everyone you know we've got We did.

740
00:42:06,040 --> 00:42:08,399
Speaker 5: I can't believe I forgot to mention the Apollo Theater.

741
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:09,279
Speaker 1: We did.

742
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:14,200
Speaker 5: My partner and I, Cassidy Hartman. We here at white Horse.

743
00:42:14,239 --> 00:42:17,160
Speaker 5: We shepherd this project about the Apollo Theater. The most

744
00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:21,719
Speaker 5: important thing about a subject especially documentaries. Is you need

745
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:25,839
Speaker 5: to have the right storytellers for the right subject. So

746
00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:29,080
Speaker 5: you can't have bluntly two white girls telling the story

747
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:32,680
Speaker 5: about the Apollo Theater in Harlem and and and be

748
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:37,319
Speaker 5: and have it be authentic. You could try it, but

749
00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:39,600
Speaker 5: it's not gonna it's not going to go over well.

750
00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:41,960
Speaker 5: And and I just was a.

751
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:45,640
Speaker 3: Diversity for sure. Yeah, I know.

752
00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:51,439
Speaker 5: But it's a matter of it's a matter of of

753
00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:55,320
Speaker 5: not it's it's a matter of building the right team.

754
00:42:56,080 --> 00:43:01,319
Speaker 5: And there's no question that you are a team leader, Stephanie.

755
00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:03,880
Speaker 5: You're a team leader. You look at things in they

756
00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:08,000
Speaker 5: in they, You're always looking at positives before anything, and

757
00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:10,759
Speaker 5: you're always pushing people out. You're making your other team

758
00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:13,960
Speaker 5: members better than they than they think they are. And

759
00:43:14,239 --> 00:43:17,920
Speaker 5: that's a unique gift that you have. That's a unique gift.

760
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:22,239
Speaker 1: Okay, that's why you contact Stephanie. Stephanie established. The next

761
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:26,560
Speaker 1: step is a director. So, ay, how fast does this

762
00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:29,320
Speaker 1: project moving be? How do you get a director?

763
00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:34,359
Speaker 4: So typically make a list, right, make a list of directors.

764
00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:38,400
Speaker 4: To be honest, Paris was at the top of that list.

765
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:41,359
Speaker 1: And how wait, wait wait, talking about how did you

766
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:42,320
Speaker 1: know of Paris?

767
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:45,760
Speaker 4: I knew Paris because obviously everybody in Hollywood knows Paris.

768
00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:48,280
Speaker 4: He was the you know, he's the most celebrated TV

769
00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:52,000
Speaker 4: director ever. He was the head of the DGA, you know,

770
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:54,320
Speaker 4: as the head of a guild. You know, you respect.

771
00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:56,879
Speaker 4: That's a big job, you get. You know what that

772
00:43:56,920 --> 00:44:00,399
Speaker 4: means that person is at attention that big job. Yeah,

773
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:02,960
Speaker 4: it's a big job. And it's and you do it

774
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:07,000
Speaker 4: for free, by the way, so you know, it speaks

775
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:12,799
Speaker 4: to integrity, It speaks to commitment to the whole, you know,

776
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:15,560
Speaker 4: and in his case, the whole of directors, in my case,

777
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:18,319
Speaker 4: the whole producers. But and also he'd been hanging out

778
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:21,239
Speaker 4: with Steven because they were talking about doing some kind

779
00:44:21,239 --> 00:44:24,040
Speaker 4: of Studio fifty four musical at one point, and he

780
00:44:24,120 --> 00:44:29,640
Speaker 4: was already in the studio. I was like, yeah, And

781
00:44:29,680 --> 00:44:32,040
Speaker 4: I knew that he knew music, and I knew that

782
00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:34,080
Speaker 4: he was gay, and I knew that he was smart.

783
00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:37,480
Speaker 4: And so I was like, what about Paris? Since they

784
00:44:37,480 --> 00:44:39,560
Speaker 4: said can you get him? Can you get to him?

785
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:44,440
Speaker 4: I was like, yeah, I think so. So I cold

786
00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:48,040
Speaker 4: called Paris, and you know, typically what happens is you

787
00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:49,960
Speaker 4: meet I said, would you like to meet? He said yes,

788
00:44:50,040 --> 00:44:52,399
Speaker 4: So we sent him some material and then we've set

789
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:57,799
Speaker 4: this meeting. And typically when you're meeting, you're interviewing, right,

790
00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 4: you're interviewing somebody. And and so we get on the

791
00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:05,080
Speaker 4: phone on the zoom with Paris because now it is

792
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:08,920
Speaker 4: COVID and we're on the zoom, and he just starts

793
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:13,239
Speaker 4: talking to us about all the parallels and his connection

794
00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:17,440
Speaker 4: and emotional connection and pretty we're like on the verge

795
00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:19,600
Speaker 4: of tears. And then at the end he goes, Okay,

796
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:22,880
Speaker 4: I'm in and we're like, what wait, what happened just now?

797
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:24,800
Speaker 5: Did we just get a director?

798
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:28,879
Speaker 4: Because typically you well like that was great, we'll get

799
00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:31,960
Speaker 4: back to you whatever whatever, But it was so much exactly.

800
00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:35,720
Speaker 4: But it was that kind of meeting that just felt kiss.

801
00:45:35,880 --> 00:45:38,640
Speaker 4: It just felt right, you know. And so we hung

802
00:45:38,719 --> 00:45:40,440
Speaker 4: up and we're like, I think we have a director.

803
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:44,160
Speaker 4: And that proved to be really auspicious because when we

804
00:45:44,239 --> 00:45:47,360
Speaker 4: then put our package together to go out to raise

805
00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:50,320
Speaker 4: the money, Paris is who they want to hear from.

806
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:54,560
Speaker 4: And so Paris literally had investors in Tears.

807
00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:57,120
Speaker 5: Oh don't forget chance.

808
00:45:57,320 --> 00:45:58,000
Speaker 3: Oh and Chao.

809
00:45:58,080 --> 00:46:00,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, we brought chaaw in who had also worked with

810
00:46:01,040 --> 00:46:03,640
Speaker 4: but it was really Paris who sold this thing.

811
00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:03,920
Speaker 1: You know.

812
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:07,279
Speaker 4: He he was so honest and so connected to the

813
00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:11,600
Speaker 4: material that literally on the phone, investors were like, I'm in.

814
00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:14,000
Speaker 4: You know what I mean, like you Typically they'll say, yeah,

815
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:15,719
Speaker 4: we'll think about it, we'll talk to our people, but

816
00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:17,360
Speaker 4: we had to say I'm in.

817
00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:20,040
Speaker 1: Okay, how much money were you looking for?

818
00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:23,880
Speaker 4: I think it's typically like a couple of million dollars,

819
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:26,960
Speaker 4: you know, that's like, yeah, the which are like, okay, a.

820
00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:31,640
Speaker 1: Couple million dollars. Where did you find your list of investors?

821
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:34,759
Speaker 1: How many were there? How many said yes? Or how

822
00:46:34,760 --> 00:46:35,520
Speaker 1: many said why?

823
00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:35,960
Speaker 5: I love this?

824
00:46:36,120 --> 00:46:40,680
Speaker 4: Because white Horse Pictures knows everybody. So basically like white

825
00:46:40,719 --> 00:46:43,160
Speaker 4: Horse has a list of people that have invested and

826
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:46,759
Speaker 4: been paid back, you know, like what a notion. So

827
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:50,960
Speaker 4: they trust white Horse as the as the purveyors of

828
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:55,680
Speaker 4: excellence in documentaries, especially in music docs, and so we

829
00:46:55,840 --> 00:46:56,880
Speaker 4: just went to their list.

830
00:46:57,160 --> 00:46:59,160
Speaker 5: And by the end of going to the list, we

831
00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:00,000
Speaker 5: had the money.

832
00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:01,400
Speaker 2: And we have it.

833
00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:04,040
Speaker 5: We have usual film funds that we funders that we've

834
00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:06,480
Speaker 5: gone to in the past, and the film funds so

835
00:47:06,600 --> 00:47:09,080
Speaker 5: be roade, and we've got these other film funders. Chicago

836
00:47:09,080 --> 00:47:15,839
Speaker 5: Media Group and uh, Jenny Raskin of don't tell everybody,

837
00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:16,800
Speaker 5: don't tell everybody.

838
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:17,440
Speaker 3: That's that's right.

839
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:20,880
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, so yeah, that's that's true. You're right, Eric.

840
00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:23,399
Speaker 1: How many of these were individuals and how many were

841
00:47:23,719 --> 00:47:25,000
Speaker 1: consortiums funds?

842
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:26,879
Speaker 3: It was a mix, right, it was a mix.

843
00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:30,000
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a mix. It's a mix, definitely mix, lovely mix,

844
00:47:30,120 --> 00:47:30,959
Speaker 5: really nice mix.

845
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:34,080
Speaker 1: How much did you get from each since this is

846
00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:36,720
Speaker 1: in the past, Well, like your biggest.

847
00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:40,200
Speaker 4: Adventurer, some people can put in we know a million

848
00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:41,840
Speaker 4: to fifty thousand.

849
00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:43,120
Speaker 5: That was a big mix.

850
00:47:43,560 --> 00:47:47,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, it is the film business, I know.

851
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:50,280
Speaker 5: But it's a documentary film business.

852
00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:54,320
Speaker 1: The right, the type of people who you know were sophisticated.

853
00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:57,360
Speaker 1: No that it's not easy to get your money back.

854
00:47:58,360 --> 00:47:58,759
Speaker 5: It's not.

855
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:02,319
Speaker 4: This is what it's so crazy, which is and I

856
00:48:02,440 --> 00:48:05,279
Speaker 4: asked Genie this when we're on our stump and you know,

857
00:48:05,400 --> 00:48:08,040
Speaker 4: doing our panels like Bill, why did we think we

858
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:09,839
Speaker 4: could get the money for Billy when if you say

859
00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:12,319
Speaker 4: Billy Preston, only people of a certain age really know

860
00:48:12,360 --> 00:48:14,880
Speaker 4: who he is. Oh, you know, nobody's like, oh Billy

861
00:48:14,880 --> 00:48:17,239
Speaker 4: presdent eleve him. You've heard Billy Preston so many times

862
00:48:17,280 --> 00:48:19,279
Speaker 4: you don't even know it because you don't know what

863
00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:22,640
Speaker 4: his contribution is. And so we thought we were selling

864
00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:26,920
Speaker 4: it as like the Zeleig of the seventies music scene

865
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:30,799
Speaker 4: across all genres, you know what I mean, or or

866
00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:35,280
Speaker 4: you know and and that, And it was hard because

867
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:37,120
Speaker 4: people don't know who he is.

868
00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:38,640
Speaker 3: But it's by association.

869
00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:41,480
Speaker 4: It's almost like Billy's life, you know, it's by association

870
00:48:41,719 --> 00:48:47,840
Speaker 4: that we I think we're able to persevere, you know,

871
00:48:48,800 --> 00:48:50,200
Speaker 4: m Yeah, and.

872
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:52,640
Speaker 5: You know, of course we got you know this before

873
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:54,640
Speaker 5: you even do well, before I even would have called

874
00:48:54,640 --> 00:48:58,360
Speaker 5: Stephan your called parasift to make sure that there's enough archive,

875
00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:03,120
Speaker 5: that there's enough tools to tell the story. So you know,

876
00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:07,480
Speaker 5: that is it. That's a that's a you know, discovery.

877
00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:12,080
Speaker 1: Okay, since you've made a number of films, what percentage

878
00:49:12,719 --> 00:49:14,400
Speaker 1: do the people get their money back?

879
00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:18,440
Speaker 5: We are people get their money back in all of

880
00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:19,359
Speaker 5: our films?

881
00:49:19,840 --> 00:49:24,520
Speaker 1: Wow for us? Wow was right? So the money participation,

882
00:49:25,080 --> 00:49:28,120
Speaker 1: what percent of the one hundred percent does the money.

883
00:49:27,880 --> 00:49:32,719
Speaker 5: Get I really don't I don't know. I don't know

884
00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:35,520
Speaker 5: that answer, but they they every what's the percentage of

885
00:49:35,560 --> 00:49:37,640
Speaker 5: the people who get say, that asked me the question

886
00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:38,120
Speaker 5: one we're taking.

887
00:49:38,160 --> 00:49:41,600
Speaker 1: Okay, let's say the film cost a million dollars. Let's

888
00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:45,120
Speaker 1: say it made the money back. There are other profit

889
00:49:45,280 --> 00:49:52,280
Speaker 1: participants besides the money. Okay, well what you recoup? How's

890
00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:53,200
Speaker 1: the money split?

891
00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:59,319
Speaker 5: Water It's very trans Yeah, it's a waterfall. It's very transparent.

892
00:49:59,400 --> 00:50:01,520
Speaker 5: It's like a you know, it goes into an ascraal account.

893
00:50:01,560 --> 00:50:05,120
Speaker 5: Everybody sees everything. It's very you know, camera. So it's

894
00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:06,680
Speaker 5: very very transparent.

895
00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:08,920
Speaker 1: Let me put it this way. I put five dollars

896
00:50:08,960 --> 00:50:12,360
Speaker 1: into your movie. The movie is recouped. I got my

897
00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:18,680
Speaker 1: five dollars back, okay, and I'm looking for profit participation. Well,

898
00:50:18,719 --> 00:50:22,000
Speaker 1: there's a director, there's this that the other they're all

899
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:23,080
Speaker 1: gett ignored slice.

900
00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:27,480
Speaker 4: Typically investors own fifty percent and filmmaker's own fifty percent.

901
00:50:27,680 --> 00:50:31,480
Speaker 1: Okay, that goes there. Okay, so now you got your money.

902
00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:32,560
Speaker 1: What's the next step.

903
00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:33,759
Speaker 5: We got to make our list?

904
00:50:33,840 --> 00:50:35,000
Speaker 1: Well, we got to make the movie.

905
00:50:35,560 --> 00:50:39,440
Speaker 4: Yes, we got to make out this between research and

906
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:42,480
Speaker 4: actually making that list of people that we feel will

907
00:50:42,520 --> 00:50:46,080
Speaker 4: deliver the story, we'll tell the story. And what's crazy

908
00:50:46,120 --> 00:50:48,320
Speaker 4: is you don't even know what the story is until

909
00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:50,680
Speaker 4: you start doing the research and talking to people, and.

910
00:50:50,800 --> 00:50:53,279
Speaker 1: Okay, there was a lot revealed in the movie that

911
00:50:53,400 --> 00:50:55,680
Speaker 1: I didn't know all They had lines if you live

912
00:50:55,719 --> 00:50:59,040
Speaker 1: through that in your fan your no, Yeah, when you

913
00:50:59,239 --> 00:51:03,120
Speaker 1: started the movie with this Daniel shaw a book, what

914
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:05,880
Speaker 1: percentage of the information was in that book?

915
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:11,200
Speaker 2: Honestly, I went back to the original sort of treatment

916
00:51:11,239 --> 00:51:13,000
Speaker 2: we did really just based in the book, and I'd

917
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:16,880
Speaker 2: say seventy five percent of the story was there. Would't

918
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:19,360
Speaker 2: you guys agree about seventy five percent? But it's the

919
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:22,600
Speaker 2: twenty five percent that came out of the interviews that

920
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:26,239
Speaker 2: surprised us. That David Flesh and the bones that made

921
00:51:26,280 --> 00:51:26,719
Speaker 2: it real.

922
00:51:27,680 --> 00:51:30,040
Speaker 4: We thought, or I thought, at one point we were

923
00:51:30,080 --> 00:51:32,680
Speaker 4: telling the story of a closeted gay man who when

924
00:51:32,719 --> 00:51:36,000
Speaker 4: he got to be a certain age, came into his

925
00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:39,680
Speaker 4: identity and authenticity. But then we went back and everybody's like,

926
00:51:39,719 --> 00:51:42,640
Speaker 4: oh no, he was gay, like everybody knew it. So

927
00:51:42,719 --> 00:51:47,560
Speaker 4: he wasn't really closeted in his personal life. He was

928
00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:50,600
Speaker 4: more closeted in his professional life. And that was that

929
00:51:50,719 --> 00:51:53,960
Speaker 4: was very interesting that there were so many people that

930
00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:57,120
Speaker 4: loved him, knew him, knew he was gay, and didn't

931
00:51:57,120 --> 00:52:01,000
Speaker 4: have like Olivia says, wasn't a big nobody.

