June 8, 2010 | Posted by Dave
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being able to see the film Best Worst Movie (Stephenson, 2001). A documentary about the fan cult surrounding Troll 2 (Fragasso, 1990), the supposed worst movie ever made.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have been following the development of this documentary ever since I first heard it was being made. An extended trailer was cut together and put online about 2 years ago and I happened upon it. Finally, my opportunity to see it had come, and how excited I was.
I guess my vested interest in the film has been heightened since I now am also a documentarian, and therefore was curious to see how the film creates a 90 minute narrative surrounding a cult phenomenon. A difficult task at the best of times. How do you retain the audiences attention? What narrative strands to you put together (moreover, how do you put them together) to create a tangible ’story’?
I had been mulling on the film Trekkies (Nygard, 1997) prior to seeing the film as that film is similar in intention (or at least I thought it was). A film which does not specifically have a protagonist, a film which literally is a pastiche of many facets of an interest group. This is what I am trying to do with The Cruelest Game, and of course, I was interested to see a more contemporary attempt at this ’sub-genre’ of documentary.More on Trekkies in a later post…
So Best Worst Movie was a pleasure to watch. A real gem of a film with heart pouring out of the screen pushing all the correct emotive buttons for this film-goer. The film for the most part follows the exploits of one of Troll 2’s protagonists since he was in the film: Dr. George Hardy a mild mannered dentist living in Georgia (I think) who lives with this dark secret of playing the Patriarch of the central family in the worst film ever made. George is a character unto himself: maybe the warmest soul you will ever meet, he is all smiles and laughing and jokes… Within the first 3 minutes of the film you want him to be your best friend.
Without giving too much of the plot away, the film primarily follows George, 20 years after the fact now that Troll 2 has become a cult phenomenon. He goes from being this small town dentist on a journey to being a cult superstar of sorts.
So this film has stuck with me for the past couple of weeks. I loved it.
The films director, Michael Paul Stephenson, was the child actor and central character in Troll 2. While Stephenson’s screen time in his own documentary is fleeting, he is enveloped in the narrative. He is part of this journey. He is there with George and experiences equal cult status notoriety. Though the makes a point of not allowing the film to be about him, it is clear that he is there behind the camera asking questions and moving the narrative forward somewhat. 
There is a general belief that in order to have a truly ‘good’ documentary, the filmmaker has to be removed from the subject enough to have something of an unbiased view in terms of message delivery. As far as critical reception has gone for Best Worst Movie, the film has received some criticisms as far as this is concerned. Reviewers have stated that they feel Stephenson is too close to the narrative.
Personally, i feel this is to the films benefit. It is the closeness to the story that gives Stephenson the right to be our guide on this journey… Granted, this isn’t true in most cases of documentary, but in Best Worst Movie i feel i it is imperative. It’s almost as though if it were anyone else guiding us, they wouldn’t have the credentials.
As a side note, the documentary gets in touch with Troll 2’s Italian director Claudio Fragasso who genuinely believes that the film he made 20 years ago has stood the test of time not in the ’so bad it’s good’ category, but as a genuine work of art. To see him arrive with such a fanfare is one of the funniest things i have ever seen in a documentary.
If you get the opportunity to see this movie, please do. It is an independent release which has been unable to find a distributor in spite of festival success over the last 12 months (a disheartening indictment of the film distribution industry as far as I am concerned).
Categories: Uncategorized | 
Tags: | 
No Comments »
May 20, 2010 | Posted by Dave
Hi. It’s been a long time. How have you been?
Evidently I am the worst blogger ever. It turns out i have too much other stuff to do and the ‘I’ll start afresh tomorrow’ mentality hasnt worked in terms of keeping you all updated on the progress of the film.
Anyways… I’m back, and am going to try and update a little more regularly.
The Cruelest Game (working title) is well under way! We have been working through compiling the initial rough cut of the film and it is definitely taking shape. Exciting stuff. Most of photography is finished. Apart from a few odds and ends, we’re almost there! So work has been done in the interim, in spite of radio silence.
