If you go
“The Secret to a Happy Ending”
Where: AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring
When: 9:15 p.m. (sold out); additional showing at midnight
Info: $10; 301-495-6700; afi.com/silver; in person: Director Barr Weissman and the Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Brad Morgan
Of all the subjects to consider for a documentary, why alt-country/rock band Drive-By Truckers? “How can you not?” said local filmmaker Barr Weissman rhetorically. “It came to me slowly as I fell in love with them.”
The fruition of years of work for Weissman is about to see the light of day on Friday, as he premieres his latest film “The Secret to a Happy Ending” at AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring.
“Happy Ending” is the story of DBT, filmed from January of 2005 to October of 2007, exploring the music, the fans and the lives of the band members.
After seeing DBT three times, Weissman was convinced that he had to make a film about the band. He cites a November 2003 show at the 9:30 Club as a “profound experience.”
“I felt like there was something going on,” the director said during a recent phone interview
Thus began a courtship that took nearly a year before the band signed on.
“If I’d been thinking clearly, I might have said ‘no,'” joked DBT founder and frontman Patterson Hood, also during a recent phone conversation. However, Hood felt Weissman would be great for such a project.
“It was like he had a mind-reading machine,” Hood said. “It was the perfect pitch to get me interested. In five minutes, I had a gut feeling.”
Primary filming took place from January 2005 to February 2006. DBT toured extensively in 2004 and 2005, had a stressful time recording 2006’s “A Blessing and a Curse,” and saw the departure of long-time member Jason Isbell in April of 2007. Additional filming was necessary to capture these turns in the group’s trajectory.
“Is this going to be our ‘Let it Be?'” Hood asked himself at one point during the filming. However, the band he and friend Mike Cooley founded in the last ’90s kept on, and is as popular as ever.
“As a film, I think it’s really good,” said Hood, who has seen a late, but not the final, cut. “The story it tells is interesting. It delves pretty deeply into the songs. It takes a different approach.”
In creating this film, Weissman learned something from DBT.
“I think you gotta keep trying,” the director said. “They stayed true to themselves and they stayed with it.”