932
00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:04,799
Speaker 6: Nobody thought about it, Okay, but the film says that

933
00:52:04,880 --> 00:52:06,120
Speaker 6: he was tortured about it.

934
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:09,839
Speaker 1: But before we go that far, you have seventy five

935
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:14,040
Speaker 1: percent of the information you have the money. Tell me

936
00:52:14,080 --> 00:52:17,480
Speaker 1: about the process of gaining the additional information and how

937
00:52:17,480 --> 00:52:22,640
Speaker 1: you're going to tell the story. Well, first we oh, sorry.

938
00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:26,359
Speaker 5: The first first thing that we do so so that

939
00:52:26,680 --> 00:52:30,040
Speaker 5: our directors prepared and our writers prepared, is we do

940
00:52:30,760 --> 00:52:34,160
Speaker 5: a little interviews on a zoom and we just talked

941
00:52:34,200 --> 00:52:37,799
Speaker 5: to people and just just say. It's almost like it

942
00:52:37,960 --> 00:52:41,040
Speaker 5: puts a pre interview before we put them on camera.

943
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:43,440
Speaker 5: And you interview a lot more people than you end

944
00:52:43,520 --> 00:52:47,200
Speaker 5: up using in your in your movie. I mean, Pavaratti,

945
00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:50,280
Speaker 5: it was like, you know, sixty five people we interviewed,

946
00:52:50,320 --> 00:52:53,560
Speaker 5: we had twenty if we had fifteen maybe, And with

947
00:52:53,760 --> 00:52:56,960
Speaker 5: same with Billy Preston, you know we had we interviewed

948
00:52:56,960 --> 00:52:58,760
Speaker 5: fifty some odd people and we had.

949
00:53:00,080 --> 00:53:03,160
Speaker 1: Okay, where did the list of fifty people come from?

950
00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:04,319
Speaker 1: We made it up?

951
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:07,440
Speaker 5: Yeah, I know the research.

952
00:53:08,280 --> 00:53:12,120
Speaker 1: Okay, Billying Preston's been gone for twenty odd years, but

953
00:53:12,360 --> 00:53:16,000
Speaker 1: everybody involved is not young. How hard was it to

954
00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:20,000
Speaker 1: track these people down and were they reluctant or not

955
00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:23,040
Speaker 1: to go on camera and tell their story.

956
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:26,960
Speaker 2: Most everybody was not reluctant. Most everybody wanted to do

957
00:53:27,040 --> 00:53:30,319
Speaker 2: it because there's just so much luck. So it's not

958
00:53:30,360 --> 00:53:32,640
Speaker 2: a struggle to get Soundra Crouch to talk about Billy

959
00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:35,200
Speaker 2: Preston and she becomes a key witness in the whole thing.

960
00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:38,120
Speaker 2: You know, Bobby Watson and Manny Kellogg that he played

961
00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:41,200
Speaker 2: with back in the day, they're there. It was a

962
00:53:41,239 --> 00:53:43,160
Speaker 2: lot of work to get Eric Clapton, and we were

963
00:53:43,239 --> 00:53:46,239
Speaker 2: lucky that it because Eric doesn't give a ton of interviews.

964
00:53:46,239 --> 00:53:46,400
Speaker 1: You know.

965
00:53:46,640 --> 00:53:48,520
Speaker 2: I basically had to beg him with the letter, and

966
00:53:48,560 --> 00:53:51,320
Speaker 2: then Jonathan Clyde, our producer in the head of Apple,

967
00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:53,640
Speaker 2: got to interview him. And they knew each other for

968
00:53:53,680 --> 00:53:56,080
Speaker 2: a long time, and so that interview was done by

969
00:53:56,120 --> 00:54:00,160
Speaker 2: Jonathan Clyde beautifully and becomes a pivotal, you know, a

970
00:54:00,200 --> 00:54:01,440
Speaker 2: pivotal interview.

971
00:54:01,040 --> 00:54:01,840
Speaker 1: In the whole movie.

972
00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:04,719
Speaker 2: So you just you work it and you work it

973
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:10,040
Speaker 2: like you know, a drag queen on the runway until

974
00:54:10,080 --> 00:54:11,360
Speaker 2: all your sequence fall up.

975
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:14,759
Speaker 1: Okay, so you got these fifty people, you get the

976
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:20,239
Speaker 1: interviews as Stephanie said, you know, you think you have

977
00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:22,759
Speaker 1: one thing, but as you get deeper into the information,

978
00:54:22,880 --> 00:54:27,640
Speaker 1: you finally have something else. So just just to reestablish,

979
00:54:28,239 --> 00:54:36,080
Speaker 1: from the time that Genee contacts Stephanie, how long until

980
00:54:36,280 --> 00:54:37,520
Speaker 1: the money is locked up?

981
00:54:38,560 --> 00:54:39,280
Speaker 4: A few months?

982
00:54:39,360 --> 00:54:43,719
Speaker 1: I think very quickly. Yeah, okay, well.

983
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:46,359
Speaker 5: To quickly doesn't always happen.

984
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:50,040
Speaker 1: When you have the money. Do you have a target

985
00:54:50,280 --> 00:54:53,640
Speaker 1: date to start? Yeah?

986
00:54:53,719 --> 00:54:57,000
Speaker 4: I mean, as I remember, once we got the money,

987
00:54:57,120 --> 00:54:59,080
Speaker 4: then you can actually make the plan. Then you can

988
00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:02,000
Speaker 4: build the team out. Then you can hire your cinematographer.

989
00:55:02,080 --> 00:55:04,400
Speaker 4: Then you can decide which cities you're going to shoot in,

990
00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:06,400
Speaker 4: what how much money do you have, Where are your

991
00:55:06,680 --> 00:55:11,440
Speaker 4: key witnesses going to be? You know, so it becomes

992
00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:15,520
Speaker 4: like a beautiful The first is like a detective work

993
00:55:15,600 --> 00:55:17,719
Speaker 4: to figure out who to talk to and how to

994
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:19,680
Speaker 4: find them, you know, which.

995
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:22,640
Speaker 3: Is super fun, you know. And then it's like then.

996
00:55:22,520 --> 00:55:24,080
Speaker 4: We talk to them and go, okay, they're going to

997
00:55:24,120 --> 00:55:26,520
Speaker 4: be a good witness, and so you you know, you

998
00:55:26,640 --> 00:55:29,719
Speaker 4: try to guide those questions back to the park that

999
00:55:29,800 --> 00:55:32,839
Speaker 4: you liked that they said before, you know what I mean.

1000
00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:36,200
Speaker 4: And it was just it's such a different way of

1001
00:55:36,280 --> 00:55:39,640
Speaker 4: working from having a script and just trying to realize

1002
00:55:39,719 --> 00:55:42,759
Speaker 4: that script on the screen. You know, because it's very amorphous,

1003
00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:46,840
Speaker 4: you're just pulling things together, and also because our team

1004
00:55:47,040 --> 00:55:52,840
Speaker 4: is experiencing all of this information together but also separately,

1005
00:55:52,920 --> 00:55:54,560
Speaker 4: you know, so we all have to get on the

1006
00:55:54,600 --> 00:55:57,319
Speaker 4: same page. It's a lot.

1007
00:55:58,040 --> 00:56:01,160
Speaker 5: It's like Jess, you know, you got we're playing off

1008
00:56:01,160 --> 00:56:03,840
Speaker 5: of each other, and you know that is It's a

1009
00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:04,919
Speaker 5: lot like a jazz song.

1010
00:56:05,920 --> 00:56:11,560
Speaker 1: So ultimately, is this in segments? Is it compartmentalize or

1011
00:56:11,760 --> 00:56:14,680
Speaker 1: are you still researching when you're assembling the movie.

1012
00:56:15,360 --> 00:56:18,000
Speaker 2: We're still researching. I mean we're still finding out more

1013
00:56:18,080 --> 00:56:20,879
Speaker 2: people are leading us to other people that we want

1014
00:56:20,920 --> 00:56:25,040
Speaker 2: to talk to. You know, it just continues to expand

1015
00:56:25,239 --> 00:56:28,439
Speaker 2: and rarely contracts. And then when we end up ready

1016
00:56:28,480 --> 00:56:30,359
Speaker 2: to go in the editing room, we just have too much,

1017
00:56:30,960 --> 00:56:33,520
Speaker 2: which is a blessing. I mean, you really do want

1018
00:56:33,560 --> 00:56:36,520
Speaker 2: to have too much. And then we just started trimming

1019
00:56:36,560 --> 00:56:38,920
Speaker 2: it down. We just started saying what can we do without?

1020
00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:41,400
Speaker 2: Who can tell the story better? And you know, it

1021
00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:43,759
Speaker 2: all starts to sort of go through the sieve that

1022
00:56:43,920 --> 00:56:45,200
Speaker 2: is the editorial process.

1023
00:56:46,000 --> 00:56:49,640
Speaker 4: And as you're thinking and as you're hearing certain witnesses

1024
00:56:49,840 --> 00:56:56,120
Speaker 4: testify you're also thinking about well, I was thinking about

1025
00:56:56,440 --> 00:56:58,640
Speaker 4: a three act structure like you have in a regular

1026
00:56:58,719 --> 00:57:02,160
Speaker 4: narrative movie, like how how do you how do you

1027
00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:05,080
Speaker 4: lay this out so it has the same effect that

1028
00:57:05,200 --> 00:57:09,640
Speaker 4: watching you know, a narrative does, which is an emotional

1029
00:57:10,400 --> 00:57:14,480
Speaker 4: heart string tale that has, you know, a beginning, a

1030
00:57:14,520 --> 00:57:17,800
Speaker 4: big middle, and a and a and a in an

1031
00:57:18,040 --> 00:57:21,000
Speaker 4: ending of the second act that feels very dark, and

1032
00:57:21,040 --> 00:57:23,880
Speaker 4: then a redemption. And thinking of it in that way

1033
00:57:24,040 --> 00:57:27,680
Speaker 4: was very helpful to me because it it just reminded

1034
00:57:27,720 --> 00:57:30,320
Speaker 4: me that we're still watching a too, you know, one

1035
00:57:30,360 --> 00:57:32,960
Speaker 4: and a half to two hour movie, and and these

1036
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:33,720
Speaker 4: things apply.

1037
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:35,040
Speaker 3: They have always applied.

1038
00:57:35,080 --> 00:57:39,439
Speaker 4: I used to teach Cassidy at USC and I talked

1039
00:57:39,440 --> 00:57:42,360
Speaker 4: about Aristotle, I talked about Poetics, which is the very

1040
00:57:42,480 --> 00:57:46,360
Speaker 4: first compilation of what does a two hour entertainment look like,

1041
00:57:46,480 --> 00:57:48,880
Speaker 4: feel like? And what does it need to be successful?

1042
00:57:49,480 --> 00:57:51,080
Speaker 4: And those things have never changed.

1043
00:57:51,920 --> 00:57:54,440
Speaker 5: Yeah, I remember saying it has to we have to

1044
00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:56,640
Speaker 5: have a MacGuffin at the end of that second mid

1045
00:57:56,880 --> 00:57:59,640
Speaker 5: second act because and there always is in our in

1046
00:57:59,720 --> 00:58:02,360
Speaker 5: one life, you know, there is something and Billie's was

1047
00:58:02,440 --> 00:58:05,320
Speaker 5: they you know, the rests and what was going to happen.

1048
00:58:06,080 --> 00:58:10,880
Speaker 1: Okay, Parish, you're the director, Ultimately you're in control. How

1049
00:58:10,920 --> 00:58:15,919
Speaker 1: did your vision of what you wanted it to be evolve? Well,

1050
00:58:16,000 --> 00:58:16,320
Speaker 1: it was.

1051
00:58:16,440 --> 00:58:19,400
Speaker 2: It was helped because each of my partners here brings

1052
00:58:19,440 --> 00:58:21,600
Speaker 2: a different point of view and a different skill set

1053
00:58:21,640 --> 00:58:23,640
Speaker 2: to it, which adds to the whole thing, which is

1054
00:58:23,640 --> 00:58:25,640
Speaker 2: why I was so glad I worked in advertising, because

1055
00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:29,920
Speaker 2: advertising was very much about building the collaboration and getting

1056
00:58:29,920 --> 00:58:33,919
Speaker 2: the best from everyone. So Jeanie's there, and she's she's

1057
00:58:34,000 --> 00:58:36,240
Speaker 2: a lot. She's great with the details and everything else,

1058
00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:39,160
Speaker 2: but she's also all hard and she's also a lot

1059
00:58:39,200 --> 00:58:42,120
Speaker 2: of emotion, as you've seen in this interview, and that's

1060
00:58:42,120 --> 00:58:45,280
Speaker 2: a wonderful thing. She's a great test of material and

1061
00:58:45,360 --> 00:58:48,080
Speaker 2: what really moves her we know. And Stephanie's got that

1062
00:58:48,200 --> 00:58:51,080
Speaker 2: story background that she just talked about, which is not

1063
00:58:51,480 --> 00:58:53,360
Speaker 2: necessarily the way I look at it because I've never

1064
00:58:53,400 --> 00:58:56,040
Speaker 2: been a story reader. I'm more into the ride and

1065
00:58:56,080 --> 00:58:58,880
Speaker 2: what's the ride like? But then that helps you shape

1066
00:58:58,920 --> 00:59:01,600
Speaker 2: the project. And my point of view is basically what

1067
00:59:01,720 --> 00:59:05,640
Speaker 2: I learned back in college from my playwriting and screenwriting teacher,

1068
00:59:05,680 --> 00:59:08,920
Speaker 2: William Alfred, who said I think. On the very first day, said,

1069
00:59:08,960 --> 00:59:10,640
Speaker 2: if you're going to ask for two hours out of

1070
00:59:10,680 --> 00:59:12,880
Speaker 2: someone's life, you have to think about what you're going

1071
00:59:12,960 --> 00:59:16,680
Speaker 2: to give. What is the gift of the project you're making.

1072
00:59:16,720 --> 00:59:18,840
Speaker 2: It can't just take away time for their family or

1073
00:59:18,880 --> 00:59:21,120
Speaker 2: their kids or things they want to do. It's two

1074
00:59:21,160 --> 00:59:25,120
Speaker 2: hours of their life, So what is the gift? And

1075
00:59:25,200 --> 00:59:27,680
Speaker 2: I've always been driven by that. I don't want to

1076
00:59:27,720 --> 00:59:30,400
Speaker 2: waste people's time. I want to make sure that there's

1077
00:59:30,440 --> 00:59:33,160
Speaker 2: something that they can take away from this that is valuable.

1078
00:59:33,560 --> 00:59:36,400
Speaker 2: And with Billy Preston's story and with the witnesses, we

1079
00:59:36,520 --> 00:59:40,840
Speaker 2: found that. With the witnesses testimony, we found a gift

1080
00:59:40,840 --> 00:59:42,920
Speaker 2: to the audience, a gift that sort of points them

1081
00:59:42,920 --> 00:59:45,520
Speaker 2: in a new direction, which I think is really wonderful.

1082
00:59:45,560 --> 00:59:48,320
Speaker 2: That's what makes it all worthwhile to me. And that's

1083
00:59:48,320 --> 00:59:50,800
Speaker 2: what I didn't really quite expect. I didn't know what

1084
00:59:50,840 --> 00:59:53,440
Speaker 2: the gift would be. I didn't know what would be

1085
00:59:53,520 --> 00:59:55,600
Speaker 2: in the end of this movie. The feeling that made

1086
00:59:55,680 --> 00:59:58,560
Speaker 2: people a little bit different from when the story began.

1087
01:00:06,360 --> 01:00:09,400
Speaker 1: Okay, if you're a fan of music from that era,

1088
01:00:09,560 --> 01:00:13,320
Speaker 1: you know Billy Preston's story, you may not remember that

1089
01:00:13,400 --> 01:00:15,960
Speaker 1: he was a band leader on a TV show for

1090
01:00:16,040 --> 01:00:20,400
Speaker 1: a while, but you know that. Yeah, he played on

1091
01:00:20,480 --> 01:00:23,840
Speaker 1: Abbey Road and he worked with the Beatles and then

1092
01:00:23,840 --> 01:00:26,320
Speaker 1: he was a concert for Bangladesh and he you know,

1093
01:00:26,360 --> 01:00:30,760
Speaker 1: he had hit records in the seventies. But the Genesis

1094
01:00:31,280 --> 01:00:33,480
Speaker 1: you didn't know that. You didn't know that he went

1095
01:00:33,520 --> 01:00:37,120
Speaker 1: on the road as a teenager. Where did you find

1096
01:00:37,480 --> 01:00:40,560
Speaker 1: all about footage? And how did you get that information?

