Memories of a lifetime in indie film — Flying in: My Adventures in Filmmaking with Gretchen McGowan

Flying In: My Adventures in Filmmaking was a thoughtful, refreshing look at the state of independent filmmaking, and in no way what I was expecting. When I first heard of the memoir, I was not enthused at the idea of a producer talking about themselves. I pictured self-aggrandizing stories of a money-man groping his way through Los Angeles as he took a machete to other people’s projects. This cynical view of film production has nothing to do with Gretchen McGowan, dedicated supporter of the artistic and independent. Over her years in filmmaking, she’s seen the transition from film to video to digital, all from the trenches of production. Far from the air-conditioned and disconnected executives who don’t respect or understand the art form, her decades of experience has sent her around the world to handle the most crucial logistics of filmmaking, on some of the formative works of the 90s rise of independence and beyond.

Below you can watch my interview with the author, or keep reading for my thoughts on the book as a whole.

Flying In charts her journeys from city to city, movie to movie, always in motion to keep the wheels turning. The book’s prose is full of sensation, the sounds and tastes of Philadelphia, Berlin, Saigon, and jungle depths as she does the hard work of getting everything where it needs to be; people, equipment, funding placed in front of and behind the camera to bring visions to life. Along the way you get a crash course in the real meat of filmmaking with any kind of budget. The general audience knows what a movie star is and has a passing (though incomplete) familiarity with the roles of writer and director. Flying In gives you an appreciation for all of the other roles, less visible but as or more important. The teamsters and key grips, the script supervisors and costume staff, even the producers themselves.

Movie making isn’t the magic it’s made out to be. If it is magic, it’s the kind of fell blood ritual that must be conducted under dubious stars. It requires grime and effort, and unpredictable deals with spirits that never tell the whole truth. Not every movie gets made, and not every jaunt around the globe pays off. Gretchen understands and communicates the holistic experience of filmmaking. The more you look behind the curtain, the more you appreciate the dedication and effort it takes to bring a movie to the screen. The highs and lows of production involve innumerable small but crucial steps: arranging immigration paperwork, putting budgets together, negotiating with the trade unions, getting actors to act like professionals long enough to get your coverage shots.

All the while, Gretchen’s work has been in the independent scene. Coming up in the early 90s school of introspective, emotional work. As the upper level of the industry is afflicted with streamlined, homogenized production, she’s maintained a commitment to the personal outsider stories that face an uphill battle getting made and getting seen. It’s that genuine love for the art form that gives Flying In its edge. Other writers would make more out of the big names that casual readers might recognize, an urge she manages to resist. Never does she scandalize her time with famous directors or actors. To her they’re just coworkers, relevant to the story only in how she saw or interacted with them. Ironically, in focussing on her experiences and her journey instead of highlighting those famous figures, she makes the story less self-centered, more focussed on the experiences that formed her life.

At $20, this is a steal for anyone interested in the formative years of independent film. Besides that, it contains a great selection of recommendations along the way. Most trawlers of the underground will already know about American Psycho and Strangers With Candy, but Gretchen’s works cover a broader, deeper set of pictures that modern viewers may not have come across. It was a pleasure to learn about her life through this book, and it was a pleasure speaking with her about it directly.

You can learn more about the book and where to find it at Gretchen’s website: https://www.gretchenmcgowan.com/book

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