Su-City Pictures East, LLC

Screenplay & Film Consulting By Susan Kouguell

Category: DOCUMENTARY (page 3 of 4)

Academy Award®-Nominated Documentary Filmmaker, Carl Deal, Talks ‘Citizen Koch’ & ‘Michael Moore in TrumpLand’ for SCRIPT MAGAZINE

November 14, 2016 / / Comments Off on Academy Award®-Nominated Documentary Filmmaker, Carl Deal, Talks ‘Citizen Koch’ & ‘Michael Moore in TrumpLand’ for SCRIPT MAGAZINE

by Susan Kouguell

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Regardless of which side of the political aisle you stand, there is probably one point all sides can agree on – Academy Award® nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin make thought-provoking films that challenge the audience to question the world around them. Their two recent films, which guest speaker Carl Deal recently spoke about at Purchase College, SUNY – CITIZEN KOCH and MICHAEL MOORE IN TRUMPLAND – are no exception.

Academy Award®-Nominated Documentary Filmmaker, Carl Deal, Talks 'Citizen Koch' & 'Michael Moore in TrumpLand' by Susan Kouguell | Script Magazine #scriptchat #screenwriting

Carl Deal and Tia Lessin

About the Filmmakers

Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, are Academy Award®-nominated filmmakers, who produced and directed TROUBLE THE WATER, winner of the Gotham Independent Film Award, the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize, and the Full Frame Documentary Festival Grand Jury Prize. Deal and Lessin were, respectively, archival and supervising producers of Michael Moore’s FAHRENHEIT 9/11, winner of the Palme d’Or, Academy Award®-winning BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE and co-producers of CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, WHERE TO INVADE NEXT and most recently Deal produced (with Michael Moore) MICHAEL MOORE IN TRUMPLAND, which Lessin Executive produced.

Tia and Carl were nominated for an NAACP Image Award and a Producers Guild Award for TROUBLE THE WATER. Tia line produced Martin Scorsese’s Emmy and Grammy-winning film NO DIRECTION HOME: BOB DYLAN and was consulting producer of LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD: GEORGE HARRISON. Her work as a producer of the series THE AWFUL TRUTH earned her two Emmy nominations, one arrest and a lifetime ban from Disney World. She is the recipient of the L’Oréal Paris/Women in Film’s Women of Worth Vision Award and the Sidney Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism for BEHIND THE LABELS, a film about labor trafficking in the US garment industry. Carl Deal has contributed to many other documentary films, and worked as an international news producer and a writer, reporting from natural disasters and conflict zones throughout the U.S., Latin America, and in Iraq.

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About CITIZEN KOCH

The film tells the story of the changing American political landscape through the eyes of three Wisconsin state employees, all lifelong Republicans, who suddenly find their party taking direct aim at them, stripping away the economic ground their families have built and depended on for generations: Set against the rise of the Tea Party in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, a citizen uprising to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker collides with the Tea Party-aligned “Americans for Prosperity,” a group founded and lavishly financed by two of the world’s richest men — David and Charles Koch. As Republican working class voters find themselves in the cross-hairs of their own party and its billionaire backers, they are forced to choose sides.

CARL DEAL: “The film was made in 2011-2012, and came out in 2013. It’s very topical given the election season right now. What you see here is a behind the scenes; and today it’s still happening all over the country; there are still certain states that are being targeted in the same way as Wisconsin was targeted in this film.”

Protesters fill the rotunda in the Wisconsin State Capital in the run up to Gov. Walker’s anti-union bill in a scene from CITIZEN KOCH

Protesters fill the rotunda in the Wisconsin State Capital in the run up to Gov. Walker’s anti-union bill in a scene from CITIZEN KOCH

Advice for Storytellers

CARL DEAL: “This film began with the idea to do something about climate change deniers and along the way of making this, very early on, we concluded that we are filmmakers and we are people who are engaged with the world so we try to make media that engages with what is relevant today, in the moment. It became a movie about money and politics because we realized that’s where the problem lies. We never thought we’d be in Wisconsin; we ended up in Wisconsin sort of on a whim because that’s where the news of the day took us.   So, for you storytellers, I hope you always follow the story where it takes you, and get out of your head and not be fixed in following the idea that you have when you get support to do a project. Let the project also have a life of its own.”

Backlash

Making a film that has the potential to stir up controversy carries its own set of risks. Deal was asked how one manages the issue of backlash and specifically how they handled it on CITIZEN KOCH.

CARL DEAL: “We got Errors and Omissions insurance and we made sure that we were insured in case anything happened that got in the way of us finishing the film. We knew we were taking on some powerful interests with it.  We were set to premiere at Sundance and our broadcaster was about to release the last transfer of the film when they called us and said we needed to change the title or else. The New Yorker did an exposé on it.”

New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer writes: “Lessin and Deal had provisionally called the film “Citizen Corp,” but they worried that the title made it sound like a film about a corpse. After Sundance officials pressed for a final title so that they could start promoting it, Lessin and Deal told ITVS that they had settled on “Citizen Koch.” The new title reflected the evolution of the narrative: reporting had focused increasingly on the pitched battle in Wisconsin over the efforts of Scott Walker, the Republican governor, to ban collective bargaining by public-sector-employee unions. As the  reported, Koch Industries was among Walker’s primary financial backers in his 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

CARL DEAL: “The title of the film is so important sometimes. The “Citizen Koch” title was a direct reference to Governor Scott Walker; it set up expectations for viewers who thought it was an exposé about the Koch brothers, which it wasn’t. Think about your titles.”

