LeBron James, Movie Star

Find More Than a Game on Video

LeBron James, Movie Star

(from brinkzine.com 9/29/09)

More Than a Game is more than a documentary about basketball and the emergence of LeBron James as a high school superstar when he made the cover of Sports Illustrated and led St. Vincent-St. Mary's of Akron, Ohio to a national championship. This exciting, uplifting, surprisingly tender documentary reveals that James and the other, equally interesting members of his posse, the "Fab Five"--Dru Joyce III, Sian Cotton, Willie McGee, and Romeo Travis--are the products of strong parent figures, true friends, and a caring coach--Dru Joyce II--who all provided comfort, confidence, direction, and love. Young athletes will learn the valuable lesson that these inner-city African-American kids did: when chasing one's dreams and achieving success, talent is less important than character, work ethic, and a commitment to the team. In anticipation of this Friday's New York opening, I was present at a lively press conference last week at which James, McGee, Coach Joyce, director-producer-writer Kristopher Belman (who filmed the acclaimed basketball team as a college project), and executive producer and score composer Harvey Mason, Jr. answered questions from adults and young reps from the Kidsday section of Newsday. I also briefly interviewed Bellman.
PRESS CONFERENCEQ: Coach Dru, what part did education have in the lives of the players on the team? I ask because we don't see a lot of that in the film.
Dru Joyce II: Education always came first. In the film you see that the team traveled all over the country to play games, but the kids never missed a day of school. All of them graduated from high school, and three of the five kids have college degrees.
LeBron James: I don't have mine.
DJ: You can buy a college.
LJ: But we were really educated, really. Willie is working on his Master's.
Kristopher Belman: Basketball was the vehicle that we used to show friendship, family, surrogate fathers, and all kinds of other things that are off the court. They decided to go to a private school together. It wasn't an easy decision going to an all-white school. They went to classes and didn't just play basketball But scenes in the classroom didn't serve the narrative, so I chose not to include that.
Q: LeBron and Willie, you didn't have a father to raise you, yet you excelled in your life. And the same with the Coach.
LJ: Speaking for both me and Willie, it just made us become young men, maybe faster than we wanted to but becoming the man in the house very fast helped us throughout our childhood and life. It made us who we are today; it definitely made me who I am today. Not having that in-house father made me grow up to protect my mother and protect everything that went on with my mother. I was blessed by that.
Willie McGee: I would definitely echo that. We didn't use that as an excuse at all. We still pushed through and did the best we could and prevailed. LeBron and I had a good foundation with my brother, Miss James, and Coach Dru. We had good people around us. They say it takes a village to raise a child. We had a great village.
DJ: We talked about my dream of being a high school coach. For me it was being a dad trying to stay involved with his son's life, when he was young and wanted to play basketball. One thing led to another. It wasn't planned that I'd become his coach, but that's how the events played out. I was a little different from most dads, I went at it a little tougher, but I enjoyed working with him and the other boys.
Q: What's your relationship with your son now?
DJ: Great. We definitely had to repair things. As I say in the movie, at one point I had sense enough to ask him if I was being too hard on him. He told me yes. This was four-five years in. I kind of backed off. In his college days, after games, he was the first person I called and I was the first person he called. We have a great relationship now.

Q: How does it feel to have been such an integral part of your son's life, and being a role model for these men who are now very successful?
DJ: Oh, it's great to have had that opportunity. The great thing about coaching is that you have the opportunity to pour your life into someone else's life. When I started with these boys they were ten and eleven years old so I knew they were impressionable and that I could use sports to make good things happen. I'm blessed to have been a part of it and to see them now and I'm even more excited about what they do around the road.
Q: LeBron, what was your impression of Kris when he first came to film the team? And what was your reaction when you saw him on your doorstep with the trailer?
LJ: At first, Coach Dru had to calm us down. He told us, "A kid from Akron is coming to one practice." "We don't know about this, Coach. You already closed practices to the media, but now you're letting someone from the media in? We don't care where he's from." Coach Dru said, "Just give the guy a shot, he's just doing a school project." Kris came to a practice and he wasn't intrusive. He stayed in the background and got what he had to get, and it was cool. Monday practice turned into a Tuesday practice and he was there again. "Coach, what's going on?" Then it was Wednesday practice and Thursday practice, and the next thing you know, he's there the whole season. He became really close to us and it was almost like he was part of the team. We wanted him to get the footage because we felt that season was going to be really special. He even let us carry the cameras sometimes and film each other. For sixteen and seventeen-year-old kids, that was cool. When he came with the trailerI still remember to this dayI had about ten people at my house, people sitting on the couch and on the floor and we watched the footage. It was like, Wow! And this was the early stages before I did my interviews. When I saw that I said, "I'm down, let's get it going."
KB: When I showed up at his doorstep it was five and a half years in. I think at the heart of the documentary is trust. When I met everyone, it was just me and the camera. You spend time with them. They realized I was never trying to exploit the LeBron fame aspect, but was interested in the story of friendship and family. I said that on Day One. Friendship and respect was earned over time. I became the member of the team who couldn't play basketball.
BoyfromKidsday: LeBron, did you like being in the movie?
LJ: Honestly, in high school we had no idea it was going to be a movie. It was a ten-minute documentary piece for Kris's school projectwhich he got a B on! I felt cheated, too, that we didn't help him get an A. We were always saying, "Kris, can we see some of the footage. We want to see why you got a B." We graduated in 2003, so it's now six years later. We never thought we'd be in movie theaters. Never.
Harvey Mason: I wouldn't change the grade or Kris wouldn't have found me to produce the film.
BoyfromKidsday: Do you know you were going to be in the NBA?
LJ: I always dreamed about playing in the NBA. It got to the point in my junior year where it started to become a reality and I thought, "Okay, I can really do this." I've only been in the NBA six years, though it seems like it's been ten to twelve years, and I've accomplished so much. I don't think I can say that I knew that all this would have happened by nowbut I knew I could be successful at the highest level of basketball.
GirlfromKidsday: What size shoe do you wear?
LJ: This is a little strange. I wear a 15 and a 16. When I walk around and relax I wear 15s but when I play I wear 16s because I need a little more room for the movements I do. You're awesome by the way. The rest of you can leave. We can just have an interview by ourselves.
Q: Coach, what was the hardest time for you and the most enjoyable?
DJ: The hardest was the loss in the title game in LeBron's junior year and my first season as a head coach. The newspapers weren't too kind to me. I was a first-year coach on a nationally-ranked team. The headline came out: "When the Team Needed Him Most, Coach Joyce Wasn't There." That hurt because I'd pretty much given my life to working with these guys. After a few days I moved on from that and realized that was just someone's opinion and I wasn't going to let it shake me. We just continued to work hard. The most enjoyable time was when we won the title. It was the culmination: we did it, we put it back together, we fixed what was broken, the dream was fulfilled.
Q: LeBron, talk about your friendship with the others in the Fab Five and what kids watching the film can learn from it.
LJ: Those four guys are more than just my friends. They are like my brothers. I felt I wouldn't have been where I was without those four. Kids can get a lot from the movie. Kids always have dreams. Sometimes they feel their dream is unreachable. As kids we had dreams and Coach Dru gave us a way to get past a lot of obstacles and make our dream a reality. I think it's important for kids to understand that.
WM: I agree. We can show inner-city kids that there's no need to make excuses, you can still prevail. As long as you do your best, that's all anyone can ask. Everybody's not going to be LeBron James in the NBA, but as long as you have a heart you can go a long way.
KB: I think at the heart of the film is dreams. Chasing your dreams is one of the hardest things you can do in life. These boys surrounded themselves with the right people to obtain theirs. They overcame so many adversities and so many situations at such a young age, and they did it because of each other. When you chase your dreams people will tell you that you're wasting your time, because they're too afraid to chase their own dreams. It was my dream to become a filmmaker and I had a lot of people tell me during the long process of making this film that I was wasting my time focusing on people other than LeBron. They didn't realize the inspiration Coach Dru gave people or that Willie's story--that he had an older brother as a surrogate father--could inspire people. I lost some good friends who thought I was wasting my time. I was fortunate to meet up with Harvey Mason, who understood the importance of dreams to this film. If you surround yourself with the right people and keep chasing your dreams, that's what it's about.

HM: I was attracted to that story. I felt it was a bigger story than just LeBron, as much as we all love him. It is about dreams and how these guys and a coach work for each other, not just for LeBron. Winning a championship was their dream and their goal and they accomplished it. The dream Kris and I had was to work together to make this film a reality. It has worked out for us so far.
Q: Coach, what part did faith play in your story with these young men?
DJ: My faith is in everything I do. I dont separate my faith or compartmentalize it. I'm a believer. When I started this journey I was a dad trying to help his son. As this thing grew, I realized that God had given me a special place to do a special work. That's how I approached it. I didnt beat them over the head with the Bible. We did have Bible studies, but I felt it was more important that I live the life. Then these observant, intelligent boys would glean from it what God wanted them to.
Q: And you LeBron?
LJ: Every day I thank the Man Above for giving me the ability that I have and that's not just on the court but in life, too. He gives everyone challenges and obstacles throughout life and He looks down to see how you're going to overcome them and how you're going to benefit from them. I've taken full advantage of my talent but at the same time I know these abilities that I have come from above, and that keeps me humble on and off the court--being the father that I am, the friend that I am, the teammate that I am, and me just being who I am as LeBron James the man. The Man Above put Coach Dru in my life and he was great.
WM: Coach Dru was a huge part of my life, too. I remember joining the AAU team as a youngster and going to church with Dru, and me joining the church they went to. It made a huge difference to me. One thing always stands out: Coach Dru always said, "You can never win the basketball game if you're not winning the game of life. Once the clock strikes double zero, you still have to live your life." I always remembered that. Coach Dru brought a lot of positives to all our lives, including with our studies. I remember when he was the JV coach and ran study halland he didn't let anybody out! When we lost our junior year we dedicated the next season to winning. We had a lot of sit downs. We had the team pastor come in and speak to us about the same things Coach Dru believed in. It was definitely a turning point in my life.
Q: Harvey, talk about the soundtrack.
HM: Having LeBron be a big part of the movie, we wanted to make sure that the music related to him. We communicated a great deal with him while putting together the soundtrack. We asked him if he liked songs and how they sounded.
Q: LeBron, does Obama have game? And are you going to play on the new basketball court at the White House?
LJ: I haven't actually seen him play live. I've seen a few clips of him on tv, but it's hard to tell how good anyone is on tv unless you see him play over and over and over. If I get an invite, I would fly myself down down to D.C. and play on that court, absolutely, and I'll be on his team so he wins.
LJ: Can we end with a final question from one of the kids?

