Interview with the Directors of the Documentary DIRT! the Movie

For DocuWeek I had the chance to screen the enlightening film Dirt: The Movie! Here's a little interview with directors Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow for your reading pleasure.

HEIDI: Before we start, let me say that I am really glad I got to see your film. I keep up on eco-issues, I own two hybrids, feed my kid organically as often as possible, am a vegetarian, all that, but your film was an incredibly fresh and eye-opening take on so many issues.

Sure, I knew about the disappearance of the bees, about water issues, and deforestation, but I'd never even thought about the dirt. So thank you for the education.

First Question: What initially inspired you to make this film? 

Bill: Thanks for the questions and your interest and appreciation of our film. The start of my answer would have to be in two parts: 1. My mother, Dorothy Cullman, told me about how all of physical matter on earth comes from Stardust and that we and everything else on earth are made of extra-terrestrial intergalactic processed elements. Nothing on earth, except hydrogen and helium, comes from our Galaxy. This mind-blowing concept started me on the road to thinking about our origins, in a completely different way than I had ever before. Then we were introduced to Bill Logan's book Dirt, the Ecstatic Skin of the Earth which completed the circle of seeing that our physical life on this planet comes from not only the material elements but also from a living breathing thing called Dirt or Earth. From there we were off to the Dirt adventure, around the globe.

Gene: "Fresh and eye-opening" are music to our ears!  Thanks Heidi. One day a ragged dog-eared paperback copy of Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth found its way into our office. Here was Dirt's story crying out to be told. And if Dirt chose us; who are we to say no? A friend of ours gave Bill the book, which is by William Bryant Logan. Intrigued, he passed it to me and asked, "Do you think we can do something with this?" So I read this amazing book - and the subject spoke to every part of me. As a former science student (pre-med, biochemistry, cellular physiology, parasitology, and at the time the new field of ecology), history teacher at UC Berkeley (history of popular culture and American film), early organic gardener, whose

favorite poet Gary Snyder was always going on about dirt - this book had a certain life history resonance. As a filmmaker who has made documentaries, fiction, short animated films, experimental shorts, this film seemed a natural. As a producer of theatrical feature films the subject of dirt definitely offered the challenge of finding the right way to get Dirt up there on the big screen . . . back to the cave walls where we smeared dirt to make art in the first place. But more than that . . . after reading the book I realized how out of touch I myself had become from the ground beneath our feet; how I like most of us city people take dirt for granted. After reading the book I knew I would never again look at the ground beneath my feet in the same way. Why not make a film that could do the same thing? And thinking back, as a film historian, I hadn't yet seen a movie in which Dirt was the main subject. Could we do something with this?! Absolutely! And so we did.

HEIDI: Have you found that in this new era of eco-docs that film festivals, schools, and audiences in general are more responsive to this topic than they might've been even just pre-Obama?

Bill: No question. It seems the entire country is more receptive to an attempt to understand and accept deeper and more profound ideas about our health and origins than we have seen in the last decade, but of course I suppose the audiences we have seen or who have chosen to see our film are basically self--selected and that the cretins of excess simply won't come out to see film in the first place. But Obama's America certainly seems a lot receptive than the America of our wasted Bush decade.

Gene:  Agreed.  Audiences have been very receptive and starved for a more nourishing vision of the future than the greed and doom stories of the mainstream media - though even this is changing. People tell us that they are glad we made the film, that they enjoyed a fresh documentary approach to a serious subject that invites audiences in with humor and music and drama.  Perhaps most surprising - and gratifying - is that people keep telling us that this is "an important film" and at every festival screening people have asked, "What can we do?"   It's always great when audiences enjoy your film as a film, but it's even better when you can feel that you've connected with people's motivation and real interest in taking action.

There is a tide of eco-media rising . . . starting before Mr. Obama become President.  And his administration offers us an opportunity to bring some common sense and to find common ground in turning things around.  But it's up to us . . .  Please check my blog on this at the Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/blog/gene-rosow

HEIDI: I'm really excited to watch this film with my daughter. I know most adults don't have a clue about this. What a great thing for kids to get to see it and be aware of as they grow up. Have you had any screenings at schools? If so, how did the children respond? What ages of kids have seen it?

