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Beaver Trilogy Part IV (2015)
[serene music playing]
[Trent] When you do a documentary, so much of what you're doing is the process of what's real and what isn't real and how you film it, and, you know, do you turn the camera here or do you turn the camera here? How do you make the decision? You know? Do I put cream in my coffee? Do I buy Coors Light? I mean, you know, life is full of a million of these decisions and whichever one you make makes a big difference. [narrator] You've just been introduced to a man once called... [reading on-screen text] His name is Trent Harris. Now, what you're now watching is a movie about his movie. The one of a kind 84-minute underground cult film, The Beaver Trilogy, which itself is actually three short films. And with a name like that, you might be asking... [reading on-screen text] Well, that is what we're here to find out. This is Trent's Salt Lake City office. He's been kind enough to show us a few things. I got so much junk. I picked this up in Turkmenistan. Isn't that a beautiful little purse? Plan 10 from Outer Spacebeer. What have I got over here? Jeez. Picked this up in Bangkok. Looks like a big dick is what it looks like. This is my friend, Larry's ashes. He was my best friend and a filmmaker, and when he died, I put his ashes in this oyster jar. I was gonna go throw him out somewhere, but I never got around to that. Seems like it belongs here. I keep a lot of notebooks. For some reason. This is the star of my new movie. It's called Luna Mesa. It's just about done. "Listen to your visitors." One morning I was sitting out over here at 7-Eleven, it's six o'clock in the morning, I'm drinking a cup of coffee and smoking a cigarette I see this woman walk across the street, and is obviously homeless, she didn't have any shoes on. And she looks pretty fucked up, and she comes walking by and she says, "Can I have a cigarette?" I say, "Yeah." And she sits down and starts to talk to me and it turns out she's the most wise person I've met in my entire life. She's got this incredible insight. So, anyway, I called her my crack angel and I learned this thing of, "Listen to your visitors." You don't know. People are gonna come by and give you information that you'd never, ever guess. You know. Conversations you get into with strangers, sometimes they're quite profound and you just need to be open to that kind of stuff. If I'd have said, "Fuck off, I'm not giving you a cigarette," I wouldn't have got any of that inspiration. [narrator] The story of The Beaver Trilogy began right here... in this parking lot. This is East Hollywood High school, a Salt Lake City charter school for young filmmakers. But years ago this was a privately owned television station. KUTV Channel Two. And in this notoriously conservative news market, KUTV would produce one of the nation's most original programs. [commercial music playing] At that point, my family had quite a bit of control of the television station. You know, we had to stay within the FCC rules, and that was about it. What was wonderful about Extra was that we did things that most people wouldn't do in Utah. [narrator] With such creative freedom they would hire this man, Larry Roberts, who was not a journalist, rather Larry was best known as an experimental filmmaker. He also happened to be best friends with Trent Harris. At the time Trent was an aspiring young filmmaker himself with a few films under his belt. [Diane] He told me, "You gotta hire Trent Harris. You gotta hire Trent Harris." He knew he belonged in Extra. [narrator] Trent would produce dozens of stories forExtra, many of which would test the limits of television. [Trent] I mean, I had no journalistic training at all. I began to get out in the world and meet people. It was a hell of a lot of fun and the people were great. They let me do damn near anything. [narrator] Trent's piece, Atomic Television, would be such a hit that it would play at the nearby US Film Festival. Extra would give Trent almost unthinkable creative freedom. But something new was on the horizon. We were shooting with 16 millimeter film and then, eventually, the big switch came when we discovered video tape. [narrator] The story goes that this is the first footage shot by Trent with the station's new video camera. It's a simple test tape in the KUTV parking lot. -[Trent] It's fine. -Is it? -Yeah, it's fine. -Are you kidding? -Yeah. -No. -[Trent] You hang on to this. -Is this really going on the TV right now? -Uh-huh. -It is? Are you kidding? Well, how about that? John Wayne. Here, Mom. [imitating John Wayne] Here's John Wayne, y'all. Well, I'll tell ya something out there in TV land. I'm hammin' it up. I'll tell ya. -You do any more imitations? -Uh, you know Rocky, Sylvester Stallone? Yeah, do that one. [imitating Sylvester Stallone] Okay, know what I mean? You know Rocky, Sylvester Stallone? You know, he's got a coach named Mickey, you know what I mean? He's a good guy, you know? He knows his fight. He knows his left from his right, he knows his left toe from his right toe, you know? He's a good fighter, you know? He's a good guy and he loves his wife, Adrian, you know? So, anyway... I love it up here though. I was just takin' some pictures of Sky Two over there and, man, it's really fantastic out here. I love it. I love it up here. I love impersonating, and by gosh, if I made the tube, I'd just thank you so much. [Trent] What I found is that he was so engaging. He's infectious. And also his naivete was quite wonderful. I mean, it took 30 seconds and I was so enthralled with him that I knew that I just had to keep filming. Well, I'd like to get a picture of you. That'd be great. Take a picture of me taking a picture. -Well, I don't... Would that be all right? -Sure. Okay. Let's see. Am I on three here? A picture of you taking a picture of me taking a picture. Okay. Hang on to your mic there, bud. Let's see. Did I get that? Okay. Got to go to four. Okay, smile, you're on candid camera. All right. [Trent] I'm just trying to keep up with him at that point. I mean, it's all a surprise to me. I don't know what's... It's unfolding for me, just like it is for anyone else. I don't know what's going on when I'm walking over there to his car. I had no idea that it would turn out to be so wonderful. I'll show you the inside real fast, okay? I've got your AM, FM, 8-track, the whole set up. [Trent] The side windows are engraved with carvings of Farrah Fawcett and on the other side is Olivia Newton-John and, you know, I had no idea how interesting it would be. The whole thing was just quite amazing. I says, "If I make something, if something happens to this, I don't know if it will," I says, "Me and you are gonna go and have steak dinner." Okay, Trent, I'll remember you, pal. I really will. As you drive off, I'll get a shot of you driving off. Okay. Sounds good. Let's fire this old mom up. I'll see you again too. Cars gonna be... Now, get this. My car knows it's on television, so hang on. Hang on. We may have to do a cut on that. I have to jump it across the front. My car gets very upset real easy. [car starts] There we go. Okay. Well, Channel Two, it's been great. I love you. See you again, Trent. -Okay. -Thanks again, pal. Appreciate it. 15 minutes later, he walks in and he goes, "My God, you can't believe what I just recorded." [Trent] He went back to his home town of Beaver and set up a talent show. And then he wrote me a series of letters pleading with me to come down and film the show. And I thought, "Boy, there's no way that's not going to be great." You could take a 1,000 