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Years ago our younger sister lent us a scratched up tape with a song about not letting the "sun go down on your grievances”. It sounded like some old-timey home recording but despite its anonymity scratchiness, we kept listening to it. A few years ago we finally made the connection that it was by Daniel Johnston, who had a few minutes of fame in the early 1990’s and gained the attention of bands like Yo La Tengo and Built to Spill. Their versions of “Speeding Motorcycle” and “Some things Last a Long Time” helped keep Johnston’s songs from fading into total obscurity while he was checking in and out of hospitals.
Enter director Jeff Feuerzeig whose film “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” played at Sundance 2005 and won Feuerzeig the best direction award. SFist was lucky enough to catch the film at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival last year where it won the audience award for best documentary. Among many of the excellent rock biopics that have come out in recent years, “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” stands out because it portrays genius beset by mental illness and a form of self-destruction that you can’t blame on the musician. It is also one of the most touching films we’ve ever seen.
Henry Rosenthal, a San Francisco local, produced the film. “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” is being released this Friday, so make sure to check it out at one of the many area theaters it will be playing in. Henry submitted to the SFist interview process and provides insight into the film as well as tips for aspiring car jackers and nostalgia for lower bridge tolls.
Where can people see the film at?
The Devil and Daniel Johnston opens Bay Area wide on April 7 at the Lumiere in San Francisco, the Shattuck in Berkeley, the Aquarius Twin in Palo Alto, the Century Five in Pleasant Hill, the Marin Three in Sausalito, and the Camera Stadium 12 in San Jose.
What was the most surprising thing to you about Daniel Johnston?
I knew Daniel was creative, prolific, funny, unpredictable, and intense before I met him, but I was unprepared for his blinding brilliance that emerges in all sorts of ways. He uses his intelligence to manipulate a circus of activity around him for his own mysterious ends.
What's your favorite Daniel Johnston song?
“Speeding Motorcycle” recorded over the phone with Yo La Tengo during the famous WFMU broadcast. I could listen to it over and over again forever.
Daniel's life seems so tragic, and yet is music is hopeful-- why do you think this is?
The tragedy of Daniel’s life is the illness that afflicts him, but he has harnessed that illness to the extent he is able, and turned it into an incredible engine to drive his natural creativity and intelligence. I guess you could say he made lemonade for us all to enjoy.
What projects are you working on now?
Shepherding the release of The Devil and Daniel Johnston worldwide will occupy most of the next year, but I am also completing a documentary about Nollywood, the first digitally-based film industry in the world based in Nigeria and directed by Jamie Meltzer who made the incredible Off the Charts: The Song Poem Story.
Where's your favorite place to watch movies in the Bay Area?
The Dolby Laboratories screening room at 100 Potrero. Projection and sound don’t get better, and the seats are very comfy.
Name
Henry S. Rosenthal
Introduce yourself in one sentence
I am the Bay Area’s most tenacious producer of independent film and the world’s largest collector of two-headed calves.
Age and Occupation
50, Film Producer and Business Owner
Home Town
Cincinnati, Ohio
How long have you lived in the Bay Area?
I moved to San Francisco in 1973 to attend New College of California where I graduated from in 1976. Although I always planned to return to Cincinnati to assume the throne, I fell in love with SF and have been here ever since. After six years kicking around the inner and outer Richmond, I settled in a monstrous warehouse on Skid Row in SOMA in 1979 and have been living like The Omega Man ever since.
Favorite place to spend time online
The list of Craig, eBay, aljazeera.net
Favorite local business
The Dollar Store on 16th St. at Mission. They sell Slim Jims there for a dollar, and I’m not talking about the spicy meat sticks.
What I'm currently Reading
Everything That Rises by Lawrence Weschler
Dream Boogie by Peter Guralnick
White Line Fever by Lemmy
Best Deal in San Francisco
Anything at the Dollar Store on 16th St. at Mission.
Favorite mode of transportation
My boxy white steed: 1990 VW Vanagon Carat
Best Band or Musician to come out of the Bay Area
A loaded question to a musician like me, but to be loyal, I must answer CRIME, San Francisco’s First and Only Rock and Roll Band
Favorite Bay Area Stereotype, and whether or not you buy into it
That all males living here are gay. I check periodically but so far, not me. I guess it isn’t something in the water.
Favorite local hangout
Dago Mary’s
SF has the BEST
Hamburger at Joe’s Cable Car
You've never lived in SF until
You rack up parking tickets
Favorite Bay area politician of past or present
Emperor Norton
Now that Mayor Gavin is single, who are you going to set him up with?
He certainly doesn’t need my help, especially since he has been linked with my friend Emily Morse, and, oh yeah, he’s the mayor.
You can tell someone is a local here IF
They dress warm enough
SF would be soooo much better if only
They would make Alcatraz into a resort where they run it like a prison
Best Burrito
Your first is your best and my first was La Cumbre on Valencia at 16th.
Best Restaurant
L’amor dans la four
Best movie scene filmed in or about SF
The scene of me tormenting Caveh Zahedi filmed in my office for A Sign From God
Favorite artist to come out of the bay area
Bruce Conner
Favorite author to come out of the bay area
Jack Kerouac
Place you always tell visitors to check out
The Giant Sundial
Favorite Bridge in the area
I am fortunate enough to own two bridges crossing Stevenson Street, so they are my favorites. After 9/11, a headline in the Chronicle screamed, “BAY AREA BRIDGES THREATENED.” I didn’t sleep a wink that night worrying about mine.
You have two hours and $15 bucks to kill in SF, what are you going to do?
Go to the Dollar Store, buy a Slim Jim, jack a hot car, buy $14 of gas, take Lombard Street at 100mph.
I have found/sold/bought the following on craigslist
Everything and more.
I want all the SFists out there to know
How important it is that they see The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Many futures depend on it.
Tell us a San Francisco Story
The first time my name was in the Chronicle it was for being the last person to cross the Golden Gate Bridge for the toll of 50 cents (it raised to 75 in 1974).
Question you'd ask if you were doing this interview
Would you like to omit any of the questions I’ve asked you?
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Should have asked him more about Crime, Emily...the band, not the activity.