How did you start with film? Was it when your dad gave you an old film projector when you were 6 years old? When I was 6 years old my dad gave me an old Keystone 8mm projector, he would run films for us all the time. He had an old bookstore and he would run us old stag and porno films, and he showed me how to thread the projector. Later we got a Super 8 that was self-threading. I was recording sound off the TV, making tape loops, not knowing what I was doing. Besides that, I was learing how to play the drums, I was also playing with sound, playing with film, making sci-fi movies with 2nd rate home equipment - that was my childhood right there. My mom hoped it would be something I would grow out of. But I would have film screenings on our back porch in the Hough area of the inner city, and I would charge 2 cents or 5 cents. I went to 55th & Superior Library, which is now a thrift store, and we would watch films there, mostly documentaries. That’s where I saw Night of the Living Dead and it scared the hell out of me. We went to the Hippedrome and my sister would let me tag along at the the old Miles Road Drive-In where they showed kung fu, horror films and blaxploitation films. That’s what I grew up on. And of course the Saturday afternoon experience with The Ghoul, SuperHost, Houlihan & Big Chuck, the old Channel 61 and Channel 43 with a show called Monster Movie. It had the best monster movies with Japanese and Italian horror films, plus 50's and 60’s sci-fi.

Your style is highly personalized and iconoclastic. You shoot on film, you scratch on the film stock, your style has stayed aggressively experimental. How would you describe your own artistic style? I consider it a personal free form style of expression through cinema. I wasn’t really nurtured on experimental films as a kid. But through poverty I discovered how to tell stories by cutting out pictures and doing collages and manipulating sounds. I didn’t really study Stan Brackage or Bruce Conner or Norman McLaren until later on. I was aware of people like Ray Harryhousen, Bert Gordon, Willis O’Brien; he did the original King Kong with stop-motion and got Harryhousen started in his career, with his stop-motion animation early films.

What were the key factors in your creative development? What were the keys to why you were able to grow into a world-class artist? Even though I was raised on sci-fi, it was understood later that they were really the best commentary and dealt with oppression and gender and race. So I took bits and pieces of things that bothered me as a child and bombarded the viewer like a moving graffiti. It was just exercising my skills, but then I wanted to express a statement about certain things. This way it would be embedded in their mind with color and sound and entertainment. Before I joined the Air Force, I tried to get into production houses in Cleveland, but Cleveland isn’t about entertainment in cinema. The film industry in Cleveland had about 5-8 production houses, but then video came in and film began to die out. I went through an identity crisis, my parents were overprotective, and I decided I wanted a dose of the real world, so that’s when I joined the Air Force.

Talk about that part of your life. My parents were protective at first, but after the frustration of not getting anywhere in college, I thought it would help me get a grip on things. I spent a year in Korea, and 6 months in Great Britian, meanwhile my dad died. He was really supportive right up to the end. I got a humanitarian discharge, and I really wanted to get back into film again. But this time I wanted to do it on my terms, even if it meant starting from scratch. I had to go from the grassroots up. I went to the Ohio School of Broadcast technique and got some skills under my belt. I took a job at Club Isabella washing dishes to buy film equipment, and started shooting black & white films, some of which were shown as background in nightclubs, but after a while I wanted to make films that people would watch. I merged my fine arts aesthetic from my one year at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Have you been influenced by other Cleveland artists? A few. My film teacher, Keith A. Richards of Cleveland School of the Arts. He was the only real instructor I had. People like Richard Meyers were huge inspirations, and a gentleman out in Akron, Rich Perrine, he was another inspiration. These are men who truly have a passion for the medium but didn’t allow limitations to get in the way.

Talk about factors such as the Off-Hollywood Flick Fest (now called the Ohio Independent Film Festival), Independent Pictures and Cleveland Public Theatre in terms of the opportunities they’ve offered. How much of a difference has this made to your artistic and financial development? It sorta started with the Cinematheque. In terms of getting an audience it was pretty tricky. The Cleveland International Film Festival was pretty much an international event, and local filmmakers weren’t the focus. The Cinematheque was one of the first to show my work. I first met Bernadette Gilotta & Annetta Marion [of Independent Pictures and the Ohio Independent Film Festival] at Cleveland Public Theatre at a benefit, and they heard me whine that we needed another venue for local filmamakers. It was them and [filmmakers] David Litz and Jason Lukanovich doing something in Tremont. The OIFF has been a huge plus for fimmakers not only in Cleveland, but also in the Midwest. Also the CIFF premiered my first big film back in '93.

