Over the next month, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is represented in the DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase, which runs from August 3 through August 30 in New York City and Los Angeles. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films—the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far.

So, to continue this series of conversations, here is Kelly Richardson, director of Without A Net.

Synopsis: Djeferson, Bárbara, Rayana, and Platini live in a drug controlled slum of Rio de Janeiro. Their families are struggling, their homes are physically unstable, and everyone they know has dropped out of school. When a big-top circus tent suddenly appears in a nearby parking lot, they decide to take a chance. They learn trapeze, acrobatics, juggling, and contortion, and then audition for the end-of-year show, rehearse, and prepare for the curtains to part on opening night. Along the way, Without A Net explores the connections between risk, desire, poverty, and circus and celebrates the perseverance and resilience of youth in the face of tremendous odds.

IDA: Last week Without A Net was at DocuWeeks in Los Angeles. How was that?

Kelly J Richardson: It was wonderful! We had an especially strong turnout from the LA acrobatic and circus community. On opening night, a couple dozen local acrobats did an acro flash mob outside of the theater, and then a professional trio did a pre-film contortion and acrobatics performance inside the theater. It was a great way to kick off the premiere week! Then we had good screenings, good audiences and good Q&A's all week. Also, Without A Net received some very good reviews—it was recommended by the LA Weekly and the Village Voice, and written up by the Los Angeles Times and LA Latino Weekly and several others. So all in all, LA DocuWeeks was great!

IDA: I understand that you studied dance and are trained in acrobatics. So how does a circus performer get started in documentary filmmaking?

KR: My performance art and my journey as a filmmaker are somewhat interwoven. As a kid I was a gymnast, and I've been an athlete of various sports all my life. I'm also interested in new experiences and in the middle of college I studied abroad in Madrid, and while there [...] I enrolled in trapeze and acrobatics classes at a local circus. It was fun to be with a foreign circus and it was great to learn about the culture through that window.

Two years later, I was traveling a little bit after college and I was kind of on the lookout for a circus to join. I found one in Bahia in the Northeast of Brazil. In that circus [...] there was also a social project which was funded by various organizations inside and outside of Brazil. The goal was to [bring] children and youth living in poverty in the area to train for free at the circus. Through doing so, [the participants could] learn skills that they could transfer to other parts of their lives—things like cooperation, team building, how to set goals and achieve them, how to face their fears, those kinds of things which are really valuable and essential to getting along in society.

I was interested in that general concept of using circus as a tool for social change. More importantly though, I got to know the performers in that social project. There's such a strong component of risk and excitement in the circus. It's an art where people show off how risky it is and how brave they are—so the riggers are always lifting the aerial apparatuses higher so the audience can feel more nervous and impressed by the potential danger. Another classic circus act is the tightrope walker pretending to almost fall and recovering. As I heard the stories and watched the acts, I was noticing various strong parallels between the way the performers told about the risks of their day-to-day lives and the way they exhibited the risk and excitement of the art that they practiced in the circus and that to me was the initial seed that later grew into the documentary.

IDA: But how did you pick up that camera for the first time? How did you understand how to edit and put a story together visually—a lot of those various skills that people go to school for. How did you get started with that?

KR: I found out that "social circus" (that's the term for all projects that teach circus skills to at-risk youth) exists in many parts of the world, and Brazil is really a leader in this movement. So I applied for a Fulbright grant to go back and be involved in the movement again since I had this particular insider's perspective on it. I had about a year from the time I applied until the time I returned to Brazil with the grant to take lots of classes, and be involved in other people's productions and do my own short films. So I had about a year of really good filmmaking education all over the Bay Area at Film Arts Foundation (before it merged with the San Francisco Film Society), BAVC, UC Berkeley, City College—a bunch of places. I also worked on a lot of sets and just got as much experience as I could in that time I had before returning to Brazil to make the film.

IDA: The inspiration for making the film seems pretty straightforward since the subject is something in which you are so deeply entrenched. What was it about this particular circus in Rio that made you want to tell their story?

KR: Once I was awarded the Fulbright, I had some time to define my project—how exactly I wanted it to be. So knowing that there were a bunch of social circus project in Brazil, I went to visit a few others besides the one that I had gotten to know in Bahia. I found the performers in Rio fascinating. There's a lot going on in Rio. It's this impressive mix of rich and poor, beach and mountains, and lots and lots of energy. Then in the circus, the people that I met had great stories. Djeferson was one of the first people I met. He's very gregarious and fun to be around--a big personality along with his big physical size. He introduced me to some of the members of his family, and he was laughing a lot and excited about the idea of me being there. I got to know him a little bit at that time and I thought, "Oh, this guy would be great as a character, and other people should hear these stories." Usually, his stories and stories from that area don't travel very much.

IDA: Outside of Djeferson, did you always know that you wanted your story to focus on those other three individuals also, or did you follow a lot of them and then just edit it down so that we only heard these four stories?

