A Quick One with Writer

Barry Yourgrau

by Jon Alain Guzik

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Barry Yourgrau as seen in "The Sadness of Sex"
South-African born fiction writer & performer Barry Yourgrau has developed a cult following from his spoken-word performances on MTV, on NPR's "All Things Considered" and "Weekend Edition," and at clubs, small theaters and colleges east coast and west. His reviews and articles appear regularly in many print and online publications, including The New York Times, New York, Salon, Spin, Artforum, and Nerve. "Haunted Traveller; An Imaginary Memoir" (Arcade) is the Barry Yourgrau latest book, which the New York Times Book Review called, "Strangely sublime...."

Yourgrau's previous book, "The Sadness of Sex," was adapted into an independent performance feature in which he starred with Peta Wilson, TV's "La Femme Nikita." It was then turned into an internet phenom on http://www.ifilm.com, where it help to establish Yourgrau as an online presence. He's also published two earlier classics of short fiction, "Wearing Dad's Head" and "A Man Jumps Out of An Airplane". This summer, Barry will be a contributing editor for the new Thirsty.com website.

To prevent Hollywood Industry from proving that old Hollywood axiom, "The writer always gets screwed!", wrong, we did a Q and A with a very talented one. And, again, an internet phenom to boot! Remember, even in the digital age, content (providers) are king.


 How'd you get started?

Couple years after college (much floundering, much lousy writing) I hit on short, present-tense narrative. 'Present' being the tense of dreams- or rather, dream accounts. I started out trying to write stories "like a dream"-- as if recounting a dream. Hooking up to (faking) the shocks & intensities & crazy innocence of dreams. Unleashing deep-seated Freudian stuff into everyday reality. The present-tense is of course also the tense of movies. I also got going when I moved in the 70's to Cambridge, Mass, took a job as a doorguard at Harvard's rare book library. One of those dreary, demeaning 'writer's' jobs, nothing to do but read. I had the run of the whole Harvard library system. Got my writer's education wandering the stacks. A bit like surfing the 'net.

. How has the emergence of high-quality digital tools affected your career?

. If by "tools" you mean new video-streaming technologies & delivery means, then yes, they've hauled out of the ditch the movie we did of my book, "The Sadness of Sex." The film was pretty much dead & gone after a brief quirky festival & arthouse life. The 'net heaved it back on the road-screening online installments

. Has it enabled you to do things or create things that would have been out of reach otherwise?

. See above.

 What kinds of opportunities or venues are available to you as a result of the digital content "revolution?" The 'net, for instance.

Finally, a popular medium where short is sweet! To a writer of the Very Brief, older media are forever moaning: Great: but it's so short, what do we do? New media seems to love short & have all sorts of ideas for it. Also, new media is so marvelously multi-media. As a writer who performs his own material, reads it (audio version), aims to make film of it (live, animation, etc.), the 'net & its new one-stop capacities are very exciting.

What tools do you use? Digital video cameras, non-linear editing?

.???

What are you working on now?

I'll be at Sundance Theater Lab this summer, developing my book, "Haunted Traveller," into a one-man show . I'm also discussing with a director about "Haunted Traveller" as a movie or cable-TV series and/or Internet project. (The 'net being such a versatile venue: it can "star" or "support"). I'm also working up the proposal for a "Reality Video" style travel show, about strange things, people & places-- "magical realist" phenomena (real? not real?). Faraway or close to home; exploring them with my twists of perspective. I think it could be a great fit for Internet & cable TV. (That lovely word: multi-platform.). I have four books of short fictions: stock for all sorts of 'net projects.

What do you really want to do?

I'm a great fan of gangster-action thrillers. I love Japanese director/wildman Takeshi Kitano (Sonatine, etc.). I would like to run around with a gun in Takeshi Kitano's next American thriller. Other than that, I'd like do what I do, with proper means. Write more books, write films & act in a few; do my one-man theatrical show. Get some magic going on the 'net.

. What's your dream project?: Cast/Crew?

Besides working on Un-named Woody Allen Project... Being on a crime jag these days, I dream of a neo-noir film with Mike Hodges (Croupier, Get Carter)-- write it, have a small but memorable part threatening Michael Caine. I'd want the film to have moments of odd lyrical humor too. And sadness of course: noir is an exquisite genre for sadness & regret.


Yourgrau in "The Sadness of Sex"
Who else do you think is among the hottest emerging talent and why?

Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration) & Tom Trykwer (Run Lola Run) made the films that most excited me recently. Up-and-coming, I like Marc Forster, young Swiss director in US, whose film Everything Put Together was in competition at Sundance. Really sharp & jazzy, uses "genre" devices in material that's more naturalistic. A spooky Dogma film. In terms of new media, a guy named Douglas Gayeton is a genuine visionary I know. He's about to launch an online animation channel, Very Small TV (in France; should be in US soon too, I'm sure) that's pretty stunning. Also two very young guys I've worked with, Sean Suhl & Peter Luttrell, who were at DEN but left early on. Sean's now creative director for thirsty.com, a Web site for young folks launching this summer (FYI, I'll be a contributing editor for them). Both Sean & Peter seem to have a tremendous sense of what works on the 'net. They were the ones saying early on about programming: not 30 minute shows: 6 minute shows!

What do you think the future holds?

. I thought at first the vogue for "short" would expire soon as real broadband TV hit in couple years. Why look at a short when you can watch any feature film you want? But people will still be using computers, and "short" is right for desktop. People watch on lunch-hours, etc. As Roger Ebert said at Yahoo Film Fest, "Who in this audience has ever watched a whole feature film on desktop?" (One lone hand went up) (For directions to bathroom?)

. What technology do you see by then?

God knows. For all the excitement I talk about, I'm late to digital & computers. I still write my fiction first by hand, only started using a computer in '96; was a DOS man til last Xmas (DOS is like a typewriter; Windows & Mac are like video games). My first two books I worked up on manual typewriter (editing that ms was literally cutting-and-pasting). For me the biggest thing is going to be when broadband arrives, and the process & ritual of receiving streaming these days-waiting for loading, the size of what arrives, etc etc-- will be outmoded, a thing of the past. I wonder when people will overload on all this instantaneity & power, and go back to simpler (albeit sleeker) modes. Modes that allow for rumination, the mind's slow composting. Things that drip, not flood.

Any questions for Barry Yourgrau, visit him at http://www.yourgrau.com