BoyfromKidsday: Do you like playing in the NBA?
LJ: Yes, it's the best league this world has to offer. I'm a competitor and love to compete against the best and the NBA has the best athletes in the world. To be an inspiration to kids like yourself means more than anything. I want to inspire kids like yourself to want to be better or be the next LeBron, Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul or---who's your favorite player?
BoyfromKidsday: You.
LJ: Good answer.
ONE-ON-ONE WITH KRISTOPHER BELMANDanny Peary: When Coach Dru says at the beginning to make sure basketball doesn't "use you," what does he mean?
Kristopher Belman: The film opens with Coach Dru saying that basketball is a vehicle to get you from point A to point B, but use it, don't let it use you. Whether it's basketball or another sport, or something in life--for me it's filmmaking--I think you can find ways to seek out your dreams and find the positive and improve yourself as a human being. Those boys happen to have used basketball as their vehicle to develop a talent. But they didn't want to get caught up in some of the perils that come with sports. There are negative aspects to sports these days. These boys focused on the positive. Coach Dru really pushed that on them.
DP: How would your film have been different if they didn't win the championship that senior year?
KB: That's a great question. I'm not sure how I would have ended the film. Obviously their chasing a dream, which is the "A" story of the film, would not have been accomplished.
DP: You didn't say, "Thank, God, they won!"?
KB: I'm not going to lie to you. I don't think anyone was as nervous at halftime as I was. Those guys were nervous being behind, but I was sweating bullets. I contemplated pushing Coach Dru aside and giving the speech myself. "Come on, guys, get some rebounds!" If they'd lost, it would have changed the film for sure, but as long as they learned what they needed to, which they did, they would still be triumphant on a personal level. They went on to do great things in life--some in school, some in basketball, LeBron doing his thing--and they all did it together, so there would be a "win" there. It wouldn't be as much of a Hollywood ending as winning the title but there is a personal victory for the individual characters. They had arcs to their stories and each would have been victorious in their own right. They really were winners even before that game started. That's what Coach Dru's halftime speech was about: "Look around the room, you guys have already done it on every other level possible--personal, family, all that. Let's just take care of the on-the-air story."
DP: I really like "Heart of the Game," the documentary about a girls team in a Seattle high school.
KB: Yeah, me, too, absolutely.
DP: Well, that became a film about a coach. I look at your poster and it says, "More Than a Team, More Than a Coach." All of a sudden it's not LeBron but the coach being promoted. Did you know Coach Dru would have that big a part in your film?
KB: Not when I started. I was definitely focusing on the friendship of the five guys. But I knew that inherently Coach Dru was going to be an important character because at that point he had the most life experiencehe was the authoritative voice in the film. I didn't know his story about not even chasing his dream until he was in his forties. And I didn't know he'd go back and reflect on his wins and losses as a person with the team. I didn't know those things would happen, but I started to uncover that as I was going through my journey making the film. I learned about him and his dreams.
DP: The kids grow as people. Did he grow as a person, too, in your opinion?
KB: Absolutely. That junior year for the five boys, he definitely got caught up in the winning and losing. He wasn't coaching for the right reasons all the time. The hype around LeBron and the team the pressure of being a first-year coach on that level got to him. I think that's why they crumbled in that big game. He takes a lot of the blame for that loss. But he grew as a person and in their senior year he really changed who he was and his philosophy and the guys fell in line and they did it together.

DP: I have a question about the editing. You have Coach Dru saying that he has learned that it's not about winning or losing, and about three minutes later, he makes Willie a bench player in his senior year. He did that because he wanted to win.
KB: I don't necessarily think it's contradictory. He's not just about winning and losing but they were playing high stakes basketball and certainly winning was still an objective. I dont think he would have made the decision if he thought Willie couldn't handle it as a person and the rest of the guys couldn't handle it. It ended up being a positive. Willie looking at that situation and accepting his role for the betterment of the team was the reason Romeo joined the four long-time friends as a friend too and they became the Fab Five. So if that decision wasn't made, they don't win as people. I think Coach Dru had the foresight, coming from such a grounded maturity, that he was able to make that decision for the right reasons and not just because he wanted to win.
DP: Was there a negativity or resentment at all in regard to LeBron James being so much better than everyone else and having a future in the NBA that the others wouldn't have?
KB: A lot of people ask that. It's interesting but those guys weren't about that. He was never anything to the other four boys than LeBron, the same LeBron they knew when they were in the fifth grade. There was never any jealousy. They were all good players. Junior year success went to all their heads and that's why they lost.
DP: Could you see that?
KB: I saw glimpses. I saw little bits of cockiness here and there and then you see it affecting them and the coaches warning them about it. They don't necessarily heed the warning and it ends up being the reason for their downfall. As a filmmaker you walk a fine line and you care for these guys because you have to so you can take them places they wouldn't go normally. But at the same time, if something bad happens you have to stay true to the film. You have to be objective and report those things and make it work for the narrative. So I walked a fine line of being their friend and on their side and being objective, and was so fortunate to be part of an amazing journey.

Check Out the Czech Film Festival

Check Out the Czech Film Festival

(from brinkzine.com 10/19/09)

My friend Laura Blum is the creator, producer, and co-curator for an ambitious Czech film festival that will be at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center beginning this Friday. Marking the twentieth anniversary of Czech freedom, it includes a fascinating array of political films from past and present. In addition to classics like Ecstasy, Daisies, Loves of a Blonde, and the Star Wars forerunner "Voyage to the End of the Universe" are films we've only read about until now. Every film fan can find three or four must-see films. Look over all the information for the festival and then at the end, read (after you've seen it) what I wrote about Ecstasy back in 1986 for my book "Guide for the Film Fanatic."
The Ironic Curtain
Czech Cinema since the Velvet Revolution
October 23-29, 2009
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, the remarkable, non-violent overthrow of Czechoslovakias Communist regime, we present a series of some of the finest Czech films made since the founding of the new democracy, including several international prizewinners and box-office successes. 

Additionally, a sidebar of key Czech classics honors the countrys exceedingly rich filmmaking tradition. Many of the screenings will be complemented by discussions with filmmakers, actors, and other distinguished guests.
+ Guest appearances are indicated by an asterisk (*) after the showtime.
The Ferrari Dino Girl / Holka Ferrari Dino
Jan Nmec, Czech Republic, 2009; 68m
screening with
The Kind Revolution / Nn revoluce
Ji Stecha and Petr Slavk, Czech Republic, 1990; 37m
Fri Oct 23: 2:00pm*
Sun Oct 25: 7:00pm*
*Pavel Jech, dean of the Czech film school FAMU, will introduce The Ferrari Dino Girl and Martin Palou, Czech Ambassador to the U.N, will introduce The Kind Revolution.
The Loves of a Blonde / Lsky jedn plavovlsky
Milo Forman, Czechoslovakia, 1965; 88m
screening with
The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia / Konec stalinismu v echch
Jan vankmajer, UK, 1990; 10m
Fri Oct 23 4:15pm
Wed Oct 28: 8:40pm
Citizen Havel / Oban Havel
Pavel Kouteck and Miroslav Janek, Czech Republic, 2008; 120m
OPENING NIGHT
Fri Oct 23: 6:30pm*
*Czech Consul General Elika igov will introduce the film.
Something Like Happiness / tst
Bohdan Slma, Czech Republic/Germany, 2005; 102m
Fri Oct 23: 9:10pm*
*Intro/Q&A w/ Actor Aa Geislerov.
Thu Oct 29: 2:15pm
Empties / Vratn lahve
Jan Svrk, Czech Republic/UK, 2007; 100m
Sat Oct 24: 6:00pm*
*Intro by Producer Eric Abraham.
Wed Oct 28: 2:15pm
The Return of the Idiot / Nvrat idiota
Saa Gedeon, Czech Republic/Germany, 1999; 100m
screening with
Czech Peace / esk mir
Filip Remunda and Vit Klusk, Czech Republic, 2004; 8m
Sat Oct 24: 8:00pm*
Tue Oct 27: 4:00pm*
*Intro by Actor Aa Geislerov.
Ecstasy
Gustav Machat, Czechoslovakia/Austria, 1933; 87m
Sun Oct 25: 12:30pm

Divided We Fall / Musme si pomhat
Jan Hebejk, Czech Republic, 2000; 122m
Sun Oct 25: 2:20pm
Wed Oct 28: 6:15pm*
*Intro by Jana ernk, Director, Czech Film Center.
Some Secrets / Vlet
Alice Nellis, Czech Republic/Slovakia, 2002; 93m
Sun Oct 25: 4:45pm
Wed Oct 28: 4:15pm*
*Intro by Iva Bittov.
Voyage to the End of the Universe / Ikarie XB 1
Jindrich Polk, Czechoslovakia, 1963; 87m
Sun Oct 25: 9:15pm
Thu Oct 29: 4:20pm
Daisies / Sedmikrsky
Vra Chytilov, Czechoslovakia, 1966; 74m
Tue Oct 27: 2:15pm*
Thu Oct 29: 8:50pm*
*Intro by Michal Bregant, dean of FAMU International
The Cremator / Spalova mrtvol
Juraj Herz, Czechoslovakia, 1969; 95m
Tue Oct 27: 9:00pm*
*Intro by Chris Harwood, Lecturer in Czech Slavic Languages, Columbia University.
The Karamazovs / Karamazovi
Petr Zelenka, Czech Republic/Poland, 2008; 100m
CLOSING NIGHT
Thu Oct 29: 6:15pm*
*Intro/Q&A w/ Director Petr Zelenka.
Single Screening Tickets:
$7 members/students/child - $8 senior - $11 public
Online service charge: $1.25 per ticket ordered. Cash only at the box office.
Series Pass ($45 public/$30 member): admits one person to five titles in the series; only available for purchase at the box office ~ subject to availability. Certain restrictions apply.

