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Definition: "A mobile, makeshift, volunteer-run venue for experimental, independent and other underrepresented forms of film and (occasionally) video making."
I was browsing through web pages one day and happened to find a link to a "Basement
Films" running out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. "Well hell, that's right next
door," I said. So I sent them a message and a couple of months later we were
guests at their 4th Semiannual Film and Video Showcase at the Harwood Art Center.
It was pretty kick-ass, too, for something that makes just enough money to keep
running. And that's really how they want to keep it, from what I understand.
Of course, they would love to make more dough, but they would much rather keep
the D.I.Y. and punk rock ethics over being commercial bums. That's what it's
about, too. Film, by the people for the people. What more could you ask for?
Not only were we treated to a great show, but we also had the opportunity to
share some drinks with them at an after-show gathering which ran into the wee
hours of the morning. Then it was up at 9am to meet most of the crew for breakfast.
All of us were kind of bleary-eyed and slow-moving, but we managed to get a
few questions asked and a lot of answers in return.
SC: How did you become involved with Basement films?
Nathan Keay: I've been involved with Basement Films since probably around
December and I got in Basement Films because I was trying to do the same thing
in Saint Louis...um...unsuccesfully...um...and I guess I've been in town for
about six months and I was excited that something like Basement Films was around
and I kind of forced my way in. When they found out that I worked at a copy
center, it was the final kicker.
Virgil Rhames: I got involved with Basement Films through showing work
with them at a place called Taos Talking Pictures, a film festival, and just
went to a lot of shows and hung out. I kind of unofficially do some sound work
with them so it's kind of fun that way. It's fun in an UNOFFICIAL way, but you
know...I go to meetings, get drunk with Keif, wake up with him in the morning...it's...you
see, you get to know people that way! It's really good; I like Basement Films.
Matt Cowan: DJ's eating, so I'll talk for DJ. DJ Burt. DJ's been involved
for about 3, 4 months. He's my roommate. I make him come. In more ways than
one! DJ adds this special touch to the group that no one else could. His good
cheer, his dog Misha (who's prettier than all of us), and a slight odor that
can't be matched in any other way.
Keif: Plus him and Virgil are the best dancers out of the group.
Virgil: Solid Gold Dancers.
Matt:They're the hottest dancers around. Is there anything else that
you wanted to add to that?
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DJ: OK.
Matt: I've been in Basement Films for a little over five years now. I
started when I moved to Albuquerque and I actually had seen an ad for Basement
Films when I was visiting and I was like, "OK, there's something going
on in this town." So I went down to the show and I was like, "Sign me up, I
want to help", and that was it, the beginning.
Keif Henley: In 1992, I had a friend who took me over to his friend's
studio out on 4th street and I noticed that the guy who was sharing the space
with the friend's friend had some projectors and was talking about showing some
movies just on this little projector. I think the movie was Slackers.
It had not come to town and it looked like it wasn't going to come to town and
they were like, "We can get a 16mm print of this, so let's show it." So Basement
Films kind of started as some kind of thing where they weren't showing these
films that we all wanted to see, at least, "we all" being a small group of people.
So I got on the mailing list and he would send me stuff and I just went to enough
of them and he started having me do the door and things like that and I just
took a lot of interest in it. So I got involved that way.
SC: What were their names?
Keif: David Nelson and Elizabeth Haus. She moved out of town and he asked
Matt and I to help out. Then David eventually went to Shreveport for family
business matters so it was dropped in Matt's and my lap and that's about the
story of it. Since 1992 and most recently it's the most ambitious that it's
been. It used to be we would just program other people's works, but now there
like this sort of co-op edge that people want to put into it where we do more
than just program other people's films.
SC: Like what?
Keif: Well, supposedly we're going to do this project with the Harwood
called vehicle, which is all about transportation -- this is an example. What
we're going to do is carry a multiple Super 8 camera in a car and film simultaneously
-- if I've got the concept right. I think Matt can clarify this better; he had
a better idea of it -- and then sort of simulate it; reproduce it. Also, we're
kind of a resource center for foundations, grants and other places to show your
work. That's something that was not the case when David, myself and Matt...it
was all we could do just to do shows...but now it's become a lot more...
Virgil: We do it every week.
Keif: Yeah, it feels like it. At least once a month is when we do it.
Matt: Lately it's been every week.