Character-Driven and Context in Citizen Koch

CARL DEAL: “There are many different ways to make a documentary film. There’s a trend now to make only character-driven documentaries and those can be really beautiful and emotional stories, and I also think the context for these stories is really important. Not every audience is going to understand the context with an emotional connection to characters so that’s why we did it both ways here.”

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About MICHAEL MOORE IN TRUMPLAND

Oscar-winner Michael Moore dives deep in the heart of hostile TrumpLand territory with his daring, profound, and uproarious one-man show. When the show gets banned from the first town they tried, Mike moves on to an even bigger community of Trump supporters in the ironically-named Clinton County, Ohio.

 

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CARL DEAL:  “CITIZEN KOCH was a totally different process than MICHAEL MOORE IN TRUMPLAND.  CITIZEN KOCH took a year and a half to make because there were events unfolding over time.  With MICHAEL MOORE IN TRUMPLAND we decided to make it in early to mid-September (2016) and we shot it as a live performance in two days and we cut it in a week. The morning we finished it I called the IFC Center in downtown New York City and asked if we could do a preview screening and they said sure, and they cleared out the decks, put us in the big theatre and we had thousands of people who were winding around the block because there was a hunger for something new, for someone to say something new about this election cycle in popular media.”

Final Words

CARL DEAL: “When you make movies hopefully you’re transformed through the process in some way because you’re engaging with material with events in the documentary but you’re trying to tell the story and there’s an artistic component to it. When it works well, the audience can tell that the creator has been changed or transformed in some way, has been impacted by what they’re doing.”

Visit these sites to read more about CITIZEN KOCH and MICHAEL MOORE IN TRUMPLAND.

Susan Interviews Producer & Co-director Juliana Penaranda-Loftus of ‘Landfill Harmonic’ for SCRIPT MAGAZINE

August 25, 2016 / / Comments Off on Susan Interviews Producer & Co-director Juliana Penaranda-Loftus of ‘Landfill Harmonic’ for SCRIPT MAGAZINE

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“To have nothing is not an excuse to do nothing”
–Favio Chávez,
Conductor of the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura

Favio Chavez (Orchestra Director)

After their awe-inspiring concerts made them viral sensations and put them in the spotlight of international media, The Recyled Orchestra of Cateura has been featured on 60 Minutes, NBC News, People, Time, Wired, Oprah Magazine, NPR Music, and more.

LANDFILL HARMONIC, the award-winning documentary has received over 30 awards at international festivals.

As a classically trained violist, I had the opportunity to play with a youth orchestra when I was a teenager and travel on concert tours to South America and the Far East.  Whether we played in the jungles of the Amazon or a president’s palace, and regardless of the audience’s economic and ethnic backgrounds, these six weeks of summer travel and approximately 30 concerts, forever impacted my life.

The often-used phrase “the universal language of music” is not a cliché, it is indeed the truth and underscored in the documentary Landfill Harmonic.

Several years ago when I first saw the 60 Minutes piece about Favio Chávez and his Recycled Orchestra of Cateura in Paraguay, it grabbed my attention and as time passed the story of the orchestra continued to pique my interest.  After viewing a press screener of Landfill Harmonic, I knew I had to set up an interview.

One doesn’t need to be a musician or even sing in tune, to be enthralled by the power of this film.

IMG_3471 violines

Synopsis

Landfill Harmonic follows the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, a Paraguayan musical group that plays instruments made entirely out of garbage. When their story goes viral, the orchestra is catapulted into the global spotlight. Under the guidance of idealistic music director Favio Chávez, the orchestra must navigate a strange new world of arenas and sold-­out concerts. However, when a natural disaster strikes their country, Favio must find a way to keep the orchestra intact and provide a source of hope for their town. The film is a testament to the transformative power of music and the resilience of the human spirit.

Producer and co-director Juliana Penaranda–Loftus

DSC_6213 Juliana head shotRecently I had the opportunity to speak with producer and co-director Juliana Penaranda-Loftus by phone for our interview.

Juliana Penaranda-Loftus began her career working in production for prime time television shows in Colombia. After completing her Bachelor’s degree, she moved to the United States where she received her Master’s Degree in Film from the American University in Washington, DC. After September 11, she directed and produced a documentary about Aid Afghanistan, an organization fighting for the right to educate women. The organization used the documentary to raise funds to support schools and programs in Afghanistan. Since then, Juliana has produced several independent feature films and in 2009 established her own production company, Hidden Village Films with the purpose of producing films of social relevance. In 2012 she was one of eight women selected by the American Film Institute for their Directing Workshop for Women.

KOUGUELL:  Tell me about the evolution of this film.

PENARANDA–LOFTUS: Alejandra Amarilla (Founder and Executive Producer) contacted me at the end of 2008 to talk about the idea of making a documentary about underserved children in Paraguay her home country.

In April 2009, we traveled to start the research and find the story. It was the last day of the trip when we heard the story about Favio Chávez and his efforts of teaching children with recycled instruments. Alejandra loved the story from the beginning and as founder she selected from the options we had. I loved the story too. We saw the potential with Favio to be able to take the kids to where they are today.

