FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: Beth Cloutier, Director of LAST STAND AT DODGE

SFF program director Jeff Schmidt caught up with Beth Cloutier, director of LAST STAND AT DODGE ahead of her film's World Premiere at The Cabot on Friday night at 9:20pm.

JS: We're excited to host the World Premiere your film and present it as our inaugural North Shore Spotlight - how does it feel to bring LAST STAND AT DODGE home?

BC: Salem, MA and the North Shore are home to me. I grew up here so to make a film that takes place in the area and to bring it back to share with the community is an honor.

JS: As a filmmaker, do you think it's more of a challenge to tell a story in your own backyard or is it an advantage?

BC: There are challenges and advantages of telling a story from one’s community. The advantage is that people know you and are willing to open up and trust you to tell the story.  Relationships grow and deepen as the film making process ensues. This creates respect and trust between the filmmaker and those being filmed.

JS: How did you first connect with Fats Hammond and what compelled you to start filming?

BC: I first connected with Fats Hammond back in the early 2000s. But it really began before that. When I was in high school, I would watch Marty Rowen play at the Red Room in Salem in the 1990s pre Fats Hammond days.  I went to college and when I returned I made sure to see Marty play. In the early 2000s, upon visiting home from living in NYC, I went to Dodge Street on a Tuesday night on the recommendation of a friend. I was immediately taken by the music and performance but what was just as special was the community surrounding Tuesday nights. All walks of life came to see Fats Hammond. College kids, veterans, bikers, professionals, 20 something’s to 80 year olds and folks from outside Salem would congregate to watch Fats play. After about an hour people were up dancing with one another. It didn’t matter who you were, everyone got along and had a good time together.

I moved to Marblehead for a year from 2009-2010 to help out with some family business. This was between my time living in NYC and LA. During that year I went to Dodge Street on Tuesday nights.  I was interested in filming artist portraits of Ken, Marty, Mike and Benny at first but as the year went on I realized that there was a story to tell.

JS: When Dodge Street closed and eventually was demolished, you were still editing the film.  Did it feel strange spending so much time looking at that footage, knowing that the place no longer existed?

BC: In the beginning I was sad to learn that Dodge Street Bar & Grill had closed. I had so many good memories there. But times changes and people move on.

JS: You've worked as director of photography for many documentaries over the years, how did it feel to sit in the director's seat this time around?

BC: Moving into the director’s chair was a bit of a challenge but one that I welcome.  As a DP I work closely with directors and producers on documentaries and at times I have to act as an interim director on shoots making sure to capture the vision of the production.

JS: Music seems to be a through-line in your life, I understand you've got a new project aimed at giving "other Fats Hammonds" more widespread visibility?

BC: Yes, I created a business and channel called Local Music Channel that focuses on highlighting local artists from the community and the venues that support them.  LAST STAND AT DODGE was the inspiration for the channel. Interacting with fans of the film throughout the country and internationally on social media, I learned that many communities were affected by the closing of local clubs leaving people without a place to see their favorite local musicians. I decided to create a channel thinking if I can show musicians and artists filmed high end with good audio in local venues from their community and post it online, that the good quality will attract more people to go out and support local musicians while showing the cool places they can view them.

JS: What do you hope the audience takes away from LAST STAND AT DODGE?

I hope the audience learns what their fellow local musicians go through in life to provide incredible entertainment for us in the community.  That we need to respect the art and not take it for granted. That these musicians work hard and should be paid well for their craft. Community benefits from that talent that lives within it. Music venues provide a place where community can come together to enjoy life and forget about their daily problems. It is important to support the venues that provide this.  If we lose these places and the music we lose part of our culture and the bonds and identity that are created by it.

FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: Ali Weinstein, Director of MERMAIDS

By Kereth Cowe-Spigai

MERMAIDS is my favorite kind of documentary--the kind that surprises me. When I sat down to watch this film, my interest level was fair to middling, and it was difficult to imagine connecting with the subject matter. But I did. In a pretty big way. That's the beauty of a great documentary--it manages to communicate essential truths through what can sometimes seem like obscure or unusual subject matter. The trick is to show that something small and unknown, something strange, is familiar, profound even, through the right lens. MERMAIDS certainly possesses this quality. One of the ways the film achieved this visually is through the stunning underwater photography. Director Ali Weinstein was kind enough to take the time to talk about her film with me, and the very first thing I wanted to know about were the breathtaking underwater shots.

