Q&A with W. Tray White, filmmaker, Impaler

Minnesota has hosted an interesting run of political candidates, from retired wrestler Jesse Ventura (Minnesota governor from 1999 to 2003) to former Saturday Night Live star Al Franken (the contested winner of a U.S. Senate seat in 2008). But perhaps the most intriguing candidate was Jonathan Sharkey, a self-proclaimed Satanic Vampire and Hecate Witch, who ran for the office of Minnesota governor in 2006. W. Tray White’s documentary Impaler follows Sharkey as he contends with the media frenzy inspired by his 13-point political platform which includes impaling criminals on the lawn of the governor’s mansion. Below, White answers our questions about this project, and what it was like making a film about such a character. — Rebecca Harper, Hulu.com

Hulu: Can you tell us about the film?

W. Tray White: Impaler is a documentary about a Satanic Vampire and Hecate Witch named Jonathon Sharkey. Now Jonathon is quite the self-starter, so it almost goes without saying that after founding the Vampire, Witches and Pagans Party, his next move was to officially announce his entrance into the race for Governor of Minnesota. On December 13, 2006, Mr. Sharkey stood in a dive bar, displaying a confident power stance while sporting his stylish cloak, and declared during the makeshift press conference his 13-point plan to get Minnesota back on track.
One idea in his unique platform was to personally impale, as his hero Vlad Tepes once did, most criminals, along with terrorists and anyone else he deemed a possible threat to his constituency, outside the Governor’s mansion. What immediately followed was a media frenzy. What happened over the next eight months was a bizarre, sad, fascinating and funny rollercoaster during my attempt to accurately profile Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey. 

Throughout Impaler, it’s clear that Jonathon Sharkey loves attention, from people, from the media, anyone. How did you approach him? What was his initial reaction?

Actually this absurd episode in my life was created by a late-night prank call gone horribly wrong. Jonathon was somehow able to take control and pull a reverse prank phone call on me by spewing out possibly the most hilarious and bizarre one-man rant I ever had the pleasure of hearing from a sober person. While listening to him describe the complexities of striking another man dead using dragon’s blood and homemade witchcraft, I blurted out that I was going to Minnesota to shoot a documentary on him. I gave him no option to say yes or no, I just threw it out there as a fact. Of course this was days before a gaggle of offers from seasoned production companies as far away as London and Tel Aviv poured in with the exact same idea, so Jonathon jumped all over my plan probably believing I was the only offer he was going to get. I was able to place him under an exclusive contract before he could change his mind.

When it hit me that I was going to be hanging out with a Satanic Vampire in Minnesota, I mentally changed gears. I tweaked my personality by replacing any judgment or cynicism with a curiously naive quality, knowing that my naturally obnoxious personality would only get in the way. My approach was respectful but neutral. In addition, I made a point to never act impressed or shocked by anything he said or did. I kept this persona until the very last day of filming.

Sharkey’s political platform was rather unique, including his promise to personally impale any terrorists who set foot in Minnesota. What did you think of his political platform?

Well, his platform could probably be best described as a treasure trove of lunacy, with dash of common sense and a sprinkle of populism thrown in for good measure. Or is it a treasure trove of common sense with a dash of populism and a sprinkle of lunacy thrown in for good measure? Oh I forget.

Also, I unfortunately had to cut out a wonderful monologue Jonathon gave to the camera succinctly describing his 13-point platform. I just could not find a place to make it flow into the awkward, semi- jolted rhythm and pacing I was going after. Luckily I have screenshots from his old website that I am more than happy to share. 

Do you think Sharkey was serious in all of this? Do you think it was it all a game to him?

Oh, Jonathon considers himself very serious business. I think he was genuinely surprised by the media attention, and happily soaked up the spotlight. With that said, Jonathon still took himself to be a legitimate candidate as well a rising politician on the National stage. For me, this was one of the reasons I found him so interesting. What motivated him? Was it a hero complex? Was it a true desire to serve the community? Or was he a completely delusional maniac? Yes, he enjoys attention but he has something else, something much deeper that drives him. I personally found the Vampire antics superficial and tiring as the filming went on. So I became engulfed in trying to discover who he really was. This is a question I leave wide open for your own interpretation.

