Al Maysles, co-director of "The Love We Make," which chronicles the events that led up to The Concert for New York City, says Paul McCartney's idea was to do another film like "What's Happening: The Beatles in the USA," which Maysles and his late brother David filmed in 1964.
"It was two weeks before the event he called me and said, 'Let's make another film this time just as we did before in black-and-white on film. He told me a little bit about what was happening and so we began filming," he tells Mitch Axelod of the Fab Fourum podcast. Axelrod interviewed Maysles in conjunction with the latest Fab Fourum podcast, which discusses the film. (Download links below.)
The intention was to lift people's spirits after 9/11, Maysles said. "So that just as people at the concert were so moved by the whole purpose of the concert they would be uplifted from 9/11 through the music, by making a film of it, millions and millions of people, more, would be influenced."
Maysles also told how he and his brother came to shoot the Beatles film in 1964. "In February, 1964, I get a call from Granada Television. 'The Beatles are arriving in two hours at Idlewild Airport (now JFK) in New York. Would you like to make a film of them?'" The filmmaker said he put my hand over the phone and turned to his brother and joked, 'Who are the Beatles? Are they any good?'"
Maysles said they spent the next week filming the Fab Four. "There's one better way to know somebody and that's make a film with them," he jokes. "And, of course, they loved the film."
The new film is co-directed by Maysles and Bradley Kaplan, who also is heard in the audio interview. The film premieres Saturday on Showtime in the U.S. and Sept. 13 on TV in the UK.
- The full audio interview with Maysles and Kaplan and the additional Fab Fourum podcast that discusses the film are both available at the Fab Fourum website's audio gallery.
- Review: 'The Love We Make' shows how McCartney music helped heal wounds of 9/11
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