Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2009 > October > 27 > Entry
Interview: ‘Pocket Full of Soul’ filmmakers Marc Lempert and Todd Slobin
Slobin: Mark and I were working a screenplay a while ago that had to do with some harmonica-related stuff. … As part of our research we ended up at this harmonica convention called the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica. We went in with a couple of cameras and realized that there was an amazing culture right there and just turned the cameras on them.
Lempert: It was really an accident. We set up a camera to ask maybe five questions and the next thing we knew we had something like 40 hours of footage. The questions that we originally asked turned out not to be the focus of what these people wanted to talk about. It ended up being this major passion play about the emotional connection to this instrument.
Slobin: I think we saw a unique passion in the players that was different than other instruments. The instrument is really a part of you when you’re playing the harmonica, which is what all these people kept telling us.
One of the things you bring up early on in the film is the fact that people don’t give the harmonica much respect as a musical instrument. Where does that come from?
Lempert: There is a certain degree of disrespect to the instrument, not so much the player, although when someone is associated with the harmonica it takes them down a peg. … They have to say “Hey, I’m a real musician, and this is not just a toy.”
Slobin: It wasn’t even classified as an instrument until 1948 when it was recognized by the musician’s union. In vaudeville it was a joke. People saw the Harmonica Rascals and thought it was just silly stuff with the harmonica. It wasn’t until the union realized that these guys were making money that the harmonica was taken seriously and these guys were invited to join the union.
John Popper really comes across as an encyclopedia of knowledge about the harmonica. Are all harmonica players that knowledgeable?
Lempert: I think almost all harmonica players that get to that level have really given a lot of thought to the instrument because of some of the negative connotations around it. They do this research because everyone who hears good harmonica playing wants to go talk to that person. It’s a phenomenon unto itself.
Slobin: Yeah, Popper was a great example. We actually recorded that bit with him here in Austin.
There are a lot of great harmonica players in the film, but the guy that impressed me the most was Jason Ricci. Where did you find that guy?
Lempert: We met him the second year we went to the harmonica convention. We had a camera set up, and as I’m panning around the room I see this young guy with bright red hair in the middle of all these older guys. Something told me we had to find out about this guy. … When he hit the stage that night, he was a mixture of Robert Plant and Jimi Hendrix with all this other stuff going on. He just oozes soul.
Popper also mentions in the film that harmonica players are notorious for wanting to battle each other. Is that true?
Slobin: It’s weirdly competitive. In America, the conventions usually don’t have a formal competition like they do in Asia, but when these guys gather around in circles you can see that it gets very competitive. … Some of these guys just start dueling. You don’t see that so much with guitar players for example.
Lempert: It happened a lot on the streets in Chicago in the ‘50s, Maxwell Street in particular. Guys like Little Walter, Big Walter and James Cotton were around … these guys would whip out their harmonicas and see who could do it better; who could get a bigger crowd gathered around them.
Was it hard to get these people to tell their story, were they open to the idea at first?
Lempert: The first year they were feeling us out, but by the second year we were brought into the inner circle.
Slobin: There definitely was a brick wall when we started this thing, but we came in and established a credibility with them and maintained contact, giving updates as to what we were doing. We not only broke down that wall, but we made a ton of friends.
What we found a little bit different was there are some people want to let the harmonica grow, to develop it, but there a lot of people who want to keep it to themselves. Most of these people didn’t have someone teaching them to play and didn’t know any other harmonica players. So when they get together at these conventions, some of them are very protective of their craft.
Lempert: There’s a gentleman in Chicago named Joe Filisco. He’s kind of the keeper of the faith of the harmonica trust and he was very hard to get through to. We finally went up to Chicago to interview him in this dark room, and halfway through the interview he turned the light on and says, “You guys have really done your homework. I’m proud of you. Let’s keep going.” Then he turned the light back out and let us continue the interview. So it was tough to convince some of these people, but I’m glad we stuck with it.
Do either of you of you play now?
Lempert: I do.
Nice. Can you bend a note? After watching the film, I went home and pulled an old harmonica out a drawer and tried. Nothing doing.
Lempert: It will happen for you some day. People talk about the day that they first learned to bend a note as the moment they really started playing. But, yes, I can bend notes. Not very well, but I can.
“Pocket Full of Soul” screens again Thursday at 10 p.m. at the Texas Spirit Theater.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin Film Festival 2009
Comments
Austinites love to be heard, and we're giving you a bullhorn. We just ask that you keep things civil. Leave out the personal attacks. Do not use profanity, ethnic or racial slurs, or take shots at anyone's sexual orientation or religion. If you can't be nice, we reserve the right to remove your material and ban users who violate our Visitor's agreement. Click here to report comment abuse.