Dig your own rave

IT'S almost midnight in Park City, Utah, and the temperature is well below freezing. In town, the film executives who have flown in for the prestigious Sundance Film Festival are schmoozing, but outside a cement box on the outskirts of the city a long line of party-goers waits patiently in the cold: leather-jacketed boys, candy raver kiddies and girls in neon pink wigs, all waiting to get into the premiere party for Groove, an inside look at the San Francisco rave scene by first-time director Greg Harrison.

Inside, the place is packed to capacity and those of us queuing outside can feel the bass pound the snow. Every time the door opens to eject another sweaty dancer, clouds of steam waft out to envelope us in a damp mist. Needless to say, this is the only rave at Sundance.

I'm in line with an entourage of 15 friends. Or rather I'm part of the entourage of my friend, Josh Lowman, who helped Harrison edit Groove and thought it would be a good idea to turn the movie's premiere at Sundance into a weekend party, complete with hot tubs and champagne.

Before we left San Francisco, the film was a just-finished local production that had been in the works for four years. But now, with the buzz machine at Sundance, Groove is officially a hot movie. The day after the premiere, the producers announce that Sony Classics have bought the distribution rights for a (rumoured) $1.5 million. More importantly, it's the first film to be picked up, which means that for that moment, every person at Sundance, and anyone paying attention to the mountain of media about the festival, knows all about Groove.

The film itself takes place over one Saturday night at an underground warehouse rave in San Francisco, its location given by a solitary e-mail doing the rounds on Friday afternoon. It lacks narrative, but the ever-building music and character development carry the plot. And it looks great: director of photography Matthew Irving turns the black-and-neon world of a rave into a mysterious and beautiful labyrinth.

And in a twist that's becoming increasingly rare at Sundance, Groove has no star power. Instead it features unknown actors and kids culled from the rave scene. The biggest stars are Lola Glaudini, who plays a small role on NYPD Blue, and Rachel True, who appeared in The Craft.

Unlike many of the other films which have dealt with clubs and drugs, Groove smacks of authenticity. It's so true to the scene that it almost feels like a documentary and comes devoid of moralistic sideswipes: there are no evil dealers or manipulative promoters, no troublemakers showing up with guns or deaths from overdoses. Instead, it details the nuances of raves, the intense connections and the ecstatic transformations they spark but without shirking from the way the scene can suck partyers into endless loops of self-destruction.

That realism comes from Harrison himself, a longtime member of the San Francisco scene who conceived the film in 1996 after attending and planning break-in warehouse parties. This film - his first full- length feature after years of making music videos and documentaries - was created with the help of the city's rave scene, and the movie is peppered with local club kids basically playing themselves as well as personal appearances from such people as Brit DJ John Digweed, who plays a live set in the film, and N'Dea Davenport, formerly of the Brand New Heavies.

In seeking funding for the film, Harrison had originally gone to the studios, but in the end opted for local backers out of a sense of frustration.

"Everyone wanted a rave film; agents were telling writers to do a rave film," he recalls about the early days of development. "So they'd talk to us, look at our script and say, 'Can someone die?' We'd say no. Then it was, 'Can we add a gun?' They were afraid of the subject without a moral consequence." He laughs. "And after all that, the same people who didn't want it in the first place are all suddenly calling us now."

Groove was finished a week before Sundance but by the first weekend of the festival it was everywhere - at a screening for Sundance staff the end credits were obliterated when the 1000-strong audience started dancing. So even before the premiere, Renfrew and Harrison were in back-to-back meetings with distributors. On the Sunday, still hungover from their party the night before, they announced the deal with Sony. And on Monday, the film's quirky cast and crew were being hounded by the press, from The New York Times to Variety magazine and influential website Mr Showbiz.

By the time I sit down with the film-makers, Harrison, an unassuming 31-year-old in a T-shirt and skate shoes, is simultaneously elated and exhausted. Danielle Renfrew, the producer, yawns, embarrassed, throughout our interview. "We've been in the Groove bubble," she smiles sleepily. "I haven't had a chance to see anything else. But I'll never forget this."

For now, then, Harrison and his cast and crew are in heaven, living the classic Park City indie-filmmaker fantasy. "It's a dream to make something you love and not only not have to compromise but get it picked up anyway. And, what's more important is to find an audience that loves it," says Harrison. Even if the film doesn't go big, here in Park City, - surrounded by celebs, executives and indie film-makers lusting after success - Greg Harrison has certainly got his groove.

Groove is released on January 12.

Sundance 2001 opens on January 18 www.sundance.org lFilm reviews: Page Eight As the Sundance Film Festival approaches, Janelle Brown remembers last year - when her friend's film Groove took the schmoozers by storm and had them dancing in the aisles

Copyright 2001
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