One of the joys of working on a film festival is the chance to introduce our audience to exciting new filmmaking talents, to dazzle them with cinematic visions that challenge and provoke, to show them things they have never seen before. And the chance, too, for us, and our audience, to meet and spend time with some of those talents. One of the films we were most excited to be premiering at Grimmfest in recent times was the truly astonishing steampunk fantasy, MOON GARDEN, a film we hailed at the time as destined to join the pantheon of those much-loved not-quite-children’s films that open up the eyes and the mind to the possibilities of cinema and, once encountered, stay with us forever.
We were delighted to be joined for the screening by the film’s brilliant core creative team, Writer-Director Ryan Stevens Harris, and producer John Michael Elfers, and to hear their extraordinary stories of how the film came about, their hands-on approach to every aspect of the process, the sheer joy they both had for their work, the challenges they set themselves in creating a huge movie on a shoestring budget. We knew at once that we were in the presence of a filmmaking team that would continue to create visionary cinema, very much on their own terms, and with their own distinct voice.
So it was both shocking and heartbreaking to hear of the recent passing of John Michael Elfers from a rare form of cancer, late last year, at the age of only 40. He cut a memorable figure, with the style and swagger of a rockstar, but what was most striking was how immediately warm and friendly and approachable he was. He was a man with so much energy, bubbling over with enthusiasm for the art and the pure pleasure of cinema, with a real love for those aspects of the craft – practical effects, shooting on film – that are gradually being lost, and with them some of the magic.
This is evident not simply in his remarkable creative collaboration with Ryan Stevens Harris, in the commitment he had, for example, in tracking down aging filmstock to achieve the visual texture they were both seeking, but equally so in his own feature film debut, FINALE (2009), which utilises entirely practical, in-camera effects, including tricks taken from old school stage magicians, and is shot on Super 16 mm to obtain the right grainy retro-70s look. Such dedication to detail is rare indeed, and that we should lose a filmmaker with so much of it, so much drive and energy and wild talent is devastating.
Our condolences to all of John’s family and friends and colleagues, and of course to Ryan Stevens Harris, his creative and business partner.
R.I.P., John Michael Elfers. You will be greatly missed.