1097
01:00:41,160 --> 01:00:43,920
Speaker 1: It was shocking because you know, I think people sent

1098
01:00:44,000 --> 01:00:46,640
Speaker 1: me these documentaries all the time, and a lot of

1099
01:00:46,640 --> 01:00:49,760
Speaker 1: these people, you know, I don't want to diss some documentaries,

1100
01:00:49,760 --> 01:00:52,400
Speaker 1: but like in the Nicky Hopkins, they don't have any footage,

1101
01:00:53,000 --> 01:00:54,520
Speaker 1: and in this movie there's so much.

1102
01:00:54,560 --> 01:00:56,920
Speaker 2: But in his mind blow you should speak to that

1103
01:00:57,040 --> 01:01:00,520
Speaker 2: because you've got the research department of the Angel there.

1104
01:01:00,720 --> 01:01:03,880
Speaker 5: So yeah, we do we have. I mean, Patrick Ryan

1105
01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:07,640
Speaker 5: is our archival producer and he is he is a gift.

1106
01:01:07,760 --> 01:01:12,240
Speaker 5: He is a gift and he is incredibly uh you know,

1107
01:01:12,320 --> 01:01:15,600
Speaker 5: he just knows where where everything is. I don't know

1108
01:01:15,640 --> 01:01:18,720
Speaker 5: how he does it. You know, we work with Global

1109
01:01:18,760 --> 01:01:24,280
Speaker 5: Images g I W. Chris Robertson, Jessica Berman, Bogden. Uh,

1110
01:01:24,320 --> 01:01:26,840
Speaker 5: you know that team out of New York. We work

1111
01:01:26,880 --> 01:01:30,800
Speaker 5: with a team called Archival Ninja. We work with that.

1112
01:01:31,040 --> 01:01:34,960
Speaker 5: Our long standing relationship is with Reeland in the Years,

1113
01:01:35,520 --> 01:01:38,280
Speaker 5: David Pax Reelan in the years. He's a co producer

1114
01:01:38,280 --> 01:01:44,040
Speaker 5: of this film. He is archival Library is absolutely uncanny,

1115
01:01:44,080 --> 01:01:48,560
Speaker 5: and he's like a He's like an oracle. I always

1116
01:01:48,560 --> 01:01:51,000
Speaker 5: called I was whenever I'm thinking about doing a doc

1117
01:01:51,040 --> 01:01:53,080
Speaker 5: and we usually call him up obi Wan. I ask

1118
01:01:53,200 --> 01:01:55,560
Speaker 5: him for like what he have? What what we have?

1119
01:01:55,680 --> 01:01:59,400
Speaker 5: Enough archive? So there's certain tests and litmus tests that

1120
01:01:59,440 --> 01:02:03,919
Speaker 5: you go through before you before you then go dip

1121
01:02:03,960 --> 01:02:08,520
Speaker 5: into your your very loyal you know, investors. So you

1122
01:02:08,640 --> 01:02:11,240
Speaker 5: have to have the tools and the colors on the

1123
01:02:11,280 --> 01:02:12,840
Speaker 5: palette of which to paint with.

1124
01:02:13,680 --> 01:02:18,400
Speaker 4: And we also had Olivia Harrison. Oh yeah, Olivia Harrison

1125
01:02:18,960 --> 01:02:25,560
Speaker 4: was a fountain of information, photographs of.

1126
01:02:24,800 --> 01:02:27,720
Speaker 3: Music that he had boarded. Yeah, it was.

1127
01:02:27,760 --> 01:02:28,040
Speaker 1: It was.

1128
01:02:28,520 --> 01:02:31,560
Speaker 2: She helped us get to Peter Jackson and helped us,

1129
01:02:31,600 --> 01:02:34,760
Speaker 2: you know, basically get footage, not just the footage that

1130
01:02:34,880 --> 01:02:37,600
Speaker 2: was in Get Back, but some outtakes and Peter Jackson

1131
01:02:37,720 --> 01:02:40,360
Speaker 2: was generous enough to share those with us, which allowed

1132
01:02:40,440 --> 01:02:43,560
Speaker 2: us to tell that story from Billy's perspective which people

1133
01:02:43,640 --> 01:02:46,120
Speaker 2: have seen get back really kind of enjoy that because

1134
01:02:46,360 --> 01:02:49,160
Speaker 2: it's buried in the eight hours and it's only fragmentary.

1135
01:02:49,200 --> 01:02:52,240
Speaker 2: But when we just put it together in front of them,

1136
01:02:52,240 --> 01:02:55,720
Speaker 2: focused on Billy, it's very very effective for our purposes.

1137
01:02:56,000 --> 01:02:58,040
Speaker 2: So we couldn't have done that without Peter Jackson and

1138
01:02:58,080 --> 01:03:00,040
Speaker 2: Apple Ringo.

1139
01:03:00,040 --> 01:03:02,960
Speaker 4: Who I got to interview because Paris and Jail were

1140
01:03:02,960 --> 01:03:05,520
Speaker 4: gone that day we were shooting.

1141
01:03:05,720 --> 01:03:11,720
Speaker 1: I have a busy career. Yeah, Okay, is this anomaloust

1142
01:03:11,840 --> 01:03:15,960
Speaker 1: that there's so much footage about Billy or if you

1143
01:03:16,160 --> 01:03:19,320
Speaker 1: have the means in the connections, does there tend to

1144
01:03:19,360 --> 01:03:21,640
Speaker 1: be all this footage of people from that era.

1145
01:03:22,760 --> 01:03:25,320
Speaker 2: I think it's different with Billy. I think Billy was

1146
01:03:25,360 --> 01:03:28,840
Speaker 2: so all over. I mean, Billy is on Shindig. You know,

1147
01:03:28,880 --> 01:03:31,040
Speaker 2: Billy is in a movie when he's you know, ten

1148
01:03:31,120 --> 01:03:34,000
Speaker 2: years old. You know that not every artist is on

1149
01:03:34,080 --> 01:03:36,400
Speaker 2: the Netkin Cole ship the.

1150
01:03:36,280 --> 01:03:39,680
Speaker 4: Zones are recording their concerts.

1151
01:03:39,720 --> 01:03:42,200
Speaker 3: He is the Zelig like where we you Go?

1152
01:03:42,320 --> 01:03:45,160
Speaker 2: So I think he's somewhat unusual. I don't think if

1153
01:03:45,160 --> 01:03:47,240
Speaker 2: you picked anyone out of the hat, you know that

1154
01:03:47,320 --> 01:03:49,560
Speaker 2: you could find this kind of material because he had

1155
01:03:49,640 --> 01:03:53,120
Speaker 2: so much hair, so many different hairs processed, afro your

1156
01:03:53,240 --> 01:03:55,800
Speaker 2: short and they are all these different time periods, and

1157
01:03:55,840 --> 01:03:58,800
Speaker 2: we had footage, but there are limitations to that. For instance,

1158
01:03:58,800 --> 01:04:01,800
Speaker 2: we wanted to say more about Waretha Franklin. There's Harry's

1159
01:04:01,800 --> 01:04:04,960
Speaker 2: little footage of Billy with Franklin and that's a thirty

1160
01:04:05,040 --> 01:04:07,680
Speaker 2: year relationship that some people noted that it is not

1161
01:04:08,280 --> 01:04:10,400
Speaker 2: paid a great attention to in the film. But because

1162
01:04:10,440 --> 01:04:12,800
Speaker 2: we didn't have the movie, we didn't have anything to

1163
01:04:12,840 --> 01:04:14,840
Speaker 2: show you. We could only play the music and maybe

1164
01:04:14,840 --> 01:04:17,200
Speaker 2: show some stills of Beretha Franklin. That wasn't how we

1165
01:04:17,200 --> 01:04:20,160
Speaker 2: were crumpeted, you know, that wasn't how this thing was gone.

1166
01:04:21,080 --> 01:04:24,000
Speaker 1: So it's unfortunate there were some holes there.

1167
01:04:23,760 --> 01:04:25,760
Speaker 2: In Billy's life that we couldn't get to just because

1168
01:04:25,760 --> 01:04:27,800
Speaker 2: we didn't have the stuff to show you.

1169
01:04:28,480 --> 01:04:30,240
Speaker 5: Very true and we have those, you know, we did

1170
01:04:30,240 --> 01:04:34,400
Speaker 5: have his his actual you know, book of memories. He

1171
01:04:34,480 --> 01:04:37,120
Speaker 5: had his whole, that whole and we.

1172
01:04:37,040 --> 01:04:40,560
Speaker 2: Start with Billy's actual scrap book. Billy in his scrap

1173
01:04:40,560 --> 01:04:45,240
Speaker 2: book even kept articles about his assault, his in his

1174
01:04:45,280 --> 01:04:47,280
Speaker 2: scrap books. So when you're seeing those in the movie,

1175
01:04:47,280 --> 01:04:49,920
Speaker 2: those are coming out of Billy's scrap book, which I

1176
01:04:49,920 --> 01:04:51,720
Speaker 2: thought was fascint.

1177
01:04:52,160 --> 01:04:56,080
Speaker 5: You know, you're we're lucky when you find things like that.

1178
01:04:56,280 --> 01:05:00,560
Speaker 5: Part of my part of that's, you know, when when

1179
01:05:00,680 --> 01:05:03,040
Speaker 5: when we were when I was doing research for Lucy

1180
01:05:03,120 --> 01:05:06,360
Speaker 5: and DESI and I went to Luciernez's house for example.

1181
01:05:07,120 --> 01:05:10,480
Speaker 5: You know, people can say, oh, I put everything here,

1182
01:05:10,640 --> 01:05:12,640
Speaker 5: this is where I put everything in these two rooms

1183
01:05:12,720 --> 01:05:16,400
Speaker 5: or something, and you're you and this happened at Lucy

1184
01:05:16,480 --> 01:05:19,360
Speaker 5: Ernez's home. I literally was stretching my back and I

1185
01:05:19,400 --> 01:05:22,120
Speaker 5: looked up. I was literally bending my back like that,

1186
01:05:22,200 --> 01:05:24,440
Speaker 5: and I said, Hey, there's a something that looks like

1187
01:05:24,480 --> 01:05:26,919
Speaker 5: a lock box that's up on this top shelf. Does

1188
01:05:26,960 --> 01:05:28,840
Speaker 5: you think that's anything? And she said, oh my god,

1189
01:05:29,240 --> 01:05:31,400
Speaker 5: I think you're going to really love this. I forgot

1190
01:05:31,440 --> 01:05:33,439
Speaker 5: I put that up there, and we pulled it down

1191
01:05:33,480 --> 01:05:35,120
Speaker 5: and this is the lock box at the very very

1192
01:05:35,160 --> 01:05:38,680
Speaker 5: beginning of the movie that has recordings that no one

1193
01:05:38,680 --> 01:05:42,720
Speaker 5: has ever heard. You know, it's so these are it

1194
01:05:42,760 --> 01:05:45,120
Speaker 5: was it was a gift, like all these recordings that

1195
01:05:45,400 --> 01:05:47,200
Speaker 5: and what was so great and what we could what

1196
01:05:47,240 --> 01:05:49,080
Speaker 5: we do for a lot of what we've did, we

1197
01:05:49,360 --> 01:05:53,160
Speaker 5: helped Olivia organize, help her organize her, you know, with

1198
01:05:53,160 --> 01:05:56,240
Speaker 5: with with that George Harrison Mature World, and and you

1199
01:05:56,600 --> 01:05:59,960
Speaker 5: could help people wantit. What you don't use in your film,

1200
01:06:00,080 --> 01:06:04,040
Speaker 5: you can monetize for them later, you know. So Lucy Arnez,

1201
01:06:04,080 --> 01:06:07,000
Speaker 5: for example, came out with this book about the love

1202
01:06:07,120 --> 01:06:11,560
Speaker 5: letters because she took out this giant I couldn't believe

1203
01:06:11,600 --> 01:06:14,480
Speaker 5: it and started opening up these love letters from Desi Arnez.

1204
01:06:14,480 --> 01:06:16,040
Speaker 5: And she was like, don't you want to open them up?

1205
01:06:16,080 --> 01:06:17,320
Speaker 5: And I said, I do, but I don't want to

1206
01:06:17,320 --> 01:06:19,760
Speaker 5: touch them. I don't want to break them. So let's

1207
01:06:19,840 --> 01:06:23,040
Speaker 5: go to a professional and have somebody, you know, photograph

1208
01:06:23,120 --> 01:06:26,760
Speaker 5: these properly, which she did, and that movie could have

1209
01:06:26,760 --> 01:06:28,480
Speaker 5: been like, you know, two parts as well, Les, this

1210
01:06:28,560 --> 01:06:33,000
Speaker 5: could have so, yeah, those are the yummy and delicious

1211
01:06:33,000 --> 01:06:35,520
Speaker 5: things you find when you're going through an archive.

1212
01:06:36,280 --> 01:06:40,440
Speaker 1: Okay, Billy goes on the road to England at a

1213
01:06:40,480 --> 01:06:44,720
Speaker 1: young age. To what degree do you think that change

1214
01:06:45,480 --> 01:06:50,080
Speaker 1: his identity personality as opposed to someone who had just

1215
01:06:50,520 --> 01:06:53,080
Speaker 1: been living in their neighborhood going to high school.

1216
01:06:55,480 --> 01:06:59,160
Speaker 2: Well, he was fifteen when he originally started traveling with

1217
01:06:59,240 --> 01:07:02,320
Speaker 2: Little Richard and as Tony Jones says in the movie,

1218
01:07:02,360 --> 01:07:04,919
Speaker 2: there's a lot of things going on there that maybe

1219
01:07:04,920 --> 01:07:07,600
Speaker 2: a fifteen year old isn't ready to see. And even

1220
01:07:07,640 --> 01:07:09,720
Speaker 2: though he's with the band, he's with the band that's

1221
01:07:09,800 --> 01:07:12,960
Speaker 2: you know, guys a bit older and they're quite probably active.

1222
01:07:13,400 --> 01:07:16,240
Speaker 2: And so if Billy Preshm were my son at the time,

1223
01:07:16,320 --> 01:07:18,840
Speaker 2: you know, I would probably say no. But his mother

1224
01:07:18,920 --> 01:07:21,720
Speaker 2: said yes. It was a great opportunity for him, and

1225
01:07:21,920 --> 01:07:24,120
Speaker 2: sure enough it opened his horizons. And he says the

1226
01:07:24,160 --> 01:07:27,080
Speaker 2: first time he played rock and roll, but also probably

1227
01:07:27,280 --> 01:07:29,760
Speaker 2: it was a lot more than a young person should

1228
01:07:29,800 --> 01:07:31,760
Speaker 2: have to handle at that point. And I think that

1229
01:07:31,920 --> 01:07:33,440
Speaker 2: is certainly somebody that affected.

1230
01:07:34,240 --> 01:07:36,000
Speaker 4: And I also think any you know, I remember the

1231
01:07:36,040 --> 01:07:38,560
Speaker 4: first time I went to Europe. I was nineteen or something.

1232
01:07:38,680 --> 01:07:40,640
Speaker 4: It's it's mind opening.

1233
01:07:40,320 --> 01:07:40,560
Speaker 1: You know.

1234
01:07:40,800 --> 01:07:46,320
Speaker 4: I think that beyond whatever was happening or whatever, you're

1235
01:07:46,320 --> 01:07:49,640
Speaker 4: in a different country, you're out of your neighborhood, you're

1236
01:07:49,760 --> 01:07:51,240
Speaker 4: in a different world.

1237
01:07:51,440 --> 01:07:53,560
Speaker 3: It's got to affect you, you know.

1238
01:07:53,600 --> 01:07:58,720
Speaker 1: Okay, being on the road and rock and roll. It

1239
01:07:58,880 --> 01:08:02,280
Speaker 1: is sex drug in rock and roll. Yes, in the

1240
01:08:02,320 --> 01:08:05,960
Speaker 1: era of that really applies if you're a gay guy.

