A low-budget documentary about Elliott Smith, featuring many interviews of friends and musicians, was directed last year by Gil Reyes, and two short videos, some possible bonus DVD features, have been recently posted on the facebook page of the documentary.
One of the video shows David McConnell describing the two guitars Elliott used for recording his last album, and evoking memories about his desire to tour the album in the future and his fascination with Pete Townshend’s famous windmills he used to find hilarious.
The second video shows engineer Larry Crane remembering the recordings of albums like Either/Or, ‘XO’ and ‘Figure 8’ with Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock during his visit in LA, and making fun of ‘pretentious twat’ Billy Corgan.
This is very little information and very few people have actually seen the movie which was presented in only three festivals, one in New York, one in Argentina, and one in Boston.
So the problems I have with this documentary come only from the reviews I have read on different websites, because I have never seen it of course.
It’s interesting to note that, in a 2008 interview, just before he started making the movie, Gil Reyes had declared he ‘has veered away from Smith’s death in his documentary’, saying he ‘didn’t want to deal with that part of his life’, but wanted to look ‘upon Elliott in a different light, encompassing the entirety of his career in music, not simply his death’. It is also interesting to note he said in this same interview that the authorities had ‘jumped the gun in calling his death a suicide’.
However, when the documentary was released the poster chosen to advertise it was one showing Elliott Smith with Jennifer Chiba, and the reviews painted quite a different story, commenting how Gil Reyes had made a ‘picture which ended up being a vehicle for Jennifer Chiba, to try and vindicate herself’
According to some reviews, the documentary even goes to the extend to film J. Chiba going to the police station to clear up the idea that she refused to speak with detectives. This is what a review says:
‘Reyes interviews with her were handled pretty well, but any points that may have garnered for the film were pretty much ruined by a Michael-Moore-esque stunt Reyes included at the end to “disprove” a 2004 police report saying Chiba refused to talk to detectives. Reyes and Chiba show up unannounced, cameras rolling, at the L.A. police precinct years later, brandishing the original report and asking to talk to a detective. The police sergeants are thoroughly confused, and ask Reyes to turn off his camera. This is offered as some sort of proof that their allegations against Chiba were all wrong.’
Reyes said he originally made it without the participation of Jennifer Chiba, as he did not want to focus on his death, but, after seeing a rough cut, J. Chiba said she wanted to be in.
I don’t know if I will be able to see this documentary some day, but I don’t really care. All these talks about memories of Elliott in the studio are nice, but may be Gil Reyes should have been more attentive to not let his movie been hijacked from its original intention.