Mark Flood on Making Movies: ‘It’s a Great Way to Waste Money. I Highly Recommend It.’

In a piece published today in Interview magazine, the Texan artists Mark Food and Will Boone engage in a sprawling conversation, touching on bohemian studio environments, getting wasted, making art with the anti-art collective I Love You Baby, and Flood’s tenure working with ancient antiquities at the Menil Collection in Houston, among many other subjects. (Disclosure: Interview is owned by Peter Brant, who is the majority shareholder in Artnews S.A., the parent company of this website.)

When Boone (who used to work for Flood) asks Flood about his recent experience making his first ever movie (Art Fair Fever), Flood had this to say:

I decided not to make it commercial. Instead, I went back to the three or four hour version and chopped it in half and made two movies. I decided to start showing one of those in the back rooms of my exhibits. I remember seeing movies that way when I was a kid; it becomes this experience. Whereas, if I put it online or tried to make a big deal out of it, I think it’d be more of a flop. As a real movie, it might be substandard, but as a crummy movie in the back room it’s so over the top because I spent so much money on it. My niece is involved in the Austin film industry, so she and her buddy produced it. All I had to do was pour shit loads of money into it and write a script. Those are both things I found out I can do. It’s a great way to waste money. I highly recommend it.

I thought someone else would direct it; I thought I would hand somebody money, like when you buy popcorn, and they would give me back my movie. But then I got involved in it. It was physically very grueling to make it. I felt like I was at death’s door the whole time. It was long days and screaming at people. I couldn’t keep up the thought of normalcy and politeness at all. But then it turned out surprisingly good. I watch it all the time.

Read the interview in full here.