Charlie Brown and his friends are coming to Eugene in the independent film “Good Grief.”
Filmmaker Andrew Dickson’s “Good Grief,” whose characters are loosely based on those of Charles Schultz’s “Peanuts,” is about a group of outcast high school Dungeons-and-Dragons gamers who take a road trip during their final year of high school.
Dickson made his film during a four-year period with no professional actors and a budget the size of a medium-sized film’s catering expense. He then took it on tour.
The film will be shown 7:30 p.m. Saturday at “My House,” on 1136 W. Fifth Ave., between Polk Street and Blair Boulevard. Dickson’s short film “Autographs.com,” a combination of MTV’s “Jackass” and Michael Moore’s “Roger & Me,” will also be shown. The suggested donation is between $3 and $5. The plot of “Good Grief” is simple: The film’s protagonist is Chuck, a likable geek who can’t find a girlfriend. Chuck’s friends, including his buddy Magnus (played by Burn Collector zine writer Al Burian), decide to take a road trip during spring break. The trip, which starts as a chance to find a treasure, winds up taking the group through personal crisis, encounters with rock ‘n’ roll, romance and self-discovery.
Dickson shot “Good Grief” on 16 mm film, and it was produced entirely by volunteers. The soundtrack and is laden with indie rock including The Selby Tigers and The Fucking Champs. Dickson showed his first film short, “2-ply Comply,” at several film festivals, but for his newest film he decided to bypass the film festival circuit. He gathered a movie screen from a thrift store, a projector, a PA, a movie camera to play the film through and then set off in his minivan to project his film wherever it was dark. He played the film at college campuses, in basements, rock concert venues and bookstores.
There’s a great history of touring with film, Dickson said. At the turn of the century, black filmmakers would take their films from town to town and set up tents because they had nowhere else to show their films, he said.
“What’s going on in film right now is that all the tools are being placed in filmmakers hands,” Dickson said. “It’s almost easier to make a film than buy all the instruments for a band.”
Marc Moscato, an arts and administration graduate student who organized the show, read about Dickson’s film in a music magazine and immediately wanted to book him. Moscato said he respects Dickson’s filmmaking and his circumvention of normal film distribution.
Moscato said that it is hard for independent artists to distribute their works. “My House,” Moscato’s abode-turned-all-ages venue, is a place where independent filmmakers and musicians can display their talents.
“There has been a dramatic increase in recent years in avenues for independent art,” Moscato said.
While the venue is small, neither performers nor audience members seem to care.
“With a smaller, more intimate crowd, you leave a bigger impression,” said UO Cultural Forum Film Coordinator Toussaint Perrault.
Dickson would like to make another movie and take it on tour, but this time he wants to go digital. Three-quarters of the “Good Grief” went to film costs like processing, and with digital film there is no processing.
“It’s becoming more and more possible to see this as a working model,” Dickson said.
In the future, Dickson would like to see better avenues for independent film distribution, such as film labels that would work like music labels to distribute films to video stores.
“I think people are really hungry for great film,” Dickson said. “And film is still an art form in its infancy.”