KCS: Had you any experience with underwater photography prior to making this film?

AW: Thanks for the really nice words about the underwater cinematography in MERMAIDS. No, the only experience I’d had shooting underwater prior to this was while making a short film during film school. I got my friend to hold a GoPro while I (unsuccessfully) attempted some synchronized swimming moves that I used to be a lot better at in my youth. The footage turned out really moody but beautiful, partly because it was so low res and abstract.

KCS: Can you describe the process you went through with DP Catherine Lutes in crafting the underwater shots?

AW: Catherine is an incredible cinematographer, but she had never done any underwater work before, and we naively just threw her in the water hoping for the best. We bought an underwater housing and she had just a couple of hours to practice with it before we asked her to start shooting our subjects underwater. We were really lucky because as it turns out she’s an amazing swimmer and was able to get some beautiful shots right off the bat. I wanted our characters to be held up on screen in all their mermaid glory in the underwater shots especially – this was their chance during the film to fully transform into their alter egos, and have audiences view them as mermaids. So that was a goal that we aimed for – seeing their joy and their comfort underwater. We wanted these shots to be especially colourful and ethereal and majestic. We enlisted the help of a couple of other underwater cinematographers in addition to Catherine. We shot some of the film in Hawaii, and we knew of a couple who live there – Ali and Jim Ward – who are underwater photographers and had previously done a lot of work with mermaids. Because we were shooting in the open ocean and not in a controlled area like a pool, and because Ali and Jim are trained free divers who can stay underwater for extended periods of time, we decided to hire them to get some epic shots from deep in the water of Rachel swimming. So the intro and ending underwater shots of the film were both filmed by Ali and Jim. Surprisingly, no scuba diving gear was used during this film at all!

KCS: The narration over some of the underwater footage was such an effective way to connect the mermaid archetype to your characters' personal stories. How did you connect with Anastasia Phillips? Can you talk about the recording process a little bit? Was she able to see the footage before recording her lines?

AW: Thanks! While researching the film, I realized that there are literally mermaid myths from every corner of the world. I didn’t previously know the extent of the universality of this legend, but mermaids really are everywhere! It was important to me to acknowledge this in the film even though the movie is really about the lives of these five modern-day women. It was a bit tricky to figure out a way to incorporate some of the myths with our characters’ stories, and I worried that whatever we did would come off as cheesy. We found Anastasia just by reaching out to voice talent agents in Toronto who sent us clips of their actors reading our lines. We listened to hundreds of people, and Anastasia immediately stood out from the rest. Her voice was rich and beautiful and most of all just really natural, and I knew she could read these lines (which ran the risk of feeling too separate from the rest of the film) in a very organic way. Before working together, we talked on Skype once because she was in LA at the time, and then when she was back in Toronto we recorded all the lines in one two-hour session at a sound studio. She watched the underwater footage as she recorded the lines, but she hadn’t previously seen the film. I am so happy with the way it turned out; she’s a total pro.

KCS: One of the recurring themes across characters is the ephemeral, almost spiritual quality of being completely submerged in water--a sentiment you touched on in your Director's Notes as well. You focused on a few mermaids in particular, but did you find that to be the experience of the other mermaids you spoke to as well?

AW: For sure! I think one of the most common experiences we heard about from all the mermaids we met along the way is the sense of freedom they feel when they’re in their tails in the water. But I think that a lot of people can relate to that, whether you’re into mermaids or not. I think the lack of gravity, the quiet, and the sense of being totally alone when you’re submerged underwater all contribute to the sense of getting out of our everyday element, so to speak. Water is an element that symbolizes life and renewal to us, we come from it, are made of it, are baptized in it, and I think our basic human connection to it is part of what has allowed for mermaid myths to exist all over the world. A lot of people have related to this aspect of the film even if they never thought to put on a mermaid tail before.

KCS: Your subjects seem to all have a sense that there is something about their mermaid identity that clicks--it just makes sense--feels authentic to them as people. To me that points to something rather revolutionary and transcendent within a social structure that is heavily oriented toward a rigid gender binary. It seems to move the idea of an identity of the body in a direction that hasn't been explored in any mainstream context. Did you have a sense of this while you were getting to know these characters--that you were exploring something momentous, significant?

