Kathy Larsen is a professor in the Writing Program at The George Washington University in Washington D.C. She has been the editor of several works including Fan Phenomena: Supernatural and Fangasm: Supernatural Fangirls. Larsen is also the principal editor of The Journal of Fandom Studies which aims to explore the growing fandoms surrounding film, music, television, sports and gaming.. After reading her latest book titled World Film Locations: Washington D.C., I contacted her via email with some questions I had about it. She happily responded and even gave some insight into her future projects.
Jessica P. Jackson: How long have you been an editor?
Kathy Larsen: I edited a collection of essays on fan culture that came out in 2012 and around the same time I founded the Journal of Fandom Studies, so I’ve been editing continuously for almost four years now.
JPJ: What inspired you to become an editor?
KL: I was asked to do that first collection (Fan Culture: Theory/Practice) by the publisher so I suppose that was the initial inspiration. Similarly, someone approached me about starting up the journal and it seemed like an exciting prospect. So, in both cases it was a question of being in the right place at the right time.
JPJ: Why did you decide to compile this book on Washington D.C.?
KL: This was really a case of seeing a need and filling it. I was teaching a course on the ways in which Washington D.C. – the city itself rather than the government – has been portrayed on film and, in doing prep work for the course, I discovered the World Film Locations series, got excited about being able to use the Washington volume in my class and then realized that there was no Washington volume. Since Intellect (the publishers of the series) are also the publishers of the Journal of Fandom Studies I contacted them to ask if one was forthcoming and they more or less said yes, if I was willing to do it. So I said yes. (I say yes a lot.)
JPJ: Of all the scenes featured in this book, which one was your favorite and why?
KL: That is an extremely difficult question! There are so many in the book (and so many more that I couldn’t fit into the book) that I just loved. The camerawork in the scene that takes place in the Library of Congress in All the President’s Men is wonderfully evocative of the conspiracy Woodward and Bernstein are in the process of uncovering. The camera pulls back, Woodward and Bernstein get smaller and smaller but the enormity of what they’re in the middle of becomes that much clearer. Similarly, the camera in a scene at the Kennedy Center in State of Play (a scene that didn’t make it into the book) hovers above Jeff Daniels and Russell Crowe reminding us that we are being watched and listened to wherever we go. I’m also always moved by Jimmy Stewart at the Lincoln Memorial in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington – the second time he goes there full of despair and ready to give up. That time he stands in the shadows, the innocence and optimism of his first visit gone. That’s a powerful moment.
JPJ: I love horror movies, so I was very excited to see the entry on The Exorcist since I had no idea it was filmed in D.C. Because you teach at George Washington University, have you ever visited that house or the church?
KL: I pass the famous (infamous?) steps every time I take the shuttle between GW’s two campuses – one of which is in upper Georgetown – and I never fail to think of The Exorcist as we drive by. I also attended Georgetown back in the eighties so I’m quite familiar with the church, which is on the campus, as well as several of the other places on campus we see early in the film (the library, the quad in from the campus center, etc.). All of my classes were in that library that Ellen Burstyn walks by on the way home in the beginning of the film, something I didn’t actually think about while I was there; but now it’s hard for me to “unsee” it. As a matter of fact, that’s how I feel about much of Washington now that I’ve edited the book. So many places I walk or drive by are now film sets in my mind.
JPJ: What challenges were you presented with upon editing this book?
KL: Luckily, almost all the challenges were pleasant ones. I had a wealth of wonderful films to draw from so the challenge there was really in narrowing things down to the thirty-eight that eventually made it into the book. One of my goals was to include films that made use of the typical Washington landscape that we’re all so familiar with – aerial shots of the White House, Washington Monument, Capitol – but also the Washington that people are not familiar with, the “un-official” city. I also wanted to make sure that the scenes chosen used the landscape in significant ways and not just merely as background (which eliminated several films that take place in Washington but in which we never, or very rarely, see the landscape of the city). Films like Talk to Me and The Butler fell into this category. I was also lucky enough to work with several people with varied backgrounds in film and music who I knew would be wonderful contributors, which made the job of editor that much easier for me. I suppose my biggest challenge was time. I only had about six months between the time I agreed to do the volume until I had to deliver the manuscript to the publishers. This made for an intense six months!
JPJ: What did you enjoy most about editing this book?
KL: Immersing myself in my adopted city! I’m originally from New York City, but I’ve lived in Washington for over thirty years. Even so, there was a lot about the city I didn’t know and many places I’d never been before. Editing the book was a great excuse to learn more about the history of the city as well as getting to know more about specific neighborhoods.
JPJ: Is there anywhere in D.C. that hasn’t been featured in anything yet that you hope eventually makes it to the big screen? If not, which locations do you wish to see more of in future projects?
KL: I’d like to see more of “un-official” Washington on film, moving away from the Mall (the space between the Capitol and the Washington Monument) and establishing shots of FBI Headquarters and the monuments. I’d also love to see more of the Washington music scene on film. There are a few quite good documentaries out there on the D.C. punk scene for instance, but amazingly no one has thought to do a feature film on what was an incredibly vibrant and exciting period in the seventies and eighties.
JPJ: Off topic entirely, I noticed you worked on the book Fan Phenomena: Supernatural along with another editor. Being a huge Supernatural fan myself, I would love to hear about how that experience was different from your D.C. book.
KL: The thinking behind both books and the editing process were actually not that different. In both cases the goal was to get a broad range of representation. In the case of the World Film Locations volume, that meant making sure that I’d covered as much of the city as I could in terms of location and genre. The same thinking was behind the Fan Phenomena volume – we wanted as many voices as possible: academics, fans, actors, producers. Deciding the parameters of a collection is the hard part, and of course, once you’ve done that and the essays start coming in, you begin to make adjustments. It’s a fluid process, one that inevitably causes you to question your original ideas and, ideally, to expand and improve your initial thinking. That’s actually one of the best things about editing anything. It’s a collaborative endeavor. As the editor you’re obviously “in charge” but you’re also being presented with so many more perspectives than you may have come up with if you were working alone. At its best it’s generative and exciting.
JPJ: So, what’s next for you? Any projects in mind?
KL: Oh, so many!! I’ve recently been doing a lot of work on fan pilgrimages – people who are fans of a book or film or television show who want to connect with it by visiting filming sites or, in the case of literature, sites associated with authors. I’d like to keep exploring this.
Author Biography
Jessica P. Jackson is a student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington pursuing a major in Film Studies. She has always been inspired by movies and TV shows, and once Jessica graduates she hopes to have a career in either editing or sound design.
