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DKT/MC5—The Truest Possible Testimonial (Part 2) |
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Saturday, 01 January 2005 23:51 |
 Going into 2003, everything seemed to be clicking right along. A new round of screenings would include the San Francisco International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and the Melbourne International Film Festival in Australia, and the filmmakers turned their focus to landing a DVD deal and signing with an agency to arrange commercial theatrical screenings for the movie.
But that's exactly when the shit hit the proverbial fan. Kramer had been a little edgy since 2001, when Future/Now screened a 20-minute sequence from A True Testimonial that had been edited and tracked by director Thomas without Kramer's participation.
More importantly, there was the matter of the absence of a written agreement between the parties with respect to Kramer's services. Also undocumented was Kramer's purported share in the ownership of the film and how he would be compensated for services rendered to the project.
Future/Now had incorporated an entity called Zenta LLC in 2000 to own the film and distribute the net proceeds among its members, who were to include the investors as well as the three living bandmates; Tyner's widow, Becky Derminer; and the estate of Fred Smith. Membership in the corporation was contingent upon its members signing the Zenta LLC operating agreement, including an attached "publicity release," a waiver which delivered all appropriate rights to the corporation for its use in commercial exploitation of the completed film.
All the pertinent parties signed on except Kramer, whose deal was somewhat more complex. He and Future/Now had exchanged contract drafts without resolving their respective issues, and Kramer was particularly adamant in his rejection of a stipulation that would have granted the filmmakers "the absolute and irrevocable right" to use Kramer's name and likeness "for any purpose whatsoever, including but not limited to" the film.
"They want to own everything about me forever," Kramer has written.
Kramer signed and returned the Zenta LLC operating agreement in June 2002, but not the attached "publicity release." Instead he says he submitted language of his own which granted the use of his name and likeness "in connection with the promotion, distribution, and exhibition of the Film." He also sought written confirmation that MuscleTone Records would have the "exclusive right to produce, manufacture, promote, and distribute & audio products & as the Film's soundtrack," reserving for MuscleTone final approval of the musical program, packaging, and promotion of the album.
Though still not accepted into membership by Zenta LLC, Kramer joined his bandmates in August 2002 in approving the issuance by their publisher, Warner/Chappel Music, of a gratis one-year music license that allowed Future/Now to screen the film at festivals in order to attract distributors.
"We didn't want to stand in their way," Kramer writes on his Web site. "We wanted them to sell their movie. We hoped that they would do the right thing."
* * * * *
While Kramer and Saadi tried to resolve their differences with Future/Now so A True Testimonial could achieve commercial release, another thorny rights issue emerged from an entirely unanticipated direction.
In Europe, Levi Strauss had issued an MC5 T-shirt in its Vintage Clothing collection and announced a complete line of causal shirts, jackets and other apparel that would "celebrate" the "revolutionary spirit" of the MC5 with designs using the band's logo and the likenesses of its members.
Levi Strauss had licensed MC5 designs from artist Gary Grimshaw and photos of the band from Leni Sinclair, then secured to Levi's satisfaction the rights to the MC5 name, logo and likeness. The whole deal cost Levi's a trifling amount (less than five figures), and the textiler suddenly seemed to be the proud "owners" of the MC5 legacy.
Shocked by this new development, Kramer and Saadi thought first of a lawsuit, but decided on a course that could turn the situation to the advantage of the band while avoiding a court battle. When they contacted the Levi Strauss office in London, they had a bold plan in hand, and they found themselves talking to people at Slice, the company's public relations firm, who were more than a little receptive.
MuscleTone's concept was simple: Since Levi's was "celebrating" the MC5, why not stage a musical celebration at a London venue that would bring together Kramer, Davis and Thompson with an array of sympathetic guest musicians and singers for an intimate, one-time, invitation-only concert and film and record the event for release as a DVD. They would call it A Celebration of the MC5, and Levi's would foot the bills as part of the promotion for the MC5 Vintage Clothing line.
Slice's Alec Samways signed on to the project and became co-executive producer of the Celebration documentary with Saadi. As the plans for the project began to take shape, MuscleTone invited Future/Now Films to participate in the projected four-camera shoot, help with production of the film and DVD release, and also to screen MC5: A True Testimonial at the concert, scheduled to take place in March 2003 at the 100 Club.
But Future/Now, still operating without a signed agreement with Kramer, refused to participate, and rejected Levi's invitation to show its film at the London concert. From this point on they seem to have regarded Kramer and Saadi and, by extension, Davis and Thompson, both very much a part of the London project as adversaries. The whole Future/Now project began to steer a very perilous course.