Sharkey is a self-professed vampire, and his beliefs — he was not just a vampire, but a Hecate Witch and Satanic Dark Priest — made him a media sensation. Why did the media go nuts for Sharkey? Do you think they were doing a disservice to Minnesota voters in focusing on his vampirism, not his political platform?

In regards to the Minnesota media, I have to be fair and factor in the American media as a whole, and when doing that I doubt many news outlets would have handled Sharkey differently. The news is like any other show on TV, it’s all about attracting the viewers.

As for the media attention, I think a number of factors played into that. Yes, his unique lifestyle and belief system fascinated the press, and his affable personality only kept them interested. Another reason was a legitimate news story regarding his Pagan wife losing her job, quite possibly for no other reason other than her religious beliefs. A slow news week was a contributing factor, along with the odd amalgamation of a Satanic Vampire being hell-bent on defending the innocent, regardless of race or religion, with such passion and violence. I doubt the average American, at least in “middle” America, would oppose child molesters and rapists from being brutally punished on principle.

I am sure the reality of rotting corpses dangling from big sticks might change a few minds, but people along with many in the media were with Jonathon on principle.

Besides finding the friendly vampire good for ratings, I think they also found him refreshing. Sharkey made it clear that he was vehemently against drunk driving and crimes against children, females, homosexuals and the elderly. Of course any rational person, politician or not, is against these things, so it is not like he took a giant leap into unsafe political territory. He did do something borderline exceptional in American politics, though. He passionately stated what he believed in, without any confusion or a hint of grey, not giving a #### about how this might affect poll numbers, and not worried in the least about a public or media backlash. His ideas to help farmers and substantially increase wages for our volunteer military, and his creative ideas to lower State tax while increasing State revenue through casinos struck some sort of a cord. Factor in all of that, add in the secret ingredient of extraordinary amusement, and you have the perfect recipe for stirring up the media.

A comment left for your film on another website said, “Let’s just hope we continue to have people like this director willing to expose the system and men like Sharkey in this [gentle and meticulous] way. No name calling, fist pounding, yelling or other such immature antics were needed to expose, then frighten the public. I can’t say the same for cable news.” Was this your intention, to let Sharkey take himself down through his own actions and the opinions of the people in his life?

Right there is why it is so much fun about doing this kind of art! That is a brand new interpretation, and almost uncomfortably flattering, but I would never tell anyone they were wrong with their take on Impaler. Brian Dickson and I spent a lot of time in post crafting the edit into something that has many layers of meaning for us, while leaving it wide open with the hope that everyone walks away with a different opinion in relation to the message or messages regarding Impaler.

One of the underlying stories in this film was related to Sharkey’s girlfriend, Julie, who was fired from her job because of her beliefs. What happened to Julie? Have you heard from her since you worked on Impaler? 

Yes, I still keep in touch with Julie. She moved far away from Princeton and has a very different life now. She works full time and seems to be doing great, and that makes me happy for her and her truly delightful children.

Basically, someone who believed in impaling others — and even bypassing the justice system — was able to run for governor of Minnesota (with no primary or runoff to worry about), and then for U.S. president. What do you think this says about the American political system?

I think it says fantastic things about our political system. America, for the most part, has a way of weeding people out. If you look at American political parties throughout history and even today, you will find several who greatly conflict with our very basic constitutional principles. The American Nazi Party is active, Communist Party USA has a nice little following, and the entertainingly batsh-t insane Progressive Labor Party is biding their time until they can turn us all into stagnant robots with no individuality. As long you do not infringe on the rights of others in the process, I say go ahead and run for office if you want to.

Some scenes in this film are completely unexpected and almost unbelievable. Could you believe any of this was happening as you were filming?

