Moderator:
- Craig Emanuel, Esq., Chair, Global Entertainment, and Media Group, Paul Hastings LLP
Panelists:
- Paola Elsa di Florio, Founder & Director of Counterpoint Films, Inc.
- Ted Hope, film producer
- Haifaa Al Mansour, director, writer, and producer
Play Video
Transcript:
[Music]
good evening and welcome to the march on washington film festival spring workshop series
minding your movie business pro tips for emerging filmmakers i’m broder johnson producer of the
festival and we are thrilled to have you as part of our third and final event for our spring workshop
series each of these workshops designed by festival board member and global entertainment attorney
craig manuel are to share important tips in filmmaking from some of the best and brightest professionals in the industry
we hosted our first workshop on writers in march directors in april and now tonight we will shed light on producers
no producers oversee all aspects and elements of a production and they are also actively involved in
the marketing distribution process most importantly they are thought of or considered as jack of all trades
films have always been a huge and critical driving force for our institution along with first person accounts from
foot soldiers and icons of the civil rights civil rights movement our festival consultant opal hope bennett leads our
emerging and student filmmaker competition and if you tuned in last month she co-moderated our event
interviewing past filmmaker winners from our annual competition our goal is to provide a platform for
emerging and student filmmakers to shed a light on their incredible work these workshops are curated and
moderated by craig emanuel as part of the workshop series we’ve screened selected short films by
past winners of the annual competition both narrative and documentary short featured films
the two films selected and spotlighted for tonight’s workshop include the 2018 winner interference
directed by robin rose singer and rouya coleman a violent altercation between a police
officer and african-american man on a deserted country road has left one person dead
an interracial couple passing by must decide what to believe and what they are willing to do about it
our second film for our spotlight series is a 2018 winner peg written directed
and produced by nardi kermi when a hate crime clouds the fourth of july
mandeep a sikh american must grapple with his fears and anxieties as he attempts to
celebrate the holiday with his wife and infant son as tensions rise and compound through various microaggressions and racially
charged encounters mandeep makes a tragic decision that changes his identity forever
pegg explores what it is to be an ethnic american in the current american climate and tonight we are delighted to have
both filmmakers with us this evening welcome robin and nardin
thank you yeah of course robin is so captivating and had my full attention
because it’s so relevant to what’s going on in our world today how did you come to this story um
i mean the the film went through a lot of different versions uh it was initially really inspired by
the dash cam video from sandra bland’s arrest um and then it really developed through a lot of
conversations i have with my cast and crew as we worked on the film together um you know lots of input from
especially our black cast and crew they were just really hands-on in helping us shape the story to what it
was um yeah risa davis stephen hill jamal solomon my dp was
incredibly instrumental uh michael shenover so it just it really evolved as a as a sort
of collective piece of work together awesome and nardip same question peg is
so well crafted smart and focused storytelling that delivers its narrative with clarity
how did you come to this story uh well i’m sure some of you remember there was
an election in 2016 that was fairly awful uh i’m i’m
i’m pretty politically connected and like in connected into the world and uh after
the election i was fielding call some friends and you know trying to make sure no one burned it all down and like stayed calm
and i was taking a break and walking to my corner 7-eleven and along the way a truck drove by and
two good old boys had screamed time to go home osama it’s our country again and
uh i hadn’t heard that kind of rhetoric since post 9 11 and it just shocked me being in like
liberal la that that could happen on sunset so i decided i wanted to make this film
about uh someone struggling with the erasure of their identity uh due to the society that we’re living
in uh because they feel like it would be safer for their family to exist
in without that sort of identification thank you nardi um robin what has
happened in your career with you and your film since 2018 um
the form went on to do a really wonderful festival run we were invited to nbc universal film festival as one of
their selections we played probably about 16 or 20 festivals around the world
and beyond that for me i’ve just continued writing and directing i wrote a feature script called the lines of
mesopotamia that was about the true story of the iraqi football team during the hussein regime
and that was recently a 2020 nickel finalist the academy nickel so yeah
congratulations that’s pretty cool and nardin what has happened in your career with you and
your film since uh 2018 yeah we uh did a a international
festival circuit as well cleaned up a lot collection of awards
which was fun there were some oscar buzz at some point too um and it’s living on youtube now and
it’s doing exactly what i wanted to do which is start a conversation and introduce a lot of people to what who a
sick would be uh even if they never knew what that would be um and as far as career goes it i’ve made
another short film since then um which is also on youtube called unknown caller and uh i’m now in pre-production for my
first feature um i think as a direct result of uh fog um which is super exciting so i’m hoping
to make that in the next year thank you absolutely and sorry i mispronounced the
film um and the last question uh robin what three tips would you give other emerging
filmmakers looking to establish their careers in the industry
um i’m a big fan of the olivia wild no policy so you know genuine kindness and
gratitude i think is really important to just keep expressing all the time um i think taking initiative is really
important in your career no one’s going to give you permission for anything so it’s really just about being a constant
student you know taking classes experimenting googling all the
things you don’t know volunteering spending as much time on set as you possibly can that’s how i learned so that’s all i can
really offer in terms of education and then aside from that i i think that people should uh
banish the word networking from their minds if they possibly can i know it sounds kind of weird but i
think it puts people in a weird state of mind where they’re approaching everyone as a sort of
stepping stone in your career whereas what you really want to do is you know try to build genuine
relationships with people this is a people business people are you know our biggest
commodity i guess in the film i would say like that’s what making films is all about so
it’s really just about making those genuine connections that’ll hopefully last you throughout your career
absolutely thank you rd uh what three tips would you offer emerging filmmakers
looking to also establish their careers in the industry as well yeah uh make
mistakes make lots and lots of mistakes because that’s where you’ll find that that
texture and that beauty that you’re looking for if you feel like you haven’t found it yet make mistakes take those risks and and
and run with them um because you’ll find something there uh a lesson i constantly have to
re-teach myself is that perfection is a lie nothing will ever be be perfect um you
know the screenplay play is never gonna be perfect like get it out there the edits never going to be perfect get it out
