Acolytes begins with John Ford-esque vistas of Australia, defining the landscape that forms the backdrop to this film. Both a character study of three teenagers as well as a thriller, once a terrible secret is unearthed.
Acolytes will have you swept away in its vistas, jumping with the shocks, as well as the amazing sound design and great musical score. As a viewer you will be pulled in as the film takes a slow decent to the darkest places of the human condition.
Jon Hewitt (left) speaking during the Q&A last night after the screening of his film
Acolytes.
However what does a director do after his film premieres at Midnight Madness?
He goes to get a slice of pizza.
After the screening I got the opportunity to talk to Jon Hewitt.
Acolytes is his fourth film, but his first three features
Bloodlust (1992),
Redball (1999) and
Darklovestory (2006) were all made in the underground of Australia's film industry.
Acolytes has the distinction of being the first film Jon Hewitt was paid to direct and, recently turning 49, is an inspiration to a lot of struggling filmmakers.
The writer
Eddie Bunker (Mr. Blue from Reservoir Dogs) speaking about becoming a published writer:
"It took all the time in the world, it took six books that didn't get published. In fact it took over seventeen years. Perseverance is one thing. I believe in perseverance above all else, it overcomes intelligence, luck, it overcomes everything. Perseverance wins."We began our conversation outside of the Ryerson Theater, under the awning, while the rain poured down in the early hours of September 9th (my birthday coincidentally enough).
Robert Mitchell:
RMJon Hewitt:
JH
Robert Mitchell talking to Jon Hewitt
: "
Acolytes has the distinction of being your fourth film, but also the first paid gig for directing a film. You made three films prior to this."
JH: "Yeah,
Bloodlust,
Redball and
Darklovestory were all made in the underground. Pure guerrilla style. I shot
Redball on MiniDV for ten days out of six weekends and for about seven grand. That was the cost to buy tapes and feed the cast and crew. Then I raised about four hundred grand from the market place based on the rough cut of the film, to deliver it to 35mm and to pay out the cast and crew. The producers and directing fees were all deferred, but I paid out the cast and crew and it was a cool way to make a movie that was never going to get made. I have written many scripts but just never had much luck in Australia getting financing from the government. It's difficult to make anything political. My films are a bit too dark and was never a good fit."
It was at this time that we all decided to get out of the rain and walk down Gerrard and resume our conversation at a pizzeria. Amidst the people who comprise of the night life on Yonge street at three o'clock on a Tuesday morning we settled down over pizza and had a conversation about Mr. Hewitt's career in film thus far.At the Big Slice Pizzeria at Three Thirty in the Morning
RM: "How did you raise the money for those first films?"
JH: "My first film was financed by a couple of gangsters. There was a video industry in the late eighties. I was working in exhibition and distribution. These guys would buy films and bring them to our video company to release on video. They told me they paid a hundred grand (in U.S. dollars) For a
Barry Bostwick film, he was like a kick boxer, universal soldier type dude in the mid-eighties and I was astonished. I told them, 'Fuck man! I will make you a film for fifty grand and it will have everything you need!' and they said, 'Alright we will give you fifty grand.' But they also said, '... if the film ain't any good and we don't make any money we are going to kill you.'"
RM: "Wow, they actually said that?"
JH: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think they meant it, but they meant they would fuck me up. They definitely would have done that because they were those type of guys."
RM: "So it was truly guerrilla film making."
JH: "Yeah I really wanted to make a film and I could not find any other way to do it. We shot that on betacam - those were the analog days - but it was just a kick ass, violent, crazy vampire film. Not very good, but what I really discovered making that film was, what I really loved was the actors performances. The performances in
Bloodlust were pretty terrible because they were just friends and people who would do it. I had to make a film like this to really discover what I loved."
RM: "It was also your film school I would also assume?"
JH: "Oh fuck yeah! The most pleasurable shoot I ever had was
Redball, which we shot on MiniDV. We shot it on the weekends: Ten days over six weekends. I thought it would be hard to maintain focus but in fact it was a godsend because we would shoot on the weekend and then just chill out all week and that would give me time to write stuff and think of stuff."
RM: "You were writing on the fly?"
JH: "No adapting. I had a screenplay but things happen. Scripts are crap! I like a script to transform. If you read the shooting script for
Acolytes it is actually quite different from the finished film."
RM: "The screenplay is not set in stone for you?"
JH: "No, no, no. It's a blueprint for something else. Screenplays aren't films. Films are films. For me the necessary transformation that happens from script to screen is what happens between the actors and the lense. Actors transform the script. They breathe life in your film and they carry it for the rest of their lives. I mean they are up there (on the big screen) not me, I'm sitting in the chair directing."
RM: "They have to be brave and strong in their performance."
JH: "Look at that girl in
Deadgirl. I mean what a fucking incredibly brave performance."
RM: "Your first film was made in 1992 and the last one
Acolytes screened tonight (2008). In the seventeen odd years of making films sporadically what kind of jobs were you doing to pay the bills?"
JH: "Graphic Design. I was working exhibition and distribution. I was working in the Palace Cinemas in Sydney. I was the manager of the Academy Twin. Any old shlepping job. I have written a few screenplays for producers, adapted a few books. Made a little money from that. My wife is also a successful actress."
RM: "Oh really, what is her name?"
JH: "
Belinda McClory. She plays the deaf woman, (the wife) in
Acolytes. She's also in the Matrix. She played Switch, the girl in white, and works mostly in theater. Belinda has a career as an actor so it helps. We don't have kids, I'm totally irresponsible. If I had any money I would blow it on making a movie."
RM: "Over this period of making your films was there a lot of resistance? People saying, 'You can't do it, give it up. Get a real job, settle down.'"
JH: "Yeah most people thought
Bloodlust was just god awful. Most of the people who could help your career and certainly Hollywood didn't come knocking on my door. For me
Redball was a really cool, ahead-of-its-time movie that is as good as
Acolytes, in it's own way. It was made on a shoe string [budget] and unless something really radical happens it's never going to break out. It will never be treated with the same amount of respect as
Acolytes which was made for four million bucks. People just treat you differently when there is money involved. People are saying,
'Acolytes really tells me you can make a film, man.
' But I'm thinking:
Redball is a cool film!"
RM: "Since you're getting this attention on the world film festival level, will we ever see releases of your previous films?"
JH: "No. They've been released. I'm sure they are uploaded and bootlegged at this point. I would love to be pirated ... it means people want to see your films."
RM: "And that's what you make a film for, to have people see it."
JH: "Yeah, yeah. But don't tell that to Antony (the distributor sitting across the table) he won't make any money from it."
RM: "In the Midnight Madness audience there are a lot of aspiring film makers, do you have any advice for them?"
JH: "Don't let people tell you what to fucking do. Don't let people step on your dreams. It is easier now then it has ever been to make a movie. There is nothing stopping you. Just do it!"
RM: "What do you think of the Midnight Madness audience?"
JH: "They are fucking awesome! They are incredibly adventurous and incredibly lucky to be living Toronto and have a guy like Colin Geddes that casts such an interesting net and focuses it on ten movies, beautifully presented. You are so lucky living in Toronto."
Stayed tuned for the full interview from the Big Slice on our YouTube page.
At the time of this writing
Acolytes has two more screenings.Robert Mitchell
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