Backstreet Boys

This interview originally appeared on the We Are Colony blog

 

1. What was the first film that truly made an impact on you?

In high school, my friends and I would watch "Liquid Sky" on VHS over and over again. I had never seen anything like it. It gave me a taste for the culty and strange side of cinema. It's a tacky 80's new wave fantasia. Brilliantly bad. One of my all-time favorites.

 

2. Which films or filmmakers inspire you?

David Lynch. John Cassavettes. The Maysles Bros. (especially "Gimme Shelter" and "Grey Gardens".) Pedro Almodóvar (especially "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown".) John Waters. Agnes Varda. Hitchcock. Herzog. Les Blank. Early Greenaway had a huge impact on me. My filmmaker friend Grant Gee. This could be a never-ending list. Recently saw Laurie Anderson's "Heart of a Dog" and was just mesmerized. A liberating and inspiring experience.

 

3. Pitch us your film in one sentence

"Some Kind of Monster" for the Boy Band generation.

 

4. Now tell us what is it actually about?

It's the story of the Backstreet Boys. Biggest selling boy-band of all time. It's sweet and nostalgic but also raw and real - a trip down memory lane and a frank examination of old wounds, current hardships, and an attempt to make a new album in the face of an indifferent music industry. It's about boys becoming men. It's about, as one critic said, "the fickleness of fame", it's about friendship, creativity, and music. And it's not just for fans. I was not a fan. I made a film I would want to see.

 

5. What was your favourite part of making this film, and what was the biggest challenge?

Hiking in the Kentucky back country with the Backstreet Boys. Best shoot day ever. We had a great time and found the frame to put the film in.  Biggest challenge? Getting to the summit of that hill before the sun went down!

 

6. What insights do you hope the audience takes away from your behind-the-scenes extras?

I think a lot of the extras just let you spend more time with the guys on their hometown roadtrips and show you that, really, this is what they are like! It's not so much "behind the scenes" as just more of what people seemed to love about the film. The scene where the guys surprise the girl who now lives in the house where AJ grew up is a favorite of mine.

 

7. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a filmmaker?

Whenever you think you've got it, keep rolling. You didn't get it yet.

 

8. What are you working on at the moment?

Working again with John Battsek and Passion Pictures (we made "Stones in Exile" together) on a film about the band X Japan, the most successful rock band in Japanese history. It's a story about the band and their leader, drmmer/pianist/composer Yoshiki. They emerged in the late 80's and ignited the whole "visual rock" movement and are now readying their first album in 20 years. There's been a lot of drama, death and destruction in their history and now they are back and attempting to take the world by storm. A real fascinating story.

 

9. Which is your favourite extra on the We Are Colony platform?

 "The British Guide to Showing Off" is one of my favorite recent docs and I love the extra interviews with Andrew Logan, especially "Andrew Logan on art and spirituality" - I could listen to him for days. It's great that there's this platform for all our stray jewels to get collected. Editing is pain. So much has to get cut, so it's brilliant to be able to preserve these extra facets.

 

10.  What was the last film you saw?

"Un Monstruo de Mil Cabezas" by Mexican director Rodrigo Plá

 

Backstreet Boys Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of: Deluxe Edition is out now with over 90 mins of exclusive behind-the-scenes extras, only on We Are Colony: https://www.wearecolony.com/backstreet-boys/

 

We Are Colony is a global film streaming platform connecting passionate fans to great films through exclusive access to behind-the-scenes extras including deleted scenes, interviews, documentaries, stills, scripts and more.