there you know don’t try and and shoot for perfection because that’s a
lie it doesn’t exist um perfection is making the thing you know
um and then the last thing i would say is you don’t need to do it alone uh you know like i for the longest time and
i feel like you know i don’t know ramen if you this is the case for you but like we feel like we have to do everything ourselves
and the reality is you don’t there’s thousands and thousands of people out there who are ready to jump for you
uh especially if you’re passionate about your story so all you have to do is ask and uh the work inevitably is infinitely
better with more people involved than um if you’re just trying to do it by yourself
awesome well thank you both for all your insights and for joining us uh robert and ardeep and please keep us
informed on the future project films that you’re working on now so we can help support you and to our
audience members make sure you catch both films on our events platform for the rest of the month um
and thank you and now without further ado i’d like to turn things over to our moderator for the evening
uh craig emanuel good afternoon everyone and thank you so
much for joining us for what is the final of a series of three panels focusing on issues relevant
to writers directors and producers i don’t want to say that we’ve left the best panel to last as the previous two
panels have been quite extraordinary but i think today we’re all in for a real treat as we’re able to present to
you three wonderfully interesting engaging and talented people to finish off our three-month program
this afternoon’s panel is focusing on issues relevant to producers but two of our panelists are also
directors and so we will get the benefit of their insight of people who have functioned in multi-hyphenate
positions our third panelist started out as a producer had a successful career as a
studio executive and has now come back to his true passion again which is focusing on
producing before we start talking to our panelists i would like to take a few moments to
briefly introduce each of them to you sometimes in these panel discussions i’m tempted
to skip over the introduction of the panelists and tell the audience that they can read their bios in the material or online
but the bios and backgrounds of each of our three panelists today should be inspiring to our audience of aspiring producers
directors and writers who will hopefully come away from the last panel with the knowledge that
through hard work and persistence there is nothing you can’t achieve if you set your mind to it
so with that in mind let me introduce our panelists haifa al-mansoor haifa is the first
female filmmaker from saudi arabia she earned a bachelor’s degree in literature from the american university in cairo
and completed a master’s degree in directing and film studies from the university of sydney australia
the success of her three short films as well as the international acclaim of her award-winning
2005 documentary women without shadows influenced a new wave of saudi
filmmakers living proof that there is a place everywhere in the world for voices to be heard haifa’s acclaimed
2012 film watchdog received numerous awards and accolades at festivals around the world and was
nominated for a bafta for best foreign language film haifa’s last film the perfect candidate is about
a female doctor who runs for political office in saudi arabia who is a woman
occasionally finds it hard to be taken seriously sounds familiar you bet
haifa thank you so much for taking the time to be with us this afternoon
as someone who’s known you for quite a long time you’re a constant inspiration to me
and a reminder that taking no for an answer is not an option it may be a roadblock but it’s never an
ending place so thank you for joining us paula defloreo
power is an oscar and emmy nominated filmmaker and television producer and the founder and president of
counterpoint films her work is focused on the extraordinary individuals and the triumph of the human
spirit her credits include speaking in strings home of the brave awake the life of yogananda
one of the top grossing in indie documentaries of 2014 and 2015
and the cnn emmy nominated the 70s her workers screened at sundance the us
congress and even the british house of lords didn’t know that before i read your bio power and has
been distributed theatrically throughout the world powell has been a guest lecturer at ucla
usc uc berkeley and stanford and is a mentor for teenage girls at the academy’s
spark program her company counterpoint films which she runs with her husband and business partner peter
is a pioneer and leader in conscious media a rising genre of entertainment
powell alike haifa has been an inspiring person throughout her career
she is also someone who it is impossible not to like in the years that i have known her i
don’t think i’ve ever seen paola angry she is always smiling and has a calming manner that is truly
infectious there is no doubt that powerless work has been a strong influence in my own commitment to working with organization
that focus on civil rights and human rights related issues and for that i’m extremely grateful so
thank you for being here with us this afternoon thank you
ted hope um by last and certainly no means least ted’s 35-year career in the film
business begins with a deep love of cinema it’s history and recognition of its potential
whether it’s helping to launch amazon studios original movie strategy or introducing new filmmaker voices and
new approaches to new audiences from his independent film producing days
ted champions diverse and bold voices from the world over in june 2020 ted stepped down as
the co-head of movies at amazon studios where for over five years he saw the prestige movies produced developed and
acquired by that company including sound of metal and manchester by the sea
he currently enjoys a first look deal with amazon studios for his own feature films
his production tender bars starring ben affleck and directed by george clooney is currently in production and
next month ted begins production on cassandra a film starring gael garcia bernal and
directed by roger ross williams he is executive produced two documentaries in 2021
including who we are a chronicle of racism in america directed by emily and sarah kunsler
which won the documentary spotlight audience award at this year’s south by southwest film festival prior to joining
amazon ted produced over 70 films as well as co-founding and co-running the production company good
machine which we will talk a little bit about later i don’t represent a lot of producers but when
someone like ted who has such a passion for our industry reach us out and ask you to work with him it’s truly
hard to say no so ted thank you for joining us um today
for those of you in the audience after i have asked our panel a series of questions it will hopefully be some time for us to
be able to do some q a with our panelists which you can do via chat that can then be directed to my attention from
our producers so let’s jump in and get started hi for let’s let’s start with you um
can you talk a little bit about what it was like growing up as one of 12 children in saudi and the influence
your father abdul rahman mansoor had on you who was a poet and who i understand
introduced you to films by video given that there were no movie theaters in saudi arabia between 1983 and 2018
perhaps without talking specifically about wadster and the perfect candidate which we’ll discuss separately
it would be great if you could talk about those early days and how they influence your interest in becoming both a director and a
producer thank you so much craig for this amazing panel yeah
i i grew up in saudi arabia in a small town which is really like uh it’s a place where imagination has to go
wild otherwise you will go you will die it is so boring like but um and i’m very fortunate that
my parents were like they they give us a chance to to watch movies or