We started following up the story via phone calls and email.  I was doing pre-interviews over the phone and email. We returned to Paraguay every year, sometimes twice a year depending on what was going on.

The production took five years. We started shooting in July 2010 and the last shoot took place in September 2014.

About the Collaboration

Landfill Harmonic is directed by Brad Allgood and Graham Townsley, and co-directed and produced by Juliana Penaranda-Loftus.

Due to the filmmaking team’s outside work commitments and changing schedules, the process was further complicated by the need to reshoot some sections.  Penaranda-Loftus emphasized the importance of the great teamwork they had, which made this film become a reality.

PENARANDA–LOFTUS:  Allgood and Townsley joined the project in 2012 and 2013. It was a collaborative work, as the story took place over the course of five years but Alejandra and I were keeping the integrity of the story from beginning to end. I was the direct contact with the characters over the years.   Our co-producer, Jorge Maldonado, joined us in 2010 and he went to Paraguay since then too.

Brad Allgood was the director and editor; he also shot the flood sequence.   Because of the amount of footage collected over the years, Brad was fundamental to building the overall story.  Alejandra and I worked very closely with him on the structure since we followed the story from beginning.

Preproduction

KOUGUELL: Did you do pre-interviews with the young musicians?

PENARANDA–LOFTUS:  Yes. We sent the interview questions to the field producer in Paraguay.  Back then, the kids did not have Internet or phones, now actually everyone has one.  We had five characters and we had to find who was the most open to talk.  Some characters were closed to talk about their life.

Miércoles 8 de mayo de 2013. Cateura, Paraguay

The Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, Paraguay

The Message

KOUGUELL: Without being didactic, the film conveys several poignant messages about the universal language of music, as well as the direct connection about environmental issues (the complexities of the landfill provides jobs yet it comes with health risks) and the environmental disaster of the flooding the community endures to survive.  Can you speak more to this?

PENARANDA–LOFTUS: We tried not to be preachy.  We wanted to make a point about the environment, the music, and posing the topic of recycling in a different way without being that obvious.  Music was giving us a means to talk about recycling. People don’t want to talk about global warming when we talked to them.

Favio Chávez actually raised that issue; he used music as a way to talk about recycling without saying, ‘We’re going to talk about recycling.’  We knew that the music was very universal and emotional, and how Favio used music as a tool. Favio Chávez was an environmental technician and he tried to talk first about the environmental challenges and he felt he couldn’t do it. He found music as a way to talk about the importance of the environment and of recycling.

KOUGUELL:  Indeed.  If an audience member thought this film was romanticizing the town’s impoverished situation, the flood puts their story in raw perspective and the continued challenges the community faces.

PENARANDA–LOFTUS: The flood was obviously unexpected.  In 2013, Brad was editing the film, we didn’t know how we were going to find the funding to reedit the film we just knew we had to film the flood.

Brad Allgood and Juliana Penaranda-Loftus

Brad Allgood and Juliana Penaranda-Loftus

Paraguay was devastated by the largest flood in over 20 years. Nearly 300,000 people were displaced due to the flooding, and many members of the orchestra were flooded out of their homes.

With their budget and time was running out, they took a skeleton crew to Paraguay on two shoots to cover the flood. The community of Cateura sat under nearly eight-feet of water for two months, as the 15,000 families in surrounding communities moved to higher ground, living in plywood shacks during that time.

_MG_9144 Tania holding violin at home

PENARANDA–LOFTUS: The flood brings a lot to the story; it brings the issue about community effort and how they were able to help each other. It also brings the story of the environment, the floods that are happening in the world, and climate change.

Landfill Harmonic opens theatrically in New York City on September 9th  and in Los Angeles on September 23.

 

More articles by Susan Kouguell

LANDFILLL HARMONIC WEBSITE

 

Inspiring Storytelling and Insights from the Filmmakers at the Tribeca Film Festival’s Documentary Shorts: ‘New York Then’ Program (for SCRIPT MAGAZINE)

May 31, 2016 / / Comments Off on Inspiring Storytelling and Insights from the Filmmakers at the Tribeca Film Festival’s Documentary Shorts: ‘New York Then’ Program (for SCRIPT MAGAZINE)

By: Susan Kouguell | May 30, 2016

Good storytelling is the key to a successful documentary.  Whether you are profiling a person, investigating a crime or documenting an event, telling an engaging and thought-provoking story is imperative in order to capture your intended audience. In a short or feature-length documentary, ‘characters’ give a face to the story you are telling. A character can not only be human but an animal, an object, a location, or the filmmaker can choose to be a character in his or her film.

Documentary filmmakers approach their material, and find inspiration and ideas in various ways. The documentary shorts presented at the Tribeca Film Festival were no exception. Joe’s Violin, Mulberry, Starring Austin Pendleton, Taylor and Ultra on the 60s, The Factory and Being a Warhol Superstar and Dead Ringers centered on some element or reflection on New York’s past, delving into themes of chaos, survival, and a glimpse into a life of the city that forever evolves and a time that cannot be forgotten.

After the screening, the filmmakers joined in for a Q&A.

Inspiring Storytelling and Insights from the Filmmakers at the Tribeca Film Festival's Documentary Shorts: 'New York Then' Program by Susan Kouguell #scriptchat #screenwriting

Joe Fiengold and Brianna Perez meet for the first time. Photo credit: Cinematographer Bob Richman.

