Interview:
Robert Upchurch,
co-editor,
"Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie"
Being an editor of a film directed by Matt Johnson means being more than an editor, as the Austin-based Robert Upchurch can attest. Yes, Upchurch worked with his mentor Curt Lobb to piece together Johnson’s new mockmentary, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. But Upchurch, who also worked on Johnson’s Operation Avalanche and Blackberry in various capacities, was encouraged by Johnson and his Nirvanna the Band co-star/co-writer Jay Carrol to lend his voice to the creative process. Much of the film was shot on the fly over of 200 days, from an initial 12-page script, requiring Upchurch to weigh in on the footage, suggest reshoots, refine subplots, and help bring everything together in the editing suite. What emerges is a fun and frenetic spinoff of the Nirvanna the Band web series of the late 2000s and the 2010s, which continues to find the fictional versions of Matt Johnson and Jay Carrol trying to book a concert at Toronto’s celebrated music club The Rivoli. Matt concocts a plan to time travel back to 2008 to play The Rivoli and change his and Jay’s otherwise unremarkable future. To do so, Matt builds his own version of the flux capacitor from Back to the Future, which is powered by an unexpected and decidedly scarce fuel source. But traveling back to 2008 proves easier than undoing the damage Matt and Jay cause to their friendship. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, which premiered locally at last year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival, is now in theaters. Austin-based Robert Upchurch began working for Canadian actor/filmmaker Matt Johnson after the then-University of Arizona film student watched Johnson’s The Dirties and reached out to him about future opportunities to contribute to future films and TV projects. Upchurch worked as an assistant on Johnson’s Operation Avalanche, worked on the incomplete third season of Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s web series Nirvana the Band, and served as an executive producer of Johnson’s 2023 SXSW selection Blackberry. He is currently co-editing Johnson’s upcoming Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony with Curt Lobb. He also directed the short films Selftape and Trunk and edited the documentary series Old Show Queens.
Aired: Feb. 18, 2026. Web site: https://www.neonrated.com/film/nirvanna-the-band-the-show-the-movie https://zapruderfilms.com/ |
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