journalists in Salt Lake City and say, "Okay, how many of you think this is a good story?" Trent would raise his hand and he would be about it. And from there he just had to go to Beaver. He had to go see the talent show. And... boy, you see the rest of the story. [narrator] Trent embarked on his journey down to Beaver. He was paired with a newExtra employee and his new partner had ties to Beaver. I wasn't a stranger to Beaver. I had a grant to work in small school districts and I had to spend a month in that school system. [narrator] In the letters, the Beaver kid clued Trent into his impersonation as "Olivia Newton Dawn." It would surprisingly lead them to the Beaver mortuary, as the town's mortician seemed the only one qualified to do his makeup. Okay. This is... I still am a man. I'm doing outrageous things, but I enjoy being a guy. I really do. Come on. Yes, I do. I have to convince the audience that I have not gone crazy. It's just for fun. [Trent] There comes a time when you're filming people when you're doing documentaries and often what happens is they will say one thing, but the information you're picking up is something completely different. There's a subtext going on and the subtext can... You know, if you catch that subtext, that's fascinating. And I felt like I was getting a lot of that kind of subtext. This whole piece is filled with that sort of thing. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, Olivia Newton Dawn. ["'Please Don't Keep Me Waiting" playing] I want to love you Once again Couldn't you love me too? Don't turn away From all that We've been through Everyone changes Be my friend Haven't you got the time? Help me, I need you Throw me down a line [Greg] When I watched this metamorphosis and I saw him come out five or six inches taller because of the heels he had on and all this hair, I thought, "This is an odd situation we have here." We were pretty confused. I think we didn't... We had to examine our motives. I think what we got was absolutely nothing that we expected. I'll tell you my honest reaction when Trent showed the footage he'd got from that talent show, I was really worried. I just thought it went too far and exposed too much. And we talked a lot about it, we all talked about it and I think we decided not to run it, as I recall. And I was thinking, "There's a lot more going on here than... He's not a joke. He's an interesting character. He's got a..." I wasn't sure whether they were picking up on the pathos of the whole thing. And that was kind of what inspired it. "I got to do this movie again, so let's make it perfectly clear." Wow, are you filming this? Yeah, all America is watching. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I've never been on set before. [narrator] For his fictional remake of the never-aired half-hour documentary, Trent would by chance meet another aspiring young performer. He was trying to cast it and I knew this actor, Sean Penn. [Trent] I called him up on the phone, I didn't know who the hell he was. I said, "It's about a guy from Beaver, Utah, that likes to dress up like Olivia Newton-John." I said, "Are you interested in, you know, meeting?" He said, "Yeah." So he comes over and I said, "I want you to audition... for this thing." He says, uh... "I don't wanna audition. What I'll do is, I'll just be that kid. I'm gonna be the Beaver kid and I'm gonna follow you around for a day. I'll be your cousin from Idaho." And so he does it. And it was incredible. I know I'll never make it big-time, but here's my crack at it. [Trent] And then later, a couple of guys I knew came up to me and said, "Boy, your cousin's really become a big star." Olivia Newton Dawn is born again. [Trent] The thing about the version with Sean is after I finished that, and it was just really rough home video camera shot and edited in five days, and Sean did it for, basically, I gave him some pizza, he was just great to work and do the thing. And after it was finished, I still didn't feel right about it. So I decided I'd better do it again. [narrator] For the next remake, Trent would need to find yet another aspiring young performer. You know, I just wanted somebody that could play the damn part, and I read a lot of people. I mean, Nicolas Cage read for it and Eric Stoltz and all kinds of people. Wow, are you filming this? [Trent] All America is watching you. Oh, no kidding. Oh, wow. Why, I've been wantin' to get on the tube so bad. [narrator] With this, Crispin Glover would become the third Beaver Kid. When you're a performer... I mean, when you're on TV, it's okay. People understand when it's on... television. [narrator] The final remake had many shot for shot recreations, but there were a few differences too. The third film wasn't set in Beaver. Instead it was set in a small fictional town called Orkly. And this film wasn't shot for 100 bucks and pizza. It was Trent's thesis film at the American Film Institute with a budget of $50,000. The Orkly Kid also showed a number of dramatic scenes that were not in the original documentary. Trent had written his character into the film as a manipulative and exploitive journalist. He also included this scene. [telephone ringing] Hello? Terence, hiya, pal. Larry. Uh, I hope you don't think I'm crazy for this but, um, I'm a little worried about that Olivia number. What, are you kidding? Hey, listen. I put a lot of time and effort into this project. Look, people are gonna love it. You looked great. And besides, I got a deadline to meet, huh? Would I lie to you? [hinges squeaking] [dog barking] [gun cocking] [dramatic music playing] [narrator] Knowing the original documentary, the sight of a gun in this fictionalized version is unexpected. But like the third film, the second film also had a phone call asking that the footage not be aired and the main character on the verge of suicide. These added scenes would prompt many questions. Were the remakes fiction? Did the documentary actually capture reality? What's real? You goddamn fool, you've embarrassed the entire town. [narrator reading on-screen text] What really happened that day in Beaver? [Starlee] At the end you have him calling the director character up and asking to call it off and then he tries to kill himself. And you're saying this is for dramatic purpose that you did that? [Trent] Yeah. Pretty much, I guess. I mean, you know, when I make these things into movies I have to take some dramatic license to make 'em work. He wanted to make a short film and why not make this short film? And he already knew the story and why not make it again? And I just didn't believe that it wasn't like a deeper reason. It seems to be the furthest from the reality though that we saw from the documentary, though. [Trent] You know, reality doesn't have anything to do with anything. -You can quote me on that. -[Starlee laughs] -"Reality doesn't have--" -Anything to do with anything. And it just wouldn't stop. And she'd ask me questions, and she just kept going, and going, and going. [Starlee] And this is not based on anything, right? That actually happened? [Trent] No, it's something I fabricated. -So-- -Something I made up. [Starlee chuckling] Why? [Trent] Oh, boy, I don't know. Really, what's this movie... -Why don't you shut up? -[both laughing] Well, finally I just told her to shut up. I mean, he told me to shut up, and he was getting annoyed that I kept at him, although I think I was right to because I think he... admits to feeling it being a different thing. [Trent] How to put this? I did get a phone call after I'd been in Beaver and the phone call said, "Listen, I've been thinking about that. Maybe... you