KR: I wanted the film to be intimate and somewhat collaborative. I didn't want it to feel like I came in and filmed them and then left and that was that. I wanted them to have time to get to know me a little bit and see if this was something that they wanted to do. Djeferson was extremely enthusiastic from the beginning. Some of the others got into it as they got to know me. Bárbara the acrobat and her friend Rayana, they were a little stand-offish at the beginning. But once we got to know me better and we started sharing jokes, they decided they were interested in participating in it. We had some more footage of some other characters that we ended up cutting down, like Coach Allan. We felt like these four main characters had the strongest stories and that they serve as good examples for a larger picture we were trying to create. I think that they really wanted to do it, and so they were open to and available for interviews and allowed me to come to their homes and welcomed that.

IDA: I know that resources were probably pretty limited while you were over there. A lot of those kids have to deal with family issues and with just getting food. On top of those things, what were some of the challenges you encountered when making this film? What were some of the things you did to overcome those challenges?

KR: I encountered a lot of challenges making this film. In addition to the technical things—as I mentioned, I was pretty new at using the camera and recording audio and everything else, but luckily I had no major technical disasters—there were a lot of things that were challenging to me. Working on a film where people are telling their very personal stories—and you, as a filmmaker, are taking those stories away to an audience that they don't know, well, gives you a lot of things to think about, especially when there's a huge difference in social class, economic reality, privilege and education—these people are all very smart but they've all dropped out of school or haven't been to school at all. Djeferson has never really been to school. He's illiterate.

IDA:You were in the unique position of not only knowing a lot about circus but having been there yourself. So did you decide to step in and help her a little bit? How did you navigate that?

KR: It was really hard to navigate. There were situations where the performers were doing their acts without proper security. As circus performers, we always want to have security in case there's a mistake. Of course, I come from the US where we have a much more litigious society, so at the gyms where I trained, things like that would never fly. It would never be allowed. I definitely tried to separate myself and think, "This is a different place. This is not my place. I'm here to film this interesting thing that's happening in the world and our realities are very different." Sometimes that was hard.

I was always reminding myself there are a lot of differences between my own experience and their experience. I found myself not saying things that I might have said if I hadn't been with the camera. If I hadn't been there as a filmmaker I might have had suggestions for how the circus should run their program, and how they should have better equipment. But that really wasn't my place, but sometimes it was hard to stand back and not say anything. As far as Rayana, there was one point where I said to her that I was concerned about the way that she was training. I felt compassion for all these people. That was one of the big challenges I faced, because there were a lot of times that I felt I couldn't say what I would have liked to say if I hadn't been there with a film. Contortion is fine for the body, and I am a contortionist as well. I'm not saying that contortion is not good for the body, but training in the wrong way can be dangerous. At one point I said something like that.

But that's another thing. Most of them are teenagers. So they all know everything more than anybody else does. And furthermore, I'm a foreigner. There was a lot of that kind of interplay also. And plus, [Rayana]'s extremely talented, and she's a much better contortionist than I am. So who am I to say that might not be good for her? Also, there were some coaches who had suggestions for them, and because they were teenagers they were the way that teenagers are. There's something really delightful about that. They're sure of themselves. They're so courageous, and they're so determined and so committed. They are lovely people.

IDA: You mentioned earlier that it was sort of hard sometimes to listen to these stories especially with these subjects knowing that they are going to be told to audiences who they might not ever get to interact with. As you've screened Without A Net in different screenings and countries and especially last week in Los Angeles, how have audiences reacted to the film?

KR: We've had really good responses from audience and critics. Audiences have said it feels like it's an honest film, and intimate, which was one of our big goals, and that the characters share a lot about themselves and about their lives. Also that it's nuanced with multiple layers. We explore the theme of the duality of risks in their day-to-day lives and risks and excitement in the circus. I think in that context, the characters develop a kind of personality where they embrace risk, in fact, thrive in it. An example of that is the scene where the two guys climb the rock and decide to jump off, into the water.

IDA: Oh yeah, that made me really anxious. I was thinking, "They don't know what's under the water!"

KR: (laughs) They embrace that rush of adrenaline that comes with putting their lives on the line because they do it all the time just to survive. So that was one of the themes we liked developing and the audience comments on that sometimes. A lot of people ask about Platini, the littlest boy. He's the one who lost the older brother because of his involvement with the drug trade. A lot of people want to know where are these characters now and what are they up to. I [keep in touch] pretty regularly with almost all of them and know what they are up to. They have lots of difficult things going on in their lives, and many of those things are touched upon in the film. Life is never calm for them. But all things considered, I'd say they're doing very well.

IDA: Have the four main characters or anyone else involved with the circus seen the film?

KR: They've seen it at lots of different stages. Mostly [the subject's] realities are in that area and their stories don't get out of that area. They can see what's happening in other parts of the world from watching TV, and they're very connected in that way, and they're online, so they can see what's happening in the rest of the world. But it's a limited view through that lens. So I thought a lot about what it would feel like to know that I, a foreigner and older than them, was leaving with footage of them telling me intimate stories. Like Platini, the little boy talking about losing his brother—that's a very personal story. I really tried to put myself in their shoes and thought a lot about what it would feel like if I were them. Though we got to know each other, still, I'm a foreigner and when production was over, I was leaving. It was very important to me to be very transparent.

