‘A Guided Tour across a Decade of American Independent Cinema..’
I have sat through more films than I care to mention. I have also spent hours pouring over various articles, essays and reviews based around cinema, as well as a bunch of podcasts on the same subject. One area of the theatrical canon that I have never really explored however is books about cinema. In an attempt to address this gap in my cinematic knowledge, I bought a bunch of books at the start of lockdown three that I thought might be useful. Spike, Mike, Slackers, & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema was the first one I read, and in an unlikely turn of events, I do feel smarter as a result of this. Maybe you can polish a turd after all…
John Pierson worked as a producer and as a rep (someone who acts as a go between for the filmmakers and the studios) during the 80s and 90s. In that time, he helped to launch the careers of Spike Lee, Richard Linklater and Kevin Smith. Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes is his painstaking attempt to recreate those heady days for the reader. This means lots of talk about fiscal negotiation and the art of the deal, but also a lot of talk about the movies themselves. Despite being a money man, Pierson is clearly a lover of film first and foremost, and this shines through in the sheer passion and respect that he clearly has for those that he has represented (apart from Rob Weiss).
There were moments I found hard going in Pierson’s work, mainly related to contracts and legalese, but the book also gave me a fascinating insight into the inner workings of an element of cinema that I knew next to nothing about. I came away from it with a much stronger sense of the organisation and purpose of film festivals, and most of all, Pierson just exudes the air of someone who is an absolute expert in his field. I felt like he had confidently grabbed my hand and was almost literally guiding me through the inner machinations of the indie film scene in the 90s. The fact that the book is interspersed with various interviews with a pre Mallrats Kevin Smith also made the heavier excerpts easier to swallow.
To be clear, this is not a book for the casual film fan, but if you genuinely want to know more about how films are financed and sold, this should be your first, and perhaps only, stop.