As a documentarian, Nick Broomfield has dissected American pop culture with films like "Biggie & Tupac" and "Kurt & Courtney." With his more recent forays into narrative feature filmmaking, he has broadened his scope to include global issues. "Ghosts" explored the dark world of Chinese migrant workers in the UK, and his latest work, "Battle for Haditha," which opened at Film Forum earlier this week, recreates the infamous 2005 incident where U.S. marines murdered two dozen Iraqi civilians in a small village, driven by rage after encountering a roadside bomb. An attempt by the military to cover up the role of the American soldiers in the slaughter didn't last long. Media scrutiny led to an internal investigation, and the events have now been thoroughly recorded in various reports.

iW: The central event of the film is based on real testimonies. Given your documentary background, why didn't you take that approach?

Nick Broomfield: I've been making documentaries for a number of years, and I think far too many people just stay in a groove and carry on what they've been doing for far too long. I think it's important as an artist, in whatever field you're in, to take on new challenges, try to tell stories in different ways, and develop your techniques into something new. When I did "Ghost," the film before this, I took a big risk by basically casting all non-actors using real locations, and shooting in a style that's not applied in traditional feature films. Feature films are still very much caught in this time warp of shooting master shots, close-ups, reaction shots - which is all a style that cinema verite is completely not about. Cinema verite is all about real time, long takes, uncertainty, the moment. I tried to keep all that in the style of making this film. At the same time, I tried to tell a story in a much more structured way. Obviously, it's a story that I don't appear in. I tried to forge a new technique of film, which I think is possible because of all the technological changes. I don't think you need to make feature films in the way they're made anymore. It comes out of a 1930's technology, and we've gone past it now.

iW: What are your feelings about the way Iraq has been studied in other contemporary American films?

NB: I think there have been some good documentaries done. I think "My Country, My Country," "Iraq in Fragments," "No Way Out" - they're all very different films, but very interesting. The feature films have been fairly disappointing. Aside from my own, none of them have even had any Iraqi characters, which is symptomatic of some major failure. I don't know how you make a film about a country and you don't have any characters from that country in it. It's like nationalism gone crazy. The bigger question is, "Why has there been no appetite for Iraq films within the American public?" I think it's not just Iraq films. It's any political films. It's interesting that "Charlie Wilson's War" was also unsuccessful. The reason for that is a very sad reason: I think the American people feel totally divorced from the decision-making process. I don't think they feel in any way involved, that if they'll have any effect if they make their protests felt. People can deal with Britney Spears, but they can't deal with any real political issues because they don't believe they have the power to influence anything.

iW: How did you go about scripting the Iraqi characters?

NB: Well, we used Iraqis in the film - people who were recent refugees. We shot the film in Jordan, simply because you wouldn't survive a tea break in Iraq at the time we were shooting. It was just so dangerous. But we used Iraqi people. Geographically, it's very similar, and the culture's not that different. I've had e-mails from marines who were in Haditha, saying, "We thought we were looking at our own home movies." So I think it's pretty close.

iW: At the AFI Dallas Film Festival earlier this year, the film was introduced by a programmer who had served two tours of duty in Iraq. He said your portrayal of the army was "fair." Have you screened the movie for the military?

NB: The opening (at Film Forum) is the opening for the U.S. I've had a few small screenings for friends and stuff. Elliot (Ruiz) is obviously an ex-marine and there are some ex-marines in the film. Some of them have seen the film.

Elliot Ruiz: Some of my friends who served in Iraq, people that actually rescued P.O.W.'s, are actually excited to see the film and glad that it got made.

iW: Why?

ER: They're happy that there's finally a fair depiction of the types of things we go through on a day-to-day basis. I don't think people realize the types of situations we're put in, and the decisions we're forced to make. It's every day, all day long, that we're forced to make decisions that either end our friends' lives, our lives or somebody else's lives. They're just glad people get to see that now.

iW: Did anyone you know express a little more hesitance about it?

ER: All of my friends have been very supportive. Most of them have had five combat tours. This is straight-up kicking down doors, action all the time. These are the people I went to Iraq with, and they're all very supportive. It's just a bunch of corporals that went for a year or two. These guys have been in for five years. My first sergeant just retired. They're all happy about the film.

iW: What did you know about the Haditha incident before you were cast in the film?

ER: Everybody in the Marine Corp knows about the Haditha incident. We heard about it as soon as it happened. It spread like wildfire. People don't realize that it's not just the Haditha incident. You can look up how many people are being charged for murder. My friend just told me five of his friends just got sent to jail for murder charges, and he just got sent back to Afghanistan on Sunday. He was actually explaining that to my mother when he was in California: It's not just the Haditha incident. This stuff is happening every day.

iW: If that's the case, Nick, why did you choose to focus on what happened in Haditha?

NB: I think some of the films have been too general. Films are limited in terms of time. This is two days, a specific reference point. If you're talking about an incident from the point of view of three different groups of people, it's very hard to apply that to a process. In terms of simple storytelling, you need to have something that can provide a structure to tell a story.

iW: One critic referred to the movie as "forensic cinema."

NB: I don't think that's what it is at all. I wouldn't want to make a forensic film. I think what happens, in terms of the actual incident, is very much based on witness statements and the transcripts of the marines who were interviewed. For legal reasons alone, we just needed to get it right. However, I think it's much more interesting - Elliot was a marine and has his own stories and experiences. I wanted very much to use the rawness of their own lives to make this much more powerful. The way the word "forensic" is used, it's like every single phrase that is uttered is supposed to be uttered on that day. That's clearly not the truth. This is a film that in many ways works as a film about war that happens to look at the Haditha incident. That's how I would define it.

iW: At the same time, when I read the Time Magazine piece about the incident after seeing your film, it was like I was reading a treatment for it.

As a storyteller, I wanted to do something that was accurate and fair. I didn't want to be inventing things that would weight the story in one direction or another. It was really: How did the marines perceive that day? What was their viewpoint? Where were they coming from? What did they feel about each other? What did they feel about the Iraqis? What did they feel on the day-to-day level? It's the same thing with the insurgency. We see nothing about the insurgency here. We don't even know who the insurgents are. We don't know that the insurgents and Al-Qaida are different. All those things are important. I think, to me, making something that's balanced and fair - and, also, accurate -- is very important. You don't want to open the film with people pointing at it, saying that it's not true. More than anything, it's not about making a forensic film. It's about making a film that you know is accurate.

iW: Do you hope to bring something new to the investigation of this case?

