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 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Director Kelly Reichardt goes it alone. In today’s climate of co-opted cinema, the word “independent” is used more than ever as a badge of integrity. Yet, with every major film studio having their own specialist “indie arm” it’s arguably never been less meaningful. But then a film like Old Joy comes along and renews your faith in individual artistic expression.Director Kelly Reichardt read a short story by writer John Raymond about two estranged college friends who take a weekend camping trip into the wilds of Western America as a way to reconnect with each other and their old sense of idealism. Trusting that the original tale didn’t need bolstering with backstory or propping up with additional incident Reichardt opted to make the film version in a way that echoed the literary version’s understated minimalism: a two-week shoot using natural light, with a six-person crew, all living with the two actors Will Oldham (better known as musician Bonnie Prince Billy) and Daniel London out on location.  “Our producer found a church retreat up in the mountains and we rented a couple of cabins,” says Reichardt. “I kept imagining the making of Exile On Main Street, in the sense of a small group going off and holing up together in a beautiful setting, all focused on this one project. I think the intimate approach we took to making the film comes through in the film itself. The challenge with this kind of filmmaking is turning all the limitations into something that works in your favour, something that adds to the frailty of the story itself.” The protagonists, domesticated father-to-be Mark (London) and bushy-bearded drifter Kurt (Oldham), wander through the Cascade Mountains in deepest Oregon. As they do, the fragility of their connection to the natural world, each other, even to themselves, is gradually revealed in a series of halting conversations, telling silences and contemplative visions of the eerily beautiful wilderness that surrounds them.  Far from a commercial project then, but Reichardt herself, who spent her fair share of time drifting like Kurt, maintains, “for me making films is not a matter of money. When we started making the film we didn’t even know if it was going to be a feature or a short, so we certainly were not sure someone would pick it up.” Old Joy’s critical success suggests films made outside the system, about people on society’s margins, still have a place. Even genuine independence doesn’t have to mean isolation.
Leigh Singer
Old Joy, on selected release 26 January 07.
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