For tickets and further information, visit: www.filmlinc.com <http://www.filmlinc.com

Spoiler Alert: About Ecstasy: This once banned picture, starring the unknown Hedy Lamarr (who was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna) an directed by Gustav Machaty, is a surprisingly impressive work considering that its reputation is based solely on its troubles with censors and Lamarr's nudity. It's an extremely bold, erotic exploration of a woman's need for sexual fulfillmenta theme that was long taboo in the cinema. Lamarr is a young bride who discovers that her older husband has no sexual desires. While she watches young romantic couples all around her kissing or dancing closely, her dull husband ignores her. Extremely unhappy, she leaves him and goes home to her father. She plans a divorce.

After a nude swim, she meets a construction worker who returns her dress. In a remarkable sequence that takes place that night, Machaty cuts back and forth between sexual imagery and Lamarr standing alone on a balcony with a cigarette smoke escaping her wide-open mouth; it's easy to tell that Lamarr is at the mercy of her libido. She aggressively walks to the worker's shack and they have sex. Machaty's camera stays on Lamarr's face through the lovemaking and while she has an orgasmthis startling scene, not the more famous on in which Lamarr runs nude through the woods, is the reason the film has always had trouble with censors. Machaty is sympathetic to Lamarr, yet he considers her a sinner for yielding to her sexual desires and seeking out a man for sex (and for committing adultery)regrettably, he feels she deserves punishment and must sacrifice all, including the man she now loves (because he gave her sexual pleasure). Sound film has very little dialogueit is shot like a silent film, often employing Russian montage techniques. Final sequence of workers is bizarre, almost experimental in nature. Also with: Jaromin Rogoz, Leopold Kramer, Aribert Mog.

The Challenge of "Motherhood"

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The Challenge of "Motherhood"

(from brinkzine.com 10/21/09)

In the Director's Statement that can be found in the production notes for her new film Motherhood,writer-director Katherine Dieckmann begins with this question: "Why aren't there any decent comedies about motherhood?" I'm sure she didn't mean to imply that all films about moms and their kids must be comedies. Yesterday, in fact, I saw Lukas Moodysson's grim but fascinating Mammoth, starring Michelle Willaims, Gael Garcia Bernal and Marife Necesito. It will play in New York beginning November 20. Like Dieckmann's movie, which opens this Friday, it's a life-out-of-balance film, but its view of mothers and their challenges and responsibilities toward children is deadly serious. I hope that someday a creative theater owner will play the films as a double feature because together they will provoke a broad and important spectrum of questions and discussions. Whereas Mammoth takes place over about a week's time and is set in New York, the Philippines, and Thailand, Motherhood is set only in New York and takes place during one hectic day, when middle-class mom Eliza (Uma Thurman) almost loses it as everything goes wrong--including her relationships with her husband Avery (Anthony Edwards) and her pregnant best friend Sheila (Minnie Driver)--as she prepares for her young daughter's birthday party that night. I recently took part in the following roundtables with Thurman and Dieckmann, Driver, and Edwards. I note my questions.

Roundtable with Uma Thurman and Katherine Dieckmann

Q: Katherine, is the story for "Motherhood" built around your own life?
Katherine Dieckmann: Well, it contains things that have happened to me, more or less. Although I never danced with a messenger. A woman never stops dreaming! We shot on my corner and I do live in two separate walk-up apartments. I did have a dog I had to carry downstairs while I had my son in a backpack. And I told Uma how to lock her bike the way I've done it.
Danny Peary: Did you find yourself telling Uma "that's not me."
KD: I never saw Eliza as me. The circumstances were my circumstances, but Eliza was a character and once Uma embodied her I never thought of her as being a representation of me. Uma has her own distinct physicality and I thought of Eliza as a character being played by an actor. It is fiction.
DP: What about you, Uma? Did you find yourself having a responsibility to get Katherine right?
Uma Thurman: No, I wasn't trying to mimic or parody Katherine. I was embracing the truth of the script that she wrote and living inside of her words. I didn't put my ideas into the film; I did Katherine's script. When you have an auteur who writes the story and shoots it, then you should serve her vision.
KD: Uma did make suggestions along the way and you're a stupid director if you don't take ideas from good actors.
Q: Uma, what advice would you give women about how to retain their identity after they have children?
UT: Just know that you're in the same boat with the rest of us and it's a very crowded boat. I don't know where all the identities have gone! Have you seen my identity? Identity last seen on September 12.
KD: Motherhood is very isolating, particularly when your children are young. I had babies in New York and many friends with children, but you still feel, because of the responsibility and weight of the task-based nature of it, alone. And I don't think anything breaks up the isolation until you find a way to do it. That's an individual process. Some women have kids who are five and they still have trouble working. Then there are women who give birth and three days later are back in the boardroom. So each person is different. You have to surrender so much of your identity to become a mother and serve another human being and then there's the process of rebuilding yourself back to who you were.
Q: What does motherhood mean to each of you?

KD: What the movie says is that while there are so many frustrations in your daily life, ultimately you're blessed--and I'm not a religious person--to participate in this beautiful process that's very rewarding and very hard. You appreciate the process for what it is and it doesn't go on forever in the way it does when your children are small. You appreciate this rare thing that will not always be in your life every day.
UT: It's the greatest love I've ever known. Love is what being a mother is. It's costly, it's challenging, it's wonderful.
DP: Do kids ever understand how hard it is for the mother?
UT: You don't want them to. You want them to feel secure. If they think the mother is being beaten down, then that makes them feel vulnerable. They depend on you and need you to survive.
KD: At the same time they can learn empathy. Sometimes my son says very sweetly, "Mom, I'm very sorry you have to do the laundry." But your instinct is to protect them from things they don't need to take on until they're adults. You're their hero.
Q: How do you balance working and being a mother?
UT: You just do your best. I made a lot of changes when I became a mother but I didn't stop acting. You just be yourself and forgive yourself when you're not perfect.
DP: You mentioned earlier the scene in which Eliza dances with the messenger. Why is it important for us to watch her dance?
UT: It's the moment when she really starts to freak herself out. It's the moment when her personality is out of control, and she brushes near something that is really threatening to her and her family. She's off-center and scares herself in that scene because she's flirting with disaster.
DP: I thought it was the moment we see that she used to be a lot of fun.
UT: That's true, too, but the fact is she's being a lot of fun again through an inappropriate circumstance in her family home. She scares herself.
KD: It's the idea that when you become a grown-up you live a life often bound by duty. When you're in your twenties, you don't have the same responsibilities. She revisits who she used to be when she first heard that song they dance to. Then she suddenly stops herself and remembers the birthday party she is throwing for her daughter. This is the present time. It's great to have those moments of abandon, but they're luxuries when you're leading a more committed life.
Q: Single mothers may think Eliza has it made because her husband brings home money and she has him to do half the work, but it seems like he doesn't do his share. Eliza's husband Avery doesn't seem to realize that she is having to do many things on her own.
UT: I'm a single parent. Having been in a relationship where it was the same as being a single parent, I can say being a single parent is a mind-blowing step beyond that. It's very lonely. There's no one to discuss anything with about what is best for the kid, including when they're sick.
KD: I've screened this film at festivals and elsewhere and there have been discussions about it, and to many women he's providing what they call "invisible content." In the opening credits, Eliza keeps refilling his coffee cup, and while she is making lunch for her kids and getting her daughter to eat a banana, he's reading the paper and making himself toast. That's invisible content. He's making no contribution to her workload.
Q: The press notes mention that you guys had trouble during the making of the film with the paparazzi, or mamarazzi.
UT: Yeah, we had mamarazzi on the set all the time. Katherine made a deal with one of them to leave Minnie Driver alone. That you gave him a part?
KD: No, that's a myth. I wouldn't ever promise someone in the paparazzi a part. But during the scene in which Minnie is on the street arguing with Uma who is looking out her window, they wouldn't leave her alone. It was her first day and she was quite nervous and very pregnant and vulnerable. They were harassing her, yelling, "Who's the baby's daddy?" just to get a rise out of her--which they finally succeeding in doing. I finally went over to them and said, "Can you just be human beings for like thirty seconds?" They were all finally beaten into submission except for one. He would shoot the same shot for half an hour. The same shot and she's in the same dress. It's like, "Don't you have that shot already?"
UT: Digital cameras have been the worst thing. Because in the old days, they had to pay for their film so they'd get their shots and go away.
DP: Katherine, I thought I was the only person in the world who still loves Syd Straw. But she sings several songs on the soundtrack. Was "CBGBs," one of my favorite songs, always going to be played at the end?
KD: Syd is a good friend of mine and I'll tell her you're a fan. When I wrote the script that song was included because I knew it was the perfect closing song because of the lyrics and the feeling of it.
DP: The first lyrics are "Hey, remember me," so is that a theme of the movie?
KD: Absolutely. It's remember me, even though I'm older and have a family. There's a love-story moment at the end, but the movie always is saying that there's still an individual person in that equation.

Roundtable with Minnie Driver

Danny Peary: Before discussing this film, I have to say that I miss The Riches. I was surprised when it went off.
Minnie Driver: I was very surprised. It was a complete travesty that show was canceled. I think we were on the wrong network. We should have been on a paid-subscription network. That way we could have developed it a little better.
DP: Was that the best role you ever had?
MD: It definitely was. Darla is the favorite character that I've played.
DP: It's much different from any role you've played. How did they think of you for that part?
MD: I have no idea. It just came to me.

Q: How did you end up in Motherhood?

