Barbara Trent talks about filmmaking at the Documentary Summit: Raleigh on Nov. 18, 2012.
Last weekend I attended the Documentary Summit, as you probably know. It was a great weekend, full of fantastic conversations that left me feeling inspired to tackle another film. I’m still processing everything. At the summit, I met so many interesting people — something I always enjoy.
Two folks I met were Barbara Trent and David Kasper, who made “The Panama Deception,” which won them an Academy Award in 1993. We got to hear about their filmmaking process, the film itself, and what it feels like to win an Oscar. Then we watched their acceptance speech. What fun.
It was really rewarding to hear Barbara speak about her experiences in crowd funding in person — hosting parties to share their fundraising trailer with a captive audience and the reward of coming home with checks to keep working on the project. They had a pretty serious, smart set up going. I was impressed, and immediately started thinking about how I could do that for my next films.
When she shared information about using the film as a tool for change in the world, I perked up again. This is what I’m trying to do with Abandoned Allies — even if the only thing that changes is awareness about the Montagnard people, I feel like that’s a start. There are bigger changes I want to see but I’m not sure how to facilitate that.
When I spoke to Barbara at the end of the afternoon, I simply wanted to say thanks. Thank you for speaking today. Thank you for taking a huge risk in making a film that tells the truth. Thank you for sharing your experience and expertise. But when I got there to say the words, they wouldn’t come out. I got totally choked up.
Something about Barbara Trent, I can’t say what, touched me so deeply that I teared up and words would simply no longer come out. It’s an embarrassing thing to happen when you’re trying to say thanks. She was gracious enough to give me a moment to try again. When the words still failed, she offered me a huge hug.
Covering a heavy subject about war, where people are a little scared to talk to you on camera because it could get someone killed, is a very heavy responsibility. To make a film about something that is incredibly important but takes so much out of you is, well, hard to put into words. I’m still processing the past few years, and what it’s meant to work on Abandoned Allies. When I went up to talk to Barbara, I think some of that started to finally come out. I’ve been holding on to it for so long, out of survival, so that I could get the film finished. The work is never done, though. Now it’s time to up the ante again, and make this film do some good.
So, thank you, Barbara. Thank you, David. Thank you for making a film that I can’t wait to watch. Thank you for being kind, gracious, and humble filmmakers willing to make the world a better place. We need you. Keep at it.