FULL PHIL CHAPTER GIVE AWAY
Chapter titled PHIL From the GERDE’S FOLK CITY DOC here for subscribers
🎬 I’ve been at this filmmaking bit for several years now. (one film, many clips, daily work for clients)
Some topics for the Gerde’s Folk City Doc were/are easy to assemble from my footage. For instance, Mike Porco is the main focus for the GERDE’S FOLK CITY DOC so when transcribing all 23 interviews plus other audio, I was able to pull out all the moments where Arlo or Bruce or Sonny Ochs or Mike himself mentioned Mike. That amounted to about 30 minutes. Then it was boiled down to 23 minutes…instant short doc. You’re a filmmaker.
👇🏽 Then one can make a coherent story from the sentences on film. And form there such a clip may be edited down. Sew ‘em together, ya got a movie.
I was always frustrated in the process of making The Gerde’s Folk City Doc because every segment I made about PHIL OCHS had a somber and sober tone. As vibrant and humorous as he was, the story as a whole was kinda sad. Too many memories of John Train
If the FOLK CITY film had a mood it would be flowing from EXCITEMENT, HAPPY, POSITIVE, HIGH VIBE, and then Phil’s part would be BUMMER, and then it would shift to HAPPY again etc. The PHIL part was the outlier.
And I didn’t want to go forward to portray one of America’s all-time great songwriters with a ‘bummer’ tone.
🤌🏼 However, that was the way Phil Ochs’ story went.
It must have been difficult to know Phil early in his career and then watch their connection and friendship get crushed under the weight of his alleged bi-polar diagnosis.
Their friendship with Phil ended in 1976 by his own hand at age 35.
🤌🏼 I finally decided on how to place Phil in my film
I decided to show it ‘start to finish’ (a mini biography without interruption) about two-thirds way into the film.
ALL PHIL, ALL AT ONCE, IN ALL HIS GLORY AND SELF DESTRUCTION.
PHIL MOBILIZED THOUSANDS FOR RALLIES AND WAS NEVER SHY TO OFFER HIS TALENT TO SMALL GATHERINGS
Thanks to his sister Sonny Ochs, rays of sunshine were shown to come out of it. She has championed decades worth of PHIL OCHS SONG NIGHTS. Year-round tributes far and wide, in person and cyber. Phil would appreciate it, I think.
THE CRUX IS THAT YOU GOTTA BUILD, YOU CAN’T LANGUISH IN THE PAST
Phil, as you’ll see, was treated like a son by Mike Porco. I never met Phil but I have a personal connection through the tender care given by my own grandfather.
👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽WATCH THE FULL PHIL OCHS EPISODE from the GERDE’S FOLK CITY DOC👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
There are three main musicians featured in THE GUTHRIE CENTER in Tulsa OK.
Woody Guthrie
Bob Dylan who now has his own CENTER
And PHIL OCHS.
Was it fated that Phil Ochs would deserve such an honor for his body of work? Was he chosen because his family saved the most stuff?
If another artist from the Village, say, Paul Clayton’s family kept all his keepsakes and left them to a museum would that museum feature him as an exemplary, masterful and successful Folk Singer from New York in the 1960s?
Phil Ochs’ name and cannon can command such a showcase. As Neil Young said, “He was one of the greatest poets that ever lived. Phil Ochs was his name.”
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