AW: When choosing who to focus on in the film, I remember telling Caitlin (the producer) that our main criteria should be finding people who were real mermaids. I didn’t exactly know what that meant at the time, and still don’t. But some of the people that we met clearly had such a strong connection to this part of their identity that they simply came off as mermaids, it didn’t seem like a character they were playing, and those were the people I wanted to hone in on. All of the women that we feature in the film have that authenticity in their mermaid identities. I didn’t think about it as a revolutionary idea, but certainly understanding this part of their identity was an important part of the film. And it was really significant to us that Julz wanted to take part in the film because within the mermaid community there are a lot of transgender mers, and we were really happy to be able to represent that experience in the film. Julz does a wonderful job of describing what wearing a tail does for her psychologically and how it allows her to feel more in sync with her body in the movie.

KCS: How have audiences received the film? Have you had any meaningful connections with viewers over their experience of the film?

AW: Overall, we’ve received very positive reactions so far, and it’s always such a nice feeling when an audience member lets us know how much they related to the characters in the film. One woman told us that seeing the strength and beauty of the women featured in our film made her feel strong and beautiful too, and that was probably the best compliment we could have gotten. Or when someone tells me that they only went to see the film because a friend dragged them but then they ended up loving it – that’s happened a few times too, which is always a really nice thing to hear. It’s not a topic that instantly appeals to everyone, so it’s nice to know that sometimes people will find an unexpected connection to our mermaids.

KCS:  You mentioned in your Director's Notes that you channeled some of your love of mermaids into synchronized swimming as a teenager. Is that something you ever go back to? Have you donned a fin?

AW: Actually, I was inspired to get back in the water and try synchro again while shooting MERMAIDS! While interviewing Vicki (the 76-year-old mermaid who still swims at Weeki Wachee), she said, “can you imagine doing what you loved doing when you were just 17?” When I got home from that shoot, I joined a masters synchronized swimming team here in Toronto because that’s what I loved doing at 17. But on a less inspiring note, my filming schedule ended up being so rigorous that I couldn’t keep up with the team after a few months…so I had to stop. I do love swimming though, and it was such a pleasure to get to swim in so many pools, rivers, and oceans during the making of this film! Both Caitlin, my producer, and I tried on tails while we were filming, which was a lot of fun. We wore beautiful handmade silicon tails by Finfolk in the Hawaiian ocean, and it was surreal. They’re not easy to swim in, but once you get the hang of it, you do feel like an otherworldly creature.

KCS: Do you stay in touch with the subjects? Any updates you'd like to share?

AW: We do stay in touch with our mermaids from time to time. I’m happy to say that everyone seems to be doing really well! Vicki is still swimming at 78! Julz and Nicole are doing great and are now engaged. Rachel and her mom are working as hard as ever at Dive Bar and Mermaid and Mom. And Cookie and Ralph are also doing great. Ralph even tried on a tail not long ago, which he swore he’d never do.

Well that certainly speaks to the power of the fin--Cookie and Ralph as a pair of merfolk is a lovely image! Thanks again Ali for taking the time to discuss your film with us.

MERMAIDS screened on Saturday, March 24th at 2:40PM at CinemaSalem.
Ali Weinstein in attendance for a Q&A after the film.

FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: Eric Weiss and Bradley Berman, Directors of NAT BATES FOR MAYOR

NAT BATES FOR MAYOR is a straightforward, compelling portrayal of mayoral candidates vying for the vote in Richmond, CA. Directors Bradley Berman and Eric Weiss go in for the extensive, intensive coverage of the sparring city council, candidates pounding the pavement, and public figures outside of their local haunts, at times dreaming and seething. What results is an even portrayal of the people and the events that involve them as they unfold in the verité style.

The New England premiere of NAT BATES FOR MAYOR will take place on Saturday, March 24 at 5pm at CinemaSalem.  Both directors kindly responded to some lingering questions ahead of the screening via email with SFF Blog contributor Rebecca DeLucia.

RD: What is the purpose of showing this loud conflict? What challenges did this present in terms of storytelling? What is your relationship to the lurid details of a story as it unfolds?