Surprisingly, I was never shocked or really even taken aback by anything while I was filming. During some of the later filming, I allowed myself to be more open, but starting out I felt mild amusement from time to time but that’s about it. I almost feel I need to explain so I’ll give it my best shot.

On my first day of filming these strangers alone and very far away from anything remotely familiar, I wondered what I had gotten myself into and questioned my judgment and sanity every 20 minutes or so. On the second day that was all gone, and I almost felt like Mr. Spock, stoically focused on the task at hand. Having my eye glued to a viewfinder for such a long period of time gave me a feeling of disconnection from everything and everybody.  If Jonathon would have grabbed his sword and sprinted outside to defend his fellow citizens from an impending zombie unicorn massacre, my only concern would have revolved around staying consistent with my camera movement and style of framing.

You tell Sharkey that you were a wrestling fan as a kid. Did you know of “Rocky” back in the day? Knowing that he was a wrestler, was he pretty much what you expected, or were you surprised as you delved deeper into his life?

You might be thinking about a conversation that took place right before the Tucker Carlson interview. That actually wasn’t me, but it is a pretty common question. Sharkey was talking to one of the TV producers who was busy setting up the live feed to MSNBC. One of the many mistakes I made was talking so much off screen that when a viewer hears a voice behind the camera they logically assume it’s me babbling away. Sadly, I was never a wrestling fan growing up. Star Trek, Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Nick at Nite, and the Twilight Zone devoured my TV time as a young lad.

At the beginning of the film, Sharkey interacts with you, the narrator, as he’s doing other things, like using the computer, without really looking at the camera. Any reason for this?

Yes, a really frustrating reason too. The first week was basically one long phone interview for Jonathon. On occasion he would have 30 minutes or an hour before his next interview and he would rush to the computer to check his MySpace page or the other sites he was on. As much as a few of those shots really aggravate me visually, they hold some type of value for a theme or sub theme related to the film.

What do you think — was Sharkey really a vampire, or was that part of his ploy all along?

Well, I have never been the type to believe in Vampires or Lycans or really any of the other fun stuff. Now does Jonathon think he is a Vampire? Oh sweet Lucifer, yes.

Have you heard from Sharkey since he saw the film? What has been his reaction?

The short and sweet of it is yes and bad, but I’ll try to provide some context. Sharkey and I spoke on the phone quite a bit for months after filming ended. I became his go-to guy anytime he felt like picking up the phone to discuss his latest e-mail battle, new magic spells, girl problems or his plans to become a pro boxer. Once the rough edit was complete, the world premiere was held at the Byron Bay Film Festival in Australia. The festival director J’aimee Skippon-Volke was kind enough to give us an award. After this, Jonathon’s mind changed directions and he became obsessed with making movies.

He began to call me every night. Typical conversations revolved around Jonathon trying to get me to produce one of his 20 or so movie ideas. Some noteworthy titles were The Impaling President, President Impaler, and President Vampyre. My personal favorite is a 23-page “script” called Count President, which is an epic saga dealing with Count President’s struggle to take over the world for reasons that were never made clear. Some notable scenes include dropping six “Hades Bombs” on Mecca during Ramadan, then to the Oval Office for the Count to consult with the spirit of Lincoln, followed by wrestling George W. Bush on worldwide TV. Then somehow we transition to The Count flying an F-16 in a heart-pounding dogfight with several MIG’s over Moscow.

As the North American premiere grew closer, Jonathon started to pester me for a DVD copy. Knowing Sharkey’s pattern I simply told him no. The week before Impaler’s debut, Jonathon made it a point to mention in his interviews how he was going to “impale” me if I mocked him in the movie. When we arrived in Minnesota, Bobby Marsden, the guy running the show, did an amazing job giving Impaler media exposure. Strangely, the Minnesota press had grown very touchy. Barring one exception, the reviews were pretty good, but they seemed to collectively share the opinion that I made the movie to expose Minnesota politics and the media covering it as a farce. Jonathon was not used to such harsh scrutiny and he was visibly bothered by how they all seemed to turn on him. Of course in Jonathon’s world, I was the logical culprit to blame for this. That is when our weird friendship started turning a little awkward. It’s strangely amusing sitting alone in a hotel room watching yourself give a terrible interview on the news, then 30 seconds later watching a Satanic Vampire talk about impaling your lifeless body.