MD: I'm not sure. They sent me the script and I was pregnant so I didn't think I'd do it. I thought Katherine might have to rewrite it, but it wasn't necessary because my character Sheila doesn't affect any plot points. It was good to have that part of my life chronicled. Every other part in my adult life has been chronicled. Sheila's really a version of me. It's me, it's pregnant me; Sheila's kind of angry at the father and has had a rough time of it. I was in a bit of a dream the whole time anyway. I'm not sure I'd make another movie when I was seven-months pregnant. I was really tired and wanted to be at home with my feet up.
Q: Did your becoming a mother affect how you relate to Uma Thurman's character?
MD: Not really because Eliza's kids are older and that makes it very different. Having a baby and that first year of life has a very different feel. It keeps me so incredibly busy and I think about my kid more than anything else.
Q: Did you relate to Eliza trying not to lose her identity?
MD: My job is about losing my identity constantly. I think it is a challenge for women, outside the economic challenge, to balance their lives between being a mother and working. How do you do it? I think mothers have to pick one thing that they do for themselves. Going for a swim at the Y, going out for a glass of wine while someone else watches your kid, that kind of thing. I'm lucky in that Henry goes everywhere with me and when I'm working I have full-time childcare. When I'm not working, I've got me, friends, and a babysitter. It has still been a challenge to work and be a mother. I was breast-feeding him when I was making "Betty Ann Waters" with Hillary Swank in February. He was only four or five months old and that was hardcore. Being in Michigan in minus ten degrees and worrying about him, I couldn't focus on the part very well. The movie I just made was much easier. I got into the groove more. We filmed in Montreal and it was fantastic. His being older and my being in the saddle of being a mother made it easier. That first year is so incredibly intense because you don't know if anything you're doing is right. I felt I was going to do some terrible thing and everything would fall apart. You just make sure they're fed and safe and it does get easier. It's about logistics, as you see in "Motherhood." For instance, your car getting towed on a day when it just can't get towed. If you're on a tight schedule, throwing your daughter a birthday party, you see your house of cards fall when you remove just one card--and you're screwed. That's what a lot of women experience. A lot of times you don't have a guy to fall back on because he's working. It's rough.

Q: Do you think there's a difference to being a harried mom in the suburbs and in an urban setting?
MD: I've been thinking back on popular culture in recent years and Cynthia Nixon's character on "Sex and the City" is the only single working mother we've seen. I think it's an interesting meditation because there are a millions of women who are doing it. The suburban housewife has a different flavor, sitting around having coffee in the morning. I don't want to diss about those mothers because I'm sure they're just as harried. But dealing with an urban landscape adds another, interesting dimension to the story, as you see in the movie.
DP: What is Sheila's future?
MD: Oh, God! I wonder what happens to her. She'll get on with it. This is her second of third kid. She'll get a job. She'll leave her kid with Eliza when she goes out at night.
Q: What was it like working with Katherine Dieckmann?
MD: She's an amazing, creative woman and I loved working with her. I met her over the phone. It's her story really. We talked about motherhood. About being an urban mother and her experiences with her children. I just listened to her stories.

 

It's not like there was a great stretch with my character, where I'd have to do research.
DP: You used your own voice as Sheila.
MD: I did! Katherine was so great. She said, "You can do it with an American accent if you want, but I think it's cool if your English." She was smart because Sheila's ironic, acerbic humor lends itself to being British. I think it worked.
DP: Americans can be acerbic and ironic!
MD (laughing): Yes, but it's different but I'm not sure how. Maybe we're more emphatic. We're more proper, which makes it funnier when we say rude things.
DP: When the movie starts we hear Syd Straw singing "Skip to My Lu," I thought it was you.
MD: I know, it does sound a bit like me. I wish I had done some music for the film.
Q: What's next for you?
MD: Betty Ann Waters, for which I truly believe Hillary also will be nominated for an Oscar, along with Amelia. She's amazing. I also finished Barney's Version with  Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman in Montreal. I just got back from Nashville yesterday.
I did an album that's another kind of country, more than the music I usually write.
DP: When you became a star with Circle of Friends, were you thinking at that time that you wanted a career not just across the pond but in America as well?
MD: No, because in England you go to drama school and are groomed for theater--to work in the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company is the pinnacle. So it was quite a surprise. I had never gotten constant praise and was always cast on tv. That was my first movie. I didn't know it was going to be a success over here. I didn't know it would lead to a life spent over here, so far. It's kind of amazing, but I've always been led in my life by what happens rather than having a grand plan.

Roundtable with Anthony Edwards

Q: In my view, Avery isn't there enough for Eliza. Other women have said that he is there enough. What do you think?
Anthony Edwards: I think it's intentional that he isn't there 100%. I thought that was part of the story. We're coming in on this marriage where things are out of whack and their compensating for each other's minuses isn't working as well. So that's where there are misunderstandings between them. I found that's the way it is in relationships in my life. We all have our best intentions but because we're human and make mistakes we don't always realize our expectations and conflict happens.
DP: When did things change for Avery and Eliza--when they got married or when they started having kids?
AE: I think those things are progressive. You can see how things go wrong if you put the onus on one particular aspect of your relationship--whether it's sex or laughter or whatever--and it's not working. You can destroy the relationship by then saying, "I can't do this anymore." The truth is that by riding through these things together, you can survive. It's not over unless you set yourself up for it to be over.
DP: What about communication? Their problem seems to be that they don't communicate like they used to.
AE: When a couple takes on the responsibility of raising children, the children become a huge priority. Because of that necessity, other relationships sufferhusband and wife, with the family, with friends. There is a chemical, instinctual thing where you do whatever it takes for your children. That also needs to be balanced out because if that's all you do, your children will feel suffocated and rebel.
Q: Did Katherine give you a background story?
AE: Just that Avery has an obsession for books and can get lost in that, and it was a safe place for him, his handle to hold on to. That became an important element.
Q: In the movie, Avery critiques what Eliza wrote and she isn't happy about it.
AE: To say what you think at the wrong time can be hurtful. I think we've all done that.

DP: This film is called Motherhood, so we follow the mother through a hectic day. What if we followed Avery during his day? Would we see similar distress?
AE: I don't think you would. The crisis and drama in this story centers around that moment in her personal break, in regard to her creativity as a writer and ability as a mother, and her relationship with her husband. All that's magnified by the preparation for the birthday party. I think Avery has not reached the point Eliza has and that's why he is surprised by her reaction.
DP: He didn't have a drive-through-the-Lincoln-Tunnel-to-New-Jersey moment?
AE: Exactly. Maybe other husbands and wives relate, but in my family dynamic, my "oh, everything is going to work out" can be infuriating to my wife. Maybe it's a general male thing.
Q: What's next for you?
AE: I just did a film called Flipped for Rob Reiner. I get to play a not-so-nice guy. And the big thing is I'm running the New York Marathon on November 1. We're raising money to build the first children's hospital in Africa, in Kenya. Check out Shoe4Africa. We do a lot of work for women's empowerment in Africa through the sport of running. A lot of the great Kenyan runners are ambassadors for us.
DP: What's your fan mail like?
AE: It's all over the place. I'm a motor-racing fan, so if I got to a race, I'll find a lot of Top Gun  fans there. There are a lot of  Revenge of the Nerds fans. And ER fans. ER has obviously been the biggest thing--it's so worldwide.
DP: Is it strange not to see ER on anymore and for Jay Leno to be in the 10 pm slot?
AE: It did its fifteen years and I think the timing is right for it to end. Of course, I'm a fan of written work and there's now five hours less. That's too bad. We need writing so we can do our jobs. But of course we fill our lives with a lot more than this.
DP: Do you want to do television again?
AE: I wouldn't say never, but I'm not actively looking for a good hour drama. I know what that work is like.

Halley Feiffer in "Gentleman Broncos"

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Halley Feiffer in "Gentleman Broncos"

(from brinkzine.com 10/28/09)

Halley Feiffer, photo DP

It's always exciting to interview young actors who are on the rise, so I looked forward to speaking to the multitalented Halley Feiffer, who not only acts in the theater and movies, but writes plays as well. The daughter of Jules Feiffer and Jenny Allen (who is currently starring in an acclaimed one-woman off-Broadway show, I Got Sick Then I Got Better), is on the launch pad with a whole slew of new movies, with a career that is ready to take off. First up is the loony Gentlemen Broncos, a semiautobiographical homage to loving mothers and bargain-basement sci-fi filmmaking that returns director-writer Jared Harris to his Napoleon Dynamite roots.

You probably saw Feiffer in supporting roles in You Can Count on Me, The Squid and the Whale, and Margot at the Wedding, but this time she not only plays the "romantic" female lead but also gets to play a character, Tabitha, who believes that she is the star of everyone's life and Hess's every frame. She's an offbeat delight as the manipulative, self-absorbed, new quasi-girlfriend of Benjamin (Michael Angarano), who lives in a geodesic house in Utah with his mother (Jennifer Coolidge), an aspiring nightgown designer. The sweet Benjamin allows Tabitha and Lonnie (Hector Jimenez) to make a cheapo movie adaptation of his unpublished science fiction novel, Yeast Lords: The Bronco Years. He doesn't know that his hero, the egocentric, over-the-hill fantasy writer Dr. Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement), has stolen his book and is passing it off as his own, The Chronicles of Brutus and Balzaak. Got it? Feiffer, who appeared in a Flight of the Conchords episode with Clement, and went to the same college, Wesleyan, as producer-actor Mike White (whose ridiculous get-up challenges that of the movie's biggest name, Sam Rockwell), is perfectly at ease in and contributes to the screen madness. In anticipation of the film's Friday release, I spoke to Halley Feiffer at a release party and took part of a three-critic roundtable with her on Tuesday afternoon. I note my questions.
Danny Peary: Your name is Halley. Were you named after the famed comet that got a lot of attention in 1985 and 1986 when it last came around?
Halley Feiffer: A good question--but I don't think it had to do with the comet. My parents had a friend named Halley. Also they liked Hallie Flanagan, who was the head of the Federal Theatre Project for the WPA in the 1930s. I didn't realize it was an unusual name until everyone started mispronouncing it like Hayley, which is the same way people mispronounce the comet's name.
 