know, maybe you shouldn't put it on TV." That was horrible. I hated that interview. It went on and on, and on. Almost as long as this one. [narrator] Maybe we should have told you this earlier. Trent hates talking about The Beaver Trilogy. Beaver Trilogy,I can't stand anymore. If I ever have to talk about that movie, God, my God, I'm sick of that movie. [narrator] Shortly thereafter, he would expand on his opinions. Normally, I come in, they put me down, and they set up their shot and they ask me the same goddamn questions and I give 'em the same fucking answers and then they're happy and they leave, but they never get it. [narrator] It turns out Trent has already spoken quite extensively on the subject. While, surprisingly, on the other side, the Beaver kid has said nothing at all. No quotes, no interviews, he has never spoke publicly aboutThe Beaver Trilogy and was credited in the film under the pseudonym, Groovin' Gary. Since those final shots of Trent's original documentary, the Beaver kid remains a mystery. [suspenseful music playing] Beaver is roughly a 200-mile drive southwest from Salt Lake City. It's a small town in Central Utah. But, surprisingly, this rural location is best known for its link to the invention of television. In 1927, Beaver native, Philo T. Farnsworth, registered the first patent for the television. 50 years later, the invention wold inspire another young man from Beaver. To find the Beaver kid, the question was posed, "Have you ever seen The Beaver Trilogy?" No. The what? Beaver Trilogy? You'll have to explain that to me. [narrator] These gentlemen had never seen the film either but helped search through the yearbooks and then... -He's called the Beaver kid or something? -Beaver kid. Groovin' Gary. [narrator] His name isn't Groovin' Gary. It's actually Dick Griffiths. After speaking with a few that knew of him, the search would eventually lead to his sister. He was the most popular, cute, fun-loving guy in high school and he was... You sure you're not filming me? [narrator] She wanted to talk off the record. The request was obliged. For a short while. [Dick's sister 1] I can't stop you from telling his story. And he would love that, if you told his story the way it really was. [narrator] These are his other two sisters. If you wanted to know how many people in Beaver know about that film, it's a handful. Yeah. There sure ain't many. He did not want anything to do with it. For a long time he was very wound up about it. Yeah, he was. So, now do you wanna sit down and talk to us? [narrator] Before rolling, and off-camera microphone caught this exchange. [Dick's sister 2 speaking] Or you wouldn't be here. You wouldn't be here right now. Everything that happened in Dick's life happened for a reason. And you say you were inspired by the movie, but you may not know what you were inspired by. Trent's creative mind in Hollywood and video left people wondering, "What happened to that poor kid?" -"So we can make another one." -"Look at that. Oh! Can you believe that poor kid lived like that?" That poor kid didn't live like that. But that's the way the film... You know, how many films do you find that that's the way they end and you wanna put an end on 'em? [sister 1] He was an entertainer from day one. [sister 3] Oh, he loved being in the limelight. He had a million friends. He was silly. He was. He was so much fun to be around. He was a blast to be around. He would get with the kid down the block, his name was Chad, and they would record themselves on the tape recorder. [on tape] This is Chad Hollinger. We will be interviewing our teachers from Beaver High School. We did that and we took it to school and it was a hit. Once they found out how talented he was at school and the impressions that he could do, he and his neighbor, Chad Hollinger, they MC'd almost every assembly in school. I think that he just had so much talent that, uh... it was just natural to share it. [sister 2] I think Dick really thought that he'd go up there and there would be a lock on the door. When he saw the news helicopter he was excited. And then when Trent Harris come out, it was just like fate. You know, you go to Hollywood and get a part. I think Dick thought he'd already gotten his part. He thought this was a big break for him. You watch him there, if you look at him and him walking back to the car, talking to himself. My day is come. It's shinin'. I doubt if I'll ever get into TV, but here's my crack at it, you know? Hello, people, here I am. Hello, Utah. Ooh, look what I just did. I'm gonna... What if this makes Extra? Oh, Hollywood, hey! Here I am, here I come. I can see the wheels turning in the parking lot. Like Dick had done in high school. I think all the way home he thought who he could get... He was gonna get to show his impressions. You know, he was gonna do Barry Manilow, he was gonna do Olivia Newton-John, he was gonna do... I mean, he would have... Yeah, he was gonna do 'em all. [man] You know, I played the piano and, you know, I thought, "Well, sure, why don't we get together and we can... 'Cause, I mean, I'd had one or two crappy, failing bands that just kinda limped along. I think I was a lot more serious about it than most of the kids in town. But he, uh... He was really serious about it. He wanted to be an impressionist, he wanted to be an impressionist. That was pretty much it. And I think he really felt like that was the place where he was gonna step up. [Dick] I'm not sayin' I'm great or anything, but... I sure would like to get into show business, I really would, it's been my lifelong dream. [sister 3] He loved to listen to Olivia's music and then he'd start singing, and pretty soon, he'd captured her voice and he sounded just like her. I mean, it was all just part of that craziness that... I was all for shaking people up, you know? The kids were just thrilled that he would do Olivia Newton-John and dress in drag. I realized how much he had done, how hard he had worked and how he had machined this whole thing to get Trent there to videotape him. "Manipulation" is such a strong word and I don't mean it in a negative connotation but he was a man obsessed with this and he did what he needed to do to get them down here to tape him. [woman] My parents had a mortuary here in town. So my mom was doing the makeup and making the deceased look as... good as possible. And that's where Dick went and got made up that day. Your impersonation are excellent. I hoped that you'll be able to, uh... another short number, besides Olivia Newton-John. Nah, I must be a little bit off of it. You know, I enjoy making people laugh, that's the main thing. You know what? I take my impersonations seriously, I do. But I like to... I know if people see me dress up like Olivia Newton-John, I'm gonna get a smile, whether I do it seriously or not because it's like, "Wow. That guy is really crazy." Hey, he wanted to do it, and honestly, we were all on the other end, going, "Dick, don't do this. Don't do this, honey." You know, just, "Oh, no, honey, don't go up there." But wig on and he had all the clothes and, "Oh, no, don't do that." You know, that was what he got from our side. I'm kinda crazy, but I just do it for fun. I'm a man, not a girl. We got there early in the day and the band got together and just kinda played while he went and got ready. And we hung out at the school. He had a wonderful naivete about that whole thing. But it was fun. And I think part of the fun was just the sheer exuberance of doing something that crazy. To be in Beaver, Utah, and get up in drag like that and come out and be... To pretend to be somebody