Getting Fathers And Sons On Film

First-time filmmakers Chris Roe and his dad, Richard, traveled the world together for six months interviewing men about the special bond between fathers and sons. The result of their personal journey: Pop and Me, an intimate and touching documentary.

They took the trip in 1996, traveling to South Africa, Vietnam, Monaco, Cairo, New York and New Zealand. Richard Roe had been divorced in 1994, and the divorce was not his idea. "I was crushed," he recalls. "So, in the beginning, I wanted to do it because I wanted to just run away. I thought I could do that by going around the world, just like I had done 18 years before with my family."

Says his son, "I didn't have a whole lot going, so I said, 'I'm coming with you.'"

His father explains, "All my friends were telling me how lucky I was that I was going on a trip around the world with my son. I got an idea from this. I told Chris everyone was interested in talking about fathers and sons and their relationships. I told him that's what he should do his film on. And he sort of had to go along with it because it was my idea and I was paying."

In total, they interviewed 29 pairs of fathers and sons. In the finished film, they use 13 pairs. Julian Lennon was the only person they interviewed alone.

The Roes had access to Julian because Chris and Prince Albert of Monaco are second cousins. When the Roes were in Monaco, they stayed with Prince Albert and, one night, they went out with the prince, actor David Hasselhoff, and Julian.

Over the course of the evening, the Roes talked about their film (Albert and Prince Rainier had declined to participate) and, in turn, Julian told them about his father.

"We asked how come we had never heard his story before," recalls Richard. "He said no one liked to write the truth about his father. We asked him to sign a release and said we would get his story out and promised not to give it a positive spin. He is very happy to finally hear his story in our film."

In the film, Julian says, "Dad separated from Mom when I was like 3 or 4, or maybe 5. So he went off in another direction. I didn't see him much at all. He gave more love to the world than he did to me; put it that way."

He is the only person to appear without his father and the only person to speak poorly of his father.

"It was unfortunate that the only son not happy was famous, but it made it more interesting," explains Chris. "And even though the father wasn't there, we felt people could understand since they knew John Lennon."

The film also examines the relationship between Chris (in his late 20s) and Richard (mid-50s), and shows them sleeping, arguing, and ignoring each other. Richard remembers it as "four years of torture...yelling, arguing, screaming, fighting about the ways things should we done, who should be in charge of what. If not for the support of hundreds of people telling us to stick it out, we woud have quit."

Admits Chris, "It was very hard to separate the film and our relationship." And his father agrees that to make the movie, they put their relationship at risk, especially during the editing process, which lasted more than two years.

In the end, he had to hire another editor to deal with the sections of the movie that focus on the relationship between the father-and-son Roes.

Yet, in some ways, his relationship with his father is better now than before their trip. He says, in some ways, he now understands his dad more than his two brothers do.

Chris says the film has taught him that many fathers and sons fear communication. "I saw it's hard for fathers and sons to initiate communication on their own," he adds. "This film shows that no matter how hard it might be, it's worth it."

"I was able to do things I wouldn't have done because of the film," Chris says. "In this film, I hope to honor my dad. I want him to know what he's done for me. It took all this to thank my father, to realize the important role he had in my life growing up."

The film, which was a Best Documentary finalist for the 1999 Academy Awards and won top honors at such events as the L.A. Independent Film Festival, opens Friday in limited release. If it does well enough, MGM will release it nationwide.

These days, Chris Roe is shooting a documentary on karaoke and working on a feature film, inspired by his uncle, who rowed in the Olympics.

Pop and Me ends with a "leap of faith." Tied together, Chris and Richard do a bungee jump, even though the father is "deathly afraid" of heights. It was the last day of the father-son journey, and Richard says, ""I wouldn't have done it earlier in the trip."