Before landing his own HBO show, John Wilson built a cult-following with the online series “How To.” Now, after more than 10 years and three seasons on HBO, the documentarian of the bizarre, mundane and macabre in (mostly) New York City is ending his series next week. He says HBO asked him if he wanted to make another season and he declined: He’s glad to be ending the show on a high note.
“I have a few ideas for what I want to work on next,” Wilson says. “But right now, I’m just really enjoying watching people react to everything we did.”
For the next week, Wilson is programming a series of his own favorite films at Anthology Film Archives, the downtown movie mecca founded by experimental film giants like Jonas Mekas and Stan Brakhage.
Gothamist’s Ryan Kailath caught up with Wilson outside the Seagram Building in Midtown — the main character in one of Wilson’s selections — to talk about How To, the Anthology series, and more.
Kailath: I feel like even New Yorkers who really like movies might not know about Anthology, like it drops off the radar.
John Wilson: I really like Anthology. It has a really rich history of experimental filmmakers and I wanted to just continue that lineage somehow by … maybe placing myself within it. [Laughs.] I thought it’d give me more experimental film cred.
You’re screening a bunch of shorts that your crew made. Tell us about that.
When I started to assemble the crew for “How To,” I wanted to handpick different artists that I was friends with to shoot and edit and kinda co-write it with. They made some of my favorite movies in recent memory and I just wanted to be able to showcase the work of all these amazing artists that work on the show.
The crew of friends you’re describing, your second unit – can you explain the mechanics of what that is and how you work together?
I shoot about three-quarters of the show. But I have about four second unit teams that go out every single day when I’m in production and just…
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