About the Film: Joe’s Violin

A 91-year-old Holocaust survivor donates his violin to an instrument drive, changing the life of a 12-year-old schoolgirl from the Bronx and unexpectedly, his own.

About the Director: Kahane Cooperman is the director/producer of Joe’s Violin’ She has also directed several other documentaries. She is currently the showrunner/executive producer of The New Yorker Presents. Prior to that role, she was a co-executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. She began her career at Maysles Films.

Kahane Cooperman talks about Joe’s Violin

Cooperman began by introducing the two subjects of her film who were seated in the audience, the violin owner Joseph Feingold and Brianna.

“The way I got this idea was very simple. My car radio was on and I tuned on the classical radio station WQXR and I heard a promo for their instrument drive; it said donate your instruments and the instruments are going to New York City school kids. They mentioned the donations they already had gotten and one of the instruments was Joseph’s violin. I just thought, I wonder if there’s a story there with this violin and if the student who gets the violin will know the story. I got in touch with the radio station and they allowed me the privilege of pursuing the story and this film is what unfolded. It was a very moving experience. I do love music but I don’t play an instrument. I think music is incredibly powerful but I’m also moved by the idea of how a small gesture can make you dream and change someone’s life. Somehow the idea of this was very compelling to me and that it might play out in the context of this one instrument shared by two people who were born 80 years apart.”

Vinny Vella sits in front of Mo’s the butcher on Elizabeth Street in Little Italy. From the short film MULBERRY. Photo Credit: Paul Stone

Vinny Vella sits in front of Mo’s the butcher on Elizabeth Street in Little Italy. From the short film MULBERRY. Photo Credit: Paul Stone

About the Film: Mulberry

This cinematic portrait of Little Italy explores how a working class neighborhood of tenement buildings transformed into the third most expensive zip code in the United States. Part funny, part sad, the film investigates how gentrification and rent control are affecting the neighborhood’s long-term residents.

About the Director: Paul Stone

Brooklynite Paul Stone started his directing career in the edit room at Ridley Scott & Associates. In Tales of Time Square, Paul recreated 1980’s Time Square. The footage was often mistaken for stock and went on to be screened at over 50 festivals in the U.S. and abroad. His previous short Man Under( TFF 2015) explored the rise in NYC subway suicides.

Paul Stone talks about Mulberry

“I saw my neighborhood disappearing, changing. I have no problem with gentrification, but it’s gotten to a point of hyper gentrification. Little Italy in New York is known for its soul and its people, and it was rapidly disappearing. I wanted to tell the story about who inspired me in terms of my friends and that Little Italy is still alive and well, and that there are still a lot of characters left.”

Austin Pendleton teaching a class at HB Studios in the West Village of Manhattan 2011. Shot by Greg Vanderveer. Directors Gene Gallerano and David H. Holmes

Austin Pendleton teaching a class at HB Studios in the West Village of Manhattan 2011. Shot by Greg Vanderveer. Directors Gene Gallerano and David H. Holmes

About the Film: Starring Austin Pendleton

Austin Pendleton is that quintessential character actor you might recognize. We follow Austin as he reflects on his life and craft, while his A-list peers discuss his vast influence, dogged determination, and what it means to be an original in today’s celebrity-obsessed world.

About the Directors Gene Gallerano and David H. Holmes

David H. Holmes has studied and acted under the direction of Mr. Pendleton. His film and television credits include Birdman, Law and Order, Girls, Mr. Robot, and The Following. Gene Gallerano is the co-founder of The Neboya Collective, and has produced and starred in works including, Occupy, Texas, Fireworks, and The Talk Men, which he also directed.

Holmes and Gallerano talk about Starring Austin Pendleton

The directors met ten years ago in an Off-Broadway show and studied with Austin Pendleton for about five years. They consider him a big mentor.

“We look up to him a lot and we wanted to make sure in the end that we could look him in the eye. He was very happy we made the film. At the Tribeca Talks the other day it was the first time Austin saw it.  Someone asked him if he had any input into the film and he said no because then you start manipulating it and controlling it; particularly his stutter, he said I would have told them ‘cut that’’. He wasn’t preventing us from making art.”

Taylor Mead outside Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village From "Taylor & Ultra on the 60's, The Factory & Being a Warhol Superstar" A Brian Bayerl Film produced by Michael Huter

Taylor Mead outside Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village
From “Taylor & Ultra on the 60’s, The Factory & Being a Warhol Superstar”
A Brian Bayerl Film produced by Michael Huter

About the Film: Taylor and Ultra on the 60s, The Factory and Being a Warhol Superstar  

Warhol superstar Ultra Violet (Isabelle Colin Dufresne) and Lower East Side icon Taylor Mead (poet/actor/artist) share their stories of Manhattan in the 1960s.

About the Director: Brian Bayerl

Brian Bayerl’s documentary work includes 8: The Mormon Proposition (Sundance 2010), and For Once in My Life (SXSW Audience Award Winner 2010). This is his third collaboration with producer Michael Huter, including Datuna: Portrait of America (London’s Raindance Winner 2015) and Full Circle.

