John Wilson Says Selling a Documentary About Concrete Is Harder Than Making It

John Wilson made a documentary about concrete, and he spent years pitching it as “The History of Concrete” before the meta aspects became part of the story. Now the film is out, and Wilson says the hardest part was not mixing cement but selling the title itself.

The film follows Wilson across the world — to concrete conventions in Vegas and New Orleans, to ancient buildings in Italy and to graves in undisclosed locations. Between those trips, he documented the Zoom meetings where he pitched Hollywood executives, telling them the film’s title and watching their deep sighs.

Wilson says he incorporated the meta aspects about a year or so into the process. “I felt like that was becoming a more interesting story,” he says. “And I wanted to make something that another filmmaker could learn something from, about how things are produced.”

Pitching the Title

Wilson asked for what a Netflix documentary would cost, scaled to what his HBO series “How To” had funded. The response was not what he expected.

“People laugh when they hear the title, but you laugh knowing that the movie is done,” he says. “It’s a lot different when someone is asking you directly for money to make this thing that doesn’t exist yet. Would you give your own money to make ‘The History of Concrete’? Even if it’s me, I don’t know. It’s a strange proposition.”

He describes the documentary space as having “mutated slightly.” “People are focused on retelling stories that have already happened — whether it’s a triple homicide or a musician who has gone through all the motions of their career,” he says. “Certain people with money have a hard time with imagination and this idea of art-making for the sake of it. You need to go through several layers of approval.”

Humanity in the Cracks

The film is not all stone. Wilson finds humanity in the cracks, following a professional “gum buster,” a grieving local musician and dozens of other characters. It is perhaps his most substantial — and heart-forward — work to date.

One character stands out. Jack, the musician Wilson spent a year and a half with, has “the softest heart of all,” Wilson says. “In the world of hard surfaces, he’s got a really soft interior.”

Wilson met Jack at a liquor store right next to his house. He treats him as someone he will see often, but he also kept a distance, letting producer Francis Carr handle the correspondence when Jack was performing. “There’s some value to a certain level of journalistic distance when making something like this,” Wilson says, “just because I’m dealing with so many people at the same time.”

The Kim Kardashian Scene

One moment that will likely spark talk is the Kim Kardashian scene. Wilson was at a GQ dinner, filming Dwyane Wade as he toasted Kim, and she looked straight into his camera.

“The discomfort started when I entered the room, and the filming only eased that discomfort,” Wilson says. “I had just never seen an uninterrupted shot of Kim Kardashian before, and I knew this was going to be the only chance for me to get it. I wasn’t pursuing it, but I thought it was a very rare environment, and there’s something very awkward and strange about these celebrity events.”

He wanted to capture that awkwardness without a score, letting the moment play out in raw form.

Premiere Dates

Jack was rehearsing for an after-party next door during the Rockaways screening, so he could not fully watch the film. He is going to be at one of the premieres at IFC over the weekend.

Durational Subjects

Structurally, “The History of Concrete” mirrors Wilson’s HBO series “How To.” The feature format freed him to cover longer stretches, like a 3,100-mile race that spans months.

“I don’t know if I would have been able to cover that as substantially in an episode of the show,” he says. “Same with one of the main characters I spent a lot of time with near the end of the film. I spent a year and a half with him, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that without the elasticity of a feature film.”

But the emotional weight is different. “While superficially it shares a lot of the same qualities, I set out to make something that was much broader in scope and almost felt like a prequel to the show, because it’s kind of the foundation on which the rest of the work was built.”

The Foundation That Carries It All

Concrete is literally our foundation, Wilson notes. He found it notable that he chose to explore a hard topic physically, only to be led to the softness — the humanity.

Where to See It

“The History of Concrete” is now in theaters via Magnolia Pictures.

Wilson’s admission that selling the movie was harder than making it lands with warmth and self-deprecation.

It is a strange proposition indeed. But it worked.

Source material: “John Wilson on ‘The History of Concrete’ and What’s Wrong With the Documentary Space: ‘People Are Retelling Stories That Have Already Happened’,” Variety.

concrete · Documentary · filmmaking · HBO · Magnolia Pictures