1241
01:08:06,120 --> 01:08:08,560
Speaker 1: I mean, we're doing that in some in sports. Another

1242
01:08:08,680 --> 01:08:11,800
Speaker 1: occasional sports guy comes out and says, yes, I'm gay.

1243
01:08:11,840 --> 01:08:15,280
Speaker 1: Most of them retired, but when we go back to

1244
01:08:15,320 --> 01:08:19,559
Speaker 1: this era, no one's going to come out. It must

1245
01:08:19,640 --> 01:08:21,479
Speaker 1: have been really hard for Billy.

1246
01:08:22,400 --> 01:08:24,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just not possible. And you know, as we've

1247
01:08:25,000 --> 01:08:27,000
Speaker 2: talked about it, because we love Billy Press so much,

1248
01:08:27,040 --> 01:08:29,960
Speaker 2: we understand, you know, I get it. I get that

1249
01:08:30,000 --> 01:08:32,040
Speaker 2: he wasn't able to do what I was able to do.

1250
01:08:32,120 --> 01:08:35,320
Speaker 2: It is I mean, you know, pretty much out in

1251
01:08:35,360 --> 01:08:37,800
Speaker 2: my adult life and certainly out in the industry at

1252
01:08:37,800 --> 01:08:40,479
Speaker 2: a very early age, you couldn't do that. Then, I mean,

1253
01:08:40,560 --> 01:08:44,080
Speaker 2: it's it's not he wanted to have a career. You know, Yes,

1254
01:08:44,120 --> 01:08:47,240
Speaker 2: the Beatles probably, you know, we certainly knew that he

1255
01:08:47,360 --> 01:08:50,040
Speaker 2: was gay, but they didn't have to make it an issue.

1256
01:08:50,080 --> 01:08:52,200
Speaker 2: But not every band is going to be there, and

1257
01:08:52,240 --> 01:08:54,160
Speaker 2: not every musician is going to want to play with you,

1258
01:08:54,439 --> 01:08:56,240
Speaker 2: and not every record company is going to want to

1259
01:08:56,280 --> 01:08:59,400
Speaker 2: have you on their lad And so it's sadly the

1260
01:08:59,439 --> 01:09:02,599
Speaker 2: shrewdest thing that Billy Preston could have done is by

1261
01:09:02,640 --> 01:09:05,400
Speaker 2: just staying in the closet. But there's a cost, you know,

1262
01:09:05,479 --> 01:09:07,519
Speaker 2: the closet has a cost, and you can be open

1263
01:09:07,520 --> 01:09:10,240
Speaker 2: with your friends, but when you're not authentic and it's

1264
01:09:10,280 --> 01:09:13,280
Speaker 2: all hidden in your songs, like he writes songs about

1265
01:09:13,360 --> 01:09:15,640
Speaker 2: keep it to yourself and don't let anybody get on

1266
01:09:15,680 --> 01:09:18,559
Speaker 2: the inside story of your love affair. But he doesn't

1267
01:09:18,680 --> 01:09:21,519
Speaker 2: actually be able. He isn't able to be his authentic self.

1268
01:09:21,880 --> 01:09:24,519
Speaker 2: There is a price, and that's a price that I

1269
01:09:24,560 --> 01:09:26,519
Speaker 2: think at the end was, you know, part of his

1270
01:09:26,640 --> 01:09:28,719
Speaker 2: unduel the mother.

1271
01:09:30,240 --> 01:09:32,880
Speaker 1: It's established and it's well known there might not have

1272
01:09:32,960 --> 01:09:37,960
Speaker 1: been many opportunities for black people in those circumstances. But

1273
01:09:38,479 --> 01:09:41,680
Speaker 1: do you think the mother acted appropriately or.

1274
01:09:41,720 --> 01:09:46,599
Speaker 2: She was out of touch? Ladies, what do you think?

1275
01:09:46,800 --> 01:09:49,760
Speaker 2: That's a tough question. I think she was taking that

1276
01:09:49,960 --> 01:09:53,080
Speaker 2: Billy was a star. She knew Billy was a star.

1277
01:09:53,200 --> 01:09:55,599
Speaker 2: He was on TV when he was five or six

1278
01:09:55,720 --> 01:09:59,680
Speaker 2: conducting the choir. You know, he had so many opportunities.

1279
01:10:00,520 --> 01:10:02,920
Speaker 2: She thought, this is what's best for Billy. You know,

1280
01:10:03,040 --> 01:10:05,920
Speaker 2: let's let this star blossom and grow. And you know,

1281
01:10:06,000 --> 01:10:08,280
Speaker 2: as one of the coaches, I forget who says, we

1282
01:10:08,280 --> 01:10:10,599
Speaker 2: were so proud to see that Billy came out first,

1283
01:10:10,600 --> 01:10:14,720
Speaker 2: that Billy was the ship before any of us. And

1284
01:10:14,800 --> 01:10:17,240
Speaker 2: so there was a certain. I think for her, from

1285
01:10:17,240 --> 01:10:20,240
Speaker 2: her perspective, she was just helping her son. She was

1286
01:10:20,400 --> 01:10:22,400
Speaker 2: helping her son get to where he dreamed.

1287
01:10:22,080 --> 01:10:23,599
Speaker 1: He could be. Yeah.

1288
01:10:23,720 --> 01:10:26,040
Speaker 5: I mean you look at Judy Garland, you know, and

1289
01:10:26,080 --> 01:10:28,040
Speaker 5: you could look at any and you know what I'm saying.

1290
01:10:28,040 --> 01:10:30,679
Speaker 5: You could look at any child star and their parents

1291
01:10:30,800 --> 01:10:33,320
Speaker 5: did something where you're like, you know, why would you

1292
01:10:33,320 --> 01:10:35,920
Speaker 5: give them? You know speed? You know, you know what

1293
01:10:35,920 --> 01:10:37,800
Speaker 5: I'm saying. So why you know what I mean? So

1294
01:10:37,880 --> 01:10:41,000
Speaker 5: why it didn't and you know, you had this tragic

1295
01:10:41,120 --> 01:10:43,720
Speaker 5: ending of Judy Garland. I mean so, and you know

1296
01:10:44,080 --> 01:10:47,240
Speaker 5: with with Billy, he's you know you.

1297
01:10:49,000 --> 01:10:49,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do.

1298
01:10:49,960 --> 01:10:56,080
Speaker 5: I it's it's disappointing that his mom wasn't you know,

1299
01:10:56,280 --> 01:11:00,840
Speaker 5: but you know, weird, we weren't there. We weren't there.

1300
01:11:00,920 --> 01:11:03,799
Speaker 5: You can't if you're not there present at every moment

1301
01:11:03,880 --> 01:11:07,400
Speaker 5: you don't know, we weren't there. I can't judge anybody

1302
01:11:07,520 --> 01:11:08,519
Speaker 5: because they just don't know.

1303
01:11:09,439 --> 01:11:13,120
Speaker 1: Okay, you talk about his relationship connection with the Wreath

1304
01:11:13,160 --> 01:11:16,040
Speaker 1: of Franklin. You know, people who were not in this

1305
01:11:16,200 --> 01:11:23,040
Speaker 1: world think that everybody knows everybody, which is untrue. Okay, Now,

1306
01:11:23,200 --> 01:11:27,200
Speaker 1: one thing that is well established in the movie because

1307
01:11:27,720 --> 01:11:32,400
Speaker 1: if you lived through Let It Be and Abbey Road

1308
01:11:32,439 --> 01:11:35,920
Speaker 1: and all that in nineteen seventy, he looked like an opportunist.

1309
01:11:36,880 --> 01:11:40,519
Speaker 1: But it's well established in the movie. They knew him

1310
01:11:40,520 --> 01:11:45,360
Speaker 1: from Hamburg whatever. He was just dropping by the studio. Okay,

1311
01:11:46,040 --> 01:11:49,840
Speaker 1: So but you talk about all these other people, were

1312
01:11:49,880 --> 01:11:54,439
Speaker 1: they tracking him down or because generally speaking, and I

1313
01:11:54,479 --> 01:11:57,240
Speaker 1: know a lot of them, the people behind the scenes,

1314
01:11:57,280 --> 01:12:00,960
Speaker 1: studio musicians, they're the best networker the ball talk because

1315
01:12:00,960 --> 01:12:04,760
Speaker 1: they got to work well. I think it was just

1316
01:12:04,840 --> 01:12:06,040
Speaker 1: juggling opportunities.

1317
01:12:06,080 --> 01:12:08,320
Speaker 2: I think they were coming at him, you know, it's

1318
01:12:08,400 --> 01:12:11,240
Speaker 2: it's just they were looking for that sound, as you know,

1319
01:12:11,320 --> 01:12:13,880
Speaker 2: as Eric Clapton says later, when you wanted someone to

1320
01:12:13,960 --> 01:12:16,800
Speaker 2: play the B three, you went to Billy Preston. And

1321
01:12:16,800 --> 01:12:19,240
Speaker 2: I think people just once they heard him and his

1322
01:12:19,400 --> 01:12:21,720
Speaker 2: distinctive sound is something that I think we break down

1323
01:12:21,760 --> 01:12:24,120
Speaker 2: pretty well in the film, and people now will hear

1324
01:12:24,200 --> 01:12:27,920
Speaker 2: records differently. I hope because of the film, you realize

1325
01:12:27,960 --> 01:12:30,880
Speaker 2: that's such a desirable commodity and not everyone has it.

1326
01:12:31,280 --> 01:12:33,360
Speaker 2: So they wanted that sauce, they wanted that funk ca

1327
01:12:33,479 --> 01:12:36,960
Speaker 2: dethic sound that Billy was providing, and they also knew man.

1328
01:12:37,240 --> 01:12:39,960
Speaker 2: He don't need no sheet music. He just shows up

1329
01:12:40,000 --> 01:12:43,599
Speaker 2: and kills you know, he does the rich Hot Chili Peppers.

1330
01:12:43,600 --> 01:12:45,400
Speaker 2: I think he was in Arizona them. They send him

1331
01:12:45,400 --> 01:12:47,280
Speaker 2: the tape and he plays over and he sends it back.

1332
01:12:47,720 --> 01:12:50,599
Speaker 2: You know, Billy is just that way. He was such

1333
01:12:50,600 --> 01:12:53,200
Speaker 2: a genius that I think when people said we could

1334
01:12:53,200 --> 01:12:55,600
Speaker 2: get Billy Preston, let's get Billy Preston. He played on

1335
01:12:55,640 --> 01:12:58,759
Speaker 2: the Monkeys first out. You know, everyone knows the Monkeys

1336
01:12:58,760 --> 01:13:01,160
Speaker 2: were studio musicians. Did it with Billy Preston.

1337
01:13:01,800 --> 01:13:06,479
Speaker 5: Yeah, back there, the early synthesizer stuff like you know what.

1338
01:13:06,800 --> 01:13:09,200
Speaker 5: You know what we talked about in the film. Billy

1339
01:13:09,320 --> 01:13:11,360
Speaker 5: was able to do that with his organ, playing with

1340
01:13:11,520 --> 01:13:14,479
Speaker 5: his the B three that before anyone else can do it.

1341
01:13:15,800 --> 01:13:19,880
Speaker 1: We talked about the sex. Let's talk sex drugs, rock

1342
01:13:19,920 --> 01:13:24,280
Speaker 1: and roll drugs. Time for the drugs. He gets heavily

1343
01:13:24,320 --> 01:13:29,759
Speaker 1: involved in substances. Now that is not uncommon in this world.

1344
01:13:30,000 --> 01:13:31,880
Speaker 1: A lot of it has to do with a lifestyle,

1345
01:13:32,000 --> 01:13:34,720
Speaker 1: especially if you go on the road. You played a

1346
01:13:34,840 --> 01:13:37,400
Speaker 1: ten thousand people, then you're with the same idiots you've

1347
01:13:37,439 --> 01:13:39,920
Speaker 1: known for twenty years, and you got to get up

1348
01:13:39,960 --> 01:13:42,720
Speaker 1: you don't get enough sleep, and that leads to drugs.

1349
01:13:43,479 --> 01:13:48,360
Speaker 1: Why it was Billy who was a church kid, Why

1350
01:13:48,400 --> 01:13:51,639
Speaker 1: did he end up falling off the edge with substances.

1351
01:13:51,920 --> 01:13:57,160
Speaker 2: Well, I'm the alcoholic expert here, so my theory is

1352
01:13:58,160 --> 01:14:01,000
Speaker 2: not everyone becomes an alcoholic or drug because they use

1353
01:14:01,040 --> 01:14:03,720
Speaker 2: alcohol and drugs, and not everyone who used it a

1354
01:14:03,760 --> 01:14:07,400
Speaker 2: lot necessarily becomes alcoholic or drug act. Billy was probably

1355
01:14:07,439 --> 01:14:10,240
Speaker 2: born an alcoholic. His father was an alcoholic. I think

1356
01:14:10,240 --> 01:14:13,360
Speaker 2: he had that alcoholic gene and I also have, which

1357
01:14:13,439 --> 01:14:15,720
Speaker 2: just excites you. When you get a drink, it does

1358
01:14:15,760 --> 01:14:18,519
Speaker 2: something different to your body, and that's part of the

1359
01:14:18,560 --> 01:14:20,760
Speaker 2: reason why you start to crave it. And when you

1360
01:14:20,800 --> 01:14:23,040
Speaker 2: start to crave it, and when it's then around you

1361
01:14:23,280 --> 01:14:25,920
Speaker 2: the way it is, then the addiction becomes a growth

1362
01:14:25,920 --> 01:14:28,400
Speaker 2: of that. It also didn't help that he had a

1363
01:14:28,439 --> 01:14:30,960
Speaker 2: lot of secrets and part of the reason why you know,

1364
01:14:30,960 --> 01:14:33,320
Speaker 2: they always thought about drowning your sorrows. But part of

1365
01:14:33,320 --> 01:14:35,920
Speaker 2: the reason why we love drugs and we love alcoholics.

1366
01:14:35,960 --> 01:14:39,240
Speaker 2: It lets you forget for that time being. It releases

1367
01:14:39,320 --> 01:14:42,639
Speaker 2: you from whatever agony is going on in your mind,

1368
01:14:43,080 --> 01:14:45,400
Speaker 2: and if you're not really dealing with that agony, like,

1369
01:14:45,439 --> 01:14:48,240
Speaker 2: Billy is not going to therapy, he's not really talking

1370
01:14:48,240 --> 01:14:50,559
Speaker 2: to anybody or sharing with his friends what he's going on.

1371
01:14:50,720 --> 01:14:53,599
Speaker 2: What he's doing is masking it, and then the masking

1372
01:14:53,760 --> 01:14:55,800
Speaker 2: on top of the addiction becomes something that gets out

1373
01:14:55,840 --> 01:14:58,559
Speaker 2: of control. Now, he did recognize it later in life,

1374
01:14:58,600 --> 01:15:00,439
Speaker 2: and you see in the movie he got over at

1375
01:15:00,520 --> 01:15:03,840
Speaker 2: different periods and try to pull himself together. He recognized

1376
01:15:03,840 --> 01:15:06,120
Speaker 2: that this was damaging to him, but he wasn't able

1377
01:15:06,160 --> 01:15:06,800
Speaker 2: to pull the deep.

1378
01:15:08,280 --> 01:15:11,320
Speaker 1: Okay, this is another thing you touched on just now,

1379
01:15:11,840 --> 01:15:17,200
Speaker 1: that no one really knew this guy. Okay, being gay

1380
01:15:17,320 --> 01:15:20,479
Speaker 1: is one thing, but there were and that's a lot

1381
01:15:20,520 --> 01:15:24,080
Speaker 1: of stuff, but this guy was not a lot coming. Okay,

1382
01:15:24,479 --> 01:15:27,040
Speaker 1: why do you think he was so internalized?

1383
01:15:31,080 --> 01:15:34,880
Speaker 2: Well, his friends really talk about Billy not wanting to

1384
01:15:34,920 --> 01:15:38,280
Speaker 2: go there, and Billy didn't want to go there, and

1385
01:15:38,439 --> 01:15:41,160
Speaker 2: he just in interviews, we went through all of his interviews,

1386
01:15:41,200 --> 01:15:45,080
Speaker 2: he rarely said anything of any personal nature at all,

1387
01:15:45,400 --> 01:15:47,200
Speaker 2: other than to say how much he loved his mother

1388
01:15:47,320 --> 01:15:49,599
Speaker 2: and how gratefully he was to God for his talent.

