IMPERFECT Co-Directors Brian Malone and Regan Linton
A theater troupe with all types of disabilities – from spinal cord injury to Parkinson’s Disease, cerebral palsy to autism – attempts to stage an unprecedented version of Kander, Ebb, and Fosse’s beloved musical Chicago. Capturing the raw, honest stories of these talented actors both inside their production process and their everyday lives, the film reveals a rare behind-the-scenes look at artists pushing to succeed, no matter the obstacles. IMPERFECT crushes stale notions of disability and affirms the human condition - in all its many forms.
IMPERFECT screens during the in-person portion of Salem Film Fest on Saturday, March 26 at 7pm at Endicott College’s Rose Theater in the Manninen Center for the Arts and streams during the virtual festival, Monday, March 28 - Sunday, April 3. SFF Program Director Jeff Schmidt caught up with Co-Directors Regan Linton and Brian Malone ahead of the film’s East Coast premiere.
Jeff Schmidt: What is the origin story of IMPERFECT - how did you meet each other?
Regan Linton: Brian was doing some educational videos for Craig Hospital, where I did my spinal cord injury rehab in Colorado after my injury. He heard I was an actor and invited me to do voice-over for the videos. We got to talking about Phamaly and my desire to make a documentary, and suddenly we found ourselves saying, let’s do this!
Brian Malone: We both thought there was a great untold story to tell around the Phamaly Theatre Company and its actors. I went to one of their productions... and that was it. Sold.
Megan, Mark and Erin
JS: Tell us about your collaboration process in making the film, as it is my understanding that this is the first time Regan has worked in the film medium.
RL: Yes, ironically, I started my college career in film production at USC. But a professor said, “You’ll never be a great filmmaker if you don’t have a good story to tell.” So I decided to leave film studies and center in the humanities, where I felt I could explore the world for good stories. A year later I was paralyzed, and then didn’t think that any artistic discipline - be it Theatre, film, etc - would be accessible to me. After I found Phamaly and got back into theatre, I still had the bug to make a film. I created a couple of smaller on camera projects, including a webseries with Phamaly. But I still wanted to do a larger project. I feel like I am adept at the aesthetics of storytelling and in film and theatre, but I needed a great “mechanic” to execute it. So Brian and I made a great team, as his technical experience complemented my awareness of the narrative. Our collaboration was a great example of the fruits of interdependence and contributing different skill sets.
JS: Brian, you have a lot of prior experience working in production, had you worked on any theater related projects before?
BM: IMPERFECT makes documentary number 23 for me. I had not done any theater-related work in film before. But, because of my sister, Beth being in the center of music theater, I've been around it in the outer orbit over the years. My closest theater was when I was shooting on my mom's VHS camcorder in college. I would steal Beth's music theater friends to make really bad horror movies. Inevitably, someone would end up getting stabbed by a pitchfork or an ax in the skull, wrapped around some flimsy plot with made up dialog. It was great fun!
I will say that even though this was Regan's first film effort, she already had a very high level of storytelling talent built in, from her theater experience, both acting and in directing plays. So, for us, the process was an easy transition. There were some mechanics along the way that are specific to documentary filmmaking that Regan had to learn along the way... but her instincts in mining out the value in our stories and our characters were spot on.
Adam sings
JS: Regan, you are actually featured in the film, serving at the time of filming as the Artistic Director of Phamaly Theatre Company. Can you talk about your personal connection to the story and how you felt about it while being filmed and then further into the filmmaking process?
RL: As a person with a visible disability, you learn to absorb the gaze of others all the time. I also developed an extraordinary amount of self awareness as I was completely re-learning everything about my body and how I would live in this world with a new identity. And being an actor enhanced my ability to do that in my life. So I felt pretty comfortable with just doing my thing while the camera was on, and I really had to focus on the tasks at hand with the production. Post production was the more challenging thing. At first I really didn’t want to be a subject of the film. But at a certain point I realized that the character of Regan was important to the story. I had to separate myself as the director from Regan the subject, and just think of what parts of her story we’re most supportive to the film.
JS: Brian, what were some of the challenges for you in making the film?
BM: Editing. We had so much good material, deciding what to keep and what to cut was, at time, painstaking. In the end, we really just had to ask ourselves about the content and ask if it helped propel the story forward or not. We joke that we could have made a miniseries out of the amount of footage we have.
Lenoard
JS: What do you hope audiences will take away from IMPERFECT?
RL: I hope it’s HUMANIZES people with disabilities, especially for those who don’t have a direct connection to disability in their personal lives. For folks with disabilities, life is just life, even if the spectrum of our daily experiences is higher stakes. But rather than be seen as humorous, joyful, compelling, our lives are often treated by nondisabled folks with fear, misunderstanding, and distance. Hopefully folks leave with a belief in what is possible, even when you think things are impossible. And with a desire to engage more deeply with folks who have disabilities…cuz otherwise you’re missing out!
IMPERFECT screens in-person - Saturday, March 26 at 7pm at Endicott College’s Rose Theater in the Manninen Center for the Arts - and streams Monday, March 28 - Sunday, April 3. Purchase tickets to the film here.
If you or a companion require wheelchair seating at our in-person screening, please email us at ticketing@salemfilmfest.com
