In the late 1970s, celebrated director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, The Conversation) and his cast, crew and family ventured into the dense jungles of the Philippines to begin work on what would
eventually become his masterpiece, APOCALYPSE NOW. But the journey from page to screen soon spiraled into a hellish, life-threatening nightmare that echoed the film’s narrative. Plagued with adversity, one of the most influential films ever made had one of the most notorious shoots in cinema history that few survived unscathed. Meticulously documented at the time by Eleanor Coppola (Paris Can Wait),
Fax Bahr (In Living Color) and George Hickenlooper (Dogtown) revisited the footage in 1991 and filmed new interviews with cast and crew, resulting in HEARTS OF DARKNESS, a ground-breaking
and intimate portrait of what went into making one of the best films ever made. One of the co-directors Fax Bahr (George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola) and Film Archivist / Restoration Supervisor for American Zoetrope, James T. Mockoski join us for a spirited conversation on harrowing and rewarding ride that has been the story of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now and Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.
For more go to: rialtopictures.com/hearts-of-darkness
Now screening at the Film Forum (NYC) until July 17
Screening at the American Cinematheque Los Feliz (LA) July 24
About the filmmaker – In 1976, Eleanor Coppola shot behind-the-scenes footage of Apocalypse Now on 16mm. For the first time, we decided to return to all original sources and scan elements in 4K for this new release. What everyone has seen over the last 30 years has been three to four generations removed from the source elements. Additionally, we utilized the 2019 4K restoration of Apocalypse Now for this release, incorporating those elements into the documentary. For any clips pulled from Apocalypse Now and used in the documentary, we maintained the original aspect ratio of 2.40 instead of letterboxing it in a 4×3 frame. Lastly, we remastered the soundtrack and created a new 5.1 mix. The film was restored at American Zoetrope and graded at Roundabout Entertainment in Burbank, California. The director, Fax Bahr, approved the grade.” – James T. Mockoski, Film Archivist/Restoration Supervisor for American Zoetrope
About the filmmaker – James Mockoski is a seasoned producer and film archivist with extensive experience in film restoration and preservation. Currently serving as a producer at American Zoetrope, James is working on a documentary about Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Megalopolis. Previous roles include supervising restorations for the Coppola Film Library, where significant films such as The Godfather series and Apocalypse Now were restored. James has also contributed as a restoration supervisor for A24’s release of Stop Making Sense and worked as a restoration artist for Roundabout Entertainment. Early career efforts included film preservation at the UCLA Film and Television Archive and an internship at EYE Filmmuseum. James holds an M.A. in Film Studies and Archiving from the University of East Anglia and a B.A. in Film and Video from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
About the filmmaker – Fax Bahr began his career as a documentary filmmaker. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse – co-directed with Eleanor Coppola – chronicled of the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won numerous awards for Bahr, including a Primetime Best Director Emmy, the D.W. Griffith Award, and Best Documentary Award from the National Film Board of Canada. Next, Bahr teamed up with Adam Small to join the writing staff of In Living Color, where they created several of the show’s premier characters, including Jim Carrey’s Fire Marshal Bill. Bahr’s contributions resulted in two Emmy nominations and two NAACP Image Awards. Bahr and Small co-write and co-executive produce the pilot for the John Leguizamo sketch comedy series House of Buggin’ for Fox. They were then hired by Quincy Jones to create and executive produce the late-night sketch comedy MAD TV , which ran for 14 seasons on Fox Network. they later went on to create and show run the stop-motion series Gary & Mike for UPN. Bahr/Small then partnered up with Jeff Foxworthy to create the sketch series Blue Collar TV for the WB. In 2016, Bahr produced the feature documentary Doin’ My Drugs about activist/musician Thomas Muchimba Buttenschøn, born HIV+, and his crusade to raise awareness and wipe out AIDS in Zambia.