and listen to music when saudi arabia was very conservative and a lot of i go to school like when i go to school
people tell me if you hear music you’ll die and that gave me sort of a normal childhood
and being one of 12 kids of course it taught me how to maneuver life and to take
opportunities whenever there is but um i think it is
um growing in a place like saudi arabia i appreciated having a voice and and that
is what i made me make films is like to express myself and always strive to have to share it
with the world and um and i think um um it is very important to not forget that
especially when we are sometimes women and diver like women of color we feel like
we don’t have say on a lot of things and uh and it is exactly like how i grew
up in saudi like it is you take things as they are and be grateful for the little thing you have and i think it is important for us women
to be more to break away from that and have our voices heard so
i don’t know if that answers your question so when when you were watching videos was there
restrictions i imagine there were restrictions on the kind of film content that you could even watch
oh absolutely there is like all the films like if there is a kiss there and like the editing is not it is
not like smooth you would know something just like a completely in a different place and there there’s no ratings also like um um
for for like horror films for example and my father in one afternoon he went and
rented evil death and i was maybe 12 at the time and my sisters and brothers like younger than me were in a
room he went and just closed the door and shut them and left us it was just a traumatizing
experience horror films really still scare me until today but um
yeah there’s no no that movies were not yeah there is no ratings and there’s a
lot of censorship but only on like sexual content or like religious
stuff horror films will go and so when you decided that you wanted to go to
cairo and potentially study to be a filmmaker as a female growing up in saudi do you get pushed back
from doing that and saying that’s not what a woman should be doing absolutely it’s always like if there is
a pushback when that is what not a woman should be doing especially when it comes from saudi arabia and that
for so long it’s it it’s it it made me um scared of like
talking about things that are and really important to me but i think after i finished college and i went
back home and i started working and i i worked in an oil company i felt like i’m invisible and that
feeling of not being able to be not being seen and skipped in the meetings and and
made me um look for storytelling as a as kind of
therapy just like to to be um to to just feel that i
existed and uh and um i sent my first short film to a small
film festival of a bobby and and it got accepted and they sent me a ticket and i went and i
like i felt important like people were talking to me and it’s like you’re the first female
filmmaker from saudi arabia and i was like yes i am and it is very not at all but it is
i think yeah i’ll claim that title um paolo tell us a little bit about what
led you to a career as a director and and producer of both you know television
and documentaries i mean it seems like you’ve always been driven to tell stories about real-life characters working as a
segment director on the television series civil war journals in 1993 your documentaries have covered such
subjects of the life of the italian-born violinist niger salerno in your academy nominated documentary
speaking with strings to a documentary following the life of a caucasian civil rights worker viola luzo
who in 1965 was murdered by the clan while driving with a black passenger in
your documentary home of the brave so what what was your journey to kind of wanting to
to get to this place you know it’s interesting i think storytelling really did it is a
natural-born thing and i think for as long as i can remember i i think i’m i was always an empath
i just remember even in you know in in kindergarten um nap time and and hearing uh you know
a boy in my class who stuttered like talking to himself and i wanted to know what it was like to be
him and i could feel patterns you know and see patterns and stories in people
and so uh i think after and i was a writer you know i think that
you know as an english major in college and i just wrote a lot about a lot of diaries and then
somehow my first job out of college was in the news and it’s so hard and like it’s just very
factual it’s it’s like just taking facts but i worked for it was very interesting at the time
um but that idea of slipping into other people’s skins and being having access to people
anywhere around the world and really understand different cultures different ways of thinking it just came easily to me
and uh and that led me to wanting to tell people stories and represent other people’s voices
um thank you ted um you’ve had an incredibly long and successful career both as a film
producer and as a production executive perhaps you could talk a little bit about the early years of how good
machine came into existence and and how you managed to cultivate relationships with
such incredible first-time filmmakers as angling the cole hall center todd field michelle gondry and
moises kaufman i i think when you say uh long career
what you really you’re saying you said you’re so old ted that’s the best way to have a long
career is to grow old uh which are we established that i’m older than you are so
though you know it’s funny i i think actually
the story starts and then i i was probably that five-year-old kid on the mat near paula you know stuttering
i had a you know i had i had a speech impediment um took lessons uh you know into my well
into my my teens i just happened to go back this weekend to see my 88 my mom for her
88th birthday and she she was just talking about how i compared to my siblings and so on she
was like even though no one ever understood a single word you said for the longest
period of time you always had a group of kids who were falling behind you because you’d make stuff happen you know
you would organize the the neighborhood you would get everybody into trouble or build something uh you know new and
uh troubling and i think that’s really you know the whether that’s true or not it’s
certainly the myth that i told myself i could make stuff happen um i was super
fortunate to arrive in new york city you know at that moment that you know
literally the year that spike lee and the coen brothers and jim jamish all re
released their movies i was drawn there because i i’ve been working in uh
politics i dropped out of school and was working politics and because i was traveling to places where i knew i
knew nobody i’d go see movies and i didn’t like most of the movies but when i saw
susan seidelman’s uh smithereens i was really you know taken by and i was
like i’m gonna go to new york and try to make movies like this you know um and that
period you know like you have to be somewhere where you can find folks who are like-minded and
you know literally my business partner uh james sheamus at the time and
christine vashon who became a long time collaborator and carrie who became a long time
collaborator we all arrived around the same time and you know now that i’ve uh left
amazon and working on some new things it’s funny i i pitched both christine and ann my my
big idea and they said ted i’ve been hearing the same idea from you for 35
years now you’re just finally getting to build it you know it’s like literally that that
sort of thing and i think it it’s the the fact is
all of us who arrived there all those people you you mentioned you know it was a time before the
industry got as sophisticated as it is now people didn’t have agents lawyers
publicists managers you know uh and so forth they needed folks who could help translate and i
think having been somebody that nobody could understood nobody could understand
i really valued that piece of translating people said oh ted you’re able to talk art to the business
