Nick Ebeling’s supercool ride into Dennis Hopper’s heart of darkness with ‘El Hombre Invisible’ Satya de la Manitou
//Dennis Hopper and Satya de la Manitou photographed by Wim Wenders in Taos, 1978 (c) Wim WendersStiftung 2016//
Along For The Ride is the wild and suitably idisoyncratic documentary from LA-based artist Nick Ebeling about male friendship – in particular the relationship between Ebeling’s cinematic hero Dennis Hopper and his right-hand man, “El Hombre Invisible” Satya de la Manitou – and the often fraught nature of film-making.
//Satya de la Manitou in Along For The Ride//
With a score by Gemma Thompson of Savages and produced by Sheri Timmons, the core of Along For The Ride lies in stories of de la Manitou’s 40-year friendship with Hopper, as related to Ebeling over coffee in various LA diners.
Ebeling says The Last Movie, Hopper’s disastrously-received 1971 follow-up to Easy Rider, “changed my life. It’s been a kind of obsession of mine since first finding a VHS copy of it in my later teenage years. It’s probably the main reason that I’m an artist.
“At the top of his game after Easy Rider, he changed the Hollywood studio system forever, opening doors for everyone. I’ve always felt the film was a masterpiece, but never understood why Hopper remained dormant as a filmmaker for a number of years.
//Nick Ebeling, 2016//
“A few years ago I met Satya, who dedicated his life to working for Dennis because of The Last Movie. He’s maybe the one person on Earth who loves the film more than me. I wanted to help tell this story”.
Along For The Ride – which made it’s debut at the Venice Film festival this summer and premieres in the US in the New Year – features contributions from a dizzying cast of contributors including Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett (whose Gorillaz song Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey’s Head featured a Hopper narration) artists and art dealers such as Frank Gehry, Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel and Tony Shafrazi and movie figures including David Lynch, Michael Madsen, Philippe Mora, Dean Stockwell and Russ Tamblyn.
//Ebeling in Hopper’s poncho visiting The Last Movie location//
Read the Hollywood Reporter review of Along For The Ride here and visit Ebeling’s site – where you can find out more about his Gunwolf project and his promos for such artists as Miss Kittin and Coco Morier – here.