Mid June in Provincetown, MA, an afternoon conversation with Kevin Smith. Later in the day he was awarded a lifetime achievement prize at the festival.
But, before that, Smith offered a lot of noteworthy insights on his sixteen year career, the state of indie film then and now, as well as film criticism today. I asked him if I could record a chunk of our chat and am including a few quotes below. The full transcript of the conversation — 3800 words delivered in just 20 minutes — are at indieWIRE now in my weekly column.
I don’t dislike critics, I’m just like, why are these 100 people any more valid than the people that, I don’t know, the 1.7 million on Twitter, or whatever it is. Or all those cats who pay.
All the mother fuckers who are like, ‘You suck at this’. Fine. You’re right. I’m not a filmmaker, I’m some weird fucking hybrid of something. And right now, film isn’t even the primary conversation for me…it’s just one way to talk to the audience.
I felt like my home world of Krypton was dying, you know what I’m saying? And I threw myself into a rocket and got off just before it fucking exploded? And home world, Krypton, was indie film.
I feel bad for people starting out in indie film right now. It was way easier to get started back in ‘94, otherwise I wouldn’t be here talking to you.
You know, everyone got real fat and happy for a while, and then suddenly, nobody put away for the winter. I don’t know what to call it but the good times are over. Really, really over. Which is—you know—a shame, but the good news is, I mean, you can look at my own career or anybody’s career, the best work always comes out of lean desperate times.
photo courtesy bruce gilbert
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
