The Wavy Gravy Movie, Saint Misbehavin’
Produced and Directed by Michelle Esrick
Produced by David Becker
Executive Producer D A Pennebaker
Edited by Karen K. H. Sim
Director of photography Daniel B. Gold
Director Michelle Esrick and Wavy Gravy
Director’s Statement
“Ever since I got to know Wavy I knew I had to make a film about him. Gandhi said, “My life is my message.” And the same goes for Wavy Gravy, his whole life is his message.
I believe Wavy is in the tradition of the great fools, who throughout history have used their foolery for good. In many cultures, there is a belief that a fool is holy. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the fool dramatically influences the other characters’ perceptions. In Zen Buddhism, the fools are agents of prophetic vision and they restore vitality to the community; the Zen Masters often suggest something of the trickster, prankster, and clown all rolled into one. In Native American religions, one of which being Lakota, they refer to the fool as a Heyoka, or “sacred clown”.
Throughout the making of this film, Wavy has been described to me as a town crier, pied piper, jester, cultural phenomenon, holy clown, living treasure, revolutionary, and Saint. All I know is, to be around Wavy is to see the best part of ourselves, to feel hopeful, to feel inspired to be just a little more loving, forgiving and helpful in the world we live in, and to have fun doing it. It is my honor to introduce the real Wavy Gravy to the world. Personally, I think we need the "fool" now more than ever!”
—Michelle Esrick, Director
Wavy Gravy and Director Michelle Esrick
About THE DIRECTOR
Michelle Esrick | Director + Producer + Activist
“I like to immerse myself in stories that inspire; I have seen first-hand that honest stories can shift perceptions, change laws, transform our culture and even save lives.”
Michelle Esrick is an award-winning filmmaker, poet and social activist. Her most recent film, Cracked Up, The Darrell Hammond Story had its theatrical premiere in September 2019 and was released on Netflix May 1st, 2020. Esrick is proud to have played a role in the adding of nine provisions for trauma-informed care to the “Support for Patients and Communities Act” which was signed into law. And Maureen Seaberg of Psychology Today wrote, "I came to learn the film is much more than a film. It’s not just a movie; it’s a movement.”
Esrick directed and produced The Wavy Gravy Movie, Saint Misbehavin’ - Executive produced by the late legendary, Academy-Award winning filmmaker, D. A. Pennebaker. The New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote “Saint Misbehavin’ is an unabashed love letter to the world that defies the cynicism of our age.”
Exploring the man behind the countercultural icon, The Wavy Gravy Movie showcases the humanity and intelligence of this Holy Fool and his devotion to basic human needs. The film originally premiered in 2009 at SXSW and was then seen on Showtime, PBS and Netflix beginning in 2011. On September 24, 2019, Kino Lorber acquired and re-released this much beloved and multi-award-winning film on Amazon Prime. This 10th Anniversary Special Edition DVD includes over fifty-five minutes of extra scenes and other bonus features including two new interviews with Wavy Gravy and his wife Jahanara Romney. Also included is new audio commentary with Wavy Gravy, Jahanara Romney, and director Michelle Esrick!
Esrick Executive Produced the Netflix Original film, Ram Dass, Going Home, featuring spiritual teacher and best-selling author Ram Dass who reflects on love, life and dying. Widely acclaimed, the film was short-listed for a 2017 Academy Award.
In 2018, Esrick directed the acclaimed music video, Let’s Rise! which CNN dubbed the anthem for the March for Our Lives Movement in protest of the gun violence epidemic in America which contributes to adverse childhood experiences for the nation’s school kids. Seen worldwide by over three-hundred-fifty million viewers, Let’s Rise! ranked among the most important protest songs of the year. CNN featured Esrick and her work in a 2018 year-end television special.
In May 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Esrick created a powerful and inspiring virtual series called Cracked Up, The Evolving Conversation which candidly explores through intimate conversations the many different manifestations of childhood trauma and its long term effects such as addictions, suicide, anxiety & depression, etc. as well as how we recover ourselves, help others and change systems to better serve our communities. Featuring leaders in the field of trauma and luminaries such as, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr.Jacob Ham, Jane Stevens, Lyn Morris, Darrell Hammond, Jane Fonda, V (formerly known as Eve Ensler), and more.
