When it screens at the Woods Hole Film Festival, which opens this weekend, the documentary “Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone” will have already screened at some 80 festivals over the course of its nine month run. Filmmaker Chris Metzler, who co-directed the film with Lev Anderson, sees the festival circuit not only as a chance to get his movie in front of the widest possible audience, but also sees it as a chance to network with other filmmakers as well. After all, most filmmakers are on the same kind of course that he is, working tirelessly at securing distribution and trying to make a living in the world of independent film.
“Everyday Sunshine” is the story of Fishbone, the influential African-American punk (fused with several other styles of music) band that was formed in 1979 by John Norwood Fisher, Phillip Fisher, Angelo Moore, Kendall Jones, Walter A. Kibby II, and Christopher Dowd. Moore, John Norwood Fisher, and Kibby are the remaining original members still in the band.
Metzler, Anderson and their crew followed Fishbone out on the road, trying to understand what makes the seminal band tick, what impact they’ve had on the musical and cultural front as a groundbreaking band (after all, very few punk bands boast predominantly African-American lineups that hail from South Central Los Angeles), and how they’ve crossed musical and racial boundaries. In addition to having access to the band members, Metzler and Anderson also use on-camera interviews with such musical luminaries as Ice-T, Flea, George Clinton, and Gwen Stefani, among others, to discuss the legacy of the band that has managed to stay together for more than thirty years.
Film Slate Magazine caught up with Metzler while he was in Los Angeles to discuss “Everday Sunshine” and prepping it to play on the festival circuit, including Woods Hole.
Film Slate Magazine: What got you interested in making a film about Fishbone and how did you decide to tackle this as a documentary?
Chris Metzler: I had always been familiar with the band Fishbone, hadn’t been a fan, hadn’t been to a concert or anything, but myself and my co-director Lev (Anderson) kind of started talking about some of the unique background for the band, specifically one, they’re this all African-American punk rock band from South Central Los Angeles and there are these kind of larger cultural and historical forces that shaped the band, mainly through them being bused out into the white suburban valley in Los Angeles, which is where they all met and bonded over their love of music. We just thought that it was an interesting story about outsiders, these guys that really didn’t fit in anywhere but then fit in everywhere at the same time.
FSM: Participation-wise, were the guys in the band eager to tell their story in this documentary format?
CM: The band was interested in making the film but they were a little bit leery just because they know what goes into making film. They’re from L.A. and they know that it can require a lot of time and effort, but also just an emotional journey of looking back over their lives and kind of sharing that, and they knew that if they did it, they wanted to do it in a kind of real and authentic way, and they said, hey, let’s give this a shot and we went on the road with them for a couple of weeks.
And I think that after the first two or three weeks they realized, ok, these guys are in it to win it in the sense that they traveled all the way to Europe, they’re traveling with us on the tour bus and kind of just sticking with it and basically they just saw our dedication and commitment, and said we can believe that these guys are going to pull it off. And then they were all in.
FSM: Some documentaries are going to have a slant, one way or another, through the filmmakers’ feelings. Was this more of a, “We’re just trying to present this story” as opposed to getting across a particular viewpoint?
CM: That’s a really good question. I think that’s even especially true with a documentary about a band, because obviously, you might think well, a band might consider its image, or the record label would want to present it in a certain way, maybe even kind of more of a promotional piece. But Fishbone has been independent all the way through to their heart, throughout their entire careers and I think they respected filmmakers as artists—ok, so this documentary is kind of an art project, so this is your perception of what happens.
So in doing that, we kept an open mind, and just let the story be what it is. Obviously this is shaped by our perspective on things but in reality we really tried to keep it as authentic and genuine to the situation as things unfolded over the three years we were making the film.
FSM: There a lot of other artists appearing in the film. Was there any difficulty in getting them? I’m sure it was something else trying to coordinate all these different people.
CM: One of the exciting things about being able to make a film about a band like Fishbone was that they’ve influenced so many musicians and bands in all kinds of genres so you have people like Gwen Stefani and No Doubt, Flea and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ice-T, and Branford Marsalis and Questlove… and it’s just this smorgasbord of all these immense talents and celebrities.
In general these interviews were pretty easy to line up. One is that some of these people are friends with the guys in Fishbone. Two, they really admire and respect what the guys in the band have achieved over time. So everybody when we approached them were just like, yes, we’re in for it, how do we make this happen? I think the most difficult thing was that some of these guys are very successful and that means they have a busy schedule out there on the road. Basically as soon as they returned home they were game to doing the interviews. Some of them just required waiting a couple of months until they got back from wherever in the world they were.
FSM: Was there one of the interviews that you were able to get that you thought was the coolest or the surprising, somebody you didn’t expect to get, or that was a surprise interview?
CM: It’s always hard to play favorites in this sort of situation because you appreciate everybody’s efforts, and all of them are pretty cool and unique in their own ways, but I think the one that I was most surprised by and also just stands out to this day is our interview with Ice-T. That kind of goes twofold, that one, we wanted to interview him because of being Los Angeles based, kind of a similar community that Fishbone came from, and of course took a different musical direction.
And it was kind of a surprise to learn that Ice-T was living in the same neighborhood as the Fishbone guys and he was just a couple years older and they would always kind of make fun of the car he was driving around, that kind of personal connection stuff, but then also Ice-T was just this supremely thoughtful and intelligent guy and just had some really prescient thoughts on the situation, both on the story of Fishbone but also the larger issues of music and race, and so just kind of came out of it saying, that dude is just one cool motherf---er.
FSM: What is it about documentaries that appeal to you so much as a filmmaker?
CM: Well, I like all types of filmmaking forms in that I come from a traditional narrative filmmaking background also, but I think the thing with documentaries that I like is that they’re true independent films. They’re something you can do with a small crew of 2 to 3 people. You’re able to take some creative risks because of that, and let alone I’m all about the adventure in the sense that each documentary film allows you to really kind of dig deep and look into one subject matter for a while and then when it’s over you get to move on to the next thing, so it’s like being on an extended backpacking journey through someone’s life story and they’re just fun films to shoot.
Aside from the final film that you get which we’re always trying to bring to the top, is that the journey is the destination sort of concept in the sense that making a documentary film is a journey in itself and one that’s always worth living.