I think that's a different film. I think it's an interesting film, but it's not the film I've made, which is a film about war. I haven't made a film about military justice. If I was going to, it would be military justice...question mark.

iW: Does that topic interest you?

I think it's fascinating, but I don't think it's something I would feel is relevant to talk about now. I think the film is really saying, "These are seventeen year old guys put into an environment they didn't understand, who did things partly because of their prior experiences in Fallujah." If anyone should be put on trial, it's George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. They were the one group of people who knew what they were doing. It's very different to ask if there's some sort of thing called military justice.

iW: Elliot, as a marine, did you think much about the idea of placing more blame on the American government than on the military?

ER: That's why I took this role. He's explaining that in the film. A lot of people don't know the difference, they don't know what we're going through. That is the bigger picture: Are those marines really responsible for what happened? I mean, they did what they did, but who's really responsible? Who really created that situation? This is not blaming the military, the insurgents or the Iraqis. It's blaming the people that created all three groups.

iW: Do you think there needs to be a better dialog between the U.S. military and the government?

ER: Let's say I was still in the marine corp. What I could say? What can really be said? Yeah, we don't agree with it - but it's our job. We either go to Iraq or go to jail. We don't go to Iraq, we betray our country. We really don't have a voice.

NB: It's the old question that was raised at the Nuremberg Trials: Who's responsible? The foot soldiers or the guys who told them to do what they do? It takes you up the chain of command. That's why, at Nuremberg, you had the heads of the military being tried. There isn't an inquiry into the Iraq War, but there should be. It should be all the half-truths and fabrications that were proved, later, to be lies. They should be looked at. Whether or not that will happen, I don't know, but in terms of a healthy democracy, that's what needs to happen. Future leaders need to know that if they lie, willingly, and mislead an electorate and a population and the rest of the world, they're going to be held accountable for it. At the moment, they don't seem to be.

iW: Do you really believe the management of the war has reached a point where we can analogize it to Nuremberg?

NB: Certainly. We've got a million Iraqi people dead on the basis of chemical weapons that didn't exist. The British were just as bad. They were famous for gassing the Kurds, which we later blamed Saddaam for. The British were the ones who started it. I think you need to look at the bigger picture. Those are the issues, really. Haditha is a little bit of it. Haditha is what people do when they come to the end and can't think straight anymore. These poor guys are all thrown together. None of them speak Iraqi. They've never been out of America before. If we're going to start trying people, why don't we look around and see who we should be trying? It's the architects of this incredible situation.

Documentary director Arthur Dong has been working since the early 1980s, when one of his first shorts, "Sewing Woman," was nominated for an Academy Award. Since then, he has directed a series of docs on political and social issues, including 1994's Peabody Award winning "Coming Out Under Fire" and 1997's Sundance favorite "Licensed To Kill," which took a chilling look at the lives of people convicted of violent hate crimes against gay men (Dong himself was a victim of gay bashing in 1977). His latest work, "Hollywood Chinese," goes in a different but certainly not less imperative direction, examining the placement of Asian-Americans in Hollywood cinema. Premiering at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, the doc shines a light on decades of underwhelming representations. The film opens Friday, May 2 at New York's Quad Cinemas.

Are there other aspects of filmmaking that you would still like to explore?

I've always wanted to be a cinematographer. When I graduated from San Francisco State University's Cinema Department I applied to the American Film Institute for graduate studies. The AFI's a conservatory and you pick an area of concentration, i.e., director, writer, set designer. I wanted to go for cinematography but the registrar noted that I didn't have a substantial background in that field. She suggested I apply for the director's program instead since I had already received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Short. So there you have it, now I'm a director.

Please discuss how the idea for "Hollywood Chinese" came about.

In the fall of 1996, I was called to a meeting by NAATA (the National Asian American Telecommunications Association, now known as the Center for Asian American Media). NAATA had a grant initiative that provided a big chunk of money specifically earmarked for veteran producers and they wondered if I was planning to submit a proposal. My film "Licensed to Kill" was just accepted into Sundance and I was madly rushing to get a film print done, and I was like, "Are you kidding -- like I have a lot of free time?!" They countered, "But don't you have a dream project you've always wanted to do?" And that's when the idea sprang up, just like that! (Long story short, I didn't accept the grant.)

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film...

I love film history and I wanted to make a film for film lovers. I'm also a fan of that genre of documentaries that examines cinema from a specific point-of-view, and I wanted to tackle the Chinese in Hollywood feature films. So my goal was to combine these interests and make a film that was fun, but yet thought-provoking. I've seen documentaries that deconstruct the media's representation of marginalized groups, and while their content is important, sometimes the presentations can be a bit argumentative and didactic for me. I certainly didn't want to ignore criticism about the industry, but I also wanted to celebrate some pretty remarkable milestones and achievements as well. Most of all, I wanted audiences to be entertained and the people I interviewed were not only smart, but were a hoot!

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

I became a dad immediately after we wrapped production on "Hollywood Chinese" so the biggest challenge from that point on, right up to now, has been to juggle work and family. With diaper duties at anytime of the day, I couldn't burn the midnight oil and work through meals anymore so I'd say it took me about a year longer to finish my film than if I weren't a father -- remember, I still had to fund raise for post-production too. But I looked to my parents for inspiration and they raised four kids without day care or nannies, all while working 12-hour days. I was brought up in a sewing factory, nestled in bundles of fabric alongside my mom while she sewed Levis jeans. I edit in my home studio and I made a little play area for my son so he could hang out with me - it was a fun time, he'd sit on my lap and watch certain cuts - that's when he fell in love with the musical numbers from "Flower Drum Song"! Currently, my self-distribution of "Hollywood Chinese" has generated more requests for personal appearances than any of my previous films, and that's been a challenge since, frankly speaking, I'd rather be home with my family. But then there's that pesky college fund looming...

Arthur Dong won the Golden Horse for best documentary. Image courtesy of the filmmaker.

How did the casting for the film come together?