When I filmed them in their homes, I gave them all the footage that I filmed. I made a DVD right away after I went to their homes and I gave it to them the next day with the whole footage so there wouldn't be any surprises down the line. They have also seen the film edited together at various stages because I went back to do the one-year later footage, and I showed them a rough cut at that point. Then I did another trip for some pick up shots, and I showed them another rough cut. So they are familiar with what the film is about. They haven't seen it in its final version but at least the main characters [...] have seen most of the film.

IDA: So now that this film is done and you've entered it into DocuWeeks, have you had a chance to look beyond that at what's coming next? Do you want to make another film? Are you thinking about going back into doing circus?

KR: I continue to practice circus because I love it. But I don't perform any more... at least I have no plans to right now. As far as Without A Net, we have some more festivals coming up, and we're talking to distributors. As far as my career as a filmmaker, I plan to keep working in film. I got the bug! I enjoy being able to construct stories and convey my ideas through the medium of film. I think it's a way of encapsulating an idea and reaching across the divide to affect another person. The whole experience of making Without A Net was very rich and full for me. I learned so much about myself in the process and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to have the people in Without A Net in my life.

Without A Net will be screening August 10 through 16 at Laemmle NoHo 7 in Los Angeles, and August 17 through the 23 at IFC Center in New York.

Complete DocuWeeks™ 2012 program

Purchase tickets for Without A Net in New York

Over the next month, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is represented in the DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase, which runs from August 3 through August 30 in New York City and Los Angeles. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films—the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far.

So, to continue this series of conversations, here is Dafna Yachin, director/producer/writer of Digital Dharma: One Man's Mission to Save a Culture.

Synopsis: When ancient writings of Sanskrit and Tibetan texts vanish during the political turmoil of the 1950s and 1960s, the history of a whole society is in danger of disappearing. Digital Dharma chronicles the 50-year journey of E. Gene Smith, a Mormon from Utah, the unlikely leader of an effort to rescue, preserve and share 20,000 volumes of ancient Tibetan text. This epic of one man's mission became the catalyst for an international movement to provide free access to the story of a people.

IDA: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

Dafna Yachin: Unlike many of the fantastic recent film school directors I am meeting at the festivals this year, I started as a field, then series and show, producer/director for both network and cable. I then worked my way into becoming a commercial film director and now chief creative officer for Lunchbox Communications. Lunchbox has always helped human rights nonprofit organizations tell stories cross-platform. And while we had grown into a marketing and branding firm, we all came from storytelling backgrounds and are compelled to help organizations and causes create epic films that would not be short-lived, but would last a lifetime to help record history and motivate an audience to action. 

IDA: What inspired you to make Digital Dharma?

DY: I met Tibetologist E. Gene Smith while doing a documentary short on Peter Gruber, a philanthropist who is credited for numerous accomplishments, including helping to facilitate one of the first English translations of many Tibetan books, 100,000 Songs of the Milarapa. I was told Gene had digitized thousands of 1,500-year-old Tibetan bats, though I was not sure what a Tibetologist did and was clueless as to what a Tibetan bat was. 

Over the next year, I ran into Gene several times at human rights events. I'd ask him how the digitization efforts were going and he'd tell me about some collection that was just realized in Mongolia, Bhutan or in the bowels of the Library of Congress right here in the US.  His passion was infectious. I kept picturing ancient texts locked away in crates on forklifts, like an Indiana Jones ending. I needed to get more of this quiet and humble, unlikely hero on camera.

In 2008 Gene gave us permission to follow him back to India and Nepal as he set out to deliver, to the main lamas of the four leading Buddhist traditions and the Bon, 12,000 digitized texts of the 20,000 that had been salvaged. These lamas had also spent their lives finding and preserving the texts lost during China's cultural revolution.

We wanted to be there when these spiritual leaders discovered that 1,500 years of history could fit into the palms of their hands.

With this feature film, I want viewers to quickly move from asking why to wanting to learn how: how Gene's ultimate mission of collecting, digitizing and distributing all the texts will be accomplished, and perhaps even how the viewers might become agents for accomplishing such a purpose in their own lives.

IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them?

DY: First...Money. 

Second...Money.

Third...finding a way to translate a complex topic for a mainstream audience and distill 50 years of E. Gene Smith's mission and 1,500 years of Tibetan history into 82 minutes. 

The next challenge will be to create an online multimedia interactive platform to use all the many related stories and interviews that we could not fit in the film

IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the pre-production, production and post-production processes?

DY: Gene Smith was so humble; he did not want this film to be about him. He wanted it to be about all the lamas, scholars and laypeople that he had worked with over his lifetime. We were originally going to make the film about the text-preservation efforts and the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center that Gene had founded. 

When Gene passed away suddenly during the making of this film, we lost a close friend, a mentor and the leading man. Everything changed.  

