A Critical Cinema 2: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers

The film community in Holland at that time was very active, and I think the museum there had scheduled eighteen film showings for us in about three weeks. We would get on a train, travel to a new city, be met by people, be taken out to dinner, do a film showing that night. Sometimes we'd have a day in between, but usually the next morning we'd go someplace else. Sometimes there were small groups in basements with a little projector and screen, but often there were big auditoriums. David was in England when I went to The Hague for a show. I was met at the train station by three middle-aged businessmen, very seriousart collectors, very interested in independent film. We had a wonderful dinner

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together. Driving to the screening, we passed a cinema and there was a long line of people waiting out in front and a big marquee. I casually asked what the performance was that night. They said, "That's where

your

films are being shown." At the beginning of the show, I got up and did an introduction in Englishmost Dutch people speak English. As usual, it was a very attentive crowd. I was grateful that I had already been on the road for a while so that my presentation was quite polished. As usual, I said that there was a film about cunts and recommended that people who would be uncomfortable might at that point get up and leave. I also mentioned that it was a silent film, and then I went back and sat down in the middle of the theater with the three businessmen, one of whom was the minister of art or the equivalent for the Netherlands. The films came on

Chakra

was fourth or fifth in the program. There were some wonderful movies in that program: Scott Bartlett's

Stand Up and Be Counted

[1969], Neal White's

Putting the Babies Back (Part II)

a collection of great films from Canyon Cinema.

When

Chakra

came on, at first there was a total hush, no coughing, no movement, nothing at all happening. Then I could hear voices making jokes, though, of course, I couldn't understand them because they were in Dutch. Every once in a while you'd hear a deep male voice say something obviously obscene, and a ripple of laughter would move through the crowd. I didn't know where the voices were coming from. It turned out that the professional projectionists weren't used to projecting silent films, and they hadn't realized that when they made loud comments up in the projection booth, their comments would trickle down on everybody. I really loved that because the audience could sense the difference between their experience of the film and the experience of these guys up in the projection booth watching it and respondingthey thoughtprivately. I was disappointed when the minister of art went up and made them stop.

At the end of that screening, I went up on stage to answer questions, and, of course, a lot of the questions were about

Chakra

. When I talked about

Chakra,

as usual, I used the word "cunt." Afterward, the minister and I were photographed, smiling and shaking handsthe classic newspaper photograph. It appeared in the paper the next day, quoting the minister as saying, "I, too, am very interested in cunt." [laughter] I wish I still had that clipping.

MacDonald:

How was

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received in this country? Were there memorable screenings?

Severson:

Oh yes! After I'd been traveling in Europe for a year, I came back to the States briefly and was invited to be a judge at Ann Arbor, which at that time was

the

big independent film festival.

Riverbody

had won first prize there in 1970. In fact, that's when I started

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taking myself seriously as a filmmaker. When I had finished

Chakra,

I sent it to Ann Arbor, and I hadn't heard anything about it. I assumed they didn't like it. The next year when I came to be a judge, I heard incredible stories about

Chakra

being screened there the year before. Apparently I had been invited to be a judge because the board of the festival wanted to see the person who made

that

movie.

I learned that at the previous festival the judges couldn't agree to give

Chakra