How do you draw inspiration? Do you have a muse? [Laughs.] Lately it’s just been the pains of being underprivileged in a Midwest town... Cleveland is still recovering from all the inside jokes and underdog mentality. To do edgy creative type things, it has to succeed elsewhere before it gets popular here. Personally I don’t consider myself a local filmmaker, I consider myself an international filmmaker. I wish they wouldn’t expect from me what they expect from the Russo Brothers; they have a film deal. I’m so dedicated to the passion of doing cinema, I’d like to see people really support it as an art. I have 20 films under my belt, but there is a level of hesitation. The Harvey Pekar documentary [American Splendor] was interesting, it was a major outside film that was made with local support, as well as Welcome To Collinwood, these are all million dollar movies. We would kill to get even $100,000 to make a film. If only the "old money" would realize that this funding would go a long way. My films cost $500 to $1000 a piece. Film stock isn’t that expensive, and these films have played all over the world three times over.

You work almost strictly in film, not video. Yet, young people all over are now making art using cheap digital video cameras and desktop video editing packages that come free with their computers. Have you experimented with these new technologies? I have experiemted and dabbled with it. When I do commercial work, I shoot on film and I use non-linear high-end computer technology for editing. People can do a lot of this stuff in homes in a basement or attic. People like me who are purists like to shoot, cut, and print film, then run it through a projector. People want to tell a story and I wish they would sit down and realize that every medium has its place. Film is still a young medium and hi-def video is still behind 35mm film quality. Seeing them on a big screen is a great feeling, it’s addicting.

Your work is short, sharp, colorful and edgy. It seems perfect for the Internet. What is your Internet or e-commerce strategy? Recently, I have started a few films that are strictly for the Internet. Most of the fims I’ve made are to be shown in a larger-than-life format projected on a big screen. I’m dabbling more in Internet, DVD and Fisher-Price pixel cameras.

It’s interesting how artists make a living. You do life drawing modeling. You also teach part time. Describe what that’s like. Being a life drawing model, it's great to be expressive and just relax. The fact that someone’s getting something out of it by making a good drawing is rewarding. You’re sort of educating and giving back to the artist. I’ve been doing that for 10 years. The teaching is great. It’s great for kids to see the painstaking process. Aside from teaching and modeling, I do a lot of production work: music videos and commercials. The problem is, a lot of these gigs don’t pay much money.

What else do you do for money? Do you sell your films or film rights? No, in fact, only a few of my films have been picked up for distribution. X The Baby Cinema is included in “The Best of the New York Film Festival, Year One” compilation. Yale University currently owns a copy of X The Baby Cinema, besides that, short films have basically no market.

Film and video are areas where you can actually make money, as opposed to visual arts or dance. Have you considered doing industrial videos to support your artistic work? As of now, yes. I’ve done them in the past, which I don’t really enjoy doing, but the money is good. People have often asked if I would do more conventional, narrative type stuff, but I would want to put more into it, instead of the traditional 3 act structure & plot structure. Conventional storytelling and mainstream cinema is predictable and boring.

What awards have you won? X The Baby Cinema has won 5 awards. Motion Picture Genocide has won 5 awards. The film Outlet won Jury Citation Award from the Black Mariah Film Festival. There’s damn near 20 awards. And the National Black Programming Consortium has a Prize Pieces Award I’ve won.

You’re one of the most highly screened filmmakers working in Cleveland today with films at the BBC Short Film Festival and Sundance. What’s the effect of this recognition? I was the honored guest film maker in London at the BBC British Short Film Festival last year and it was interesting, it was the closest thing to being a celebrity. I was flown over, put up in a hotel at Picadilly Square, I gave a lecture at a university, they showed 5 of my films, and that was culture shock to me because I’m big into British film. And the weakest films there were from America.