I wanted to interview a variety of film artists, including directors, writers, and actors. I also wanted to check in with non-Asian actors who performed in yellow-face, where they wore make-up to play Chinese characters. This was important to me since their unique perspectives haven't been heard very much and their work is often criticized from just one point-of-view. I was lucky to have interviewed Luise Rainer ("The Good Earth," 1937), Turhan Bey ("Dragon Seed," 1944), and Christopher Lee ("Fu Manchu," 1960s) who were all pretty candid. I also wanted my cast to form a collective narrative arc for the film, where we can follow their journeys into the film industry on a personal level. This was important for the structure of "Hollywood Chinese" because I already had two lines of story development, one chronological and the other thematic, and I needed a dramatic through-line to help glue it all together; I wanted to build to an emotional impact by the end of the film and the personal stories provided that underlying thrust.

What are some of the creative influences that have had the biggest impact on you?

I first realized that film could leave an emotional and intellectual effect on viewers when I saw Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" in 1963. I was held in total suspense and I so wanted answers to the bizarre events in that film. At the very end, we see the stunned protagonists walking through a field of birds, all just sitting, but perhaps ready to attack again, and then the film ends. I was just astonished and for days tried to figure out what happened and what will happen. I remember thinking to myself that I'd like to do that, to create a film that crescendos to an open-ended conclusion that invites any number of interpretations. To this day I try to end my films not with a definitive statement, but rather, one that can be dissected, discussed and read in different ways - that for me would be a successful film.

What other genres or stories would you like to explore as a filmmaker? What is your next project?
I attended the American Film Institute to study narrative filmmaking and came out of that institution with a half hour short, Lotus, about a family of women in 1916 China grappling with the custom of footbinding. Part of AFI's service is to set you up with executives and agents. At more than a few of these meetings, they'd heap praise on my talents as a director, but then offered, "You did a film about China, with all Chinese characters, and you're Chinese. We don't know what to do with you!" Now, this was 1987, pre-Ang Lee, pre-John Woo, pre-Justin Lin. You wouldn't hear that today, at least not so bluntly. But that was then and I had a documentary project I was working on so I just thought, "Who needs that?!" And it's been non-stop since with docs and life's been good. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't want to re-visit narrative filmmaking.

As for my next project, I'd like to spend more time with my son.

What is your definition of "independent film," and has that changed at all since you first started working?

I'm focused on distribution now and I can say that the changes between now and 1982 when I first ventured into self-distribution is...gee, I can't think of a word big enough to describe the differences! Back then it was previews on 16mm, not DVDr screeners; phone tagging, not emails; catalogues, not websites; purchase orders, not online shopping carts; slides and photo prints, not jpegs; mass mailings, not E-blasts - I can go on and on, and I've just started exploring the possibilities of internet downloads and such. I'm not necessarily talking about theatrical distribution, but there are now many more tools available to help filmmakers remain somewhat independent through alternative means. What hasn't changed, however, is connecting with an audience. The core task of identifying your target audience and making sure that they're engaged is still a very human and thoughtful process - and that's good.

What general advice would you impart to emerging filmmakers?

As a gay Asian American filmmaker I'd be naive to think that anti-gay bigotry and racism has not affected the opportunities or lack thereof in terms of my work. But the way I confront it is to first acknowledge whatever factors I think might be there, and then forge ahead anyway with that knowledge. We all have thrust upon us unwanted external forces that we have no control over, whoever we are, and if we allow them to be barriers (excuses?) to our goals, then we may as well give it up because perseverance, passion, and stamina is a must for independent filmmakers.

Please share an achievement from your career so far that you are most proud of.

It's got to be the "Out 100 Award" given by Out Magazine. I had been on the road with my film "Licensed to Kill" for about a year, self distributing to theaters, conferences, festivals and community groups. The award's inscription read: "for waging a one-man anti-violence project with his documentary on convicted murderers of homosexuals, 'Licensed to Kill.'" That was pretty cool and made it all worthwhile.

Well, you can't accuse David Mamet of slacking off. That "Redbelt," his new martial arts film, hits the screen May 2, while "November," a hilarious political broadside, plays to packed houses on Broadway highlights the man's amazing productivity. In the theatre, Mamet has created, of course, his own dramatic idiom, a tough-guy vernacular of fractured speech and pauses which masks male insecurity, while skewering venality and the decline of values. With his 1988 "House of Games" he annexed a second career directing films, often centered on con men and tricksters. The hyper-busy Mamet has also written numerous screenplays. Add to that essays, novels and non-fiction books, the TV series, "The Unit." Plus he's got a family and a life.

This tale of an American Samurai taps into Mamet's past as a high school wrestler and boxer; and his current involvement -- and by all accounts skill; he's a purple belt -- in mixed martial arts, which he's studied in L.A. for six years with black belt Renato Magno. Given Mamet's dark view of human affairs, his involvement in self-defense seems a logical avocation. "Redbelt," though, is less about martial arts, Mamet insists, than the Jiu-jitsu principle that understanding will defeat strength. Even so, the film's macho codes of honor -- a character commits suicide to protect the name of Mike's Jiu-jitsu academy -- may resonante more with men than women. In fact, the female characters -- never Mamet's strong suit -- feel almost irrelevant in this testosterone-fueled world of "ground and pound" and throws landing with a sickening thud, as guys on mats do their thing. For other viewers, though, Mike Terry may evoke the indie filmmaker prevailing over Hollywood muscle through talent and guile.

Recently Mamet and entourage -- including Emily Mortimer, Ricky Jay, and wife-of-17-years Rebecca Pidgeon -- blew into New York's Regency on a junket. Security at that hotel would not have wanted to tangle with the film's fight personnel, among them Heavyweight champ Randy Couture (with an actual cauliflower ear), or one Boom Boom Mancini (whose knockout killed a real-life opponent). Or Mamet, for that matter. At 60 the ripped writer looks closer to 40, and wore his trademark humongous glasses, a porkpie hat, and breezed through in a rough-tough manner. Sony Pictures Classics open the film in limited release beginning Friday, May 2.

indieWIRE: Your credits fill five pages in the press kit. How do you manage to do so much?

