Gervasi rock doc "Anvil" wins at Los Angeles Film Festival

Published

Wed Jul 2, 2008 in Accolade

Screenwriting alum's tribute to boyhood idols is audience favorite

It earned raves at Sundance, and has been described as the most heart-warming movie ever made about heavy metal music.

And now Anvil! The Story of Anvil, directed by “Terminal” screewnriter and TFT alumnus Sacha Gervasi, has won the audience award as Best Documentary Feature at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival.

As a teenage headbanger in Britain, Gervasi worked as an Anvil roadie during three of the groundbreaking Canadian band’s North American tours in the 1980s—-and watched his heroes fade into obscurity as many lesser imitators ruled MTV in the 1990s.

A degree in Modern History followed for Gervasi, and a Hollywood career is taxiing down the runway. The future A-lister has scripts in the works for Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman and Keanu Reaves, and is planning his upcoming feature directorial debut: a bio-pic about actor Herve Villechaize, to star Peter Dinklage.

But “Anvil,” a bittersweet documentary elegy to Gervasi’s boyhood idols, is a labor of love that will be hard to top.

Gervasi will be teaching at TFT in the 2008-2009 academic year as the recently appointed holder of the Lew and Pamela Hunter/Jonathan and Janice Zakin Chair in Screenwriting. He appeared as a Special Guest during the Screenwriters Showcase event at Festival 2008, and spoke with us about the School, his process and the joys of “having written.”.