of a different gender, it's outrageous. And we thought it was cool. We thought it was great. Until we got there... and kinda sensed the feel of the room. It was a little weird. And I remember Dick getting the shakes. He picked up on the vibe. And growing up just a little bit in that moment to realize how other people felt about that sort of thing. And how misconstrued that kind of thing can be. And misunderstood Dick was in that time. You made a fool out of yourself out there. It's small-time, I know, but people started calling me. Take that silly wig off. Listen, those TV people aren't your friends. People see that on television, they're not gonna call. They're gonna call you a fruit. I know that there were people that thought he was gay and, of course, that's the worst thing you could be in Central Utah in 1979 is gay. You can't even allude to that. You can't intimate that at all. He wasn't gay and that's kinda how they portrayed him and it was kinda like they made fun of him and he was real tender-hearted and he just thought, "Man, I thought I was doing something great, I thought this was my chance, and I not only hurt my family, but I've hurt all my friends" and he was very remorseful about it. He worried a lot, he worried excessively. I know he worried about Olivia Newton Dawn once it was all done. I know he worried about it deeply. He couldn't sleep. He was staying over with Lory and Lory would go down and see that he wasn't, you know, well. He wasn't sleeping at all at night. And his mind went 24/7. And he came home, and we knew he was sick. Mom and Dad knew he was sick. They were taking him to the doctor and that morning he had an appointment and... he shot himself through the chest. I mean, probably our kids haven't even heard some of this, but... he was strong enough that our dad had gone up to... We had an old cow. Our dad had gone up to milk the cow and when he went up to milk the cow was when Dick attempted suicide. When he found out he was still alive, he changed shirts. And he sat down at the... Well, he was downstairs and our dad came down from milking the cow and he knew Dick was sick and he... fixed him some breakfast. And he said, "Dick, come and eat. Come and have some breakfast." So as Dick sat down at the table and he said, "Dad, I'm gonna tell you something that's gonna shock you more than anything I've ever told you." And Dad goes, "I don't know about that, you know?" And he said, "Dad, I've shot myself." [melancholy music playing] [Trent] Oh, it was terrible. I mean, it was a terrible thing. It was just a few days. And I'd left the mic in his car and so I called up his mother to try and find the mic. She said, "Oh, he's in the hospital and shot himself." So that's when that happened. I mean, it's a mixture of things, you feel guilty that I've exploited the guy, and then I'd think about that. "No, I didn't exploit him, he was exploiting me, actually, in a way," I started to think that too. So I got over the guilt thing. But to take it to a step beyond that, I would have felt guilty. Because then it becomes exploitive. And that's the trouble I was having when I kept remaking the damn thing. You know, I'm making the thing, but if I show it, it become exploitive so I didn't show it, it was ridiculous. I did it secretly, I didn't want it to get out Because I didn't want it to come back, but I still wanted to do it so I'd keep it a secret. [narrator] The three films would remain separated and secret for decades. But now, knowing the real story, let's look at the rest of this scene. [choking] This might be the most obvious difference from the real story. In the remakes, he doesn't pull the trigger. In his prized car, listening to his favorite song, he sets off to follow his Hollywood dream. [woman singing on radio] Now is the moment We must live You can't run and hide I know you want me too Down deep inside [Trent] In my own way, I probably had this crazy a dream as he did. I'm driving off to Los Angeles with a story in the back of my mind and I'm gonna take Hollywood by storm. [radio playing] Please don't Keep me waiting I can't love you [Trent] Again, it's the serendipity of the thing. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. You know, one thing leads to another and all kinds of things just because of this one chance encounter. And I had no idea at that point that it would change my entire life. You know? That's amazing, those little points, the points that hit, that just... whoo! Takes you in a whole direction you never, ever thought would happen. So when you look at it that way, we'll say, "Hey, bud, let's party." [narrator] For the character of the Hollywood dreamer, Trent had, by chance, cast two soon-to-be Hollywood stars. I'm George, George McFly. [Trent] I became quite fond of Crispin. He was a good friend there for a long time. [Trent] He said, "Come on over to my place. I've got something I wanna show you." [narrator] This is Crispin as Rubin Farr. [Trent] And he said, "Wouldn't it be funny to do a film about this character? Wouldn't he be a great character to write a movie about?" And I introduced Crispin to the desert. I drove him out to this place and said, "You gotta see this place, it's great. Wouldn't it be great to put Rubin out here?" [typewriter clacking] So I stayed up, you know, and focused and I wrote that movie and, bam, like, sold the next day. [narrator] This would be Trent's big break in Hollywood. [mysterious music playing] Trent's film,Rubin and Ed, would put Crispin's platform-heeled character in the desert. -Where are you going? -Away from you. [narrator] Comedian, Howard Hesseman, would be cast as Ed and the duo would wander the desert, searching for the perfect place to bury this frozen cat. Bury the cat. It's gonna get weird now, isn't it? Trent kinda knew exactly what movie he was going to make. [comical music playing] [meowing] The wackiness of Crispin, you know? Rubin... It was hard to determine where Crispin ended and Rubin began. He was very, very into that character. He was basically in character for the whole time we made that movie. Folks, please welcome Crispin Glover. [audience cheering] Letterman had no clue what was going on. You know, these aren't mine. I can kick. [narrator] Rubin Farr's visit to Letterman has since become one of late nights' most legendary moments. Okay, I'm gonna go check on the top ten. [audience laughs] I'll be back. It was kind of interventionist live TV at its absolute best. It was genius. [narrator] Through the chaotic production, they would finishRubin and Ed on time and under budget. Trent had finished his first feature film. I'm on a collision course, a head-on collision course with the brick wall of success. Think about it. Rubin and Ed, a movie unlike any other movie you've ever seen, a truly original movie, and it was made by a truly original filmmaker, Trent Harris. A man from Utah, grew up here, worked here, and now he is a Hollywood filmmaker. He was famous, he was legendary here at Channel Two. Now, he's not quite famous yet. You're looking at a man who is almost in possession of his dream. I was so excited for Trent, and I knew how excited he was. And it just so happened that the LA riots occurred about the time the film was gonna premiere. [sirens wailing] I had, surprisingly, been sent to LA by the Salt Lake TV station. And I was in the theater for the premiere. Well, me and about seven other people. [Trent] Everybody was in a particularly mean mood. Critics were in a mean mood. It wasn't like they didn't like the movie. It was like they hated the movie. "This is the worst movie of the decade." That