David Mamet: Did you ever work on a farm? They work all day and they go to bed at night and get up early. And they do it all day every day. I don't work as hard as a farmer, but it's kind of the same idea. You do it all day every day for a lot of years, [and ]you get a lot of work accomplished. [For the record, Rebecca Pidgeon's answer to the same question: "He has a great gift from God."]

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Alice Braga in a scene from David Mamet's "Redbelt." Photo by Lorey Sebastian, The Redbelt Company, LLC, courtesy Sony Pictures Classics.

iW: Are you a fan of any particular work in your canon?

DM: No, it's all kind of the morass of the continuous present.

iW: What was the germ for the story in "Redbelt?"

DM: I've been training in Jiu-jitsu for about six years and I'm very fortunate to live in that world. All the fighters hang out and have lunch together just about every day and trade stories. And I've always been fascinated how in the world of Jiu-jitsu in L.A. everybody in the fight world -- cops, special forces, bouncers, stuntmen -- connected across different lines. So the movie sort of suggested itself.

iW: Why Jiu-jitsu?

DM: Ed O'Neill, a good friend, said if you have to move to L.A. I want you to meet these guys I'm training with, the Gracies. So I started training with one of their clan, a cousin, at his academy. It happened the first day I was in L.A. and I'm still there.

iW: Does Brazilian Jiu-jitsu have a philosophical component?

DM: I think that any physical discipline you give yourself over to -- whether it's boxing or rowing -- you're going to extrapolate a philosophy from, whether you verbalize it or not. Like yoga, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu has a great component of discernible philosophy.

iW: How does what you learn in Jiu-jitsu carry over into your life?

DM: I hope this is a good example. Randy Couture is a spectacular athlete. If somebody said, what would happen if you were put up against him, I'd say, I could fight him. This doesn't mean that I could prevail against him. But a lesson of Jiu-jitsu is that faced with something that looks like an impossibility you have two choices: If I have to fight I'll use whatever skills I have. Or, you can say, I'm certainly going to get beaten. If you have to fight anyway, what's the point of going in with the second attitude? So it teaches you to use your physical training to learn how to conquer your own fear.

Other things I've learned from Jiu-jitsu: a man distracted is a man defeated. Don't get tired, let the other man get tired. There's no situation you can't escape from. There's no situation you can't turn to your advantage. Those are great lessons to go through life with. Instead of worry and self doubt.

iW: You talk about the senseis almost as if they were rabbis. You've also written about being Jewish. Is there a connection?

DM: Curiously, my rabbi also studies Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. There's a wonderful Hasidic tradition: if someone wants to study with the rabbi he says, okay, but you can't ask questions. Which is a marvelous way to learn. You gotta keep your mouth shut and your eyes open and figure it out for yourself. The same thing is true working on a physical discipline. Bruce Lee said, 'Don't perform the move, express the move.' You try to get more and more simple.

"Redbelt" director David Mamet with actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. Photo by Lorey Sebastian, The Redbelt Company, LLC, courtesy Sony Pictures Classics.

iW: Does your own involvement with Jiu-jitsu make this a more personal film for you?

DM: They're all personal because I imagine them or participate in them. My mind is such a hodgepodge that the two [the personal and work] kind of mix up anyway.

iW: Couple of questions about casting. Since he had no martial arts background, why did you cast Chiwetel Ejiofor?

DD: He's a great great actor, who's very physical. The character's not actually competing as a martial artist. But he has to know enough to perform certain moves. And Chiwetel started training in Jiu-jitsu.

iW: Tim Allen is mostly known for comedy. How did you think of him for the straight part of the movie star?

DM: Tim read the script and liked it. I had no hesitation casting a comic actor. I did a movie with Steve Martin where he played a murderer and a con man, in the "The Spanish Prisoner." Jackie Gleason played straight parts. So did Don Rickles and Jerry Lewis.

iW: I just saw "November," and it makes me wonder, Did the same person create that play and this film? Is there a common thread in your work?

DM: The common thread is I wrote them. I have the best job in the world. I get up every morning and try something new. Maybe that's a Chicago attitude, or a 2nd generation immigrant's. The best thing is you succeed; the worst thing that could happen is you learn something and you try something else.

iW: What's the difference between writing a movie and writing a play?

DM: You do a play and you write for actors. When you do a movie you write for the camera.

iW: What particular challenge did you face in filming a story about mixed martial arts?

DM: Jiu-jitsu is completely different from the striking forms and the way you film it has to be very different. A striking form is very filmable. The people come together, they go apart. The audience can follow it. I saw that punch land over there. But most of Jiu-jitsu happens in a way that if you don't know what you're looking at you can't understand it. Because the guys are tied up. Renato Magno [Mamet's teacher] choreographed and produced the film's six fights.

iW: Would you say "Redbelt" is principally a guy movie?

DM: One of the great gratifying things about the film, self serving as it sounds, is that women seem to really like the movie. And I think it has to do with the whole idea of empowerment. Because what Jiu-jitsu is saying to the woman is, If you take upon yourself the idea that you've lost the fight, or you can't win, your life is over. Why do that?

iW: There are a number of different story lines in the film. Do you sometimes lose track yourself when you're writing your stories?

DM: Sure, all the time. That's why you gotta keep writing it over and over again. Until the story emerges. And sometimes you start out telling one story and it just doesn't work, and sometimes the story itself wants to tell you, Nope, that's not what we want to be about. So you gotta do both things: bring enough force to bear to make it be the story you think. And bring enough intelligence to bear to realize sometimes it don't [sic] want to be that story, it wants to be a different story.

iW: What are your future plans?

DM: I'm doing a muscial version of "Oklahoma." No, seriously, I have a new play in L.A., a one-acter called "Keep your Pantheon" about the worst actors in ancient Rome.

iW: Why do you wear those particular glasses?

DM: These? I bought them years ago. The British Health system used to give them away to all the Brits for five cents. I like them because they're very big.

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling directors who have films screening at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Carlos Carcas' "Old Man Bebo and Faramarz K-Rahber's "Donkey in Lahore" are both screening in the World Documentary Competition at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. "Bebo," a Spanish doc, follows the career of legendary musician Bebo Baldes, a key figure in the development of mambo. "Donkey," from Australia, details couple Brian and Amber, who are tested when Brian has to convert to Islam to marry Amber. Both directors talked to indieWIRE about their films and their expectations for Tribeca.