EW: The atmosphere inside the city council meetings illustrated the conflict between the parties. It was a very contentious time in Richmond. Also, local politics is good theater. You can’t fake that kind of passion.  Our relationship to the details was somewhat detached. Some of the details we showed were vivid, yes, but it seemed to us that everyone stood by what they said. We weren’t trying to protect anyone or promote either side.

BB: The purpose of showing the craziness at Richmond City Council meetings is that it happened. There were two or more factions in conflict with one another. And unlike many other political environments, the leaders of this small city were not the least bit concerned about voicing their opposition in an over-the-top way. We didn’t have a “relationship” with the details. This is the way they behaved and our job was to show it. Most audiences find it captivating and humorous, which keeps them engaged in the story, which is a good narrative device.

RD: The people involved in the election that comprise the doc’s cast of characters are all forthcoming personalities; in fact, their professions require a kind of declarative default--making public statements, presenting a self for campaign circulation, etc. How did you deal with these factors in terms of researching and depicting subjects? What are some difficulties when balancing self-fashionings with more objective documentation?

EW: This is, first and foremost, a movie about people. We wanted to document the conflict between the parties rather than getting to some kind of declarative reality beyond the fact that one side wins and the other one loses. We learned a lot about the characters as the movie went on and we think that is reflected in the movie and passed on to the viewers.

BB: For this story, there was value in showing it as such (full stop). The Progressives believe that Nat Bates is a corporate stooge who is okay with pollution from the refinery. The African-American politicians believe the mostly white Progressives are outsiders, racist and don’t care about jobs or the well-being of the city’s long-time black residents.

RD: In this documentary, you show one party fighting an uphill epistemological battle regarding certain facts of campaign funding, political subversion, and near-sightedness, etc. while another relies less on facts and more on rhetoric, identity, and performative brio.  How does this make you more aware of your role as directors authenticating and disseminating facts? How would you say you participate in myth-making, or would you say this is an inevitable risk of the documentary medium? What are some strategies for avoiding it? Can you imagine subjects or scenarios in which it may prove helpful or informative to participate in this myth-making?

EW: We certainly were not aware that we were making any myths. Suggesting that we have the ability to do so is very flattering. That assumption may also imply that we had a larger agenda at play, or that we sided with one side rather than another. We are both from the area, but not from Richmond, so it gave us some distance. We were lucky that the story played out in front of us and we took the parts that supported that story. Our role was simply to let the events play out and to see what kind of story we had at the end. Happily, it worked out. Our goal was first in service to the story and the characters. A suggestion would be not to have any preconceived notions and consider the story first.

BB: We found both sides’ approaches interesting in their own way. Our role was simply to let the story play out and to see if we had a story at the end. Happily, it did. The different tactics they employed to get out the vote also distinguished the two sides. The styles, strategies, constituencies and issues were very different and interesting. The facts were important if they help move the story along. This is not a movie designed to promote a political agenda.

RD: Your verité, or fly-on-the-wall, style seems appropriate for a project already so packed with large, effusive personalities. Do you think your reserved role in conveying the story directs attention away from yourselves as shapers of this story? Do you think this impacts the way people read your work? What sort of questions are you usually asked about your work? Are they more about events you cover, or your creative process?

EW: We had no interest in being the movie, or making a movie about people making a movie. Since the movie is not a polemic, per se, removing ourselves allows the viewer to make up their own minds. Maybe that’s why people respond to it. We saw a shift occurring before our eyes and wanted to capture the end of an era in Richmond’s political culture before it ended. If the story says something about the sorry state of American politics, the Democratic party, or something bigger, that’s a bonus. People usually ask us why we made the film and how we got the access to the subjects.

BB: We are a lot less interesting than Nat Bates, Corky Booze, and many of the other people in the movie. Our job was to get out of the way and to focus on the story--not the filmmaking. People usually ask us why we bothered to take on this project. We found the people and their situation to be fascinating.

FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: Dave O'Leske, Director of DIRTBAG

Dave O'Leske, the director of DIRTBAG: The Legend of Fred Beckey, has a degree in Biology and was on the road to medical school when he changed direction and followed his desire to explore the world and document what he had experienced through still photography and eventually video.  He started his company Through a Child’s Eyes Productions in 1998.

