THE ASCENT OF FAN
Spencer F Lee explores the rise of fandom in documentary From The Bridge
With Marvel, Star Wars, Game Of Thrones and the rest dominating both the movie box office and TV ratings, it’s long been clear that the geeks have inherited the Earth. In new documentary From The Bridge, director Spencer F Lee sets out to explain how sci-fi and fantasy became the dominant genres on the planet. It all started after he met Starlog and Fangoria founder Kerry O’Quinn…
“Those magazines were what basically held the fan community together before the internet,” says Lee. “And when Kerry and I became friends, he was telling me stories of Arthur C Clarke, Gene Roddenberry and other friends of his, how conventions grew bigger and bigger, and how geek culture went from being niche and made fun of to basically the biggest form of entertainment in the world.”
Inspired, Lee decided to make a movie about the “evolution of fandom”, with O’Quinn the first sci-fi legend to come on board a project that would later add Nichelle Nichols, Stan Lee, Kiss’s Gene Simmons and X-Men producer Tom DeSanto to its roster of contributors – all linked together by a voiceover from George Takei.
“Something in the back of my mind was that I know anyone can go at any time – which includes me,” explains Lee. “There’s a lot of iconic creators that I wanted to document their story while there is still time left to do it. In the course of making this movie, we’ve lost lots of incredible artists. Steve Ditko, Carrie Fisher, Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven, Leonard Nimoy... I think every day that goes by is a day of lost opportunities to tell their stories and document them being themselves. So that’s why I took the initiative, to make this film. It’s really all about love.” RE
From The Bridge is released this autumn. www.fromthebridgemovie.com