Bill Simmon's Vision for the 242 Main Documentary Film
Bill Simmon is a documentary filmmaker who’s made such films as High Water Mark: The Rise & Fall of The Pants, chronicling the titular local 90’s rock band, and Wood & Wire, following Vermont guitar maker, Creston Lea. At the age of sixteen, Bill was one of the many teens going in and out of 242 Main, attending the shows, performing open mic nights, and generally using and enjoying the space as it was intended. Now, he’s combining his passion and his past with his newest film: No Stage Diving: The Story of 242 Main.
242 Main Street was open for more than 30 years in Burlington. It was a place for teens and other young adults to escape to and jam out, free from the outside world and its hardships. It had adult supervision, but not to the point where the teens felt monitored. It was loud and aggressive, but not unsafe. Bill brings just the right blend of filmmaking skill and on-the-ground experience for a 242 Main documentary.
“I’ve been making films since the early 90s,” Bill said in regards to his talent. “I made a number of narrative shorts early on and then somewhere in the last 15 years I realized that documentary is my passion — specifically documentaries that tell small, local stories in a way that lifts them up and enters them into some sort of permanent public record. I think telling small local stories and spreading them to a wider audience is a worthy way to spend my time.”
The goal of his newest feature, Bill says, is “to celebrate the history and legacy of 242 Main, and the thirty years it existed and why it was important to so many people.” He elaborates: “I don’t see myself as inserting myself in a flashy way. I enjoy stylized and wild filmmaking and editing techniques, this doesn’t feel like it’s that kind of film to me. This is more the authentic voices of the people who lived the experiences, and so I’m gonna try and honor that as best I can.”
With his skill set for filmmaking, plus his teenage experience at 242, one may wonder why Bill hasn’t made such a film sooner. Funnily enough, it was a similar thought that propelled him to start. “I was chatting with Dan Bolles from Seven Days, and he said: ‘You know what documentary really needs to be made? A documentary about 242.’ And I was like: ‘Yeah someone aughta do that.’ But I was hot off having finished the Pants movie and so it didn’t seem in that moment that person was likely to be me.”
The idea continued to develop in his mind until it was time for it to sprout. In his own words: “a couple of days went by, and the more I thought about what he said, I sort of thought: ‘If I don’t do it, no one is gonna do it.’”
“Misfits finding each other is a big thing, part of what made it such a special and important place,” Bill said in regards to the film’s theme, and that “there is a certain type of documentary that this film is.” He says “it’s a film that is by and large telling a story about things that exclusively happened in the past. A lot of music documentaries, generally, people will be following people around, documenting things as they unfold. There is very little of that in this film. We were there the last day that 242 was open and we have footage from that event, but really everything is told in retrospect. So it’s interviews with people, talking about experiences they had and how important things were to them.”
No Stage Diving joins Bill’s other films on a cinematic Odyssey without destination. He remains passionate about documentary filmmaking, finding local stories and giving them deserved attention. On the impact of his latest film, Bill says: “I hope that folks whose lives were impacted by 242 over its 30-year run will find their experiences reflected and honored by the film. If we can succeed in making something that celebrates the history and legacy of the place and communicates the importance it had for the people who were there and for the community at large, then the film will have been successful.”
Text by Thomas Shimmield.
Photo by James Lockridge.