Brian Bayerl talks about Taylor and Ultra on the 60s, The Factory and Being a Warhol Superstar

“Our producer  came across photographs of Robert Indiana, Andy Warhol, Taylor Mead and Ultra Violet and a lot of other figures of the sixties Pop Art. When documenting those photographs we met Taylor Mead and Ultra Violet and instantly fell in love with them; they were just so captivating and charismatic and fun that over the next four years we had opportunities to interview them and gather footage. When we lost both of them, we were approached by the Warhol Museum about putting something together and that’s exactly what we wanted to do. We put this film together as an homage to both of them.”

Still from the short film DEAD RINGER. Photo credit: Mike Tucker

Still from the short film DEAD RINGER. Photo credit: Mike Tucker

About the film Dead Ringer

There are only four outdoor phone booths left in all of New York City—this is a late night conversation with one of them.

About the Directors: Alex Kliment, Dana O’Keefe, and Michael Tucker

Alex Kliment is a filmmaker and musician from New York. He is also a talking head. Dana O’Keefe is a filmmaker based in New York and Stockholm. Michael Tucker is a documentary filmmaker who lives in upstate New York.

Alex Kliment, Dana O’Keefe, and Michael Tucker talk about Dead Ringer

“Our film started with learning about the statistic that there were only four outdoor telephone booths left in New York City. The city’s replacing them with Wi-Fi hotspots, We thought, ‘What’s a fun way to dramatize the changing urban landscape that also reflects a lot of other changes of the human landscape and how we relate to each other. We thought about how to impersonate and put ourselves in the mind of a pay phone.  This film was an opportunity to visit with very tragic heroes of our sidewalk — the payphones of New York City.”

There are many techniques and modes from which writers can choose to convey your story.   Keep in mind why the subject matter of your intended documentary is important to you and who the main characters are and their goals and/or possible agendas.  Watch other documentaries that share your style and sensibility and subject matter, to find inspiration.

More articles by Susan Kouguell

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MICHAEL MOORE: WHERE TO INVADE NEXT (INDIEWIRE/SYDNEYSBUZZ)

October 6, 2015 / / Comments Off on MICHAEL MOORE: WHERE TO INVADE NEXT (INDIEWIRE/SYDNEYSBUZZ)

A Conversation with Oscar® winner Michael Moore at the New York Film Festival

Moore’s latest film, “Where to Invade Next” explores the current state of the nation.

 

 

Michael Moore and Susan Kouguell

Twenty-six years ago — (Michael Moore reminded me how long ago it was) — I was an acquisitions consultant for Warner Bros. and discovered a new documentary at the Independent Feature Film Market. I ran to the payphone (yes, pre-cell phone days) downstairs at the Anjelica Film Center and called my boss to tell her she must see it. The film was “Roger & Me.” Warner Bros. picked up the film.

Since then, Moore continued making provocative and impassioned films, including the Academy Award-winning “Bowling for Columbine,” “Sicko,” “Fahrenheit 9/11,” and “Capitalism: A Love Story.” Moore’s latest film, “Where to Invade Next” explores the current state of the nation.

Moore: “My film is about us. I just decided to tell a story about America without shooting a single frame of the movie in the United States.”

Former Radius Founders and Co-Presidents Tom Quinn and Jason Janego are teaming with Alamo Drafthouse Founder and CEO Tim League to form the yet-to-be-named distribution label and will distribute “Where to Invade Next.”

"Where to Invade Next"
“Where to Invade Next”

Here are highlights from the New York Film Festival press screening.

The idea for the film

“I was 19 and I just dropped out of college. I got the Eurail pass and youth hostel card and spent a couple of months going around Europe. I was in Sweden and broke a toe, and I was sent to a clinic. I went to pay the bill and there was no bill. I never heard of such a thing. And all through Europe I kept running into things like that. And I thought why can’t we do that? The idea grew organically as most of the things do in my films.”

Planning ahead

“Don’t give me too much credit for thinking this out a whole lot in advance. We don’t think it would be really cool to sit down at the lunch table with a can of Coke and see what the kids do.

The best stuff is what I don’t plan out. What my field producers do in terms of research — I have them tell me only the basics, I don’t want to know any of the research. When the Italian couple (in the film) tells me about the 15 days paid vacation, this is the first time I’ve heard it, even if the field producers know it. I don’t want to act. We don’t do a second take. If the sound guy says we didn’t get it, you can’t ask them (the subjects) to do it again. We’ve seen too many documentaries like that. It has to happen with them and me in the moment.”

No, Michael Moore is not running for office

“…to say that you have the right to regulate a woman’s uterus but not guns? It’s like, I think the only safe place for guns is in a woman’s uterus. Then
they would be regulated by our Republican congress!

I talk politically a lot, but if I really just wanted to make political speeches, I would run for office or give sermons.”

“I went to pick the flowers and not the weeds.”

A line from Moore’s film, which he further details: “Every country has a lot of problems. I didn’t go there to make a film about your countries. There are
a lot of things you’re dealing with, but that’s not my film. My film is about us, not about you. I just decided to tell a story about America without
shooting a single frame in the United States.”

About Michael Moore’s Happiness

“The difference about this film (compared to his others), some people say it’s not so angry, (that) I’m happier. I’m angrier than ever. Maybe I came up
with a more subversive way to deal with that anger with the condition of this country.”

In closing

“We’re filmmakers. We love the art of cinema and we love what it can do to move people through fiction or non-fiction.”

