Dan's Papers - April 11, 2008

Though the final installment of the epic Harry Potter series came out last summer - and was quickly digested by many zealous fans within days of its release date - the world of the boy wizard and his friends continues to live on well past the series' ending. Contributing to the ongoing Potter legacy is a documentary by Josh Koury, who was programming director for the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) for five years before leaving in January 2008. He and his crew have captured the vivid world of Potter fans on film with We Are Wizards, which debuted last month at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, and was featured at the New York Underground Film Festival on April 5 and April 8.

"It had been about five years since our last production," said Koury, who also founded the now defunct Brooklyn Underground Film Festival. "There were a lot of good ideas on the table, but the one we kept coming back to was Harry Potter. We were inspired to do it. There was a great world out there that needed to be uncovered. It was a pivotal time, between the sixth and seventh books. I don't think we could have come back and made [the film] later. There was an opportunity to make it and we jumped on the opportunity. That was the time and that was the inspiration."

After choosing their topic, the filmmakers were faced with the daunting task of figuring out which fans to feature in their documentary. "We didn't want to have a 90-minute roll call of fan after fan after fan gushing over Harry Potter. We wanted to tell stories that could inspire and reach people," Koury said. "Something that's important is that the film itself isn't really even about Harry Potter. It's more about people's personal stories, their struggles, inspirations and their rights to be creative and to create." Aiming to make a film that touched even those who had never picked up one of the books, he set out to find the most inspired fans, the ones who took their love of the series to the next level.

There was a lot to choose from. Eager Harry Potter fans have created a subculture that surpasses Trekkie and Star Wars fandom. Rather than simply obsess about the books and movies, Potter fans have enthusiastically kept the world alive through art, fan fiction and music in a way that's never been done before for any movie or fictional series. There's even an entire genre of music known as "Wizard Rock," that includes hundreds of bands from around the world that base their songs on the Harry Potter series and its characters.

Harry and the Potters, the Boston-based band that essentially founded the Wizard Rock movement, were one of the first subjects Koury latched onto. "They started off as a joke, but through the years they gained so much popularity," he said. "They spawned a whole new generation of kids who picked up instruments and new Wizard Rock bands."

We Are Wizards primarily focuses on Wizard Rock, featuring not just Harry and the Potters, but other bands integral to the movement, such as Draco and the Malfoys, The Whomping Willows, The Order of Merlin and The Hungarian Horntails. The Hungarian Horntails, two brothers aged 7 and 4 at the time the film was made, especially inspired the direction it went. To Koury, the two boys, who can barely play their instruments, embody the spirit of the Harry Potter subculture in general. "They symbolize what the Wizard Rock movement is and can be," he said. "They're not the greatest musicians in the world; let's be frank, they're little kids. But their spirit is amazing. It's not about the music, necessarily."

The film's coverage goes beyond Wizard Rock. Koury spent several long weekends filming Brad Neely, a cartoonist, who unintentionally found himself a part of the Harry Potter universe. Having never read any of the books, but a fan of the movies, Neely recorded Wizard People, Dear Reader, a hilarious, and often very adult, retelling of the movie version of the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Originally recorded for the amusement of his friends and presented as an audio book, Wizard People is intended to be played while Sorcerer's Stone is playing on mute, much like Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" is meant to be played to a muted Wizard of Oz.

The documentary also touches upon the issue of intellectual property rights. In 2001, Warner Bros., owner of the Harry Potter movie franchise, sued many fan sites, which were run primarily by teenagers, for violating these rights and sought to acquire these sites' domain names. They eventually dropped most of the lawsuits.

After assembling the film's cast of characters, Koury, who left the HIFF on the heels of the festival's artistic director Rajendra Roy, did nothing but eat, sleep and breathe Harry Potter, as he and his crew threw themselves into the lives of their subjects. "I've been digesting Harry Potter pretty intensely for two and a half years," he laughed, adding that though he was always a big fan of the series, he had a difficult time actually reading the last book when it came out for this reason.

When Koury showed the film to some of his former colleagues, Roy was surprised by how well he was able to relate to it. "It was interesting for me because I didn't know a lot about dragon rock or Potter culture per se, but the film was really compelling on its own as an investigative documentary," he said. "It was surprising to me that someone who wasn't a Potter fan could be entertained by it. It's the sign of a good documentary." He said the film would be of interest to anyone into alternative music and culture.

Now, the film will go on what Koury calls "a fast and furious festival run." After its showing in New York, it is headed for film festivals in Sarasota and Boston, among several others. Koury has big plans for the film. He hopes to get a distribution deal soon. If not, he plans on self-distributing the movie this summer. He's also keeping his fingers crossed for a theatrical release.

So far, Roy, who is now Chief Curator of the Department of Film at MoMA, approves of Koury's festival choices, as he's picking those with more of an edge, which are well-suited for his subject matter. But Roy also doesn't rule out the possibility of We Are Wizards coming to the HIFF. "The thing I've learned about the Hamptons is there's a very diverse audience out here," he said. "I certainly think there would be an audience for it out here just because the Hamptons audience likes a diverse range of programming."

And when asked if he'd be interested in having We Are Wizards featured at the HIFF, Koury was uncertain. "But who knows," he said. "October is a long way away."