people and talk business to the art people um and i could talk production you know to you know how to
get something made to those who hadn’t made it before it’s i don’t think it’s so much an
accident either that i i got to work with many international directors doing films not
in their net in their you know first language um in that same sort of way you know that
so much of any industry starts thinking that there’s a right way to do
things and that right way makes for a corporate voice or makes for for you know something that doesn’t
actually capture the nuance of us all and really being someone who who
masqueraded as fitting in but always felt like he didn’t fit in you know i really you know took to how
do we help make that whatever is unique about that individual
come up and help be expressed because that ultimately is the most universal thing that we are all distinct people who need
our voices to be heard and understood you know so i try to do that translation
you know it’s interesting when you talk about you know that that period of time i mean i i’ve been
going to sundance now i think for about 28 29 years and and i think how much
that festival has changed and in those days you’d go to the festival and no one had seen or knew
anything about the movies and it wasn’t like all the agents had seen the movies in advance and most of the filmmakers
didn’t have agents or lawyers or managers and i really started my career as a
lawyer is going to these festivals watching movies and just making cold approaches to filmmakers after the
screenings and saying look here’s my card i love films and i’d love to kind of work with you and that’s kind
of you know how i started my career and now you know any film that gets into a festival
um you know even people who i find that go to some of these labs who’ve never produced anything they
all seem to have agents lawyers and managers and i actually think you can lose something by getting ahead of yourself
you know a little bit so that there is definitely things to be learned um you know from the past um
if i could just cut in on that just you know i i think one of the most helpful things that that happened
for me was the fact that you were able to build a community
that was based around solidarity and helping each other in those early days it was group
learning at its best there was no success in indie film it wasn’t what it was about at all you
know you were happy if you could support yourself still perhaps that way now but nobody ever got
rich for the longest period of time you know and we would share all of that
information and i hope that one of like it kind of feels to me that one of the nice benefits though everyone won’t feel
it the same way of the pandemic you know is that as festivals come back into you know
real uh live events i’m hoping the business steps out of it
the business will do the virtual part they will do the piece of convenience for them to see it
and the the people that love cinema like i would go to sundance on my vacation if i could you know like i would go like
i’m dreaming of going to to can this year because i love it not to do business but because i actually
love watching the movies being around people that see movies and meeting people who are
my peers and talking about movies and i’m hoping that all that comes out
and we can leave a little bit of the business for a second you know wait a period i i
agree um high for throughout your career in addition to being a director you’ve
obviously also functioned you know as a producer starting you know with your first film watcher which which was a co-production
and and more recently um you know perfect candidate which was also um
you know a co-production um i think i read that you know in your case of your first film it took
more than five years to get made and certainly there were some challenges and roadblocks along the way in trying to
get a perfect candidate made something i know you know only only too well but
for our aspiring filmmakers in the audience perhaps you could describe just some of the challenges you faced in
getting these films made and how you you know overcame them so that perhaps you know they can
learn something from your experience yeah i think it is it is very difficult
for a first-time filmmaker always to find financing for their film and you always hope after if we do some
short films or documentaries you make the jump but the jump is really like to make a feature you need a lot of
money and you need and it’s a lot of collaboration so it was and especially in a place like saudi arabia where there’s no
industry so it is hard for people to imagine that they’re going to a place like saudi arabia and and work um and
um it is it took a while to convince people especially saudi was segregated at the time and it was
and but what i thought like will help me is always to build collaboration with
people on the script level so i applied to some dance writers lab and i applied to every lab
i know every grant every and it was not only hoping to get some money here and there to finish the script and
maybe have to have it translated or you know it is more also like um
building um that network of people who are investing and filmmakers and um
a new boy and cultivating newcomers and that is i think sundance
helped me a lot and like trying to find producers or fine-tuning
my my my script and it is not going to be easy for
um for for the i don’t want to make it like easy it needs a lot of hard work
and then you need to knock on a lot of doors but one thing you should not forget as a filmmaker because a lot of people you
will have producers who are sometimes coming and give you feedback or and it is
important that you take that feedback and and not to lose your vision with your
vision but it is very important to have an open heart and to know how to as a
director and as a writer to bring everybody rally behind your vision and benefit
from everybody who wants to make the film better and that is sometimes i had to remind myself as a young filmmaker because
i was really guarded and i had like the script was different when i was writing it the mother dies if
you’re familiar with the at the end and i went to sundance and they told me there’s a tone problem
and all that and then i applied to to the highest pitch competition in uae and the price was a hundred
thousand dollar and then that’s what made me like okay maybe i should really revise
the spirit now money is talking and that is when i really it forced me to open my heart and
force me to really like maybe there is a tone problem and i wasn’t and i stepped out of it and and i
i wrote the the ending as it was in the film on that night because here the carrot was like the hundred
thousand dollars which we want but i think it is important for young filmmakers to
to to benefit from the experience of other people and and it’s going to be a long way but
you should know for an answer and be persistent [Music] you know it’s interesting i remember
years ago i was like maybe 20 years ago i was moderate i was in a panel at a can talking to
to producers and um we were talking about the opportunity to get financing from different european
countries and all kinds of other things and somebody um you know stood up in the
audience and said look you know i i’m a producer and i’ve not found it possible to kind of get any of these
things and and so somebody um asked in the on the panel said well what have you
produced and he said well actually i haven’t produced anything yet and and the person on the
panel said well then you’re actually not really a producer um and i mean it is kind of
funny you know um in in the moment but i think
you do sometimes have to make a few compromises along the way um even successful
filmmakers have to make a few compromises and it doesn’t mean um compromising your
artistic vision for a film or for a project it’s about realizing
um as i think one of the filmmakers spoke about before it has to be a collaboration you don’t
