Last year SFist Krissy reviewed Danielson: a Family Movie when it showed at the SF Indie Fest. Since then we’ve heard a lot of subsequent buzz about the film, and are excited that it’s playing a limited engagement here this weekend. JL Aronson directed the film, which captures Danielson from their beginnings as a senior thesis through various stages of growth and growing up. Various backing members of Danielson have gone on to their own successful careers (most noticeably Sufjan Stevens) and the film captures the morphing membership and direction of the band. Krissy’s review is fantastic (Aronson himself is a Krissy fan), so check it out if you need additional selling on the film. Aronson lived in the Bay Area for a while, making him a perfect target for the SFist interview. If you ever get so drunk that some stranger will have to take you home and tuck you in, hope it’s him.

What is the best thing about the Danielson movie?
It’s done. No, just kidding. But seriously, it took a long time and I’m still shocked that it’s completed. The best thing about the film is that people have reacted to it in ways I didn’t expect. A lot of artists tell me that the movie made them think deeply about their own struggles with creativity and reception.

What do you think will be most surprising to people who see it?
That the Danielson folk are very genuine, regular-type people. I was almost torn between revealing how regular they are and wanting to maintain the mystique about them, which I think serves them well in many ways. That said, they are different from most of us in that they get along amazingly well with family members and dress in costumes to perform live together, so I think the complexities are better than just the surface in the end.

What projects are you working on now?
I’m trying to finish up a film that has taken me even longer than the Danielson movie. It’s about the transformation of Brooklyn, as reflected in the experiences of men who raise pigeons on their rooftops. Like in “On the Waterfront” or “Ghostdog.” But it’s a documentary. Also, there’s a film about a shuttered mental hospital in upstate New York.

Religion plays a big part in Danielson’s music. Do you think that this has helped or hurt their career ?
No and maybe. Daniel’s music and art making are so entwined with his spiritual life that it’s hard to separate them. But if we were to imagine him doing a really similar thing without the God parts, I think he would have found an audience, and maybe even a bigger one, but not as sustainable an audience. People are attracted to authenticity. Novelty is only good so long as it’s new.

Danielson: A Family Movie is playing at the Red Vic from Thursday through Saturday (Jan 25-27). 1727 Haight St. at Cole.

Photo by John Ringhofer

Name
JL Aronson

Introduce yourself in one sentence
Hi, my name is JL Aronson.

Age and Occupation
32 and filmmaker

Home Town
Westfield, New Jersey (until I was 18) - New York City (since I was 23)

How long did you live in the Bay Area and Where
I moved to San Francisco in 1993 and lived on Hayes and Baker with a friend who was going to SFAI. He still lives in SF and paints Sasquatches. But then I moved to Berkeley pretty quickly because it was more leafy. I lived there for a little over a year and then moved to Santa Cruz to go to UCSC. But I feel a deep, personal connection to the Bay Area. I don’t think one can appreciate how different west and east coast cultures are until they’ve lived on both sides.

Favorite place to spend time online
Honestly, I’m not a web surfer. I spend so much time editing, emailing, researching and doing general film business stuff on computer that I try and spend as little ‘leisure’ time online as possible. I got an intern partially so that I’d have someone make a myspace page for the movie so I never have to personally visit myspace. But still, I check the news on NY Times and BBC, I listen to public radio online, I check my friend Julie’s radio/audio blog called Lissenup and I also like this new AOL Movies site for documentaries called TrueStories. And lately I’ve been getting into Gothamist a bit.

Favorite local business
In San Francisco? That’s a great question. There’s this shop on 16th st that sells vegan and environmentally friendly products. I bought my girlfriend a Nikki McClure calendar there last time I was in town. I hope the shop is still there. I also like El Farelito, the taqueria. Do I have the name right? (people of SF, please appreciate your burritos.)