Q: How were you approached for Gentlemen Broncos?
HF: It was totally old school. I just auditioned with the casting director Meredith Tucker in New York. I got the audition through my agent and Meredith put it on tape. I was able to read the script before the audition so that was very helpful. It was just the two of us in the room. It was one of those things you do and forget about it, because what are the chances Jared Hess is going to see this tape of me and then cast me? And that's what he did! He said that he and his wife Jerusha were just watching the tape at their house and they thought mine was funny. One thing they thought was funny was something I didn't do intentionally. It was when Tabitha asks Benjamin if she can borrow some money to buy tampons, and I looked down unashamedly and they thought it was hilarious. I didn't remember doing it, and that's helped me get the part. Then I flew to L.A. to read for Jared. It was kind of like a dream.
Q: Had you experienced anything similar to that?
HF: The Squid and the Whale was a similar thing. Noah Baumbach was there but I just went in with the casting director. I thought it was a huge long shot, but he really liked me from that one audition. I didn't hear anything for a long time and I assumed they made the movie and didn't do well, and then two years later "they're bringing you back!" They had lost their financing because Bill Murray had dropped out and then they got some back. So I came in again and after two or three auditions I was the first person who was cast. It was weird. I had been going on auditions since I was about twelve for off-Broadway stuff and occasionally movies and TV and didn't get anything. But once you get someone's stamp of approval it gets a little easier. It's all very serendipitous.
DP: Your father, Jules Feiffer, said he worried about your decision to become an actress, but then realized, "she always had the right temperament. She knew that the ups and downs were part of the process." He said it took him several decades to learn that lesson.
HF: That's cool! I really learned that from him, so I guess I got a shortcut. He'd be told, "It's so exciting you're writing a Disney musical," and he'd say, "I have no idea what will happen; it probably won't work out but if it does that will be great." But it wasn't in a self-defeating way. It was realistic. So with everything I do, I just keep my expectations really low, so I can just be satisfied. Because at the very least I'm breathing and eating food. If I thought, "Now I'm going to be a huge movie star," I'm going to be disappointed. I learned that pretty much from him and my mom
DP: Noah Baumbach said that what he liked about you was that you are a candid actress. It applies to what you're talking about now--how you don't worry about highs and lows, you just play the part.
HF: Oh, what a good parallel. I guess I just try to do what that part calls for and not try to impose my own wants and needs on it because that's not being true to the character. I just stay in touch with my instinct for what the writer wants from the character. With Tabitha in Gentlemen Broncos, it was easy for me. I felt I really got this character. I don't know what that says about me!
DP: There's a quote in the production notes where you say you like that Tabitha has too much self-confidence.
HF: I said that? I agree with that! There are people whose parents loved them too much and they are a little too pleased with themselves. They are irksome and I think Tabitha is one of those people. In fact, playing her, I thought that the key to her character is that she is a little too self-confident but has a good heart.
DP: At the beginning we're not sure we'll like her but at the end--well, we're still not sure if we like her.
Q: Yeah, I know! That's something interesting about Jared's films. He doesn't wrap things up in a bow. There's no "and then they get together" We did a few changes from the original script and shot new scenes. Tabitha used be a little more contemptible. I think Jared didn't want her to be quite so loathsome. She's just a little too self-involved but who isn't like that as a teenager? I love that these characters are like people you know but heightened and tweaked. Jared's writing is almost theatrical in that it takes place in this alternative universe. You can pull it off in the theater and no one blinks an eye, but with a movie, someone might ask, "Why are their jeans so high?" Because it's a weird, parallel universe. It's more difficult to pull that off in filmmaking.

DP: Does the script by Jared and Jerusha Hess resemble what we now see on screen?

HF: I did not imagine the way it is now on screen. I don't know why but that has always been my experience. Whenever I've worked on a movie, it has turned up very different. I guess I imagined this film to be a little slicker. It has this grainy, lower-budget, independent-fil feel that I actually really love. I felt the same way when I watched The Squid and the Whale and Margot at the Wedding, and I guess that's because most movies are slicker. I think it was courageous of Jared to shoot the film that way and I think it really suits the movie. What I love about the movie is the kooky, weird, sci-fi stuff but it also has a real heart. That is something I also loved about Napoleon Dynamite, where people are always fighting but really do love each other. Benjamin's relationship with his mom is really sweet and that works well with Jared's homey style. I may have expected it to look more like Nacho Libre but on this film Jared had almost the same crew as on Napoleon Dynamite because that's the aesthetic he really likes. And I like it, too.
Q: Maybe because Nacho Libre didn't do well, he wanted to go back to what he knew?
HF: Yeah, they wanted him to use their director of photography and their people and he wanted to use the people he loved working with, the people he went to film school at BYU with. So we had Munn Powell, the DP on Napoleon Dynamite, who is really great and we had a lot of that same crew. I think Jared just wants to stay true to who he is. And he can't help doing that. Not to sound lofty, but I think in any art form you have to remain true to who you are. If you try to accommodate other people, the audience can sense it. There's something organic there and it doesn't quite jell.
DP: That's also the theme of the movie, isn't it?
HF: Yes! I didn't even think of that. Inorganic jell. That is the theme of the movie. What's a little difficult to explain about Benjamin's story is that the characters are sort of weird but they are great in what they do. He's not trying to be Dostoyevsky, he just loves writing sci-fi stories and is really good at that. What we tried to do as the filmmakers in the movie, Tabitha and Lonnie, is to bastardize the stories and make them into our own versions-- instead of writing our own versions--and they suck, too.
Q: What's Jared like to work with?
HF: He's really wonderful to work with. What he writes is insane in the best way possible, but he's down-to-earth and accessible and available.
Q: How were Jared and Jerusha working together on the set?
HF: They were amazing. It was how I'd want a marriage to be if I were to get married. They have two kids so Jerusha was off with them sometimes. Often they'd bring the kids to the set and the kids would jump into their laps. It was hilarious. It was an idyllic family and they'd go home and write these absurd, strange, poop-riddled comedies. Jerusha brought, and I hate to say it, a more "female" eye. She loved working on the costumes and helped a lot with mine. She had strong thoughts about that. She helped refine what Jared was working on. It was a perfect partnership.

DP: You said to Michael Angarano, "I feel like we are part of this kooky, hilarious religion because we all believed in the movie so much."
HF: It reminded me of theater where you all collaborate to create an alternate reality, because that's what we were doing here. It doesn't take place in our realm of reality and we all bought into that. We understood that although Jared never said, "Look, this is the version of reality it is: People wear mom-jeans and snakes poop on you and you don't bat an eye." Everybody was intelligent but also strange and we all just sort of "got it."
Q: Other than at Sundance, had you spent time in Utah before?
HF: I had been there twice for Sundance but that was a little different. I loved being in Utah. I had a lot of fun. I loved working with these people who were mostly Mormons. They were the nicest, funniest, weirdest people. I had the best time with them. We all stayed in the same hotel and went out together. We shot in several towns, but it was mostly shot in Salt Lake City. We rented cars and went to Park City a little bit. We shopped. I didn't go skiing because I didn't want to break my head and not be able to be in the movie. Every night we watched films by Jared's friend Steve Grew in our hotel. He makes these films almost exactly like the film-within-the-film that Lonnie and Tabitha make. We loved watching those sci-fi tributes in our rooms for hours each night. It was fun. We were so passionate about it. And we all stopped cursing. Jared would say, "It's so dang awesome." You don't say God, you say Gosh. There's no cussing, no drinking, no sex in the movie--but it's not puritanical at all, it's just that the kids are busy doing other things, trying to achieve their dreams. No one chastised us if we slipped and cursed. One day I had a friend visiting and I warned her that there was no cursing on the set. And then I screwed up a scene and yelled, "Aw, fuck!" And I felt so bad, but no one chastised me because they weren't trying to convert us. We didn't curse out of respect for them and I loved not cursing. What I loved is that it gave the film so much more texture and color and forced Jared as a writer to find other ways to express himself.
DP: What is your reaction seeing your name placed on a fantasy novel in the opening titles?
HF: I love it. It's so exciting. I can't believe that's my name on a science fiction book. I forget what the female is like--maybe a woman with lasers coming out of her nipples. Whatever it is, I'm very honored to be part of it.

Q: What is your favorite science fiction film?
HF: I'm not into science fiction. I don't know much about it, although I did have fun watching Star Trek in college. Even with Star Wars, which my friend tells me is fantasy rather than science fiction, I have trouble understanding why they are fighting and what is happening.
Q: Is it because you grew up in a family interested in drama and human elements?
HF: Exactly. That's a good observation. I am an idiot when it comes to the plot in science fiction, so it's good for me to stick to family dramas. That's what I can wrap my mind around. It's humans and emotions, and relationships. But what I found in this film is that through the sci-fi lens, we can explore those very things. And having these characters making a sci-fi movie is a great vehicle for us to learn more about them, about their strengths and weaknesses and tragic flaws.
Q: You are also a stage actress and playwright. Did you work on your mother's one-woman show, I Got Sick Then I Got Better, at the East Fourth Street Theater?
HF: No, she wrote that. It's an incredible piece of theater.
Q: What's next for you?
HF: I'm doing a play right now called Still Life at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, but it closes on Sunday. Then I don't know what's next, acting or writing, movies or theater. Nothing is being produced right now, but I am writing plays. We'll see.
Halley Feiffer in the shadows.
Two-person photo: Jules Feiffer and daughter Halley Feiffer
Sam Rockwell on horse
Group Photo (L-R): Halley Feiffer, Michael Angarano, Jared Hess, Josh Pais, Sam Rockwell, Mike White Credit: Michael Loccisano, Getty Images

The Message of "The Messenger"

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The Message of "The Messenger"

(from brinkzine.com 11/1/2009)