We watched the movie and Jonathon seemed very pleased. He actually gave me a hug and lavished me with compliments on the way to the stage. Jonathon was very animated and cheerful during the Q&A and even became emotional speaking about a scene. A few weeks later, he was blogging about raping my wife and ripping my face off. I suppose these things happen.

What kind of budget did you have for Impaler? What were some of the challenges you faced as a result?

I had no real budget. As far as limitations, I really didn’t have any during production. Early on, I committed to an artistic vision that I thought would best portray Jonathon’s story in the most honest way possibly. My vision was filming in a raw, minimal and stripped down style while in Minnesota, just waiting until I spotted a real progression in Jonathan’s story to slowly switch the quality (notice the switch to 24fps when I arrive in New York) and style into becoming more fluid, always slightly improving with the rate of story progression. 

Through a friend I was able to fly for free, and I surrounded myself with two amazing people. My crazy bulldog lawyer, Paul Hale, happens to be my best friend, so contract work was free. I was also lucky enough to pick up Brian Dickson along the way. Ironically he tried to prank call Jonathon as well, but was instead handed over to me. When I got back to my hotel later that night, I called him. I explained I was a skeptic, he explained how aliens called “The Greys” made a deal with Jimmy Carter and that was all I needed to hear.

I can’t stress enough though how vital Brian was for this project and my sanity. Any expenses like tape stock, gas, and food were covered by promotional pictures that we licensed to quite a few places. 
After the movie was ready for exhibition is a whole other ball game that presents limitations for almost any movie.

Was this your first film? What was the experience like?

Yes, it was actually my first film. The experience was like a wonderful and frustrating crash course into the business. Also strange thing is how I associate Impaler with so many other experiences. In fact, I honestly have a hard time associating Impaler as its own entity because so many other important experiences are intertwined with the film.

For instance, Bobby Marsden introduced me to Mark Rosen. Mark is an Oscar winner with 30 years in the business and somehow enjoyed what he called the “real independent spirit” of Impaler, later becoming part of the tiny Impaler team. He has been such a remarkable mentor and shared so much knowledge about the business.

Another thing is during the middle of making Impaler I was started working for a personal idol of mine named Eric Martinis as a filming, researching, writing, everything needed-type producer. While the bizarre antics involved with Impaler were happening, I was being submerged into other worlds that were just as strange in their own way. Adding to that, Eric and I, along with another one of my closest friends, Trip Bellard, started filming a new documentary. We had almost unlimited access to members of Congress as well as Senators, not to mention political activists on both sides. In one week, I filmed vampires in Manhattan sharing thoughts about Jonathon, then flew to Washington D.C. for three full days of interviews on The Hill, then was on a plane to Utah [and] driving to Las Vegas to interview a variety of people about Multi-Level Marketing, and then off to Indiana for
Impaler-related shooting. While I was able to keep them artistically separate, they are all jumbled into one shared experience.

Why did you choose to focus on Sharkey for your first film?

Well the catalyst was obviously a prank phone call, but I could have backed out. I never took any film classes in College and had no formal blueprint for guidance. I could have just laughed the phone call off and forgotten the whole thing. I knew that once I got on that plane I was going to have to sell my business I worked so hard to build and start out in the absurd entertainment world with zero connections and no formal training.
Those were all thoughts that swirled through my head. So why change my life by gambling on a story like this? Three reasons. The first one is because I truly found Sharkey amusing, interesting and complex. I had a feeling something dark and tragic was buried inside of him and I wanted to dig it out. The second reason is because after studying film since I was a teenager and writing screenplay after screenplay, I saw an opportunity to get out and experiment. The third reason is faulty wiring in my brain that makes me bored easily which always results in me doing something incongruous.

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