The Beaver Trilogy

I first heard about the Beaver Trilogy on NPR's This American Life (the reruns episode). It's a strange documentary/drama by filmmaker Trent Harris. When I first heard about it, it sounded interesting, but it was shown at Sundance in 2001 and then never distributed, as far as I can tell, so I gave up trying to see it. Then, thanks to the internets tubes and boingboing, I found out that it (or big pieces of it) is available on youtube. It's pretty hard to explain, and the story behind the films is what makes it interesting, so listen to the American Life story first if this sounds at all interesting.

The first third is footage that Harris shot with a then-new video camera, starting outside of the Salt Lake City, Utah news station that he was working at in 1979. He happened to catch this kid snapping pictures of the news helicoptor and used him for a subject to try out the camera. I quickly becomes apparent that this kid (Groovin' Gary) is a genuine character.
Groovin' Gary is obsessed with a few things, the top two are Olivia Newton John, and being on TV, so he hams it up for Harris. The next scene has Harris travel to Gary's tiny hometown of Beaver where Gary had staged a talent show for Harris' benefit (I think), mostly as an elaborate way to get to perform onstage, in drag, as Olivia Newton John. It's something out of a David Lynch film when Gary undergoes his transformation, makeup provided by/applied at the local mortuary.

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Harris was so taken with the kid and his story, or he felt there was something that still needed telling, that when he moved to Los Angeles he reshot the entire documentary in 1981 as a dramatic film using a then-unknown Sean Penn as Groovin' Larry.

Part 2
Part 3

And finally, because twice is not enough, he redid the movie again in 1985, this time with an unknown (but still creepy) Crispin Glover.


Part 2
Part 3
It's kind of weird to watch the original authentic documentary footage evolve into the story of being who you are and fighting repression in a small town. All this starting from a kid that just wanted to take a picture of a helicoptor and maybe get on TV.