Blogging SilverDocs: The Filmmakers

No Imact Man and his daughter shop for food at a local farmers' market.

This week I’ll be heading to SilverDocs Documentary Film Festival and International Documentary Conference in Silver Spring, MD outside of Washington, DC.

I interviewed four filmmakers via e-mail before the festival and I look forward to meeting up with them and asking more questions at SilverDocs.

Long Distance
Moritz Siebert
28 min. | United Kingdom

Synopsis: Punctuated by long-distance calls to his family in Ethiopia, Abiyot’s existence revolves around running. Running gives structure to his life, and winning races gives him money to send to his family. Will injuries jeopardize his Spartan lifestyle and prevent him from helping his family? Is this the new American Dream?

How did you become involved with the subject of the film, and what were you doing immediately before that prepared you to be ready to recognize the story and be able to commit to it?

I read an article about this group of Ethiopian and Kenyan runners in a German newspaper back in 2006. I am very interested in the subject of migration and had done a few docs on the subject already. I always try and find stories that challenge our general stereotypical views on migrants from poorer countries and found it interesting that these guys, although they live, in a way, a lifestyle like many people do who come from Africa to the USA (share a two bedroom apartment among 6 of them, sending every few dollars they save home to support their families in their home countries, etc), they on the other hand are highly skilled professionals (marathon runners) and pursue their dreams and careers in the US. For me they kind of represent a kind of working class in international athletics. We all know about great athletes coming from Africa and some of them make a lot of money with their talent, but these guys, just a notch below the world elite, (the top 20 rather than the top 10 of their discipline) live a really hard life without any sponsor support - just living from the cash they make in a highly competitive environment.

And of course I found this story of people finding their income literally on the streets of the Bronx/NYC a kind of great metaphor for the US as a country that still remains the symbol of opportunities for migrants from the whole world.

What was your budget for the film? Do you have any recommendations for documentary filmmakers who are fundraising?

The postproduction was done in film school editing and the 500£ (about $825) spent on material, accommodation, travel expenses, etc. and that money was my graduation film budget.

Recommendations I unfortunately do not have but, in general, shooting a doc film has become, with technological developments, cheaper and cheaper, so if I was in doubt I would always shoot on my credit card and then try to raise money when I have something to show around, like a film trailer. There are also interesting developments in recent years about alternative sources of funding, like crowd search over social network sites or political or environmental NGOs.

See the Good Pitch at SilverDocs.

How much footage did you shoot, and how long did you edit?

I shot roughly 25 hours and edited for six weeks. It took us a while to get the structure right and it was a long process. By the time we got certain elements right, which were already anticipated whilst shooting, it started to come together. I really believe in providing enough room for the images to speak for themselves, which makes this film probably comparatively slow.

What has the distribution been like so far, and what are your hopes for the film? How do you hope SilverDocs will help with those goals?

Distribution is done through the film school and by myself and I want to show it at as many festivals as possible to see if the film meets someone interested to buy it. But surely, I am aware that a half-hour documentary is not the easiest format to sell. But festivals are, anyway, the greatest way to present films, especially if they are filmed for a bigger screen rather than for TV or computer screens. SilverDocs is fantastic to participate in and since the lineup was published I had already had several requests from other festivals for the film. It got selected so far for seven international competitive festivals around the globe.

What films are you excited about seeing at SilverDocs?

I am really interested in the conference and, usually film-wise, I tend to let myself float through the program and watch many, many films. I can become quite obsessive at festivals with watching films and often don't get to see a lot of sunlight during a festival week.

