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Apr 16, 2008 5:49 pm US/Eastern
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A Glimpse Inside The World Of Patti Smith
Ted Scheid
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
How do you close out a hugely successful film festival featuring over
200 films from around the world, hosting dozens of sold out crowds and
playing host to a wide variety of filmmakers and actors? Why with legendary singer/songwriter Patti Smith of course.
The "godmother of punk" herself was at the Prince Music Theater for the closing night of the 17th Philadelphia Film Festival. Her film,
Patti Smith: Dream of Life played to a sold out crowd, eager to get a glimpse of elusive rock star.
Directed by fashion photographer Steven Sebring, Dream of Life picks up shortly after Smith's return to the stage after a 16 year hiatus. Filmed over a period of 12 years, Sebring paints an intimate and abstract portrait of an artist who lives in a world all her own.
Smith and Sebring took a moment to sit down with CBS3.com to discuss the natural progression of their friendship and film, the art of creativity as well as why it's nice to get free caviar.
Patti Smith: It's a documentary of the last 12 years of my life and work as seen through the eyes of Steven.
CBS3.com: How did you get involved in this project?
PS: It was just bad luck (laughs). No, just a combination of curiosity, friendship and one 16mm camera.
CBS3.com: With the prevalence of digital film, was the use of 16mm film just for the time period or more for style?
Steven Sebring: Yeah at little bit because it was done in 1996, we started filming in 1996, but I wanted to do it on film because I love film. I never swayed to do digital, even when it got rough. When times got rough financially we just stopped filming, I would shelve it and I would go back to work, do what I'd do and I'd buy more film. The fact that it's on 16mm, when it's projected, it's beautiful.
CBS3.com: With that, would you say you took a more natural approach to filming?
SS: Very much so. With Patti and I, it wasn't about large crews or anything like that.
PS: It was about no crew. Steven did practically everything himself. One camera, no soundman except occasionally a friend or Steven's wife. We all carted everything ourselves. There were no lights, it was all natural light so it's about as organic as I suppose it could be.
CBS3.com: With that type of process, when do you know it is done?
PS: When it's here at the Philadelphia Film Festival
SS: And we get caviar, Patti gets caviar, but she's going to share that caviar.
CBS3.com: Patti, you've had such a varied career from your singing, to writing and activism. How do you juggle it all?
PS: The best I can. I mean, I've always had a creative drive since I was a child; to write or to perform or to draw, so it's just a part of my natural being, it's a part of my daily work ethic. I just use whatever mode seems appropriate for whatever I'm trying to convey.
If I'm trying to convey something more political or something that depends on a lot of people hearing, I usually try to do it through performance or rock and roll. If it's something more solitary, a poem or a photograph, it will suffice to satisfy my desire to see a certain thing. It just depends on what I'm to convey and who I'm to convey it to.
CBS3.com: You have had a very strong voice over the years and have been an inspiration to many, including those that have been an inspiration to my generation. Is there anybody you see now that has a similarly strong voice?
PS: I think these days rock and roll seems very democratic. There's people all over the world, known and unknown, using their voice. People experimenting musically in their basements, in their room, on MySpace, with their friends. I think that rock and roll at best belongs to the people and it's certainly very accessible to people now with modern technology. Pretty much anybody can write a song or make a CD to express themselves.
In terms of the people that I like, I like the people that I've always liked. I still listen to Jimi Hendrix and I listen to Radiohead, I listen to Opera, I listen to whatever inspires me.
CBS3.com: Steven, how did you make the jump from photographer to filmmaker?
SS: Fashion can get a little boring after a while and I met Patti in '95 on a photoshoot for Spin and that's how we met. I was so fascinated by her that I thought I needed an outlet and Patti Smith was like the captured cat. I got her in my cage and I convinced her to let me film her whenever I could or whenever she'd allow me and we became very, very close and good friends.
PS: We trust each other. It's been very nice because in the process, Steven had documented the only footage of my late parents, some film of my children growing and my own evolution as a human being and the evolution of our friendship. I think it's a nice little movie.
SS: I love it. It's a personal document. It's through my lens, my discovery of Patti. That's how I look at it.
CBS3.com: Thanks for bringing it to Philadelphia
PS: Glad to be here, I love Philadelphia. I lived in Philadelphia when I was a small child. I lived in North Philadelphia, Germantown, and as a teenager I discovered so much about film and art in the streets of Philadelphia and I'm always happy to be back, I love it here.
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