Keif: So we want to get involved in assisting other film makers, maybe
get their works shown. That's always been the case, and doing workshops on how
to do low budget films.
SC: You just started from showing films and now it's turned into this
whole big production. So how far along are you into starting these workshops?
Keif: We have one on July 26. Kevin Wiggins. It's a thing called How
to Spend Your Low Budget Money. He's a guy that's worked on everything from
like high end industry jobs; like he was JFK in that movie Ruby. Production
Assistant, Grip, all the way to like these low budget obscurities. So he's run
the whole gamut. He's seen a lot of people waste their money, so I feel like
he's qualified to do a workshop.
Matt: And it's only 10 bucks for like 4 hours.
SC: In the early days, did you mainly deal with the local
scene or were you bringing in films from out of town?
Keif: At first it was more showing experimental underground stuff and
then David Nelson talked about a film community sense and not just the selfish
need to watch these avant-garde films. So Matt and I put on the first local
film and video showcase back in, I think, '93. A lot of people showed up and
it seemed like a good thing to do it in a non-juried, non-competitive style,
although sometimes we argue about that.
SC: For these shows do you basically show whatever you get?
What kind of criteria do you have for selecting films that you show?
Keif: We haven't turned down very much. For a local show we never have.
There's enough juried competition going on in the world.
Matt: We do get tapes that we don't show.
Keif: I kind of like to pass the film around to everybody and if some
one feels strongly about it, then we'll do it and if not... Now that we're on
the internet I think that we'll get a big increase in submissions, so... There's
a lot of BAD independent work out there. (laughs) If there was one word that
I would take off our synopsis, it would be the word "Independent" because a
lot of independent features, they're not a real radical departure from what
you see at the Cineplexes.
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SC: You're most interested in real avant garde stuff, in
general?
Keif: Well that's my interest...and the documentary and stuff like that.
Virgil: It's the stuff that's going to have a hard time getting out there.
Keif: It's just providing a forum for voices.
SC: What personally do you all want to gain out of doing this?
Virgil: To meet the ladies!
Matt: Yeah, that's what we're all about!
(Laughter, Ha-ha-ha)
Virgil: Conquest.
Keif: The most gratifying thing is meeting the filmmaker and spending
time with that person. It just reminds you that there's more than just your
little test tube of life, to meet these people on the road. Especially when
Eric Saks comes to town.
Matt: Meeting the people and hanging out with them is really the best
part. Seeing the films is definitely a large part of it. You know, half of the
top ten films that I've seen in the last year have been Basement Film shows.
Well, actually 2 of the best 4 films I've seen have been Basement Films.
Nathan: Like Titanic for instance.
Matt: (Laughs) Yeah, Titanic and we won't go into the other one.
No, it was the Martha Colburn/James Schneider , that was one of the best shows
I've seen; that and Gummo are the 2 best movies that I've seen in the
last year. And after the Martha Colburn/James Schneider film we went out and
drank a beer and hung out and went to breakfast. It's just fun to meet them
when they're touring and having a good time. That's what I like about it.
Virgil: I think you're right.
SC: So what are the different types of events you all have
hosted?
Virgil: Super 8 film festival...
Keif: Nathan's going to organize I think the fourth round of short films
of live local musicians. They stand off to the side and provide live soundtracks.
Maybe Virgil will be getting these German experimental films from the Embassy.
Virgil: We're working on that; still getting some information.
Nathan: We'd like to do a drive-in caravan.
Keif: We'll go to the nearest drive-in -- either Carlsbad or Las Vegas.
SC: So have you had pretty good turnouts for all of your
shows?
Keif: It varies. Lately it's been good though.
Matt: It's been really consistent lately.
Nathan: It's mainly local people. Usually about 30 people. The one from
Santa Fe, she had 30 people at her show. She was really obscure, too, no one
knew who she was.
Matt: There's always a turnout. Which is good. Did we have any shows
that were a total bust?
Keif: Yeah, Alan Fulford and myself taught a Super 8 class for kids.
We showed the end results after the end of the class. A few of the parents showed
up, but hardly anybody outside of that. That was a real bust. That's funny because
we went from having the biggest turnout we ever had with Alyce Wittenstein.
We did 2 nights of 120+ people. And that's where we learned to take more of
a cut at the door, by the way too. (laugh) We went from that all the way to
the children's Super 8 workshop...(interrupted by noisy motorcycle)...hey, he's
on our mailing list...lately it's been pretty consistent. We have a mailing
list of about 300 people. Press releases to the Weekly Alibi, which is a free
wrag in town, and the other big papers.