made Trent change his life plan, get out of LA, go back to Salt Lake and kind of start again, in a way. [Trent] You know, I'd come off theRubin and Ed thing, where everybody was saying it was the worst movie of the decade. And then people were saying Ed Wood, Plan 9, was the worst movie ever made and I said, "Fuck them, I'm gonna make Plan 10." Okay, ready? Roll sound. [narrator] The Mormon sci-fi thriller would be produced on a shoestring budget with a ragtag crew of friends. He was like, "What I wanna do is rewrite the script and you will basically be the protagonist." Plan 10 from Outer Space... has begun. He said, "I want you to play a father." And I was a father. "And he's gotta have a station wagon." I got a station wagon. He said, "Sean, you been in a shot yet?" I said, "No, because I'm, like, recording." Everybody liked to help him because it was fun. It was just wild and crazy and fun. It was a really interesting, diverse crowd. It was just all his best buddies in Salt Lake rallying to, you know, "Let's go make a movie." And I helped quite a bit on securing locations. This is the place! That was kind of an interesting shot to pull off. [narrator] After Trent finished Plan 10 from Outer Space, he was accepted to the same local film festival that had previously screened his work. But by this time, the once-floundering US Film Festival had evolved into the Sundance Film Festival, a key venue for the emerging market of independent film. It did okay on the festival thing. Well, I mean, I never made a dime off the thing. [narrator] Although it had played at Sundance, Plan 10 from Outer Space would be Trent's second financial failure. I was going to become a famous film director. You know? Luckily, that didn't happen. And now, look. [slow rock music playing] [narrator] With his two failures, Trent's Hollywood dreams were over. [sister 2] Hollywood is Hollywood and... you have to separate Hollywood from real life. -Hollywood is Hollywood-- -That was a big lesson for Dick. He did call me, and he said, uh... "I guess you know I had a little accident." And I said, "Yeah. Are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine" and all of that and he said, "But it wasn't an accident." He told me it wasn't an accident. That he didn't know why, that he wasn't really connected up... to a sense of reality at the time. I think that after Dick survived that, I just think a little piece of him just... didn't ever come back. Does that make sense? I'm sure Trent Harris saw a story. And I'm sure he had his own reason for doing what he did but it put the cap upon what Dick did. And all of us in the same thing. It was like, "Well, we thought nobody ever sees that." I'd read an article in the Salt Lake Tribune and you know that the name they used was Groovin' Gary and I had no idea it was my uncle. It's something that the family doesn't really talk a lot about, you know? And I've learned a lot just chatting. While you guys were talking to my mom, we kind of chatted and there was a lot of things that I didn't realize stemmed from The Beaver Trilogy. I can see a certain part of his personality would be really happy just that he was up there on screen, getting his 15 minutes. And I can see another part of his personality would be you know, a little... We've all had those moments when we put ourselves out there. And afterwards there's a hint of glory and a hint of regret where you feel like, "Wow, I did something special," at the same time you feel like, "Did I go too far?" And I can see him feeling both ways, feeling really conflicted about it. To me, that's what made the story so interesting. He shut that off. For a while. And he was more reclusive. I know I must have run into him a few times when I was home for holidays or the weekend, come home to see my family. But we really didn't hang out much after that. Honestly, for about ten years during most of my high school and college years, I didn't hear anything from him. I saw him maybe once a year. For five minutes he would just pop in, and it was just a party and laughin', and tellin' funny stories, and doing impressions, and then he was off. And we wouldn't see him, you know, for another year. But he was always a good time. He was really struggling with a lot of personal things, because he... he was staying a lot in Minersville in his mother's home. There were some people that when they take their kids to Disneyland or anything, they would put these little harnesses on them, you know, with a leash, so they could... This is the clothesline that our mom put, the little harness, thinking she could keep him here. He was only about three and he had bib overalls on him. He would lay the bib overalls on the ground and he was gone. He was just runnin' around in his skivvies, so... It was great. You see the artwork over there on the wall with Farrah that was his... He always had a picture of her in that red swimming suit. That was the only time I ever seen him dress up like Olivia was that day that he did that program. He kinda had a hard time distinguishing reality from fiction. He kinda lived in both worlds. It was easy for me to get mad at him like, "Come on, get over all this." I think he liked it out there. Because he could be creative and do the things he wanted to do. When he was in the real world, he had to worry about the world's attention. There's so many who have aspired and have that dream. They see how glamorous and how wonderful it is on television and then they get out to reality and it's just not like that. [Ken] I don't think he would have been happy in some place like LA. I think LA would have sucked the life right out of him. You know, it can do that. I always say that you go to LA and you sell a little bit of your soul. [Trent] I lived in Hollywood and I knew Sean Penn and Madonna. And now I'm out here. [narrator] With his Hollywood dreams over, Trent would also get back to reality. I think that when someone such as myself is actually trying to film reality, the Salt Flats is a perfect place to do that. Because... reality out here is... at its starkest. It's naked. Naked reality. The first digital camera that came out, I got it. And the first day I got it, I went out and I made a home movie. Me walking around, talking like this on the Salt Flats. I think it's the best thing I ever did. One of the films of his I was most concerned about, that it would just be horrible, was a series of self-documentaries. My heart knows What the wild goose knows And I must go Where the wild goose goes Wild goose, crazy goose Which is best? A rambling fool Or a heart at rest You don't have to go around asking for permission. "Please, please give me money so I can make a movie." "No." "Please." This is a thing, a big thing with me right now, is I'm completely out of money, I have about 40 bucks in the bank. I enjoy making films. But nobody will pay me to do it. [burps loudly] Some might call it commercial suicide. I think Trent just... said, "It's just what I'm doing, it's just the thing I'm doing now." You know, he had this blue Volvo which was literally falling apart when we'd go for rides. And I just looked down and in the little compartment there was a little jar. A Pacific Oysters jar. [Trent] Oh, this is interesting. And it was half-full of dust. So I pulled it out and I said, "What's this, Trent?" He went, "Oh, that's Larry." This is actually my best friend, Larry. His last wish was for Trent to scatter his ashes over the Grand Canyon. That's Larry right out there on the edge of the Grand Canyon. And he couldn't bring himself to scatter those ashes. So he kept a bit of Larry. He popped