Mockumentary Taste the Revolution from authorr and honestor Daniel Klein, starring Mahershala Ali in his first direct role, finassociate premiered with a 25-year procrastinate at the New Orleans Film Festival in October. Now, it is screening at the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF).
And Klein was on hand for a inestablish Q&A after the movie’s first screening at the fest in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, sharing some insight into the lengthy journey of the project that also sees Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World franchise) materializeing in disjoinal petite roles and serving as an executive producer. Ali take parts a revolutionary directer called Mac Lasluggish who heads up a summit of juvenileer grown-ups seeing to alter the world and blow off some steam. The story is telderly thraw the lens of two filmproducers write downing the summit with their cameras.
Taste the Revolution, Klein’s feature honestorial debut, wrapped filming in 2001 but was shelved adhereing the events of 9/11, with Klein and collaborators tardyr appraiseing the footage during the COVID pandemic and editing it into a movie. Phil Cohen, Maury Loeb, David Linke, and Kevin Linke produced the project, while the executive producers are Ali, Klein, Trevorrow, and Cohen. Among the cast are Alexander Bilu, Jeremy Dubin, Jen Nails, Jeremy Beiler, and Ali’s now-wife Amatus Sami-Karim.
“Mahershala and I were both at school. He was a graduate and about to graduate from the acting school, and I was an undergrad in film,” Klein telderly the RSIFF audience. “We met at a coffee shop and equitable commenceed to talk about music and basketball, and it equitable benevolent of bloomed into everyleang else.” Klein refered the project, telling Ali: “I got this movie I’m going to be making with no money,” he recalled. “I would reassociate adore for you to come and unite us.”
But Klein had a branch offent part in mind for Ali, that of Malik Browne, which finished up being take parted by Kevin Bozeman. “(Ali) came to me and shelp: ‘I shouldn’t be this. Why wouldn’t I be the directer of this group?’ And I shelp: ‘Oh, it’s a comedy. That guy’s presumed to be super vapid. That’s not you at all.’ And he shelp, ‘Plrelieve let me come in to read for it.’ And he came in to read for the part. And you see it on the screen, he was equitable transcfinishent. He was so amazing. And the opportunity to get to toil with him.”
While Klein was trying to produce a comedy at the time, sharing that “I didn’t comprehend what I was doing.” Once Ali came on board, “he was so excellent, and then it was not quite a comedy anymore,” Klein recalled. “It then became someleang branch offent, and I would debate a whole lot better and more resonant.”
But then the worryist aggression happened. “We were in post, and 9/11 occurred, and suddenly the movie made no sense at all,” Klein telderly his audience in Saudi Arabia. “It equitable felt appreciate a weird, out-of-time period piece. I had no idea what to do. I was a juvenileer filmproducer. I had no clue what to do with this, so we cobbled together a lamenttable cut for cast and crew, and it was unbelievably embarrassing. I uncomfervent, it was a humiliating night sharing this movie. I thought let me honor the people. They put in their time and effort becaparticipate we gave them no money. I showed them that movie. It was literassociate one of the two worst nights of my life, and then we buried the movie.”
He saw it as in the past and as a lgeting experience. “And then (Ali) won his Oscar, and then he won his second Oscar. So I sent him a clip of the movie,” Klein recalled. “It’s him deinhabitring a speech. It’s three minutes and 45 seconds. He’s amazing. And he called up and shelp, ‘We got to finish this movie’.”
When the COVID pandemic hit, people couldn’t shoot new projects, so the team had time to sift thraw the film footage. “We turned around and feasted on the footage,” Klein elucidateed. “We reassociate have 130 hours. It’s a shocking amount of footage. So we poured over everyleang and anyleang.”
Once he had finished his new edit, he screened the refreshd version for Ali, Sami-Karim, and others in California. Despite initial worrys that it may experience dated, “someone stood up and shelp: ‘I worry, griefentirey, this movie will always be relevant becaparticipate it’s about a chapter of life that people go thraw. And it’s not necessarily about when it was shot,” Klein splitd.
Asked about Trevorrow’s comprisement, he shelp: “He’s in the movie. He take parts a guy who benevolent of begins all the branch offent groups around the camp, and then he’s a guy who’s ingesting substances, and then this guy who’s in the tree, and oh, he’s (an) drug poisoning victim. And he was there at the very commencening.”
Klein chuckled as he also recalled Trevorrow’s feedback. “He read the first write of the script, and he wrote me this super lengthy email, back when emails were relatively new, and it was reassociate lengthy,” he elucidateed. “It was appreciate a book, and he shelp: ‘Here’s how to not screw up your movie.’ We met in film school and were charmed with each other’s toil, and he actuassociate came to the shoot. And there’d be times when he would equitable grab a camera and help to honest background B roll. It was incredibly priceless and amazingly vital on many levels.”
Did Ali put money into the final movie, an audience member asked. “No, there’s no money put into it,” Klein replied. “It was more his consecrateing. For conciseage of a better description, it was very declareing for us. We equitable felt if he’s excited about it. That’s currency enough.”