Bill: I'll let Gene answer this one as he has been with more High School audiences than I have - starting in Salt Lake City last January.

Gene:  Sundance gave us the first chance to test the film with younger audiences.  The Festival offers filmmakers screenings in Salt Lake City for both the public and additionally for educational and community groups.  We checked off the box for all screenings and figured we'd bring the film to one high school.  The educational screening turned out to be 5 schools, junior high and high school.  Gulp.  And they were totally into it and the Q&A was the longest and liveliest of all.  At other screenings it was very cool to notice that kids were always asking questions in the Q&A's.  Ranging down to 6 and 7 year olds!  We will be doing an educational version more appropriate for classroom use, and we feel confident the film will be very useful as well as well received.

HEIDI: How did you raise money for your budget? 20 global locations, at least, and many were fairly remote. Did the funding come in one giant chunk before you started shooting, or did you piece the film together over the entire production and raise funds from the footage as you went? And are there any hints you can give filmmakers about who to approach for funding their own eco-doc ideas?

Bill: We set up a non-profit foundation, Common Ground Media, and managed to get the film funded over the course of the last five years. For fellow filmmakers, I suggest they try every angle and avenue possible because in general, even eco-documentaries, are labors of love and self-determined dedication. It can and will test all of your resources on every front.

HEIDI: In my experience, making a documentary is actually a much tougher task than making a scripted narrative film. More footage to deal with, more possible story arcs, more research . . . What other docs inspired you while making this film? Did you set out to achieve a certain directive originally? Did that directive change at all during production or editing?

Gene:  Bill and I share your view of that experience! The biggest challenge - beyond convincing our friends and families that making film about dirt was not crazy - was simply how to do it? The subject itself rather than other films inspired us - although films like F Man with A Movie Camera, Nanook of the North, Rain, Manhatta, Harlan County USA, Koyaanisqatsi, Night and Fog, Grey Gardens, Winged Migration, The Sorrow and The Pity, Shoah are there to give advice.  The book we optioned is a series of essays, a magical/meditative journey through the wonders of dirt - some great characters, history, science, biblical tales, and astonishing insights. But there was no inherent story inviting adaptation. The topic was definitely cool but the biggest challenge for us was to think of the topic in storytelling terms. Dirt's story needed to fun, scary, serious, emotional, spiritual, dramatic and visually compelling with a cast of billions. So I thought we should try to tell the story of Dirt and humans from Dirt's point of view . . . what was the relationships of humans and dirt like if you looked at it from Dirt's point of view? Bill Logan, the author of the book was skeptical but at least not insulted by the attempt and so we tried. Dirt is a subject that ranges from macro (as in deep space and time) to micro (billions of micro organisms in a teaspoon of dirt) and around the world - with music, animation, FX . . . and one that we had never seen done. So to meet this challenge we decided that we should do a previsualization cut for both creative and logistical reasons: to both narrow down the subjects and work out a narrative line: we humans share a love story gone bad - but with a real shot at working things out. Set up our long standing love and understanding of dirt: show how we lost touch and grew abusive; reveal the people around the planet that might heal dirt and put us back in touch with dirt and ourselves. Telling the story from Dirt's POV worked for a while but we couldn't make it work in terms of sustaining a feature length doc . . . It was too cheesy - or maybe we were. The Dirt POV just wasn't working. The story structure worked in theory and we turned to a more traditional documentary approach with the story we developed as a base line for the music of rest of the film. The subjects we chose were in fact great. The topic was unique and could be compelling. The pre-vis showed us what would not work but also showed us what could work. So we answered dirt's call and set out filming. Both Bill and I knew we had taken on the most difficult film that either of us had ever worked on.

HEIDI:  Thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview. Where can DIRT: The Movie be seen next ?

Gene:  We're preparing the release schedule now on the tail of the festival circuit, which is winding down.  The best way to find about upcoming screenings and the availability of the DVD is to go to www.dirtthemovie.org  and sign in for frequent updates and screening schedules and locations, including theatrical, community and educational screenings.  PBS will broadcast an hour long version of the film for Earth Day April 22, 2010 which will be preceded by Community Cinema screenings about which we are very excited.