him in the Pacific Oysters jar and kept him in his car so wherever he went, Larry was with him. And if you think about that, it's hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. And, oh, here is Stephanie, my girlfriend. Isn't she pretty? I don't know if anyone's brought this up yet, they probably have, that Trent and I dated for three or four years. [Trent] I just found out that my girlfriend, Stephanie, left me. He is... He's very focused on his work. Like any artist, you know? You kinda become like a nun or a monk to whatever you're doing. And I was young and stupid and didn't understand that and that distance was hard for me. As you can see, things have changed... a bit. I'm in the middle of the Sahara Desert. [imitating camel] [grunting] [Trent chuckling] These people think I'm crazy. [narrator] Trent had decided to continue his self-documentary, but his time in Timbuktu. [folk music playing] Along his travels, these self-documentaries would branch off into this. His feature documentary entitledThe Cement Ball would expose Cambodia's deadly land mine crisis. [Trent] I'm gonna get my balls blown off. -[man] It's okay? -Yeah. [man] One, two... -three! -[explosion] [Paul] Witnessing his political awakening through his first trips to Cambodia and beginning to understand about land mines and beginning to put together the picture, the one-man technology helped Trent recreate himself as the person he should have been. [narrator] Trent has since posted sections of these self-documentaries on YouTube. The videos have been a hit with those who have seen them. But there are not many who have. You know any 14-year-old who's on their third film right now? They can get worldwide distribution on YouTube. Things are changing drastically and fast. I don't know exactly what it all means. First I thought this was a really good idea and now there's so much junk out there that, well, it's even harder, let's say, to somehow cut through the din. You just go to YouTube.com, Groovin' Gary. [woman screaming] I really did think he wanted to be an impressionist. I really think that was one of his main goals. But just as a human being, Dick wanted to make people happy. Well, my common motto, and I'm gonna get sincere on ya, this is really the truth, it's really to make someone really smile. If I can make a guys' day easier, or a gal's day easier, you know, just by making them smile, that's really what my policy is all about. [Ken] He loved to take people for a ride in his cool car because it made people happy. He liked to make people happy. I don't wanna get too over-mushy, but that's the truth. I wonder if going through Hollywood, if you get to feel the love and the compassion that you get to feel by just growing up a normal kid and a normal man, and a normal brother. You know, he wanted Trent to probably come back to Beaver and interview him as a normal human being and Trent wouldn't do it. -And set the record straight. -And set the record straight. And Trent wouldn't do it. So that's what we're hoping you'll do. [pleasant music playing] [sister 3] We all left the little town. That's where we were trying to hold Dick. You know, what would have happened, maybe, if we'd all just said, "Hey, get your car and throw your clothes in the back and go see?" -But, you know, we were too-- -We were too protective. Yeah. But... maybe we shouldn't... Maybe we squash our own dreams. Maybe we clipped his wings. Us three, maybe we should have just threw him out of the nest and let him fly. [serene music playing] [Trent] I mean, I've often said that I think you can make a documentary film about anybody. That if you spend enough time with anybody, a drama will develop and if you're a good enough filmmaker, you can catch these things as they actually happen. God, I went to the movies last night. First time I'd been to a movie in a long time and I'm watching the trailers and it's just depressing. It's... Comic book heroes, special effects, da-da-da-da. God, it was boring and loud and obnoxious and stupid. Who wants to make movies about cheerleaders? I don't get it. How many 1950s TV shows do we have to remake? Two guys that are cops and they hate each other, but in the end they become buddies 'cause they've gone through this... Like, God, give me a break already. I don't wanna ever see that movie again. [narrator] You'd be safe to say that this once aspiring Hollywood filmmaker isn't afraid of going in a different direction and trying something a little unconventional. I got... For instance, I also got into this thing, you know, randomness. So I went out and just randomly took pictures of leaves. They're quite beautiful. But I didn't frame it, I just held the camera like that and snapped the picture. This isn't cropped at all. You start out the randomness. This is all chance. So then I did this whole series, it was like 12 of them, I did it in an hour. Just went to the park with my camera, I didn't even know what I was gonna take pictures of. [narrator] It should probably be noted that Trent isn't just a filmmaker. Here is a small sampling of his less publicized work, which includes his photography, paintings writings, drawings and this. This also goes back to that "Listen to your visitors." You don't know, people are gonna come by and they're gonna give you information that you'd never, ever guess. As I write scripts, what you're doing is taking random bits of information and rearranging them and constructing a reality. The reality. A bit of reality. So I stared thinking, "Why not go out and construct the random bits of reality from stuff I gather with the camera?" So first I go out and start to shoot random things in various places. I got this as a reality. Reality. You know, you have this incredibly beautiful location. Look at that. You can't paint that well. It's beautiful shot. And that's like, what am I gonna do? Go in there and pretend you're a photographer. [laughing] I don't know what we're gonna do with it at that point. But I know how to build a sequence out of it, so I built a sequence. [narrator] Trent has spent years traveling the world and shooting his latest feature film... [reading on-screen text] It could be his most ambitious film to date. And he only has a few scenes left to shoot. So many times people make documentaries about things that have happened in the past. So there'd be somebody sitting down and saying, "Yes, when I was 16..." Or you get the Ken Burns thing with lots of still photographs and banjo music. And then you get trying to film reality, how would you do that? [narrator] Trent would go on to say the story isn't inThe Beaver Trilogy or in the past. What's really important is usually what's right in front of you. [upbeat folk music playing] We've now caught up with Trent in Cambodia. [narrator] As it turns out, reality isn't always that interesting. Yeah, you gotta figure out how to film me doing something besides drinking beer and smoking. Oh, I don't know what to tell ya. [narrator] At some point you may have wondered, how can a man with no money so easily hopscotch across the planet? The answer is journalism. One of my favorite stories is the Cambodian Children's Fund and he found that. You hear the story, acid attack, where they throw acid at people's faces? This whole family... I was out at the garbage dump with Scott Neeson, doing a story about the smell and the toxic waste that you're walking through and the number of people around it is phenomenal, when I saw this little girl out there and she just stood out to me. I think you should sponsor her. You know, those pictures you draw, elephant, pineapple, I like