1389
01:15:50,200 --> 01:15:52,920
Speaker 2: And it seems like he's someone who's reticent to share that.

1390
01:15:52,960 --> 01:15:55,479
Speaker 2: And I think it's because he doesn't want to be vulnerable,

1391
01:15:55,479 --> 01:15:57,920
Speaker 2: and he doesn't want to be judged, you know, and

1392
01:15:58,000 --> 01:15:59,880
Speaker 2: therefore he is not going to put it out there.

1393
01:16:00,200 --> 01:16:03,719
Speaker 2: He didn't recognize that the releasing of it, by releasing

1394
01:16:03,760 --> 01:16:07,439
Speaker 2: the secret is empowered, and that message never got to him,

1395
01:16:07,479 --> 01:16:09,599
Speaker 2: and so the secrets were safer with him if they

1396
01:16:09,600 --> 01:16:12,040
Speaker 2: were hell. And I feel bad for him because I

1397
01:16:12,080 --> 01:16:15,120
Speaker 2: think that's something that you know, alcoholics can recover learn,

1398
01:16:15,600 --> 01:16:17,040
Speaker 2: you know, when we say you're only as sick as

1399
01:16:17,040 --> 01:16:20,240
Speaker 2: your secrets. Billy didn't get that message, and so he

1400
01:16:20,400 --> 01:16:24,240
Speaker 2: just kept going. And I think he's naturally reticent, and

1401
01:16:24,280 --> 01:16:27,080
Speaker 2: he's naturally but every once in a while he slips.

1402
01:16:27,680 --> 01:16:29,800
Speaker 2: Every once in a while, like in that Beatles film

1403
01:16:29,960 --> 01:16:32,400
Speaker 2: when in Justic's Hey, there's a piano over there, and

1404
01:16:32,439 --> 01:16:34,559
Speaker 2: if you want to sit in, there's one shot at

1405
01:16:34,560 --> 01:16:40,920
Speaker 2: billion he does this, guess this great lab of genuine excitement.

1406
01:16:40,960 --> 01:16:44,439
Speaker 2: The Beatles have just asked him to play on their album,

1407
01:16:44,520 --> 01:16:48,439
Speaker 2: The Biggest Band in the World, and his giggle is

1408
01:16:48,439 --> 01:16:50,760
Speaker 2: is as close as he gets to saying, this is

1409
01:16:50,800 --> 01:16:54,000
Speaker 2: the most joyful offer I've ever had in my life.

1410
01:16:54,560 --> 01:16:56,640
Speaker 2: And that does make him a difficult subject. But if

1411
01:16:56,680 --> 01:16:59,320
Speaker 2: you talk to enough people he's talked to, you can

1412
01:16:59,360 --> 01:17:01,000
Speaker 2: get a picture it, which is where I think we're

1413
01:17:01,000 --> 01:17:03,360
Speaker 2: able to accomplish. We unveiled a bit of the mystery,

1414
01:17:03,479 --> 01:17:05,639
Speaker 2: not the total man. We weren't inside of his head,

1415
01:17:05,840 --> 01:17:07,439
Speaker 2: but we got as close as we could get with

1416
01:17:08,240 --> 01:17:09,880
Speaker 2: the friends and the family that we talked to.

1417
01:17:10,960 --> 01:17:15,840
Speaker 1: Okay, the arc of his career once hems successful is

1418
01:17:15,920 --> 01:17:20,519
Speaker 1: not uncommon. It's very rare that someone has hits beyond

1419
01:17:20,600 --> 01:17:23,639
Speaker 1: their little period. So what makes you know he has

1420
01:17:23,720 --> 01:17:28,240
Speaker 1: these gigantic kits in the seventies and then they dry up?

1421
01:17:28,360 --> 01:17:33,080
Speaker 1: They try up for everybody? Okay, what makes the aftermath

1422
01:17:33,160 --> 01:17:38,960
Speaker 1: of his story different from everybody else's. That's interesting, I.

1423
01:17:38,920 --> 01:17:42,960
Speaker 4: Think because I think because and I credit Nigel with

1424
01:17:43,080 --> 01:17:49,840
Speaker 4: getting the judge to speak on Billy's behalf, because we're

1425
01:17:49,880 --> 01:17:50,639
Speaker 4: always you.

1426
01:17:50,520 --> 01:17:52,880
Speaker 3: Know, he he.

1427
01:17:52,880 --> 01:17:57,000
Speaker 4: Did something, some not great things, you know, and what

1428
01:17:57,479 --> 01:18:01,880
Speaker 4: And I think during the film we hear our director ask,

1429
01:18:02,000 --> 01:18:03,800
Speaker 4: how do you square it? You know? How do you

1430
01:18:03,840 --> 01:18:06,000
Speaker 4: square all the things that he's done with like how

1431
01:18:06,080 --> 01:18:10,280
Speaker 4: much people love him? And I think the ultimate love

1432
01:18:10,920 --> 01:18:14,360
Speaker 4: was the guy who sent him to the penitentiary even

1433
01:18:14,439 --> 01:18:18,960
Speaker 4: felt something for this man. It was part of the

1434
01:18:19,000 --> 01:18:21,400
Speaker 4: thing we heard over and over again from all these

1435
01:18:21,439 --> 01:18:27,400
Speaker 4: interviews that he brought joy, and he brought love into

1436
01:18:27,439 --> 01:18:33,240
Speaker 4: the room. His love for music was infectious. And I

1437
01:18:33,280 --> 01:18:35,799
Speaker 4: forgot the question, but well.

1438
01:18:35,880 --> 01:18:38,240
Speaker 1: I do remember. I think it's really interesting.

1439
01:18:38,240 --> 01:18:39,920
Speaker 2: You know a lot about the record business and the

1440
01:18:39,960 --> 01:18:41,479
Speaker 2: way that it does work is you do have that

1441
01:18:41,560 --> 01:18:45,240
Speaker 2: hot streak. You have those records that come out. They're

1442
01:18:45,320 --> 01:18:47,800
Speaker 2: co written with him, with Bruce Fisher, and that was

1443
01:18:47,840 --> 01:18:50,439
Speaker 2: a partnership that was working for a time. But then

1444
01:18:50,479 --> 01:18:52,800
Speaker 2: when he goes to A and M, he sure leaves

1445
01:18:52,840 --> 01:18:56,160
Speaker 2: Bruce behind and he's generating his own material, some of

1446
01:18:56,200 --> 01:18:59,240
Speaker 2: which is working and some which isn't, and then he's

1447
01:18:59,439 --> 01:19:02,639
Speaker 2: kind of dry. Then he's told the stories he could tell. Now,

1448
01:19:02,720 --> 01:19:07,040
Speaker 2: a modern recording artist gets new producers, they find different songwriters,

1449
01:19:07,160 --> 01:19:08,880
Speaker 2: and they say this is where I want to be,

1450
01:19:09,320 --> 01:19:11,679
Speaker 2: and suddenly they make a change and they can keep

1451
01:19:11,680 --> 01:19:14,679
Speaker 2: the same sound, but now they've got another contemporary groove

1452
01:19:14,760 --> 01:19:17,559
Speaker 2: going on. They stay fresh. That didn't happen with Billie,

1453
01:19:17,960 --> 01:19:21,559
Speaker 2: But they didn't find even at Motown. Well, the example

1454
01:19:21,600 --> 01:19:23,479
Speaker 2: is with you on Board again. That's not a song

1455
01:19:23,520 --> 01:19:25,719
Speaker 2: he wrote, you know, that's a song that was given

1456
01:19:25,760 --> 01:19:28,320
Speaker 2: to him. That was A and R to him by

1457
01:19:28,320 --> 01:19:31,639
Speaker 2: Suzanne de pass and it's a hit. He really needed

1458
01:19:31,680 --> 01:19:33,840
Speaker 2: at this point to have someone who is really doing

1459
01:19:33,880 --> 01:19:36,000
Speaker 2: the A and R work to get him the songs

1460
01:19:36,040 --> 01:19:38,760
Speaker 2: that he could kill with that, and then he would

1461
01:19:38,800 --> 01:19:40,799
Speaker 2: have extended his career. And he could have still continued

1462
01:19:40,840 --> 01:19:43,240
Speaker 2: to write stuff, but that would extended his career.

1463
01:19:43,600 --> 01:19:46,679
Speaker 4: I remember what I was going to say, I'll forget again.

1464
01:19:46,760 --> 01:19:51,920
Speaker 4: So which is he says, and this is his testimony

1465
01:19:52,200 --> 01:19:54,880
Speaker 4: that the best toy you ever had was with Eric

1466
01:19:54,920 --> 01:19:59,920
Speaker 4: Clapton after jail. And so the story's different, our stories

1467
01:20:00,080 --> 01:20:05,200
Speaker 4: different because he did spiral down, but he came back

1468
01:20:05,320 --> 01:20:08,240
Speaker 4: and I think that does not happen that often. And

1469
01:20:08,760 --> 01:20:14,439
Speaker 4: from talking with Joyce at length and Sam, those final

1470
01:20:14,560 --> 01:20:18,120
Speaker 4: years of his life were really great until you know

1471
01:20:18,400 --> 01:20:21,320
Speaker 4: that last moment when he when he apparently went off

1472
01:20:21,360 --> 01:20:21,839
Speaker 4: the wagon.

1473
01:20:21,960 --> 01:20:23,360
Speaker 3: But but he was.

1474
01:20:23,320 --> 01:20:26,360
Speaker 4: Able to redeem himself, I think, And that's what we

1475
01:20:26,560 --> 01:20:28,720
Speaker 4: tried to leave the audience with.

1476
01:20:29,520 --> 01:20:33,440
Speaker 5: Okay, I was saying for forgiveness.

1477
01:20:33,560 --> 01:20:33,840
Speaker 1: You know.

1478
01:20:35,280 --> 01:20:39,000
Speaker 5: A lot of people, a lot of artists, you know,

1479
01:20:39,120 --> 01:20:42,519
Speaker 5: they need somebody. It was said in our film actually

1480
01:20:42,760 --> 01:20:47,240
Speaker 5: by Sondra Crouch that an artist needs somebody to love

1481
01:20:47,280 --> 01:20:50,880
Speaker 5: them and come home to and and and just let

1482
01:20:50,920 --> 01:20:54,240
Speaker 5: their hair figuratively, let their hair down. That's what an

1483
01:20:54,320 --> 01:20:59,360
Speaker 5: artist needs, and we all do essentially. And I think

1484
01:20:59,439 --> 01:21:01,920
Speaker 5: that a lot of this had to do with his

1485
01:21:02,000 --> 01:21:05,960
Speaker 5: lack of trust and his lack of ability to let

1486
01:21:05,960 --> 01:21:09,559
Speaker 5: his hair down. And I'm saying this figuratively of course,

1487
01:21:09,600 --> 01:21:13,479
Speaker 5: and then and the lack of and you know, the

1488
01:21:13,600 --> 01:21:17,000
Speaker 5: lack of a good drug prof that you know, AA,

1489
01:21:17,080 --> 01:21:21,080
Speaker 5: we didn't have AA alcohol synonymous, and you know, it

1490
01:21:21,160 --> 01:21:24,200
Speaker 5: wasn't it wasn't so prevalent, so a lot of people

1491
01:21:24,240 --> 01:21:28,679
Speaker 5: didn't know how to help. And you know, Robert marger

1492
01:21:28,760 --> 01:21:30,840
Speaker 5: Leaf says that they, you know, we watched a lot

1493
01:21:30,840 --> 01:21:32,920
Speaker 5: of people spiral out of control that we didn't know

1494
01:21:32,920 --> 01:21:35,559
Speaker 5: how to help. And that had a lot to do

1495
01:21:35,600 --> 01:21:36,360
Speaker 5: with that as well.

1496
01:21:44,000 --> 01:21:47,400
Speaker 1: Okay, so after his hit period and he starts to

1497
01:21:47,439 --> 01:21:51,400
Speaker 1: fall off the edge, he burned a lot of people. Okay,

1498
01:21:51,600 --> 01:21:55,439
Speaker 1: we experienced this maybe times five or ten with Kanye

1499
01:21:55,560 --> 01:22:01,240
Speaker 1: right now, once he's trying to come back, is everybody

1500
01:22:01,280 --> 01:22:03,960
Speaker 1: warming fuzzy or are they saying they have to stay

1501
01:22:03,960 --> 01:22:06,120
Speaker 1: away from this guy?

1502
01:22:06,160 --> 01:22:09,679
Speaker 4: According to Bill Maxwell, Yeah, according to Bill Maxwell, people

1503
01:22:09,760 --> 01:22:13,640
Speaker 4: he came and played great, and people people wanted him, wanted.

1504
01:22:13,600 --> 01:22:16,000
Speaker 2: And he kept playing with Ringo's All Star Band. He

1505
01:22:16,080 --> 01:22:19,280
Speaker 2: kept recording with John Lennon. He kept recording until his

1506
01:22:19,400 --> 01:22:22,200
Speaker 2: death with George Harrison. He toured with them and so

1507
01:22:22,280 --> 01:22:23,120
Speaker 2: people came back.

1508
01:22:23,320 --> 01:22:26,360
Speaker 4: Many people said he was high and he played amazing,

1509
01:22:26,720 --> 01:22:27,400
Speaker 4: you know what I mean.

1510
01:22:27,560 --> 01:22:30,080
Speaker 3: So it was his gift.

1511
01:22:30,120 --> 01:22:33,000
Speaker 5: Will never missed a show. Yeah, well, Olivia says that.

1512
01:22:32,920 --> 01:22:35,960
Speaker 2: He fell his last recording of Here we Go Again

1513
01:22:36,080 --> 01:22:37,880
Speaker 2: with Ray Charles. It's the last time he played with

1514
01:22:37,960 --> 01:22:40,720
Speaker 2: Ray Charles. That becomes record of the year. You know,

1515
01:22:40,800 --> 01:22:44,080
Speaker 2: he's still there. He's still doing the do and he's

1516
01:22:44,080 --> 01:22:46,719
Speaker 2: still getting it done, but it's you know, it's less

1517
01:22:46,720 --> 01:22:49,360
Speaker 2: frequent and it's not you know, the kind of glory

1518
01:22:49,439 --> 01:22:51,840
Speaker 2: hits that he had. Behind the scenes, he's playing Alton

1519
01:22:51,920 --> 01:22:55,160
Speaker 2: John's album and he's doing you know, Barbara Streiss and

1520
01:22:55,240 --> 01:22:58,280
Speaker 2: Johnny Cash. So he's still doing his thing. It's just

1521
01:22:58,320 --> 01:23:01,280
Speaker 2: not as prominently out and solo as it was.

1522
01:23:02,280 --> 01:23:04,720
Speaker 1: Okay, film is done. Did you get it?

1523
01:23:07,320 --> 01:23:07,880
Speaker 5: What do you mean?

1524
01:23:08,800 --> 01:23:11,559
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? You got a thing, you

1525
01:23:11,640 --> 01:23:15,680
Speaker 1: go in and then when it's done, you say, you know,

1526
01:23:15,840 --> 01:23:18,040
Speaker 1: I wish I had a little of this, or I

1527
01:23:18,080 --> 01:23:19,920
Speaker 1: wish we could have done that, but you can't.

1528
01:23:20,800 --> 01:23:21,000
Speaker 2: Yet.

1529
01:23:21,120 --> 01:23:22,720
Speaker 5: We got it. And I'll tell you how I know

1530
01:23:22,760 --> 01:23:25,840
Speaker 5: we got it. We got it because to sit to

1531
01:23:26,160 --> 01:23:29,320
Speaker 5: watch this film over and over again when you feel, God,

1532
01:23:29,360 --> 01:23:31,200
Speaker 5: I wish I had that, you can't watch it again

1533
01:23:31,240 --> 01:23:35,760
Speaker 5: and again again. So we and our executives would say

1534
01:23:35,760 --> 01:23:38,280
Speaker 5: that that this is a film that we got.

1535
01:23:39,000 --> 01:23:41,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the best condensation of everything that was

1536
01:23:41,720 --> 01:23:44,760
Speaker 1: given to us. Yeah. And sure, I mean there's never

1537
01:23:44,800 --> 01:23:47,240
Speaker 1: been a thing that I've worked on that I haven't felt, Oh,

1538
01:23:47,280 --> 01:23:48,800
Speaker 1: I wish I'd done this, I wish I cut the

1539
01:23:48,840 --> 01:23:49,839
Speaker 1: air and blah blah blah.

