In an early scene of Giuseppe Makes A Movie, Giuseppe explains why his films lack a sense of continuity, or rather why he doesn’t care about continuity in his films. For him, the vibes are more important than anything that can be nitpicked apart by people watching. He’s trying to capture an energy from the moment he puts pen to page all the way until he is in the editing chair. The way he talks about films he’s seen and the films he wants to make is nothing short of inspiring, writing and shooting films often in less than three days total. You can sense through Rifkin’s documentary exactly how much Giuseppe loves film in its entirety. It’d be easy to dismiss his films as low-effort trash that exploits the homeless, but when watching him work and seeing how he talks about the people he casts in his films quite often it becomes harder to claim that. He rolls with the punches, running with whatever his actors - often paid upwards of $50 for a day of shooting - end up giving him. In one segment, an older actor, Tyree, has an unfortunate accident on set. Someone who only aimed to use these people because they were cheap would be so incredibly reluctant to clean them of themselves, assuring them that everything is fine and that they are still cared for and valued. The apparent impact Giuseppe has had on them, giving them a creative outlet, is powerful, especially when his actors talk about the fun they’ve had on set with big, huge smiles on their faces.
It truly feels like no other filmmaker loves creating as much as this guy does and Rifkin’s documentary matches Giuseppe’s attitude and flair perfectly.
In an early scene of Giuseppe Makes A Movie, Giuseppe explains why his films lack a sense of continuity, or rather why he doesn’t care about continuity in his films. For him, the vibes are more important than anything that can be nitpicked apart by people watching. He’s trying to capture an energy from the moment he puts pen to page all the way until he is in the editing chair. The way he talks about films he’s seen and the films he wants to make is nothing short of inspiring, writing and shooting films often in less than three days total. You can sense through Rifkin’s documentary exactly how much Giuseppe loves film in its entirety. It’d be easy to dismiss his films as low-effort trash that exploits the homeless, but when watching him work and seeing how he talks about the people he casts in his films quite often it becomes harder to claim that. He rolls with the punches, running with whatever his actors - often paid upwards of $50 for a day of shooting - end up giving him. In one segment, an older actor, Tyree, has an unfortunate accident on set. Someone who only aimed to use these people because they were cheap would be so incredibly reluctant to clean them of themselves, assuring them that everything is fine and that they are still cared for and valued. The apparent impact Giuseppe has had on them, giving them a creative outlet, is powerful, especially when his actors talk about the fun they’ve had on set with big, huge smiles on their faces.
It truly feels like no other filmmaker loves creating as much as this guy does and Rifkin’s documentary matches Giuseppe’s attitude and flair perfectly.
