State of the Art
The Sticky Fingers of Time
by Scott Heller
Hilary Brougher's first film did not get into the Sundance Film Festival.
That's the bad news. The good news is that her funky feminist sci-fi tale
The Sticky Fingers of Time begins a commercial run this week, proving to
independent filmmakers here and everywhere that there's more than one way to
get a movie made and seen.
For every Next Stop, Wonderland -- locally shot, launched at Sundance,
sold for millions to Miramax -- there are many more Sticky Fingers.
Low-budget and quirky, without stars, the film has nonetheless played scores of
festivals around the world, finding a following both with gays and lesbians and
with "sci-fi geeks'' like Brougher herself. "People who are into smart, weird
comic books can fall into this film and enjoy the structure and the density of
the ideas,'' she points out.
Science fiction on screen demands big bucks, yet Brougher wasn't interested in
an F/X extravaganza. Even if she had wanted a computer-animated cel or two, she
wouldn't have had the money. The whole film cost $250,000. And until the last
minute, she figured she'd have to shoot on video and make it for even less than
that.
Brougher and one of the film's executive producers, Ted Hope, will appear for
a screening at the Coolidge Corner Theatre this Friday. The next day, they'll
lead workshops at the Boston Film/Video Foundation. Brougher will talk about
how she developed the script and prepared to shoot. Hope, the indie-film god
who co-founded Good Machine International (Happiness, The Brothers
McMullen), will offer tips on fundraising and how to pitch your project to
a production company.
"It literally came together in a year,'' Brougher says, "but that's on the
back of 10 years of false starts.''
She first hooked up with Good Machine when they got interested in another of
her scripts, a project ultimately deemed too ambitious for a first-time
director. She continued to write and work on other people's projects, many of
which never saw the light of day. "I never want to be one to squash dreams, but
it's impossible for me not to be pragmatic.''
When she got the new idea, a Good Machine story editor was there to help shape
the script. Still, she says, financing proved difficult. "This is a
science-fiction film about women writers. Can you imagine pitching that?''
Finally Hope and other advisers offered a dare: make your movie cheaply and see
what happens next.
What happened is The Sticky Fingers of Time, a flawed genre blender
that sends two women colliding to a fateful meeting of the minds. Tucker
(Terumi Matthews), a successful pulp-novelist in the 1950s, one day finds
herself in today's East Village, where she meets Drew (Nicole Zaray), a
struggling writer. Fallout from the H-bomb tests, which Tucker covered as a
journalist, has rendered both of them "time freaks,'' able to travel
spontaneously -- and often involuntarily -- through time. Hindsight lets Drew
know that Tucker is in danger. Tucker's mission is to help a fellow writer find
her voice.
Brougher's cerebral conceit means Sticky Fingers will leave many
viewers scratching their heads. Sundance clearly thought so. But the film's
director is undeterred. "You hope for a lot, count on absolutely nothing, and
go with what works.''
The Sticky Fingers of Time opens at the Coolidge Corner Theatre this
Friday, January 8, with a 7 p.m. screening and a discussion with Hilary
Brougher and Ted Hope. Brougher and Hope will also speak at a Boston Film/Video
Foundation workshop on Saturday at 10 a.m. Call 536-1540.