Interview: Tristen Patterson (Dragonslayer)

[Editor’s note: this was originally published around the time of this year’s Hot Docs Film Festival.]

At this year’s Hot Docs I had the wonderful opportunity to see Dragonslayer, a doc that garnered an insane amount of buzz after its premier at SXSW earlier this year. Following the fest I had a chance to interview the craftsmen behind the feature, director Tristen Patterson. Executive produced by Killer Films’ Christine Vachon, his film was my favorite doc of the fest, and others agreed, as it took home the Best International Feature prize. Here’s an emailer interview with the filmmaker.

Jordon M. Smith: First, I wanted to congratulate you on the SXSW Jury Prize for Best Doc and Best Cinematography awards you raked in earlier this year. Despite just recently premiering, I’ve heard quite a lot of buzz about the film. Are you surprised at how well the film is being received?
Tristen Patterson: I’m surprised and humbled by how well the film is being received. I spent two years of my life making it with a crew of two. We had no money, no resources, nothing. We were totally off the reservation but we persevered, I think, because we all believed we were making a new kind of movie, something that we’d never seen before and desperately wanted to see. Just finishing it felt like total victory, so now to be able to travel with it and show it to all different kinds of people, I’m still in a state of awe every time I watch a theater fill with strangers. It’s wild.

Smith: The film appears to appeal to a wide variety of audiences, from kids who are just interested in the skateboarding scene to film buffs looking at it from a technical point of view. I think Dragonslayer’s biggest appeal is that it’s a doc that plays more like a fictional indie film. Obviously this is due to a variety of reasons like the way its numerically structured and edited, its odd lead in Skreech (Josh Sandoval), who says a number of great one liners that sound like they were written just for him, his French New Wave-esque girlfriend Leslie, who maintains a cool power over the uncontrollable Skreech, and most notably the way the film is shot. Did you purposely try to do this, or as you were making it just realize it was happening organically? Also, I know you have a background in screen writing. Do you think this may have caused you to want to shape the story a certain way?
Patterson: I wanted to make a movie that was cinematically alive, and yet also absolutely authentic to Skreech’s experience. Going in, I imagined it might kind of feel like the first album from some weirdo punk band you love that no one else even knows about yet. Maybe the recording gets a little fucked up here and there, or a track gets interrupted by cops banging on the door, but then out of nowhere, a moment crystallizes and something strange and beautiful takes hold. That was the movie I wanted to see. It sounds kind of absurd to say, but making it was really about figuring out how to make it. I don’t think my background as a writer caused me to shape the story one way, or another way—the story was always going to be whatever it revealed itself to be—but I do think it maybe gave me confidence to have faith that I would be able to see it, as it was happening, quicker than someone else might be able too. Leslie is a good example of this. I mean, it’s not everyday Jean Seberg shows up at a skatepark in Fullerton! But that doesn’t matter. What matters is Skreech already knew her. He was already over the fence telling her how “super-red” her lips were before I’d even met her. For me, that moment’s the ultimate confirmation I had chosen the right subject, and maybe also an apt metaphor for the process of making this movie. I trusted in Skreech and got it on film.

Smith: Could you explain what made you shift your interest from fictional stories to wanting to make a documentary about a lost skater punk, who is a new father in a bad relationship?
Patterson: I don’t really draw that kind of distinction. For me, the ambition is simply to make movies I care about. I like things that take risks and have a point of view that’s all their own.

Smith: When you started to shoot, did you have any guesses as to how the film might end up? Could you have guessed how it panned out?
Patterson: I had no clue how the film might end and I never would have guessed how it panned out!

Smith: Have you kept in contact with Josh and Leslie?
Patterson: Yes, I’ve kept in contact with Josh and Leslie. Josh just opened a skateboard pawn-shop called Wooden Toys. I can’t wait to see it and find out what the fuck a skateboard pawn-shop is.

Smith: I’m an audiophile with a love of all things music, but an affinity for doom and punk cranked to the high heavens, and the second the title screen flashed with its obscenely loud hum and feedback, I was locked in. The way the film’s natural music within scenes was mixed with your own system testing soundtrack worked wonders for me. It seems to be giving a sense of time and place zipping by with its contrast in sheer volume. How did you go about selecting songs for the soundtrack?
Patterson: The music that plays over the title is from T Griffen, and I agree, it’s totally obscene and probably my favorite moment in the movie! He recorded the entire score on a 4-track. And he deserves so much credit because I put him through hell. I don’t think I’ve ever worked with someone who had such a fluid, pure and adaptable creativity.

As for the soundtrack, I knew I wanted to end the movie with Dungen’s “Panda.” I can’t explain it. Something about Swedish just felt absolutely correct. They’re signed to this label Kemado/Mexican Summer that’s based out of Williamsburg and luckily my producer knew the guy Andres who runs the label. We started combing through their archives, and it was just a treasure chest. Everything fit perfectly. I’d been using all this temp stuff—The Screamers covering Sonny & Cher, The Vaselines, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band—and I was really attached to it, but there was something about keeping the music present-tense that I think really helps the film. It’s a movie that’s happening right now, with music that is being played right now.

Smith: What were your biggest influences in the creation of the film?
Patterson: I’ve talked a lot about the influence of youth-in-revolt movies like Over The Edge and The River’s Edge on Dragonslayer. Or Dennis Hopper’s Out of The Blue is another one. Its finally getting released on DVD and I can’t recommend that movie enough! Linda Manz is the definition of punk in that movie! When I met Skreech, he struck me as maybe a similar kind of person. So I think because I’d seen and loved fictional characters living in roughly approximate worlds, I was instantly interested in Skreech as a protagonist and compelled to find out what that kind of experience truly feels like. But all that being said, there’s no question, Skreech was the biggest influence in the creation of the film. How could I capture his experience authentically? That was how I defined success.

Smith: Have you had any interest in distribution yet?
Patterson: Yes. I can’t wait to announce it officially. I will say, I think we have the coolest theatrical distributor on planet earth. They’ve done so much awesome shit that’s had such an impact on me, I’m so psyched they’re going to get behind this weirdo movie I made!

Smith: Do you have any other projects lined up for the near future?
Patterson: Yes. There’s a feature I wrote called Electric Slide. It’s a true story set in 1983 Los Angeles about a bank robber. I want it to feel like a neon dream caught on a VHS tape.

Smith: Side note, have you ever heard Japandroid’s record,”Post-Nothing”? This film makes me feel the same way that record makes me feel. Summertime nostalgia, with looming realizations of responsibility. If you haven’t heard it you should really check it out. Also, their 7” “Younger Us” fits right it.?
Patterson: I FINALLY listened to it while FINALLY answering these questions! Thanks for the recommendation!

Look for Tristen Patterson’s Dragonslayer on the film festival circuit with a distribution deal announcement to be made soon.