It was the third night of Crispin Glover’s presentation of his film What Is It? at the Oak Street Cinema, and there was a large turnout to see the eccentric actor-director in person. Vitamn Magazine and the Minnesota Film and TV Board sponsored the event. As the lights dimmed, there was a rustle of the curtain, and Crispin Hellion Glover walked onstage to a burst of applause.

The evening began with Crispin Glover’s Big Slide Show, featuring narrative readings from selected slides of eight books performed by Crispin Hellion Glover. It began with passages from Concrete Inspection and continued with Rat Catching and What It Is and How It Is Done, along with five others. The Big Slide Show was extremely dramatic and entertaining.

The film What Is It? is produced, directed, edited, written and stars Crispin Glover. In the words of my accompanying friend, the film expanded Glover’s enigma instead of clarifying it. Actors with Down Syndrome played the principal characters. The film followed several themes, including sexuality, snail death, violence, Nazism and other symbols of racism and bigotry, and Shirley Temple (at one point, in the nude). The soundtrack featured music by Wagner and Charles Manson, among others. Crispin Glover plays a role officially described as “Dueling Demi-God Auteur and the Young Man’s Inner Psyche.” Naked women with animal masks carrying watermelons and a man injecting snail blood into his black painted face also made their way into the film.

After the feature, the question and answer session began. Hoping to clear up the myriad of questions inspired by What Is It?, the audience jumped right in. Glover discussed his use of actors with Down Syndrome right away. He theorized that most people are unavoidably steeped in culture from birth, but that people with Down Syndrome are more “culturally innocent”, and are therefore unaware of taboo issues in modern culture (note: “taboo” is a big word for Crispin). Since the film centralized on images and subjects that are considered taboo in the corporate film industry, utilizing the “cultural innocence” of Down Syndrome actors was very important to the film. People with Down Syndrome also lack the acquired social asking skills that most people learn early in life. Other important points thoroughly explained by Glover included: facets of his filmmaking like the importance of going beyond the realm of good and evil, his use of sound, the inherent fallacy in the “corporate entities” censorship of “taboo” issues in modern film, and his “zero” interest in shock cinema.

Crispin Hellion Glover’s What Is It? is the first installment in a trilogy of films. The second film is titled It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE and is written by the late Stephen C. Stewart, a screenwriter with severe cerebral palsy, who also had a role in What Is It?

Glover said that he plans to return to the Oak Street Cinema with It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE later this year. The third installment, It Is Mine, will be filmed in the upcoming years on Glover’s personal property in the Czech Republic.

Sorry you missed it? Crispin Glover assures us that he will never release these films on DVD, because it would devalue the theatrical experience and the films themselves. However, Minneapolis will have the opportunity to see What Is It? again as he is planning to recoup the films by touring with them for “many, many, many years.”