ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Do you have a project or two that you started but never finished? Filmmaker Chris Wilcha certainly did - many, in fact. Well, after decades in the making, he has finally revisited them in his documentary, "Flipside." NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports on his indie film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and is now out on demand.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: Crate digging at Amoeba Records in LA, Chris Wilcha finds an album by the 1980s post punk, alt-rock band, The Replacements.
CHRIS WILCHA: Wow. You know, my 16-year-old self would be losing his freaking mind that I get to use a song from this as part of the soundtrack on my documentary, "Flipside."
(SOUNDBITE OF THE REPLACEMENTS SONG, "UNSATISFIED")
DEL BARCO: Across the country, Flipside is also the name of the New Jersey vintage record store Wilcha worked at as a teen in the early '80s. Over the years, he kept returning to shoot interviews in his hometown, as he explains in the doc.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "FLIPSIDE")
WILCHA: By making a film about this place, more people might discover the vinyl treasure trove that is Flipside.
DEL BARCO: The cramped shop is run by Dan Dondiego, an old-school record collector who doesn't own a computer or a smartphone. When I reached him by telephone, he told me he often wondered when or if Wilcha would ever finish his film.
DAN DONDIEGO: I had my doubts. You know, 10 years went by since his last visit. So at that point, I had given up. I just think, well, it's been 10 years. He's moved on.
DEL BARCO: Wilcha did not just document Flipside Records and Tapes. He also gathered stories about real-life characters, like an eccentric New Jersey comedian named Uncle Floyd, who loves to ham it up.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNCLE FLOYD: (Singing) Flipside Records, Flipside Records, a million songs from A to Z.
WILCHA: By the early 2000s, Floyd was a pop culture footnote...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNCLE FLOYD: (Singing) Flipside Records...
WILCHA: ...A charming oddity remembered by a small group of people who themselves were getting older.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DEL BARCO: Wilcha also captured moments with his parents, his wife, his kids. And in his film, he muses about his life choices.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "FLIPSIDE")
WILCHA: I'm part of a demographic blip called Gen X. Our moral code is as simple as it is unattainable. We will never ever sell out. The problem I come to quickly learn is that you can't pay your rent by not selling out.
DEL BARCO: Instead of becoming an indie filmmaker, Wilcha ended up working in marketing, like his father. He made a comedic documentary about his rise up the corporate ladder, then spent decades directing TV commercials. Wilcha told me that, along the way, he started and stopped so many of his own passion projects.
WILCHA: But mid-pandemic, I was kind of sifting through all these old hard drives, cleaning and purging things, as I think we all were. I was also turning 50. And I was like, if I don't do something with this footage now, it's never going to happen. Like, this is it.
DEL BARCO: Wilcha decided to make "Flipside" out of fragments from documentaries he once abandoned for one reason or another. Years ago, he worked on the TV version of the public radio show This American Life. He also shot scenes of host Ira Glass rehearsing a stage performance that merged radio stories and dance and scenes of Glass reflecting on his personal life.
IRA GLASS, BYLINE: Ooh. It's really capturing, like, a moment when I was splitting up with my wife. And it was, like, a very emotional moment. And honestly, I'm just not that used to seeing myself in a movie.
DEL BARCO: Glass calls the pastiche of stories in "Flipside" mesmerizing and unusual.
GLASS: I mean, it's funny as a film 'cause I don't think that there are that many films that are about failure - about having a dream and not making it.
JUDD APATOW: A movie like this isn't easily defined. Some people call it a personal essay film, which is the thing I like the most.
DEL BARCO: Filmmaker Judd Apatow, who lured Wilcha to Los Angeles for work decades ago, was an executive producer of "Flipside."
APATOW: This is about Chris' life and his creative struggles and his attempts to balance art and life. That's a beautiful thing.
DEL BARCO: Back in New Jersey, Dan Dondiego says Wilcha's film has stirred a bit more interest in his record store.
DONDIEGO: I mean, it's not like I've got starstruck groupies wandering around here, chasing me and stuff. It's just, hey, kid done good. He managed to edit that thing in such a way that I don't come across as a moron, which I appreciate.
DEL BARCO: Wilcha told me he's been pleasantly surprised by fans who say his film resonates with them.
WILCHA: There's something they gave up on - ah, that book I didn't write or that song I've been meaning to finish or that album. You know, they want to return to it, that it prompts them to maybe finish those unfinished projects.
DEL BARCO: And he says it's super cathartic to tie up so many loose ends. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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