IDA: As you've screened Digital Dharma—whether on the festival circuit, or in screening rooms, or in living rooms—how have audiences reacted to the film? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reactions?

DY: We had our first public pre-screenings at Sedona International Film Festival to an audience of over 350 people. Seeing a diverse collective group laugh with the lamas and then sob during the film's dramatic turning point finally had the Lunchbox team feeling that the last six months of focus groups and adjustments had been worth it. How we felt about this epic tale is how the audience felt about the film. They had learned about one of history's most important cultural salvations and were in awe of its catalyst. 

IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you

DY: Arnaud Desjardins, Robert Gardner and Barbara Atti.

Digital Dharma is currently screening August 10 through 16 at the Laemmle NoHo 7 in Los Angeles and will be screening August 17 through 23 at the IFC Center in New York City.

For the complete DocuWeeks^TM 2012 program, click here.

To purchase tickets for Digital Dharma in Los Angeles, click here.

To purchase tickets for Digital Dharma in New York, click here.

Over the next month, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is represented in the DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase, which runs from August 3 through August 30 in New York City and Los Angeles. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films™the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far.

So, to continue this series of conversations, here is Nelson Cheng, director/producer of The Magic Life.

Synopsis: Three aspiring individuals try to turn their passion into a career. Can they pull off the biggest trick of their lives and become working magicians?

IDA: How did you get started as a documentary filmmaker?

Nelson Cheng: I had recently finished producing my first web series—it was the first time I ever produced anything and afterwards I just had more possibilities in my mind in terms of what was possible. I also recently had become a magician member of the Magic Castle. As I got to know more and more magicians, I thought there might be something there with business and magicians. I had this general idea when I met Seth Keal at Sundance after a screening of a documentary he produced (Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work)—he was both very encouraging and helpful. He literally sent me a listing of all the gear they used on Joan which I quickly replicated for The Magic Life.

IDA: In the director’s statement on your website, you mention that you wanted to tell a story about magicians because it’s such an uncommon career path. Do you identify with people who choose an unconventional route in life?

NC: Yes—but that wasn't why I started work on the film. I realize there are a lot of parallels to my own life, and perhaps subconsciously that's why I pursued it, but it certainly wasn’t something that I realized at the time. I just think that we spend so much time every day at work—it's literally the dominant portion of our waking hours—it just seems mind-boggling to me to not at least try and find and pursue a profession that you're passionate about. It's not the easiest of paths, but certainly seems like a worthwhile thing to pursue. I've had many dark nights wondering about what I was doing and whether I should be doing something else.

IDA: How did you find these three particular magicians? What made you choose to tell their stories?

NC: We found the first magician, Yang Yang, through a magician friend of mine. My friend had studied at a famous magic school called Chavez and Dale Salwak, who runs the school, had two students at the time—one of them being Yang Yang. I honestly had no idea what I was doing at the time, but there was something about Yang Yang's energy and presence that really captivated me. I just enjoyed spending time with him.

Another person who was involved in this film was Penny Falk (editor on Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work). She won the editing prize at Sundance for Joan. We shot a fair amount and Penny kindly looked at early footage. It wasn't even pieced together in any format; I just sent her segments that I found interesting. She gave me a lot of great feedback, but she also asked, "Who else do you have?" The first two people I mentioned were someone who had an MBA from NYU who had just moved to L.A. to pursue becoming a professional magician (Michael Friedland) and my friend who lived a block from the Magic Castle and performed on the street for tips (Matthew Noah Falk). Penny immediately said, "They sound interesting. You should follow them." So I did.

IDA: How did your vision of the project change over the course of production?

NC: The original conception was around the business side of being a magician—and I think we definitely examine and bring to the forefront an industry that a lot of people probably aren't familiar with. But on some level, the film ultimately takes the shape it was meant to take. I think I didn't anticipate seeing how much their lives would evolve and the depth of their struggles in pursuing this profession that they loved so much. I probably went into it with a much headier point of view and I personally felt like I learned a lot just from watching their journeys.

IDA: What were some of the challenges you faced when trying to make this film? How did you overcome those challenges?

NC: The main challenge is that I didn't know what I was doing. I knew that going in, but I said to myself, "Start filming and then figure out the problems." It's a tough way to go because [it's] brutal—but it's the fastest way to learn, and you end up with a film at the end of it. So I was constantly trying to figure out why something was wrong and who I could possibly ask to help me. I mentioned the absolute invaluable help that Seth and Penny provided at earlier stages of the film. Penny ultimately connected me with my editor, Erik Dugger (they had co-edited a film together), and he's very talented as an editor. I was so struck at how strong he was when it came to story. Ultimately, I know my role in the film—the film exists because of me. However, the film is (I think) a good film because of the collective efforts of folks like Seth, Penny, and Erik.

IDA: As you’ve screened The Magic Life, how have people reacted to the film?

