arts & life

Danny
Says

A documentary on

the life and times

of Danny Fields,

who helped shape

the future of rock

'n' roll, comes to

Cinetopia.

I

Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer

D

anny Fields, said rock
music historian Legs
McNeil, was always "the
coolest guy in the room:'
Legendary in the music indus-
try as a writer and executive who
helped launch the careers of some
of the biggest names in rock 'n
roll, Fields was integral in promot-
ing the burgeoning punk rock
genre. His associations and travels,
especially during the 1960s and
'70s, opened him to celebrity sto-
ries that reach beyond those years.
One story describes a visit to
Michigan, where he heard and

helped hometown bands MC5 and
the Stooges (he later introduced
Iggy Pop to David Bowie). Then
new on the alternative band scene,
the two groups were led into
recording contracts.
Director Brendan Toller
recently gained access to
Fields and convinced him to
allow use of archival materials
for a biographical documen-
tary, Danny Says, which fea-
tures present-day interviews
with the likes of Alice Cooper,
Rufus Wainwright and Tommy
Ramone.
The movie is a who's who of
the underground culture of the
time, still considered among
the most influential in rock his-
tory. Jim Morrison, Nico, Andy
Warhol and his Factory contin-
gency (including Edie Sedgwick,
who stayed at his New York City
loft), Patti Smith and Robert
Mapplethorpe all had associa-
tions with Fields — some good;
others not.
The film will be shown
twice during the Cinetopia
International Film Festival, run-
ning June 5-14 at various loca-
tions in Metro Detroit and Ann

Arbor. Toller will be on-hand
for presentations of Danny Says
— Skyping in for the Detroit
screening on June 7 and appear-
ing in person for the Ann Arbor
event on June 11. Ivan Krall, who
directed the 1980 film Blank
Generation and has been in many
of the rock and punk circles that
Fields has known, will join Toller
in Ann Arbor.
Fields readily reveals his reasons
for appearing only once with the
film — at its Austin premiere.
"It's Brendan's movie, and I had
no control over it," says Fields,
75, in a phone conversation from
his home in New York, the city
where he grew up and main-
tained his base.
"I met Brendan when he was
a recent college graduate who
wanted to make a movie about
retail record stores. He was dating
a woman whose grandmother is
a friend of mine. He knew who I
was and asked to make a movie
about me.
"Brendan had the key to my
apartment and access to every-
thing in it, including everything
on the computer and every tape.
My input was to give him the key
to where I live and most of my life
is stored:'
Among the footage are scenes
from Fields' bar mitzvah, celebrat-
ed only because it mattered to his
observant maternal grandfather,
who taught his grandson Hebrew.
"There's not very much about
my life that's very secret if any-
body cares to dig for it," explains
Fields, also impacted by a number
of relatives who were atheists.
"I trusted Brendan as some-
body who is good with a camera
and knows what a documentary
should be. He was interested in
putting together an entertaining

highlighted by Elliott Wilhelm,
director of the Detroit Film
Theatre and festival co-
curator, along with Russ Collins,
Indiewire Influencer and execu-
tive director of Ann Arbor's
Michigan Theater.
The Look of Silence, from
Jewish director Joshua
Oppenheimer, examines the
genocide experienced in 1965
Indonesia: A family is torn
apart by the genocide as an
optometrist confronts his
brother's murderers.
"This is one of the most bril-
liant movies I've ever seen,"
Wilhelm says of the Grand Jury

Prize Winner at the Venice
International Film Festival.
"The violence is politically
based by people who took over
the government, and the movie
deals with the eternal problem
of going after a minority."
Wilhelm, who has seen about
25 of the Cinetopia films, also
recommends A Borrowed
Identity, based on the book
Dancing Arabs by Sayed Kashu.
Director Eran Riklis delves
into the challenges of a
Palestinian Israeli at a pres-
tigious Jerusalem board-
ing school. A disabled teen
becomes the best friend of the

)

ABOVE: Alice Cooper called
Fields (right) the "mayor of
the backroom at Max's Kansas

City." ABOVE RIGHT: Fields,
Iggy Pop, Lisa Robinson and

David Bowie, in a photo by
Lee Childers

Danny Says will be shown

at 9:15 p.m. Sunday,
June 7, at the Detroit
Film Theatre and 7:15
p.m. Thursday, June 11,
at the Michigan Theater
in Ann Arbor. $9-$12.
Cinetopiafestival.org .

58

May 28 • 2015

FESTIVAL
FACTS

Danny Says is among a num-
ber of films with Jewish ele-
ments in this year's Cinetopia
International Film Festival, run-
ning June 5-14 in Metro Detroit
and Ann Arbor.
Included are 70 feature-
length dramas, comedies
and documentaries from the
world's most notable festivals
(Sundance, Cannes, Venice,
Toronto, Berlin, SXSW and
Tribeca). Among them are two

project, and I think he did that:'
Fields, who changed his sur-
name from Feinberg, had no deep
interest in the music business until
he started working in the New
York publishing industry.
"I answered an ad and got a job
with a magazine that was covering
popular music — the British inva-
sion:' says Fields, who dropped
out of Harvard Law School (where
at age 19, he was the youngest in
his entering class). "It was explod-
ing all over the place, and I drifted
into it. I was from a prosperous
Jewish family and had no inten-
tion of being a doctor, like my
father was.
"I never got rich doing this. I
had a good time and a good repu-
tation. In retrospect, it looks like
I had a fascinating, glamorous
life, but I was fired from every
job I had."
As Fields moved between
chronicling and promoting music

main character, who falls in love
with a Jewish student.
One more film, To Life,
recounts the story of three
women who met in Auschwitz
and reunite in France. They
face the past in a fictionalized
version of the experiences of
the mother of filmmaker Jean-
Jacques Zilbermann.
For schedules and prices of
Cinetopia films and presenta-
tions, plus descriptions of
an Orson Welles Centennial
Symposium, short film competi-
tion and free outdoor screen-
ings, visit cinetopiafestival.org.

- Suzanne Chessler