them. She sends me emails probably once or twice a week. And I come and visit her at least once a year. It's been really fun. She's pretty. You think he's this, you know, grumpy guy and he's not, he's the most compassionate person. [narrator] This is Liberty, who would travel the world with Trent as the lead actress ofLuna Mesa. The part-documentary, part-narrative is also something else. This is a bit of a surprise considering Trent's seeming obsession with... reality? So I figured why stay on this planet after a while, you know? I've gone all over. Rwanda, Cambodia, it's like, I don't have to stop there, let's go to another planet. [man] People don't understand Trent. I think a lot of people think he's weird, I think he's weird. But Trent is an artist. [narrator] Trent's abstract process actually has a very specific name in the art world. [reads on-screen text] Loosely defined as dream and reality fused to capture the reality of the subconscious. [Trent] The early surrealists had a process they went through to create things. And they used chants as a big part of what they were doing. [narrator] This modern art tangent would take place here in London, where Trent was invited to premiereLuna Mesa, his surrealist film. [indistinct chatter] [man on-screen] This here's one that comes from Maples. So you and I will do a little chat afterwards so please don't leave at the end. We'll have a little talk about it. All right? [Trent] At the premiere of it here in London, I felt really bad afterwards. You know, I think three or four people maybe showed up. So the whole thing was kind of a... It's like throwing a birthday party and nobody comes. You know, it's sort of... It makes me... It's heartbreaking. You know, you go through all of that work and all of that effort and I sit in my editing room and look at it, and think, "Gosh, this is really cool, this is really working." And then, you know, fly all the way to London to show it. Three people show up. It's like... [narrator] This was Trent three days after the screening. He wasn't quite so cheery the evening of. He did the obligatory question and answer, spoke with the press, and then he agreed to be interviewed. Why in the hell do you do it? You know? Why do you do it? I mean, you know, you can ask yourself the same question you're asking me. You know, why have you gone to all this trouble to come here and film me? It doesn't make sense. You're not gonna make a dime. Are you guys kidding me? You aren't gonna make a dime off this film. Are you insane? This is probably even a worse idea than I've come up with. I mean... In terms of absolutely no commercial potential, you have reached the pinnacle. I mean, there's a lot of me blabbering, and a lot of my friends blabbering but I can't see any dramatic arc at all. Unless I die or win the lottery or get elected president, you don't really have a story. [narrator] What had started as the story ofThe Beaver Trilogy has, by chance, led us out here, to the middle of the desert without a story. Shall we go home? Do you wanna get a shot from this side going that way so you can cut something? [narrator] And the filmmaker without a story is this guy. Unknown director, Brad Besser, who, like many unseasoned filmmakers, has just desperately inserted himself into his own film. He was born and raised 20 miles outside of Salt Lake City. Here, in Sandy, Utah. But what's more important is this, his childhood VHS collection. As a young man, Brad believed if he thought a movie was great then it must be a great movie. And no movie in his collection was greater thanRubin and Ed. Trent's film was eventually released on VHS and this time the reception wasn't quite so poor. Hello, Rubin, I love you. My cat can eat a whole watermelon. [narrator] It was actually so popular that the film would be bootlegged into a cult classic where it would be appreciated by a whole new generation. One summer when I was visiting my cousins in Sandy, Utah, they were like, "You gotta see this film, it's so funny." I was probably 13 or 14. "You got to see this movie, Rubin and Ed, it's the funniest movie ever." And he'd been quoting it, "The PPR, the Power of Positive Real estate." His pronunciation of "puma" is kinda funny, he pronounces "pew-ma." Pu-ma. In Napoleon Dynamite, when Rex says, "The reflexes of a pew-ma." The reflexes of a puma. [Jared] As a kid, you know, that was pretty inspiring. And here was the Utah Film and Video Center and he was offering screenwriting classes or something and I really wanted to go, but I couldn't, my mom wouldn't let me. [narrator] While he never took the class, unknown director, Brad Besser, did. And it went something like this. By this time Trent had become a local filmmaking legend. Film novice, Brad Besser, would ask... [reading on-screen text] To which Trent replied... [reading on-screen text] This is probably even a worse idea than I've come up with. [narrator] It should also be noted that while teaching the class, the Utah Film and Video Center began screening Trent's work. And time had a funny way of dealing with his failures. In the process he was being rediscovered. He would dig back into his collection and screen almost everything. But there were a few films he was hesitant to share. Which brings us to Trent's long-forgotten secret tapes. Trent's just going, "I can't show that. I have no right to show that." You know, the Groovin' Gary stuff. "I just cannot show that, it's about stuff, because... he tried to kill himself and I promised him I would never show that stuff." And then I needed money. Here, at Channel Two, we just went into an edit room, pop, pop, pop. He says, "Look, but we can't advertise. So how can I get people to come?" I can't remember the premiere of The Beaver Trilogy. I don't think it had one. I mean, we can't advertise it. Okay, so we call it The Secret Tapes of Trent Harris. We got about, I don't know, maybe 70 people, 60 people to show up for it and they just went bananas over it. I mean, everybody was... [blows sharply] You know? Transfixed. People just didn't know what to say. They were just like dumbfounded by it. People, I remember just loving it. It's an unusual, amazing sort of story. It's an amazing piece of work, that's an amazing film. The footage with the Beaver kid, it's just unbelievable. [Jared] It's a fascinating study of how a person becomes obsessed with one story and then tells it in three different variations. They all do kind of blend together in a funny way. I hooked them together and was like, "God, that's a completely different animal when there's three of them put together." So with those three things, you know, the kaleidoscopic move of one to the other, it's like a synergy and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. And it gets into this level of an archetype... a misfit. A stranger in a strange land, in his own country. -He's a heroic misfit. -And these other two misfits. [Trent] In fact, if you look at my movies, they are all about heroic misfits. Maybe I'm a misfit. It's a technique from surrealism because they stem from something, a belonging that is deeper into the unconscious. [Trent] Part of the thing that's so amazing about this whole story was the serendipity of the whole thing. Just in the right place at the right time, I guess. He was in the right place at the right time. [Starlee] Sean Penn was iconic. Crispin Glover was iconic. [Alex] Now the Beaver kid, you know, becomes more than the Beaver kid for the first time. He transcends the character. And so the Beaver kid now becomes an icon. [Trevor] The layers that are built upon that chance encounter added