SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT

Three Q’s with . . . Filmmaker Marianne Dissard By Brett Leigh Dicks

There was a time when Calexico was just another a dusty Californian border town. It was a time when the Friends of Dean Martinez weren’t a band at all, but just a group of friends. This was 1994 and Tucson was the domain of Giant Sand. Led by the sonically emancipated genius of Howe Gelb, the prevailing desert winds blew Giant Sand beyond the barren landscape of southern Arizona and deposited their sound across the globe. So it is only fitting that a documentary on the band should come under the direction of a French-born artist who calls Arizona home. Marianne Dissard’s Drunken Bees has just found its way onto DVD and, eleven years down the road, we find that the filmmaker is now part of her film . . .

How did you first meet up with Howe Gelb and Giant Sand?

I met Howe Gelb and John Convertino in 1989, at one of their shows in Arizona. That show took place the last evening before I was to move to Los Angeles to try my luck at filmmaking. I was 19. I was headed westward and Howe offered to let me stay at his place in Hollywood. I had never heard their music before then, but I got ample time to discover it once I settled into Howe's quarters in Hollywood. I became a fan. A few years after that, I was sitting in a rented kitchen in Paris with my friend Lodge, a filmmaker, who asked me what I really wanted to do with my life. The answer shot straight out and surprised me then - a documentary on Giant Sand! So, in May 1994, with no funding, no camera, but the desire to make a film on Giant Sand, I packed my bags and moved to Tucson.

What seeded the idea for documentary?

That only became clear to me years later, when I started writing lyrics myself. I think I was trying to understand Howe's music - his songmanship and how it all mysteriously and beautifully held together.

Where has the connection you made with those guys taken you since?

Immersing myself in Giant Sand's universe was my schooling in music. Over the years, I've collaborated with Joey Burns and John Convertino on an album called ABBC / Tête à Tête. I've also sung with Calexico and wrote for Giant Sand. Now, I'm about to go into the studio to record my first album, in French, composed and produced by Joey Burns. I was only planning to spend three months in Tucson, time enough to shoot Drunken Bees and get out. Eleven years later, I am still here. The friendships, the place, the pace of life, the music, the ol' Cadillacs - there's a lot that keeps reining me back in. My neighbors are Howe Gelb, Joey Burns and dozens of splendid musicians. These are the people I wave to when I ride my bike one mile to downtown. These are the people I get to hear play live in the local bars. Some things haven't changed since I made Drunken Bees, and it's good like that. I guess I'm part of the film now."

Brett Leigh Dicks