In the Tribeca catalog, TFF programmer Garrison Botts writes that "Bebo struts his stuff in several mesmerizing performance clips in this film. At the end, he plays a beautiful rendition of 'Old Man River' as we watch a montage of images from his long and rich life. It is a moving testament to Bebo's talents and endurance.

Responses by Carlos Carcas, director of "Old Man Bebo"

What initially attracted you to filmmaking?

I grew up with the invention of the video camera. Shooting always "felt" right, but I never thought of it as a profession. In school, I was pretty good in both the sciences and in literature. I loved novels and the theater. But, in the end the sciences won, and I got scholarship to study biomedical engineering at the university. All was going well until one day I saw "Un Chien Andalou" by Luis Bunuel. It was like getting struck by lightning. With my hair scorched and smoke coming out of my ears I thought, "That is what I want to do!"

What was the inspiration for "Old Man Bebo?"

The inspiration for "Old Man Bebo" is Bebo Valdes himself. If you spend 5 minutes with him you automatically love him. I met Bebo in the year 2000 working as a cameraman on Fernando Trueba's film "Calle 54. After that, I was always around with a camera whenever he was in the recording studio. I knew he was an important figure in Cuban music, so I felt I had been given the privilege and responsibility to document those recordings without really thinking about making "A film."

Then in New York in 2004, during the recording of "Suite Cubana," I saw him stand up from the piano to conduct the band with a tremendous smile on his face. At that moment, as I was shooting, I thought about a man who had left Cuba during its heyday and had vanished to the Arctic Circle, spending the next 40 years playing in Sweden's hotel lounges. He had written those pieces of music for fun. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that someday he would be in Manhattan with that supergroup of New York's all-stars before him playing that music. This entire lifetime sequence flashed across my mind in less than a second, and that's when I knew I had to put together the film.

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film...

The first part came naturally, simply being a witness to the recording sessions. I started shooting music during "Calle 54," and one of the cameramen, Jimmy Glasberg, told me, "Shoot with your ears, not with your eyes." Since then, I've been obsessed with this idea and I've tried to use my camera like a jazz instrument, using simple and clean camera movements that are guided by what's happening musically. However, in this film, the story weighs heavier than the music and I realized there were a lot of things Bebo had been involved in for which he had received no credit, if in fact he had been mentioned at all. That was one of many unfortunate results of having left Cuba when he did.

So, I felt like I had to be true to the musical history no matter what, and some of the things said in the film hadn't been told or written elsewhere. The third aspect, which to me is the most important, is the human story. To me, Bebo is a sort of Ulysses, a man who has lived three lifetimes. People see this nice old man who's always smiling and who plays a wonderful piano. But I wanted him, and his family, to be able to speak. I wanted the film to be cathartic for them. After showing it a bit, it seems like it's been cathartic for a lot of people outside the family as well.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

The biggest challenge was finding archive material. Bebo worked on many TV shows and yet nothing exists. There was not a single moving image available. Cuba has precious archives, but unfortunately a great percentage of the material has been thrown away or is being eaten by fungi in some vault. There may still be time to save a lot of material, but it needs to be done quickly. The second greatest challenge was financing the music rights. This film was hand-made, and if the Spanish authors' society (SGAE) hadn't collaborated, there would be no film. It blows my mind that I have to pay a bunch of lawyers money to use music in a film that is a tribute to the very author himself. The music industry constantly whines about the crisis, and I guess their plan is to make small doc filmmakers pay for it.

What are your goals for the Tribeca Film Festival?

Making it to Tribeca is already a goal in itself, and a wonderful surprise. As I was making the film, a lot of people didn't understand what I was doing. Even after screening it, many still don't get it. So being selected to compete in Tribeca has made a lot of people think twice. It makes me feel like I was not wrong. And that's great because Bebo deserves the tribute. It's also very important because a lot of people inside Cuba have worked hard to make this film happen because they see the value of this man's contribution, not only to their culture, but to the world's. So I'm hoping that Tribeca will be a launching pad that will help the film to be seen in many places and add to the poetic justice that the film has given Bebo.

A scene from Faramarz K-Rahber's "Donkey in Lahore." Image courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival.

In the Tribeca catalog, TFF programmer Genna Terranova writes that "though probing of both his principals, [director] K-Rahber reserves judgement of their quixotic courtship, leaving his commentary to provide context and allowing this post-globalization Romeo and Juliet tale to play itself out on its own. Perhaps if Shakespeare's young lovers had shown as much patience as Brian and Amber, they too would have met a happy ending after all."

Responses by Faramarz K-Rahber, director of "Donkey in Lahore

What initially attracted you to filmmaking?

Looking back, I remember being fascinated by shows on TV as a 5 year-old boy in Tehran, Iran. But it was the things that I experienced as a teenager, young adult and as a refugee that gave me reason to become a filmmaker.

What was the inspiration for this film?

A puppeteering Goth wants to convert to Islam in order to get married with a young Muslim woman in Pakistan. Well, wouldn't you want to know what was going to happen?

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film...

My whole aim was to remain patient and not interfere with the lives of film's subjects and the unfolding story. By sticking to these two rules I think I was able to tell the story in the best possible way.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

I pretty much went straight from discovering this story to shooting it. So development was baked into the first trip to Pakistan. In hindsight, So I guess the challenge in the beginning was the speed with which everything happened. Funny then that it took five years before filming was complete...

What are your goals for the Tribeca Film Festival?

I would like to meet as many filmmakers as possible and learn more about their approach to filmmaking. Festivals are the best places to network and meet the audience so this is what I'm looking forward to the most.

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling directors who have films screening at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Ivan O'Mahoney and Laura Winter's "Baghdad High" follows the lives of ordinary Iraqis during the war. Screening in the World Documentary Competition at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, O'Mahoney and Winter gave four Iraqi high school seniors a digital camera to record a year in the lives. The result is a film that shows how remarkably similar these teenagers' lives are compared to those in the Western world. indieWIRE talked to both filmmakers about the film and their expectations for its North American Premiere at Tribeca.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking?

