(re)Search my Trash

<body> <div align="left"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="800" cellpadding="0" height="100%"> <tr> <td width="100" rowspan="3" background="../stylepix/square.gif" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="3"></td> <td width="592" height="1%" valign="top"> <p align="center"> <a href="../research/resultdirlinks.shtml?Terry Sanders">Films directed by <b>Terry Sanders</b> on (re)Search my Trash</a><p align="center">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="3"></td> <td width="100" rowspan="3" background="../stylepix/squareright.gif" valign="top">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top" height="99%">  <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="255" align="right"> <tr> <td width="100%"> <p align="right"><img border="0" src="../stills/lizalizaskiesaregrey-poster.jpg" width="250" height="370"></td> </tr> </table> <p><b>We have talked about this <i><a href="terrysanders(8-20).shtml">before</a></i>, but do bring us up to speed: Your new movie <i><a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml">Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</a></i> - in a few words, what is it about?</b><p>  <p>It’s about first love and first sex under the looming shadow of the H-bomb -- a time when, after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, many were convinced that World War Three was imminent and that it was entirely possible "the world could end in 15 minutes.”<p> <p>Though not really autobiographical, the film is made up of fragments from my own life and times — experiences I've had, places I’ve been, people I’ve known, phrases I’ve heard, questions I’ve had. There are many ideas I got from my father in the film (“four fingers”, “I want the rent”), and I dedicated the film to his memory.<p>  <p><b>With <i><a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml">Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</a></i> having been made in 2015, what made you want to revisit the film now and release a director's cut?</b><p>  <p>Two things: <b><a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml">Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</a></b> was always a passion project. I wrote it in the ‘70s and it was slated to be the first feature film production to be produced under an <i> American Film Institute</i> program to be funded by the studios. George Stevens jr was head <i> AFI</i> and liked my documentary work for <i> David Wolper Productions</i> and for the <i> U.S.I.A.</i> while he headed it. Unfortunately, the studio deal fell through and the production program never materialized. I put the screenplay on the shelf where it stayed for 45 years until Jessica Sanders, my filmmaker daughter, read it and said, “Dad, why don't you make it?”<p>  <p>By 2015, of course, the story had became a challenging period film with all the locations, vehicles, costumes and everything else far more expensive to replicate. Unwilling to update the time period which I felt was essential to the story, and not having particular access to production money, I decided to figure out a way to make the film on an ultra low budget, taking advantage of the <i> Screen Actor’s Guild</i> special ultra low budget contract. I decided the way to go was to shoot the film using a small, but highly skilled, documentary crew and shoot it as if I could go back in time and film, documentary style, two actual kids who run off on a motorcycle up the coast of California. Having the collaboration of my long-time cinema verité documentary cameraman Erik Daarstad, was key to the project and I doubt if I could have made it without him.<p>  <p>The film was finished and released in 2017, and I was happy with it, and happy I’d made it, but though it opened in two theaters in New York and Los Angeles, there was no money for distribution, promotion, advertising and publicity which any film needs to make itself visible in the theatrical market. And, of course, though it introduced two wonderful young actors, Mikey Madison and Sean H. Scully, it had no stars to draw in audiences.<p> </p> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="455" align="left"> <tr> <td width="100%"><img border="0" src="../stills/lizalizaskiesaregrey-1.jpg" width="450" height="258"></td> </tr> </table> <p>Flash forward: Recently, when Mikey began to emerge as a widely known actress, and particularly after <b> Anora</b> won at Cannes, I realized <b><a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml">Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</a></b> now had a star and decided Mikey’s debut film, deserved a second chance with a “Director’s Cut”.<p> <p><b>In what way has your new cut changed/improved your movie, and what was it like revisiting <i><a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml">Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</a></i> 10 years later? And in hindsight, would you have done some things differently to begin with?</b><p> <p> Sometime after the film was released in 2017, I realized that I’d erred in a key element of my editing. The opening of the film wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t powerful enough to convey the apocalyptic threat of the BOMB. The story is “bookended” with the ritual (and stupid) “duck and cover” drill in school, practicing sheltering under your desk and protecting your head. A "duck and cover” PSA opens <b><a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml">Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</a></b> and a school room "duck and cover” scene with Liza and her classmates comes at the end. I realized that in my initial editing, the drama of the existential threat of the H-bomb, which hangs, and must hang, over the whole story of Liza and Brett wasn't clear enough. To make it crystal clear, I reached back to a film I’d made for the <i> USIA</i> in 1966 on the “avoidance of nuclear war” and pulled out a terrifying, mind-numbing shot of an H-bomb blast and made it the first shot of the film. That was the main, but very important, and to my mind, crucial change in the director’s cut.<p> <p><b>What really fascinated me about <i><a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml">Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</a></i> was its very unexcited, slice-of-life approach - so could you elaborate on this for a bit, and do you think this has to do with your background in documentary filmmaking?