NC: People were more engaged than I expected them to be. We premiered at Nashville and at our second screening, the organizer who introduced us noted how normally a third or more of the crowd doesn't stay for the Q&A but that nearly everyone stayed after our first screening. Also, I found the audience questions particularly thoughtful—they were both quite engaged with the individual stories and also brought out larger themes. I've had numerous people come up to me mentioning that they have dreams of their own that they'd like to pursue.

IDA Now that your film is playing DocuWeeks and making the rounds at festivals, what’s next for you?

NC: I'm continuing to produce more project—so far I've produced 3 web series, a short film, and The Magic Life. I've been bouncing around ideas for new documentaries and have been considering optioning a Vanity Fair article that I found particularly compelling. It's hard to say though—I like to have a lot of ideas, do a lot of research, move quickly. Ultimately, I only move because something within me drives me to work on something.

The Magic Life will be screening August 10 through 16 at the IFC Center in New York City, and August 17 through the 23 at Laemmle NoHo 7 in Los Angeles.

Complete DocuWeeks™ 2012 program

Purchase tickets for The Magic Life in New York

Purchase tickets for The Magic Life in Los Angeles

Authentic Entertainment has again signed on to be a Silver Sponsor of the 28th annual IDA Documentary Awards. Returning as a sponsor after their stint as first-time sponsors last year, Authentic joins ABC News Video Source, Focus Forward, Sony, Stella Artois, The Standard and the American Film Showcase to support this annual fundraiser which celebrates outstanding achievements in documentary filmmaking. We are proud to welcome Authentic, which consistently produces award-winning non-fiction projects and television programming.

Authentic Entertainment co-founder Lauren Lexton had this to say about the partnership:

"Authentic Entertainment is proud to support the IDA and looking forward to the upcoming IDA Awards. Showcasing these powerful and important films and the dedicated film makers who make them, helps spread the passion for story that we at Authentic work everyday to promote."

If you are interested in supporting the IDA Documentary Awards by becoming a sponsor, please contact Cindy Chyr at cindy@documentary.org or call (213) 534-3600 x7400.

Download the Awards Sponsorship Package to learn more about how you or your organization can help support this important event for the documentary community.

If you're thinking of applying to the Cal Humanities California Documentary Project Grant, it's time to get started! Check out their upcoming informational grant workshops in San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles, or take advantage of the webinar on Tuesday, August 28th from 10:30am - noon. We'll be at the Los Angeles workshop on September 5th so if you're there make sure to say hello! The grant deadline is October 1, 2012 at 5pm.  Learn more>>

Mel Stuart, whose career in film and television spanned nearly six decades and 150 films, died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles at 83. The cause was cancer, as his daughter Madeline Stuart told the Associated Press.

While Stuart will always be best known for the classic 1971 feature Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, his documentary canon was prodigious. His Making of the President series, which covered the US presidential campaigns of 1960, 1964 and 1968, earned him an Emmy for the 1960 installment. He earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature  for his 1965 film Four Days in November. His 1973 film Wattstaxx, about a music festival featuring some of the greatest R&B artists of the time, takes a scintillating look at the state of Black America in the early 1970s, through the brilliant perspective of comedian Richard Pryor, making his cinematic debut. Stuart made profiles of artist Man Ray and filmmaker Billy Wilder for the PBS series American Masters, and one of his last documentaries, The Hobart Shakespearians, aired in PBS' POV in 2005 and was selected among the films in the US State Department-sponsored American Documentary Showcase, a cultural diplomacy program that toured to 50 countries around the world from 2009 through 2011. In recognition of the breadth and depth of his work, Stuart was honored with the IDA Pioneer Award in 2003.

Stuart was also one of the founding members of the International Documentary Association, and served as its Board President in 1994 and 1995. In the early 2000s, he and attorney Michael Donaldson spearheaded the Documentary Credits Coalition, working with cable giants Discovery Communications, National Geographic and Scripps to persuade them to improve their credit roll on their aired programs. And throughout his career, Stuart always dedicated himself to giving back as a mentor to scores of documentary filmmakers, following the example of his mentor, the late great television magnate David Wolper.    

Here are some more articles about Mel Stuart from the Documentary archives:

2003 Pioneer Award

Wattstax

The Hobart Shakespearians

For an appreciation by filmmaker David Vassar, click here.

In an IDA interview with filmmaker Linda Goldstein Knowlton, she discusses the making of her most recent film, Somewhere Between. Like many filmmakers over the past few years, Goldstein Knowlton used a Kickstarter campaign as part of her fundraising strategy. She shares her experience with us -- not to mention giving the Fiscal Sponsorship Program a shout out! Here is an excerpt from the interview:

IDA: What was your experience like using Kickstarter to help finance your film?

