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TOWN BLOODY HALL
INTERVIEW DA PENNEBAKER
& CHRIS HEGEDUS
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It took eight years for DA Pennebaker's Town Bloody Hall footage to reach the cinema screen, and then only thanks to his wife Chris Hegedus.
BBC4: Why was there such a long gap between the actual event and the film coming out?
Chris Hegedus: Norman told Penny about the event and he went out three days later and shot it. He didn't really know what to do with it so it just got stuck on the shelf. In 1976 when I was working with Penny he said, "I also have these films on the shelf that I never did anything with." And he took that out and showed it to me, and I thought it was great. These were women who were heroes of the Women's Movement at the time and the whole atmosphere was electric and sexually charged.
BBC4: So you rescued it?
CH: I said, "We've got to make something out of this" and just edited it. But then we got involved in other projects for a couple of years and didn't release it for another few years after that. But I just felt it was important to get it out.
BBC4: You felt it was still significant eight years after the event?
CH: For me it was the end of the 60s. It capped that whole outrageous behaviour. Even though it happened in 1971, I think that shortly after that, because of the Vietnam War and the Nixon impeachment, it became a different time. The film just capped all that explosiveness.
BBC4: Do you think it still has political relevance?
CH: I think it's still very relevant.
DA Pennebaker: More than when it was done.
BBC4: Why?
DAP: Everybody talked away about the new era in which women were going to be free and wives would get holiday with pay. Looking back, very little has actually changed. For most people we're back where we were before the event. I think you see this film and you think they are having the same fight we are.
BBC4: How do think Mailer comes out of it?
DAP: DAP: Personally, I think he comes off very well. But then there are people who expect him to be a curmudgeon and an asshole and they can pat themselves on the back and say, "I told you so." But I thought his insights at the time were very interesting. For me it was a kind of awakening to a thing I already thought I knew everything I needed to know about.
CH: He's just so brilliantly the devil's advocate. A buffoon at times, but always entertaining. I think that one of the best things about the film is that it is entertaining. It was a time of talking about ideas and being passionate about ideas. Even though now they may seem simplistic, you forget that people really fought over those types of ideas. But it was a dialogue that was entertaining and fun.
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