producer
DAVID BECKER
David Becker is a documentary filmmaker and educator. His film To Be Forever Wild, about Catskill Mountains, aired on PBS stations and is available on DVD and online. David produced The Wavy Gravy Movie: Saint Misbehavin’, a documentary about counter-culture icon Wavy Gravy, which was directed by Michelle Esrick and executive produced by DA Pennebaker. The film premiered at SXSW, aired on Showtime and was released to home video by New Video/Docurama. David worked for many years with two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple at Cabin Creek Films. He directed the PBS documentary Small Steps: Creating the High School for Contemporary Arts, which follows the creation of a small school located inside one of New York’s most dangerous high schools. Small Steps was produced by Ms. Kopple and is available on PBS Home Video. David coordinated the restoration and Criterion Collection DVD release of Ms. Kopple’s landmark documentary Harlan County USA. He has been on the production team of nonfiction projects directed by Barbara Kopple including Running From Crazy, Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing, My Generation and the Disney Channel special Confident for Life: Kids & Body Image. David’s work has shown at the Sundance Film Festival, the South by Southwest Film Festival, and on Showtime, Netflix, HBO, PBS and online. David also teaches Media Arts and Documentary Studies, formerly at the Woodstock Day School in upstate New York and the University at Albany-SUNY, and currently at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
EXECUTIVE producer
D.A. PENNEBAKER
Donn Alan Pennebaker is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of cinema verite filmmaking. Working with Drew Associates in the early sixties Pennebaker helped engineer the first portable 16mm sync sound camera rig. Their film subjects included the presidential campaign of John Kennedy, Primary, and the Broadway debut of Jane Fonda, Jane. Pennebaker’s 1965 portrait of Bob Dylan, Don’t Look Back, broke box office records for documentaries and remains the definitive portrait of the musician. Monterey Pop, filmed in 1967 and regarded as one of the first rock festival films, introduced audiences to Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. In the early seventies, Pennebaker directed Company, which documented the original cast album recording of Steven Sondheim’s Broadway show starring Elaine Stritch. And in 1973, Ziggy Stardust, which captured David Bowie’s final concert with his band. Since 1976, Pennebaker has partnered with Chris Hegedus. Together they shot and directed The Energy War series, Town Bloody Hall, Moon Over Broadway, Only the Strong Survive, Down From the Mountain and many others. The team received an Academy Award® nomination for their 1994 Clinton campaign film, The War Room. Pennebaker has received numerous lifetime awards including the IFP Gotham Award. In 2013 Pennebaker received the first Lifetime Achievement Academy Award given to a documentary filmmaker.
EDITOR
KAREN K.H. SIM
Karen K. H. Sim began her documentary filmmaking career as editor on Maro Chermayeff’s Juilliard. She then further honed her skills in storytelling by working with Frontline producer/director Ofra Bikel, editing a number of her films, including the Emmy Award winning An Ordinary Crime. Since then, she has contributed to many documentary projects as producer, writer and / or editor, among them Back on Board: Greg Louganis; Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper; and Who Killed Garrett Phillips. In 2014, Karen won the Sundance Film Festival Documentary Editing Award for Watchers of the Sky. Most recently, she produced and wrote Anas v. The Giant which premiered at SxSW 2019. Karen is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
DIRECTOF OF PHOTOGRAPHY
DANIEL B. GOLD
Daniel B. Gold (Cinematographer) won the 2002 Sundance “Excellence in Cinematography Award” for his work on HBO’s Blue Vinyl which also garnered Emmy Nominations for Research and Best Documentary. His 2018 4-part Netflix series shot in India called Daughters of Destiny and directed by Academy Award Winner Vanessa Roth won the 2018 Television Academy Honors Award. His PBS Special GI Jews broadcast nationally in 2018, then re-broadcast several times by overwhelming viewer demand. His short The Girl and the Picture premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and won the 2018 AM DOCS Special Jury Award. 32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide was broadcast on HBO in 2017. Gold is currently shooting several feature docs including Roy Cohn for HBO, Bobi Winewith Christopher Sharpe, Love and Stuff with Judith Helfand, and nearly completed on Rabbi with Sandi Dubowski. Previous notable films include: A+E’S Toots Shore, Showtime’s Saint Misbehavin: The Life and Times of Wavy Gravy, A Place at the Table, Everything’s Cool, Indian Point, The Greater Good, HBO’s Coma, PBS’s Colonial House and Life in Pictures for the BBC.
Reflections About Wavy Gravy
“A master satirist.” —Tom Wolfe
“Like the best of all clowns, Wavy Gravy will make as big a fool of himself as is necessary to make a wiser man of you. He is one of the better people on the earth.” —Village Voice
“…a poet, a teacher of brain damaged children, an improvisational acting coach in Hollywood studios, a close friend of Lenny Bruce, and one of Kesey’s Merry Pranksters…everything in his background has fitted him to be the Hog Farm’s chief tongue dancer. Temporarily a martyr, he has heretofore had a successful career as a saint.” —Rolling Stone
“He is an oral Combat Historian…the illegitimate son of Harpo Marx and Mother Theresa, conceived one starry night on a whoopee cushion.” —Paul Krasner
“Taking his place in the great lineage of fools for God, Wavy Gravy through his improvisational irreverent rascality, keeps the Sixties dream alive in social actions that reflect his deep love of the earth and its inhabitants. This wise clown of compassion is a genuine Mahatma of the Cosmic Giggle.” —Ram Dass
“Weird and Wonderful!” —New York Times
“In terms of the history of the movement for social change and for opening your heart and the nexus of where spirituality and political action come together, and humor, you got Wavy, he’s our Pied Piper.” —Jackson Browne
“To care, to say what is my maximum effort I can give to care for the most people in my lifetime. How can I be a servant for love. And, that everything that Wavy does is somewhere in that journey. He does it to the point that it's who he is. And if one looks at his history, it'd seem like a natural progression that it would work to Camp Winnarainbow . In a way to try to teach what he is; to be a caring person, loving all races, loving all ages, loving, and wanting to do something. Wanting from inside to do something, to get rid of things that make for cliques and work more toward a brother and sisterhood.” —Patch Adams
“It is through his focus and energy that a part of the world has been healed. This man, we take him too lightly. This is a deeply serious soul that you are focusing on and I cannot thank you enough for what ever you've gone through in order to bring him to us and introduce him to us.” —Odetta