DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
I've never had that feeling of "this story must be told."  That's sort of a prose-based inspiration, I guess, and thank God people have it. I've been inspired more by moments, or by phenomena, in movies.  It makes sense to me that some movies are called transcendental.  Just a couple transcendent moments are enough to make a movie worthwhile to me; and if there are more, and they work together in some mysterious way to create the moral-mystical-delirious experience that's unique to movies, then I'm inspired.  So I'm inspired by an obvious list of great directors: Demy, Demme, Minnelli, Cukor, Burnett, Imamura, Kiarostami, Bresson, Sturges, N. Ray, Ozu, Renoir, Leigh, Spielberg, Zhang, Makhmalbaf.  It seems like a good idea to look to them for guidance.
So Angus's script for "Junebug" was appealing to me primarily because I could see opportunities to attempt those moments.  And hopefully those moments converge to become something worthwhile.  Not a something we planned in advance, but an alchemical something that's an unforeseen result of our planning in advance.
The people in the opening shots are hollering.  This was once a practical form of communication in the North Carolina hills.  I think it's an appropriate start for this movie in two ways.  First, "Junebug" is about people communicating across great divides.  Second, I'm interested in the moral challenges posed by the relationship between makers and connoisseurs.  Hollering is still practiced because it has been recognized as an art form and incorporated into a "folk tradition."  It has been aestheticized by its appreciators, who have become its patrons and, often, its practitioners.  "Junebug" is meant to explore the difficulty created by relationships based on patronage, however well meaning. 
For instance, one idea that arose is that such relationships glorify the peculiar, and convince us to view what is common as "cliché." It was not at all my intention to avoid clichés, but rather to try to explore what it is about a particular thought, object, phrase, etc. that so raises my hackles that I declare it "cliché."
Maybe the ultimate verity that "Junebug" clings to is that darkness and light are inseparable.   We go to great lengths to deny it in order to feel safe, and are shaken when this denial falls apart.  Certainly there's nothing new in this, but I guess that's the point.
Phil Morrison
March 2005

Phil Morrison (Director) was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1968.
His NYU student film, "Tater Tomater," written by Angus MacLachlan, was featured at the Sundance Film Festival and on American Playhouse.  It is distributed by First Run Features and was one of very few shorts to be selected by the Museum of Modern Art for its First Run retrospective in May, 2001.
He was Consulting Producer and Director of several episodes of the highly regarded series "Upright Citizens Brigade" for Comedy Central.  Other work includes an episode of "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" for Nickelodeon and a long-form Godard homage for X-Girl Clothing, starring Chloe Sevigny.
He has directed many TV commercials.  His music videos include clips for Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Superchunk, The Feelies, Lemonheads, Rocket from the Crypt and Juliana Hatfield.
JUNEBUG filmed in June 2004 is his feature debut. 

Angus MacLachlan (Writer) graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts Drama School.
His play The Dead Eye Boy was selected as the 2000 Lois and Richard Rosenthal New Play Prize Award Winner and premiered by Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.  It was a finalist for the Steinberg New Play Prize, presented by the American Theater Critics Association. His play Bridge won the 2000 New Works prize presented by Actor's Theatre of Santa Rosa.  In 2001 the Williamstown Theatre Festival nominated Angus for the Kesselring Prize.
The Dead Eye Boy, starring Lili Taylor, opened in NY at the Manhattan Class Company in April, 2001.  It was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards.   In January of 2002 it opened in London at the Hampstead Theatre, starring Olivier Award winner Brendan Coyle.  It is being published by Dramatists Play Service.
An 18 minute short film he wrote, Tater Tomater, was directed by Phil Morrison and aired on American Playhouse, and screened at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival.  In May of 2001 it was seen at the Museum of Modern Art, in First Run Features "Best of 25 Years" retrospective.
Among the plays he has written are Divertimento, which was produced at The Wonderhorse Theatre off-off Broadway, Ariadne Duvall,  produced at Circle Rep., and Behold, Zebulon which was selected as Best Play of the Year by Winston-Salem Magazine.  He has also written and performed three one-man shows - Bound and Gagged,  Buena Vista and Marginal Living which was then filmed and shown on NC Public TV and on KTEH San Jose Public TV's "video i" series.
Other plays include Tex's Dream, Willy-Nilly, Cattycornered and Bridge.  Among his screenplays are Vetville, Crisis Control and Circus Bim Bam..
Among his grants have been an Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Winston-Salem Arts Council, a Semans Grant, a N.C. Humanities Council Award and Appalshop-the Southeast Media Fellowship Award.
In 2002 he was commissioned by Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C.  The play, The Radiant Abyss premiered at the Kennedy Center in June 2004.

READ A QUESTION AND ANSWER WITH DIRECTOR PHIL MORRISON AND WRITER ANGUS MACLACHLAN