have to do it alone there are some really good producers out there
and finding those people feeling comfortable that maybe you don’t need final cut on your first um movie and recognizing
there are other people who can contribute you know it’s something for people i think to remember and and take
seriously um if i could just chime in on that craig because i i i think there’s a important
thing that people sometimes forget you know not to denigrate the legal profession and how important it is to
build those good fences you know um on it i would say you know like i think i’ve been involved
in about 125 movies as either the a key producer or a key
executive and i think on every single one of those movies
with one exception the film that went to the the cinema on the big screen as
movies are i would still say meant to be was 100 percent the director’s vision
whether or not they had the the final cut in the agreement so precisely
worrying about the final cut and what it says there isn’t always the best place
to put your energy that so much of the type of movies that the people here
make are the types of films that are going to be sold on the director’s back it’s the director that’s going to be
speaking about them and because of that the reality is that they have you know control of
the movie because they’re going to have to be speaking about it and even on that that one movie
that wasn’t as the director attended when it went to the theaters the the the executive a guy named harvey
weinstein realized his mistakes remarkably and when he put it out on dvd
and uh on television and elsewhere it was the director’s cut so it didn’t work in the theater he let
the director have what the director wanted there thereafter so it’s pretty close to perfect so
um thank you paula um you’ve also been both the director and producer
you know on your own projects um you know in the course of the last few years it feels like documentaries seem to be
enjoying a little bit of a renaissance and i think probably in part that’s attributable to
streaming services like netflix were really opened up audiences to um you know documentaries
which which i think has been um great but i think despite that documentaries like feature films you
know also have their own series of challenges in raising financing you know both in development phase as
well as the production phase i think there’s also the challenge in documentaries that you know they often
require a substantial amount of time from its genesis through the time it’s being
released and often you know that amount of time and limitations in budget
can also issue make it challenging for a producer who has to figure out how to live you know during you know that period of
time but perhaps you can talk a little bit about the genesis of some of your own documentary projects and how you
identified those subjects and made you know the evolution from those ideas and into films and you know talk about
some of the financing and challenges you face to get them to the screen sure you know first i just want to say
that listening to everybody it’s it’s there is this common thread here of you know um really
wanting to express something that you feel at your core is true and that if you hold on to i just feel
that that’s i mean i don’t recommend my route because it’s like you can hold on for life with that and like
never see something get done but i think that there’s something happening um in the world right now
which is you know we are being brought to our knees the whole world with covid with the way of life
life as we are living it is has become untenable in so many ways and we’re being asked to rethink
how we want to relate to one another as human beings and this is starting to express itself in stories and
i think that um the you know it doesn’t go unnoticed to me that the
this festival which is based on you know this incredible um
the march on washington and these themes of people that that lived by their truths right they
lived by these truths that um that gave them the strength and the power to stand up for something
and i feel that um you know martin luther king um gandhi
before him you know the satyagraha that whole concept of just you know the force of truth
i think as storytellers like we kind of hold that space not to not to put ourselves like on the
same level but to say that we borrow i borrow from them martin luther king is in my office
in my home office you know it is instills gandhi it’s like these are people that just
like at their core have a sense of what they needed to hold on to and i think we bring that to
to the work that we do documentaries are are impossible to make um i mean it
can be as easy as going in and pitching something but i think for so many people it’s like it’s a long journey of making
something that either is unique and people don’t see it right away there’s so many no’s um
and like you said craig you know it it’s like how do you get you have to somehow get through that
phase when you have something to show that somebody’s gonna bring more to it so our company we came up with just a
model that is um to to create an r d phase you know research and development where
we can um pitch it’s easier for somebody to say yes to an r d phase it’s a it’s a great
concept a great idea and you can show in some phase like that that you could do some preliminary
shooting and put something together and put a pitch together then you take that next step together and in that process you really find out
who you want to work with too so it’s like if you feel great and there’s synergy there then you want to
go on the road together and if not it’s not a huge investment on
the investors part and then you can kind of part ways and you decide who owns the footage and who
will go with it so and that’s worked out for us um
as far as you know uh what’s happening in the world right now and this renaissance for for documentaries i
i have to think that it’s because people i find that younger generations especially are hungry for
real stuff and it’s it’s just what’s real it could be real in real life
it could be authenticity it’s just no no tolerance for i feel like
there’s this drive for um just getting back to what feels um the stories that we need to
share with one another and it’s what you were saying ted like going to the festival and just connecting with people again you know or
hypo what you’re saying like you know you just had to have your voice heard it was it was just impossible not to
you know you had to do that it’s that need to do that that i think gets you eventually
whatever money you need to start your process and and then it’s just you know there’s
a lot of talent out there and and you just need to get your foot in the door and i say break it down i say break it
down make it accessible make it a bite-sized chunk that you can then show you know 10 minutes 20 minutes
whatever it is um and get to that next step um and and do it from a place that is you know
uniquely yours don’t try to imitate um tell the stories that that
really are going to keep that passion and that fire lit for you i think i mean
i think you made a really interesting point and in part we discussed this in one of our earlier panel discussions i think so
often filmmakers and trying to decide what they want to make films about trying
and make films about what they think other people are interested in the truth of the matter is if you’ve got
a story to tell it’s going to be a far better story to tell if it’s your own story you know it’s
funny people in the old days would sit in studio meetings and on a monday morning and
look at the box office and see what worked and sit around and say well why don’t we have you know one of those films in
development you know or production right and it doesn’t quite you know
really you know work that way i mean interesting i think about homer the brave and your decision to
make a documentary about a caucasian woman um