1540
01:23:49,880 --> 01:23:53,040
Speaker 2: You're always gonna knit it. But emotionally, we were in Philadelphia,

1541
01:23:53,120 --> 01:23:56,200
Speaker 2: who was it yesterday? The days fly by yesterday, days ago,

1542
01:23:56,920 --> 01:24:00,559
Speaker 2: with the sold out crowd, you know, in tears, clapping

1543
01:24:00,600 --> 01:24:02,640
Speaker 2: at the pay of the bell moment that you know

1544
01:24:02,720 --> 01:24:06,920
Speaker 2: always brings them down, uh, and just loving the film,

1545
01:24:07,280 --> 01:24:09,799
Speaker 2: and we realize what we've made is connected with people.

1546
01:24:09,880 --> 01:24:12,120
Speaker 2: It's connected with people so much so that it's still

1547
01:24:12,200 --> 01:24:14,200
Speaker 2: the film for him. It was there for three days,

1548
01:24:14,400 --> 01:24:18,880
Speaker 2: it's going into his fifth week week that never happened. Yeah,

1549
01:24:18,920 --> 01:24:21,360
Speaker 2: So it's awesome that it's actually touching people. So I

1550
01:24:21,479 --> 01:24:23,720
Speaker 2: just I have to believe we got something that's a

1551
01:24:23,840 --> 01:24:27,240
Speaker 2: value and that people are My inbox is still with

1552
01:24:27,280 --> 01:24:29,360
Speaker 2: people we can film with different parts of the world

1553
01:24:29,439 --> 01:24:32,800
Speaker 2: is saying this movie is amazing and has taken them

1554
01:24:32,800 --> 01:24:33,599
Speaker 2: to a different place.

1555
01:24:33,880 --> 01:24:36,600
Speaker 4: That does not happen that often. No, it does, I

1556
01:24:36,600 --> 01:24:38,519
Speaker 4: can I can count on one hand.

1557
01:24:38,600 --> 01:24:43,480
Speaker 2: Well, definitely, it's happened every single time I've directed a documentary.

1558
01:24:43,880 --> 01:24:48,120
Speaker 1: Which is one exactly one hundred percent of the time

1559
01:24:48,280 --> 01:24:52,960
Speaker 1: that I've directed to This is great about about it.

1560
01:24:54,000 --> 01:24:56,439
Speaker 5: You know what's great about all these q and a's

1561
01:24:56,479 --> 01:24:59,800
Speaker 5: that we have is that how many people just have,

1562
01:25:00,320 --> 01:25:04,760
Speaker 5: Like Paris said, there it sparks hope, It sparks dialogue,

1563
01:25:04,760 --> 01:25:11,920
Speaker 5: It sparks you know, discussing uncomfortable subjects. It sparks you know,

1564
01:25:12,439 --> 01:25:17,760
Speaker 5: to the you know, the the bridges that bind us,

1565
01:25:17,840 --> 01:25:20,519
Speaker 5: everything that binds us, that brings us together. That's what

1566
01:25:20,600 --> 01:25:24,280
Speaker 5: this movie can spark. And it reminds us that we

1567
01:25:24,360 --> 01:25:27,280
Speaker 5: have way more in common than we do not, and

1568
01:25:27,479 --> 01:25:30,200
Speaker 5: that's very important in these times that we're living in

1569
01:25:30,280 --> 01:25:30,719
Speaker 5: right now.

1570
01:25:31,720 --> 01:25:34,280
Speaker 1: Paris, you mentioned knew how to plethora of the material

1571
01:25:34,560 --> 01:25:37,439
Speaker 1: had a Winnow down, what are two things you had

1572
01:25:37,439 --> 01:25:40,759
Speaker 1: to leave out because they didn't fit the film?

1573
01:25:41,600 --> 01:25:43,559
Speaker 2: Well, one thing that comes to mind, I was listening

1574
01:25:43,560 --> 01:25:45,880
Speaker 2: to this morning in my car. There's a song Billy

1575
01:25:45,880 --> 01:25:49,719
Speaker 2: wrote in two thousand and one called Father Forgive Them Yeah,

1576
01:25:49,800 --> 01:25:51,599
Speaker 2: and I wrote down the lyrics here. When you look

1577
01:25:51,640 --> 01:25:54,240
Speaker 2: at the church, does it hurt you too, how the

1578
01:25:54,280 --> 01:25:58,240
Speaker 2: people of God are representing you? I mean, it's on

1579
01:25:58,360 --> 01:26:00,559
Speaker 2: the notes and we just had no place for it.

1580
01:26:00,439 --> 01:26:03,559
Speaker 2: It was it was so overtly. I mean, it would

1581
01:26:03,600 --> 01:26:05,800
Speaker 2: have been great, but we had no film. And it's

1582
01:26:05,840 --> 01:26:09,400
Speaker 2: just sometimes things just don't belong in there, even though

1583
01:26:09,439 --> 01:26:12,360
Speaker 2: they are saying somebody that's really interesting. It has to

1584
01:26:12,400 --> 01:26:14,759
Speaker 2: be part of the woven texture of what we're doing.

1585
01:26:15,320 --> 01:26:17,479
Speaker 2: And I you know, we just stefaniely I especially, I've

1586
01:26:17,520 --> 01:26:19,320
Speaker 2: talked about this. We really wish there was a way

1587
01:26:19,360 --> 01:26:21,400
Speaker 2: to have this movie be just as long, but even

1588
01:26:21,439 --> 01:26:25,200
Speaker 2: more music, because we love hearing Billy Preston play and

1589
01:26:25,240 --> 01:26:28,439
Speaker 2: there's so much joy and the seeing the styles change

1590
01:26:28,439 --> 01:26:30,920
Speaker 2: and the fact that he can do anything. I would

1591
01:26:31,000 --> 01:26:33,639
Speaker 2: love to have had film with him with the Retha playing,

1592
01:26:33,800 --> 01:26:36,599
Speaker 2: film with him with Johnny Cash. I'd love to see

1593
01:26:36,680 --> 01:26:40,600
Speaker 2: him live with these performers at the time, So it

1594
01:26:40,640 --> 01:26:42,559
Speaker 2: could be there could be a whole second, you know,

1595
01:26:42,720 --> 01:26:46,719
Speaker 2: second album of just musical performances by Billy Preston, which

1596
01:26:46,800 --> 01:26:47,800
Speaker 2: I would certainly watch.

1597
01:26:49,240 --> 01:26:55,160
Speaker 1: Okay, people in Hollywood, the unsophisticated sake. Content is king.

1598
01:26:55,680 --> 01:27:00,000
Speaker 1: Content is not king. Distribution is king. If people can't

1599
01:27:00,080 --> 01:27:03,800
Speaker 1: and see it, doesn't matter how good it is. When

1600
01:27:03,840 --> 01:27:08,599
Speaker 1: you get the documentaries, when you get the inny type things.

1601
01:27:09,880 --> 01:27:14,280
Speaker 1: You know, there's the endless film festival circuit, then the

1602
01:27:14,479 --> 01:27:17,000
Speaker 1: rs you know, the sun Dance which the studios are

1603
01:27:17,040 --> 01:27:22,840
Speaker 1: buying less from. The film is done, you're happy with it.

1604
01:27:23,760 --> 01:27:28,760
Speaker 1: What is the distribution plan and how do you maximize

1605
01:27:28,800 --> 01:27:32,599
Speaker 1: the film such as those who are interested have access

1606
01:27:32,640 --> 01:27:33,320
Speaker 1: and can see it.

1607
01:27:33,960 --> 01:27:36,720
Speaker 4: That's one word, and that's a brama rama. I mean

1608
01:27:36,960 --> 01:27:42,080
Speaker 4: this distribution company led by Carole and I can't pronounce

1609
01:27:42,120 --> 01:27:45,760
Speaker 4: his last name, but is I have been so impressed

1610
01:27:45,880 --> 01:27:50,120
Speaker 4: with how passionate this team is, how knowledgeable this team is.

1611
01:27:50,560 --> 01:27:53,360
Speaker 4: We are in theaters through the end of June. This

1612
01:27:53,439 --> 01:27:56,720
Speaker 4: is a this is a black music doc that is

1613
01:27:56,800 --> 01:28:00,800
Speaker 4: playing sold out across the country. So many things have

1614
01:28:00,880 --> 01:28:04,840
Speaker 4: sold out. We're having to repeat requests like it's coming

1615
01:28:04,960 --> 01:28:08,559
Speaker 4: back to LA to the Lenley Theaters because people still

1616
01:28:08,560 --> 01:28:10,080
Speaker 4: want to see it, Like you said, this is our

1617
01:28:10,120 --> 01:28:11,439
Speaker 4: fifth week in Film Forum.

1618
01:28:11,600 --> 01:28:14,360
Speaker 3: It's sold out in Austin. It's going back to Austin.

1619
01:28:14,520 --> 01:28:18,920
Speaker 4: So the way that we're unfolding the film gives people

1620
01:28:18,920 --> 01:28:20,800
Speaker 4: a chance to see it as they should in a

1621
01:28:20,880 --> 01:28:25,120
Speaker 4: theater with other people, Like he was saying, people clap

1622
01:28:25,200 --> 01:28:28,759
Speaker 4: after the performances, like you're actually in a live music joint,

1623
01:28:28,920 --> 01:28:31,360
Speaker 4: you know, And that's when we know we got them.

1624
01:28:31,400 --> 01:28:33,720
Speaker 4: And I think Paris, on the last pass of the

1625
01:28:33,880 --> 01:28:36,200
Speaker 4: edit really said, let's let's extend.

1626
01:28:36,320 --> 01:28:37,360
Speaker 3: Let's shout out.

1627
01:28:37,200 --> 01:28:42,840
Speaker 4: Our amazing editor, sah D Hansen, who elongated the music

1628
01:28:42,960 --> 01:28:45,559
Speaker 4: scenes so that you really felt like you were in

1629
01:28:45,600 --> 01:28:49,120
Speaker 4: a Billy Preston concert. And I think that's super satisfying

1630
01:28:49,840 --> 01:28:50,360
Speaker 4: for people.

1631
01:28:50,479 --> 01:28:54,160
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's a way, I mean, people stiff around it,

1632
01:28:54,200 --> 01:28:56,040
Speaker 1: but it's I think it's so.

1633
01:28:55,880 --> 01:28:58,479
Speaker 2: Sparred for us. And this wasn't a decision that I made,

1634
01:28:58,560 --> 01:29:01,040
Speaker 2: but this came with our producers to just stay in

1635
01:29:01,120 --> 01:29:03,240
Speaker 2: theaters and be in theaters as long as we can

1636
01:29:03,280 --> 01:29:05,680
Speaker 2: be in theaters and not just jump to you know,

1637
01:29:05,920 --> 01:29:09,000
Speaker 2: the distribution on you know, the netflixes and whatnot, and

1638
01:29:09,000 --> 01:29:11,360
Speaker 2: then we'll get there at some point. But right now,

1639
01:29:11,439 --> 01:29:14,439
Speaker 2: the experience in the theater is so good and I

1640
01:29:14,520 --> 01:29:17,120
Speaker 2: just I just encourage everybody to jump out when it

1641
01:29:17,160 --> 01:29:18,760
Speaker 2: comes to your town. And I guess you can find

1642
01:29:18,800 --> 01:29:21,160
Speaker 2: it on Billy prestonfilm dot com, he said, doing the

1643
01:29:21,200 --> 01:29:23,840
Speaker 2: plug you can find out the dates and it keeps changing.

1644
01:29:23,840 --> 01:29:26,040
Speaker 2: I'm looking every day, and so now we're in Louisville

1645
01:29:26,160 --> 01:29:28,120
Speaker 2: and how we're normal, Yes.

1646
01:29:28,439 --> 01:29:31,639
Speaker 1: Assess and Detroit. You know, it's just so much fun.

1647
01:29:32,040 --> 01:29:35,280
Speaker 1: You know obvious. We have studio releases in thousands of

1648
01:29:35,360 --> 01:29:37,960
Speaker 1: theaters and it's everywhere. They last for ten minutes and

1649
01:29:37,960 --> 01:29:41,719
Speaker 1: they're gone. I wrote about the movie and people say, hey,

1650
01:29:43,240 --> 01:29:45,880
Speaker 1: I can't see it. I can't find it. No, I

1651
01:29:45,880 --> 01:29:48,360
Speaker 1: don't want to talk about internet stuff people connecting with

1652
01:29:48,400 --> 01:29:53,320
Speaker 1: the information. But what is the plan in terms of distribution,

1653
01:29:54,120 --> 01:29:56,360
Speaker 1: I mean, what's the strategy there.

1654
01:29:57,560 --> 01:30:02,599
Speaker 4: The strategy is to build an audience for the film.

1655
01:30:03,479 --> 01:30:05,800
Speaker 4: People these a lot of people come back more than once,

1656
01:30:06,120 --> 01:30:08,920
Speaker 4: by the way, because they and the experience of seeing

1657
01:30:08,960 --> 01:30:11,439
Speaker 4: in the second time is different because you know where

1658
01:30:11,439 --> 01:30:13,519
Speaker 4: you're going. You can relax into the show, you can

1659
01:30:13,560 --> 01:30:16,960
Speaker 4: relax into the music. We will sell this, we will

1660
01:30:16,960 --> 01:30:19,720
Speaker 4: license this to a streamer, and people will have a

1661
01:30:19,720 --> 01:30:23,280
Speaker 4: lot of access. But once that happens, you cut short

1662
01:30:23,280 --> 01:30:25,840
Speaker 4: your theatrical run. Because if people know they can just

1663
01:30:25,880 --> 01:30:27,840
Speaker 4: go to Netflix, or know they can go to Apple

1664
01:30:27,960 --> 01:30:30,439
Speaker 4: or HBO Max, that's what they will do.

1665
01:30:30,520 --> 01:30:32,000
Speaker 3: That's the world we're living in.

1666
01:30:32,120 --> 01:30:36,639
Speaker 4: So I think the strategy is quite brilliant because it's

1667
01:30:36,760 --> 01:30:39,120
Speaker 4: building up the cachet for the film.

1668
01:30:39,280 --> 01:30:40,920
Speaker 3: It's building up like the.

1669
01:30:40,800 --> 01:30:43,439
Speaker 4: Reviews to I mean, I don't think we've gotten a

1670
01:30:43,479 --> 01:30:46,160
Speaker 4: bad review. This is a film that you can't get

1671
01:30:46,160 --> 01:30:48,439
Speaker 4: a review in the New York Times. We got three

1672
01:30:48,760 --> 01:30:51,519
Speaker 4: articles in the New York Times about this movie. So

1673
01:30:51,960 --> 01:30:53,800
Speaker 4: I think it takes to build it up as a

1674
01:30:53,840 --> 01:30:57,000
Speaker 4: prestige pick that you should see in theaters and hopefully

1675
01:30:57,040 --> 01:30:59,880
Speaker 4: when award season rolls back around, will be in the mix.

1676
01:31:01,120 --> 01:31:05,800
Speaker 1: Okay, how many towns or theaters is it playing in simultaneously.

1677
01:31:07,240 --> 01:31:10,360
Speaker 2: I think it's about thirty now, yeah, thirty different theaters?

1678
01:31:10,760 --> 01:31:11,880
Speaker 5: Yea, yeah, I think it's more.

1679
01:31:12,080 --> 01:31:14,439
Speaker 3: I think it's forty yeah.

1680
01:31:14,479 --> 01:31:14,639
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1681
01:31:14,680 --> 01:31:16,320
Speaker 4: And like I said, maybe they would be a one

1682
01:31:16,400 --> 01:31:18,400
Speaker 4: day stand, but that would sell out so they come

1683
01:31:18,439 --> 01:31:20,640
Speaker 4: back and make it three days or four days like

1684
01:31:20,680 --> 01:31:23,280
Speaker 4: That's what's happening is that people are telling their friends.

1685
01:31:23,280 --> 01:31:26,519
Speaker 4: The word of mouth on this movie is spectacular, amazing.

