Interview: Jim Jarmusch

Famed filmmaker on the state of movies, music, and his new movie Paterson.

A Little White Lies interview with indie film writer-director Jim Jarmusch whose movie credits include Stranger Than Paradise, Down By Law, Mystery Train, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Broken Flowers, and his latest effort Paterson starring Adam Driver.

LWLies: Was it difficult to receive funding, or maybe just a home, for a low stakes film like Paterson?

Jarmusch: Well, it’s always getting harder and harder. And yet, I was very lucky to get K5 in Germany. That became world sales, and then we got Amazon. I got a little bit more from Le Pacte, whom I’ve worked with for years. So, it worked out. The business side is not so good for me, but we had the ability to do whatever we wanted to do. They had faith in us as filmmakers. They didn’t interfere with us in any way. It was good.

You’re mentioning all these studios. Are you noticing any changes in the industry from when you were starting out making independent films?

Oh yeah, it’s completely different. The whole theatrical thing is very different. Now the majority of the market is streaming. It used to be that films were just theatrical and secondarily video tapes and DVDs. It’s sort of flipped now as far as what’s the biggest share. Therefore, how people perceive what you make has changed. It’s completely different.

And this quote:

Creativity and daring creativity are like weeds — you can’t stop them growing even if you wanted to. It has to do with wanting to say something, having inspiration and ignoring social media or the negative parts like, ‘How many likes do I get?’ Of course, there are people all over this planet. There are little gardens in filmmaking and music. You just have to find it, but certainly it’s out there. There’s a lot of great stuff going on, you just have to look for it.

A trailer for the movie Paterson:

For the rest of the Little White Lies interview with Jim Jarmusch, go here.

Paterson website: Here.

Twitter: @LWLies.