who was who was involved in the civil rights movement and i could imagine many people saying
the civil rights movement is not about the white population it’s about crimes against you know the black
population um but your belief in this character yeah her story
um actually is is in some respects a very unifying story because the civil rights movement
doesn’t progress if it’s only a black story it only we only progress as humans if in fact we both come together
and can all sides can see that there is a commonality of interest and a story to be told so it’s um i
think you know if i can just say i think that viola’s violent story um who is the center of home of
the brave i mean it just goes back to what we were saying about storytelling in other words
she was a mom you know living in detroit married to a teamster had five kids should not have picked up
and left her home and her five children and gotten in the car and driven down through three states
to stand up for civil rights by those standards in the 60s but see she couldn’t help it you know
she had to answer a call and i think that that’s kind of what we’re all talking about here is
answering a call and that’s what the people you know that marched on washington did and this is what
you know this is what changes the world this is how we this is how we get inspired we have to
live our own inspiration and then other people will totally find theirs because we mirror each other
so that’s what we need right now so viola was inspiring to me because i was a new mom at the time and
so i was having my first child and i was like what and i just couldn’t believe
the the passion that she had and how how how she connected with it and um
it did it did cost her family um and it cost dr king’s family for him
to be who he was and as any leader in the world you know pays a price
and so um so there’s that side too but you’re right craig it was it was a little ballsy to tell a story
of a white woman the civil rights movement um and we we did get some heat for that um
but then we also got a lot of people come and support us you know because it is ultimately everyone’s journey not
just one people’s journey fantastic um ted is someone who’s you know been
both a producer and executive um i’d like to talk maybe have you talk a little bit about
you know when people are trying to pitch your project to a studio to a network to someone to attract financing
um you’ve been on both sides of you know that discussion um when you’re pitching to a
company what are the things that are important what should people focus on to try and get people
interested in their movie what moves the needle
well i i think first and foremost you know you want you want to be able to
show that you’re a good storyteller i was shocked at how many people while i
was at amazon well-known writers directors and producers would come into a pitch and read a pitch
beat a pitch like hello like i one of the reasons i love being in this business is i love telling
stories if you can’t you know keep the dinner conversation focused on you
you probably shouldn’t go into a studio and pitch you should be able to work without notes and tell a good story
i i think similarly like i’m always wondering why this person right and why this story
now i want to feel both of those things from that conversation you know why is this person
telling this story and why do i need this movie now and oh ultimately i’m trying to get those
signals of like this we’re going to go you know have really tough times
together all who’s ever making this movie and do i want to feel like this person’s got my back
and do i believe this person can trust me that i will have their back you know like that that’s a big question
will i want three out three years down the road will i still want to be having dinner with
them and excited about the conversation that we’re going to be having because it’s going to take that that
long i’m trying to see if they can pick up you know
the clues that i’m giving you know in terms of where i’m enthralled and where i might
be pushed back what is their emotional intelligence that’s there because that’s really about what they’re
trying to communicate through the screen how are they going to you know be able
to to move people hearts and minds you know energy and all of that um
i believe that cinema is a uh dialogue with the past
connected to this moment in time we’re all sharing with a dream for the future and i want
to see how they’re carrying that conversation forward what are the references you know
how it speaks of our life today the the why now and what is the the the dream like i
i believe that that things are beyond the movies the things that we make are well beyond
just stories right that we’re introducing them to to new people
new ways of life designs for living philosophies beliefs and that’s all a
super passion and intriguing thing it’s why we’re gathered here right now like we love to hear how different people think about
different things and i’m looking to see where that engagement is now i
accept that there are different types of filmmakers they’re the shooters
there are those that are very character oriented there are those that kind of create
something unique and distinct in that specific moment and there are those that plan it out
you know step by step by step personally speaking i found that i
i work better with those that believe in what i call the experiment over the
proof i like to have something where we’re all trying to learn as we go
and we’re trying to create something new we’re trying to engineer serendipity and capture that
unique thing that is about how do we how do we reach beyond our
grasp for something new more and sometimes bring it down to earth right it’s really kind of a remarkable
thing and i think that all of that kind of speaks of the type of people
who like to be in service of something greater than themselves that that want to be part of a of a team
and part of something larger than just themselves there are a lot of people you
realize when you’re in the room with them there’s no one else there with them the room is not even big enough for them
and that looks you know more power to them but i don’t need them they don’t need me you know so i’m looking at all those
things you know the question so much of like what does the market want
and you know am i you know am i giving you one of those things that was the box office
last week you know that’s all changing so fast it’s so fascinating you know
uh both due to our the tools we have and our means of release like we’ve
never really been able to to conceive of design
execute and deliver movies about this specific moment in time
as much as we we can do that today and that’s really exciting you know and similarly
the the way that we tell our stories no longer uh resign to a single
platform that the story that the world can be communicated in different ways
across different platforms simultaneously that gives audiences a whole new realm
of participation all of that is so exciting that i i just think
you know if i can’t feel the excitement about what it means to make a movie today like some people are just like wow
it’s so hard it’s so terrible but there’s so much opportunity to do things in new and different ways like i feel
like we we are particularly sitting in this moment of transformation that is desperate and wonderful you know
and i i like to see you know that in a pitch like just give me that pitch back it’s
easy right i think a lot a lot of it just like the final tag is respect
right you know you’re going to pitch somebody you can walk out with 10 million dollars 20 100 million dollars one mil whatever it
is so much hinges on that do the work be prepared put yourself in their shoes
what they would expect to hear from that you know no you don’t deserve
anything they don’t deserve anything except our mutual respect and dignity and deliver that in the room and i’ll
bring you a lot thank you haifa um as a woman from saudi arabia trying to
