BE HERE NOW!
Filmmaker Magazine (Summer 2002)
By Mary Glucksmann

Max’s Kansas City – the joint where Andy Warhol and Mick Jagger preened, starving artists and tomorrow’s stars ran tabs and the Velvet Underground played a regular gig upstairs – is back in the form of a new documentary guided by Yvonne Sewall-Ruskin, ex-wife of late proprietor Mickey Ruskin. Predating Studio 54, the Mudd Club and Danceteria, Max’s ruled New York nightlife and shaped pop culture in a decade-long run from 1965 to 1974. Be Here Now! (working title) puts Max’s story in the context of the era’s social foment.

"Max’s was Mickey’s living room and every night he threw a party," Sewall-Ruskin says. "There’s a lot of history – everyone, from Warhol to Abbie Hoffman to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, came. It was like a private club before there was such a thing, and as a result it was a petri dish for amazing ideas. [Lou Reed’s] "Walk on the Wild Side" is basically about the back room at Max’s. Mickey catered to people who hadn’t been catered to before; he kicked out people who’d have carte blanche at most places and invited, say, some cross-dressing young junkie who would become central to the scene."

To capture her filmic vision, Sewall-Ruskin enlisted the help of director Sam Erickson who has directed feature docs on the Dave Matthews Band and Jon Bon Jovi, his ESP Pictures partners, cinematographer Jojo Pennebaker, son of legendary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, and producer Jesse Sheppard. With some 20 hours of interviews already in the can and big guns like Lou Reed, Larry Rivers and Bebe Buell yet to shoot, the filmmakers are sending out an appeal for archival footage and assembling a trailer to raise further financing. Erickson says music licensing costs will determine the final budget. Contact: Yvonne Sewall-Ruskin yvonne@maxskansascity.com

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