Off and Running
Nicole Opper
75 min. | USA

Synopsis: For the average teen, passing through adolescence is a trial rife with social obstacles and a frightening crossing of the chasm between the worlds of childhood bliss and the confusing complexities of adulthood. Then there are those who must deal with additional adolescent angst, such as Avery Klein-Cloud, an African-American teenager adopted by Jewish lesbians Tova and Travis. The family also includes mixed-race Rafi and Zay-Zay, an adorable Korean-American toddler. “A United Nations family,” quips Avery. It’s a loving and nurturing family, accomplished and thriving. However, Avery’s curiosity about her birth mother sets in motion a painful examination of the complex issues surrounding race and identity that upends the family’s rapport and threatens to derail Avery’s prospects. Once a track star, her performance suffers. She drops out of high school, leaves home, and gets into other types of teenage trouble while her moms and brother try to provide support, although they feel wounded and rejected. By the end of the film, Avery resolves some of her conflicts, and the family breach is on the mend. Director Nicole Opper has given us extraordinary access to Avery’s unique coming-of-age story, which is an example of how many African-Americans and mixed-race youths confront non-traditional notions of identity.

How did you become involved with the subject of the film, and what were you doing immediately before that prepared you to be ready to recognize the story and be able to commit to it?

I met Avery when she was 10 years old and I was making a short student doc that involved her school. She later became my student in a filmmaking program I founded there, and as I got to know Avery I learned about her unique family. I was now just out of film school and working as a producer. I knew for a long time that I wanted to tell this story but I waited for several years before approaching Avery's family with the idea. I needed to feel ready to commit the time and energy, and I wanted Avery to have the maturity to play a substantial role in the storytelling too, so we began this project when she turned sixteen.

What was your budget for the film? Do you have any recommendations for documentary filmmakers who are fundraising?

My budget was $300,000, raised entirely through grants and ITVS. ITVS came on board during production so we were able to afford editing while we shot, which was enormously helpful in determining the direction of the film. We worked on strengthening our fundraising trailer for months, so I suppose this would be where I would suggest filmmakers put their energy during the early stages. That sample piece was crucial in building interest and support. I'm meeting people at festivals who tell me 'oh I saw an early cut of your film' and then they tell me how or where and I realize they just saw the ten-minute sample, but it just proves a trailer really takes on a life of it's own.

How much footage did you shoot, and how long did you edit?

We shot 100 hours and edited for a year. In terms of structure, it was very linear at first. We would cut each shoot into a scene and were working toward an event. When the event didn't happen we threw that out the window and looked to the footage for signs of an emotional arc. The conflict moved from external to deeply internal, which was all the more reason it was so important to have Avery become intimately involved in the storytelling. We were also a bit overly concerned with continuity at first. Our creative consultant Richard Hankin finally convinced us to let go of this hang-up and when we did, the emotional connections between scenes began to present themselves.

What has the distribution been like so far, and what are your hopes for the film? How do you hope SilverDocs will help with those goals?

We are going to have our national broadcast premiere on POV in 2010. Between now and then we will continue touring festivals, and we are discussing a limited theatrical release with several distributors right now. I am hoping to focus on international sales and educational distribution at SilverDocs. Our ultimate goal with this film is to get it into classrooms across America.

What films are you excited about seeing at SilverDocs?

I've been following Prodigal Sons for a while so am thrilled to finally see that. Also Lets Be Together and Mrs. Goundos Daughter, and a few of the shorts look excellent.

No Impact Man
Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein 2009
Run time: 92 min. | USA

Synopsis: Is it possible to live a year making zero impact on the environment? Is it possible to do this from the 11th storey of a New York City apartment? Accomplished author Colin Beavan is determined to find out, and to take his wife and toddler along for the ride. For his next book, Colin proposes that he address global warming head on and become “No Impact Man,” forgoing electricity, cars, even toilet paper in an effort to reduce, in fact annihilate, his impact on the environment. The only catch is that to do this successfully, he needs his wife, Michelle—a self-proclaimed coffee and shopping addict who writes for Business Week—and their 3-year-old daughter to join him in the endeavor. Takeout restaurants are replaced with local farmers markets, subways with bicycles, elevators with staircases, washing machines with soap-filled bathtubs, electric lights with candles, refrigeration with clay pots and garbage cans with compost heaps. Once the novelty of their new situation wears off, Michelle must adjust herself to living someone else’s dream, all while contending with dreams of her own. If a Starbucks venti, sugar-free, nonfat, vanilla soy, double-shot, decaf, no-foam, extra-hot mocha has too much impact on the environment, what about a second child? On a bumpy road less traveled in modern society, where the destination is not greater industry, efficiency and gadgetry, but rather sustainability and simplicity, No Impact Man is a delightful, inspiring and unexpectedly moving exploration of contemporary marriage and how one person can change his life, and in doing so possibly change the world.

