• DECONSTRUCTING DAD •

I recently received an email from a young woman who had seen the film on a preview DVD–not a critic or filmmaker, just someone who had an opportunity to view. But her comments struck me as so gratifying that I felt I should post them here. It’s tremendously satisfying to me that she perceived the film pretty much as I’ve hoped people would and that the film can appeal to those who don’t have a prior knowledge of Raymond Scott or a particular interest in electronic or swing music, animation etc. beforehand (of course I want the film to appeal to those people too!). Here’s what she wrote:

“Just saw the documentary…..I must say it was an experience for me. I’m 25 years old and I grew up listening to your dad without even knowing! It was wonderful to know how electronic music started and it was delightful to acknowledge the genius that he was. The film is beautifully made, so personal, loved the photographs and interviews, I almost felt like I was there, behind the camera with you! He was a truly fascinating man and I left the theatre thinking “everyone has to know him, and what he’s done”. Thank you for showing me another person to really admire. All the best!!!”

From Stan:

I recently sent Leonard Maltin, one of the country’s most recognized and respected movie critics and historians, a preview DVD in hopes he would screen the film.  Very gratified to report that he has, and here’s his reaction:

”A fascinating look at a musical genius and the way he lived his life. Stan Warnow allows us to share his journey of discovery as he pieces together the story of his father. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

It’s a real thrill for me to get such positive feedback from one of the best known film critics in America!

I finally have a few minutes to report on the festival.  It was a great experience and the film was very well received at our screening–which was attended by a good mix of other filmmakers and the local audience, and a whole new group of people now knows about the music and life of Raymond Scott.  There were lots of good comments and discussion afterwards and some other filmmakers were very enthusiastic about the film.

It was also a really enjoyable to participate in other festival events as jury member, and  there were panels about music in film and the Woodstock film that were a trip back in time for me.
I’m now making some further revisions on the film but will be locking it up within the next few weeks as I now have a mix scheduled for early August.

I’ll be posting more as news develops….

Deconstructing Dad has been selected for showing at the Biografilm Festival  (website is only in Italian) in Bologna, Italy!   In many ways this is the ideal festival for my film because it is a “celebration of lives,” and it’s always been my intent for my film to celebrate my father’s life as whole, not just one of its many and varied phases.  The festival runs June 10-15, and the film is scheduled for showing on the Friday, June 12th, and I am going  to be there.  I will actually be there for the whole festival, as  coincidentally this year’s festival also is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival, and as I was a cameraman and editor on that film, they’ve also asked me to participate in their Woodstock events.  And as my film is being shown out of competition, they’ve also invited me to be a Juror for the films in competition.  So it will be a busy week, but one I’m really looking forward to….

I’ll be postiing more news as it develops….and in looking at this site tonight I realized I hadn’t posted in over three months.  The main  reason for that is that this is very much of a one man operation, and there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything I need to do, and my highest priority has to be working on the film.  Also,  there hasn’t been much new until this recent festival development.  Once I finish the final version of the film, which should be fairly soon, I’ll have more time to keep this site up to date!

Yup, after a lot of discussion and thought I’ve decided to retitle the film!  (This is news that I referred to in my previous post).There are a lot of reasons for this–while I liked the old title of Raymond Scott–On To Something, there was something undeniably vague about it, and if you happened to be distracted when my half-sister Deb spoke that phrase in the beginning of the film, it would always be a mystery.  And in fact at one of my screenings for an old friend, that’s exactly what happened–at the end he asked me why I had used the title, he didn’t understand it. 

Also, the original title, while intriguing in it’s way,  didn’t really convey enough about what the film was about, in particular that it was a film made by one of the children of the subject.   Now, it does, and I did want to make that aspect of it clear.   And finally, there are some other, family related reasons for the change as well, and perhaps I’ll go into those at a later date

If any readers out there have thoughts about this new title I’m certainly interested in learning about them, comments are welcome.