Linda Goldstein Knowlton: First, a huge shout-out for the IDA's Fiscal Sponsorship Program, without which I would not be talking to you right now; having that fiscal sponsorship made the film possible, so I'm truly, truly grateful for the sponsorship program through the IDA. We used Kickstarter to raise money for theatrical distribution, which starts August 24 in New York and September 14 in Los Angeles. Kickstarter was also a godsend, with the sense of community that I felt of people spreading the word and commenting and strangers commenting to strangers and saying thank you. We had an angel come in before the 11th hour who helped us reach our goal. I was asleep when that happened, so I woke up to all of these e-mails and alerts from Kickstarter because all of these people on the East Coast had seen that this angel had brought us over the top. All of these strangers e-mailed messages of thank you to this person and that was awesome, just such a great feeling. It made the process fantastic.

As she points out, using a targeted Kickstarter or IndieGoGo campaign to raise funds that support a specific stage of your film can be advantageous. You might run a campaign for the production phase, and/or a separate campaign for distribution like Linda did. Although this isn't the best strategy for everyone, it's worth giving some thought, as it may make things seem more achievable -- for you, and your donors.

Read the whole interview and find out more about Somewhere Between.

It might be tempting to think that if you write a check to a grant writer you can check out of the process and focus on making your film while the funds pour in. The reality is that when you're selling your own creative vision, ceding all of the grant writing responsibility isn’t necessarily possible or advisable. Hiring outside help may be the right choice for your project but there are a few things to consider before handing over the fundraising reigns:

The argument for DIY

There are a few strong arguments in favor or writing your own grant proposals whenever possible. First, when it’s your passion and artistic vision it’s unlikely that anyone else can sell it like you can.  Filtering your creative vision through someone else’s voice can end up diluting it.

Also keep in mind that if you are applying to a documentary specific grant, it’s likely that your peers will make up a significant part of any review panel. There is no need to fill your writing with “grant-speak” or jargon. Plain language and a clear vision are far more likely to impress.

And finally, over the course of a career in filmmaking, investing in the skills necessary to feel confident doing grant research and writing yourself may pay off significantly in the long run. Consider looking into organizations that offer introductory classes on grant research and writing. We've linked to a few at the end of this article.

The pros for a professional

There is no question that writing a grant proposal takes time and skill. For an independent filmmaker wearing many hats, time is sometimes the harder of the two to come by. While you might struggle to find the time to work on a grant, hiring a professional will guarantee that someone will make it a priority to get the job done on schedule. An experienced writer will bring not only the time to focus exclusively on crafting a proposal, but the organizational skills to execute it efficiently.

A skilled grant writer will also write in a language that funders understand and respond to. This can be especially beneficial when dealing with foundations outside of the film world. If you’re reaching out to funders unaccustomed to making grants to documentary or media projects, an experienced grant professional may be able to help you convince a funder that your film is an innovative way to reach new audiences and further it’s mission.  

A middle road

Another idea to consider is using a professional writer as an editor after writing the first draft of a proposal yourself.  Presumably you have a boilerplate proposal after applying to fiscal sponsorship so doing the bulk of the grunt work and then hiring a professional to work with you to edit and polish your work has advantages.

A great editor will offer a fresh perspective and help you find your own voice. If you go this route meeting with a writer before getting started to come up with a plan and working outline is likely a good investment and may save you time and money by avoiding the need for restructuring down the road. Work out a schedule early so you and the writer are both clear on a timeline and delivery expectations.

Tips for working with a grant writer:

• Get referrals from your fellow filmmakers, then ask for and check references! Ask not just about the writer’s skills and experience but also about how they work. Writing a grant proposal will be a collaborative process so a positive working relationship is essential.
• Find out what information and materials they will need from you and when. Once someone is on the clock you’ll want to maximize impact by coming prepared with everything they need to get started. Work together on a timeline that covers the entire process, step-by-step, right up to delivery of the final proposal.
• How familiar are they with documentary and with the arts/media funding landscape?  Documentary filmmakers who have had success with their own funding proposals sometimes run side businesses helping other filmmakers. Finding someone with both grant writing and documentary experience will make for less of a learning curve.
• How much do they charge and what is the schedule for payments? Grant writers will typically charge either a flat fee or more commonly, an hourly rate for researching and writing a proposal. We’ve heard quotes anywhere from about $30 an hour, up to hundreds of dollars an hour for more complex proposals and government grants. An experienced writer should be able to give you an estimate up front of the approximate number of hours they think will be required to both research and write your proposal.
• Don’t be afraid to plead your case and ask for the starving artist discount but don’t expect to pay a writer a percentage of funds raised after the fact. Foundations frown on conditional percentage based payment arrangements and just about all the major grant writing and fundraising membership organizations consider them unethical. While you may luck out and find someone so passionate about your project that they will defer payment or cut you a deal, you should plan on paying a professional writer for all the time they work on an application, whether the proposal is successfully funded or not.

Editor's Note: Kings Point is nominated for an IDA Documentary Award in the Short category. The folloiwing is an interview with director/producer Sari Gilman when the film was screened in IDA's DocuWeeks.  

Over the next month, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is represented in the DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase, which runs from August 3 through August 30 in New York City and Los Angeles. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films—the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far.

So, to continue this series of conversations, here is Sari Gilman, director/producer of Kings Point.