What I'm currently Reading
“Pigeons” by Andrew Blechman
“Power and the Idealists” by Paul Berman
“The Essential Haiku version fo Basho, Buson and Issa” edited by Robert Hass

Best Deal in San Francisco
Any taqueria in the Mission. Also, Long Life Veggie House in Berkeley.

Favorite mode of transportation
walking

Best Band or Musician to come out of the Bay Area
Half-Handed Cloud see the SFist interview here

Favorite Bay Area Stereotype, and whether or not you buy into it
People smile at you on the street. I noticed this when I first moved to SF and it really freaked me out. Eventually I had to move back to New York.

Favorite local hangout
my friends Jenne and Aaron’s apartment. They’ve got great books and big windows with southern exposures.

SF has the BEST
fog.

You've never lived in SF until
You’ve protested something.

Favorite Bay area politician of past or present
Harvey Milk

Now that Mayor Gavin is single, who are you going to set him up with?
Jerry Brown

You can tell someone is a local here IF
I can’t tell anymore.

SF would be soooo much better if only
It were closer to New York (see above).

Best Burrito
Farelito. But I used to be into Maya on 16th and, like, Guerrero when I lived there. It’s gone now.

Best Restaurant
Medicine.

Best movie scene filmed in or about SF
Parrots of Telegraph Hill

Favorite artist to come out of the bay area
Bigfoot

Favorite author to come out of the bay area
Greil Marcus

Place you always tell visitors to check out
Yerba Buena

Favorite Bridge in the area
GG

You have two hours and $15 bucks to kill in SF, what are you going to do?
give it away! (well, it sounds like a good idea, no)

I have found/sold/bought the following on craigslist
my bed

I want all the SFists out there to know
Krissy Teegerstrom is a rocker!

Tell us a San Francisco Story
A few years ago I was back in town (this is since I moved back to NYC) and was putting on a music conference with CMJ, who I worked for at the time. We had this big opening night party somewhere around Potrero Hill or something. There was an open bar and some gal with fishnet stockings and platform boots got very sloppy. Not sure how she found herself at the party but she didn’t seem to be with anyone. She was starting to get kind of unruly, if you will, barging in on other’s conversations and just sort of annoying people. I didn’t feel like being at the party anymore so I grabbed her by the arm and said I’d give her a lift home. I had a rental car for the weekend. She told me she lived around the Panhandle so I started driving there but then she passes out in the passenger seat (which is a pretty good place to do it, I suppose). So, at first I’m enjoying the drive and figuring she’ll wake up in a bit. As we approach the neighborhood I start trying to wake her up but all she can muster is a slur or groan. I must have finally gotten out of her a street and then a cross street. So I park there but she still won’t wake up. SO I HAVE TO CARRY HER OUT OF THE FRICKING CAR and try and say, “Is this the house? Is this the house?” as we’re walking up a hill. The worst part is that I dropped her at one point which was unfortunate but woke her up enough to want to be in bed. So, we finally make it to her door and I ring the buzzer. She has a stoner roommate (think Brad Pitt in “True Romance”) who’s like, “Oh wow. She’s pretty wasted, huh.” Yes, dude. Now can you give me a hand? He points me to her room and I literally throw her on her bed. She just curls up and goes off into slumberland. The roommate is on the phone most of this time and not really helping me out or concerned with who this guy is bringing her home. I don’t recall whether or not I tried finding an ID in her purse with an address or phone number. At the time I probably would have thought that was invasive but I’ve watched a lot of 24 since then and have different views about how to get information out of someone now. I’ve always wondered if she was bothered by the fact that a stranger drove her across town and put her to bed without her having any recollection of the whole incident. Anyway, I took a nice leisurely drive on my way back to the party and thought about how my life would be different if I’d never left San Francisco.

Question you'd ask if you were doing this interview
What’s ‘Danielson: a Family Movie’ about? Good question. Well, it’s about the struggles between creativity and accessibility, faith and popular culture, underground music vs survival and family vs individuality. Go here for more.