produce and direct films in both the west and in saudi um
presumably that’s created some challenges you know over the years coming from a muslim
country do you think that you’ve faced greater barriers in the us than might have otherwise been the case
and i’m curious to know if you think that over the course of the last few years where there seems to be a growing
appetite for more diverse voices has has have we changed and evolved but i’d be curious
to hear your thoughts on those things
yeah i think um still uh foreign filmmakers still they um and whether in the us or
in the arab world need to assert themselves and it’s not easy to trust women because they don’t have the track history they don’t have
the same kind of resume to help like a 100 million budget film
the the those paradigms have been shifting lately so um i’m there i feel very fortunate that
i came in and there is a conscious decision within the industry
to re-examine its its approaches and one more especially when it comes to women and um
and and other like um and bring in diverse talent more and give them more
opportunities to shine which wasn’t like the case 10 years ago so i i feel like um um the world is really
changing and here and i’m really presented with better opportunities
now than before and also like i work on making my resume i work trying to work
hard really on trying to build like take the initiative not wait until like i’m just complaining
about there’s no opportunities try to write my works try to produce my films try always to
to create opportunities and i think um and that way um a lot of like there’s
more pressure for for us women to assert ourselves to put ourselves out there but i think it
is it is there are a lot of people who are willing to invest in women now and to push for a woman and we need to show
them that we are there just uh and we are ready to take to take the the next chapter so i’m
really excited to see the oscar having the first female of color winning the best director and best film
that’s a great moment in our history which is amazing um thank you um paula
in your journey of kind of having you know produced and directed a number of documentaries
in terms of um you know advice for um our our audience um what are some of
the things that you’ve learned that have been helpful you know for you along the way and what are some of the things that
you would now encourage people to steer away from just as a as a point of guidance
um well i think that uh what i said earlier about sort of
anchoring into your truth i really do feel that in terms of not
um feeling like you have to fit a square peg into a round hole i i feel
i really like that message to land with with uh filmmakers you know all over
because we really need different perspectives and we need new ways of thinking in the world
right now we need to be uplifted by people’s you know in ways that i
don’t always see so i really really recommend trusting trusting getting
getting your own compass really really clear and then going from there and um
so really support that process at the same time and if you can hold these two
truths together at the same time that i think you’re in really good shape so it’s like if you can do that but also
realize that you’re like a tiny little speck in this massive universe of like you
know so many stories and so much talent and so many people wanting to do the same thing
so humility and um and a sense of being driven by something greater than yourself i
really connected to what you said ted because um i think that there
is something greater than us guiding us all the time in anything creative i
think creativity itself is a conduit of something that’s beyond our intellect and so stay open
stay humble uh think of think of working in
service but in service of something bigger than yourself and that you are being utilized
and in that utilization you find that uniqueness that thing that taps into
your own little barometer and if you do that then that’s magic and we need more
magic in the world so thank you um i want to try and address
some of the the questions that have come from from the audience ted the the first questions directed to
you which is how much power does an indie film producer have concerning final cut
when you find something wrong in the director’s kite how do you strategically
communicate with directors to revise it presumably without completely destroying
the the relationship with your filmmaker they didn’t put that in but i i know what that issue is
yeah i i think it goes back you know the the you know the past is prologue right
you know by the time you get there you better have established real trust and confidence in each other
you hopefully the two of you three of you five of you whatever the team is you
know basically has learned how to listen right and you’ve already aligned
on goals you know like i i’m really comfortable having any meeting
with anybody about whatever problems you know occurring
partially because i’ve you know i’ve had enough experience to be kind and confident on being able to survey what the the the
problems and the issues are but also that i know that i’ll make sure that they feel comfortable that they’re
heard and i’m going to make sure they hear me and you know the the the right idea
hopefully ego is going to be suppressed and we’re going to be in service of the
film and we know how to articulate that so you know it’s it’s doing the work in the
beginning to make sure that everyone’s aligned in terms of the movie that they want to make
and then doing the work throughout for everyone to know that i have your back
you have my back i’m listening to you you’re listening to me we are helping
solve these problems together right you know and and that’s going to that that is going
to lead to what the next steps are you know i i at different times like
with some people i actually think to get to that end you actually want to make sure they have
final cut there’s certain people that are very good collaborators and
if they know they they have the final decision they’re going to actually be able to
listen better oftentimes somebody is not going to have earned
that right or the financing won’t grant them that right so you’re going to to
have to give them the confidence that you’re going to protect them um like truly in the nature
you know if you’re aspiring for art as well as entertainment
it’s you know the director is so much a part of the marketing
the director really holds that you know and that that can that can often be enough
like the the the real politic of the of solving that
look it it’s interesting i mean i i find that the issue of final cut comes up both in representing directors
and representing producers because producers don’t always end up with you know final cut either depending you know
who they’re in business with and i would say a couple of things one in most
independent films that have a limited budget final cut is really it’s not
a real issue because you’re lucky if you’ve got enough money to have you know one or two cuts of the movie so
as a matter of practicality the director and the producer tend to be collaboratively working
together if you happen to be a dga director the dga requires that the director has to be
actively present and involved in every step of the post production
process process and so i think it does get back to in part what everyone’s been talking
about you know choose the people you’re going to get into bed with carefully because if you have that collaborative
relationship ultimately you’re all trying to achieve the same objective which is to
come up with something that’s going to reach as many eyeballs um as possible but invest in that
relationship too yeah on all sides the financier the distributor
you know your creative collaborators invest in that so that you’ve earned trust and confidence respect
um haifa there was a question for you which is from someone in the audience who’s wanted to know
particular about arabic feature film regional distribution and what your experience has been
