by SARAH ROWLAND

During the late ’80s he flipped burgers by day and exploited his mental illness on MTV by night. In early ’90s he crashed his dad’s single-engine airplane because he thought he was Casper the Friendly Ghost. Today, this musician’s musician divides his time between visits to the State psych ward and his parents’ garage, where he continues to write, record and perform songs about his lifelong obsession with a girl named Laurie.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Daniel Johnston, the subject of Jeff Feuerzeig’s phenomenal documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston.

Along with the likes of Kurt Cobain, David Bowie and members of Sonic Youth, Feuerzeig is a diehard fan of the bipolar Johnston’s outsider music. In fact, long before there was talk of a film, the New York filmmaker had already had a memorable interaction with Johnston. It was during a one-hour national radio special on New Jersey’s WFMU station, in which Johnston offered an eerie glimpse into a mad man’s psyche.

“It was fucking frightening,” says Feuerzeig, who sat down with the Mirror at last year’s Toronto film fest. “He was scary and funny as all hell. He exposed the entire Daniel Johnston personality. He was totally manic at the time. Plus he was broadcasting from the West Virginia mental hospital, which made it even creepier.”

Mind games

Working with someone this erratic was a challenge, to say the least.

“Yeah, but I knew that going in,” say Feuerzeig, who spent four and half years on his labour of love. “The biggest challenge for me was that I really consider Daniel Johnston to be one of the great artists of all time who happens to be alive right now, and there are a lot of people out there who would be upset if I screwed up the Daniel Johnston story and/or homogenized him in any way.”

According to Feuerzeig, Johnston is a master of many disciplines including drawing, sketch comedy and filmmaking. But that’s not all.

“One of his art forms is fucking with people,” says Feuerzeig. “He does it to his mom. He does it to his family. He does it to his friends. He does it to everybody. To quote his dad, ‘We’re all just pawns in the theatre of Daniel’s mind.’”

And Feuerzeig was no exception. During the making of the film, Johnston agreed to a specific date for an in-depth one-on-one at George Harrison’s vigil in Central Park. However, on the day of the shoot, Johnston decided that he would rather go comic book shopping.

“He just wouldn’t cooperate,” recalls Feuerzeig. “He was just being a pain in the ass and very child-like at that point. But I wasn’t going to back down, so then he points to the Dakota, John Lennon’s building, and he says to me, ‘What would you do if I jumped off that building?’ And I looked him straight in the eye and I said, ‘I’d film it.’”

The plane truth

Some of the most heartbreaking scenes in the film are when Johnston’s parents talk about what it’s been like coping with such a tormented soul.

“These people were dying to tell this story and share it with people,” says Feuerzeig. “They made me make one promise, which was that I told the truth and didn’t leave out any of the drugs or anything else that happened because they want this to help other people.”

Despite their openness, Feuerzeig was reluctant to bring up the plane crash, where Johnston’s father was at the mercy of one of his son’s more volatile episodes.

“I wasn’t even going to bring it up till I got really comfortable with them. But during our very first interview his dad, Bill Johnston, just broke down and had this cathartic experience and I just sat there crying with him.”

Because the film doesn’t hold back about the kind of hell Johnston has put his family through, Feuerzeig was justifiably nervous of what his subject would think (and say) after the Sundance premiere in 2005.

“It was definitely a long screening for me,” admits Feuerzeig, who ended up winning best director at Sundance. “But Johnston did a Q&A after the screening and he said to everyone, ‘It’s all true. Daniel’s in the hospital, Daniel’s out of the hospital, Daniel crashes a plane, Daniel goes back to the hospital. My life is a comedy. The only thing that was missing was a laugh track.’”

The Devil and Daniel Johnston Opens Friday, July 7

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