Movie Director makes his case for Star Wars Fans in "The People vs George Lucas"

Geek To Me: Outside of the debate over George Lucas creations', what inspired you to create this film? What made you think that now was the time?

Alexandre Philippe: I've always been fascinated by pop culture, and the fact that Star Wars has been such an integral part of my life since I was a kid made this a perfect fit, I think. I can't remember with certainty when the idea to make this film first came to me; but I've had the title in my head for several years, and I never actively thought about making the film until I mentioned it to Robert Muratore, our Director of Photography. The moment he heard the title, he was on board; and he's the one who encouraged me to move forward with it. In retrospect, there's no question that this film needed to be made. The dynamic between George and his fans is so uniquely conflicted that it deserves to be analyzed and documented. If you're a film buff, understanding the dynamic between Alfred Hitchcock and David O. Selznick, for instance, gives you greater insight into movies like Rebecca and Rope. Similarly, understanding how an entire generation of Star Wars fans became so conflicted about the creator of their childhood's mythos can inform our comprehension of George's unique evolution as a filmmaker. As Frankie Frain, creator of the YouTube phenomenon The Lord of the Rings by George Lucas, says in our doc, "maybe we made him feel like he couldn't do anything but Star Wars".

Writer/Director Alexandre Philippe

There's no question that the film could have been made earlier; on the heels of Episode One, perhaps. But I hadn't thought of it then, and apparently, nobody stepped up to do it. It would have been a very different film then, I think. It's obvious that the debate rages on in 2010 (just look at George's recent appearance on The Daily Show); but now, we have a little more perspective on milestones like the release of the Special Editions or The Phantom Menace. As a result, I think that our film is more complete than it would have been; and it also documents important recent developments in fandom, such as the rise of faneditors, the launch of Star Wars Uncut, the release of Indy 4, and the recent rediscovery of the amazing Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. So we're providing a very complete cultural examination of the dysfunctional relationship between George and his fans over the past three decades. Not to mention that this is the first non-Lucasfilm endorsed look at George ever committed to film. I thought it was important to provide an alternate perspective to the official Lucasfilm statements and press releases, and actually give the fans a legitimate voice outside of web forums, where they tend to vent their anger and frustrations.

G2M: The film is billed as an exploration of 'new media' versus 'old media,' could you please explain what that means?

AP: For many years now, Star Wars fans have made it very clear that Star Wars also belongs to them. In spite of George's continued refusal to restore and release the theatrical version of the original trilogy, the fans not only continue to make demands of George; but they've also taken the matter into their own hands. George's possessive attitude toward Star Wars and the Star Wars universe has prompted the fans to make their own films, create their own stories, and even reedit George's movies to fit their own specific vision of them. The fans themselves have grown increasingly possessive of the Star Wars universe. The faneditors who submitted footage to us, for instance, all refer to Star Wars as "my Star Wars". The fact is that we no longer live in a world controlled by old media. The internet has changed that, and the fans have taken advantage of this new platform to rewrite the rules, to be more involved as consumers, and to participate in and even take control of copyrighted material. The people are rising and demanding the right to the materials of their culture. In the case of Star Wars, the fans feel entitled to play in George's sandbox without any restrictions. There's this subtext I've heard loud and clear over the past few years that amounts to something like "we've helped you build your empire, we made you; and we demand co-ownership of this thing that wouldn't be what it is without our participation." The fans are quite emotional about Star Wars, and so is George; and you have a strange tug-of-war as a result. Twenty years ago, this type of "custody battle" wouldn't have been possible; but the internet coupled with new technologies have empowered people, and that's why I refer to it as a struggle between old media and new media. And I think Star Wars is probably ground zero as far as this particular struggle is concerned.



G2M: As you were interviewing subjects, did anything they say surprise you?

AP: We've basically been working non-stop on this project for the past three years, and there were many surprises. That's the beauty of documentary filmmaking. You think you're going in a certain direction, someone throws you in for a loop, and you find yourself investigating a tangential narrative thread that eventually becomes an integral part of your structure. So while I think it's important to have a clear direction in mind when you start a project of this size and scope, it's equally important to remain open to the possibility that the discoveries you're going to make along the way will inevitably change the final product from the way you originally envisioned it. In our case, we made so many discoveries that I had to constantly adjust the overall structure of the film. And it can be a real challenge to keep track of the story you want to tell when you have over 600 hours of footage to deal with. That's why it took us so long to make this film. I wanted it to be the most thorough investigation possible, and we dug really deep to deliver the cut that we're about to screen at SXSW. And I think it's safe to say that a number of the most surprising sound bites from our interviewees (including a few magical moments) ended up in the film.

