Remembering Monday Night at the Rock ‘N Bowl on DVD

Monday Night premiered at 2002's Chicago Underground Film Festival, then hit the rocky road of modern-day distribution. "In 2003 we played the Wisconsin Film Fest in Madison, which was really great, and then the San Francisco IndieFest, also very fun. The larger fests were not that interested," the 29-year-old director says.

PRIDE: Why do you think that was?

COLEMAN: We tried, but it is such random taste at festivals, I guess we just weren't what [some of these festivals] were looking for in a documentary. Still, we've sold out almost every screening we have had of the film, including a one-nighter in Los Angeles, and I've gotten emails from all over the country, from people who heard about the film from one of the fests, or friends or whatever, asking where they could buy it. We screened at Docs for Sale in Europe, and had some mild interest from distributors, but nothing panned out. This year I just decided, to hell with it, I would self-distribute. It's going pretty well, and we're talking to a few companies about doing a video release for rentals.

PRIDE: When's the first time you heard of or went to the Rock 'N Bowl?

COLEMAN: The summer of 1999, and there were about twenty people there. I met a whole slew of people who are in the doc that very first night. They went on Monday because they all worked in the service industry and everyone had the night off. Oh, I met Julia that first night too, Julia Henner. Julia I would describe her as a tall blond beautiful brilliant goddess who has a knack for getting along with everyone, has been a good friend, knows how to make a killer drink, and is totally fun to hang out with. I don't think I had been bowling in ten years, maybe longer, but that first night pretty much got me hooked, since it was so much fun. I started going every Monday with that same group.

PRIDE: When did you realize you should just start shooting?

COLEMAN: About two months later. I was there one night with Michael [Michael Palmerio, editor and co-producer of the film], and we just showed up assuming that the gang would all be there, but no one we knew came out that night, which was really rare. It had started to get a lot busier on Mondays by that point, and it as kind of surreal to look around at all these people with Mohawks and piercings with crazy punk music blaring. They are all like dancing around and singing and having so much fun, and we are in this bowling alley.

PRIDE: Bowling wasn't popular then with a crowd like this.

COLEMAN: Yeah, it's funny, because bowling has gotten a lot more popular since then, but at the time, it was just starting to get popular with a younger crowd. There weren't a ton of hipster scenes in bowling alleys yet, so I just thought it was really cool that all these people found a place in common to hang and have a good time, and made it their own. It also reminded of this scene I had in high school, and made me start thinking about all the pictures I have from back then, and how cool it would have been to try and capture that on film.

PRIDE: So was it more than home movies from the get-go?

COLEMAN: Well, at first I really wasn't sure what direction it was going to take. I mean, the footage does have a home movie element to it, especially since I was kind of part of the scene I was filming. But I realized after the first night of shooting that I could make something that was bigger than just a documentary of what was happening externally there, that somehow I had started something that would capture the scene from the inside out, from the heart in a way. Why it started in a bowling alley and how bowling had become for a lot of these people a connective thing in itself, along with the music, it seemed really different from most docs I had seen before.

PRIDE: There are more docs like this now, but then...

COLEMAN: Yeah, I mean really, when I sat down and watched the first tape I ever shot, from that first Monday, it was amazing how it felt. Because it was capturing the scene as a whole, without trying to focus on one person or one storyline, by just running about with a camera, I was looking at everything at once, and that was pretty true to how the atmosphere was at that time. I think I felt the same way then as I do now about why it was important to capture this.

PRIDE: Why?

COLEMAN: It's pretty simple, scenes like that don't last. People grow up, they change, they move, it never stays the same. Sometimes new people take over, but it still never feels the same. And I think most people have experienced that phenomenon at least once and can relate to the feeling of wanting something tangible to go back and look at later that reminds them of old times. I think I also wanted to take this scene and put it on display for the world a little bit, which I assume is often the impetus for documentaries, although I can't say for sure. To show everybody something that you find interesting, something you think it worthwhile for other people to know about because it might contribute to their own sense of things.

PRIDE:: How did the fact of increasingly cheaper technology facilitate things?

COLEMAN: First off, we had no money to begin with, no money at all, I mean barely enough to buy a tape that costs ten bucks, so there is no way I could have started shooting if I had been rolling film. But more than that, it would have been really difficult, logistically, to shoot in a place with 36 lanes of bowling going on, loud music, running around non-stop, fluorescent lighting, with a film camera. So the smaller video cameras really made it possible to just roll tape, and don't stop until they lock the doors that night, in an affordable and easily obtainable way, you know, borrowing a camera from friends every Monday. But hey, it worked.

