Dustin Milligan and Aaron Brooks, writers/actors/exec-producers: BAD CITY

Dustin Milligan and Aaron Brooks, filmmakers for BAD CITY

1Q: Tell us a little about the origins of BAD CITY, from concept to financing.

Carl Bessai optioned another script of ours that we were shooting a teaser for, and it happened to be set in the 70’s. We had so much fun chain-smoking, drinking, and open-palm-slapping (especially once we started filming), that we decided to write a feature loosely based on these guys. Something that would not only be cheap, but that would exploit how cheap it was. With Carl’s blessing, Aaron and Dustin spent 8 ENTIRE DAYS (minus 2 hrs for gym and 6 hrs for video games per day) writing this terrible Canuxploitation buddy-cop super-comedy.

Basically, we tried to emulate the lack of story structure, character development and continuity of traditional Blaxploitation movies, hence why it only took 8 days—Every unnecessarily expository conversation and 13 minute driving montage got to stay in as long as it didn’t make the movie more expensive.

8 months later we had scrounged together just enough money amongst ourselves to start shooting and spent the next couple weeks making the baddest movie to come out of Canada since…uh…Men With Brooms?

2Q: BAD CITY has done quite well at other film festivals. Will you be less nervous now at Cinequest? Does this process ever get any easier?

Who says we were ever nervous? Why would you ask that? WHO HIRED YOU!?! SHUT UP!! WHO HIRED YOU!? SHUT UP!!!!

3Q: What was your best and/or worst experience while making BAD CITY?

Best experience was watching Dustin and Pauline kiss/tongue-dart. There was so much unnecessary boob grabbing. And we love boob grabbing. This was just too much, though.

Worst experience was doing some of the wire stuff. We were suspended in harnesses that really didn’t fit us and cut into our armpits and crotch region quite severely. Our butts bled. Literally.

4Q: Festival audiences often have to make hard decisions about what to see, and the catalog descriptions sometimes run together. In your own words, why should people see your film?

People should see our movie if they enjoy one or more of the following:

Comedy
Action
Romance
Strong family values
Unusually long sex scenes
Heavy drug-use
Nunchuck-use
The Guy’s Partner Dies In The First 5 Minutes
Montages
Perogies
Montages featuring Perogies
Redemption
Clever Wordplay/Puns
Wantin’ the Funk
Feelin’ the Funk
Needin’ the Funk
Someone Must’ve Cut The Brake-lines!
Blaxploitation
Just, so much slapping

5Q: Time to pre-plan: You just won the Oscar for BAD CITY. Give us your acceptance speech.

Oh man! We totally didn’t expect this at all…

*pulls out a four page speech*

First, we’d like to thank God…eau. Antoine Godeau, the french poet, known for his work of criticism: Discourse de la Poésie Chrétienne from 1633. Also, we’d like to thank our families, who have supported us through thick and thin (the rapid weight-gain and loss we experienced due to excessive stress-eating and relax-snacking while at work.) And of course, Canada. Thank you, Canada, you sexy, sexy country, you…Honestly, we’ve been to lots of countries, and while many of them seem sexy, none of them live up to the beautiful, polite, resource-heavy FREAK that you are, Canada. Damn…

*music starts playing*

…Oh no! The music! Thank you to everyone who helped make this movie happen! The Volunteers! The fans! And of course the Academy! Not sure what kind of drugs you were taking when you voted for our little movie…So please, let us know. Thank you!

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