How did you become involved with the subject of the film, and what were you doing immediately before that prepared you to be ready to recognize the story and be able to commit to it?

Justin: My directing partner on the film, Laura Gabbert, has known Michelle Conlin [No Impact Man's wife] since high school. A week before they were to start I learned that Colin and Michelle were about to enter their No Impact year and I knew that it could be a great film subject. The trust and friendship that Laura had with Michelle and Colin made it a possibility. Then we had to convince Colin to open the project and his life to the camera. Colin set some ground rules and one of them was that we had to do everything we could to make the film in an environmentally sustainable way...we used no lights, rechargeable batteries, bought no new equipment and used no cars. All the biking shots were taken from another bike.

As for recognizing the story, I have always been interested in issues surrounding the urban environment, recycling and congestion, but the films that I make are always character driven. So when the No Impact project emerged as a possibility it was something that we knew we had to investigate. It is the story of important issues told through the life of a family. It had the ingredients to be funny, moving and educational. And to be honest, we didn't know where the year would take them.

Laura: Colin's wife, Michelle, and I have been close friends since the 8th grade. I had followed Colin's career as an author; I had read his two previous history books. Michelle told me about the No Impact Man idea just as he was selling it as a book to Farrar Straus Giroux. Michelle asked me if she thought they should set up a camera in their apartment so they could post videos on Colin's blog [also called No Impact Man] and I said "No, you should let me make a documentary about it!" Later that week, Michelle and I had dinner with Justin Schein and Eden Wurmfeld, with whom I had partnered on projects in the past. They too thought it was a terrific idea and we decided to collaborate on the film with Eden and me producing together and Justin and me directing together. The only problem was we still had to convince Colin to let us do it. After several phone conversations and coffee dates, he decided to let us begin the filming.

What was your budget for the film? How did you raise the funds?

Justin: The budget was approximately $450,000. The No Impact Year was starting before we could raise any money, but we had the gear and we jumped before the train left the station. We started fundraising with individual donations and grants once we felt that we had a viable project. Then Impact Partners joined us as Executive Producers toward the end of production to complete the financing. They put up 75 percent and have been amazing to work with.

How much footage did you shoot, and how long did you edit?

Justin: We shot about 150 hours of footage over about 16 months. The edit took about eight months. For the most part our structure was linear, as we were following the No Impact year and the growth and change it brought to the family.

Laura: We had two editors on No Impact Man. Bill Haugse did the first assembly, which we completed in about three months. Matt Martin came in and did many cuts of the film after that. Matt and I had both watched and logged the dailies and so those months were spent going over and over footage, talking and debating different ways to deal with holes in the story and how to best get at the emotional thrust of the material. We spent months playing with our structure in order to create an emotional ride where the audience gets caught up in the ups and downs of the No Impact family's year. The final structure of the film wasn't set until about a month before we locked picture. Even though it's essentially structured chronologically, there was a great deal of re-structuring and connecting non-linear material so that the story would hold together and move forward in an involving way.

What has the distribution been like so far, and what are your hopes for the film?

Justin: We are excited to have just signed a distribution deal with Oscilloscope. Adam and the crew there really get the No Impact ethos.

Laura: We feel like we found our perfect match with Oscilloscope. The film is opening in New York and San Francisco on September 4, and expanding to more cities after that.

What films are you excited about seeing at SilverDocs?

Laura: I'm excited to see Crude, Joe Berlinger's film.

Justin: My favorite part of going to a festival like SilverDocs is that the films that really blow me away are often the ones I just wander into.

Synopses via b-side.

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