Posted by Redial at tc5-dial-150-195.oldslip.inch.com on June 19, 2000 at 11:41:35:
>> IN RESPONSE TO: "Clerks" Killed by ABC After Two Episodes
Dear indieWIRE:
On Kevin Smith's continued whining about the trials and tribulations of
"big business" ABC, please spare us any more.
"Clerks" premiered at Sundance in 1994 alongside another scrappy little
indie flick that was also cheaply shot in black and white with lots of
dialogue, little action and few locations. That film, Rose Troche and Guin
Turner's "GO FISH," showcased urban lesbian subculture in the same way CLERKS showcased suburban convenience store subculture. Smith has gone on to make multiple films--not incidentally for big business ABC's subdivision
Miramax--while Troche has made only one subsequent feature and Turner has appeared in and/or written only three subsequent films one of which was Smith's Chasing Amy.
If Mr. Smith feels so badgered by the colossus that is contemporary
American filmed entertainment, perhaps he should remember where he really stands in the business, which is at a place far and away more privileged than most, especially those two women filmmakers whose careers began at the same exact moment in time as his.
Mark J. Huisman
New York
Dear Editor:
It may not have been just the ratings which weren't great. Kevin Smith
should be lauded, heartily, for getting a film done on no budget.
Every
filmmaker that gets his or her story told should. But Mr. Smith's
stories
are simplistic at best. His approach to getting laughs is not very
different
from Beavis and Butthead's, and they're yesterday's news; so, it
appears, is
Mr. Smith. When someone champions a filmmaker, as Pauline Kael did to
a
number of marginal and long-forgotten filmmakers, as John Sloss did to
Kevin
Smith, sometimes the rest of the world just buys it, and doesn't
question
whether the filmmaker really has talent. In a situation like this,
perhaps
the filmmaker himself should question it.
To Mr. Smith: artists should question everything. Here are a few for
you:
Does the world really need to see a cartoon version of a six year old,
no-longer-relevant movie? Is the public allowed to ignore such a
cartoon?
Are low ratings a manifestation of executive evil or merely evidence
that
the content was unengaging? Do you really have stories to tell which
the
world needs to hear?
Marshall Zweig