PRIDE: Was post-production difficult? A bowling alley is a loud place. And what about music rights when music's blaring at every moment?

COLEMAN: Post was where the real life was brought into this movie. Michael and I worked very closely to shape the it, dividing it into sections to form a structure, and trying to decide what was important to include, and what we didn't think was useful. It was fun and exciting to see how the movie came together and changed as we went along. I mean, I think post is probably the most rewarding part of making a documentary. It has its difficulties too. I mean, we cut it a few years ago, and when we did the online [edit], we used an old version of Final Cut. There were so many more obstacles to what we were doing back then, the technology has come so far, so fast. When I think about how much better everything worked this year, editing and developing content for the DVD, compared to trying to make a movie with essentially the same software five years ago, it's really stunning. But I get a kick out of problem-solving, so I never felt negative about the limitations we had, just excited by the prospect of creating the best movie possible given those limitations.

PRIDE: And the final music?

COLEMAN: We have rights to all the music that we cut sequences to in the movie. In fact, we replaced the last song in the film with a new one for the DVD because the previous band decided they did not want to work with us on the DVD release. Fortunately, Screeching Weasel came through and gave us one of their songs that I love and I think it actually works better than what we had before, so it's all for the best.

PRIDE: And now you're self-publishing the DVD.

COLEMAN: As far as getting the film onto DVD, when I first looked into it a couple years ago, the cost was about five times what it is now. Software is cheaper, replicating is cheaper, everything now is being offered at a prosumer level, it makes all of it possible for someone like me, who has not got a huge operating budget, but is now able to produce professional quality movies.

PRIDE: Almost no one's shooting docs on film.

COLEMAN: Don't get me wrong; I would have loved to shoot it with a huge budget, and a ton of cameras, and lots of film, etc. It just wasn't possible, because of money and where I was at the time. In the end I think it was better that we didn't have a lot to work with, it created the look and feel of the film, makes it a smaller and more intimate setting, and I think it has a little of that homegrown-DIY feel, which works for me.

PRIDE: Why'd you leave Chicago?

COLEMAN: I left because I wasn't getting work there. I was tired and needed a change of pace. There's a lot more film work out here, and a lot more opportunity to meet people who can help you get films made. I think I considered going to New York, but it was right after 9/11, and a lot of my friends had just moved to the West coast. I think Los Angeles is a sort of natural progression for a lot of people, just because Hollywood is here. And I have to say, I have definitely learned a lot about filmmaking since I got here, and even more about the business of filmmaking, although that part is less fun.

PRIDE: Are you eyeing anything like this in LA right now, any social setting that's as interesting to you?

COLEMAN: Huh. That's a tough one. LA has scenes, but they are not so concentrated, and the people are not so interconnected on levels that go beyond superficial schmoozing and general bar familiarity. People here seem to have a hard time finding things and then sticking to them. But certainly some of the music venues, and a couple bars have a vague sense of "scene" in the way it did at the Rock 'N Bowl. I would guess there are some that I haven't found yet. I hope there are!

PRIDE: So Chicago is a more social city than Los Angeles?

COLEMAN: It depends on your definition of social. I would never say that people in Los Angeles are not social. I would say there is less of a sense of a community as a city. In Chicago, I always felt like no matter where I went, I was surrounded by this general feeling that Chicago has all to itself, as a city, as a whole. And in Los Angeles, I think you only get back the amount you are willing to put in, if that makes sense. There are some wonderful people here, and some really great places to go and see, but it doesn't have the same presence of mind as Chicago did, and I think the social scenes here feel less connected and somewhat flimsy in comparison. That being said though, there are some real gems here. It actually gets better the longer you live here, because you start to find where the secret places are to go, and avoid all the crap that feeds a relatively obnoxious and boring Hollywood nightlife.

PRIDE: Do you know what the scene's like at Diversey River Bowl today?

COLEMAN: I'm not sure what Mondays are like there now. I have heard that they still do it, but that it's changed. My guess is, it's still a lot of fun, but it'll never be what is was before, as is the way with most good things.

The Monday Night at the the Rock 'N Bowl DVD is available at Coleman's website as well as at Diversey River Bowl, 2211 West Diversey, (773) 227-5800. More pictures and information are also at the Monday Night Rock "N Bowl MySpace profile.