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The costume designer is a prominent candy raver; the DJs include popular mainstays like DJs Monty Luke and Polywog; the musical advisor is the San Francisco record label Domestic Recording's Wade Randolph Hampton. The lighting and visual effects were created by three local groups: Radiant Atmospheres, Viberation and 3D Dynamic. The 80 or so extras who spent weeks dancing it up in a warehouse in Fort Mason were pulled off the SF-Raves mailing list. British DJ John Digweed plays a live set on the film. And so on.

Even the funding for the movie was fronted by local ravers. Entrepreneurs and engineers in Silicon Valley have for years habituated late night dance parties. Some of them now have the cash to support projects like "Groove." Brian Behlendorf, the founder of SF-Raves and the Apache Software Foundation, is one of the films backers, along with other locals like Fred Heutte and Tony Rotundo.

Of course, piecing together financing from a half-dozen backers wasn't the original intention. Harrison originally went to the studios, but turned back to the locals in frustration. "Everyone wanted a rave film; agents were telling writers to do a rave film," Harrison recalls about the early days of development. "So they'd talk to us, look at our script and say, 'Can someone die?' We'd say no. Then it was 'Can we add a gun?' They were afraid of the subject without a moral consequence." He laughs. "And after all that, the same people who didn't want it in the first place are all suddenly calling us now."

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"Groove" was finished a week before Sundance. For the first few days of the fest, the filmmakers were still exhausted from the marathon editing sessions. But by the first weekend of the festival, "Groove" was already everywhere. It was selected to screen for the staff of nearly 1,100 volunteers on Thursday night. Danielle Renfrew, the movie's producer, attended the screening and went into shock when the audience got up and started dancing during the end credits. On Saturday night, the film's premiere screening in Park City, the film got a standing ovation.

Before the credits rolled at the premiere, Renfrew and Harrison were already in back to back meetings and negotiations with distributors like Tristar, Sony Classics and Fox Searchlight. On Sunday, still hung over from their party the night before, they announced the deal with Sony. And on Monday, the movie's quirky cast and crew were being hounded by the press, from the New York Times to On2 TV. Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and Mr. Showbiz all put the film's purchase on their front pages.

By the time I get to sit down with the filmmakers on Tuesday afternoon, Harrison, a sweet and unassuming guy in a T-shirt and skate shoes, is simultaneously elated and exhausted. Renfrew yawns, embarrassed, throughout our interview. "We've been in the 'Groove' bubble," she smiles sleepily. "I haven't had a chance to see anything else. But I'll never forget this."

Between 50 and 60 percent of all films that screen at Sundance manage to get distribution, according to a freebie magazine called Reel Digital News. So just by getting into Sundance, "Groove" was on the right road. But the film managed to get picked by the premiere movie distribution house and to wheedle a hefty deal, too. And by being the first to grab that golden ring, "Groove" rests in the same place that "The Blair Witch Project" did last winter.

This being Sundance, everyone now wants a piece of the action. Everywhere I go, I overhear conversations about the movie, the "Groove" party, the still-up-for-grabs excellent soundtrack or the deal -- and not merely among the sneakered filmmaker class but among those on the fur-and-suits entertainment executive track. On the shuttle on the way back to the airport, I met an entertainment lawyer from Los Angeles who had just sold "Chuck and Buck," a quirky buddy film that also had hot Sundance buzz, to Artisan films for $1 million. His clients include Steve Buscemi and Quentin Tarantino. When I told him I spent the afternoon with Greg Harrison, he swiftly handed me his business card. "Will you give him my card if you see him again? That guy's got a lot of talent."

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I can't help but wonder what will happen to "Groove" when it hits the national theaters this summer. The topic alone will probably make it somewhat of a hit with kids, despite the fact that it features no stars. ("Go," for comparison's sake, pulled in nearly $17 million at the box office.) Harrison is already working on the premiere party in San Francisco, and plans to invite all the locals who helped out. But because of the movie's frank and uncritical look at a drug culture, it will also probably also draw criticism from conservative groups; and, perhaps, from the sometimes nit-picky rave scene, which doesn't like its subculture being shopped to the unwashed masses. ("Just because you make a mass-market film about a scene doesn't mean you are going to destroy it," sighs Harrison.)

For now, Harrison and his cast and crew are in heaven, living the classic Park City indie-filmmaker fantasy. "It's every filmmaker's dream to make something you love and not only not have to compromise but get it picked up anyway. And, what's more important is to find an audience that loves it," Harrison spills over with enthusiasm. Even if the film doesn't go over big in Peoria, here in Park City -- surrounded by celebrities and money-hungry executives and indie filmmakers lusting after his success and sold-out audiences -- Harrison has got his groove.
salon.com | Jan. 28, 2000

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