Laura Winter: While, I've been writing for newspapers and magazines and have worked for television and radio in Iraq and Afghanistan for years, I've really been wanting to tell the stories that I have been seeing and experiencing in a more evocative medium. Ivan, my co-director, really made it possible by taking a chance on me and allowing me to dive right into filmmaking. Making "Baghdad High" has been the most fulfilling story-telling experience I have had to date because through this medium we can really connect with Iraq's future, the kids. It's my first film, and most definitely not my last. I'm addicted now.

Ivan O'Mahoney: I switched from law to journalism ten years ago. I had grand ideas of being a somewhat gung ho war reporter and went to journalism school in NY. But as soon as I was given a camera, I realized my future was behind it, not in front of it. The challenge to create a compelling visual narrative proved irresistible.

What was the inspiration for "Baghdad High?"

We both had worked in Iraq and were looking to avoid yet another Iraq film told through the eyes of soldiers, religious leaders and warlords. The idea was that if you want to do something about the future of Iraq, you should talk to the future...i.e. go straight to its teenagers. Everyone can sympathize with the troubles and triumphs of being a teenager. It's just that these teens happened to be growing into men in a war zone.

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film...

Setting the film in a high school provided an instant chronological narrative. We hoped that by spending a year and selecting the right characters plenty of other compelling storylines would emerge as no one in Iraq is left untouched by the violence and sectarian tension. We had to trust that our associate producers would be able to do the job; that the principal would introduce us to the right kids; and that the kids wouldn't get bored, that they would remain committed to filming their lives for what turned out to be almost 11 months. Ultimately, we found a school that still had an ethnically and religiously mixed body of students which offered a unique perspective on living in Iraq from all sides of the ever increasing divide.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

Finding a way to safeguard the students' safety and security and the security of our local producers was without question the biggest challenge. Everything was affected. We had to put in place strict security protocols to which everyone on the ground in Iraq adhered admirably to. Also, since it was too dangerous for us to go to Iraq and film them ourselves, we really had the difficult job of going through over 300 hours worth of tape from the boys. All of that had to be translated, logged, sorted through, culled, culled again, and culled one more time before digitizing what was left. Then we had to honestly weave and re-weave the boys' narratives into an intelligible and satisfying story.

What are your goals for the Tribeca Film Festival?

Our goal was to get here and have as many people as possible see the film in the U.S. Thankfully, the film is also airing on HBO in August. We hope that the universality of the teenage themes that the film touches on will make it an enjoyable watch and make people in the West realize that there are plenty of non-extremist and inclusive Iraqis who simply want to get on with life. And finally, we really just want to have some fun, get a bucket of popcorn and watch some films.

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling directors who have films screening at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Screening in the World Narrative Competition at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, director Delphine Kreuter makes her feature film debut with "57,000 Kilometers Between Us." Kreuter, a photographer and video artist, takes on the idea of connecting in today's world by following one dysfunctional family. Kreuter talked to indieWIRE about the film and her hopes for its North American premiere at Tribeca.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking?

I was taking photos and writing short pieces of theater that we would act out in the street. One day, I wrote a story that couldn't be performed in the street, so I shot it on film. What I discovered was a sense of movement, the ability to develop a story over time, an overall freedom that I didn't have with photography where it all comes down to a precise moment in time. And now I have the irrepressible desire to dig deeper, to go further with what I've learned.

What was the inspiration for 57,000 Kilometers Between Us?"

I was surfing the internet at a friend's house about 7 years ago when I began to ask myself what could make people want to expose themselves online, and why other people want to see that. From there, I thought about the fact that two people at opposite ends of the earth can meet each other, or that you can "meet" your neighbor online without ever meeting him in real life. I realized that I could use the internet to create relationships that would otherwise be improbable, and in turn use those relationships to discuss life more generally.

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film...

For me, making a film is above all writing a story, finding the locations and the actors, arranging the lighting, taking a camera and filming. Staging a story. I like the idea that it can be simple, even if in actuality it's not as simple as all that!

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

Over the course of 5 years, I was constantly asked to rewrite my script in order to obtain more money from different institutions, TV channels, etc, and my answer was always no. In the end, I wrote it one last time while keeping in mind the resources that I had at my disposal, and we filmed with the help of a contemporary art collector. It was only after completing the film that we received the support of the CNC, and heard 'yes' from those who had earlier said 'no.' The big challenge was getting the film made, and having it reach an audience.

What are your goals for the Tribeca Film Festival?

For people to like the film, for it to bring them something, for someone to want to distribute it outside of France so that it can travel and continue to live- and, as a result of all that, to be able to make a second film, maybe even in NY!

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Guy Maddin's "My Winnipeg" is screening at the 7th Tribeca Film Festival, currently underway. IFC First Take will release the film in theaters beginning in June in the U.S.]

"I was going in the direction that all indie directors go," said filmmaker Guy Maddin, reflecting on his career. "It was fun to do a U-turn and go in the opposite direction. Ironically, if I go to Hollywood, I'd be happier going this way. I'll get there on my own strengths, if I get there at all." Maddin, talking to a moderator Dennis Lim in front of a crowd that gathered at the Apple Store SoHo Sunday night (co-hosted with indieWIRE), is referring to the primitive nature of his recent films, most particularly "My Winnipeg," which is making its U.S. debut at the Tribeca Film Festival this week.

"What I tried to do with the film is present facts as facts, then I certainly expressed many opinions because the city's broken my heart so many times," Maddin said. "And then there are many legends about the city that are either held to be true or are popular stories many Winnipegers. It's a mixture of those things. And then it's sort of held together by a grout of feelings that are sort of turned into poetic facts. It's really important that the feelings be spot-on. I mean, whose really keeping track of Winnipeg's statistics."

Maddin believes the film serves to illustrate a point that both Winnipegers and Canadians are really "lousy self-mythologizers." "One of the reasons I was excited about making the movie was a chance to mythologize the city as well as 'every-town,'" he said. "There's just something about living in Canada, next to such a strong cultural force as America... Canadians have always insisted on identifying themselves as 'not American.' Usually that just means that we don't exaggerate when we tell our stories and so we present our historical figures in lifesize, which is a guaranteed way to assure that they'll be forgotten instantly."

One specific exaggeration was the role of his mother. Suggested within the film as being his actual mother (while the siblings are explained as hired actors), who is played in the film by Ann Savage, best known for her role in Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 film "Detour." Maddin regards Savages as his "spirtual mother," calling her "literally the most frightening femme fatale in film history." "Bette Davis was known to run from the theatre, crying and hiding behind a potted palm in the lobby after seeing her performance."