Do you ever make work for awards, or for other people, or other artists, or do you make it for yourself? To be honest, it’s for my own satisfaction, or for the public who just love movies and want something fresh. I don’t think about awards or money; it’s just art for the sake of art and working toward the creative release.

Why do you live and create art in Cleveland? This is my home, I live here. It has personality and a great skyline. No other location in the world has what can be found here; it’s just a great place to be. There's so much to create here and a simplicity that makes living easy.

How can Cleveland become more friendly towards artists like yourself? The one thing would be to just treat us like any other artist. Don’t condemn us or ignore us just because we live here. Treat us the same way you would treat artists from New York or LA. And it would be great to have the support to hire and pay local actors and technicians. Too many people are asked to work for free around here.

What would you change about Cleveland if you could? I would make it mandatory for everyone to get an appreciation for everything this town has to offer outside of rock and roll, sports and drinking beer. This town has a wealth of culture, creativity and dedication.

What do you think about the anti-gay sentiment brewing in Ohio and around the country these days? I think it sucks. The gay and lesbian community has become the scapegoat for a lot of political problems and it’s the same thing that happened to the African Americans. The midwest should try to catch up with equality thinking.

Did you have formal art training, or did you reject it? Not necessarily. I was into painting and drawing as a kid and wanted to be an animator. I was going to be a drummer, like my uncle who was a jazz drummer. I studied fine art and theory a little before I dropped out, and I hear a lot of the formal art talk when I’m modeling. I also look at color, texture, wardrobe and fashion now in my collection. Looking at composition, shadow and line is second nature to me.

Your work often mixes media and crosses film with other forms, such as performance art. You spent a weekend doing a public performance where anyone could come over and watch you make films Film unfortunately is very expensive and requires collaboration. My early films were just collages animated. You have to collaborate with production people, actors and technicians, and it’s difficult. Every aspect of the creative world goes into film: painting, sound and color. In my opinion, film production should be a big party, not hard work.

Reality programming is the rage on television for only one reason: cheap production costs. However, these producers seem to have tapped into a public zeitgeist or hunger. In your opinion, is it strictly voyeurism, or does it relate somehow to the artistic search for meaning, truth and beauty? I think it’s a combination, but I think it’s just cheap exploitation. These shows are the modern day shockumentaries of the 60’s and 70’s. Good documentary requires collaboration and trust between the filmmaker and the subject of the documentary instead of staged manipulation and sensationalism. Maybe one out of five have some integrity, but it’s all-out shock for the sake of shock, and this leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It’s one of the worst things that has happened. It's turned documentary into a fast-food bubblegum quick fix.

Do your religious or spiritual beliefs influence your work at all? A little, but I try not to mix too much into it. There’s a fundamental reality that I try to stick to. There’s right and there’s wrong. I try to show the negative light, and something good comes out of that. A lot of it comes from being raised a Baptist.

What do you have coming up? What are you working on now? Oh man, I have seven films I’ve been trying to finish since February of 2000. The one film is a film noir short narrative, which is close to being complete. The title is Crime Drunk, The other films are a spin-off of a series I did in the 90’s called Domestic Paranoia, AKA “Kitchen Pornography” I call it. This film has approximately 500 pancakes and 45 female actresses in it. The 100 Films installation that I did at Tri-C are predominately short experimental films. Robert Banks Vs. Matthew Barney That’s a tentative title. My final installment of the post 9-11 Patriotism Series that I’m doing is entitled Mercenaries with little children as terrorist hit squads. And a mock horror black comedy entitled The Klinic.

If you didn’t make films, what would you be doing?

Oh man, that’s a question I keep asking myself every so often. Good question. I’d probably be just a regular still photographer. At one time I considered being a cop, and at one time I considered being a clergyman. Or a scientist. Or a paleontologist. Oh yeah. Unfortunately, I have very few other skills.

Robert Banks’ work can be seen at http://www.OpenSewer.com/Banks Contact him at banks@opensewer.com

Interview and photos by Mulready

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