SXSW World Premiere - Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story
Chris Sievey was a songwriter, artist, comedian and wayward genius. A man whose life was a fantastic, subversive piece of performance art. His greatest creation, the mysterious Frank Sidebottom becomes a star – a manic, insane, mercurial star who obscures his own creator – playing at Wembley Stadium, getting his TV show and building an army of fans. Chris Sievey grows to resent his creation and descends into alcoholism and bankruptcy, but his genius cannot survive without ‘Being Frank’. So Chris devises a master plan…
Interview with Director/Producer: Steve Sullivan
Watch The Chris Sievey Story on Prime Video, Google Play and Vimeo on demand
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Thanks! Well my film is a documentary about the true story behind Frank Sidebottom, the outsider entertainer from Manchester who wore a papier-mâché head for 28 years. I made it because I got too curious about why he wore the head and who he really was.
As I was growing up in Lancashire, in North West England, Frank was kind of like a regional folk hero. He just seemed to exist in an alternative reality somewhere near Manchester, bellowing away from inside his fake head. He was dangerous and edgy but in a really fun and silly way.
Fast forward 20 years and I’d become a filmmaker and ended up working with Frank Sidebottom making a documentary called Magical Timperley Tour. It was a trip around Frank Sidebottom’s home town of Timperley, just on the edge of Manchester, with Frank and his adoring fans. It was a day out with a living cartoon character, and such a treat for everyone. But here’s the thing, even though I worked with him during the project I still knew Frank a lot better than I knew the man inside the head, who on the phone I just called ‘Chris’.
We talked about doing other projects together at some point soon but then suddenly he was gone. After his death I couldn’t shake the thought of wanting to know who ‘Chris’ had really been and why he’d lived a complete showbiz life as Frank Sidebottom, a man in a head who would become a complete living fictional identity.
So I emailed his brother Martin, who I’d met at Chris’s funeral and asked him if anyone had asked about doing a documentary about who really was the man beneath the mâché. He said that he’d just cleared Chris’s house, there was 100 boxes of his stuff, and if I wanted to haul it away and try and make a film out of it then I was welcome to try. That was five years ago, and now the film is about to have a World Premiere at SXSW, and people will be able to find out once and for all who Frank Sidebottom really was.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
If you enjoy the life stories of artists, you’d love this. If you’d like to discover some incredible lost music from the post-punk and New Wave days then it’s all here. Or if you like comedy then Frank Sidebottom is the greatest comedian you’ve probably never heard of. And above it all, the film has a really human and emotional thread running through it of one person’s complete life and the people they meet along the way and change forever. Plus puppets.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
The film is the life story of Chris Sievey, a man hidden inside his own artistic creation. So it’s about a man struggling with his relationship to his alter ego. And of course, with himself. In that sense it’s pretty universal. It’s also deeply personal to Chris and his own unique experiences, which it’s safe to say is a journey like most people never go on. It’s a film about one man’s single minded pursuit of leaving his own mark on the world despite the odds, and about how he viewed the world as absurd from an early age and just went with it.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Well, there was no script. It was more of an investigative journey. I started out with Chris’s archive and just sifted the contents, trying to work out what went with what and discovering all these different phases of this guy’s hidden life in Manchester, from the 1950s through to the present day. And he documented it all! I didn’t even know when I first started making the film what the story of Chris’s life was fully, only a vague idea. From going through all his personal possessions I was able to piece together the details of his life, well, these two lives. Chris Sievey’s life and Frank Sidebottom’s, and Frank’s own fictional life is extensive.
It was then a process of tracking down as many people who I could find from his friends, colleagues and family who I could speak to and interviewing them about Chris and what he’d been up to all those years.
Chris left hundreds of hours of his own music and videos of Frank. Home movies, crazy mini-VHS format tapes, boxes of audio cassettes, reel to reel tapes, a lifetime of creativity, much of it never seen or heard before. All analogue and all needing to be digitised.
So I then combined all the essential bits from all the interviews we shot with the right bits of archive to illustrate the stories, and gradually over several years whittled it down from a first edit which was over 11 hours long to the absolute essential life story of this guy. For someone who died too young and seemed to be messing about and being a modern day jester, he achieved so much with his work that it’s still staggering to me.
But finally, after a five year process Being Frank is picture locked, graded and dubbed and ready for SXSW.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
It’s a deeply absurd and hilarious world that the film presents. The joy has been seeing people watching it without knowing anything about Chris or Frank and finding both of them so funny that they’re shaking with laughter.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
The feedback that I didn’t see coming is that the documentary is quite moving. Obviously I’m very close to the film now but I’ve been surprised by how emotional some people have found the experience of watching it and the enjoyment they’ve had from experiencing that release.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I’m delighted to be asked by you to discuss my experiences of the film and if some of your readers get to find out about the bonkers world of Frank Sidebottom and the lost genius of Chris Sievey then that’s a great thing all round.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Come one, come all. It would be great to hear from distributors, film festival directors and journalists for sure. I know everyone feels like their film needs to be seen, but the world really could benefit from hearing the story of Chris Sievey and Frank Sidebottom, so anyone who can help that to happen is much needed.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I’d love to see a full house full of people who are excited to be among the first in the world to discover a great lost genius who lived life according to his own spaced out rules. It’s taken his lifetime and a fair chunk of mine to make this story happen and if there was a great reception for Chris and Frank then that would be fantastic.
In terms of an impact, I really think that part of the message of the film and of Chris’s life is that if you have a creative idea you can and must just go and do it. Don’t wait for an invitation just make your own statement, make a noise, express yourself. If people watch this film and find themselves compelled to do something of their own then that would be great.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Why would any artist create a fictional identity and hide behind it, living it fully and never revealing themselves as the creator? Or…who was that guy in the head and what was going on in there?
Would you like to add anything else?
Only that it’s been one of the great privileges of my life to make this film. To have had access to the complete life story of one of the most mysterious figures in pop culture history has been such a pleasure, with great moments of discovery around every corner. I hope the audiences who go to see the film enjoying discovering Chris Sievey as much as I have.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Everyone involved is looking forward to a lay down right now. As you’ll see, it might sound like a small indie labour of love but it’s an epic.
Interview: March 2018
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTIAQ+, scifi, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story
Chris Sievey was a songwriter, artist, comedian and wayward genius. A man whose life was a fantastic, subversive piece of performance art. His greatest creation, the mysterious Frank Sidebottom becomes a star – a manic, insane, mercurial star who obscures his own creator – playing at Wembley Stadium, getting his TV show and building an army of fans. Chris Sievey grows to resent his creation and descends into alcoholism and bankruptcy, but his genius cannot survive without ‘Being Frank’. So Chris devises a master plan…
Length: 100 mins
Director: Steve Sullivan
Producer: Steve Sullivan
About the writer, director and producer: Filmmaker Steve Sullivan worked with maverick comedian Frank Sidebottom (aka Chris Sievey). After Chris's death Steve became custodian of his possessions and crowdfunded a documentary unearthing the real life of this most secretive of artists. Steve's previous films have won awards internationally, including at the Montreal Comedy Festival.
Key cast: Jon Ronson, John Cooper Clarke, Paula Sievey, Martin Sievey
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists):
We would love distributors, festival directors and journalists to take interest!
Social media handles:
Facebook: @Beingfrankdoc
Twitter: @Beingfrankdoc
Funders: 3,000 fantastic Frank Sidebottom fans through Kickstarter and beyond
Made in association with: Ffilm Cymru Wales, 104 films, Fat Controller Management
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month?
World Premiering at SXSW Film Festival