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Marcel Ophüls – The Memory of Justice

September 27, 2015 / / Comments Off on Marcel Ophüls – The Memory of Justice

A Conversation with
Academy Award-Winning Director
Marcel Ophüls

Professor Regina Longo, Cinema Studies faculty at Purchase College, SUNY, moderated a discussion with Oscar-winning director Marcel Ophüls.

"The Memory of Justice"

Several days prior to the “The Memory of Justice” (1976) screening of the newly restored film at the New York Film Festival, on September 27, Professor Regina Longo, Cinema Studies faculty at Purchase College, SUNY, moderated a discussion with Oscar-winning director Marcel Ophüls.

From the New York Film Festival: “The third of Marcel Ophüls’ monumental inquiries into the questions of individual and collective guilt following the calamities of war and genocide, ‘The Memory of Justice’ examines three of the defining tragedies of the Western world in the second half of the 20th century, from the Nuremberg trials through the French-Algerian war to the disaster of Vietnam, building from a vast range of interviews, from Telford Taylor (Counsel for the Prosecution at Nuremberg, later a harsh critic of our escalating involvement in Vietnam) to Nazi architect Albert Speer to Daniel Ellsberg and Joan Baez.”

Marcel Ophüls

Conversation Highlights

On  “The Memory of Justice”

Making the film — it was not sense of mission. I didn’t think I had to teach other people what the Holocaust was about or what other aspects of World War II were about. It was my job to make an audio visual form of storytelling of contemporary events. I don’t want to change the world. I think that’s much too big a job.

READ MORE HERE

DE PALMA documentary at the New York Film Festival

September 22, 2015 / / Comments Off on DE PALMA documentary at the New York Film Festival

A Conversation with Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow 
on Brian De Palma and their New Documentary De Palma 
at the New York Film Festival

By Susan Kouguell

“I lived in a family of egotists” – Brian De Palma in De Palma
Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow 

at the New York Film Festival
Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow 

at the New York Film Festival

In the documentary “De Palma” directed by Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow, iconoclast American director Brian De Palma talks directly to the camera, in an honest recounting of the highlights and low points of his movie-making career. Only De Palma is seen interviewed on camera; no other talking heads, no other voice-over interviews from either Baumbach or Paltrow are seen or heard.

Paltrow: “The film was shot with one camera and one angle on Brian. There are no other people talking about Brian. It was our direct approach to him.”

Intercut with clips from De Palma’s body of work from the 1960s to the present, as well as from other directors, most notably Alfred Hitchcock, the film moves at a rapid pace with honesty and a sense of humor, as it explores how movies get made (and often not the way intended) and how they don’t get made.

Directors Baumbach and Paltrow describe their documentary as an extension of their friendship, having spent time with Brian De Palma over the last ten years.

Paltrow: “We kept it in the same spirit as having coffee with him.”

Noah Baumbach
Noah Baumbach

Baumbach: “Brian was totally open and available. We wanted to talk about filmmaking. We weren’t going to go in areas that were uncomfortable for him. We’d let him guide, knowing that we would let him lead the way.”

Paltrow: “The most surprising for us about Brian was how electric he was on camera; how he told these stories the same as he did with us at dinner. He was so good on camera. So direct. So made for cinema.”

From the success of his films “Carrie,” “Dressed to Kill,” “Blow Out,” and “Carlito’s Way” to the box-office failures, including “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “Mission to Mars,” De Palma is candid about his successes and failures.

 

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Agnès Varda Salute

April 27, 2015 / / Comments Off on Agnès Varda Salute

The Actualities of Agnès Varda at the Film Society of Lincoln Center

by Susan Kouguell

 

Agnès Varda at the Film Society of Lincoln Center

Agnès Varda at the Film Society of Lincoln Center

In a salute to Agnès Varda at the Film Society of Lincoln Center Art of the Real, Documentary Redefined Series in New York City, Varda’s short films and features were included in the Actualities of Agnès Varda program, featuring the acclaimed filmmaker in person.

I had the honor of speaking with Agnès Varda at the 2014 Locarno Film Festival at two separate events, which I covered for this publication:Conversation with Varda: HERE and Highlights from the Locarno Film Summer Academy Master Class : HERE

Speaking before and after each of the following short films, Agnès Varda is ever the powerful and poignant storyteller with a provocative sense of humor.

 

“Black Panthers” (1968, 31 minutes)

"Black Panthers"
“Black Panthers”

Centering on a “Free Huey” rally in Oakland California in 1968, Varda discussed her experience filming this short documentary.

Varda: “Tom Luddy told me I should come to Oakland because of these demonstrations. Every Saturday I flew from Los Angeles to be there. I had a 16mm camera. I shot a lot of it alone; and I had some help from some others. I needed to get their speeches. I needed to understand the mind body theory. So far, the theory of black men was written by white men. This was the first time they were really involved in their own history. I remember thinking about the women, and also for the first time in the sixties women were writing about their history. I was fascinated by the equivalence. It was a precise time in 1968; two years later it was almost gone. It was so important at the time; I thought and everyone thought it would change the history of black people. The documentary bore witness, the testimony of that time of the Black Panthers. The film was not shown in France; they were afraid to wake students. It was not shown in the U.S. then either.”

“I bore witness. I was discreet as much as possible. It belongs to their history. Each time there is a film about Black history, we are asked about it.”

