'HAIR: Let The Sun Shine In' The Documentary

We

Starved look At one another short of breath Walking Proudly in our winter coats Wearing

Smells from laboratories Facing a dying Nation Of moving paper fantasy

Listening for the neutral flies With supreme visions of loneliness My name's Paula Rappaport

I've been a filmmaker for many, many years. I went to film school at NYU and grew up in New York

Wolfgang Held, who's my partner, great director of photography and my husband also

actually had the idea to do a documentary on hair. I was still living in Germany I was showing and actually in a porn theater

I remember coming out of that out of that theater wanting to sing and I was

always at the time where I was about to have to join the German army so the

theme of the anti message and the draft was just like right there for me it was just I had to make the decision do I go do I not go I just loved the way the freedom and the music sort of celebrated the idea of being a pacifist

And I guess that's sort of the reason that it came back to me and stated music. One of my favorite experiences

And then later when I saw the play, I actually realized that the play is in many ways even better than the movie

Even if it's done as showbiz rather than as the tribe's experience, it's still absolutely fantastic music

But if it's done right and the audience is so moved and it is about people who are being forced to lose their lives for, in this case, an unjust war

And it's an incredibly powerful show, even though it's full of humor and it's so radical

It's almost Dadaist. It's crazy. And it's brilliant. It is a brilliant, brilliant play

Aquarium Aquarium Age of Aquarius age of Aquarius Aquarius When we started making this film, although we both loved it when we were teenagers

this show, Hair, is not just a piece of nostalgia. Particularly over the last eight years, it's become so incredibly relevant

And when we started meeting the young performers and directors that are doing productions in the last few years

hair is really relevant right now. And we both have felt that

And we've been very rewarded by people who've seen it, who feel like, yeah, it's very, very relevant in this period of time

with the war in Iraq. Paula's always the one who really makes the films

I sort of have the idea, and I have, you know, and then I sort of, she does, so you should describe, you basically sought out the makers

To me, the most important person who ever lived in Staten Island was Galt McDermott, the composer of Hair

Galt was very sweet, and he gave me the number for Jim Rado. Of the two lyricists and actual original creators of Hair, it was Jerome Ragney and James Rado

Even though the authors were perfectly enthusiastic about us doing this film, the music rights, for anyone who's made a film, they know the music rights can be the most expensive element

And Hair sold more records for a couple of years than the Beatles I mean this was like 30 million people saw hair on stage around the world This was like the biggest phenomenon theatrically in our lifetime

I'm the Mediterranean River! I came over being a hobo. A hobo

The Imperial Akawana Ferry. And then, in the middle of the Hudson River

through the industrial haze, I thought I saw a Donald. Donald! My Donald

Standing in the water, but it was democracy started. The Statue of Liberty, standing there, waving at me

We've been really lucky to work, to make films about subjects that we truly care about

We have never done films that are formula documentaries. We've been incredibly fortunate

It's very, very hard. Nobody ever asked you to make a documentary

You do it, I have done it out of passion, and I've been very lucky to, you know

I haven't gotten rich on it, but we have made films that we really care about