SC: Do you ever plan on breaking out of the Albuquerque
area and trying to go more national?
Keif: Me personally, no. To me it's like that's somebody else's job.
Matt: In what sense?
SC: Well, like advertising nationally or having a big film
fest where people come from all over the world.
Keif: Matt's talked about that.
Nathan: Maybe we should tour.
Keif: Well, we do in a way. We go up to Taos, we go up to Santa Fe. We've
done many tours.
Matt: We've gone to Carlsbad.
Keif: We were kind of showing more film loops and found footage and things
like that. It wasn't specifically one persons vision, so to speak.
SC: So tell me about your equipment; technically what's
involved with putting these things together.
Keif: Well, I don't know if I want to demystify ourselves. You know,
I kind of like the underground coveted status of people not knowing...
Virgil: ...Oooo, those guys work with PROJECTORS...
Keif: See if I tell you our secrets then all of a sudden you'll be trying
to out do us and then I'll have to kill you. No, it's a lot of rummaging --
we've got to be something for nothing. We run on so little money. I mean we're
working on next to nothing.
SC: Do you ever hope for or foresee that it will be self-supporting
where you can actually make a living?
Keif: Mmm, maybe. It's like here there's not a real preexisting community
for experimental films as there would be in San Francisco. So you kind of have
to cultivate it, and that's the nice challenge of it. And I like getting the
whole demographic of people. I would like to think that we're not just getting
a certain clique of people, but getting a whole range...
Matt: I want to try to get a bunch of old silent westerns. I think that
would be a good show at a BFW host lounge. We could get a different kind of
crowd in there, not just like the artsy film crowd.
SC: Hey Matt, what's your dream for Basement Films; what
do you foresee?
Matt: My dream for Basement Films is for Keif to be able to make like
a super fat living off of it.
SC: For Keif? Awww.
(...Awww... )
Matt: As soon as we get through getting the nonprofit status, which is
becoming a BIG pain in the ass, we can start writing for grants and we'll be
able to get grants very easily, I think. I don't think we'll have any problem
getting grant money, you know, to start paying someone a salary.
Keif: Yeah, there's a certain freedom to doing it renegade style and
you don't have to answer up as much and you don't have to play the charade of
official nonprofit bourgeois art administrators. That's what they're probably
going to want us to be. But lately it's reached a point where it was taking
too much money and time out of my pocket. I'm willing to volunteer. I would
definitely work this for minimum wage. I thought about simplifying things. I
mean there's a whole history of amateur film clubs which is kind of where we
come from, and all the other venue around the country, in that we don't have
an industrial standard, we couldn't rise to that standard, probably we would
not want to rise to that standard -- we'd want to set our own standards for
it. We're not working with digital equipment and theater projectors which are
at least $7,000-10,000 sometimes. I like the portable aspect of it, even though
it's a pain in the ass sometimes, but that kind of gives it some kind of distinction
from the Southwest Film Center (which also can at times program really good
experimental film works). It's kind of like taking the religion out of the church.
It's not so much what you say, it's how you say it, too.
SC: So what have been some major trials and tribulations
of working with Basement Films?
Keif: Well, some of it's like delegating responsibilities, and I feel
like with seven people all we have to do is put in an hour a week at the most
and this thing can fly, this thing can cruise. So...organization...the organization
of it all; that's our trials and tribulations. Well, also it really burns my
hide when the equipment goes down and we have to give our money back -- we've
only had to do that one time...
SC: So do you all feel that you're getting enough out of
all the work you're putting in? Is it all worth it for you?
(well, umm, eee, aaa)
(laughter)
Virgil: Is it worth it guys? Is it worth it guys?? Is it worth it?
Keif: You know, I would like to say that we work best when filmmakers
come through town with this sort of like--this is maybe a neg0ative term to
us--but like with a folk art sensibility where it's trying to make movie-making
a folk art again where it's by the people for the people. Where the general
public cannot only make movies but they can make movies that the other general
public can watch. Usually it happens in a small community. Right now, generally
speaking, our wide scale general public watches movies like Lost World
and stuff like that, you know, things that they could never make; it's a very
specialized world. And that's not necessarily a totally bad thing -- there's
something to respect about craftsmanship and skills and everything, but it's
out of hand; it's out of balance. And so I like bringing filming back to the
folk art element.
