TRIBECA FILM FEST 2014: AN INTERVIEW WITH "GARNET'S GOLD'S" GARNET FROST AND ED PERKINS

BY LIZ WHITTEMORE

Meet Garnet Frost, a 60 something, caricature of a man. He paints, he sings, he reads, and building things, he writes poetry, he does magic. He is an epic human being who thinks very little of himself. 20 years ago, Garnet went on a hike to Scotland’s Loch Arkaig and nearly died. Just before he was rescued he discovered a wooden staff sticking out of the water. He believes that the staff is a marker for hidden treasure, secretly buried 300 years ago. The experience has haunted him and he is determined to recreate his journey in hopes of striking it rich. Really, this is just the surface of this film. Garnet takes care of his 90 year old mother, still seeking approval for a life filled with extraordinary pursuits. She is an absolute love of a woman. She clearly adores her son, as does his best friend Ann. There is an unrequited side on Ann’s part, admitted so. Though Garnet doubts his value to anyone, everyone he comes in contact with is immediately enchanted.

We get to follow Garnet’s journey in retracing his steps. He tells us what he remembers about the terrain and the difficult journey it had been in his forties. Now, 20 years later, we struggle alongside him as he makes the trip by memory and on foot. We are compelled to cheer for his every step, hoping that he finds a massive reward in the end. In the end, it’s not really the gold that is important. We’ve already fallen in fascination with this man, this genuine human being. You long to hug him when he feels down. He captures the heart of every viewer.

The views are stunning. Scotland’s natural landscape takes your breath away. The amount of rain is alarming. We often find Garnet shoeless, simply because everything was soaked through. Director, Ed Perkins, has put together a beautiful narrative. The two have become fast friends and their mutual respect for one another is palpable. I was fortunate to be able to sit down with both Garnet and Ed last week. Here is a bit of what they had to say about the film.

Liz, The Artswire: Congratulations on this wonderful film. It was so well done, and I loved it.

Ed: It’s very strange for us to hear this. We’re so sure that people are just being nice to us!

Liz: No, no! It’s fantastic. How did you meet each other?

Garnet: Well, it was almost entirely by coincidence, it sort of came out of nowhere. It was in a pub in London talking about my experiences and this guy asked if he could relay my story to a guy in film… May I send a guy round your house? And there was Ed, at my house, in my kitchen.

Ed: In Britain, everything good starts in a pub.

Liz: That’s what I hear.

Ed: I met with Garnet and I was completely taken into his world, I mean very quickly. I just heard that there's amazing, eccentric, extraordinary man looking for lost treasure, in a London pub. It's exactly what you want to hear as a documentary filmmaker. It took four years to get the still made but in the beginning I had no idea what the film was actually going to be about. I knew that even if we didn't find literal gold there is definitely something interesting and maybe even more important from a storyteller's point of view than literal gold. I got addicted to the process. I got addicted to Garnett. I would turn up at his house and he was building contraptions and buying boats. I was taken aback by Garnet's house, all these books of poetry, all this art. That was a starting point of making something slightly more lyrical.

Liz: It seems like it was built around Garnett as a person, all of his stories, all of his hobbies, his amazing paintings.

Ed: Garnet is a bit of a dreamer and most of us are too busy to build our lives around these dreams. The idea of going on an adventure is something resigned maybe to your childhood and here's this man that wants to grab life by the scruff of his neck and while the same time thinks he's possibly wasted much of his life.

Garnet: I'm so grateful to Ed for coming and making this possible.

Ed: there wouldn't be a film unless Garnet was brave enough to allow me into his world. The documentary filmmaker it is such a responsibility and a privilege to get invited into someone’s world especially with these kind of films. and I are very, very close now we probably broke one of the rules this is my first film but I suspect often you try it advisable to stay detached from your subject. That way you can most objectively tell the story and I kind of put my hands up and said "Well I didn't." I did, for better or worse, become emotionally involved in the story. And in my own special way love Garnet. I did care about him and wanted him to succeed. And if it feels different from any other documentary maybe because emotional investment on both of our parts.

Garnet: And although it's my story and Ed is totally invisible to the camera, when I see the film, I see that Ed is there an every shot and he's brought as much to the party as I have. In an understated way it's his story as much as mine. It speaks to his courage as well to take on something like this.

Ed: Although Garnett is this extraordinary man, in a way he's really every man. Second guessing ourselves and wondering if we've made the most of our potential that's pretty key to the human psyche and Garnett was bold enough to go there and ask those questions on camera. I suspected that if there was a way to get that across, then audiences would find a way to emotionally relate to the story. That was the aim anyway.

(Ed also told me about the amazing collaboration on the music for the film.)

Ed: The original cut was 3 hours long and each character had their own narrative introduction and it was a horrible. I realized less is more and I was inspired by Josh, our composer, he did a stunning job with the score in trying to tell the story through music and sound design and allegorical imagery versus traditional dialogue and vérité scenes. He has written 3 amazing songs, the last performed by Liza Minnelli and Wynton Marsalis.

Garnet: Showbiz royalty writing songs for me?

Ed: We had a Q&A session last night and he got a standing ovation from 200 people.  I'm so proud that Garnet is getting the recognition for this beautiful mind and artistic values.  People come up to him and want to shake his hand and want to give him a hug. It's all he's ever wanted for so long and hasn't got. You can finally do that.

Liz: I hope at some point you get to take in all the validation and feel like "my life is amazing, extraordinary" and please know that everyone that's telling you that everything you've done is so incredible and different and wonderful, take that in and I hope it sticks with you because it's really very true. It's amazing. I loved it. It's a gorgeous film and I feel so honored to talk to you about this.

Ed:  That is so kind. Thank you so much.

VERDICT: MUST SEE

Directed by: Ed Perkins Starring: Garnet Frost Runtime: 76 minutes

BOTTOM LINE: This story isn’t really about finding gold. This story is about finding ourselves. It will make you rethink the way you perceive your own life’s accomplishments.