Independent Lens . Inside Indies . Inside Filmmaking

What inspires indie filmmakers to persevere? Find out with filmmaker interviews, journals and insider scoop. Go inside the making of independent film.

Volume 6

FILMMAKER Q&A

John Trudell, a middle-aged Native American man with a scraggy beard and mustache flecked with gray, sits in a relaxed pose in a wooden rocking chair in the middle of the Great Plains. He wears a brown skullcap over his long wavy hair, a black leather jacket and dark sunglasses.

Heather Rae

TRUDELL

TRUDELL follows the extraordinary life of Native American poet and activist John Trudell, from his impoverished childhood in Omaha to his leadership in the American Indian Movement (AIM) and his reincarnation as an acclaimed musician and spoken word poet. Using decades-old 16 mm and Super 8 film and video footage as a backdrop, filmmaker Heather Rae paints an intimate portrait of a man whose spirit and words have awakened the Native consciousness.

Rae shares memories and insights gleaned from the 13 years she spent making the film, her desire to share Native stories with a broad audience and the challenges of filmmaking on a shoestring. In one particularly memorable episode, she discovered firsthand the difficulties of aerial cinematography:

“The day we shot the scene where John is standing on the grassy hilltop, it was extremely hot. The crew was waiting along with John and his kids, and I didn't have the right coordinates for the helicopter. …”

Read more >>

What’s it like to be under the microscope? In a special Q&A, John Trudell discusses what it was like to be the subject of a documentary.

Read the interview with John Trudell >>

FILMMAKER Q&A

Paul Conrad

Barbara Multer-Wellin

Jeffrey Abelson

PAUL CONRAD: Drawing Fire

One of the most distinguished editorial cartoonists in the world, Paul Conrad epitomizes the fiercely independent voice that has been disappearing from American news media in recent years. Featuring nearly 200 Conrad cartoons and interviews with the artist’s family, friends and colleagues, PAUL CONRAD: Drawing Fire pays tribute to a living legend.

Filmmakers Barbara Multer-Wellin and Jeffrey Abelson discuss the challenge of condensing Conrad's five-decade-long career into one hour and how they made static, black-and-white images come to life on the television screen.

“Having spent a lot of years working in music video, I felt a certain comfort level in finding evocative pieces of music and using them to drive cartoon montage to achieve our goals. Another challenge was selecting the right kind of archival footage to contextualize the times in which Conrad was cartooning, creating something of a political pop history of the past 50 years.”

FILMMAKER Q&A

An elderly, frail woman sits in a chair looking up at an aide worker, a younger woman who is smiling at her and touching her arm. The room is homey, with a dresser and mirror, and an etching of a woman hanging on the wall.

Lisa Gildehaus

Brad Lichtenstein

ALMOST HOME

ALMOST HOME follows the daily lives of residents and staff at Saint John’s on the Lake, a retirement community in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Through a memorable cast of characters, candid interviews and true-life drama, ALMOST HOME presents real stories of growing old—frightening, tender, funny, surprising and honest.

Filming real people often requires sensitivity and diplomacy. Filmmakers Brad Lichtenstein and Lisa Gildehaus discuss why they chose to address issues of aging and some of the special challenges they faced while focusing their lenses on elderly, often fragile subjects.

“The line between filmmaker and subject was in need of constant negotiation. When is it appropriate to stop filming and hug Amy Blumenthal while she is dealing with her mom’s sudden stroke? It was also difficult to persist with some of the people in the film and stick around long enough in order to understand what a person with a disease like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s is trying to express.”

Inside Filmmaking:
Volume 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7


	Indie Icon: Marlon Riggs, 1957-1994 "Whenever we speak the truths of our lives, our words must be more than mere words... As communities historically oppressed through silence, through the power of Voice we must seize our freedom, achieve our fullest humanity."

I don't believe in the kind of filmmaking that pursues an end at any cost. I believe that the process has to be rooted in respect and integrity. Subjects are human beings, not components of an effort to build a career or something.
—Heather Rae, TRUDELL

I think if you ask people well-researched questions about subjects they love and are knowledgeable about, it’s very easy to get them to open up and talk to you.
—Barbara Multer-Wellin,
PAUL CONRAD: Drawing Fire

I love it when, after the film, people ask me whether those were actors or if it was real life. They can’t believe that we could have made a documentary so laced with drama.
— Brad Lichtenstein, ALMOST HOME