Sundance 2010: New Zealand Filmmaker Taika Waititi on His Movie “Boy”

We came across this interview by Eric Kohn for the Wall Street Journal Blog and wanted to share it with you. Mean stuff Taika!

The Wall Street Journal: “Eagle vs. Shark” had a very basic deadpan sense of humor, whereas the emotion in this movie feels very real.

The script was written in 2005 and workshopped at the writers lab at the Sundance resort. Back then, it was pretty dramatic; there wasn’t much comedy in it, but it was the same basic story. I didn’t really know what I was doing back then. I hadn’t made a feature before. I didn’t want to make the transition into feature filmmaking by making a terrible film. I wanted to make something small, clumsy and not as important, so I could handle the bumps — something that I could handle, and that was “Eagle vs. Shark.” I filled it with characters that were stumbling around, so the entire film was like this cute baby. Because the story in “Boy” was kind of personal and set where I grew up, I felt a real duty to do a good job and wanted to leave it
until later.

A lot of people compared “Eagle vs. Shark” — and, by extension, your storytelling style — to “Napoleon Dynamite.”

I was a bit annoyed about that, because I really don’t think they’re similar. I mean, some of the comedy style is similar, but “Eagle vs. Shark” goes a bit deeper into what it’s like not knowing what your place is in the world.

Do U.S. and New Zealand audiences respond to your humor in different ways?

New Zealanders, in general, have a darker sense of humor. We do find things like family dysfunction quite hilarious. Not child abuse or gratuitous violence, though. In the States, audiences seem to be touched more by the sentimental stuff. I think that’s because Americans wear their emotions on their sleeves. Nobody in New Zealand would give a rousing speech like they do at the ends of American movies. That’s something I tried to avoid. It’s not that I avoided the emotion of it, but we New Zealanders cringe a lot. There was something set to the tune of “Amazing Grace” in the film, but then we decided it was too cheesy. People would have thought this was an American film.

But do you think this film has the same appeal for American audiences?

I think it’s universal. Everyone who’s a kid has made up stories about their parents around other kids, or wondered what their parents do. Kids think their parents have this weird connection to the outer world, with all these secrets. Other than that, I still have no idea about what my mother and father were like before I was born, so I think it’s really personal. It’s not culturally specific. That kind of story happens everywhere. Audiences will be astounded by the beauty of the area and the culture, but the concept is a pretty relatable
experience.

The movie has a lot of positive buzz going for it. Is there a lot of interest from American distributors?

I think it’s just a hard time to sell a film. The industry doesn’t have any money. People are little more wary about what they’re getting. It’s so weird, at this festival, how people come here looking for a bidding war. That’s been gone for awhile. Whoever distributes the film doesn’t have to have a lot of money, they just have to care about the film. Some people buy a film and don’t really care about it. We want somebody who really fits it.

Is it hard to make movies in New Zealand?

There aren’t many of us. I’m lucky that I was able to make a successful short film that opened a lot of doors. I’m now the flavor of the month down there, but that can change. For the time being, I’ve had a lot of support from the film commission, but that only lasts until you make a mistake. My goal is to keep making New Zealand films. Then it reflects positively on the industry.

Did you enjoy directing episodes of “Flight of the Conchords”?

Yeah, they’re not going to do another season, but I do a lot of writing with Jemaine [Clement]. Working with HBO was great, because it was like working in a semi-studio environment, but at the end of the day, it was just me working with my two old friends. It’s just two much work for them. They don’t want to keep going with that. To make twelve episodes is hard, but to make twelve episodes with two songs per episode is even harder. That’s not to say they won’t do a Christmas special down the line, but for the time being, they’re going to take a break.

What do you want to do next?

I’m trying to develop a couple of scripts over here. They’re more character-based comedies with darker stuff dotted throughout. I haven’t got a definite project next. Maybe I’ll steal some ideas. Maybe I’ll make the New Zealand “Avatar.”

|Source: Wall Street Journal (blog) – Eric Kohn – ?Jan 28, 2010?|