Last Sunday's New York Times had a 3-page article by Deborah Sontag about director-screenwriter Oren Moverman's The Messenger. Sontag's title was "A New Attack on the Iraq War Film," and she seemed to describe it as a combination of a "coming home-from-war/buddy movie" and a European art film; and she said Moverman (a left-leaning Israeli who spent four years in his country's Defense Forces) portrayed it as "the little war movie that could." It's a war movie without fighting, set far away from the action in Iraq and Afghanistan but with death and trauma constant presences. Our "hero" is a soldier named Will (rising star Ben Foster), who is trying to cope with mental and physical problems after returning to the U.S. from the war zone. For his final few months in uniform, he is teamed with the older but also flipped-out Tony (Woody Harrelson, in a different role for him), a veteran of the first Gulf War. Their unenviable job is to perform, in a number of shocking sequences that were done without rehearsal, casualty notifications to dead soldiers' next of kin. As Will bonds with Tony, he also finds himself drawn toward a kind young widow, Olivia (Samantha Morton, super once again). As he engages in two totally different "romances," and experiences enormous pain and grief, Will, oddly, shows signs of healing. In anticipation of The Messenger's  release, I took part in the following roundtable with Moverman (a cowriter of the bizarre Dylan biopic I'm Not There) and Foster (3:10 to Yuma). I note my questions.
Q: Oren, how did your own military experience in the Israeli army inform this film?
Oren Moverman: It informs the script not so much in the narrative--there's no time when I can say that happened to me or that's my story--but what I felt I knew and understood was the emotional landscape of a combat soldier. Because I was in combat zones. I don't want to make it sound like I was a warrior or fighter. I was part of two occupations: the occupation of Palestine and the occupation of Lebanon. They aren't dissimilar from the occupations that are going on right now, though it seems they are now bloodier and more chaotic; and Americans aren't in their own neighborhood, while we were in our own neighborhood, for good or bad. What we talk about in the movie is the "coming back from another planet." It's a feeling I understood well from being in those places. That's what I tried to convey to the actors, especially for Ben's role.
Q: As an Israeli, did you feel any connection to or influence from Waltz with Bashir?
OM: I had a curious reaction to it. It was very emotional for me and I actually found myself crying uncontrollably. I was in Lebanon two years after Ari Folman so I wasn't involved in that particular massacre. But politically I found it to be more right-wing than I wanted it to be. I don't think it implicated the Israelis enough for what they did. I don't think that's a popular thing to say so let's hope I won't hear from the Israeli lobby. Ari Folman is a peace activist and a leftist, an interesting guy, and he thought he was making a leftist movie but it was actually embraced by the right-wing government because it really showed the phenomenon that they call in Israel "shooting and crying." Basically we do all these things and then cry about them and feel terrible because we're not fighters but "out for peace."
Q: Did your own experience in Lebanon influence the general sensibility in this film?
OM: It just covers the ground of being a soldier in a combat zone. You're always afraid, you're thinking about who your girlfriend is sleeping with, you're always horny, you want to kill someone, you don't want to get killed. Very basic things that a combat soldier carries with him in whatever military he's in.

Q: What about the influence of soldiers being killed?
OM: I didn't corner that market. We all have had that experience. We all know about death. We've all experienced notifications. You don't have to be in the military to be told that someone you love is gone. Those are such basic connections into this movie. The fact that it takes place in the military gives the movie a backdrop and a particular layer but in essence it's a movie about how you get back to life having experienced pain and loss. The answers are so simple that we tend to forget them. Love, friendship, humor, connections and relationships with people. How else can you survive?
Q: Ben, did he share any of this with you?
Ben Foster: Yeah, we spent a lot of time together sharing experiences. The emotional landscape was very important for me to relate to from the beginning.
Q: How did you work out in your head where you played a character who has post-traumatic stress disorder yet has to seem together while informing people of their loved one's deaths? There's an outer person and an inner person.
BF: It's such a beautiful script so the voices were clear. But he's like any of us who deals with trauma and has to get through the day. You deal with loss and then have to show up at work. How do you get through that day and the stupid, menial, clumsy, human-being tasks like doing your laundry, taking out the garbage and picking up your socks when someone you love is gone? Approaching it in a simple way, it's difficult being out there being any person because while the circumstances are extreme they are universal.
Q: How did you prepare to play this already troubled soldier who is given the assignment of reporting casualties to loved ones?
BF: Oren set up a field trip for us to go to Walter Reade Hospital to spend time with the soldiers there, particularly in the amputee ward. We had the full support of the army, which is still shocking. We were advised by Lt. Col. Paul Sinor, who was the head of the casualty-notification office for the entire U.S. for two years. The guys in the background at Fort Dix are guys who just returned from deployment overseas, so we were surrounded by those who had served and that made the experience a lot easier to absorb. You can't walk though an amputee ward without being confronted by so many stories. It's a life-changing experience to see the effects of war outside the cold, chilly statistics we hear about. Once I touched the scars of a young boy where his leg used to be and when walking away trying to get my head right, and from touching it, my face starts to burn from the antiseptic. And I touched my tongue and taste the burn. It gets in your bones to see the results of war up close, as a civilian. It alters your perception.
Q: Did you get the chance to go with notification officers when they did their jobs?
BF: If I was getting notification that a loved one was gone and there was an actor at my door, I'd shoot him on the spot.
OM: We didn't dare ask. We thought it would have been inappropriate and I'm sure they would have said no anyway.
BF: But we wanted to show what it was like. We wanted to be honest. As Woody's character says, "There are no happy customers."
Danny Peary: Oren, as Ben said, you got a lot of help from the army in making this movie. One of the reasons is that it isn't an anti-Iraq War movie. Is it an anti-war movie?
OM: That's a good question. We never framed it in those terms. I think we were trying to be very respectful of the audience in making it clear that we had no political agenda. We just wanted to show you what the people who have to live with the consequences of war look like, in our own little make-believe world. A Vietnam vet said something to me that I felt was really appropriate. "There are only three positions on war. There is pro war, anti war, and in war." And we took the "in war" route. People have to live with soldiers coming back, soldiers not coming back; and families that are torn apart, obviously on a small, intimate scale--it reverberates from there. Unfortunately, we're now talking about hundreds of thousands of people who rotated through the combat zones returning. Coming back a lot of them feel alienated. There are a lot of physical and psychological problems. Some things aren't even being talked about, like burn pits and things like that. These are going to be problems society deals with or doesn't, but we've taken it upon ourselves to shine a light on it for a little bit and hopefully we'll be part of a dialogue or spark a dialogue that we didn't feel was really going on.
DP: Should Obama see this movie before making his decision to deploy more troops to Afghanistan?
OM: Yeah. Well, everyone in the world should see this movie! We were talking about stuff like that. We shot this movie during the dark ages of the end of the Bush administration. We were naive to think we should show it to Bush, thinking there was some capacity for compassion somewhere, though we were wrong. Two weeks ago we had lunch at the White House. We met Biden briefly and we spent a lot of time with his son Hunter Biden. We said what we had to say. Hey, why isn't this guy saluting coffins and why isn't he visiting Walter Reade? And in the last two weeks he's done both. We're not taking any credit for it, but it did happen.

Q: Ben, your character has emotional relationships with Woody's character Tony and Samantha's Olivia. Did you view them as being very different from one another? Because in a way they are both romances.
BF: Absolutely. And hopefully everybody addresses life like that. Everything should be a romance or it's cold. He recognizes or feels qualities in himself in someone else. The relationship between Will and Tony is difficult because they have big hearts and don't know where to put them. Eventually they connect. With Olivia, there's the frequency of saying, "You have felt the way I feel," and there's an attraction there that we don't always understand. They're thinking the other understands how they feel and think, "I don't know how to deal with it, but I've got to get closer."
Q: There's a great awkwardness, too. I love when she says, "Look, people are going to look at us from the outside and think you're moving in."
OM: The two of them are actually addressing the audience then. The audience is looking at them so it was really important for us to have her say those words to make that thought go away quickly. It was important for us to develop a relationship we can't really explain. The two characters can't really explain it to each other. It was like, "Why are we here together? Why are we attracted to each other? Why are we trying to share pain?" Their feelings involve a lot of awkwardness.
Q: I liked the discussion between Will who just got back from a firefight in war and Tony who didn't get the chance to actually fight while a soldier in the first Gulf War, and both are very affected by what or what didn't happen. Did you get a chance to talk to soldiers from Desert Storm and Desert Shield who didn't get to engage in combat?
OM: We have a very good friend who is our inspiration for soldiers who didn't fight in Desert Storm or Desert Shield. Tony Swofford, who wrote Jarheads. He's the reason we called Woody Harrelson's character Tony. We talked a lot about that experience and I met some of his buddies. We talked to people who have been in both wars, but we mostly spoke to those who were in Iraq and Afghanistan. But there's definitely that tension when you don't fight. Soldiers are trained to fight. Before they go, they crave it. After they go through it, it's a whole other world. There's a lot of bravado. Tony Stone is kind of a fuck-up in whatever he does. He's frustrated. I've met people who express that frustration from not fighting and I think, thank God they didn't fight in the war because that wouldn't have been good for them.
DP: Tony says he wishes he was shot at, rather than shooting at enemy soldiers. There's a distinction.
OM: Right. He wants to be shot at. That's what we call a baptism. He wants to be baptized.
Q: Ben, I assume you're one of those actors who says, "Don't fake it. Actually hit me." Is that something you demand as an actor?
BF: Everybody approaches their day differently--whatever gets you there. There is so much complication in regard to performance. There are people around you at the same time you're trying to create this internal space where you can feel and connect to a character. So if there is a way to open these little windows of connection, be it through violencewhich can be intimateyou do what you have to do to get out of your own way so you don't have to think so hard. "How would I?" becomes "Here we are." Obviously there are going to be lines that you address during the day. I'm not going to knock on doors and tell people their kids are dead in preparation, but I will walk around at night and allow those images to rise up and I'll sit with them. That's what we need to do as actors but it changes with every character.

Q: This is a different kind of war film. Were you fans of war films?
OM: I used to be addicted to Apocalypse, Now as a soldier and watch it over and over again. Something about the way that movie moved from realism to surrealism seemed very appropriate in regard to my experience in war, though it was nothing like that.
BF: I'm not particularly a fan of war films as specific genre. But I do like The Last Detail; Apocalypse, Now; Full-Metal Jacket. But how do you relate to Kubrick's stylized approach? I feel like I'm watching a movie.
DP: Oren, did you think of The Last Detail when making your movie?
OM: Yeah, though it's not something we actually talked about. In terms of filmmaking, we thought of a lot of films. The Last Detail and Coming Home, definitely. Hal Ashby was a big influence, as was Robert Altman and the Maysles brothers. Salesman was the first film I watched with the director of photography because it was about a man coming to the door. It was really instructive because that's when we started talking about how to use zooms and how to make something out of a scene in which two people stand around-- nothing happens but the camera is telling you things. We watched a lot of movies.
Q: What was the reaction of soldiers when you told them you were making this film?
OM: The one thing that this soldier Will Cook at Walter Reade said to us that really got to us was, "If you get this thing wrong, I'm not going to see this movie." He mentioned a couple of war movies and said, "If you're going to make that piece of shit, I won't see it and my friends won't see. So don't get it wrong." He was a beautiful guy, nineteen-years-old, who had lost his leg, still shell-shocked but telling us to do a good job. So that was inspiring and we tried to do that.
DP: How could you have gone wrong so that young soldier would have been disappointed? Did he mean that if Will and Olivia slept together it wouldn't have been realistic?
OM: No, he didn't mean that. That guy would have loved the characters to sleep together.
DP: I know that your consultant, Lt. Col. Paul Sinor, said that no soldier would have moved in on a recent widow.
OM: It's funny that the higher up you go in the military, the more sanitized they want to make it. It was lucky we didn't want to go there either because it would have created problems with the script in that it would have gone downhill if they slept together. But Will said of those movies he didn't like that soldiers don't talk like that, soldiers don't behave like that, soldier's don't run away from a fight. He was very particular about such things. He was just out of a firefight and was in the hospital trying to learn how to walk after losing his leg. He basically didn't want soldiers to be demeaned or portrayed as cowards. He didn't want Hollywood coming in--and ironically, he thought of us as Hollywood--and presenting a half-ass version of what a soldier is.

