Welcome back to Moment of Truth, Movieline's weekly spotlight on the best in nonfiction cinema. This week, we hear from John Sloss, the veteran sales agent-turned-rookie distributor of Banksy's directing debut Exit Through the Gift Shop. It opens Friday in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Leave it to mischievous street-art godhead Banksy to completely overturn cinema with his first foray into feature filmmaking, Exit Through the Gift Shop. More specifically, leave it to Banksy to permute the documentary genre with expert zeal, turning a film ostensibly about him into a film about its original director. It sounds both more and less complicated than it really is when you think about it -- a testament to the shadowy artist's dexterity with narrative and character. But what about his dexterity with facts?
Good question -- and one that will hang around for a while as Exit is viewed, digested, debated and disseminated in the weeks, months and probably years to come. (Read Movieline critic Stephanie Zacharek's review here.) Its curious spirit captivated even John Sloss, the Cinetic Media power broker better known for negotiating some of history's biggest indie-film deals than for nurturing darlings all the way to the art house. And yet that's the role Sloss finds himself in this weekend as Exit arrives in theaters: first-time distributor, a move as radical to Sloss as Banksy's mindbending mish-mash of vandalism, politics, guerilla cinematography, personal odyssey and art-world satire is to the iffy documentary market it enters tomorrow. But as Sloss told Movieline in a recent interview (neither Banksy nor his subject/pursuer Thierry Guetta, a k a "Mr. Brainwash," were made available to the press), he has his reasons -- up to and including his enigmatic star and an outside shot at a date with Oscar.
Let's just get this out of the way, John: Are you Banksy?
[Pause] This interview is over. You can quote me on that.
OK, so that's a "no." I should add that I enjoyed the hell out of this film, but I'm not convinced it belongs in a documentary column like this. Can you convince me?
You know, I've got to tell you: I don't want it promoted as a documentary, because I think that limits people's perceptions of its commerciality. But the Banksy people insist that it's true. And last night I was talking to [a friend] who runs an art gallery, and he's good friends with Thierry. And he says that every single second of the movie is true. That's what the Banksy people have been telling me that from the beginning.
How did it come to you?
I was driving from Deauville to this little town in Brittany for dinner with Rick Linklater and Christian McKay -- the guy who played Orson Welles in Me and Orson Welles -- last September over Labor Day. And I just got this call from this guy named James Gay-Reese. He said, "I'm a producer in London; I've done my homework, and we've been told that you're the right guy to talk to. We have a film we want to show you." From there I just thought, "Yeah, OK, whatever." He didn't tell me it was Banksy on that call. He told me on the next call. I had actually heard of Banksy, and not everyone from my generation had. But they just called me. It was a cold call, basically.
So I saw the movie, and I was completely undone by it. I had no idea what was real and what wasn't. I was on the corner with [my staff] afterward going, "That was such a mindf*uck. I have no idea whether Banksy exists, whether Brainwash exists, whether it's a complete construct, whether Banksy is Brainwash..." I had no idea! And then I look across the street, and wild posted across the entire wall next to the Soho House in the Meatpacking District was the Madonna album cover by Mr. Brainwash. And I thought, "Oh my God, I guess this guy exists." And it just went from there.
Whether its a doc or narrative or some hybrid of the two, it feels like a kind of comic thriller in a documentary's clothing. Now that you're distributing, how do you market something like this?
We can't really do any conventional marketing that Banksy doesn't sign off on -- and he hasn't signed off on very much. We've marketed this, really, by screening the hell out of it. We're working with Marc Schiller, who is a genius of social-media promotion. [Schiller is also the founder of the NYC street-art mecca Wooster Collective. -- Ed.] So most of the money that we're going to spend, we're spending it through screening it or online networking.
What kinds of adaptations and concessions were required of you upon working with Banksy?
I don't have a big perspective on that since this is the first film I've ever distributed. I just knew two things: Before Sundance, we negotiated to have this be a surprise screening so that Banksy could go to Park City and do his thing. When I saw what he did and how much promotion -- how much exposure -- it got, I said, "This is a guy who's a brilliant self-promoter and who will draw attention to this film without conventional media." And then when I found out how controlling he was, I thought those two things combined create both a opportunity in terms of distribution and a limitation in terms of working with traditional distributors. That's really what informed the whole thing. I thought, "I don't know if I can expose traditional distributors to his controlling nature or expose him to the sense from conventional distributors that they need to have control over marketing."
Can you elaborate on that parallel between the buzz Banksy created at Sundance -- which is pretty small and self-contained -- and how that might translate to wider theatrical release? How does that work?
I don't know. I honestly don't know the answer to that. He will have an impact, and I don't know what form that'll take or to what extent.
I guess the converse of that earlier question is worth asking as well: How do you sense filmmaking -- and now distribution -- changing the complexion of Banksy's art and business?
I really don't know enough about him. I'll never meet him, and he will remain anonymous. I'm not sure it will change him at all. I think he's an accomplished filmmaker, and he could continue telling stories if this is the medium in which he wants to work. But I have no indication of that one way or another.
Where does Thierry Guetta fall into this scheme? Is he a profit participant? Producer? Accomplice?
I don't know the answer to that. I believe he does have a piece of the upside from the film, but because I'm not the lawyer on the film, I really don't know the answer to that. I think he has a complex reaction to it, as he should; the film, in a way, is more of a love letter to him than a commentary on the art world. I think there's some harsh stuff that's been written about his talent, and I think he's sensitive to that.
Will you submit this to the Academy for next year's Oscars?
I think Banksy would like to see this film considered for Best Documentary. Do you think if we did, we would have a shot?
Sure -- if it's considered a documentary. The Doc Branch is kind of picky sometimes about what it allows in its church.
I think it's a win-win for us. The debate over whether it's a documentary or not will be great for business. If they take it as a documentary, then I think it's a first-rate documentary.
Could you imagine Banksy winning an Oscar? Who would accept it?
[Laughs] I hope he would nominate me! I don't know, that's a funny thing. I honestly don't believe, knowing what I know now, that Banksy would be there to accept the Oscar. But I don't even know the answer to that.
He'd just be there to tag the side of the Kodak Theater.
Exactly.