Music drives road trip movie

• Writer/director: Matthew Bissonnette
• Producers: Corey Marr
• Production companies: Corey Marr Productions
• Key cast: Joel Bissonnette. Adam Scott
• Distributor: KinoSmith
• Budget: under $1 million

As I’m chatting on the telephone with Passenger Side writer/director Matt Bissonnette, he is conveniently sitting on the passenger side of his producer Corey Marr’s vehicle. They’re driving through the streets of Toronto, although Bissonnette is a native Montrealer and his ‘road trip’ movie is shot in L.A. where he now lives.

‘If you don’t have a car you don’t have legs,’ says Bissonnette of car-obsessed Tinsel Town, which provides the backdrop for this comedic drama that follows two estranged brothers around L.A. County after one brother wrecks his car and needs assistance running ‘errands’ to get his next fix.

This is Bissonnette’s third outing as a feature writer/director, and the inspiration for this story came from the lyrics of a song by the indie band Wilco. Music plays an important role throughout the film, taking a cue from two of his favorite films – American Graffiti and Dazed and Confused.

Bissonnette uses music to add texture to his characters: ‘The characters are listening to the same songs [such as Wilco] as the audience; it’s stuff they would listen to anyway.’

Passenger Side was made on a shoestring budget through Toronto-based Corey Marr Productions, with The Movie Network/Movie Central kicking in the initial funding and Telefilm Canada ponying up $80,000 – the rest was personally/privately funded. The entire movie was filmed over 14 days, with most of the scenes taking place in the car.

While Bissonnette acknowledges that having a film at a festival is great way to see how it plays to different audiences, he admits that what he really hopes to gain is success and some dough: ‘They are intimately related, so I like them both.’