At its core, Giuseppe Makes a Movie is as much about a community as it is about one man who happens to create on average four or five movies a year on tiny budgets. Andrews hires actors literally right of the street — in fact, several of the actors he has the strongest relationships are homeless people.
As such, though the film follows Andrews creating his 2007 film Garbanzo Gas — about a cow who gets an all-expenses-paid trip from the slaughterhouse — it also brings up several poignant themes of exploitation, addiction and poverty. At one point Andrews and his father Ed casually bring up an “ice” (methamphetamine) epidemic in their neighbourhood of Ventura, California, One of Andrews’ favourite subjects to work with, Tyree, spends his days panhandling and his nights getting drunk and sleeping in the bushes.
Andrews is quite the eccentric himself, having destroyed some of his early work and every prop that he has ever used on one of his films. His father Ed appears to be the calming presence of the operation, as well as the wallet, for the most part. Andrews’ actors are all wonderful characters, from the feisty (and incontinent) Tyree to the rambling Vietnam Ron to the eloquent Miles Dougal.
The film’s structure and aesthetic is as eccentric as the films Adam Rifkin is documenting. The whole film looks like it was shot on a cellphone camera (though with much better sound quality) and is frequently intercut with clips from Andrews’ works like Touch Me in the Morning, Trailer Town and Period Piece.
The language used in the films is quite brazen, but also fascinating — Andrews explains that he writes lines with a rhythm, so while the dialogue of his films is frequently about little else than sex, the lines themselves seem like some kind of postmodern poetry.
Andrews was reportedly difficult to work with, and it’s easy to see why, with his disdain for what he thinks are fake “independent filmmakers” and his arguments, sometimes depicted on-screen, with his father (who was once a big studio musician, most notably playing with the Bee Gees).
The film gets to the heart of the question of what creativity is, over a backdrop of poverty and low-budget filmmaking. It’s a candid look into a warped, but ultimately caring, persona.
Giuseppe Makes a Movie is now screening at the 2014 Hot Docs film festival, taking place in Toronto from April 24-30.