DP: Talk about the "Humpty-Dumpty" reference in the movie. Broken people who can be fixed and shattered people who can't. I'd think that is a major theme of the movie.
OM: That's absolutely the theme. That's as sophisticated as it gets with this movie, in terms of metaphors. Yes, that's what this movie is: a lot of broken people, a lot of people trying to put the pieces together without any help and without anyone really noticing them and being so marginalized. When you talk to people in the military, they talk to you with suspicion at first because you're a civilian and an outsider. How are you going to understand them if you're not paying attention to them? It's all about piecing a life back together again, not the life that was but finding a new direction. What happens in this movie is that every character finds a direction, good or bad, somewhere to go. The whole movie as we approached it is like a waiting room, and everybody there is between hell and life and they're trying to get back to life. And that's why the movie kind of hangs there sometimes and we just want to watch and listen to the characters. This is going off a bit, but you got me there. The scene in the kitchen with Will and Olivia is a nine-minute take where we're you're supposed to just listen to the widow of a dead soldier. That's all we're asking. Please just sit there and listen.
Q: How have people reacted to the movie?
OM: Reactions have run the gamut. People have been reacting emotionally to the movie and that's a really great gift. If people find the patience to interact with the movie, because it is respectful of the audience, and then get something out of it--whether it's political or human or just information--we feel great about it.
Q: Can you talk about the process of selling a movie that, while it's not a typical war movie, still deals with the Iraq War?
OM: If somebody said to us, "Iraq War movies don't work," then we'd say, "It isn't an Iraq War movie." If they said movies with soldiers haven't worked in the last few years, we said some movie with soldiers has to work, so why not this one? It took a lot of convincing and obviously people told us not to make the movie. I think it's interesting that financing came from all over the world. The majority is not from the United States. It came from people who believed in the script. If you look at the financial structuring of the movie, you'd see there is American money in it, money from the Middle East, and money from Australia. It so happened that it's a mix of Christian money, Muslim money, and Jewish money from a financier who is in the States. And we were supported by the army. We felt we were making world peace just in how we financed the movie!

Do You Have "A Passion for Giving"?

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Do You Have "A Passion for Giving"?

(from brinkzine.com 11/17/09)

 Robert and Robin Baker Leacock

Yesterday, I finally got around to seeing A Serious Man by Joel and Ethan Coen. I have mixed feelings about their movie, but think their script is exceptional. In that script, if I heard correctly (50-50 chance!), is a line that is said twice: "Helping others, couldn't hurt." Those simple words are almost lost in all the dialogue--in fact, both times it's almost a throwaway line--but that they're presented in an understated manner doesn't make them any less profound. The film is set in 1967, but today, as the economy crumbles and jobs are lost and charities become more desperate for donations and volunteers, those words certainly resonate even more. "Helping others" made me think (twice) about an upcoming documentary that will be playing on PBS this Saturday afternoon. It's titled A Passion for Giving, and advances the idea that donating money and oneself not only helps the less fortunate but also cleanses one's soul and makes hearts soar--and it points out that the kindness of strangers has a positive impact both in our own communities and around the world. Of note: its director Robin Baker Leacock is the daughter-in-law of pioneer documentary director Richard Leacock and the wife of his talented son Robert Leacock (in the photo with Robin), an important documentary director and cinematographer in his own right who helmed the camera on this film. She says, "My hope is that this film will encourage people to act--whether giving of time or money, helping people, animals or the environment. That is the coolest thing, the most fun thing people can do right now or ever is to help other people." I want to pass along the followiing publicity release to Brink readers so you all can be sure to put this 50-minute documentary on your calendar. If you're going out, set your DVR. A Passion For Giving is airing November 21st on WNET (PBS) at 1:00pm ET

He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much.--Lao-Tzu
ROBIN BAKER LEACOCK'S
A PASSION FOR GIVING ON PBS
Documentary features Run DMCs Darryl McDaniels (The Felix Organization), Alexandre De Lesseps (BlueOrchid), Gael Greene (City Meals on Wheels), John Sykes (VH-1s Save the Music), Richard Branson, Dan Aykroyd, Fran Lebowitz, Mr. Smiley and more.

Robin Baker Leacock's uplifting documentary A Passion For Giving is about the simple gesture of giving, and its importance on our world locally and globally.
"I think that's the biggest shift any person can make. That is the coolest thing that you can do, the most fun thing that you can do, the most sexy thing that you can do - right now or ever is to help people!"--writer / director Robin Baker Leacock
Baker Leacock explores the peoples passion for giving through revealing interviews and candid conversations with a diverse group of people, including Richard Branson, Ross Bleckner and Bob Collacello co-founders of ACRIA, Gael Greene founder of City Meals on Wheels, Louise Stephaich for Albert Schweitzer Hopital in Haiti, Alexandre De Lesseps founder of BlueOrchid orphanage in Burma. Run DMCs Darryl McDaniels founder of The Felix Organization, Henry Buhl founder of Soho + Tribeca Partnership, Missy Hargraves for Wildlife Rescue, And John Sykes on behalf of VH1s Save the Music among others.
A Passion for Giving is produced and directed by Baker Leacock and filmed by Emmy-award winning director/cinematographer Robert Leacock, son of legendary cinema verite pioneer Richard Leacock, whose credits include Madonna's Truth or Dare and Al Pacino's Looking for Richard.
An established filmmaker, Robin Baker Leacocks credits include It Girls for WE: Womens Entertainment Network; I'll Take Manhattan, which was screened as an official selection at the Montreal World Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival and Hamptons International Film Festival; and a series of summer documentaries for Plum TV in the Hamptons.
For more information on the film, please visit:
http://www.passiongiving.com/
Check out the new clip with DMC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lasr_FBbbk
A Passion For Giving is airing November 21st on WNET (PBS) at 1:00pm ET
For additional air dates, please visit: www.passiongiving.com

"Burning the Future" Is My Pick Today

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"Burning the Future" Is My Pick Today

(from brinkzine.com)