* * * * *
There is a certain cruel irony at work here: Three men in their 50s who had been bitterly estranged for 20 years are reunited in a creative context to make a film about their long-defunct band and the incredible music they made together. They begin to heal their wounds and build a new basis of artistic cooperation and trust by working together on the movie. They get cut out of what might have been a major licensing deal with Levi's yet manage to emerge smelling like roses, the heroes of a hot-ticket London concert celebrating their music that will be documented for release on DVD.
But the people who brought them back together to make A True Testimonial now seem to regard them as some sort of Frankenstein monster that's grown out of control and come to pit the movie of the MC5 against the lives of the surviving band members.
So the two projects centered on the history and music of the MC5 rolled ahead on separate tracks. A Celebration of the MC5 was staged under Levi's sponsorship to wild acclaim. Davis, Kramer and Thompson brought the 5's music back to life in a series of rehearsals and were joined onstage for the concert by guest rockers Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead, Nicke Royale of the Hellacopters, Ian Astbury of The Cult, Dave Vanian of The Damned and singer Kate O'Brien, plus imported former Detroiters Dr. Charles Moore on trumpet and Ralph "Buzzy" Jones on tenor saxophone.
The set list for the show included MC5 favorites "Lookin' at You," "Gotta Keep Moving," "Skunk (Sonically Speaking)," "Rocket Reducer No. 62," "Tonight," "High School" and, of course, "Kick Out the Jams." The sound was hot and fresh, the stage remained in frenetic motion, and the crowd went crazy. The British music press responded with equal fervor.
"After all, the MC5 created the blueprint for all that's cool in modern rock 'n' roll," New Musical Express enthused. "They rip the 100 Club to shreds with a force-50 gale of everything you love about rock 'n' roll."
"You only get to see so many truly legendary gigs," Mojo magazine summed up, "and tonight was definitely one."
The concert's success also inspired the production of a 30-minute MC5 documentary hosted by Mojo's Andrew Male and Zane Lowe of BBC Radio 1 that was focused on the 100 Club show. Once the program aired on UK Channel 4, MuscleTone licensed the production for inclusion in Sonic Revolution: A Celebration of the MC5, the DVD that documents the concert with 60 scintillating minutes of performance footage.
By the end of 2003, MuscleTone had fully cleared all the music for the Celebration DVD and licensed it to Image Entertainment and its affiliates for worldwide release on July 6, 2004. To make things even rosier, concert promoters all over the world, excited by the reports from London, had begun to agitate for the chance to hear and present A Celebration of the MC5 on their own stages. Before they knew it, Kramer and Saadi had cobbled together a string of dates that would take the show all over North America, Australia, Japan and Europe this summer. Detroit is the second stop.
* * * * *
 Meanwhile, A True Testimonial was careening along on a contradictory course: Future/Now had built the film's enthusiastic reception by festival audiences and film critics into a deal with Avatar to book the movie into commercial theaters, plus a DVD distribution agreement with Private Music, a division of BMG. But Future/Now still had not concluded a working arrangement with Kramer for the right to use his name and likeness or his compositions.
Future/Now's limited license to exhibit the film at festivals expired at the end of the summer of 2003, and Warner/Chappell informed it that the publishing house would not be able to grant them synchronization rights to the MC5 compositions until the filmmakers had worked out their issues with Kramer. A screening scheduled for Oct. 30 at the Detroit Institute of Arts the film's first ticketed theatrical exhibition was allowed to proceed under a special dispensation from Warner/Chappell, but final clearance would be withheld pending Kramer's authorization to proceed.
Despite this serious setback, Future/Now closed its deal with Private Music and accepted an advance, apparently maintaining that its licensing problems would be resolved by the projected release date, which had been set for May 6, 2004. On the theatrical front, Avatar was arranging commercial bookings for the film in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans, Detroit, Ann Arbor and other cities for the spring and summer of 2004.
Evidently convinced that Kramer would not cooperate, Future/Now and Becky Derminer teamed up to file a motion in Los Angeles on Feb. 27, 2004, to reopen Kramer's Chapter 7 bankruptcy case from 1999. Future/Now claimed that Kramer had "entered into several agreements [in 1996 that] gave FN Films personality rights, and entitled and authorized FN Films to use all music and recordings in which [Kramer] held an interest."
Future/Now claimed further that "Under the agreements FN Films paid all of [Kramer's] expenses in connection with various shoots and interviews, and agreed to give [Kramer] & membership interests in [Zenta LLC]."
Yet, eight years after all these deals purportedly were struck, no written agreement had been executed, and Kramer filed papers with the bankruptcy court denying that he had any income coming from MC5: A True Testimonial.
