With aid from Zach Galifianakis, a 'Hangover' helper makes a film

With aid from Zach Galifianakis, a ‘Hangover’ helper makes a film

By Jasmine Elist

Aug. 2, 2012 12 AM PT

&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;When Joseph Garner was working as the assistant to the director of “The Hangover” in 2008, he was was living an isolated life in the blingy confines of the Caesars Palace Hotel in Las Vegas. But when he would turn on the TV news, all he saw was the unfolding economic crisis. That dichotomy sparked an idea in Garner for his first feature-length film, “Craigslist Joe” -- and he got “Hangover” star &amp;lt;runtime:topic id=”PECLB0000008707”&amp;gt;Zach Galifianakis&amp;lt;/runtime:topic&amp;gt; to come aboard as executive producer.&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;The low-budget documentary, in theaters Friday, follows the 29-year-old as he spends 31 days living entirely off the goodwill of people on Craigslist. Garner travels from L.A. to New York and back with just a laptop, a cellphone, a toothbrush and the clothes on his back, relying solely on his Craigslist interactions for food, shelter, transportation and companionship. The question on his mind was: Has technology isolated us, or has it increased our desire to connect and interact with society, especially given the tough time that people are going through?&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;“By being more self-sufficient, by being able to book your travel online and do your banking online, and not really needing to interact with people just to get by, what price are we paying as a society? How well do you know your neighbor? How likely would you be to pull over and help someone change a tire?” says Garner, who is now working as an associate producer on “The Hangover Part III.”&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;“I felt like because of the economic hardship that a lot of people were going through, I wanted to see what was going on with the average person out there, and see if using technology could bring me closer to these face-to-face interactions with people who I probably wouldn’t have had a chance to meet without technology.”&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;Garner found his cinematographer, Kevin Flint, on Craigslist, paying him $1,000 for the month plus a $20-per-day meal stipend and providing Flint with 80 tapes—summing up the entire production budget for the guerrilla-style shoot. Galifianakis said he pitched in because “I really liked the heart of the movie. We are so inundated with films that are loud and over the top I thought, ‘What a nice little film’ ... it is a movie that has some real warmth to it.”&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;We see Joe spend the night on the side of a freeway after his offered ride in a van breaks down. We see him dance with Orthodox Jews on the first night of Hanukkah. We see him take break-dancing classes, perform stand-up at a comedy club in Chicago and make Christmas ornaments with children of incarcerated parents.&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;Garner said it was challenging to be both director and subject. “By being the subject of the film and working on a documentary where the story was unfolding before me—I didn’t have anything planned out, I didn’t know where I was going to sleep, where I was going to eat—the film was dictated by the people I met. I had to let go of that control and embrace this unknown.”&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;

With aid from Zach Galifianakis, a ‘Hangover’ helper makes a film

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