Susan Kouguell and Agnès Varda at the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Susan Kouguell and Agnès Varda at the Film Society of Lincoln Center

 

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Reenactments in Documentary Films Is There an Authentic Truth in Documentary? (SCRIPT MAGAZINE)

April 17, 2015 / / Comments Off on Reenactments in Documentary Films Is There an Authentic Truth in Documentary? (SCRIPT MAGAZINE)

Reenactments in Documentary Films: Is There an Authentic Truth in Documentary?

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Replicate. Reproduce. Reveal. Is there an authentic truth in documentary?

The use of reenactment in documentary films has filmmakers, film theorists and critics divided. Some believe the use of reenactments brings historical accuracy into question while others feel it enhances history. More recently, exploitative crime television shows and docudramas that utilize reenactments are often over-the-top melodrama, thus further fueling this topic and giving it a poor name.

Documentaries are often labelled subjective or objective, but arguably a purely objective documentary does not exist. Why? Documentarians are always making choices: what, where and how to shoot, who and what to include and who and what not to include in the film, and how to structure the film — in a nonlinear or linear fashion. All these can elements subtly — or not so subtly — reveal the filmmaker’s attitude about the subject matter and in turn this influences the audience’s response.

Documentaries are often labelled subjective or objective, but arguably a purely objective documentary does not exist. Why? Documentarians are always making choices: what, where and how to shoot, who and what to include and who and what not to include in the film, and how to structure the film — in a nonlinear or linear fashion.  All these can elements subtly — or not so subtly — reveal the filmmaker’s attitude about the subject matter and in turn this influences the audience’s response.

Documentary Films

Reenactments in documentary films have a long tradition. Stepping back for a moment in time, let’s examine a few examples.

Considered to be the first full-length documentary Nanook of the North, (1922) directed by Robert Flaherty, involved a group of Inuit, living on the Hudson Bay coast below the Arctic Circle. This silent film contains several reenacted and restaged scenes, including a walrus hunt. Ethnographic director Flaherty argued that because the recreated scenes were based on his subjects’ memories, he believed the film was truthful in spirit.

German director Harun Farocki’s anti-war documentary Inextinguishable Fire (1969, black and white, 29 minutes) explores the manufacturing and use of napalm by reenacting the inner workings of Dow Chemical Company’s Michigan headquarters during the Vietnam War, using only a small amount of actual combat footage. Taking the idea of recreation and reenactment a bold step further, director Jill Godmilow’s What Farocki Taught (1998) is a 30-minute, shot-for-shot remake of Inextinguishable Fire. Translated from German into English and filmed on color Kodachrome, the backdrops, props, script, costumes and shots are all copies of the original. Every shot is reproduced — with an occasional superimposition of Farocki’s film.

Director Errol Morris’s film The Thin Blue Line (1988) employed staged re-enactment scenes of a police officer’s murder in order to demonstrate various witnesses’ contradictory testimonies. The film argued that Randall Adams was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County Texas.

In a 2014 interview for this publication, I asked writer, producer, director Allie light, winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for In The Shadow Of The Stars with her partner Irving Saraf, about the use of reenactments in her films.

LIGHT: “A good reason for doing reenactments is that the past lives of most people are not documented, so very little material exists to tell the story. Film is a medium of action. If the documentary or non-fiction filmmaker relies only on the interview, the story is stagnant and becomes merely a retelling of the past. No matter how good the story is, it will bore the viewer and viewers are then a trapped audience with nothing to look at. Our very short reenactments, usually only seconds long, we call emotional equivalents. We treat these images much like Alfred Stieglitz treated his cloud photographs–he called them ‘equivalents of his own experiences, thoughts, and emotion.’ Most of the reenactments in my film Dialogues With Madwomen are equivalents of what is being spoken at that moment.”

Do reenactments work? Will employing this device in the film that you are working on enhance or detract from your project? In the end, it is a decision only you, the documentarian can answer.

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THE ART OF REENACTMENT

April 16, 2015 / / Comments Off on THE ART OF REENACTMENT

‘Repeat as Necessary: The Art of the Real’ Series at the Film Society Lincoln Center

by Susan Kouguell

As part of the Repeat as Necessary: The Art of the Real series at Lincoln Center, Harun Farocki’s anti-war film “Inextinguishable Fire” and Jill Godmilow’s “What Farocki Taught” were recently screened followed by an insightful Q&A.

“Inextinguishable Fire” directed by Harun Farocki and “What Farocki Taught” directed by Jill Godmilow

"Inextinguishable Fire"
“Inextinguishable Fire”

“Because so many images already exist, I am discouraged to make new ones; I prefer to make a different use of pre-existing images. But not every image can be recycled; a hidden value must pre-exist.” (Harun Farocki, 2008 interview with the South China Morning Post)

As part of the Repeat as Necessary: The Art of Reenactment at the Film Society Lincoln Center program, German director Harun Farocki’s anti-war film “Inextinguishable Fire” (1969, black and white, 29 minutes) screened first followed by Jill Godmilow’s “What Farocki Taught” (1998, 16 mm 30 minutes) a shot-for-shot remake of “Inextinguishable Fire.” Translated from German into English and filmed on color Kodachrome, the backdrops, props, script, costumes and shots are all copies of the original. Every shot is reproduced — with an occasional superimposition of Farocki’s on set about her project: “We don’t have a name for this type of film… it replaces the documentary’s pornography of the real.”