up into this one of a kind piece of art. It even defies labels like is it a documentary, is it fiction, is it... Whatever, you can't even put a label on it. It's its own thing, it's The Beaver Trilogy. [Trent] Sundance actually called me up, I didn't even enter it. They called me up and said they wanted to show the movie. [man] We showed it at The Echo Theater, which is our big theater, it's a 1,300-seat theater and he never thought that any of these, one of these films, let alone all three would be seen in that kind of venue. [Trent] So I decided, uh... that I'd better get a hold of it and I hadn't talked to him in 20 years or something like that and I finally got a message to somebody that knew him in Beaver and said, you know, "There are tickets for ya at the door," but then he never picked up the tickets. [suspenseful music playing] [Dick] Are you filming me right now? Good. Are you kidding? How about that? John Wayne, here, Mom. [imitating John Wayne] Here's John Wayne, y'all. Well, I'll tell ya something out there in TV land, I'm hammin' it up. I'll tell ya. Anyway, man, I never... I can't believe I'm on television. Just in the right place at the right time, I guess. Well, I'd like to get a picture of you. Let's see. Did I get that? Okay. Got to go to four. Okay, smile, you're on candid camera. [Dick laughs] [Trent] A big screener, 1,400 people there, and afterwards you have a little Q and A and then people come up to the stage. And all of a sudden this face pops out of this little crowd and he says, "You probably don't remember me." [serene music playing] All of a sudden all these people come running out the front door, and around him, they surround us and they start taking pictures of him and getting his autograph. Then he was really confused. But it was pretty wonderful overall, it was... quite an experience. I think, you know, when he finally ended up at Sundance as the biggest star in the damn room, at the party, I mean, everybody wanted to talk to him. They had movie stars in there and nobody gave a shit about them, everybody wanted to talk to the Beaver kid. He's sitting there with his trucker hat on, with his plaid shirt and... surrounded by beautiful women. He was having a pretty good time. -It was a great day for him. -It was a great day for him. -He came home and he was... Wow. -He was high as a kite. It was some party. I think that he didn't know all that was out there. When he got out there and saw that those people were cheering for him, he couldn't even believe it. It was like... you know, "Are you really talking about me?" And so he came home with a whole different perspective and he definitely got his pride back and his, uh... his sense of humor came with it. The little bit that we'd seen. Finally, he wasn't... -He was out and about again. -He turned into our brother again. It was really fun to see him become his darling self again. Oh, wow. When can I see this? [Trent] I look back in retrospect and I think that I caught him at a very pivotal moment in his life. And maybe I wasn't as sensitive as I should have been or could have been. You know, maybe it was partly my own guilt because maybe I didn't understand him so well the first time. There's things beneath the surface of this character that makes him rich and wonderful, and ultimately I wanted people to like him like I liked him. And that's why I began to remake this movie over and over and over again just to try to get to that point. To try to get it right. We finally had our brother back. We finally had him back and we just loved him and we were just enjoying him and he was so happy and he was just like he was when he was young, I guess. It was like he had his life back. And then for him to have a heart attack when he was just prospering and doing so well and was so happy in his life, I just felt like that was a robbery. I came away from the funeral with a profound sense of two things. One of them, I think, is what The Beaver Trilogy tries to explore which is this idea that we all wanna be famous. Most of us won't become famous. And sometimes that's a thud when we find that out. I think it was for him. But at the same time, I came away from the funeral with this profound sense of loss and thinking that all the years when I kept myself aloof from him and didn't spend more time with him or try and understand or figure out who he was I missed this big, exciting personality. [slow music playing] [Ken] He keeps coming back into my life. I mean, even after he's gone. And I wished I'd have reconnected with him. It's a regret of mine. You know, I guess, the big lesson is that you can't let something like that go. WatchingBeaver Trilogy, I understand the idea. If I had a chance to do it again, how would I do it? I love to perform and I like to make people laugh and if you can enjoy your work, then there's no reason why you shouldn't try to get in something like that. [sister 3] He could have gone to Hollywood. But we are thankful we had him like we did. He's a great man to us. [Trent] By far I think the most successful piece of the three pieces is the first one. Everybody just loved him. And when he saw how people were responding, he started to have a lot of fun with it. [laughs] He came up with an idea, he said, "Hey, we ought to do part four." This is a mix tape that the Beaver kid sent me after the premiere at Sundance. It's really remarkable, he talks on it and then he puts... I think what he's got is a little, teeny microphone and a cassette player and another cassette player. And so he talks and then he cues the music, and then he talks and then he cues the music. It's that kind of thing. But it's pretty wonderful. Actually, I wanna make a film out of this first part. [Dick speaking indistinctly] Oh, that's not it. [jovial music playing on screen] That's not it. Here it is. This is it. [serene music playing on-screen] [Dick speaking] "He did a movie a while back." Yeah, it's very haunting for me to listen to that, even. But it's so beautiful. It's just so beautiful. It's kinda perfect. That secret world, he had that secret world that he lived in and right there, he gives you just a little taste of it, that secret world. It's phenomenal. Wait a minute, you gotta hear this one too. [Dick speaking] ["Please Don't Keep Me Waiting" playing] [Dick and Olivia] I want to love you Once again Couldn't you love me too? Don't turn away From all that We've been through Everyone changes Be my friend Haven't you got the time? Help me, I need you Throw me down a line Please don't Keep me waiting I can't hold on much longer Please don't Keep me waiting I can't love you Any stronger Please don't Keep me waiting I can't take This kind of pain Take me back In your arms once again Living on dreams From yesterday Waking and you're not here I wanna see your face I want you near Now is the moment We must live -[audience applauding] -Isn't he a terrific performer? You just can't take your eyes off of him. He's riveting. I know you want me too Down deep inside Please don't Keep me waiting I can't hold on much longer Please don't Keep me waiting I can't love you Any stronger Please don't Keep me waiting I can't take This kind of pain Take me back In your arms once again [vocalizing] Please don't Keep me waiting I can't hold on much longer Please don't Keep me waiting I can't love you Any stronger Please don't Keep me waiting I can't take This kind of pain Take me back In your arms once again Waiting for the film to end. [groaning] Oh! And then I'll go in and answer the same questions that I've answered 400 times. |
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