Feel good movie. Those three small words, for all their worth, shouldn't cause anyone to have an allergic reaction. But for 28-year-old George Tillman, Jr., director and writer of the soon-to-be-released Twentieth Century Fox film, Soul Food, they nearly did.
"When I was only doing independent films, I was really against 'feel good movies,'" said the bespectacled director, who looks even younger than his nearly 30 years. "But since doing the film, I've discovered I like making films about real people; films about humanity. An audience likes to walk away feeling good."
And if Soul Food's test screenings are any indications, audiences hopefully will walk away with a warm, satisfying feeling, said Tillman, a graduate of Columbia College in Chicago.
Produced by his long-time partner and fellow college alum Bob Teitel, along with Tracey and Baby Face Edmonds for the newly-formed Edmonds Entertainment, the $6 million dramatic comedy revolves around the lives of three Chicago sisters and the strained family ties that result when their mother, the matriarch of the family, dies.
Dedicated to the director's own grandmother, who passed away during the process of making the film, Soul Food features an all-star soundtrack by Grammy Award-winning hitmaker Baby Face and marks Tillman's second stab at a feature. His first -- Scenes for the Soul, an independent, experimental film which will debut on HBO this year -- was originally contracted to the now-defunct Savoy Pictures, where Tillman and Teitel had a two-picture deal. (Since the director never physically showed Savoy the script, he and Teitel were able to untangle Soul Food from Savoy's red tape.)
"After Scenes for the Soul and all that happened with Savoy going out of business, I wanted to come out right away. And I wanted to do something this year," Tillman said. "My first feature was experimental, so I really wanted the next one to be more accessible, something for my family. I didn't want to sit around and wait." The wait will soon be over, though. Soul Food is scheduled for a theatrical release in October.
Tillman said the entire experience of bringing the idea to script form and then to the screen has been an education. "Making the film was a very difficult and growing process for me, said the director, who joined the DGA under the Low-Budget Agreement for this project. "But I had no complications with the studio; the Guild really protected my rights. And being a first-time director, it helps to have those rights. Adequate time is given for pre- and post production, eight weeks are given for the director's cut. And I've been protected to make the best film I possibly can."
That film took 36 days to shoot. "It was wintertime in Chicago and everybody was getting sick. Plus, I was a new director in their eyes, so it was a challenge for me to even convince my actors and crew that I knew what I was doing," he said, laughing. "But even with all that, I knew it was worth it, because I learned that you should write and direct something personal. Those are the stories people respond to -- the really personal stories."
The personal stories, however, are often times harder to direct, acknowledged Tillman, who, before Soul Food with Fox, was accustomed to being the lone independent filmmaker with no one to answer to but himself. He also found it challenging directing a 20-member cast of actors and actresses - including Vanessa Williams (Eraser), Vivica Fox (Independence Day and Set It Off) and Nia Long (Friday and Love Jones) --who up until that point he had only seen on the big screen.
"Dealing with my actors was a real challenge for me; my cast was large and each character had his or her own significant story," said Tillman. "Then I had to deal with the fact that there were so many characters. Sometimes I would have 10 or 11 people in a scene, and my cinematographer and I had to figure out how to visually capture all of these people in an interesting way. It wasn't easy."
Neither was learning the politics of directing, he added. "Directing is collaboration, compromise, give-and-take," explained Tillman, whose student experience included directing the 30-minute film Paula -- which won prizes at seven student film festivals, including the Student Academy Awards and the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Award in Oakland.
"So, even though I wrote seven drafts of the film, and it was basically a story based on my life, I had to learn how to handle and filter a lot of input from a lot of different people."
The first lesson in input came when Tillman sent the script to Tracey Edmonds' record company, YabYum Entertainment, in hopes that the company would produce the film's soundtrack. After reading the script, Tracey and Baby Face not only wanted to do the music, but they also wanted to produce the film for the Edmonds Entertainment. The director didn't immediately jump at the opportunity.
"Bob and I thought long and hard about that, because, at first, we were going to make the film ourselves and go with a small production company. We wanted to stay in control and we knew that once more people with more clout and money got involved, things could change. We didn't want to risk being pushed off the project," said Tillman, who had raised $150,000 himself through a group of Chicago investors to finance his first feature. "Then, we met with the Edmondses and discovered that we all had the same vision, the same ideas for the script."
Fortunately, that overall vision that he and the producers shared is one that Tillman still carries with him today. The trick is to tailor it to different films, he said.
"I think I've found my niche: I want to make films that have an affect on people, that can entertain and teach people something, too," said Tillman. He lists the film Cooley High and directors Martin Scorsese, Gordon Parks and Spike Lee as influences that helped shape his work.
"But we have to have range," he continued. "Right now, the market's really saturated with a lot of negativity. Every African American film doesn't have to be funny. Not everything has to show violence. We need more family, personal stories. But unfortunately, this type of film doesn't get made in Hollywood often."
The tide slowly began changing, however, thanks to the box office success of Waiting to Exhale -- Terri McMillan's melodrama following the lives of four middle-class African American women. The run of a new crop of African American films has also been continued through fellow filmmakers Rusty Cundieff, writer and director of the recent comedy Sprung; John Singleton , director of the drama Rosewood; and fellow Chicagoan and Columbia College alum, Theodore Witcher who wrote and directed New Line's Love Jones, a recent romantic comedy.
"This is an important time for black filmmakers, and I'm glad to be a part of this new era," explained Tillman. "Films like Soul Food that deal with family and relationships are going to help push filmmaking ahead and hopefully will also introduce a new point of view- - the mid-western, middle-class point of view, which I think is basically the story of the everyday common man."
More specifically, the everyday Chicago man. As a director with Wisconsin roots but a Chicago heart Tillman said he wants to continue to make personal films in the Windy City about Chicago folks. That's the main reason he fought to shoot Soul Food in Chicago last November.
"If I had shot the film in LA, I would have been pretty much cheating myself and the film," said Tillman, who admits he can only write at his best in Chicago. "I wanted to bring the cast there, because in Chicago, you have to be a regular person. It's too cold to be anything else."
And if all goes along as planned, he will continue to make his films both independently and within the studio system.
"I still have a lot to learn, but I hope I can continue to work within both systems," said Tillman, who's dreamt of making films since he was eight years old. "My goal as a director is to make good, entertaining films where people can walk away learning something."
And if audiences think his films are feel good movies?
"Good," he said. "Very good."
