Interview: Jeff Feuerzeig

If you ever wanted to experience what is it like to walk that thin line between genius and madness than go and experience The Devil and Daniel Johnston.

Daniel Johnston is a musician known throughout the world for both his comic book style artwork and his songs of unrequited love. Many underground music fans in America are familiar with him, but mainstream America has somehow overlooked his body of work. Maybe that is because he spent a large part of his life in and out of mental institutions fighting his maniac depression and the beckoning of the Devil.

Currently he is out of the hospital, on medication and readily enjoying the exposure he is getting with a documentary film about his life and work opening in the theaters, an exhibition of his prolific art at the Whitney Museum, a world wide musical tour and an endless amount of press. It is a long cry from throwing the keys of his father’s plane out the window while the plane was in mid-air after playing at South by South West Music festival. His biography is worth checking out online, but go and see the film to experience it first hand.

The vicarious experience you feel while watching The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a credit to the director Jeff Feuerzeig’s filmmaking techniques. His point-of-view camera style and a sound design that plays like voices in your head makes this film-going experience better than any amusement park ride. Daniel Johnston recorded his life on audio cassettes, super 8mm films, flip books, artwork, video segments, and photos, nearly everything and anything he could since he was in his teens and Jeff Feuerzeig went through it all for the sake of the film and for benefit of the audience.

Here is my interview with Jeff Feuerzeig conducted at the Sony Picture Classics headquarters here in New York.

Justin Ambrosino: Why did you make the choice to tell the story in chronological order?
Jeff Feuerzeig: It felt like the right way to experience the evolution of Daniel Johnston. He left behind the materials in order to do that. You couldn’t make a film like this about John Lennon. There is no footage or sound of him as a young teenage boy. There is of Daniel Johnston. So it’s a rare opportunity to go all the way backwards in an artist’s life and watch the evolution. To see how vibrant he was as a young kid. That’s how I wanted everyone to experience this visionary artist.

JA: There is so much material, piles and piles of audio tapes and art work, to rummage through to make this film; did you personally go through everything?
JF: Of course. Everything that was available. It is probably one of the great archives ever discovered of an artist. He recorded nearly his entire life on cassette tape. I went through hundreds of these tapes and transcribed them all; hundreds of hours. I assembled an internal monologue so you can experience his life as he recorded it. There were Super 8mm films, slides, photos, video footage that all documented his life. I was able to put together the pieces of the puzzle and I was able to know what he was thinking or feeling or doing at any moment because it was somehow documented in one medium or another.

JA: Can you talk a bit about the process from when you first came up with the idea until you began production?
JF: I got the idea to make this film in 1990 but I didn’t start making the film until the year 2000. But it’s not true that I was thinking about the film everyday for ten years. Back in 1990, it wasn’t really possible to make it and it shouldn’t have been made then because Daniel Johnston was still in the hospital and he didn’t have an act three in his life. No one knew if he’d live, but he lived. He has gone on now to see his art and his music being appreciated by thousands of people all over the world.

JA: This film is a filmmaker’s film in the sense that you make use of all the techniques available to you, in particular I am talking the sound design. Sound is sometimes put in the background, filmmakers are afraid to take chances with it, but not you. Can you talk a bit of where that commitment to sound comes from?
JF: I started off as a film editor and as a musician. I really believe that sound is, if not half as important but even more important than the picture. I really believe in sound, sound design, music, ambient effects and using the five speakers in a surround theatre to create a visceral experience to compliment the picture. I try to use sound to make my film interesting, innovative, exciting and in this case intimate.

JA: When I left the theater, after the press screening, another member of the press came up to me and told me that he felt disturbed after viewing the film, is that the kind of reaction you want from the audience?
JF: It’s very gratifying that people are affected by the film. That says something about the film, but also of Daniel Johnston's art and music, his tragedies and dramas, and the highs and lows of his life. So if we have done that than that is a success. Disturbed is one word. A lot of people are enlightened. I’ve seen people laughing and I’ve seen audiences crying, especially during the plane crash. So yeah, it’s quite a journey, it’s a saga. That’s why I go to the cinema – to laugh, to cry, and sometimes to be scared. The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a bit of a horror movie, Daniel gets second billing. The Devil is the antagonist. This is probably the first film where the Devil is actually real because it’s a documentary. To me, the Devil is a metaphor for his manic depression, but Daniel and his family are rightwing, fundamentalist Christians and for them the Devil is very real. And when you are in that theatre you will see how real the Devil is too him. Maybe that is why it’s disturbing or scary.

JA: Why did you choose to shoot that last concert scene in black and white film?
JF: It’s book ended. In the beginning of the film that concert opens up the film and then we close with it. Honestly it was a homage to D.A. Pennebaker’s “Don’t Look Back”. It’s a homage to Dylan because in many ways to a young generation Daniel is their Bob Dylan. Daniel was very much inspired by Dylan. This film needed to be shot on film in order to elevate the fragile beauty of Daniel Johnston’s art and music. The film needed to live up to the power of what he created and that wasn’t going to happen using a cheap DV medium. It wasn’t that kind of a story.

JA: Many new documentary filmmakers are sometime in awe that a documentary was filmed using film, with the constant changing of the film magazines and heavy equipment. Can you explain the experience of shooting a documentary on film and not digitally?
JF: Documentary films have been made on film since film history began. The Mayles and Pennebaker were able to make great documentaries shooting film so I don’t know where this crazy notion that got into everyone’s head that it’s too difficult. Difficulty is part of the journey of filmmaking. Filmmaking is not easy and it shouldn’t be. I’m a filmmaker and I’ve been shooting film since I got out of film school in 86 and I like composing film, lighting film, shooting film, controlling my depth of field and using lenses. That’s what you do with Super 16mm, 35mm or Super 8mm film cameras. These are the tools I use.

JA: Were there any interviews that you left out?
JF: Not really. Everyone that I’ve talked to is basically in the film. Obviously there are hours and hours of footage not in the film, but everything I wanted to be in the film is in the film. There will be incredible stuff on the bonus DVD – deleted scenes, things like that.

JA: Has Daniel Johnston seen it?
JF: Yeah, sure.

JA: How did he feel about it?
JF: He has been making this film his entire life. He was probably just waiting for me to come along and finish the job and collaborate with him because he couldn’t have done it himself. He’s not well. And it’s better to have someone else tell your story, but he worked with me. He saw it at Sundance and he loved it. He said he loved the colors. He thought the film looked beautiful. He also thought the film should have a laugh track – he likes to be funny.

Sony Pictures Classics releases The Devil and Daniel Johnston on March 31st (tomorrow!) in New York and Los Angeles with a wider release to occur in the weeks to come.