Modestan’s Film Gets Oscar Nod
By Marijke Rowland, The Modesto Bee, Calif.
Jan. 24–It’s not every day you get an Oscar nomination and then get stranded on the freeway outside of Bakersfield. But for Mike Glad of Modesto, the divergent day typifies a divergent life.
Early Tuesday, Glad and creative partner Leslie Iwerks got word that their film, “Recycled Life,” was among four films receiving Academy Award nominations for best documentary short.
Their 38-minute project, narrated by actor Edward James Olmos, follows the families who forage and live in the Guatemala City garbage dump. Glad was the film’s producer, co-writer and still photographer.
Later Tuesday, on his way to Los Angeles to work on another project, Glad ran out of gas just north of Bakersfield.
“I guess I just spaced it,” the 59-year-old said from the side of the highway while waiting for AAA. “This morning, I’ve been inundated with calls. I haven’t been off the phone since 6 a.m. It’s amazing to me that people find out all over the world so fast.”
“Recycled Life” is the first film for Glad, who owns 22 Midas auto-repair shops throughout the Bay Area and Central Valley. But don’t attribute his success to beginner’s luck.
“I feel fortunate, but I don’t feel lucky,” he said. “We worked hard on this film. As you put these pieces together, it’s pretty logical that as long as you’re not willing to compromise and as long as the story is there, you’ll get a good product. And the story was there.”
That story, about the generations who have called Guatemala’s dump home for 60 years, called out to him. “It was like a real-life Hieronymus Bosch painting,” Glad said, referring to the 15th- and 16th-century Dutch painter known for his detailed, gruesome depictions of hell. “There was so much going on there and it was so dramatic.”
Glad owns a home and a travel agency in Guatemala. The film was shot over four years, beginning in 2002. During that time, a major fire at the landfill changed the lives and livelihoods of the dump dwellers, called “guajeros.”
Glad is a newcomer to the film world, but he is no stranger to the arts. He is a renowned art collector and an award-winning photographer.
Co-nominee Iwerks, the film’s director, cinematographer, editor and co-writer, said Glad’s inexperience in the film industry wasn’t an issue.
“I think on paper, there is a question mark as to how he can dabble in film having never done it before,” she said by phone from Los Angeles. “The reality is that Mike is extremely creative and is an amazing still photographer. He has the eye, the drive, the ambition and the guts to go for it. And he has the biggest heart of anyone I know.”
In the early 1980s, Glad started the Glad Family Trust Animation Collection, the world’s most comprehensive and diverse animation assemblage. The collection has several thousand pieces, spans the history of animation and has toured extensively. It includes art from China and the former Soviet Union as well as paintings and animation cells from the Disney classics “Fantasia,”"Snow White” and “Lady and the Tramp.”
A youthful interest
Glad’s interest in animation started in his youth, specifically a 1956 family trip to Disneyland.
“They had (animation) cells for sale in barrels. They were $2 to $3 and I had $4, so I bought two,” he said. “They turned out to be one of my best investments.”
In the ’80s, he bought a collection called The Moving Image that had been touring the United States. It started his trust collection, which has grown ever since.
That collection brought him together with Iwerks. She was working on a film about her grandfather, Ub Iwerks, who was Walt Disney’s partner in the 1920s and the original designer and animator of Mickey Mouse.
Leslie Iwerks comes from two generations of Oscar winners, her grandfather and father, who received awards for technical achievements.
She came to Glad to use pieces in his collection, and they got to know each other. Together, they traveled to Guatemala to explore his idea for a film on its indigenous people. But once there, the plight of the guajeros caught their eye.
“What we saw was so compelling, we knew there was a story in that,” she said. “This just jumped out.”
Iwerks said Glad has an unyielding vision and wanted only the best for his project. That included securing Oscar nominee Olmos to narrate to top-flight music and visuals.
“The thing that struck me about Mike was just his ability to pull many things together in a very quick amount of time,” she said. “Mike would spare no expense to do it right.”
Glad, who financed the film, estimated that it cost about $125,000.
“Recycled Life” was accepted at several film festivals last year and won at six, including the Human Rights Nights International Film Festival, Mendocino Film Festival and Tahoe Reno International Film Festival.
HBO has purchased the rights to the documentary.
Glad’s interest in Third World countries grew out of his lifelong love for travel. Born into a military family, he moved frequently while growing up. He spent much of his childhood in Florida, then went to college on a football scholarship at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he studied industrial engineering.
‘I love Third World countries’
A longtime collector and hobbyist, Glad started taking photographs in his mid-20s. He worked briefly for In Flight magazine, writing and taking pictures.
Thirty years ago, Glad settled in Fremont and opened his first Midas store. He and wife Jeanne raised their three children in the Bay Area. Six years ago, Glad moved to Modesto.
Since his children have grown, Glad has found more time for photography and globe-trotting. He has traveled extensively in Asia and Latin America. At least twice a year, he takes three weeks off to travel and shoot photographs.
“I love Third World countries. If I could have a home in Cambodia, Pakistan, Burma, China, I would,” he said. “I don’t want to go where other people are going. I’m not looking for Club Med; I’m looking for people with different approaches to life than the Western world.”
The Third World also is the focus of his next documentary idea. Glad is developing a project on the Kalasha people of Pakistan. They are said to be the descendents of Alexander the Great’s army and live in an isolated mountain valley.
He also is working on a tribute film about Hanley Denning, who was interviewed in “Recycled Life” and was killed in a car accident earlier this month. Denning founded Safe Passage to help the children and families living in the Guatemala City dump.
Glad said he has no interest in making the jump from documentaries to features. He and Iwerks hope to work together again.
“The reason I do this is I want to say something about humanity,” he said.
He is excited about attending the Oscars ceremony next month — and the instant clout the recognition will lend to future projects.
“Recycled Life” is up against three other shorts — documentaries 40 minutes or less — for the honor. They are “The Blood of Yingzhou District,” about a Chinese AIDS orphan; “Rehearsing a Dream,” about talented high school students who spend a week working with leading arts figures; and “Two Hands,” about pianist Leon Fleisher, who lost the use of his right hand in 1965.
Glad said the Academy Award nomination should open doors and show his dedication to filmmaking. “It is something you carry with you always,” he said. “It doesn’t leave.”
Bee entertainment writer Marijke Rowland can be reached at 578-2284 or mrowland@modbee.com. Be her MySpace friend at www.myspace.com/marijker.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Modesto Bee, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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