You are here: Home | Resources | Articles | Two articles by Sean McAllister

Two articles by Sean McAllister

Other articles in "Articles"

by Sean McAllister
Sean McAllister won the Special Jury Prize (World Documentaries) at Sundance 2005 for his film The Liberace of Baghdad, the stuff of most filmmakers' dreams. In the following two articles he tells us what it felt like to win, why festivals are so important, and shares some hard truths that face many documentary filmmakers.

The first article is reprinted with Sean's permission from an original entry to his weblog, the second piece was written exclusively for DFG.

Oh how we partied, like little children on holiday, or more like a rock band on tour. It didn't take long before everyone knew 'the Liberace entourage' had arrived at Sundance. I was making a video diary for BBC2's 'Culture Show' so I brought my friend Johnny along to film it. Samir (the film's star) of course was there, Ollie, the editor and co-creator of all my films was there too, also Andy and Nick my mates from Hull who'd come for free parties, wine and women.

And so we partied in abundance, usually three a day, all with free bars, wine and women, such was our interest in the films. The place was surreal, especially for Samir who looked on with wide open eyes taking in American culture for the first time in his life. For me I kept thinking of Iraq, of Baghdad, of the strange messed up place I'd left many months ago only to find ultimate success here at America's top film festival. It was a privilege and I was proud, and so happy for Samir. He was proud, but after traveling so far, (nearly not getting there due to the racist security men in London Airport) he was now intent on only one thing, winning the international competition.

We had four screenings over ten grueling days. We had employed publicists who were working us hard with lots of newspaper interviews, TV and radio. On the first day we did live a breakfast TV show and Samir announced he'd killed a man in the Iran war, the interviewer went quiet and they showed a clip from the film. All media stuff is supposed to be very glamorous but it's dull in reality. But I must not complain, we seek this sort of thing all our lives then it happens and we moan. I made a point of never moaning about it and always looked forward to the next free bar. Sleeping was tough with seven in one room and only two beds. Samir soaked up all the attention from young girls at parties, he was the ageing rock star and lasted the course well. He was always on the dance floor, occasionally topless, never failing to try and impress some young admirer.

Then it suddenly ended with an awards ceremony. I was cool but Samir was anxious. I got angry with his desire to win. I was just happy to be there, one of only twelve films chosen from the world for competition. Amazing. But no, he insisted on winning. Then we arrive and we are asked to sit at the end of the row... the publicist had heard good things, he said to start preparing a speech. I was now anxious and Samir speechless. I drank red wine and began to think. The Liberace entourage would keep nipping off to fill up my glass. I couldn't remember all the thank-you's, then I looked around the vast place with huge screens off the stage all over the place. I just couldn't imagine going up there. Before long it had begun and it didn't take long to hear that The Liberace of Baghdad had won a Special Jury Award... there was a cheer and we were on our feet making our way to the stage, making a speech, holding each other up, and hearing the crowd laughing. Samir was moaning to them that I had brought him thousands of miles from his home to talk to people he didn't want to talk to.

At the back stage party Samir and I held each other, he wanted to cry, he said he was so happy, not for him but for me. He could see how happy I was to have won and it made him happy and proud to have given himself to the film. "We're more than friends" , he said, "We're like brothers now."

You can read more of Sean's weblog at http://tenfootfilms.blogspot.com
In an article written specially for DFG, Sean McAllister tells us more about the work involved in attending a major festival and the financial struggle to get your work seen.

The making of a film is hard enough and sometimes its success is gauged by how well it does on the festival market. I've made films that haven't been picked up by major festivals and felt that in some way they'd failed. They were not seen or considered good enough to be shown on the festival circuit. The coolest festival for me has always been Sundance but it wasn't until this year when my new film The Liberace of Baghdad was accepted along with 11 other films for world competition at Sundance that I began to question exactly why it had become known as the coolest film festival in the world.

The film I'd made under exceptional circumstances, I'd taken a risk in filming over eight months in Iraq at its most dangerous and turbulent times. I'd had to re-mortgage my house to carry on making the film after the 70k budget ran out. So there was a lot at stake. I needed to sell the film (I'm still waiting to sell the fucker!!) I knew that an American sale would come if we got into Sundance, so that's how important it was to me. It could be worth 100k-200k sale - and give the film a chance of being released theatrically. (As well as getting the truth of what is happening that TV world news has denied the world.)

The film was commissioned by BBC Storyville (50k) and TV2 Denmark (4k pre sale, 16k advance in return for acting as world TV sales agent). After the first screening Nick Fraser suggested I send the film to Diane Weyerman director of Documentary program, as did another friend Alex Cooke. Diane saw a rough cut and liked the film. She passed it to her advisory committee and we didn't hear anything. In the time that passed both IDFA in Amsterdam and the Berlin Film Festival rejected the film. My heart began to drop thinking of the money/house I had, and still have, on the line with this film. It is at this point you realise how important a film festival is. If Sundance had not accepted this film, it would have been deemed unworthy by the few main festivals. It would have had a worthless BBC4 screening to almost nobody and that would be it.

Then I got the call from Sundance, it had been accepted. I was saved. When the announcement went official I was receiving 20-30 emails a day from all the major US companies. I had Miramax and Universal call me up at home whilst I'm cooking my tea. I couldn't quite understand it. I was beginning to get a sense of what was to come in Sundance. But before then I had to find more money to make a HD master, make an EPK, employ a publicist, make posters, badges, T-shirts. We got money from the Film Council and some other European fund to cover some of this. The preparations for Sundance took about two months work in itself. I was also arranging for Samir, the star of the film, to come over from Iraq which meant getting him a US visa.
Sundance in many ways was far from glamorous, I took a load of mates to create the 'Liberace entourage', we were sleeping seven to a room with two beds. I'd heard that other filmmakers were literally homeless over there. The only glamour I saw were glimpses from the odd champagne reception here and there. Actually there were so many events with free food and wine there was no need to ever eat out. We'd employed the publicists who'd looked after SuperSize Me the previous year at Sundance. They did a buyout fee for $6,000, half of what they normally charge.

The ten-day event felt like a series of interviews really, newspaper, telly, radio. The 'Liberace entourage' of seven people were out fly postering, handing badges out and making our presence felt. We used Samir to maximum capacity, for the publicists it was better than having a celebrity. We had five screenings over ten days. The first screening seemed quite strange to me, I couldn't gauge the American response and was naturally very anxious. I was later consoled by the great Werner Herzog, which was very cool. But after each screening the word of mouth got about and the film became more and more talked about. People would be stopping Samir for autographs wherever we went.
By the end of the ten grueling days was the awards ceremony when we received a Special Jury Prize. The award has helped create more interest in the film - but we still haven't sold it. Having spent up my re-mortgage money on the film I've just found a real cool 6.9% interest deal with Cahoot who gave me 20k in 20 minutes online. I'm still waiting for the sun to shine from my Sundance win.

All pictures published courtesy of Sean McAllister. For more information about The Liberace of Baghdad and all of Sean's films, visit his website: www.seanmcallister.com

Back to Articles