SEAN ONO LENNON – “threeASFOUR: FULL CIRCLE”

I have an abstract relationship with time. I will simply admit it took ten years or more. I don’t like to confront the reality of time. It’s too daunting. I only know for certain that the level of detail, and nuance, and subtlety we couldn’t have done quickly. The film’s editor, Jenny Golden, is one of my dearest and oldest friends. She did an incredibly intricate job and found the story in the footage. We couldn’t have made this sensitive of a film without the time we had.

Was the story that took shape the story you expected to tell? How did it shift over a decade of documentation?

I wanted to understand the relationship between art and commerce. I haven’t seen anyone who isn’t blown away by what threeASFOUR is doing, yet they haven’t yet garnered that commercial recognition. I’ve been an artist who’s never found commercial success— I personally related to that struggle. In the end, the film wound up being about how people from different cultures could transcend those origins to become closer than a family, and make work that represents this transcendence. I was ultimately making a film about peace and love, which I was raised to believe in because of my parents. threeASFOUR: FULL CIRCLE is about using your art to transcend cultural and political barriers, to create a message of peace and unity.

That is such a prescient idea to present at this time, one that has only become more necessary over the course of filming. Was the release timeline intentional, tied to a larger commentary on our current climate?

The timeliness of that message in the film, ten years in the making, really resonates profoundly. It’s meant to be. It feels very destined. Concerning threeASFOUR, our attraction to each other was a mutual interest in these themes, realizing how connected we are with each other and the universe.

Returning to the relationship between art and commerce: what did you uncover while documenting? Are there any conclusions to which you’ve come on how the two currently coexist?

Commercialism and the concept of peace and love are at odds. I think about it all the time. I’m touring America, going city to city, passing hundreds of cement mini-marts where everything looks the same. A town one hundred years ago would have more beauty to the architecture than we have now. Why is it? These developers are competing to spend the least and make the most mini-marts. When cutting costs, aesthetics are the first thing you sacrifice. In a Sears catalog from the 1920s— even the cheapest undergarment is beautifully made. It wasn’t part of the culture to make something so ugly. The entropy of our system will only make things uglier and uglier. It’s a continued struggle as time goes on— true of fashion, music, architecture. There’s a banality to the manufacturing process that fosters opposition between beauty and commerce. At the same time, I try to be optimistic and think positively. For example, threeASFOUR is a beautiful testament to perseverance in the face of homogenization. Nothing stops them. Every artist I know has to reconcile the relationship between the machine and creation. If you have the passion, nothing can stop  you.

THREEASFOUR SPRING FALL 2023 COLLECTION, PARALLEL UNIVERSE COUTURE. PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETROS KOUIOURIS. COURTESY OF THREEASFOUR.

To be featured in the Tribeca Film Festival as a first-time filmmaker is a pretty rare occurrence. Did you ever expect the documentary to follow this trajectory?

I didn’t know anything about the film festival world when we started. I thought Tribeca would be cool, because this is a New York story. threeASFOUR are international, but their core, their shared history– it’s very New York. It’s the American Dream in a sense. So, in that regard, I did feel this would be a Tribeca film, because I felt like it belonged in a New York festival. It had to be New York. I also just wanted all of our friends to be there so we could party.

Director Sean Ono Lennon photographed in New York City. Photography by Alexander Thompson.

You’re in the middle of touring at the moment, stopping off in Tribeca to give the film its due flowers. Where can we find you next?

I’m on the road with The Claypool-Lennon Delirium. We’re working on a full concept album, with an accompanying comic book and possible animated feature. Right now, we’re playing with Primus, but may do some strictly Delirium shows where we play the whole album. I’m also working on my own solo record. On the film side, the work has only just begun with threeASFOUR in terms of theatrical release, which is going to take a lot of effort. I’m in ‘putting things out’ mode. There’s this great Hemingway way quote: ‘If you speak of it, you lose it’. The energy escapes. I try not to talk about things I’m just starting to work on. It will all come along soon enough.