In late 2003, this writer and another friend spent a few weeks doing some old-school serious reporting and digging to write a feature on the death of L.A. indie-songwriter Elliott Smith. Half the work isn’t even represented here, but countless interviews were conducted (over a dozen), several sources were tracked down and some things said on the record were so controversial they had to be cut (we also broke the news of his final album along with several other key pieces in this story).
Ex-girlfriends can testify to the fact that we were immersed in this subject and material. We lived-and-breathed this feature for longer than they would have liked (it was some fine, old school journalism if I do say so myself; we almost became involved in a book about Smith, but that’s another story…).
Thousands of people were obviously affected by his music and his death, which was never conclusively ruled as a suicide and subsequently left the door open to copious speculation and whispers of foul play (none that were ever really proven during the investigation). So we shouldn’t be surprised to hear news (via 24 bit) of a documentary titled, “Searching For Elliott Smith”
Immediately after Smith died, it was easy to get friends and family to speak on the record, but when the controversy started around his death, it wasn’t always so easy (though Smith photographer and friend Autumn de Wilde scored several key interviews for her excellent 2007 photobook).
But time has passed, and filmmaker Gil Reyes’ has scored some decent names to talk in his documentary, including friend and folksinger Mary Lou Lord, director Gus Van Sant (who brought his music to the mainstream with “Goodwill Hunting”) producer and confidante Larry Crane, Heatmiser bandmate Tony Lash, and Smith’s friend and musician Sean Croghan.
Perhaps most controversial is an interview with Jennifer Chiba, the girlfriend that was in the apartment when Elliott died (and was subsequently hit with a lot of nastiness and death rumors when the suicide ruling couldn’t be 100% confirmed). Other notable figures interviewed are director of the short Smith documentary “Strange Parallel,” Steve Hanft and David McConnell who helped record much of Smith’s last album From A Basement On The Hill (we also sp0ke with him back in the day).
Noticeably absent are key people like Quasi members Janet Weiss, Joanna Bolme (an ex-Smith girlfriend who joined this Portland band later) and Sam Coomes (a close friend of Elliott’s who seemingly never spoke on the record about Smith’s death until de Wilde’s aforementioned 2007 book; journos who followed this story closely considered him the holy grail in the picture even though he wasn’t apart of the last few years of his life).
Evidently there’s no trailer for the film yet, but the doc did have its premiere just a month ago (October 23, 2009) at the CMJ Music & Film Festival in New York City. There’s a blog for the film, a Facebook page, and an official site, but it seems to still be doing the small festival route.
Here’s the official synopsis, but the claims that his peers granted no interviews is overstated; we spoke to several of these aforementioned people (on-camera, yes).
Elliott Smith’s intensely intimate songs helped popularize lo-fi, indie-rock: A traditionally underground genre until Smith’s mainstream effort “Miss Misery” took Hollywood by surprise. But even after an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, he managed to fly mostly under the radar. And Smith wanted it that way. After his suicide in 2003, Smith’s peers avoided the media. Granting very few print interviews and NO on-camera interviews. Until now. From his high school days as a National Merit Scholar, to his early work in the Portland rock band, ‘Heatmiser’, to critical acclaim… to his mysterious death at the age of 34. We learn the dark motivations behind a musical genius. And discover how psychic pain can also produce timeless art.
Thankfully it doesn’t sound like an investigation into his death, because that would likely be a fool’s errand (and certainly would provoke the ire of fans, family, peers, etc.). We’d be curious to see this, but we guess we missed our recent NY window. Maybe something like this will play Sundance or Slamdance?
Elliott’s music was obviously used all over Gus Van Sant’s “Goodwill Hunting” in 1997 (and then again in “Paranoid Park” in 2007), but the more interesting story is that Smith recorded some songs for Mike Mills’ “Thumbsucker” shortly before he died — and the indie singer was actually supposed to record many famous covers for the soundtrack before he died, John Lennon, Neil Young, etc., we wrote that story too — but unfortunately he passed away before it happened. His pre-existing cover of Big Star’s “13” however, was used in the film and Smith was able to pull off a cover of Cat Stevens’ “Trouble” before he died which was also featured in the picture.
