Three West

When I filmed my first documentary it was on pure impulse. It wasn’t until I’d finished filming that I understood one thing. I felt a deep appreciation for those who participated in my film. They didn’t know me from a can of beans, yet they agreed to share the intimate details of their lives with me and the world.

Shooting my first documentary was pretty straight forward. However, it wasn’t until I went to Ireland to film a documentary about Lesbian relationships that I realized the enormous personal and social responsibilities involved with filmmaking. It wasn’t some profound revelation; just a simple acknowledgment. The women were very afraid to be in the film. I had to understand their fear. I couldn’t let my own thoughts about how free they should be overshadow the fact that they weren’t. That was their reality and the film did not get done. But I had a wonderful, welcoming time there and enjoyed conversations I had with the women a great deal.

Not long after my trip to Ireland, I began planning my two new documentaries, Our Side of Joy and Charise: A Portrait of an African American with Albinism with a new appreciation for filming the lives of others. In order to film Charise: A Portrait of an African American with Albinism, I had to think about the feelings of my best friend Charise. I had to be sure she was ready and willing to tell her story and to what extent. Whatever she was ready to reveal, I would have to work with. I also had to consider if I was going to reveal, by interviewing myself, what she wouldn’t and how I would go about doing so in a productive manner.

Having known Charise for over 15 years, it is easier to talk to her about her concerns and expectations as well as mine. However, because I haven’t known identical twins, Marlene and Michelle Tamayo as long or as well as Charise, I had to put far more effort into my filmmaking process. For instance, I have to consider the feelings of the entire Tamayo family (over 30 people). I have to think about how this film will impact all of their lives.

Up until the time I arrived in Florida, the twins’ father was very concerned about the questions I was going to ask him. I had several phone conferences with the twins during pre-production to find out more about their lives and to discover what my story would be. During those conversations I was informed about a few subjects that would really upset their father. Their father would not participate if I was going to ask questions about those subjects because quite simply, they would upset him too much. So I agreed not to ask him anything about it. He did continue to worry that I would. He had every right to worry. It is so common place for filmmakers to ask hurtful or difficult questions after gaining a subject’s confidence that interviewees are justified in being concerned.

When I was done interviewing him and his wife (joint interview), I could see how relieved he was. He was so happy. I was very happy as well but sad that this is what non-fiction filmmaking has come to, where people think they will be hit over the head when they least expect it because of predatory filmmakers.

It would have been predatory for me to have decided that because I wanted to film the truth I was going to ask him about subjects I already knew would upset him. What I filmed was the truth. It was the “despite that” truth. Think about that.

I was also going to speak with a woman in Florida about doing a documentary on her life. She was in the Korean war and fled the country to save herself. When I got there, she was too afraid to do the film. Family left behind in Korea were lead to believe she was dead. If I were a predatory filmmaker I would tried to convince her of how the world really needed to hear her story even though I was already told by her children that she suffers from post traumatic stress and even watching a few minutes of footage about the war sends her into a near-catatonic state.

There are so many different things a filmmaker has to think about when dealing with the lives of others. I’ll share some examples of predatory filmmaking and a few examples of responsible filmmaking.

One example of predatory filmmaking involves a scene from the documentary, Children Underground. While overall, I found this film very riveting; there was a scene where 14 year old Violeta ‘Macarena’ Rosu was being beaten by a stranger because he didn’t like that she was crying. She was crying because she was so hungry she didn’t know what to do. So while sitting on the ground, the stranger came over to her and started kicking her and trying to stomp on her head with his foot. I was disturbed that this grown ass man would beat on a 14 yo girl instead of help and I was just as disturbed that the filmmakers did nothing but stand there filming it. It took a 16 year old to get him to stop, while other adults in the station just watched or walked by. Why would the filmmakers just stand there filming this girl being kicked and stomped by a grown man? For realism? So we can see just how brutal their lives are? Well, you know what? We don’t have to have them being beaten on film to know that being a homeless child is probably beyond hellish. And why did a 16 yo have to wedge her body between the beaten girl and the abuser while grown ass people just watched and filmed? I found the filming of this girl being beaten to be predatory. I’m sure they thought they were getting good stuff for their film all in the name of realism no doubt. It would have been effective, and in my opinion more real, if they would have intervened and added a voice over that went something like “An man, angry at Macarena’s cries of hunger, tried to beat her and we had to intervene” and add something about it being a part of the hardships of being a homeless child and how more times than not, there is no one there to help.

I also felt I needed to speak on this issue because of the new filmmakers out there who are 100% predatory. The way they approach their art is about taking away from someone, what they feel they can feed to the audience and profit from regardless of what it may do to others and they do so in such diabolical ways (i.e. Borat). I’ve seen filmmakers become damn near orgasmic upon capturing something horrible or emotionally upsetting on film.

Now consider this example of responsible filmmaking. Six year old Danny Lloyd who played “Danny” in The Shining had absolutely no idea he was in a horror movie until years after the film was released. This was because Stanley Kubrick went through great lengths to make sure he was protected from a subject matter he knew would be harmful to the child at his age. It wasn’t until years later that his mother showed him the film. Stanely Kubrick took responsibility for his filmmaking. As did the makers of Taxi Driver, making sure Jodie Foster had counseling about the part she would play in the film and using her adult sister in the racy scenes. However this wasn’t the case in the films she was in after Taxi Driver (see also Movie Review: The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane). I mean, as cute as they wanted Bugsy Malone to be, it was still children acting out a very adult story.

I could cover thousands of movies that were made by predatory filmmakers and thousands that were not, however I simply wanted to point out there are some things one should consider while filmmaking:

1. Be humble. No one owes you anything. This means you aren’t entitled to tell any story you feel like just because you decided to pick up a camera.

2. The philosophies of Journalism are wrong. The world does not need every story by any means necessary, no matter who gets destroyed in the process.

3. Think about how you can tell the story you want without information you felt you really needed. If you can’t choose another subject for your film. Don’t be so emotionally attached to what you want to film that you are willing to do it at cost to other people. In the end, it will never be worth it.

4. Don’t put people in compromising positions, especially children and young adults. There is no excuse for doing so in any fictional film. If you are shooting non-fiction and need to expose some evil corporation or business owner or something, fine, just know who to shoot and when. Don’t make other people pay for the actions of your evil subject.

The art of filmmaking shouldn’t be 100% about the audience or business. It should be a nice balance between your enjoyment of the art, sharing it with others, and being concerned about the business end just enough for a little financial sweetness.