G2M: How would you say the passion of Star Wars fans compares to that of other franchises?

AP: As Joe Nussbaum, director of "George Lucas In Love", puts it, "there's something about our love for Star Wars that is different from our love for other things." We interviewed an expert on fan filmmaking, Clive Young (author of Homemade Hollywood), who told us that the most frequently 'remixed' franchise after Star Wars is Dr. Who, and that there are probably one hundred Star Wars fan films out there for every Dr. Who fan film. Stats like these provide a clear indication of the unique phenomenon that is Star Wars. We certainly could speculate all day long about the multiple reasons behind the fans' passion for this particular universe. The fact is that George Lucas spoke to our generation, to our collective soul, really; and we've never quite been able to let go since. I can't think of another movie that impacted people on a similar scale (save for Gone With The Wind, perhaps), or that sustained the same level of interest for so long. For my generation, it seems that when things go wrong in life, Star Wars is the one thing that can make everything seem right again. It's a weird comfort food for the soul, and a common denominator that binds us together--no matter where we're from. To be perfectly honest, I'm a little disturbed by how many shared childhood memories I have with many of the people I interviewed for this film. We were raised in different countries, different cultures; and yet, Star Wars affected us in distinctly similar ways. It's a truly great and amazing thing that George Lucas created. Transcendent, really. And I don't think he ever gets enough credit for it.

G2M: How did you go about selecting videos from YouTube?

AP: The participatory process is a two-step process. First, our website advertised an open call for submissions, and we very quickly received hundreds of submissions from around the world--all sorts of rants, skits and shorts that sometimes worked really well, and sometimes were so far off topic that we simply couldn't use them. Part of the process was also spending hundreds of hours on YouTube, Atom and Vimeo, looking for gems that fit our narrative. At first, I started looking for every possible fan-made, George Lucas-related clip I could find; and then the process became more streamlined as our film started coming together. At first glance, participatory doc filmmaking may seem relatively straightforward; but it's actually a lot harder than any other non-fiction project I've ever worked on. First, because you have to chase people down; and when they get back to you, it often takes them a while to agree to sign a release form. Then, there's the challenge of getting them to send you the best available version of their video, which subsequently must be uprezed to make it as theatrically viable as possible. In your case, if I remember correctly, you had lost the original drive where your files were located, so we had to download your content straight from YouTube, which is far from ideal. (Don't worry, though, you did make the cut!) But I knew this was going to be one of our toughest challenges, and I embraced the aesthetic of this approach. Our film includes footage shot on just about every available film and video format under the sun, and that's what makes it so visually unique. But don't even get me started on the post-production challenges that this created for our editors. When you're dealing with that many formats and frame rates, the post process becomes exponentially trickier. So technically-speaking, PvsG was an extremely difficult film to make, and it took a lot out of our entire team.



G2M: Honestly, do you feel like George Lucas rape your childhood?

AP: No, absolutely not. And I actually haven't met a single person who really means it. Even the Waffle Brothers, who wrote the song George Lucas Raped Our Childhood, are the first to admit that this is a tongue-in-cheek statement that came out of pop culture. But it did originate from very real feelings of anger and frustration, and I don't believe that George or Lucasfilm should take this lightly. It's easy to dismiss trolls on the internet; but it's a lot harder to dismiss an entire generation of frustrated fans, and I don't think that Lucas has been as open and communicative as he could or should have been. When OriginalTrilogy.com generated a petition with 78,000 confirmed signatures begging for the restoration of the original theatrical cuts of the films, and Lucasfilm's response came in the form of a dismissive letter from their PR department posted on TheForce.net, it's hardly surprising that the fans didn't take it so well. That's how hardcore fans sometimes turn into trolls, or Sith lords, as the case may be; and while you can't blame George Lucas for doing what he wants to do (he certainly has earned that right), you can't blame the fans either for lashing back and doing everything in their power to make their voices heard. So I definitely empathize and sympathize with both sides, and I hope that our film will help bridge the gap a little. If not, it should at least shed some light on this uniquely twisted 'love story' that has no parallel in pop culture today.