news

Tribeca Buzz: A Talk with Current (Reprise)‘s Brian Doyle

Published on April 18, 2011

by Mary Iannone

“My interest in ticker tape parades stems from their creation of some unique phenomena. The debris can be seen as a kind of proxy for information itself. In this digital age, all this debris floating in the air, caught in trees, piled in gutters, becomes like waves and gusts of memory and nostalgia itself.”

In late 2000, Brian Doyle prepared for the inevitable ticker tape parade that would follow either outcome of the Yankees versus Mets World Series match up. But his primary interest in the festivities was as a filmmaker. The result was Current, a look at the stormy aftermath of the parade. The atmosphere “seems like an unwitting dress rehearsal or fantasy of destruction, a glimpse of the future that was to come”. Just four months after Current’s completion, 9/11 recreated the desolate streets carefully simulated in the film. The second event came from unthinkable destruction; the first, eerily similar, came from joyful celebration.

Eight years later, another cinematic opportunity suddenly presented itself to Doyle. “I became interested in encapsulating 9/11 in this kind of bubble, book-ended by the storms of information,” Doyle says. “Current (Reprise) was filmed during the Giants’ Super Bowl victory parade. The Giants were underdogs that year, so I was not expecting a parade at all. But when they won, I realized a parade was imminent and I quickly dreamed up this idea. I wondered what it would be like to attempt a sequel to a documentary. The ongoing, recurring nature of ticker tape parades lent itself to this somewhat unique idea. Would this film change as well? What would the separation of nearly 10 years yield?”

Doyle followed the parade as it happened: “I try to pull out an existing narrative, but one that might not be immediately obvious. I looked for shots that felt right, that I remembered well from the last film.” While the original Current starts slow and builds to a destruction paralleling that of 9/11, Current (Reprise) mirrors the original work; “It emerged from the fire and slowly wound down to calm.”

Doyle was careful to shoot above the heads of the crowd in order to make the atmosphere seem eerily deserted. Viewers become curious as to what they’re truly watching; it seems impossible that just below the range of the camera is simply a horde of sports fans, desperate to catch a glimpse of their favorite star.

Current (Reprise) makes it New York Premiere as part of the Tribeca Film Festival.

For more on Brian Doyle, visit his website.

No Comments | Leave a Comment | Share: