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Director Statement |
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Marcus' Story was the culmination of two-years of work.
The story came out of a short story I wrote about the homeless
I would see every day in The Santa Monica Public Library when
I lived in LA in 1997-1999. Every day that I was researching
in the library, I would see the homeless people reading, writing,
teaching each other, discussing philosophical principles¡¦ whether
they were real or imagined principles, I don't know. But that
was a few years back. In researching for the script, I read
books such as The Mole People by Jennifer Toth and Stranger
to the System, collected interviews by Jim Flynn, and the documentary
film Dark Days by Brian Singer was also helpful. Over the summer
of 2003, I volunteered at a soup kitchen and slept over at a
shelter one night a week, Anchse Chesed Chabad Shelter on the
Upper West Side. I was not allowed to ask the homeless residents
any questions regarding their lives, but I did not want to.
None of the people whom I worked for in the shelter made their
way into the script or the film, but the overall prevalence
of their situation affected me and helped me complete the script.
When I was conceiving of the film's style in pre-production I viewed Marcus' Story as a throw-back picture, an ensemble piece in the same vein as Frank Capra's great films along with neo-realist elements of such filmmakers as Vittorio De Sica and Luis Bunuel. It is a heroic story about homeless people where a
homeless man is the protagonist. In this regard I also looked to such films as Meet John Doe and The Grapes of Wrath. In keeping with the throwback theme, the film was originally intended to be shot in black and white. We finally decided to shoot in color, thinking that we could always drain the color in post-production. I came to really love the film in color, because we could manipulate the colors according to the state of the character and also for the change of season.
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Environment was very important in the film,
because the homeless of New York are part of the environment
and live and die by its conditions. I chose the locations through
my knowledge of the city. We were lucky enough with the weather
conditions to show a change of season. As in life, there are
serious elements and elements of comedy and under extreme circumstances
those elements are eightened. Marcus, the protagonist, goes
through the most extreme trials, and his journey is a serious
and noble one. The homeless as a group show their sense of community
and bring in elements of comedy. Overall it is an optimistic
piece, I think, but not a light piece. But above all, it is
a piece of New York¡¦ heart and soul.
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