O'Leske has directed two other feature length documentaries, SPIRIT OF SNOW and CINEMA VERTICAL.  His work has taken him around the world filming for non-profits as well as commercial projects.  He feels strongly that filmmaking is a powerful medium which can inspire people to make positive strides in our world.

Salem Film fest program director Jeff Schmidt caught up with O'Leske prior to the SFF screening of DIRTBAG, which will take place at CinemaSalem on Monday, March 26 at 8pm:

JS: How did you meet Fred Beckey and what was your first impression of him?

DO: I was introduced to Fred through a friend, Dick Barrymore, who I had worked with on another project.  Dick gave me Fred’s address and I wrote Fred a letter pitching him on the idea of a documentary about his life.  Amazingly, he got back to me and we planned to meet in Salt Lake City where he was skiing.  I actually saw Fred at Alta Ski Area getting ready to ski and went up to introduce myself and he basically told me to get lost and that he was busy and he’d call me later.  I left with my tail between my legs, feeling like all the stories about Fred being a jerk were true.  Over a dozen phone messages later that weekend as I was packing up my car to drive home Fred called me back and said, “let’s get a cup of coffee”.  We met at a diner and I pitched him on the film idea and his first response was “why would anyone want to watch that!”  I was immediately intrigued.  That was in 2005.  For the entire next year I would meet up with Fred to climb, road trip and hang out.  We never discussed the film and I never brought out a camera.  That year of getting to know Fred, becoming friends and climbing partners and having him trust me launched the project as we headed to China together in 2006 to attempt an unclimbed 19,000’ peak he had his eye on for years.

JS: Did it take much prodding to convince Fred you should make a film together?  How long did it take to complete your film? 

DO: Fred was incredibly humble and didn’t want to be in the spotlight so that definitely made things tricky in regards to convincing him of the importance of telling his story. Fred was a very difficult subject because he never wanted a camera pointed at him and he could not understand why I would film anything but him climbing.  I don’t know how many times I would hear Fred say, “don’t point the camera at me” or “don’t waste your film”.   All of us who filmed Fred over the years would have to be really stealthy to get shots.  We would often set a camera off to the side if he was talking and hope he was in frame and in focus because if he knew we were filming him he would shut down.  As time went on he slowly, starting letting me look at his archives which were amazing and became an important part of the film.  It must have been 5 or 6 years into the project when he told me he had a box of journals he’d written starting at age 5.  We felt like we struck gold.  Things like that happened over and over all the way into when we were editing the film. We’d find some amazing new piece to the puzzle and have to figure out how to squeeze it in.  The entire project was 12 years from the initial pitch to the premiere last year.

JS: In the film, we hear from many people that Fred was a challenge to climb with, how was he to film with?

DO: Fred didn’t like to be filmed so we just had to be very respectful of how he was feeling and over a 10 year period from age 83 to 93 Fred’s ability to do what he wanted to became really limited by the aging process.  Fred would get really frustrated at times and those are some of the most powerful moments in the film when he has to struggle with the reality that he physically can’t do what he mentally believes he can.  The aging component to the film provided an important theme which transformed the movie from a climbing film to a film that everyone can relate to in some manner.  We all have to deal with aging.

JS: Are there any stories that didn't make it into the film that you can share?

DO: You know we were dealing with someone’s life that lasted 94 years so it is really difficult to narrow that amount of time down to 96 minutes in this case.  So, many components could not be included in the final film.  All of us who worked on the post production struggled with that daily on what had to be cut. That is the nature of filmmaking or story telling you have to do your best to pick the pieces that you feel tell the most compelling story.  For instance, I traveled with Fred to China a second time in 2013 when he was 90 years old.  I spent over a month with him filming and ultimately we determined it didn’t work in the final cut for varies reasons.  We are working to incorporate a lot of that type of material as extra features in the DVD version.

JS: The theme of our festival this year is "focus," that seems like Fred's most defining trait, right? 

DO: I strongly believe that Fred Beckey would have been successful at whatever he choose to do in life because of his extraordinary ability to focus.  If he would have put the same determination and focus into business, music, mathematics, art or any discipline he would have risen to the top of his field and we still would have known the name Fred Beckey.  For whatever reason, the mountains are what inspired him the most.

