by Dan Tabor
One of my most anticipated films of Fantastic Fest was easily Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story Of Cannon Films and I was fortunate enough to get a few minutes to chat with the director Mark Hartley while he was at the fest. I was a huge fan of Mark’s other two documentaries, Machete Maidens Unleashed! and Not Quite Hollywood, so it was great to be able to pick his brain and see not only what it was like working on Electric Boogaloo, but also what he planned to tackle next which took the conversation in a very bittersweet direction.
What was it about Cannon that drew you into telling their story?
I had read Andrew Yule’s book Hollywood a Go-Go, which is more of a hatchet job a long time ago, so I kind of knew the story of Cannon. But I read Michael Winner’s autobiography Winner Takes All and he had fantastic, funny stories about working with these guys. Before the documentary gets made it’s always been about who can I meet, who do I want to meet as a film fan? It’s sort of an excuse to make a documentary to meet these people.
Once it started off, it was really, if I can make this Cannon documentary I could meet Michael Winner. I had a big hiatus when I was working on Patrick, between getting the casting and the financing in place, so I had this window of 8 months and people kept hounding me to make another documentary and I felt I could probably have knocked it out then. Unfortunately it didn’t happen that way, and Michael Winner died before we got to him, which is a real shame.
You’re obviously a genre film fan, why do you think they make such great subjects for documentaries?
What I liked about the story, what appealed to me was that the film changed and morphed into something else why we were making it. Because I liked the idea these were two outsiders trying to break into Hollywood, it was going to be this sort of inspirational David and Goliath story, or that is what I thought it was going to be.
Then that turned into far more of a cautionary tale by the time we had interviewed everyone who had been in the trenches. I always knew that the films were so diverse and there was such a breadth of different genre films there, so many of them were crazy and nutty, that it had to be a good time.
So how do prepare for a documentary like Electric Boogaloo?
I think with all of these films research is the most important thing about them. I did 6 months worth of research, so I knew the answers to pretty much all the questions I was asking. But it’s always great when you get stories that you had no idea about and that happened quite a bit with the Cannon documentary. Particularly the great story about Menahem trying to sign Clyde the orangutan from Every Which Way But Loose, that was something I had never heard.
There is always gold like that, that happens, but I knew the trajectory I wanted to take, because with Cannon it was a very obvious true-life narrative. They are Israel, they are the kings of Israel, they come to Hollywood, and they make films for under $5 million. They had a great finance plan where they pre-sell the profit and they kept getting bigger and bigger to try to take on the studio and eventually it doesn’t work out the way they want it to.
That was the story, but then it becomes how many tangents do we go on and films do we cover and that way driven by who we could get to talk about them. There were some films we wanted to feature, but there wasn’t anyone who was still alive or was willing to talk about it so it didn’t make it into the documentary. So the film wasn’t driven by me the filmmakers, but by the interviewees and their anecdotes and their experiences. That is what changed the film from a celebration into a cautionary tale.
Speaking of participation, do you feel maybe the doc was too soon for some folks, like a Chuck Norris or a Stallone to look back and reflect on their careers?
You never know the reasons people say no. I had mentioned with Stallone this was his first big flop with Over the Top. I can understand why he doesn’t want to revisit that time. Who knows? I don’t think those people are missed in the documentary, there are so many interesting stories told, by such a diverse group of people, that we were lucky to get high profile, middle profile, and low profile who all tell great candid, honest stories.
How did you feel when you find out the cousins were making their own film and how did that impact Electric Boogaloo?
First of all I was VERY upset about that, because I had spent so long researching this documentary and obliviously I thought they were an intrinsic part of it. It was originally supposed to be the Menahem and Yoram story and when we couldn’t get them the film changed into something different. I think the film changed for the better to tell you the truth.
It’s to the documentary’s benefit that you don’t see them there, we only get this picture of these guys at the height of their power in the 80s. I also think there was definitely enough archival material included that you really got a good sense of who these guys were. There is nothing to detract from the stories of them and the images of them when they were running Cannon and it also makes it a bit more emotional when you see the images of them at the very end now and you realize age catches up with everyone.
Your releases are always packed with some great-unused content will that be the same with this release?
It’s a real drama for me, because I am battling with my producers; there is about 50 minutes of deleted scenes and they are all archive material. We haven’t cleared it yet, so I honestly don’t know, it’s not in my hands. If it were in my hands I would be telling you there is 50 minutes of fantastic cut scenes. But who knows.
I know you had mentioned this later in the documentary, and referring to another great film book Down and Dirty Pictures. Any plans to tackle Miramax next?
This is my final documentary. I think three is enough. I have always wanted to be a narrative filmmaker and thankfully I got the chance to make a narrative film last year with Patrick. It was such a great experience I just want to keep doing that. It’s been very rewarding having people come up to me all over the world telling me saying Not Quite Hollywood made them want to explore their own national cinema.
People are now making documentaries on Canadian genre cinema, so my job is done. I am very happy with these three documentaries and I think Electric Boogaloo is a really nice place to end the trilogy and hopefully I can step on a set in the near future.
To be honest even though I enjoyed making Electric Boogaloo, it was a tough schedule and a tough shoot and a lot of work pulling this thing together from the amount of time we had and culling through the amount of interviews and materials we had. I just kept thinking about all the effort I was putting into this I could be putting into a narrative feature. So it’s definitely time for me to move on and to leave it to the next generation or the professionals.
I never thought of myself as a documentary filmmaker, because it’s an insult to documentary filmmakers.
Anything you would like to share about your next project?
No, this film literally was just finished. So I have been in a bunker for the last 8 months getting it finished. As soon as we finish this festival circuit I will be doing everything I can to work out what the next thing is.
Finally I have to ask, what’s YOUR favorite Cannon film?
Hands down Lifeforce. I think no film can compete with just the amount of excess and craziness. Everyone is treating that film so serious it not tongue and cheek at all and it’s an amazing experience in the cinemas. I saw Lifeforce as a kid and I never saw anything like it and anything like it since.