And while the film has hired actors and "American-style exaggeration," Maddin still regards it as a documentary, at least in a logistic sense. "I remember once telling myself I'd never make a documentary because I like a modestly budgeted independent film," he said. "The shooting ratio is like 8:1 or 12:1... But with documentaries the ratio is way higher. 100:1 is common. Since I had an outline written before this and I knew what I had to reenact, I was able to keep it closer to a fictional film ratio, but it was still like 18:1 or 19:1." Maddin also shot a lot of the film on HD. But Maddin realized some of the HD footage would feel better as film, so he projected it on to his fridge and reshot it with a film camera. "Just so it would have some film grain and the right flicker," he said.

This sort of attention to detail says a lot about Maddin's relationship with his films. "I only choose subjects I'm obsessed with to tackle as film subjects," he admits. "Every time, it's been the same result. That favorite thing becomes something I can't bare to think of anymore. It's sort of a form of aversion therapy rather than anything getting resolved. It's just buried in styrofoam peanut packing things. A kind of avalanche of dullness, eventually."

Audiences of "My Winnipeg" are likely to feel the opposite during Tribeca and when the film opens in limited release June 13th in the U.S. via IFC First Take.

Much time has passed since Larry Clark discovered Harmony Korine skateboarding in Washington Square Park and hired him to write "Kids." In its wake, Korine exploded into the mainstream as a radical artist with a bad boy streak. His first two features, "Gummo" and the Dogme '95 entry "Julian Donkey-boy," divided critics and furthered his reputation as a fiercely independent figure. Just when his world seemed to be moving too fast, Korine left New York City for his native home in Nashville, got married and made a new movie to reflect his comparatively happier state of mind.

indieWIRE: Have your expectations for the way the film is received changed since last year's Cannes premiere?

Harmony Korine: I try not to think about it too much. I have never been good at gauging reactions to my films. I remember thinking "Gummo" would be embraced by the public in much the same way as "Bambi" was when it first came out. I am always wrong about such things.

iW: There's a point in the film when the story gets significantly bleaker. Did you always intend to have reality intrude on the movie's surreal sense of beauty?

HK: Yes, this is one of the central themes of the film. Reality always seems to trounce the dream. Nothing too good lasts too long. Fuck it and enjoy while you can.

iW: Are there specific surrealist filmmakers you admire?

HK: I do like [Luis] Bunuel, but there are not too many others who would fall into this category. Obviously, the Marx brothers are the great America surrealist act, and they have always been my favorite.

iW: In some interviews, you claim to have to have spent time in between your last film and "Mister Lonely" traveling with an Amazonian tribe called the Malingerers and searching for a mythological fish. Did you make this story up?

HK: Of course, this is the truth. In fact, I'm planning another trip back there soon. One of the members just gave birth to a twelve pound baby with a fully grown tooth, and I am the godfather. Apparently, the child has been given my name.

iW: Isn't a "malingerer" someone who fakes insanity?

HK: That is correct.

iW: You haven't been telling that story as much these days.

HK: I figure everyone's already heard it. Actually, Rachel, my wife, she's the one that said I'm repeating myself too often.

iW: I think it's fascinating...

HK: What? A fantasy?

iW: No, I didn't say that.

HK: It's just a long story. It eats the whole interview. Enough people have read about it.

iW: Anyway, it's yet another example of your off-the-cuff nature as a storyteller. There's at least one scene in "Mister Lonely," when Herzog talks to a man about his marital infidelity, that's clearly improvised.

HK: That scene was somewhat improvised around the man's actual story. He is referred to locally as the "village idiot." Herzog struck up a close friendship with him. In reality, this man does wait every day for his wife to fly home to him. He spends seven hours a day standing on the airport runway with red plastic flowers. He has been waiting for three years now. I'm not sure exactly what he thought was going on while we were filming that scene with him, though.

"Mister Lonely" director Harmony Korine and actor Diego Luna at a dinner hosted by IFC during last year's Toronto International Film Festival. Photo by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE

The thing about the improvising is that, in some ways, the idea of it is misleading. Maybe it implies that you let actors stand there and they just make shit up. That's almost always awful. I try to create an environment where you encourage and hope for things to happen above and beyond what you imagined. For instance, filming the commune with all those people, you try to have all these people in costume always there, staying in character to some degree. I came up with things on the spot. The trouble with filmmaking that I always had was that it lacked this sort of spontaneity. I felt like everything was so thought out, because it has to be. I try to approach scenes in a more musical way, putting different elements together and riffing off them. I toss grenades into the scene.

iW: For example?

HK: I can't even say. It's everything.

iW: Do you coach your actors?

HK: I won't coach a performance if I don't like it, unless it's something like -- most of the time I'll cut and start over. What I'll do is throw out ideas. I'll go to Lincoln and say, "Tell me that story about Vietnam. Tell me that story about the melting Jane Fonda dolls. Tell me that story about doing acid with Hanoi Jane." Then, he'll laugh and break into that story. Sometimes it creates a mood or an idea that hadn't existed before.

iW: I spoke to Herzog a few weeks back and asked him if he saw any parallels between the priest he plays in your film and the Michael Jackson impersonator played by Diego Luna. Herzog said, "Who's Diego?"

HK: [laughs] He had no idea about the other story.

iW: Did anyone else?

HK: Aw, that's a secret I don't like to tell. I don't want to get anyone upset out there. But, no, it depends on the actor.

iW: Woody Allen says he never tells his actors anything other than what their character knows.

HK: I don't go to that degree, but sometimes I give actors different screenplays. [laughs] Sometimes, I might have five or six different endings that I give to five or six different actors.

iW: Has Herzog seen the movie now?

HK: Yeah, he saw it like two days ago. We did something together in Los Angeles at the Egyptian. It was pretty funny.

iW: He said you view him as a mentor.