like you know with that
is tough like there is like um arabic films like the film market in the
arab world is very much controlled by by egyptian films like the mainstream
films there are independent films don’t really survive and the box office
and saudi arabia didn’t have movie theaters for so long so the release of the film the films
were very you don’t know where to release and what country and when and even now with saudi arabia once they
opened and we were hit with covered so it is like um um
distributing films that are out of the mainstream in the middle east whether it is documentaries or foreign films or not
american or chinese or bollywood or egyptian films is always hard it is and i think now we have the
streamers making things a lot easier to access those independent
films so i think the the map has changed because of um
the i think the the streamers and amazon and and netflix democracized the process a
little bit so you have place for those independent films to survive and reach an audience
and it is not like here like in the west when you have like a film you launch in the festival and then you
have a buzz and then you sell to distributors all over the world and you get some kind of release and
whether in the u.s or other places an art house form we don’t this have this art house place yet in the
middle east it’s not evolved so um hoping that that changes now but um
i think streamers seem to be the answer now for a lot of independent films
thank you um power i’d like to turn to you for the for the final um question um
somebody asks how did you support yourselves in your early producing filmmaking days do you have any advice
for those of us who are early in our careers trying to get our foot in the door you know it’s a really really good
question because um it’s been a journey you know um i
worked at the news um for a while and then i worked it was work for hire for after that when
i wanted to do documentary films i worked for a company that did like kind
of cookie cutter documentaries and um just to kind of learn the ropes
and um i kind of hit like creative bottom like i got super
depressed and i was like i can’t believe that this is what i want to do like that was like my dream was to go and do these
documentaries and it wasn’t until i saw barbara koppel’s um american dream
and i just thought oh my god like just the way she her films just get right under your skin
i just thought like that’s what i have to do and i don’t care what i have to do to do it so you know it’s really i’ll tell you i
i got that book the artist’s way really helped me got me really clear on what i needed to
do and i balanced out being work for hire and doing my independent projects and
that’s kind of how i did it and i and i tried not to get super depressed in the pot in the process and um sometimes it
worked out brilliantly and other times it was just more of a struggle and then what happened was
um i when i started becoming a mother i was like i wanted i moved into the area of being more
entrepreneurial and so we moved our you know my husband came to work with me and we worked
together and we started to be consultants on other people’s films we guided them through the creative
process um and i found that i could kind of make it work that way
um as a consultant and then also do projects on my own and now i’m doing sign up i’ve moved
into sort of a more entrepreneurial stand so i’m doing things way out of my league and i’ve and i’ve just gotten into the business
of of really finding other people that know how to do the things i want to do really really well so one
of them is like a you know a music festival and it’s totally based on all the things i really
deeply care about um story wise it’s still it’s still storytelling it’s bringing the world together it’s a piece of music festival
it’s in another country and i’m working with people that are just smarter and better and i’m learning
a ton and having a lot of fun working with people all over the world so it’s worked out to be um
very versatile so to i think the number one quality that i’ve
learned as an independent is to be adaptive so you know just to be nimble like don’t
get too fixated on like the one thing and be open and working for other people
in corporate you know television and then coming off and doing my own independent stuff it cut it cut my teeth in a different
way of thinking and being able to like produce stuff fast and that’s good especially when you
have other people doing that for you and you really know like what it means to go through the paces so yeah i think being adaptive
and realizing that you’re constantly um i’m constantly reinventing myself that’s
kind of how i’ve survived in the business um thank you um you know i’d just like to make a
couple of comments as we wind this up and i think back over the last three panels that we’ve done
and i think the one thing that we all agree with that this is a time
where there are some great stories that are out there to be told i think it’s a time where there’s some
great stories that need to be told um i think one of the reasons
that um we live in a challenging time is that there is sometimes a lot of talk and not
a lot of conversation um i think there are a lot of people who look at particular issues in the world
and they don’t understand and haven’t had the benefit of the opportunity to understand both sides of the
conversation and i think through the art of filmmaking and storytelling
um everyone in the audience whether you’re a writer a director or producer
you really have an opportunity to make a meaningful difference um in the world i think as people have
indicated over the last few panels is that the opportunity to get content
seen today exists on more different platforms than than ever before
people when they’re thinking about film festivals they think about can and sundance toronto but there are websites that will
let you know that there is a film festival going on somewhere in the world every day of the
week and often there are festivals that cover every conceivable subject imaginable some which are not for um
less than prime time television content but there are so many opportunities and despite the challenges
um in trying to get a film made a documentary made or even a short film made i think the reward at the end of the
experience is is worth um the pain and suffering and i think
i think you’ve heard that from all of the panelists that we’ve been lucky enough to have in our in our three panels
over the last three months so um i’d really like to thank our our
three panelists um for taking the time out of their busy schedules today um i hope it’s been as inspiring to our
audience as it has been to me to listen to the three of you i would be remiss if
i also didn’t thank the people at the march on washington film festival and the amazing producing team that’s
helped produce these panel um discussions because i sure as hell couldn’t have done it without all of you
so thank you um all so much um and in closing i’d like to turn this
back over to broderick i know is going to make a few closing remarks
thank you craig that was an excellent conversation and thank you so much for your vision and
invaluable support you you truly made this three month series extraordinary engaging
and just rich in conversation as craig mentioned thank you to all of our participants tonight and over the last
three months and to our audience members thank you so much for joining us as well i’d like to give a huge thanks
to our line producer renee rodgers for all the technical support and many many run-throughs over these
last three months and thanks to opal hope bennett for leading our efforts in our annual emerging and student filmmaker
competition lastly please be on the lookout for our 2021 film festival coming in october
you’ll hear more from us within the next few months until next time march on
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