"What Farocki Taught"
“What Farocki Taught”

Filmmaker and video artist Faroki (1944-2014) made over 100 films, many of which were experimental documentaries, often addressing the use of images to instruct and propagandize.

Director Jill Godmilow’s films include the 1974 Academy Award-nominated “Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman” co-directed with Judy Collins, “Far From Poland” (1984), about the Polish Solidarity movement known for its ground-breaking deconstructive approach to the juxtaposition of fact and fiction in documentary, and the Sundance fiction winner “Waiting for the Moon” (1987) about Gertrude Stein.

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‘Ballet 422′ and Cinema Truth (SCRIPT MAGAZINE)

February 11, 2015 / / Comments Off on ‘Ballet 422′ and Cinema Truth (SCRIPT MAGAZINE)

by Susan Kouguell

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‘Ballet 422′ and Cinema Truth

The truth about documentary is this — there are many categories and styles — from investigative to personality-driven, to topics that expose cover-ups and catastrophes, to — well, yes – the list goes on and your imagination is the limit.

Many film theoreticians and documentarians differ on their interpretations over what elements should or should not be included when categorizing the various styles of documentary films, but what they do agree upon is this — there are no strict rules one must adhere to when making documentaries.   And so, one can say there is often an exception to every “rule” when labeling and categorizing the various styles of documentaries.

So, if one truth is that there are no hard and fast rules in making documentaries, how does the writer know how to write a documentary?

In writing and/or sketching out the ideas for a documentary you can present ideas objectively, subjectively, or let the subject and/or subject matter speak for themselves/itself. You can follow the traditional 3-act structure or a non-traditional narrative format, or use talking heads, stock footage, dramatic reenactments, voiceover narration, still photographs, live action, animation, put yourself in the story or just allow images and your subjects to convey the story. You can use some or all of these choices, or create something else. The choice is up to you.

large_ballet422_web_2

Choosing Cinema Vérité: Ballet 422 and Cinema Truth

Director Jody Lee Lipes describes his new documentary Ballet 422 as Cinema Vérité. Translated from the French, this term defined as “cinema truth,” is also referred to as Fly on the Wall or Direct Cinema. The “truth” is underscored in this definition; the filmmaker captures what is happening in front of the camera without artifice.

Some of the elements that are seen in Cinema Vérité include the use of handheld cameras, natural lighting, direct sound, and location filming — while elements not generally seen are the utilization of voice-over narrations, talking heads and extensive background information. Examples of this filmmaking category are the 1973 PBS series An American Family, which followed the daily lives of the Loud family for seven months and Grey Gardens (1975) directed by Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, about a mother and daughter reclusive socialites, living in a decrepit Long Island mansion.

From first rehearsal to world premiere, Ballet 422 goes behind the scenes at the New York City Ballet, as it follows Justin Peck, 25, a dancer with the NYCB and up-and-coming choreographer, as he creates his new work “Paz de la Jolla” from its first rehearsal to world premiere. This commissioned ballet is NYCB’s 422nd new ballet — hence the film’s title.

Justin Peck is the main character and the film takes the viewer on his journey, offering glimpses into the ballet world and Peck’s work process as he collaborates with fellow dancers, orchestra musicians, lighting and costume designers.

In Ballet 422, there are no re-enactments, voiceovers, or talking heads — there are only a few lines of superimposed text that offer only brief background information about choreographer Peck, who shows minimal emotion throughout the film. Peck is focused, confident, and demonstrates only glimpses of nervousness as the premiere date approaches.

A vital element of cinema vérité is spontaneity. The director is the observer, witnessing the action without interfering in it or controlling it. Portable equipment (handheld cameras, and so on) allows the cameraperson and sound recorder to go to the subjects rather than the subjects going to them. Another cinema vérité element seen in Ballet 422 are several quick moments where there was a boom mic in the shot, or a mirror reflection of a camera person filming the dancers.

Director Jody Lee Lipes and Producer Anna Rose Holmer at the Emelin Theatre in Mamaroneck, New York discuss the Writing Process and Influences

Producer Anna Rose Holmer: “The film’s influence is Studs Terkel’s Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. When you focus on people, you learn a lot about what makes them tick. The drama is there. There were no tantrums. The quiet storm was happening.

Director Jody Lee Lipes: “Letting people in the film dictate it is better than what you can write. We sketched out ideas of the story arc. The biggest change was in the end when we learned that Justin was dancing in another piece the same night of his premiere. The writing process happened in the editing room. One of the storytelling devices the editor and I used to make it feel move forward was to build on each rehearsal — we see Justin alone, Justin with one dancer, then the whole corps, and then the entire cast. The first time we see Albert (ballet master) and Justin walking on stage, because of that progression of scenes, we know we’re getting closer to the premiere of the ballet.”

There is not the expected or anticipated drama or melodrama of a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the New York ballet world.

Lipes: “Justin, the subject, doesn’t change with the camera on him. That is the real Justin. This is why I made the movie; I love watching someone really focused on what they’re doing.”

Your Next Steps

Watch documentaries that share your aesthetic, ideas, and sensibility, and then note down what makes your project different. As you develop and sketch out your ideas think about who your main characters are, their goals, desires, and agendas, and what your significant message is.

You can leave everything to chance or adhere strictly to your script. The choices are up to you. Your mantra to keep in mind when writing and sketching out your ideas for a documentary? Truth is stranger than fiction.

 

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