“Obviously, a great deal of everything is luck except there is no such thing.
The skill is in taking advantage of what does come your way.”
--Peter Asher
As an artist, producer, musician, manager, and record label executive, DJ Mensa, Peter Asher’s work spans decades, with each chapter containing enough density to be its own stand-alone film. Whether one is familiar with Asher's amazing accomplishments and immense successes, or seeing his musical life for the first time, the documentary film Peter Asher: Everywhere Man, invites the viewer to witness and experience what a creative life can be.
Filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine have crafted a film that elevates Asher’s life by showing the more glamorous highlights while also grounding his life by showing the very human aspects of it. The filmmakers inform and fill in the time and space between the successes to truly illustrate Asher’s place in an artist’s life and the music world. Asher also possesses the confidence and curiosity to take professional chances. Humor also plays a huge part. As does a colorful wardrobe.
https://peterashermovie.com/trailer
SF Bay Area screenings begin June 26 in San Francisco, Orinda, San Rafael, Berkeley and Sebastopol. Special Q&A screenings at each location. Details and links below.
KALW’s Janice Lee spoke to the filmmakers ahead of the SF Bay Area film openings.
(This interview has been edited for clarity and length.)
Janice Lee: There is so much material – when beginning this project, was there a leading goal – and did that change as the project progressed?
Dan Geller: It started with, “can we represent/recreate that feeling that Dayna and I each had when seeing the show?” (Peter Asher’s Live Memoir show has toured since 2012.) The sense of gob-smacking surprise – that joy, euphoria-inducing – to be sitting there and getting incredible stories,one after another, in all incredible directions. So that sense of excitement, of having seen this live show, we knew right away. Prime goal: can we communicate that sense of surprise and excitement and fun in a documentary.
Dayna Goldfine: These are kind of dark times. Can we give the audience a couple hours of – it’s kind of a romp – decades of pop culture, with great music, and a fabulous kind of raconteur to take us along that route.
JL: Watching the film, the vastness of events, projects and relationships in Peter’s life, how did you select what would be included?
Dayna: With Peter Asher’s story, we knew that every single chapter could be worthy of its own documentary, so that was the trick. How do you tell the audience enough about a single chapter that they get the gist of it as it relates to Peter, while also allowing them to feel free to do their own research. Like Apple Records, we could do a film about that, and there have been many made, but to get that Apple Records section down to 10 minutes, and specific to Peter and James Taylor, took a really long time.
Dan: We set out to make this film, though not an encyclopedic movie. But there is a great encyclopedic book by David Jacks titled “Peter Asher: A Life in Music,” which came out in 2022. It will be going back into publication in paperback this August.
Dayna: It’s a hefty tome, close to 500 pages, maybe more. We thought we spent a lot of time with Peter to make this film. David, I think, spent 20 years. He interviewed everyone. In fact some of David’s interviews are included in the movie.
JL: Was there anything you really wanted to include in the film, and didn’t or couldn’t?
Dan: There was a really fun sequence about a neighbor of Peter’s in Malibu. She wanted a new manager, and she asked Peter. But it wasn’t a music person. It was Pamela Anderson. He agreed, with that Peter Asher sense of “this could be interesting.” He knew, because she was a neighbor, she was very smart.
At the time the project was a reality show bringing Pam back to the public eye. Peter also appears in the show alongside Pamela.
It was a fun sequence that we cut - it just didn’t fit. Once it drops into place late in the movie, it’s hard then to spin around and talk more seriously about the range of artists he worked with. So if one day there’s a Blu-Ray for this, we’ll look to put it out there.
Dayna: There were sometimes just smaller things. One day he told us he was about to sit for an interview for a new documentary being made about Boris Karloff. We asked “Why?” And he told us he is the last surviving person who acted with Boris Karloff.
For a long time, we tried to squeeze that into the sequence about him as a child actor, and it was like just one piece to many. When editing, it’s a point when realizing there’s too much in that sequence. Something had to go, and it just happened to be that piece.
JL: Was there anything about Peter’s life or career or how his process, which maybe changed your process as filmmakers?
Dan: There’s a parallel in that we have to be good listeners in making a documentary. And Peter, as he says in the movie (when working w/ Linda Ronstadt), “If I had any masterstroke genius, I think it was ‘Let’s listen to what Linda has to say.’” Peter’s take was about letting the artist come forward and embracing that.
Other things are reinforced, like - kindness and loyalty. It reinforced a lot of the things we try to do and try to conduct ourselves in the world. It was really nice to see that.
Dayna: I was very impressed by the longitudinal nature of his relationships. He is still incredibly close to James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, and all of the people who appear in the movie. The fact that he has these long-term, satisfying friendships helped when we reached out for interviews. “For Peter – yes.” That happened again and again. And I hope we have that same quality, that we’re still friends with our documentary subjects.
Peter Asher: Everywhere Man is playing now in NY and LA, and opens this week in SF Bay Area theaters. The film will open in wider theatrical release throughout the US in June-July.
Find your city and theater here: https://peterashermovie.com/
SF Bay Area / Special Q&A Screenings:
Friday, June 26, 5:00 PM PST
Landmark Opera Plaza Cinema, 601 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco
Q&A to follow with filmmaker Dayna Goldfine
Moderated by Ben Fong-Torres
Saturday, June 27, 1:00 PM PST
Orinda Theater, 4 Orinda Theatre Square, Orinda
Q&A to follow with filmmaker Dayna Goldfine
Moderated by Derek Zemrak
Saturday, June 27, 7:00 PM PST
Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 4th Street, San Rafael
Q&A to follow with filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine
Moderated by Joel Selvin
Sunday, June 28, 3:00 PM PST
Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, 2966 College Avenue, Berkeley
Q&A to follow with filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine
Moderated by Jonathan Keifer
Tuesday, June 30, 7:00 PM PST
Rialto Cinemas Sebastopol, 6868 McKinley Street, Sebastopol
Q&A to follow with filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine
_______________
PETER ASHER: EVERYWHERE MAN
GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT
WWOL present
In association with
TREMOLO PRODUCTIONS
A GELLER/GOLDFINE PRODUCTION
https://peterashermovie.com/