1686
01:31:26,640 --> 01:31:31,320
Speaker 1: Okay, film is done. It's playing theatrically. Ultimately you'll be

1687
01:31:31,400 --> 01:31:34,519
Speaker 1: on a streamer where it will live forever. All those

1688
01:31:34,560 --> 01:31:40,479
Speaker 1: always licensing issues things disappear. What do you want people

1689
01:31:40,520 --> 01:31:44,519
Speaker 1: to take from the film and to what degree do

1690
01:31:44,560 --> 01:31:47,200
Speaker 1: you think about the legacy of the film.

1691
01:31:48,479 --> 01:31:48,879
Speaker 4: Paris?

1692
01:31:48,960 --> 01:31:53,360
Speaker 2: I start, well, you know William Alford and my playgrinding

1693
01:31:53,400 --> 01:31:56,200
Speaker 2: Teacher says what's the gift? And what I really want

1694
01:31:56,240 --> 01:31:58,920
Speaker 2: people to take from the film is, yes, it's an

1695
01:31:58,920 --> 01:32:04,000
Speaker 2: expiration of fame, of faith, of you know, family. But

1696
01:32:04,240 --> 01:32:07,280
Speaker 2: what I hope you'll take is summarized kind of in

1697
01:32:07,360 --> 01:32:09,679
Speaker 2: that very last line in the movie where she says,

1698
01:32:10,280 --> 01:32:12,080
Speaker 2: how do we let this boy get away from this?

1699
01:32:13,040 --> 01:32:15,880
Speaker 2: And I hope it'll make people think about there are

1700
01:32:15,920 --> 01:32:18,040
Speaker 2: other troubled people in your life, and they may not

1701
01:32:18,120 --> 01:32:21,000
Speaker 2: be geniuses like Billy Preston, but they're they're having their

1702
01:32:21,040 --> 01:32:24,599
Speaker 2: difficulties and ask themselves have they done everything they could?

1703
01:32:25,080 --> 01:32:26,960
Speaker 2: You know, so many of the witnesses say I wish

1704
01:32:26,960 --> 01:32:28,519
Speaker 2: I could have done this. I wish I would have

1705
01:32:28,560 --> 01:32:30,479
Speaker 2: shared this. I wish you would have shared this with me.

1706
01:32:31,160 --> 01:32:33,479
Speaker 2: And you know, now Billy's no longer with us, but

1707
01:32:33,520 --> 01:32:36,120
Speaker 2: there are a lot of people living and struggling with alcoholism,

1708
01:32:36,200 --> 01:32:39,040
Speaker 2: and living and struggling with drug addiction, living and struggling

1709
01:32:39,080 --> 01:32:42,360
Speaker 2: with secrets of their past life that they can't they

1710
01:32:42,360 --> 01:32:43,280
Speaker 2: can't get passed.

1711
01:32:43,800 --> 01:32:45,719
Speaker 1: So now we have no excuse.

1712
01:32:46,240 --> 01:32:48,320
Speaker 2: You know, after you see this movie, I've said, boy,

1713
01:32:48,320 --> 01:32:50,439
Speaker 2: I would have dealt with Corey Monteeth on Glee a

1714
01:32:50,520 --> 01:32:53,439
Speaker 2: lot differently after I made this movie, because I was

1715
01:32:53,520 --> 01:32:56,120
Speaker 2: very shy about approaching him, even though you know, he

1716
01:32:56,280 --> 01:32:58,760
Speaker 2: was struggling to get to said and everyone knew that

1717
01:32:58,800 --> 01:33:02,200
Speaker 2: he had a problem, and I just didn't really step up.

1718
01:33:02,640 --> 01:33:05,120
Speaker 2: And I would not do that today. Today I would

1719
01:33:05,120 --> 01:33:07,479
Speaker 2: step up. And today this film has sort of inspired

1720
01:33:07,520 --> 01:33:09,760
Speaker 2: me to take that chance. As Sandra Krout says in

1721
01:33:09,800 --> 01:33:12,439
Speaker 2: the film, you may lose a friend, but save a life.

1722
01:33:12,920 --> 01:33:15,120
Speaker 2: And I think that's what I'm hoping people take away,

1723
01:33:15,160 --> 01:33:17,240
Speaker 2: not just the joy in the glory that is Billy

1724
01:33:17,280 --> 01:33:20,240
Speaker 2: Preston and the music, and get excited about it and

1725
01:33:20,320 --> 01:33:22,680
Speaker 2: build your on playlist and do all those things. I

1726
01:33:22,680 --> 01:33:25,080
Speaker 2: also think you'll think more about how I can be

1727
01:33:25,240 --> 01:33:28,160
Speaker 2: useful and can I be more useful to people that

1728
01:33:28,280 --> 01:33:31,439
Speaker 2: I love, and if so, can I extend their the

1729
01:33:31,520 --> 01:33:33,759
Speaker 2: joy that they bring to me or to other people

1730
01:33:33,800 --> 01:33:37,360
Speaker 2: in the world on earth by just being the key

1731
01:33:37,400 --> 01:33:40,160
Speaker 2: that gets them to wellness. So I mean, that's my

1732
01:33:40,520 --> 01:33:42,400
Speaker 2: big hope for the film. It's not just that I'll

1733
01:33:42,439 --> 01:33:45,360
Speaker 2: be an entertainment, but it also will you help here

1734
01:33:45,360 --> 01:33:46,400
Speaker 2: in their save a life?

1735
01:33:47,040 --> 01:33:50,040
Speaker 4: And I think now we feel like we got to

1736
01:33:50,120 --> 01:33:53,240
Speaker 4: know Billy a little bit, and I am very proud

1737
01:33:53,280 --> 01:33:56,160
Speaker 4: of the fact that we are reintroducing Billy to a

1738
01:33:56,240 --> 01:34:01,040
Speaker 4: whole new generation of music lovers who also old music

1739
01:34:01,160 --> 01:34:03,880
Speaker 4: lovers who didn't even know they were listening to Billy.

1740
01:34:04,240 --> 01:34:06,679
Speaker 4: Now they will now you can now when you hear

1741
01:34:06,840 --> 01:34:10,679
Speaker 4: that that organ, you go, that's Billy. That's Billy in there,

1742
01:34:10,840 --> 01:34:13,479
Speaker 4: you know. And so I think about the legacy of

1743
01:34:13,560 --> 01:34:22,519
Speaker 4: Billy and how his very sometimes difficult life has you know,

1744
01:34:24,040 --> 01:34:26,960
Speaker 4: transcended in a way, and that his joy and his

1745
01:34:27,080 --> 01:34:28,120
Speaker 4: music will live forever.

1746
01:34:28,479 --> 01:34:29,680
Speaker 5: So I'm very proud of that.

1747
01:34:30,720 --> 01:34:35,680
Speaker 1: Amen. Okay, I think what Paris say is the main takeaway.

1748
01:34:36,200 --> 01:34:40,960
Speaker 1: But going to Billy himself. Geenie, you've made a number

1749
01:34:41,040 --> 01:34:45,759
Speaker 1: of these movies. A to what degree do you find

1750
01:34:46,560 --> 01:34:51,679
Speaker 1: that the subject penetrates the culture at large? Like you said,

1751
01:34:51,720 --> 01:34:54,160
Speaker 1: to involve no direction home, I could tell you exactly

1752
01:34:54,160 --> 01:34:56,559
Speaker 1: where I saw it. I could tell a different name of.

1753
01:34:56,720 --> 01:34:59,920
Speaker 5: It wasn't involved. That's the company that Nigel that was.

1754
01:35:00,280 --> 01:35:01,280
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll leave it.

1755
01:35:01,600 --> 01:35:02,719
Speaker 5: I can't take credit.

1756
01:35:02,960 --> 01:35:05,599
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you the credit anyway. Okay, White

1757
01:35:05,640 --> 01:35:13,160
Speaker 1: Oors Pictures. I mean there was Score's whatever had impact

1758
01:35:13,640 --> 01:35:18,519
Speaker 1: when you make these films. To what degree is it

1759
01:35:18,640 --> 01:35:23,240
Speaker 1: palpable that it changed the national consciousness or the international

1760
01:35:23,280 --> 01:35:24,800
Speaker 1: conscious on the subject.

1761
01:35:26,880 --> 01:35:31,240
Speaker 5: Look, I think that I think that it's what in

1762
01:35:31,240 --> 01:35:33,920
Speaker 5: the mirror, what what Paris just said, and what I

1763
01:35:33,920 --> 01:35:37,640
Speaker 5: said a few mill mimuentes ago that when you confront

1764
01:35:37,840 --> 01:35:44,160
Speaker 5: uncomfortable truth in a subject matter, that it reminds us

1765
01:35:44,560 --> 01:35:48,160
Speaker 5: that we need we need to reconnect as the human beings.

1766
01:35:48,960 --> 01:35:52,400
Speaker 5: We need to reconnect. And I said this earlier. Forgive

1767
01:35:52,400 --> 01:35:55,559
Speaker 5: me for pitting myself, but I really, really really believe this.

1768
01:35:55,960 --> 01:35:59,600
Speaker 5: It will help build these bridges back that have been faltering.

1769
01:35:59,800 --> 01:36:03,839
Speaker 5: And the weird news cycle, I hope it's a cycle

1770
01:36:04,320 --> 01:36:06,960
Speaker 5: that we are going through right now, and we need

1771
01:36:07,000 --> 01:36:09,800
Speaker 5: to reconnect with each other on a deeper level and

1772
01:36:09,840 --> 01:36:13,680
Speaker 5: forgive and love more. Love has got to override it

1773
01:36:13,920 --> 01:36:14,439
Speaker 5: and forget it.

1774
01:36:14,479 --> 01:36:17,519
Speaker 2: And men and Bob, just to use a Genie example

1775
01:36:17,600 --> 01:36:19,680
Speaker 2: that they did work on that changed. You know, I

1776
01:36:19,720 --> 01:36:22,280
Speaker 2: know a lot of peoples the Begs documentary how do

1777
01:36:22,320 --> 01:36:24,639
Speaker 2: You Help? Can You Mend a Broken Heart? I thought

1778
01:36:24,640 --> 01:36:26,479
Speaker 2: I was going to see a story about you know,

1779
01:36:26,560 --> 01:36:30,000
Speaker 2: the Saturday Night by you know Fever soundtrack and blah

1780
01:36:30,000 --> 01:36:32,519
Speaker 2: blah blah. But what you saw was really a family

1781
01:36:32,640 --> 01:36:35,880
Speaker 2: drama and a family that was broken and trying to

1782
01:36:35,920 --> 01:36:39,559
Speaker 2: find its way back to love, which transcended the story

1783
01:36:39,600 --> 01:36:41,280
Speaker 2: of the music. So the music was there and it

1784
01:36:41,360 --> 01:36:43,960
Speaker 2: got you in, but the family made you look at

1785
01:36:43,960 --> 01:36:46,280
Speaker 2: your own family and say, oh my god, should I.

1786
01:36:46,320 --> 01:36:46,960
Speaker 1: Call my brother?

1787
01:36:47,040 --> 01:36:48,599
Speaker 2: I mean, I have a lot of brothers to call,

1788
01:36:48,640 --> 01:36:50,599
Speaker 2: but should I reach out to them now? I mean,

1789
01:36:50,640 --> 01:36:53,280
Speaker 2: we're they're still here and some of the pain of

1790
01:36:53,360 --> 01:36:56,719
Speaker 2: that are not being there, And the Begs is something

1791
01:36:56,760 --> 01:36:59,160
Speaker 2: you can take. So I'm hoping that there's a little

1792
01:36:59,200 --> 01:37:01,320
Speaker 2: bit of that too. The Fellow challenge people when they

1793
01:37:01,360 --> 01:37:03,840
Speaker 2: look at the story and say, how can I write

1794
01:37:03,920 --> 01:37:06,840
Speaker 2: my story better, you know, where can I take a

1795
01:37:07,160 --> 01:37:09,879
Speaker 2: take a new path? And that's that's really beautiful.

1796
01:37:10,360 --> 01:37:14,080
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, yes, man, You've lived through this.

1797
01:37:14,160 --> 01:37:18,120
Speaker 1: Five or six year project. As Stephanie said, it's not

1798
01:37:18,240 --> 01:37:22,759
Speaker 1: like a traditional film everybody goes assuming you're out of town.

1799
01:37:22,840 --> 01:37:26,120
Speaker 1: It's like summer camp, long hours and you may never

1800
01:37:26,160 --> 01:37:30,960
Speaker 1: see each other again. So you've made this one very

1801
01:37:31,000 --> 01:37:33,920
Speaker 1: successful movie. Is the nature of the business that you

1802
01:37:34,040 --> 01:37:36,800
Speaker 1: did it or the three of you think, well, this

1803
01:37:36,960 --> 01:37:41,679
Speaker 1: was so successful, maybe there's another idea we can work on. Absolutely, yeah,

1804
01:37:41,680 --> 01:37:42,920
Speaker 1: there's always another idea.

1805
01:37:43,200 --> 01:37:44,840
Speaker 5: There's just another idea. Absolutely, really.

1806
01:37:45,960 --> 01:37:50,360
Speaker 4: I mean, we had had a difficult time, we had

1807
01:37:50,360 --> 01:37:52,519
Speaker 4: a lovely time, we had a fun time. We had

1808
01:37:52,680 --> 01:37:57,000
Speaker 4: COVID time where we're all in masks. You know, when

1809
01:37:57,040 --> 01:37:59,880
Speaker 4: you make a movie, you are a family, and you

1810
01:38:00,200 --> 01:38:05,120
Speaker 4: do go through familial you know, joys and struggles and

1811
01:38:05,600 --> 01:38:08,439
Speaker 4: you come out of it. And I think ultimately the

1812
01:38:08,880 --> 01:38:12,120
Speaker 4: plays the thing. The movie's the thing, and we all

1813
01:38:12,160 --> 01:38:14,439
Speaker 4: love the movie and we all put our heart into

1814
01:38:14,479 --> 01:38:16,960
Speaker 4: this movie and the fact that it's connecting with people

1815
01:38:17,560 --> 01:38:20,519
Speaker 4: is a reflection of that connection that we have.

1816
01:38:20,720 --> 01:38:21,320
Speaker 5: Absolutely.

1817
01:38:21,600 --> 01:38:21,840
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1818
01:38:21,880 --> 01:38:24,639
Speaker 2: And during this time we were all doing different things.

1819
01:38:24,680 --> 01:38:26,720
Speaker 2: I mean, during the making of this movie, I did

1820
01:38:26,800 --> 01:38:30,040
Speaker 2: Dahmer and the Menendez and the Watcher and Doctor Odyssey

1821
01:38:30,080 --> 01:38:33,200
Speaker 2: and the Night Agent. I mean, we do other jobs

1822
01:38:33,200 --> 01:38:35,200
Speaker 2: at the same time, and then we pop back in

1823
01:38:35,640 --> 01:38:37,519
Speaker 2: and so part of the reason these take a while

1824
01:38:37,640 --> 01:38:39,840
Speaker 2: is because a lot of us are very busy and

1825
01:38:39,960 --> 01:38:43,200
Speaker 2: have a lot of other lives to lead. So I

1826
01:38:43,200 --> 01:38:45,360
Speaker 2: think it's all to its benefit too. We weren't sort

1827
01:38:45,360 --> 01:38:47,360
Speaker 2: of in a hothouse for very long, you know, two

1828
01:38:47,400 --> 01:38:50,880
Speaker 2: weeks here, shooting, two weeks here, editorial or just groups

1829
01:38:50,920 --> 01:38:53,559
Speaker 2: of times. But mostly we were out in the world

1830
01:38:53,640 --> 01:38:56,840
Speaker 2: trying to pull everything together, to keep food on our

1831
01:38:56,840 --> 01:38:59,800
Speaker 2: respective tables and keep by boys in college, which is

1832
01:39:00,320 --> 01:39:05,639
Speaker 2: Benson very expensive one hundred grand, yeah, one hundred grand

1833
01:39:05,760 --> 01:39:07,440
Speaker 2: and no like woof.

1834
01:39:08,520 --> 01:39:13,040
Speaker 1: So Paris, I have to ask you, how did you

1835
01:39:13,120 --> 01:39:17,080
Speaker 1: end up with the name Paris. Yes, it's a very

1836
01:39:17,080 --> 01:39:20,760
Speaker 1: simple story. Uh, it's my mother. She was inspired to

1837
01:39:20,840 --> 01:39:24,120
Speaker 1: name me after Paris of Helena Troy than you know,

1838
01:39:24,640 --> 01:39:27,080
Speaker 1: so I'm basically named not after the city, which she

1839
01:39:27,120 --> 01:39:29,000
Speaker 1: had never been to until I took her to it,

1840
01:39:29,360 --> 01:39:31,840
Speaker 1: you know, later in life. But she thought that was

1841
01:39:31,840 --> 01:39:34,120
Speaker 1: a really cool name and all my other brothers and

1842
01:39:34,160 --> 01:39:39,000
Speaker 1: sisters have nice normal names, William, Robin, Brian, Mark, Monica.