</b><p> </p> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="455" align="right"> <tr> <td width="100%"> <p align="right"><img border="0" src="../stills/lizalizaskiesaregrey-2.jpg" width="450" height="255"></td> </tr> </table> <p>Definitely, this has to do with my background in documentary filmmaking. Over the years, I’ve made 70 or 80 films, many of them cinema verité with small (5 person) crews where we follow people with a (highly skillful) handheld camera (which Erik Daarstad and a few other cinematographers are capable of) and capture “life as it happens”, capture “reality”. That was the feeling I wanted to achieve as opposed to constructing a theatrical “photoplay”.<p> <p><b>We of course have to address the elephant in the room, <i><a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml">Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</a></i> was the feature film debut of current <i>Academy Award</i> winner Mikey Madison - so what made you choose her back when, what was it like working with her, and did you see or even imagine an eventual <i>Oscar</i> in the cards for her?</b><p>  <p>Casting <b><a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml">Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</a></b> was a challenging and fascinating experience. I knew there was no way I could even think of starting the film without knowing who was going to play Liza. I also decided, to make my life easier as a director, I would cast an actual 15 year old actress rather than an 18 or 19 trying to play a 15 year old. I worked with two terrific casting agents, Meg Morman and Sunny Boling who sent out a casting call and I auditioned about a dozen young actresses. Mikey came with her psychologist mother and did a short scene with another actor.<p>  <p>What struck me immediately about Mikey, besides her physical persona, was that the lines she spoke from the screenplay never sounded “read”. They always seemed to be spontaneous, “coming from the heart".<p> </p> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="455" align="left"> <tr> <td width="100%"><img border="0" src="../stills/lizalizaskiesaregrey-4.jpg" width="450" height="233"></td> </tr> </table> <p>Mikey was always very focused, very hard working. Both she and Sean came up with many ideas for their characters. My main job was closely observing, giving them notes and “direction” and making sure I felt it always felt “real” as opposed to “theatrical".  <p>  <p>As far as my “imagining" an <i> Oscar</i> in her or Sean’s future, the reality is I’ve produced and directed or co-directed three dramatic feature films over the years, and each one introduced young actors who became major stars: George Hamilton in <b>Crime and Punishment USA</b>, Robert Redford in <b>War Hunt</b>, and Mikey Madison in <b><a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml">Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</a></b>.<p> <p><b>Having talked about Mikey Madison, it would be unfair to not also talk about the rest of your cast, so please take it away!</b><p> <p> Sean H. Scully could also be a major star. But you have to want it and really work for it. You have to have the drive. Mikey also had the support of two wonderful parents. I was very happy with Sean’s performance and he worked very well with Mikey. I also thought Kristen Minter, who played the Mother was interesting and believable.<p> <p><b>What can you tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?</b><p>  <p>I think everyone involved in the production realized this was a passion project and were caught up in the enterprise. Everyone was paid $100 a day, and we always had hot meals (very important). Everyone was treated with respect and appreciation for their participation. <p>All of the cast and crew, I thought, did a great job, and I think we all had fun making the film. I’m in debt to them all and to my producing team.<p> </p> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="455" align="left"> <tr> <td width="100%"><img border="0" src="../stills/lizalizaskiesaregrey-3.jpg" width="450" height="240"></td> </tr> </table> <p><b>From what I know, <i><a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml">Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</a></i> was your last foray into fictional filmmaking - so any chance you'll ever return to dramatic features?</b><p> <p> Not sure. Over the years, there have been many “fish that got away”. I spent ten years writing, researching shooting screen tests for a dramatic feature on the story of Tokyo Rose, Iva Toguri, the patriotic young Japanese American, born on the 4th of July, who became the first woman in American history to be convicted for treason — and she was completely innocent. I came close, had Martin Sheen on board to play the defending lawyer, but I was never quite able raise the millions the film would cost.<p> <p><b>What can you tell us about your filmwork since <a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml"><i>Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</i></a>, and any future projects you'd like to share?</b><p>  <p>After <b><a href="../movies/lizalizaskiesaregrey(2015).shtml">Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey</a></b> I made <b>9th Circuit Cowboy: The Story of Judge Harry Pregerson</b>, a documentary about a famously liberal appeals court judge who died still on the bench at 94. A marine seriously wounded in the battle for Okinawa, he became a lawyer, a judge, and an inspiring champion of the underdog, the homeless and veterans.<p> <p><b>Your/your movie's website, social media, whatever else?</b><p>   <p>The website is <a href="http://LIZALIZAMOVIE.COM" target="_blank"><b>LIZALIZAMOVIE.COM</b></a>. It has a great deal of information on the film including a 20 minutes “behind the scenes” short.<p> <p><b>Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?</b><p> <p> My company <i> American Film Foundation</i>’s website is <a href="http://americanfilmfoundation.com" target="_blank"><b>americanfilmfoundation.com</b></a>. It has information on 40 or 50 of the films that I, my partner Freida Mock and my daughter Jessica have made over the years.<p> <p><b>Thanks for the interview!</b><p> <p> THANK YOU!!<p>  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top" height="1%">  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> currentyear = "2010"; </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="../scripts/endcreditsart.js"></SCRIPT> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> dosworsdonn(); </SCRIPT> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </body>