It’s good to see you all again and Let us charge our glasses and give cheer to the return of The Cruelest Game to the blogsphere
Categories: General Information | Tags: backgammon, broken promises, documentary | No Comments »
December 15, 2009 | Posted by Dave
Holiday greetings to you all. I hope you are having a good December.
After a long-ish hiatus from this site, The Cruelest Game returns to the grid!
Since last updating, much has happened. Firstly, a big thanks to Leyla of the New York Athletic Club for being such a gracious host at the 2009 Mayors Cup. It was a great day and a tough competition won by Mike Battaglia. Congrats to him!
A big congratulations from The Cruelest Game to Ray Fogerlund, Stick Rice and Ed Bennett on taking the top three spots on the ABT end of year list! Great news and we wish you the best of luck in next years tournament.
Production in the film is going very well. We have had the opportunity to interview some key players in the film. Antoinette Williams, who hosts a monthly tournament in NYC spent some time with us, which was really great. Also, in exciting news, we have started to compile footage and the film is slowly beginning to take some kind of shape. Stay tuned on that one though…
Coming up in early is the New York Metropolitan Open. This is the first tournament of the year for the American Backgammon Tour and a great chance to catch up with some of the regulars on the circuit. More details of this to come.
We wish you the best over the holiday season and look forward to bringing you more info on developments of the film as they unfold!
Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: | 1 Comment »
November 12, 2009 | Posted by Dave
Hello everyone!
It seems Vegas wouldn’t allow me to connect with you on the blog. But no matter, I have arrived home after a grueling weekend of documenting the top pros as they battled for the top spot at the Las Vegas Open at the Riviera. The
A big congratulations to Mike Corbett who battled it out with Malcolm Davis for the top spot of the open bracket. Also a big congrats to both Stick Rice and Mat Cohn-Geier who made it to the finals of the Masters jackpot. Exciting stuff indeed. Our own NY based Richard Munitz and Ed Bennett too the trophy in the doubles as well, which was great to follow.
Filming went well, I was able to have a chance to talk to a number of players from all divisions about the game. Some great interviews which I am looking forward to seeing cut into the film!
I’ll post up some pics tomorrow, once i have sorted through them all!
Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments »
November 4, 2009 | Posted by Dave
Today marks the st
art of the Las Vegas Open at the Riviera Hotel and Resort.
I will be heading to JFK this afternoon and heading there to document the proceedings. Very exciting indeed. I will try to do at least one entry in the blog per day to let you know how it’s going and to post visually stunning photos of Las Vegas from the top of the Riv…. I’m told its a pretty stupendous view.
Anyways, good luck to all of the competitors! I will be seeing you there shortly!
Categories: Tournaments | Tags: | No Comments »
October 27, 2009 | Posted by Dave
So as it would happen, I am not the efficient blogger I had hoped to be. No matter, something to strive towards.
The trip to Towson, Maryland was a successful one! It gave the opportunity to connect with a lot of players within the Open tier of competition who will be traveling to Vegas and then eventually to the New York meetings.
The documentary was met with a lot of enthusiasm from all of those attending, which bodes well for future filming as well! Exciting indeed was the opportunity to meet with Backgammon Problems author Mike Corbett. Mr. Corbett, along with being an incredibly funny raconteur, is perhaps one of the most articulate authors and open players. Mike gave a lecture in Maryland, he will also be traveling to the Las Vegas Open at the beginning of November. We will be tracking his progress there.
A many thanks to Elayne Feinstein, the promoter of the tournament for allowing us to film on site and to have the opportunity to meet up with all the players and a big congratulations to the winner of the Open division, Brent Cohen and the winner of the Advanced bracket, Frank Raposa.
I’ll post some pictures in the next day or two.
Categories: Tournaments | Tags: | No Comments »
October 15, 2009 | Posted by Dave
Tomorrow sees the beginning of the Mid-Atlantic Championships in Towson, Maryland.
I am traveling down there with friend, companion and worthy adversary Robert Regan on board the infamous Chinatown bus. Traveling in style.
There is a high probability that aside from filming the proceedings, I will also take this opportunity to compete!
Anyways, I will be blogging periodically this weekend to let you all know how it goes!
Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: | 1 Comment »
October 6, 2009 | Posted by Dave
This is the first of a collection of posts regarding films (and other mediums) which might have some kind of relevance to the project as it begins to take shape:
One of the original thoughts I had when thinking about creating this doc in the first place was how to somehow add to the steadily growing sub-genre of documentary that I will, for the moment at least, refer to as ‘Competitive Hobbyists’. There are already a number of high profile docs within this sub-genre which I had seen (Spellbound, King of Kong) and so in an effort to have some kind of greater understanding of how these films tend to be structured, I embark on my crusade to see as many as I possibly can. So taking film viewing advice from many, I put Wordplay on my Netflix queue.
Wordplay, for those
of you who haven’t had the opportunity to see it yet, follows crossword puzzle enthusiasts (both celebrity and ‘average joe’), talking to them about their love and obsession with of the daily, boxy word game. Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword acts as our guide as we meet the likes of Jon Stewart, Ken Burns, Bill Clinton and the Indigo Girls, who sing the praises of Shortz as a sort of Puzzle Master demi-god.
So structurally, after a series of loose ’sections’ which involve such subjects as the history of the puzzle, Shortz’s personal history, introduction to a ‘puzzle maker’, etc. the film starts its main narrative thrust: the Annual Crossword Championship in Connecticut.
Much like all of the ‘Competitive Hobbyist’ films, the audience is now made privy to a series of profiles of various high-end competitors within the crossword world. Various archetypes emerge very quickly within this cross section of players: The young, hot spark, the old timer who never quite came top of the pile, the extrovert, the wall-flower and various others. We have a small peek into the daily lives of these folk as they tell us about their love of the puzzle and give us a brief account of their history with the championships.
The film climaxes at the crossword event, which if I do say myself, is an extraordinary nail-biter… I won’t give away the ending, for those who haven’t seen it. But let’s just say that the filmmakers lucked out with the photo-finish final round.
I recommend the film very much. It is as entertaining as any ‘competitive hobbyist’, maybe more so than others… one question, though, which rings through my mind as I watch this film (and many others like it): How can The Cruelest Game differentiate itself?
Backgammon, and moreover Backgammon players lend themselves to being filmed. They are, by and large, an extroverted bunch who thrive off of the attention of the camera. They are also as passionate, if not more so, as any competitive hobbyist group. So the question is not if the film is doable, but more importantly, how to elaborate on the already worn structure of this sub-genre?
My first guess (and I should really iterate the guess part) is something to do with a manipulation of the already, shall we say, ‘mosaic’ structure of such pieces. This is to say, the films thrive off of their ability to bounce from unrelated profilee, to unrelated profilee without too much trouble as the connecting theme of the film (Crosswords, for example) will suffice as enough of segue device. I’m afraid I will only be able to reveal my findings in later posts as I imagine the narrative does not even begin to take its true shape until the film makes its way to the editing room.
Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: | 4 Comments »
September 21, 2009 | Posted by Dave
Once a month, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a handful of Backgammon players meet for Antoinette Williams’ tournament. A friendly and informal affair, this is a chance for players to catch up as well as an opportunity for new players to experience a tournament setting.
Antoinette was kind enough to allow me to film the proceedings yesterday at the September session. A good turnout, with 16 players in the open tournament and a smaller selection of 4 in the beginner section.
I also had the opportunity, while I was there, to talk to some players who have ben on the backgammon circuit since the 1980s. I met Perry, who has been playing since the 1970s, and is very interested in the documentary and has offered to be an interviewee. He will be at the tournament in Maryland next month and is looking forward to being interviewed there.
Filming is going well. With many players enthusiastic about the documentary and looking forward to hearing about it as it progresses.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) is the monthly meet-up held by Rod Covlin in Greenwich Village. An informal setting where players come to see one another. Much like Antoinette’s tournament, it is also a great opportunity for newer players to come and have a chance to play others and meet people who have a similar passion for the game.
I will post some pictures of both Antoinette and Rod’s meets in the next post.
Keep on truckin!
Categories: Tournaments | Tags: backgammon, New York, tournament | 1 Comment »
