Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with Sheldrake, hard at work at Tribeca Film Festival. He sniffed out this flick, CONVENTIONEERS about two opposites meeting and falling in love at the Republican National Convention... I'd imagine it's a politically updated Romeo & Juliet, but Sheldrake would know better. I just hope he's still not stalking this poor woman... Anyway, here's the short interview!

CONVENTIONEERS

Sheldrake here, live at Tribeca. So, I’m wandering around the Festival, and I see this astonishingly beautiful young woman being interviewed by someone who, well, just wasn’t AICN. We could not let that stand. So, I’m thinking she’s an actress, she has that kind of presence and the eyes can’t be torn away from her and…well, anyway, turns out it’s Mora Stephens, the director  and writer of CONVENTIONEERS, and it turns out we’re from the same Upper West Side neighborhood (she, 110th,  me, 114th  in Morningside Heights). She’s made a movie in the tradition of political convention films that capture the stamp of a time and place, a genre favorite of mine. She talked with us about the film and I’m here now to deliver it up to you. Now if I can just forget her face and concentrate on some movies today…

We did this on April 23 2005.

MORA: So it’s actors interacting with real events at the 2004 Republican convention, with people from both sides of the politics…

SHELDRAKE So must have shot some of it at the real Republican convention…how did you get permission to do that?

MORA Permission?

SHELDRAKE: Uhh…

MORA. If you were in New York during the month leading up to the convention, everyone was on the street with a camera.  Most people were just documenting for  themselves or doing documentaries, so I took that freedom of everyone shooting and strucutred a fictional story set against these real events. I wanted to feel as real as possible—in a way the movie is a time capsule for all those crazy things that were going on. It’s also a very intimate love story.

SHELDRAKE: I love movies like SHAMPOO, THE CANDIDATE, MEDIUM COOL. They freeze that moment…what was special about that moment. in time, for this movie, that had it’s own particular flavor…I remember the bike protestors, for example…that was a new, and somewhat revolting, thing…

MORA Well, there was a LOT going on. (laughs) It was the first time the Republican National Convention was ever held in New York. And the city is 5-to-1 Democrat, you know. So to do a film that was exploring the divide in the country, there was no better time than that EXACT  moment. Not only were both sides charged and ready to fight, but they also both really expected to win. Really win, you know.  Do you know what I mean? Republicans because they were ready to give their big party…and to use the city as…

SHELDRAKE: (snorts) Yeah, to use the city as their big, fat, patriotic 9/11 memorial, to make a linkage between themselves and the WTC and the heroism…what a bunch of...

MORA: Yeah, but on the other side there were the hundred of thousands of protestors flying into New York, in addition to the people who were IN New York and being good New Yorkers, they were uh, READY to express their opinions as well…

SHELDRAKE: And really, no one wanted the Republican Convention here except the Governor and Mayor Money…it was the Jets Stadium pork project of its day…

MORA: Yes, it was controversial. We tried to find people on both sides of the line who could interact with the actors. We wanted to show both sides very truly and very honestly…

SHELDRAKE: So the picture has some real integrity, it’s not just the kind of propaganda piece I’d make if I had half a chance…(laughs)

MORA: (smiles) Both characters are deeply flawed but also really beautiful human beings. I want to show that and contrast it to how ugly politics can get, not spoonfeed the audience some slate of ideas from either side…

Thanks, Mora. I’ll be looking at this one tomorrow and reviewing it AICN fans, so, protestors, keep ‘em flyin’, the flags of discontent!

Sheldrake

Tribeca

NY, NY