Nicholas Wrathall: Director of Gore Vidal: United States of Amnesia

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Interview by Briege McGarrity

As the one year anniversary of literary icon Gore Vidal approaches, IFQ really enjoyed watching a marvelous tribute documentary about the life and legacy of one of America’s best original thinkers. With archival footage, candid interviews with Gore himself and illuminating commentary from friends and relatives, filmmaker Nicholas Wrathall gives viewers a look at all Gore’s achievements, famous one-liners and exciting social life both here in the US and his second home in Ravello,  Italy. IFQ’s Briege McGarrity caught up with Wrathall to find out more about the making of Gore Vidal: United States of Amnesia.

Independent Film Quarterly (IFQ): Congratulations on such a lively and brilliant documentary – truly one of the best I have seen in a long time. It must be a great feeling to have captured such an iconic figure before his death?

Nicholas Wrathall (NW): Thanks. It really is a great feeling, especially now that people are seeing the film and responding so positively. As soon as I met Gore I felt that there was a great film to be made about the man – that his wisdom and insight had to be passed on to a younger generation before he passed on. This was a big motivating factor for me in making the film as I feel that there is really no one of his strength and insight speaking truth to power in the way he did these days.

IFQ: Tell me a bit about your background as a documentarian. How did you get started in the film business and how was the picture funded?

 

NW: I had made another independent documentary years ago called Abandoned: The Betrayal of America’s Immigrants, about detention and deportation and the whole privatization of the immigration detention system. I had also worked as a line producer on a lot commercials and some TV and so had a strong background in producing. This helped me in pushing our film forward even when we didn’t have funding… The funding was difficult and came and went over the recession years of 2008-2009. In the end there are three private investors one of which is myself.

 

IFQ: It was poignant and personal how you filmed Gore at his future grave. Were you ever nervous interviewing such an icon especially as the project necessitated a lot of one-on-one interview footage?

NW: Yes, I was nervous at times as Gore was obviously a very strong character and did not suffer fools. I tried to be as prepared as possible so that I always had well researched topics ready to speak to him about, but Gore liked to control where the conversation went and preferred to speak mostly about current events. I actually never knew what he would be in the mood for and so just kept coming back to him with personal questions at the end of each conversation. He usually tried to avoid these but would occasionally open up.

IFQ: It was also superb that Gore elaborated on the essence of what made his friendship special and long-lasting with Howard Austen. How did you get to know him so well?

NW: I also went on a few trips with Gore; to Italy, NY and DC and Cuba and this helped me to get to know him better and see him in a more personal way and allowed me to get closer to him. He loved to stay up late drinking and talking on these trips. It was at these times that he would tell riotous stories that he would never repeat on camera.

IFQ: Loved all the famous one-liners and old news clips showing Gore way ahead of his time but showing he didn’t age particularly well – did Gore give you access to them or you had to request permission access from TV Broadcasting companies?

 

NW: The wealth of archive available was a huge asset to the film and enabled us to keep Gore on screen for most of the movie. I did a lot of archive research in NY and London film archives and then also accessed Gore’s book shelves where he kept tapes of a lot of his TV appearances. We mixed clips from the 40s right through to 2009 to show the breadth of his influence as a public intellectual.

 

IFQ: Was it a challenge arranging the material on the late author’s life?  Appropriately it played more like an autobiography.

 

NW: Yes, it was a massive challenge. We edited and reedited the film for about a year. There is so much material and his life is so rich and varied that we had to make a lot of hard choices to keep it concise. There are many stories and tangents we explored that eventually ended on the cutting room floor. I am glad you feel that it was like an autobiography … it was very important to me for the film to be Gore Vidal in his own words because he is such a powerful intellect and speaker. I wanted to avoid lots of famous people eulogizing him. Of course in the end we had to add a little of this to fill in some gaps but I think one of the strengths of the film is that you really get to see Gore almost the entire film expressing his views over time and do see just how ahead of his time he always was.

 

IFQ: Tell us about how you decided upon commentary from the other cast members namely, Burr Steers, Tim Robbins, Sting and the late and very opinionated Mr. Christopher Hitchens.

NW: Well, as I said I tried to minimize this and originally to keep it close to Gore with his sister Nina and his nephew Burr. Then after Christopher Hitchens’ article attacking Gore in Vanity Fair I decided to contact him. He was very difficult to contact as he did not answer his phone or emails or return messages. In the end, I sent him a Fed Ex the day I was travelling to DC to interview Nina, containing a very short note. He called the same day and I was in the middle of interviewing Nina; he knew her well and he invited me to his apartment that same afternoon. He kept asking why Gore had not responded to his article. He was very generous with his time and I think it added a whole other dimension to the film. Tim Robbins we approached very late in the edit to fill in some detail on Ravello and Howard. The same with Jodie Evans. Sting was at a reading Gore gave in NY and I spoke to him backstage. I thought including him showed the range of people that Gore was friends with during his life. From Eleanor Roosevelt and JFK to Sting and Tim Robbins and everyone in between. It really is astounding!

IFQ: How did you enjoy the buzzy world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in NYC? Will it be screened in Italy?

NW: Tribeca was great and we had amazing press in NY so it was the perfect premiere for the film. I was very nervous as a lot of Gore’s old friends were there from NY and DC as well as his family. It went down very well and they all told me how much they liked the film. That’s all I could have asked for.

I am working on a couple of screenings and festivals in Italy at the moment for the fall. Details will be on our website as soon as they are confirmed.   www.gorevidaldocumentary.com

IFQ: Does the doc have a US or foreign distribution deal in place yet? It certainly deserves a worldwide audience.

NW: Thank you. No one is in place yet. We have a couple of offers on the table but are still weighing up the options. I think we’ll have something to announce soon.