From Faber & Faber's Projections: Tod Lippy's interview with Harmony Korine
Tod Lippy: Speaking of prophetic gestures, how did you come up with the
concept for Fight Harm, which, if I understand it correctly, consists of
you picking fights with people much larger than you, and then being
summarily beaten up while a hidden camera crew documents the whole thing?
Harmony Korine: I wanted to make the great American comedy. I felt that
self-sacrifice in the name of a lost heathen tradition was and is the last
fertile frontier. To embrace violence. To sip the blood. I felt as if I
was Jolson on a unicorn. I wanted the feature film to consist only of
brutality. But perhaps the film is short-lived if I want to raise my cup
in the name of longer life outside the black circle.
Tod Lippy: How much of it was actually filmed?
Will you ever resume work on it, or
has - as you suggested a while ago - therapy permanently replaced your embrace
of violence with one of self-preservation? And is that necessarily
problematic for the kind of work you're trying to do?
Harmony Korine: Approximately six fights were recorded altogether. There is no winner or
loser attached to the altercation. It is not about victory, it's more a
spectacle of perseverance: how much heart does the bleeding man have. I
can safely say that for the time being, I have abandoned any and all
notions of completing this film in the manner and length it was conceived.
I will perhaps show it in its present form, or I might never.
Projections 11
New York Film-Makers on Film-making
edited by Tod Lippy
faber and faber
© copyright Tod Lippy, 2000
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