Moon Zappa and Director Thorsten Schütte Share How ‘Eat That Question’ Shows the Many Faces of Frank Zappa

Patrick Regan

All documentarian Thorsten Schütte had to do to make “Eat That Question” was bake a cake.

Well, truthfully, he had to do a great deal more than that but according to Frank Zappa’s daughter Moon Unit Zappa, he did have to bake her mother a cake so good it turned your worst enemies into your closest friends. They both sat down with Entertainment Voice to talk about “Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in his own Words” and their new appreciation for the man behind the music.

Schütte was introduced to Frank Zappa at the tender age of 12. Just before summer break, his music teacher let his class choose one album. Between all the classical composers, they found a single compilation of pop music. “From the moment the needle hit the record” on the Mothers of Inventions’ “Who Are the Brain Police,” Schütte was hooked.

A self-described “archive buff,” Schütte dug deep into old Frank Zappa footage both forgotten and unseen and what he discovered inspired him to make the movie. It was a side of Frank Zappa most people don’t see or don’t remember; the artist struggling to find respect, the man who would be the next great American composer. This is the Frank Zappa that his daughter Moon remembers – relentlessly dedicated and focused on his craft.

As she recalls, he could be gone for nine months of the year touring and would work in their basement studio for the entire time he was at home, communicating through an intercom and waking up around the time Moon and her siblings would get home from school. She would bring down breakfast (scrambled eggs with cayenne pepper and espresso) to her father’s naked sleeping form.

Early on in his eight-year process of making “Eat That Question,” Schütte realized he would need permission from the Zappa family. Gail Zappa, the gatekeeper, was initially uncertain; there are far too many people out in the world looking to take advantage of Frank Zappa’s name or to make their careers on his.

The documentarian was persistent, though, and he finally had the chance to sit down with Gail, show her his early footage and make his sincerity clear. He didn’t just want to make a fan’s film about Frank Zappa. This was to be a film showing Frank’s evolution as an artist and a composer. Even in his early years as someone “timid, shy and looking for his position,” Schütte saw in Zappa the man he would become, and he wanted to show the 40 years of dedication it took to become a great American composer.

To Thorsten Schütte, this was a way of bringing Frank Zappa to the Millennial generation as well as showing a side of the artist most didn’t get to see. Moon felt the same way; watching this film gave her a view of her father she had never seen before – a view of his life on the road, of him as a man in all his sexuality even as she knew the core was the relentless, striving composer.

And the cake? Gail Zappa happened to call Schütte when he was baking in the kitchen. He decided to bring a cake along the next time he saw her. As he put it: “This is how bribery works in documentaries.”

“Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words” hits nationwide theaters on June 24.