Filmmaker Thom Powers explains how he became interested in the gun control debate, why he made this film and how independents “put the story first.”

How did you meet the two mothers profiled in your film?

A couple months before Mother's Day 2000, I started reading about the Million Mom March and decided I wanted to make a film about it. My producing partner Meema Spadola and I started researching victims of gun violence. Every day we'd talk to people who had lost loved ones and they would give us other names. That led us to Frances Davis - who lost all three of her sons (and two nephews). She had been on a campaign against gun violence long before Columbine woke up the rest of the country.

At the beginning, I wasn't thinking about "pro-gun" mothers because I didn't know such a movement existed. Then I read about the Second Amendment Sisters shortly before Mother's Day. I called the group's voicemail and Maria Heil called me back. Both women were extremely generous in letting me into their lives.

Why did you make this film?

Both my editor John Walter and I went to high school in Detroit in the early 1980s, when the city was the nation's "Murder Capital." So gun violence has been on my mind from an early age. I had been drawn further into the subject by books such as Osha Gray Davidson's Under Fire and Erik Larson's Lethal Passage.

			America has been debating gun control since President Kennedy was assassinated 40 years ago. I want to show why two women on either side of the debate have made this their life's work.

The independent film business is a difficult one. What keeps you motivated?

On commercial television the first concern is, "How will this show affect advertising?" Everything else comes second. As an independent, you can put the story first. But personal motivation only gets you so far. Our executive producers Fred and Patty Green made this film financially possible. Without their commitment, you'd never see this story.

What advice do you have for aspiring filmmakers?

Look at how many bad films are made. Of course you can do better.

What sparks your creativity?

Traveling and reading.

If you could have dinner with one famous person, living or dead, who would you choose?

Martha Gellhorn, the author of The Face of War and View from the Ground, who died in 1998.

What are your three favorite films?

I'll limit my answer to documentaries. If you ask me next week, my answer might be different. But today the list includes Hotel Terminus by Marcel Ophuls; Seventeen by Joel DeMott and Jeff Kreines; and Roger & Me by Michael Moore.