The Gold Rushes — Clip (7 min. 2006) Directed, shot, and edited by Lester Alfonso, a first look at the completed film buried in the vault for fifteen years.
Archive upload, Day 61. Now finally getting the digital light of day, this is the first seven-minutes of a film that I never released. It was 2006, this was even before the making of Twelve. The Gold Rushes was borne out of group excitement about collaborating with each other in defiance of a need for a budget.
Artspace hosted an invite-only screening after I was done editing but the reaction I was looking for did not come. I went back to the editing room, shot more scenes, and never completed the update. Since I’ve been going back through my archives, this clip fell into my lap and it was a revelation. I realized that I had let go of a perfectionist attitude to get it just right. It prevented me from sharing myself with the world. After all these years, I see now that I’ve made so many things that capture a time, place, and sensibility. Sometimes, that’s all you need for a film.
I didn’t become a documentary filmmaker because I’ve always wanted to become one. For as long as I can remember, I’ve just always wanted to be an actor, writer, and director before I really knew someone could actually be all three. I had always idolized Charlie Chaplin, and more recently, Taika Waititi, because of their ability to do just that successfully. My filmography is replete with personal documentary films in the style of Alan Berliner or Ross McElwee — but I have a varied media diet.
I went on to film school and did well in screenwriting but it was seeing Chris Maker’s Sans Soleil there that transformed me. The film showed me a way to make movies on my own without having to go through the system. I may have an experimental bent with my work but what informs me is pure Hollywood. What ultimately excites me is how our everyday lives mirror epic storylines and structures.
About The Gold Rushes, in 2006, Werner Bergen of the Peterborough Examiner wrote “A film crew shooting a movie who occasionally break out into song is the premise of a new film by local filmmaker Lester Alfonso…
I just didn’t want to make a music video or a movie musical in the traditional sense. There’s no lip-syncing here. Every song is a live performance and I piece it together like a documentary film. It’s musical verité.
Lester Alfonso
Bergen’s article continues, “The plotline crosses between three different characters — filmmaker, a location scout, and a singer — and the three different characters are shown in their lives. ‘Ultimately the big punchline in my film is that they get connected at the end.’ Alfonso said he would love to play it in Peterborough.”
Almost fifteen years later, I will be hosting a screening of the full hour-long version really soon so stay tuned! —LA
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