1843
01:39:39,400 --> 01:39:42,439
Speaker 1: And in the middle there there's Paris. So I was

1844
01:39:42,479 --> 01:39:45,280
Speaker 1: destined for something different. Who whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa.

1845
01:39:45,920 --> 01:39:49,240
Speaker 1: You're the middle child. Well, I'm close to the middle

1846
01:39:49,280 --> 01:39:53,559
Speaker 1: I was actually the third of seven. Okay, I'll leave

1847
01:39:53,600 --> 01:39:56,960
Speaker 1: it at that. So as we go forward in the

1848
01:39:57,000 --> 01:39:58,960
Speaker 1: immediate future, what's keeping you busy?

1849
01:39:59,040 --> 01:40:04,040
Speaker 2: Paris in the immediate future, Oh my gosh, I am

1850
01:40:04,160 --> 01:40:06,040
Speaker 2: doing a lot of work with Dan Fogelman, who's the

1851
01:40:06,080 --> 01:40:09,360
Speaker 2: producer in the creator of This Is Us and Paradise.

1852
01:40:09,960 --> 01:40:12,040
Speaker 2: I just did a new show for him called The Land,

1853
01:40:12,520 --> 01:40:14,880
Speaker 2: which won't be out until next year, which is fantastic

1854
01:40:14,920 --> 01:40:18,360
Speaker 2: as succession in a football team, the Cleveland Browns. It's

1855
01:40:18,400 --> 01:40:21,840
Speaker 2: got Bill Macy edit who is unbelievable, Mandy Moore, and

1856
01:40:21,920 --> 01:40:24,040
Speaker 2: Chris Maloney. And then I'm gonna go and do the

1857
01:40:24,160 --> 01:40:26,760
Speaker 2: end of Paradise, the final season, a lot of the

1858
01:40:26,880 --> 01:40:29,720
Speaker 2: two episodes of that. Yeah, it's been announced that this

1859
01:40:29,800 --> 01:40:32,559
Speaker 2: third season will be the last season, so we'll find

1860
01:40:32,640 --> 01:40:35,400
Speaker 2: out what Sterling K. Brown can do to save the

1861
01:40:35,439 --> 01:40:36,919
Speaker 2: world or even its possible.

1862
01:40:38,400 --> 01:40:41,400
Speaker 1: So those are the things that I'm in the middle of.

1863
01:40:41,840 --> 01:40:43,759
Speaker 1: And Stephanie, what's keeping you busy?

1864
01:40:44,760 --> 01:40:48,479
Speaker 4: I have a movie called Otis and Zelma, which is

1865
01:40:48,520 --> 01:40:53,600
Speaker 4: about Otis Redding and his wife Zelma, and it's a

1866
01:40:53,640 --> 01:40:54,280
Speaker 4: ghost story.

1867
01:40:54,320 --> 01:40:55,360
Speaker 3: It's a love story.

1868
01:40:56,080 --> 01:41:00,080
Speaker 4: Otis died at twenty six, she was twenty three, and

1869
01:41:00,120 --> 01:41:02,640
Speaker 4: it's really how love kept him alive and keeps him

1870
01:41:02,680 --> 01:41:07,240
Speaker 4: alive today. She's an amazing woman. It's Daniel Deadweiler and

1871
01:41:08,720 --> 01:41:13,360
Speaker 4: our our Otis is John Boyega. And that'll be my

1872
01:41:13,439 --> 01:41:20,320
Speaker 4: next movie. It's a narrative. And and I'm raising my granddaughters,

1873
01:41:21,240 --> 01:41:25,200
Speaker 4: which is a new thing because my my grand my

1874
01:41:25,960 --> 01:41:29,799
Speaker 4: daughter in law, had a massive stroke and she is covering. Yeah,

1875
01:41:29,880 --> 01:41:31,559
Speaker 4: And so I've got a little three and five year

1876
01:41:31,600 --> 01:41:35,320
Speaker 4: old that I'm helping raise with my son and the

1877
01:41:35,400 --> 01:41:42,320
Speaker 4: village that is the family. It's been quite a life lesson.

1878
01:41:42,600 --> 01:41:46,519
Speaker 1: Really, I'm so fortunate to have you guys.

1879
01:41:47,280 --> 01:41:49,519
Speaker 5: So I'm fortunate to have them, Are you kidding?

1880
01:41:49,640 --> 01:41:51,040
Speaker 3: They're like the joy?

1881
01:41:51,320 --> 01:41:52,120
Speaker 5: They are the joy?

1882
01:41:52,680 --> 01:41:55,000
Speaker 2: And you didn't mention that Stephen bray Is. I think

1883
01:41:55,040 --> 01:41:56,519
Speaker 2: you alluded to the fact that he's one of the

1884
01:41:56,560 --> 01:41:58,760
Speaker 2: composers of the color purple, but he also wrote those

1885
01:41:58,800 --> 01:42:01,479
Speaker 2: great hits for Madonna back in the day, so he's

1886
01:42:01,520 --> 01:42:04,719
Speaker 2: known in the music world, and I'm sure he's busy

1887
01:42:04,760 --> 01:42:06,240
Speaker 2: doing something awesome.

1888
01:42:05,960 --> 01:42:06,200
Speaker 1: Same.

1889
01:42:06,360 --> 01:42:14,000
Speaker 3: Yes, we're actually writing a musical together, a musical, that's right.

1890
01:42:14,320 --> 01:42:15,920
Speaker 1: So that I got to ask you if you could

1891
01:42:15,960 --> 01:42:17,959
Speaker 1: tell us what's the subject of the musical.

1892
01:42:18,160 --> 01:42:20,960
Speaker 4: It's called Vintage, and it's a story of a diva

1893
01:42:21,160 --> 01:42:24,559
Speaker 4: who was like a Millie Jackson in her day, and

1894
01:42:24,640 --> 01:42:27,400
Speaker 4: she's got a little bit of revived fame because her

1895
01:42:27,640 --> 01:42:31,360
Speaker 4: signature song is in an ed commercial and.

1896
01:42:31,439 --> 01:42:34,439
Speaker 3: She just wants to come back, but she doesn't have

1897
01:42:34,600 --> 01:42:37,519
Speaker 3: much wherewithal so she ends.

1898
01:42:37,439 --> 01:42:40,080
Speaker 4: Up going to an old folks home for musicians and

1899
01:42:40,200 --> 01:42:44,000
Speaker 4: she she turns the place inside out, so.

1900
01:42:43,960 --> 01:42:47,559
Speaker 1: It's like a sister act. Is this legitimate theater or

1901
01:42:47,680 --> 01:42:48,519
Speaker 1: is this a movie?

1902
01:42:49,160 --> 01:42:50,320
Speaker 5: It's legitimate theater.

1903
01:42:50,360 --> 01:42:51,040
Speaker 3: It's a musical.

1904
01:42:51,240 --> 01:42:52,240
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a musical.

1905
01:42:52,400 --> 01:42:55,600
Speaker 1: That's a tough road. Good luck up man. But but

1906
01:42:55,840 --> 01:42:56,719
Speaker 1: they're all tough.

1907
01:42:57,439 --> 01:42:58,599
Speaker 5: They're all they're all tough.

1908
01:42:58,880 --> 01:42:59,479
Speaker 1: Yeah they are.

1909
01:43:00,160 --> 01:43:01,479
Speaker 5: Our narrative is tough.

1910
01:43:01,479 --> 01:43:05,639
Speaker 1: But musicals are really tough. And Jeanie, what's up with you?

1911
01:43:06,680 --> 01:43:09,679
Speaker 5: Well, we've got film that's out right now that we're

1912
01:43:09,720 --> 01:43:12,479
Speaker 5: promoting is Lil a fair building on a mystery directed

1913
01:43:12,520 --> 01:43:17,360
Speaker 5: by Ali panc And uh, we've got Fleetwood Mac. That's

1914
01:43:17,479 --> 01:43:21,080
Speaker 5: U that's gonna that also is coming out probably by

1915
01:43:21,080 --> 01:43:25,400
Speaker 5: the end of the year and on Apple. And we

1916
01:43:25,600 --> 01:43:28,000
Speaker 5: have got a lot of very very very cool things

1917
01:43:28,000 --> 01:43:31,599
Speaker 5: that are that are cooking that aren't announced. And uh,

1918
01:43:32,320 --> 01:43:34,840
Speaker 5: and there's a lot of very cool things coming a

1919
01:43:34,840 --> 01:43:36,040
Speaker 5: lot of very fun things.

1920
01:43:36,439 --> 01:43:40,599
Speaker 1: Little Fear has already played. Weetwood Mac is not out yet.

1921
01:43:40,640 --> 01:43:42,559
Speaker 1: That's a little bit my world. I know a little

1922
01:43:42,560 --> 01:43:48,240
Speaker 1: bit about it. With an act that universal, that had

1923
01:43:48,280 --> 01:43:50,560
Speaker 1: an album that's so old twenty million copies, or in

1924
01:43:50,600 --> 01:43:54,639
Speaker 1: the neighborhood thereof what do you do to promote that

1925
01:43:55,479 --> 01:43:58,160
Speaker 1: it is a subject. It's unlike Billy Preston, We Are,

1926
01:43:58,400 --> 01:44:00,559
Speaker 1: you know, taking the lid off in your looking at

1927
01:44:00,600 --> 01:44:03,400
Speaker 1: things that most people don't know. People know a lot

1928
01:44:03,439 --> 01:44:08,240
Speaker 1: about Fleetwood Mac. How do you make this into an event.

1929
01:44:08,560 --> 01:44:11,160
Speaker 5: Into a one one movie. It's not a two parter.

1930
01:44:11,320 --> 01:44:14,360
Speaker 5: That's very difficult to do. That's how very difficult it is.

1931
01:44:14,640 --> 01:44:19,080
Speaker 5: We're doing this with Kennedy Marshall. Frank Marshall's directing We Are.

1932
01:44:19,600 --> 01:44:22,280
Speaker 5: It's the it is the only film that has been

1933
01:44:22,360 --> 01:44:26,840
Speaker 5: authorized by all five members. So we had everybody, you know,

1934
01:44:27,000 --> 01:44:30,040
Speaker 5: we had that not pitch this, We had it all

1935
01:44:30,439 --> 01:44:34,240
Speaker 5: sign sealed and delivered right before we lost Christine. You know,

1936
01:44:34,320 --> 01:44:36,160
Speaker 5: we thought she just had a cold or the flu,

1937
01:44:36,360 --> 01:44:39,160
Speaker 5: and sadly she passed away in twenty twenty two, so

1938
01:44:39,840 --> 01:44:44,759
Speaker 5: that was a shock and surprise. So it is difficult.

1939
01:44:44,920 --> 01:44:48,160
Speaker 5: The answer to your question, It is difficult, just like

1940
01:44:48,240 --> 01:44:52,479
Speaker 5: it's difficult to you know, Bob Dylan, No Direction, Home

1941
01:44:52,600 --> 01:44:57,559
Speaker 5: and and the Beatles eight days a week. It is

1942
01:44:57,640 --> 01:45:01,880
Speaker 5: a difficult subject. Somebody will and even Paul Rotti, you know,

1943
01:45:02,000 --> 01:45:05,479
Speaker 5: somebody will say, undoubtedly will say why didn't you cover

1944
01:45:05,600 --> 01:45:08,040
Speaker 5: this part? And didn't you know the story? And well,

1945
01:45:08,240 --> 01:45:11,519
Speaker 5: we just couldn't fit it into one, uh, you know,

1946
01:45:11,920 --> 01:45:15,000
Speaker 5: under two hours. So it's it's difficult, is what it is.

1947
01:45:15,840 --> 01:45:20,280
Speaker 5: It is. It is a beautiful piece and well and

1948
01:45:20,320 --> 01:45:24,160
Speaker 5: it's not even done yet. So where it's I think

1949
01:45:24,200 --> 01:45:25,120
Speaker 5: you're gonna enjoy it?

1950
01:45:25,640 --> 01:45:25,960
Speaker 1: I do.

1951
01:45:26,200 --> 01:45:27,160
Speaker 5: I hope you're gonna enjoy it.

1952
01:45:27,160 --> 01:45:30,240
Speaker 1: Okay, don't you talk about lessons you got from your professor.

1953
01:45:30,640 --> 01:45:34,320
Speaker 1: I can't even remember I got this lesson. Sometimes you

1954
01:45:34,320 --> 01:45:37,559
Speaker 1: have to leave the best stuff out that it doesn't

1955
01:45:37,640 --> 01:45:38,639
Speaker 1: serve the story.

1956
01:45:39,560 --> 01:45:40,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, high breaking.

1957
01:45:42,760 --> 01:45:46,559
Speaker 1: Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you so

1958
01:45:46,760 --> 01:45:51,200
Speaker 1: much for this intellectual conversation about a truly phenomenal movie.

1959
01:45:51,640 --> 01:45:54,200
Speaker 1: Hopefully this will spread the word. As I say, it

1960
01:45:54,280 --> 01:45:57,519
Speaker 1: is the story of Billy Preston, but as Paris certainly

1961
01:45:57,640 --> 01:46:02,400
Speaker 1: went into depth about, it is a story worry about humanity, loss,

1962
01:46:03,200 --> 01:46:06,400
Speaker 1: how you should treat people. Even if you know nothing

1963
01:46:06,439 --> 01:46:09,559
Speaker 1: about Billy, nothing from nothing, Even if you know nothing

1964
01:46:09,600 --> 01:46:12,800
Speaker 1: about Billy Preston, you will enjoy it and you will

1965
01:46:12,840 --> 01:46:14,960
Speaker 1: come out of fan. You know a lot of people

1966
01:46:15,680 --> 01:46:20,040
Speaker 1: you have to their music is not that accessible. But

1967
01:46:20,160 --> 01:46:24,200
Speaker 1: in Billy's case, it was one accessible performance after another.

1968
01:46:24,920 --> 01:46:27,920
Speaker 1: And these performances by the three of you have been

1969
01:46:28,040 --> 01:46:30,439
Speaker 1: very accessible. And I want to thank you for taking

1970
01:46:30,479 --> 01:46:31,679
Speaker 1: the time with my audience.

1971
01:46:31,960 --> 01:46:32,600
Speaker 5: Oh thank you.

1972
01:46:33,400 --> 01:46:36,080
Speaker 4: Everybody reads you so we're so excited to get on

1973
01:46:36,120 --> 01:46:36,519
Speaker 4: your show.

1974
01:46:36,960 --> 01:46:38,400
Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you.

1975
01:46:38,400 --> 01:46:40,200
Speaker 2: You know how to do this interview? I think, Bob,

1976
01:46:40,240 --> 01:46:42,320
Speaker 2: you might want to think about doing it for a living.

1977
01:46:42,320 --> 01:46:47,120
Speaker 2: You guys, Yeah, you know, I'm.

1978
01:46:46,040 --> 01:46:48,920
Speaker 1: Just going to start. I'm and I answer that because

1979
01:46:48,960 --> 01:46:53,080
Speaker 1: it's something and I talk about with my shrink I

1980
01:46:53,280 --> 01:46:57,080
Speaker 1: find it relatively fruitless to pursue things, even though I

1981
01:46:57,200 --> 01:47:00,160
Speaker 1: know that's the movie business. You got to go out,

1982
01:47:00,200 --> 01:47:05,000
Speaker 1: can you hear no more than yes? So I usually

1983
01:47:05,120 --> 01:47:08,320
Speaker 1: wait until someone's looking for me, because if they're looking

1984
01:47:08,360 --> 01:47:11,240
Speaker 1: for me, they know what the act is. They want me,

1985
01:47:11,680 --> 01:47:14,040
Speaker 1: whereas if they're trying to sell it, it's like, oh,

1986
01:47:14,080 --> 01:47:17,599
Speaker 1: come on, but enough of me, thanks again for doing

1987
01:47:17,720 --> 01:47:22,040
Speaker 1: this until next time. This is bombing websites.