JS: Fred was climbing all the way into his 90s, how did he do it?  And was it a challenge for you to film?  Did you have experience climbing before the film?

DO: Fred was one of the toughest people I can imagine.  We filmed the last scenes of the film with Fred climbing in Squamish, BC.  At that time, Fred could only walk about 10 feet before having to sit down to rest but he was so determined to climb that he literally crawled to the base of the cliffs.  It was very difficult to witness but inspiring at the same time.  He ended up climbing a handful of routes at age 93 that weekend that anyone would find incredible.  Over the years, we came up with a system of how many people we would need to film and climb with Fred.  We would keep it to the bare minimum and had everything really dialed in so it was safe, fun and not overwhelming to Fred.  It was always a highlight to get Fred out climbing and there was a core group of climbers who helped Fred get outside and climb until the end.  I have been climbing for over 25 years and it was my main passion for many years.  I was able to travel and climb all over the world in China, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, Europe and North America.  Unlike Fred, my climbing has slowed down and I don’t get out as much as I’d like to but I love being deep in the mountains with a close friend and no one else around.  It doesn’t get much better than that.  Fred was definitely onto something!

JS: Unfortunately, Fred passed away last year, but he did get to see the completed film and attend some screenings, right?  What did he think of the film?

DO: Fred passed away on Oct. 30, 2017 and the film premiered over Memorial Day weekend 2017 at Telluride Mountainfilm.  We were so honored to have Fred at the premiere!  By that time I had seen the film hundreds of times throughout the edit so I just sat and watched Fred watch the film.  He was mesmerized by it, leaning forward the entire time watching his life unfold on screen before him.  It was a very proud moment for all of us who had worked so hard on the film for so long.  He pulled me aside afterwards and told me we did a great job!  We purposefully didn’t show any cut of the film to Fred before that because we knew he wouldn’t show up at the premiere if he’d seen it all ready and we really wanted him to feel the energy and love of the audience.  He received an incredible standing ovation at every screening he was able to attend!  It was really amazing to witness!

FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: Lindsey Megrue, Producer THIS IS HOME

THIS IS HOME premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary.  Salem Film Fest Selection Committee member Shelley Sackett had a chance to talk with producer Lindsey Megrue, ahead of THIS IS HOME's New England premiere, which will take place at The Cabot in Beverly on Friday, March 23 at 6:45pm.

SS: You have Massachusetts roots, where and when did you live here? Did that influence your becoming a documentary film producer?

LM: I spent nearly twenty years living in Dorchester, the most diverse neighborhood in Boston. Growing up surrounded by such rich diversity was very formative for me – it made me more curious, it made me want to understand other people’s lives, experiences and points of view. I truly love making documentary films because it allows me not only the great privilege of getting to know and learn from people that I might never have crossed paths within my daily life, but also the honor of helping people bring their unique stories to a larger audience.

SS: How did you get involved with THIS IS HOME?

LM: I met director Alexandra Shiva in early 2016 just as the project was green-lit. I had recently seen her film HOW TO DANCE IN OHIO, which I admired for its intimate and sensitive portrayal of a group of young people on the autism spectrum. I was thrilled to hear she wanted to make a film about Syrian refugees arriving in America in the same style – a style that allows the viewer to get to know the subjects without talking heads or experts telling you what to think or feel, but rather through simple direct human connection. While other filmmakers were examining the war and the journey out of Syria, no one seemed to be addressing what happens next. The story doesn’t end when they reach safety; in fact, it’s just beginning. Given the scale of the refugee crisis, it is vital that these types of stories be told and I wanted to be a part of making that happen.

SS: What do you hope audiences take away from the film?

LM: First and foremost, I want audiences to connect with the film’s subjects, to have a deeper understanding of their lives and see them as individuals, not statistics. Then, I hope this connection and sense of empathy will inspire people to think about what they can do at the local level in their communities to impact the refugee crisis.

SS: What are you looking forward to at Salem Film Fest?

LM: Festivals are such a wonderful way to connect with the film community. I am looking forward to meeting not just the other filmmakers, but also the festival staff, volunteers and moviegoers. Some of the best conversations I’ve had about film were while waiting in lines at festivals. It’s wonderful to be immersed with others who are passionate about films.