METALLICA Documentary Filmmakers Hope To Reach Wider Audience

Joe Berlinger, one of the filmmakers behind the METALLICA documentary "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster", recently spoke to New York's The Journal News about the much-anticipated project, which will have its debut next Wednesday at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Berlinger, 42, who made the film with partner Bruce Sinofsky, says that he is hoping hopes to attract viewers who may not care about METALLICA but have an interest in documentary film.

"Our marketing challenge is to cross under, to reach the crowd that's seeing 'Capturing the Friedmans' and 'Fog of War'," he said. "But when I tell most people my age or older that I've just spent three years making a movie on METALLICA, I'm usually met with blank stares and get asked one of two questions: 'Who is METALLICA?' or 'Why would you do that?'"

Berlinger believes that selection for Sundance will lend the film credibility as something more serious than a concert film or a puff piece on the San Franciscian heavy-metal legends.

"I don't want the film ghetto-ized as some fan love letter," says Berlinger, whose 1992 documentary "Brothers Keeper" won awards from Sundance and the New York Film Critics Circle. "I want it to be treated the same way as 'Brothers Keeper', and that's what Sundance will do.

"It's a perception thing. People assume METALLICA must be a bunch of beer-swilling, head-banging guys who aren't very deep. And what I'm saying is that you may not like the music but this movie will definitely give you a deeper understanding of who they are." Read more.