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It's probably a wild guess but I'll say that few of you who aren't employed by Con Ed have been planning to see a documentary about coal this weekend.  But I hope you reconsider because my pick for this week's must-see film is David Novack's Burning the Future: Coal in America. There have been more "electrifying" (a coal pun) titles in the history of the cinema, and on the Learning Channel for that matter, but I immediately could tell this wasn't a dry documentary like we used to watch in social studies and civics classes when I read this one line in the production notes: "Every eleven and one-half days, the explosive equivalent of the Hiroshima atomic bomb is unleashed upon the mountains of southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky - for coal."  Since I was born in West Virginia, how could I not watch this film to see what was being done to the Mountaineer state in my absence? What I discovered was a terrific, startlingly enlightening film, populated by some extraordinary, fascinating Appalachian political activists, that every American should see.  The destruction of the majestic landscape, the pollution of streams and drinking water, and the loss of jobs and lives caused by mountaintop removal coal mining to provide us with electricity--all done with the blessing of  the Bush administration--is heartbreaking, and until this film, a well-kept secret.. This week I interviewed David Novack, the deeply committed director who about a film that really is a public service.
Danny Peary: In your bio, I see no West Virginia connection, so where did the idea for
this film originate and when did you become part of the project?
David Novack:  Back in 2002, while doing research for a television series, I met an ecologist from the University of Kentucky, John Cox.  John was conducting a study of mountain elk that had been reintroduced into the wild in the hills of Harlan County.  But in our conversation, it became clear that John had ulterior motives.  It turned out that a coal company had brought in the elk so that reclaimed mountaintop removal sites could be used as hunting grounds.  John was using his research to get access to these sites so that he could test the flora, fauna, soil, and water conditions of these sites. Almost a year later, John called me.  A major federal decision against the coal companies and the corps of engineers had been overturned in circuit court and there was precious little media.  He urged me to come down and see for myself the destruction of the mountains, and speak with residents of the coalfields about their lives, and I did.
DP: Is this your first theatrical documentary?  If so, why do you think it's a good project for a first timer?
DN:  Yes, this is my first theatrical documentary.  I've never given thought as to whether or not it is a good first project.    Maybe it is, and maybe it really isn't.  It certainly presented, and continues to present, huge challenges every step of the way: funding, shooting, editing, and navigating the independent distribution process from festivals to 4-walling one's own theatrical release.  I guess every filmmaker needs a first project
for the learning curve it presents.  This project, I simply couldn't turn away from.
DP: I would think to make as good as film as you did, you would have had to felt passionate (rather than detached) about the subject matter and the desperate activists in your film. Is this true and was an increasingly emotional experience over time as you filmed and put together your film?
DN:  This journey has been very complex for me emotionally.  What I really felt, and still feel, is "connectedness" to all the folks I've met.  I've been angered by the environmental and human abuse.  I've been embarrassed by being essentially an outsider who is as much part of the problem as any American who consumes electricity in ignorance.  I've been deeply moved by the honesty, warmth, trust and courageous determination of the subjects.  I've felt compassion not only for them, but for those who work and make a living in and from the coal industry.  And I remain hopeful that Burning the Future will contribute to a meaningful rethinking of the energy direction of the nation.
DP: Did you feel you were on a mission to get the word out about the devastating effects of mountaintop mining and a burden or responsibility to the people you filmed to get it right and make an impact?
DN: Absolutely.  Responsibility is the key word.  The more the wonderful folks of West Virginia opened their doors and gave me their trust, the deeper that responsibility has become.  My responsibility lies in telling their story, honestly, with all the complications that their very real lives present.  That responsibility carries no burden.  The burden lies in telling their story while making sure not to vilify those who work in and on the mines
and power plants.  They are good people doing incredibly difficult and dangerous work. I've tried to be fair to them.  Just as the activists and victims in the film have the right to be free of the damage caused by the industry, miners have the right not to become "collateral damage" of a change in energy course.  That's the burden, to participate in forging imperative change that doesn't leave anyone behind.
DP: Did you know who you were going to film before you started shooting?
DN: Not at all.  I started filming because I had read about the newly named  baseball team, the West Virginia Power, opening in a new stadium–all branded around energy.  I felt that intersection of Americana, energy and coal hit the heart of the story that I wanted to tell.  This is not just an Appalachian story, it is an American one--we are just ignorant of our connection.  From there and the contacts I made, I began filming people and their stories and let those with particularly filmic storylines emerge.
DP: I thought of Norma Rae as I watched your leading female.  Did you feel that about her?  Was it fascinating to see her and these West Virginia mountain people develop a political/social consciousness?
DN: Truthfully, Maria Gunnoe had already developed her consciousness when we met.  With what had happened to her property and her family, how could she not?  But yes, she is a kind of Norma Rae, up against incredible odds, and today the subject of scare tactics and death threats perpetrated by those fearful of losing their jobs, not understanding that her fight is really theirs too.  What I saw in Maria, however, was pure authenticity.  She obliterates the hillbilly stereotype.  She never apologizes for who she is
or what she stands for.  She is proud of her mixed European/Native American lineage as well as her coal mining heritage.  And she is brilliant.  Others, particularly Donetta Blankenship who had never been on a train before, were only just learning the power of their voice and my hope is that capturing that will help others around the country find their voices in whatever ills  they need to overcome.
DP:  Did the governor and bureaucrats you spoke to, who turned a blind eye to the plight of the people who were being put in harm's way by mountaintop mining, truly believe 100% that they were in the right and that the activists had no real gripes? Or are they just greedy, uncaring people?
DN:  I can't know the answer to that question.  Nothing is 100%.  One thing I have earned is that there are good people, kind and open people, involved in bad things simply because of their circumstances and point of view.  My feeling is that they do feel that the activists have legitimate gripes, but not at the expense of what they believe to be the only true economic powerhouse in the state.  Don't get me wrong, there are some who are probably just greedy or get their power from the coal industry-- but that doesn't apply to everyone.
I hope they see the film, see their voice represented, and find deeper compassion for the other side.
DP: Do the disenfranchised activists have any powerful political forces on their side or are they on their own?
DN:  Absolutely.  There is a ground swell in the country right now that provides a hopeful backdrop for their activities.  If the US is ever going to get serious about global warming, coal is the first place to go to reduce emissions.  The 501 major coal power plants emit 35% of our greenhouse gases, more than 370 million cars.  And there are solutions--efficiency standards in building and appliance codes, robust development of renewable energy, and a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants leading to a significant reduction in coal.  Efforts to fight global warming are gaining political ground in cities, states, and Capitol Hill.  The Governor of Kansas just reversed a decision to permit a new, enormous coal power plant in the face of a smear campaign launched by the coal industry.  She did this on the grounds of public health concern over climate change predications for Kansas.  In addition, with respect to mountaintop removal, there is presently a bill in the house designed to solidify a provision that is already in the Clean Water Act, but that the Bush administration has been able to work around.  That bill now has over 100 sponsors and if passed and enforced, could effectively end mountaintop removal mining.
DP: There is mention of the coal companies and government pitting neighbor against neighbor so that they themselves aren't recognized as the most sensible target for the entire population.  How does that work if all neighbors are becoming sick? Or is it the healthy coal miners with jobs pitted against the unhealthy activists?
DN:  In the Mingo County area, where I followed the dirty water/sickness story, there is less of this because so many folks are sick, and because the preponderance of mining is non-union for Massey Energy.  In this case, it is truly the residents against the coal company.  They are fighting for clean water and an end to underground injection of slurry, which doesn't seem to threaten jobs.  Where Bo and the Marsh Fork Elementary School is, and where  Maria lives in a neighboring county, there is less sickness, less poverty,  and more union mining--the suffering is less obvious, and the activists are fighting to end mountaintop removal mining, which directly employs people who live there.  Here, there are many families who are doing alright because the fathers work in the mines.  And most of the tax dollars that go to the county for schools, services, and charities are from coal.  So it is easy to leverage the fear of job loss to motivate miners to battle the activists.  I find it very telling when one woman at the school says if they "keep on with the mouth, they're going to shut down this school..."  Her protestation is not out of concern for mining and wages, but out of fear of the power of the industry  in their neck of the woods.  It's important, however, to understand that twenty years ago there were 120,000 direct jobs in mining in West Virginia.  Today there are only 15,000.  This is a result of a little more mechanism, a significant reduction in union mines, and a great shift toward mountaintop removal mining, which employs far fewer people and now accounts for 40% of the coal mined in West Virginia.
DP: Is your film advocating traditional coal mining over mountaintop coal mining, or is it advocating a gradual abandonment of coal mining entirely?
DN:  The film advocates traditional, union mining over mountaintop coal mining, and regulations that would prevent the gross slurry contamination of the water table throughout Appalachia.  These are environmental and human crimes.  The DVD, however, goes beyond that.  It addresses global warming and human health effects of coal burning that can't be mitigated without a gradual abandonment of coal as a principal source of electric power.  This is a shift that can be accomplished over several decades, while replacing lost jobs in coal mining areas by locating renewable energy industries in
the various states.  For instance, the mountaintops that already have been blasted are great locations for wind turbines and there are industrial corridors in West Virginia and Kentucky that could be renewable manufacturing sites.
DP: Talk about the scene in Times Square where our heroine yells "Turn Out the Lights!"  I can't tell if it was staged, but nevertheless it's powerful and should rock us ignorant New Yorkers out of our complacency.  We're far away from West Virginia and don't realize what suffering we're causing with our need for electricity.  Do you think most Americans understand electricity comes from coal?  Even if they know that, how little do people think of that?
DN:  I consider myself a generally well-read and educated American.  Six years ago, I had absolutely no idea that our electricity came from coal.  The staggering and shocking truth, more than half our electricity comes from coal, was the revelation that drove me to make the film.  Again, it is about connectedness, and that became the thread of the film.  Before the viewer gets deeply into the stories of suffering and action, they learn this connection and are reminded of it throughout the film.  Americans don't know and don't think about it.  So when the activists came to speak at the UN, I suggested that we visit Times Square and I filmed Maria's reaction.  There were folks who screamed back at Maria in Times Square, "Right On!"  And there were folks who screamed back, "So what! Too bad!"  It remains to be seen how much people will care.  But I'm hopeful.  Our consumption patterns don't need to change significantly.  It's really a matter of not wasting energy, appliance/building efficiency and renewable energy.  We still will be able to plug in our iPods, laptops and cellphones while enjoying healthier air, water, and environmental stewardship.
DP: Why did you choose the title "Burning the Future?"
DN:  The title sums up the problem with coal as an energy source. The facts are clear that coal damages the natural environment in ways that cannot be repaired, and the economic gains of coal extraction are not going back into the communities that are mined--even on a replacement basis. This uneven exchange applies not only to the thousands of streams, mountains and homes that have been permanently lost, but also to jobs and the economy in the affected areas. For example, coal production in the US reached a record 1.1 billion tons in 2006.  At the same time, mining jobs in West Virginia were down from 59,700 in 1980 to 15,200 in 2004. For the people who live in these areas, and for the rest of us who consume this resource, the future environment and economic growth and people's homes are quite literally being burned away.
DP: Are you still in touch with the people in your film?  Are they still activists?
DN: Absolutely.  We speak regularly and their stories continue...I could film forever--it isn't over. 
DP:  When people we've been following get a pipeline delivering clean water, it is a victory, but is there a danger viewers may think their problems are solved?
DN:  I hope the viewers understand that folks who have been consuming toxic water for years are not going to get well because the faucet runs clean.  I hope they understand that the dirty water story is only one piece of this, and that slurry is still being pumped underground everyday and leaching into the water table.  I hope they understand that this is only one community and that the slurry impoundments are scattered throughout Appalachia and there are communities with similar problems.  The purpose of that scene is specifically to show that if you stand up and take action, use your voice,  your organizing and your voting power, you can bring about change.  Billy is a model for leadership, and just a regular guy who loves his family and cares for his community. Beyond getting city water to their sinks, have they achieved everything they are striving for?  Not in the least.
DP: One of your interviewees (a lawyer) talked about the Bush administration changing laws constantly to avoid challenges to what they were doing that was against laws set forth in the Clean Air and Clean  Water Acts.  It's a rhetorical question, but: Doesn't this typify how the Bush administration has avoided challenges to their law-breaking in regard to the environment in general, eavesdropping, Guantanamo Bay prisoners, etc?
DN:  Yes.  The administration has used powers granted to the Office of Management and Budget to make "rule changes" within regulatory laws.  It's been a brilliant tactic for the administration and a very damaging one in many areas.
DP: I was born in West Virginia so I was drawn to your film, but is there a worry that your movie won't have impact because it's just not a "sexy enough" issue?  Or is there hope that this film will be an eye-opener? Is there any way this topic can become a political issue nationally?
DN:  Let's face it.  Coal ain't clean, and it ain't sexy...except in that crazy pro-mountaintop-mining commercial in the film--no one underground looks like those women!  But of course, my hope is that the film will be an eye-opener.  To that end, several organizations have granted support to the film, some before its completion and others after.  These include the Civil Society Institute who has launched a national campaign called CLEAN to build an awareness and action coalition against mountaintop removal mining and extending that to a coal moratorium over several decades.  The Sierra Club and the Rainforest Action Network, as well as Link TV, have become engaged in helping disseminate the film on a national level. Capitol File magazine is helping to launch a Capitol Hill screening that will get the film in the hands of our representatives on the Hill.  Texas Public Citizen is using the film in their fight against newly proposed coal-fired power plants.  This is only a partial list of organizations taking the message under their wing and flying with it.  It's very encouraging.  This is just the beginning.
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