Independent filmmaker Allison Anders discusses her discovery early on in her career of independent film icon Wim Wenders, and explains how she first met Wenders and secured a spot on his film Paris, Texas.
“Wim seemed connected to pop culture in a way that was interesting. So I thought, the things this guy says is exactly what I want to do – the way that he talked about film – and the way he talked about scenes and actors,” Allison said.
She also was fascinated with the director’s 1980 docudrama Lightning Over Water. “Something about the honesty, it was the most kind of raw experience that I had – and I just fell in love with the film, and I thought this is the path.”
Allison explains that she decided to write Wenders a fan letter and was able to track him down through his agent, obtaining his phone number and getting the courage up to just give him a call. “I went and studied under him on Paris, Texas, so it was kind of amazing. He called me up one day and said, ‘Allison, it’s Wim, I’m coming to Los Angeles, I wonder if you can find time to show me your film – so it was my first film at UCLA.”
She said Wim loved her student film and even gave her some tips for the script and other things.
“So I said ‘Wim, I won this grant’… and I showed it to him and said, ‘Yeah, it’s to study under you on Paris, Texas,’ because I had lied and said he’d invited me,” she jokes. “So I told him I told them he’d invited me. And so he kind of got this far away look and he goes, ‘Well then, I guess you’re going to have to come.’”
Watch the full episode to hear more from Allison, including how she broke into the business with her first feature Border Radio, which she off the ground with just $2,000.
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