"Future/Now Films and their attorneys have asserted for many years now that there is no agreement," Kramer states in his filing with the court. "I have since been denied membership in Zenta LLC because I have refused to give my story away for no compensation whatsoever. There is no income stream for me related to their film."
Laurel Legler, whose nine-year film project languishes in limbo, counters, "I disagree with everything that comes out of Wayne Kramer's mouth, because he doesn't tell the truth.
"We never reneged on agreements with Wayne Kramer. We tried to give him everything he wanted."
An equally exasperated Kramer says: "They have as yet made no concrete offer to solve their problem. We have lots of solutions for their problem, but it's not up to us to fix it. And I find it amusing that their story keeps changing. They can't keep their lies straight."
"No one's more disappointed than I am. I worked hard on that movie, and I always anticipated that they would do what we had agreed upon."
* * * * *
Kramer was furious about the court action, which he considered an attempt to pressure him into signing over the rights to his music, his image and his personal story, and decided to bring the torturous negotiations to an end.
In court papers, Kramer contended that the motion had been filed in an "attempt to scare, harass, and intimidate Mr. Kramer & Mr. Kramer will not support the Film Project."
A week later Davis and Thompson declared their solidarity with Kramer by means of a letter from their attorney, Jay W. MacIntosh, to Future/Now. Dated March 4, 2004, MacIntosh's letter says:
"Please be advised that my clients Michael Davis and Dennis Tomich (pka Dennis Thompson) do not support the release of, licensing of, screening of, and/or sale of the film 'MC5: A True Testimonial' until all issues have been resolved between the film company and MC5 band member and songwriter Wayne Kramer, and documentation of such has been provided to my office. Please note that this statement supersedes any statements previously made by myself or anyone else on behalf of Mr. Davis and/or Mr. Tomich. Any failure to recognize this shall be considered willful misrepresentation."
The next day Kramer attorney Edward Saadi (Margaret's brother) wrote to Future/Now's lawyer to say that Kramer would do nothing "to assist Future/Now in its effort to obtain [the] license" from Warner/Chappell. He demanded that Future/Now "immediately and permanently" refrain from using Kramer's image and pay Kramer any money already generated from merchandising, box-office receipts and other sources.
Warner/Chappell followed with a cease-and-desist letter barring further distribution of the film and mandating the cancellation of current and future commercial screenings. Private Music had distributed advance copies of the True Testimonial DVD for media review, but the company was forced to announce that the film's release had been delayed.
Thompson says he believes Future/Now "made some errors in judgment. They essentially were showing a film without a license." He hopes all the wrangling can be resolved.
"We're all getting a little tired of hearing about it. Once it gets to the lawyers, who knows what's going to happen?' Thompson says, adding, "I don't wish them [Future/Now] any ill will whatsoever.
"But I support Wayne Kramer. Wayne and I have come a long way toward making amendments to ourselves as human beings. This is about the music and the band. Future/Now is not MC5. We can create that spirit onstage. It's always this political cloud following us. There's always this black hole."
Rob Tyner's widow, Becky Derminer, is confident that A True Testimonial will eventually see theatrical and DVD release. "The film is a beautiful piece of art," she says. "This movie's going to come out. It's too beautiful to be hidden in a closet."
Derminer says she won't be attending the show at the Majestic.
* * * * *
So there it sits, the one vehicle disabled and fuming on the shoulder of the road, the other wheeling its way to the starting line with a full tank of gas and a precision crew at the controls.
Of course, MC5 fans the world over hope that A True Testimonial will eventually hit the screen and the DVD racks, but those of us in the Motor City and the other stops on the DKT/MC5 tour won't have to wait any longer to see how Wayne Kramer, Michael Davis, Dennis Thompson and their friends are celebrating the legacy of the MC5 on stage right now.
"It's great to get back together with Wayne and Michael and to be able to do this, and be able to bring this music to people who have never been able to hear it," Thompson says.
"The bottom line is we've got a world tour coming up. We had great rehearsals out in L.A. We rehearsed some 35-odd songs, so we'll be capable of playing any and all of the MC5 songs going all the way back to the beginning.
"This is about growth. This is about the MC5 attitude, the MC5 energy and spirit in 2004. This is not really the MC5. It's really a celebration of the MC5's music. If anyone is capable of playing this stuff, it's Wayne, Michael and me."
Kramer concludes: "It's like uncorking some kind of nuclear device or something. This shit rocks hard, and we're having big fun doing this. It's one of those times when you can say that it doesn't get any better."
(c) 2004 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.3.1.6111]]> |
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