Writing's a great thing. I even have a novel that's going to come out next April called The Crackup at the Race Riots. You can make movies, write books, do a ballet, and sing opera, but it's all part of the same vision. And yet you clearly see all that with very tender eyes. I am very interested, too, in how you show the effects of a tornado on people.
Film can be so much more.
With Gummo I wanted to create a new viewing experience with images coming from all directions. To free myself up to do that, I had to create some kind of scenario that would allow me to just show scenes, which is all I care about. I can't stand plots, because I don't feel life has plots. There is no beginning, middle, or end, and it upsets me when things are tied up so perfectly. There had been a tornado in Xenia in 1974, and I decided to set the film there.