Michael Altman (Director – American Songwriter)
“He’s lived as a record executive and a hit songwriter, a truck driver and a logger, a fruit picker, a migrant worker…he’s a philosopher and a very learned man.” By that description alone you can tell that Danny Darst – actor come singer come everything – has more than a few good stories to tell.
Michael Altman, longtime friend and son of legendary filmmaker Robert Altman (Gosford Park, A Prairie Home Companion) saw the potential in sharing Darsts’ fascinating personality and softly spoken wisdom with the documentary American Songwriter. “He seems like a country bumpkin when you meet him but he’s incredibly smart and he’s a very spiritual man. It was very easy to make an interesting film with the subject matter. All you have to do is roll a camera on this guy.”
First encountering him in 1985, Michael was fascinated by the wandering minstrel who seemed to evaporate once he’d finish his task of entertaining. “My relationship with him from ’85 to ’95 was simply that he would come to town, pull out his guitar and play a bunch of songs for everybody and then just virtually disappear like a ghost.” And it was ultimately Altman’s attraction to Darsts’ music that sparked and cemented their friendship. “[Darsts’ songs] are so visual and they’re so engaging. He’s a phenomenal lyricist. They’re simply…[he’s a] master songwriter and a wordsmith…he’s really quite a poet.”
There’s a romanticised depiction of rural America throughout the film, with beautiful sunsets and rugged landscape being flourishing across screens as Darst strolls through the plains. Purposefully, Altman had wanted to emphasise what the crew had encountered on their travels, and the environment which Danny had grown up in. “He had spent most of his life on the road. It’s such an integral part of his story is…the whole thing about rural America and what’s going on with the roots of the country with the working man and the common man and the common class.” It is upon this subject that Darst has a wealth of social commentary to impart, and this also puts across one of the most important points, “that it’s part of a breakdown of some of the basic morality and the basic values that we hold to be important and I thought it was an important message to put out there.”
What’s most fascinating is the subjects that are only briefly touched upon (due to Darsts’ request not to delve) such as the incredible story behind his adopted children and that of his play Exit 10. Having raised a family of virtuosos, he’s extremely protective and it’s a shame the full story couldn’t be shared but it just adds to the intrigue of this worldly individual. And folks, Altman hopes to bring Exit 10 down under after they embark “on tour through the south in the states. It’s a very blue collar kind of working man’s story…totally refreshing. This was like Tennessee Williams classic type stuff.”
I would encourage people to check out the last screening of American Songwriter purely because I think Danny Darst is an individual worthy of recognition – it’s not often you get the pleasure to be introduced to someone so wise. A sentiment captured with filmic class and dignity by Michael Altman.
American Songwriter is playing during the Brisbane International Film Festival on the 25th of November at Palace Barracks.
Danny Darsts’ music is available now on iTunes.
