The heavy metal documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey was screened at film festivals around the world and is now available on DVD. Anthropologist and lifelong metal fan Sam Dunn is the co-director of the film along with Scot McFayden, and it chronicles his exploration into many different facets of the genre. They traveled the world from Norway to Canada to the US to the Wacken Festival in Germany and interviewed dozens of musicians including Tony Iommi, Bruce Dickinson, Rob Zombie, Dee Snider, Alice Cooper, Lemmy, Ronnie James Dio and many more. Some of the topics covered include sexuality, religion, violence, history, and a compelling look at the Norwegian black metal scene. I had the chance to chat with co-directors Dunn and McFayden.
Chad Bowar: How has the response been to the movie as you've screened it at various film festivals around the world?
Scot McFayden: Pretty great, actually. We've been to over 40 film festivals. There's been a good response from both metalheads and non-metalheads.
Has the film had a wider appeal than you originally thought it might?
Scot McFayden: We definitely tried to make a film that metal fans would rally behind because it was a respectful treatment of the music, but also a film that would bring people in from the outside. We knew that would be a difficult audience to reach because we made a film about metal and people have an immediate reaction. If they don't like the music it's often difficult to get people to see the film. But because we've been able to show it at festivals, which tend to bring in a wider audience, I think we've managed to reach even 80 year old grandfathers in the far reaches of British Columbia, Canada who said they wanted to buy a Sabbath record after seeing our film. We were pleased with that kind of response.
What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
Sam Dunn: There were so many. It took six years. It took about 3 ½ years to raise the money. For us being first time filmmakers that was a huge challenge and then after we raised the money writing the story was incredibly difficult. And then you get past that and have to convince all these musicians to be part of the film. I think there were challenges all the way along. The latest challenge for us is to get the word out about the DVD and let people know what kind of film it is. Metal fans are some of the most knowledgeable, fickle fans out there. When you say you're going to make a film about heavy metal you're still faced with resistance because the automatic assumption is that it's going to be a parody or a spoof of the music. It's a constant uphill battle for us to demonstrate that this is something different. So we will continue to fight the good fight for metal.
How did things evolve and change from when you first envisioned the film to how it eventually turned out?
Scot McFayden: Six years ago Sam was getting his masters degree in anthropology and thinking about writing a book about heavy metal. It was going to be a straightforward history of heavy metal. That's sort of what we thought the film would be at first. When we first conceptualized it we thought maybe we'd have Bruce Dickinson narrate it or something like that. It wasn't until we sat down and started to write it that we realized that we didn't want to do it in a conventional way. I convinced Sam to make the story about him. At first he was reluctant and said no. I convinced him that it was the best way to tell the story. It then became a personal journey and as a result ended up taking more of an anthropological look. That wasn't what we set out to do in the beginning, so it is very different.