Matt: Bringing it home...
Keif: I was talking to a guy who does programming at the Southwest Film
Center and he was like, "It never had a folk art element -- a little bit in
the 60's and 70's, but it's always been kind of a specialized thing." We do
home movie nights where we invited people bring their home movies, but generally
speaking, they're not worthy of public consumption.
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SC: So in your individual opinions, what really makes a
good film?
Keif: You know, if I can hog the airwaves here again...To me a lot of
times I see a lot of independent work where what's done is done out of default.
It's kind of like "Oh, if I could only have blown it up to 35[mm]; If we only
could have had a steady cam in that shot; blah, blah, blah." What I like is
work that stands on its own like "No, I meant to shoot that on Super 8."
Nathan: It's hard to pick and choose; you are making a judgment
call.
Matt: It's hard to say what makes a good film. As soon as you say that
it needs something like this, you see someone who does it completely differently
and you're like, "That's fucking great film." It doesn't seem like people are
really trying anything different other than like, Woody Allen. He's the only
major person that I've seen do anything interesting, you know, he's had people
out of focus in his film and like he's willing to throw in junk cuts.
Keif: And then there's Jean Luc Goddard, but he's such a crackpot eccentric
in a lot of people's eyes. People will show up to see his movies just because
of his name. I still think that he's an interesting filmmaker.
SC: So what do you want to do when you grow up, Nathan?
Nathan: I like the grassroots organizations like Basement Films and the
Harwood. It's something that I want to stay involved with for my whole life.
I think it's really important; I think it's a necessity -- involving the community
in an arts program. It's a great thing.
SC: Virgil?
Virgil: Art. I'm an artist. I mean, I want to be an artist.
SC: What medium?
Virgil: Multimedia. Whatever. I mean, you can be an artist and work in
different mediums. It's about expression -- expressing yourself. There's a part
of me that wants to be somewhat of a revolutionary, like make things change,
or to see things change for the better or maybe even newer.
Nathan: Better red than dead.
Virgil: (jokingly) Yep. I'm a revolutionary and I'm gonna take
all of the commies with me. So, just like being here. You can get really bored
and say, "oh, there's nothing going on," but that's not true because you've
got to make it happen, basically. So, you make it as busy as you want it to
be; you can make your life as hectic as you want it to be. You find that you
have the ability to do what you want to do. You don't have to rely on school
or anything like that. So, just doing it yourself, you know, that's what I want
to do for the rest of my like. Do my own thing and not have to worry about my
boss or anything like that. I've got my path and I know what's happening.
Matt: I guess I want to be a filmmaker. I'd like to get wealthy and live
a cush life and support all of my friends. I think I'll have a house in Mexico.
Virgil: We're all working for Matt!
Matt: I'd like to have a high-paying job and make my own work with the
money that I make and not have to deal with raising money for stuff and just
doing it cheap.
Keif: I'm somewhat close to doing what I want to do with my life. I would
like to be doing more film and video work and I haven't been able to do that
for various reasons. I'm still curious about a lot of different mediums -- film
happens to be the one I'm most interested in -- I'm curious about all kinds
of artistic expression.
SC: What are your favorite filmmakers? What in film really
gets you excited?
Virgil: Harmony Korine really gets me off.
Matt: Gummo. He's the man of the moment in film as far as I'm concerned.
He wrote Kids. He's the only thing that's really gotten me off in a while.
Nathan: Wim Wenders for me. Pretty films, good stories about relationships.
Terry Gilliam as a director, he's got some nice visuals.
Matt: Gus Vanzant. I haven't seen Good Will Hunting yet, but he
did Drugstore Cowboy and Malo Noche, My Own Private Idaho, Even Cowgirls
Get the Blues.
Keif: Everybody from what they call the "European Masters": Godard, Buñuel,
and we've got to throw in Fellini. People like Craig Baldwin, Jennifer Reeves,
Bill Morrison's stuff I really like a lot, James Schneider, Martha Colburn,
Eric Saks, I think is really one of the best -- so there's a wide range.
SC: You guys put together a resource guide; what is in that?
Keif: That has information on foundations, grants, places to show your
work, festivals.
SC: Do you have any concerns about censorship?
Virgil: Have we ever had any problems with censorship? I don't think
we have. The people who come out to these shows are pretty liberal.
