Joshua Mattson - A Short Film About Disappointment

I said, One can get an “at large” permit, provided one is not obstructing the common flow of goods, services, or people. Since the only kinds of shots I require from the Hub are of moving water, leaves, the sky, and so on, I won’t have to close a street or film in a public building. I do not think such a permit is necessary, but Jonson insisted. I think following rules excites him, sexually.

She said, Don’t be foul.

I said, He also gets a tax break if we follow the rules.

She said, It’s on the Lime, eight stops from the transfer.

Hub Hall, in a tower built for a newspaper. I had seen many films set in the Zone before it was established. The main difference was in the films there was a plurality of people, but in the business section of the Zone, there was only one type. There were few people on the streets. Had I not known better, I would have thought there was an epidemic of affluence spreading through the Hub. The excessive personal space was unnerving.

Permits Authority, twelfth floor. Two clerks and I.

The first clerk said, Sir, there seems to be a problem with your forms.

I said, I thought they were already approved from the device application, and I had to show identification.

The second clerk said, Sir, if you will have a seat, I will get my boss. She will assist you. I don’t have authority in this matter.

I sat two hours. Nobody came. One of the advantages of the Zone was supposed to be that the bureaucracy within was efficient because applicants had been thoroughly vetted. Accustomed to the overcrowded and inept Authority Offices outside the Zone, I had packed a grass bar and a magazine.

Another hour. The clerks hung a sign saying they were on lunch. I was reminded of Physician, Hurt Thyself . See it at Rogers Theater. Cross the street for a sandwich at Torta Muy Gordo. I like the #7, hold the kelp bacon.

Anyway, the film’s titular physician, Dr. Lin, has a fear of puns. When her colleague, Dr. Fesser, remarked that Napoleon kept his armies up his sleevies, Lin had to be kept at the hospital overnight for observation. It was a good premise, but I’d had my #7 before the film, so I fell asleep in the first act.

In the doorway of the Permits Authority stood Millings. He sat across from me, legs agape, like it was his living room.

Millings said, Offices are the same everywhere. They could have got you out of here in five minutes, but you’re waiting all day. Why do you suppose that is? An arbitrary exercise of power? A humbling of a man they thought arrogant?

I said, I don’t have anything going on today. I’m rather enjoying this.

He said, After all, you’re getting a shooting permit, not trying to knock down a stadium or get a nanosurgery license.

I said, The small talk, the promise, the threat. Don’t you have any other templates to boot up?

He said, I heard you paid a visit to my offices.

I said, I visited your wife’s offices, yes. It wasn’t a secret visit. I came to see you.

He said, Isn’t she wonderful?

I said, Superlative, certainly. You are a fortunate man.

He said, Altarpiece . Sounds spectacular. You’re doing a period film. Why don’t you give me a piece of it, say, twenty percent? Thirty. Plus you’ll get a finder’s fee, for bringing me on, of five percent of the thirty. That’s personal money, for you. You could move into a good neighborhood. Extra liquidity goes a long way when starting a venture. I’ll send my people around Jonson’s way, we’ll start a production company. I want to invest in your talent.

I said, We’re funded. We have a production company, the Flowery Years. How about you leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone?

He said, At the end of the day, they will tell you to come back tomorrow right when the office opens. At the end of tomorrow, they’ll tell you come back the next day right when the office opens. On the end of the third day, you’ll get your permit. I’m a booster of the arts. I want your film to be made. But I also want us squared up. I don’t like debts. The balance sheet is getting muddled. It isn’t tit-for-tat anymore. Making you sit here three days isn’t fair compensation for fucking with my marriage, is it?

I said, Fucking with your marriage is fair compensation for assaulting me in the street.

He said, I don’t know what you’re talking about. You know there’s a crime problem outside the Zone. Over a dozen people have been attacked in the last year. Two were even killed.

Our exchange was getting heated. The film was what mattered. The vanities of our conversation were of no importance other than to mark time.

I said, Millings, I’m sorry. Please accept my apologies. I think we got off on the wrong foot. You did not deserve such a reaction. I think you are a good man, a great man. A man of many qualities. Although I regret I can’t offer you a funding opportunity at this time, Jonson tends to meddle, so when I need financing for my next film, I will be sure to ask you first. We could have a great friendship, if we could understand one another. You have to understand me. I came from squalor and I resent the wealthy. Class anger has clouded my ability to see each person as they are. You were born to this and I was born to that. It wasn’t your fault who your parents were. In fact, I saw that you’ve given a lot of money to good causes and a lot of your time. It is my own resentment which diminishes me, and I hope you can forgive me for that.

Millings said, It touches me to hear such a heartfelt apology. We make good opponents, but I think we can make great friends. My father tried to turn an enemy to a friend. He said to me once that if I had an enemy, it was my fault for not trying hard enough. My father had many friends, most of whom became mine, and I tried to continue his legacy of friendship. So, please, take my hand.

I did.

He said, I really do want to finance a film. Kiosks are so boring. My wife makes the money and I spread it around.

If a few lies helped ease the production of Altarpiece , then I would tell a few lies. After all, it wasn’t my money I was spending. Humiliation can be borne for a while. Only a while, though. When the film was made, then I would settle with Millings.

Millings said, Three days. Look me up soon.

My permits were approved after two more days of sitting in the room with the clerks.

Prairie voles. Swans, vultures. Gibbons. Angelfish. Wolves. Albatrosses, turtledoves, beavers, skinks. Barn owls, bald eagles, golden eagles, condors, cranes. Ospreys, red-tailed hawks, anglerfish, sandhill cranes, pigeons, prions, film critics. Cockroaches. Penguins. Red-backed salamanders. Seahorses, titi monkeys. Pygmy marmosets. Jackals. Convict cichlids. Malagasy black rats. Malagasy giant rats. California mice. Kirk’s dik-dik. Geese, coyotes. Parrots.

Greatness in the Linden sisters’ oeuvre is contained in overgrown lines, scenes, and shots, like kudzu trapped in a pot in the middle of a tennis court. It heightens the surrounding desolation. Their magnanimity in allowing mistakes, like the continuity slips and flubbed dialogue, overcompensates for a coherent vision of existence, that which we expect from a notable filmmaker.

Having smudged their prints on the detective story, western, antiwestern, caper flick, dark comedy, musical, buddy cop picture, spy film, monster movie, and bromance, the Lindens have made a children’s movie. Bills must be paid. For all their integrity, the Lindens won’t leave the Western Hub for the affordable rents of their native Des Moines.