Synopsis: Director Sari Gilman tells the stories of five seniors living in a typical American retirement resort--men and women who came to Florida decades ago with their spouses by their sides and their health intact, and now find themselves grappling with love, loss and the prospect of dying alone. A bittersweet look at our national obsession with self-reliance, Kings Point explores the dynamic tension between living and aging-between our desire for independence and our need for community-and underscores our powerful ambivalence toward growing old.

IDA: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

Sari Gilman: I studied still photography in college and did an oral history project for my senior thesis. This evolved into an interest in filmmaking. After college I worked for a company that created the motion graphics application After Effects. (This was before we were bought by Adobe, and the company was comprised of about 10 friends from college.). After working there for a few years, I moved to San Francisco, and with my understanding of digital video at a very early time in its history, I started freelancing as an assistant editor. Little by little, I gained experience working on documentaries, as an assistant and associate editor, and then I worked my way up to editor. I produced a couple of radio documentaries, but this is my first film as a director.

IDA: What inspired you to make Kings Point?

SG: My grandmother lived in Kings Point for 30 years, and I visited her regularly from the age of 9. I was always fascinated by what looked like summer camp for old people. She and her friends had what was advertised as an "active retirement"-playing cards, going to shows, swimming, playing tennis, etc. But as my grandmother and her friends began to age, I noticed a shift in how they were relating to each other. Increasingly unable to participate in community life, the conversations between friends seemed to be about doctor's appointments more than mahjong. There was almost a Darwinian aspect to social life: You were popular if you were healthy. If you were not, people stopped coming by. I began to hear whispers at the pool: "Oh, yeah, Ida...she's going down."

After two decades of visiting my grandmother and getting to know her friends and neighbors, I wanted to learn more about this uniquely American community. I began interviewing residents and discovered that they felt safe talking to me about issues they didn't feel comfortable bringing up with their neighbors. I was a young person, a filmmaker, in many ways an outsider-yet I had grown up among them  and was deeply connected to their culture.

Ten years later, their stories have evolved into a film. It is their lives and their voices that, for me, have come to represent the universal longing for human connection, and the complexities of aging in a society that extols the virtue of self-reliance.

IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them?

SG: Typical challenges, like raising enough money to shoot, were huge. Also, I work as film editor and am frequently working on other people's films for long stretches of time, which takes up a lot of creative energy.

Frankly, though, I found it kind of depressing to go down there, and I didn't always enjoy the production process.

Another challenge was trying to find the right balance of "light," funny material and the more dark and thoughtful material. There was a lot of "cute old people" material (people dancing and playing cards, etc.), but I found a lot of that material to be cliché, so I wound up cutting a lot of that.

IDA: You dedicated your film to your grandmother, although she doesn't appear in the film. How instrumental was she in helping to get her friends to open up to you? Did she share her friends' observations about aging, love, friendship and family?  

SG: I actually did a couple of shoots with my grandmother and toyed with the idea of making the film more personal. But it really was not the right tone.

I didn't film many of my grandmother's friends, and she didn't really talk in a particularly self-reflective way about her experience there (which was another reason I didn't want to film her). But I could just see what was going on even if she didn't talk about it. That was the thing: nobody talked about that stuff to each other. That's why I think they opened up to me so much. They needed to talk about these things but none of their peers were interested in hearing about it.

Staying with my grandmother while I was shooting actually made things difficult in the sense that I always felt bad about not spending more time with her while I was there working. Of course she supported me and what I was doing, but I think she would have liked it if I had been home more.

IDA: Based on seeing the film, I'd guess that you made this film over a period of at least five years--two years pass in the story and at least another three pass in post-production. Did you intend to follow this community over a period of years? At what point did you determine that you had gotten your story and you were ready to start editing?

SG: It actually took me 10 years to complete the film, and no, I had no idea I would be doing it for so long. I didn't stop shooting until I thought I had enough character development to sustain a film. Because I am an editor, I had a pretty good idea of when I did not have enough.

Once I got the financing to complete the film and hire another editor (Jeffrey Friedman), I was actually planning to do one more shoot to wrap things up. But in the editing room, we decided we really didn't need to.

IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the pre-production, production and post-production processes?

SG: When I started filming, my approach was a little anthropological in that there was nothing specific that I was looking for; I really just wanted to talk to these people. Even though I could relate to the residents, I was outside of their experience. It was only towards the end of the production process that I began to see myself in all the characters.

Who hasn't been like Gert, calling someone on Saturday night trying to find someone to do something with? Or like Bea, flirting with someone from whom she is never going to get what she wants. And even Frank, who is staying in a relationship that isn't giving him everything he wants, but it's better than nothing.

I began to see the subjects as not just "old" people, but human beings with the same struggles and challenges we all have.

IDA: As you've screened Kings Point—whether on the festival circuit, or in screening rooms, or in living rooms—how have audiences reacted to the film? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reactions?

SG: People are generally moved. I have found that the older the viewer, the more difficult the film is to watch. Of course that is a generalization, but I think people spend a lot of energy trying not to think about the issues the film addresses, and I think the film challenges people to think about them.

IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you?

SG: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman—they are amazing storytellers. Kristine Samuelson and John Haptas—their new film Tokyo Waka is gorgeous.

Kings Point will be screening August 3 through 9 at the IFC Center in New York City.

For the complete DocuWeeks^TM 2012 program, click here.

To purchase tickets for Kings Point and the rest of the films in the DocuWeeks New York Shorts Program for Week 1, click here.

Over the next month, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is represented in the DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase, which runs from August 3 through August 30 in New York City and Los Angeles. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films—the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far.

So, to launch this series of conversations, here is Finlay Pretsell, co-director/co-producer, with Adrian McDowall, of Cutting Loose.

Synopsis: Hairdressers poised, scissors at the ready, clients in place. Cutting begins. The salon looks familiar enough, chatter rising above the chopping and blow-drying, but the hairdressers have something in common: They're all serving time in Scotland's jails. Cutting Loose provides a fascinating snapshot of prison life during the build-up to the annual Scottish Prison Service hairdressing competition. As the competition approaches, we hear the dreams and aspirations of some of Scotland's most dangerous prisoners as they style the hair of fellow inmates on a daily basis.

IDA:  How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

Finlay Pretsell: By mistake, really. Purely by chance in a way. I started working for Scottish Documentary Institute, then I worked at the university, which had a strong film and TV department (Edinburgh College of Art). I then met Adrian McDowall, and we talked about making films. We had such a similar taste and vibe for the films we wanted to make; that was back in 2007.  I was—and still am—really into cycling, and I wanted to make a film about how cycling felt. With Adrian we realized this; the result was Standing Start, our first collaboration.

IDA: What inspired you to make Cutting Loose?

FP: For me, when I heard a radio documentary on Radio Scotland about the hairdressing competition day, it felt like pure cinema to me—such a visually interesting place, subject, characters, etc. One thing I couldn't get out of my head was the scissor board: It had the outlines of the scissors like a tool board in a workshop or a children's set of toys—very visual. It's featured in the film, very briefly. There was so much more I wanted to discover about the lives of these prisoners and where they'd come from and what their plans were for outside. Doesn't everyone want to find out what it's actually like in a jail?! I loved the idea of the tenderness between inmates, the care they take on each other's hair and the creativity in hairstyling. It felt like a pure escape from the daily jail.

IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them? 

FP: Working with and around characters is always very challenging, but working within the constraints of a prison made it so much more complicated. The Scottish Prison Service was really accommodating with our requests; it was up to each individual establishment on how and when we got access to film. But of course we could have done with more time in the jail with the inmates. But in some ways that will always be the case with making films.

IDA: Francis is the protagonist of the story—although we do meet other inmates. But did you interview any prison wardens or administrators?

FP: We had never intended to interview any of the prisoner officers or any other staff. Halfway through there was one man that we wanted to interview; he had such a unique take on what he was doing, he really cared about and was close to these men. It never happened in the end, and I have no idea where it would have fit anyway. As soon as we met Francis, though, we knew he was our man; he embraced what we were trying to do, and he was the perfect vessel in which to tell the story, as he was so open to the process. He was also a lot like us in many ways; we got on very well. 

IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the pre-production, production and post-production processes?

FP: There was so much that changed, we stuck as close as possible to our vision where we could. For example, we never intended to film outside the prison walls initially, but when Francis said he was due for release during our filming, we had to find a way. While I personally didn't like the cliché of a happy ending, the release was just that, so we really wanted to find another way to end his story. He always talked so fondly of his Mum; she always stood by him so strongly. Of course, she always had her hair cut by him when he was out of prison. The tenderness between them is quite palpable. We always wanted to spend more time with the characters to really get to know them and get deeper into their stories, but due to time constraints and of course the prison system, we couldn't quite do this as much as we'd have liked.

IDA: As you've screened Cutting Loose—whether on the festival circuit, or in screening rooms, or in living rooms-how have audiences reacted to the film? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reactions?

FP: The response has been great. I've been in the audience with Francis in Edinburgh and in Toronto at Hot Docs, and people laugh and feel the emotion equally well. I'll never forget when we first showed the film to Francis, his Mum and another couple of members of his family in their living room. All they did was talk all the way through and point out people they knew in the film. I'm not sure they listened to the film to really take it in. The second time in the cinema was different, though, and I think it really hit home that other people had this window into their lives. They loved it, though, and so did we to share it with them.  

IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you?

FP: Werner Herzog (most of his films, doc and fiction), Michael Glawogger (Workingman's Death), Douglas Gordon (Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait), Maysles brothers (Gimme Shelter), and Peter Liechti (The Sound of Insects: Portrait of a Mummy) all serve as huge inspirations, among many others.

Cutting Loose will be screening August 3 through 9 at the IFC Center in New York City.

For the complete DocuWeeks™ 2012 program, click here.

To purchase tickets for Cutting Loose and the rest of the films in the DocuWeeks New York Shorts Program for Week 1, click here.