HK: I don't even know if "mentor" is the right word. I don't really need a mentor. Werner is somebody whose films make me believe. Watching his films when I was young, I felt very similar to the way I felt when I first saw Buster Keaton in "Steamboat Bill Jr." I just felt there was something old and deep in what he was doing. Some kind of poetry that wasn't like anything I'd felt before. I couldn't imagine the mind of a person who would invent such scenarios. When I first saw "Even Dwarves Started Small," I couldn't believe a human being could make that up. It seemed like it was coming from such a strange place. Who would have thought about crucifying the monkey? Why was that car rolling around in that circle for so long in "Stroszek"? There are moments where it's something inexpressible. It's something you can't say in words. It goes through you.

iW: You once said that you don't believe in "the idea of exploitation."

HK: There are degrees, like if you're filming someone who's blind and not telling them. As long as people have their faculties about them...

iW: What about the guy on the runway in "Mister Lonely" confronted about his marital infidelity?

HK: He knew what was going on. I'm not, like, filming people that have been lobotomized. It's all up to interpretation, I never felt like I've crossed any boundaries. Actually, I've always felt like everything seemed justified and beautiful. It almost seems like the reverse is disgusting--like, why wouldn't you put these people in? They should be celebrated. Fuck it, life is too short. I'll let all the academics argue those points, but it feels right, I don't care what anybody says. I'm going to go there.

iW: Have you ever felt like you've had to compromise something in any of your films to guarantee a release?

HK: There are definitely times where I've felt like there's something pushing it, but it's different for me because it's never like sex or violence -- the normal things: "Oh, there's an erect dick in this picture," or "There's too many people dying." My movies don't really have that. It comes from something being too real. Usually, I'll go with that if it makes sense in the story.

iW: Are you comfortable with people reading "Mister Lonely" as an allegory for the transitions you've gone through in your life?

HK: Sure, why not? I don't think there's any right or wrong way. I've had the same reaction to almost every film I've done. It's like there's no middle. I hate being bored. I always wanted to be entertaining. I either wanted to make films that rose above or fell down below. However anyone reads it is fine with me. I'm sure a big percentage of the audience won't even care about reading it. They'll just want to walk out and think nothing about it. Hopefully, there are some people out there that will get a good laugh.

iW: This movie is opening the same weekend as "Iron Man."

HK: What's that?

iW: A Marvel Comics character.

HK: Oh, right. [laughs] Is somebody worried about that? If I made as much as money as they'll probably make in concessions, I'll be happy.

iW: You do still have a connection to popular culture, right? In your book A Crack Up at the Race Riots, you mention your affinity for celebrity journalism. The various people imitating pop icons in "Mister Lonely" -- you've got Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, and Charlie Chaplin in there -- seem like your way of deconstructing these personas.

HK: That was something I was very conscious of trying to do when I was first writing this with my brothers. I was definitely interested in them as icons. I was mostly interested in the obsessive characters underneath, doing the impersonations. Also, I thought it would be fun to take the mythology of these icons and have them bleed into the actual narrative.

iW: You wrote this film with your brother, Avi. How do the two of you collaborate?

HK: Well, I've written two scripts with him, this one and another we just wrote. We kinda take turns. We talk about it, and I try to stay loose. I'll write something, and he'll read what I write. Then he writes something. It's just a game we play. It's like acting. It's fun to write with him, and then there are some things that are too hard to express to him that just require me sitting down.

iW: Do you have a timeline for finishing your next project?

HK: I've got this other, strange idea I'm going to write pretty quickly and hopefully I'll be making a movie by the end of the year. I'll work with any financiers as long as I have final cut.

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling directors who have films screening at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Screening in the World Narrative Competition at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, John Mottern makes his feature directorial debut with "Trucker." The film follows Diane Ford (Michelle Monaghan), a truck driver with a tendency for bar benders and one-night stands. That changes when her estranged 11-year old son shows up at her door when her ex-husband (Benjamin Bratt) is hospitalized. Mottern, who previously wrote and directed documentaries for BBC and Discovery, talked to indieWIRE about the film and his expectations for its world premiere at Tribeca.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking?
 
The film "The Last Picture Show; I saw it at eleven and it changed my life. I carried around that film like a diamond in my pocket. Later, I wrote and directed documentaries, mostly for television. I enjoyed it, but still had the diamond. Watched and still watch the greats almost compulsively like Antonioni, Bergman, Schlesinger, Huston, Ford, Godard, Coppolla, Scorsese. I just am so in love with film that I unapologetically consider and call it my religion. 
 
What was the inspiration for this film?
 
I disappeared into the California desert around Riverside for a while and it's very close to Los Angeles but still someplace you can get lost if you want to. There's a lot of trucking, transportation, meth, drinking, trouble, as it's at the crossroads of big North-South, East-West interstates. It's a hard place, and some say an ugly place but at night when you drive through the lonely, empty distribution centers and the cool air has come down and the dark is all lit up by these sodium vapors and you see the row upon row of tractor trailers and the acres of steel buildings it makes you feel something and you can see that it is beautiful if you let it be beautiful. And one day I was in a truck stop and I saw this truck driver come in. A woman.

She was all in denim and she had this bleach-blond hair. She turned towards me as she strode and her skin was tanned to leather but her eyes were this bright blue that people get when they have blue eyes and they've been in the desert and the sun for too many years. She was in this denim, like I said, and walked like a teamster but sexy as hell and somewhat dangerous and melancholy, too, like she'd lost something great. She had this power to her that was unmistakable. Very visceral. It was troubling. Anyway, when I saw Michelle Monaghan in that picture "North Country" she sort of hit me in the same way and damnit if she didn't pull it off.
 
Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film...
 
I love the films of the Seventies. "Five Easy Pieces," "The Last Detail," "The Last Picture Show," so many. And for me there's an easiness, an openness, a kind of intangible grace to those films that I adore. It's maybe about the script and the actors but to me I think it's also about the process of how those films were made. Maybe it's just that I long for what I perceive as that early Seventies madness and the way filmmaking completely got turned on its ear. Anyway, my approach in making "Trucker" was as an open society. At least I tried to make it that way. As a director I definitely have a vision but my job is to serve the story, and to serve the story one must show humility to the process and the process is a collaborative one. So I really loved crafting the visual style with my DP and production designer, and with my actors, especially Michelle Monaghan, developed and honed each characters voice not just within the story but also to the particular person's real voice. I would consider it as much Larry Sher, my DP's film and Michelle Monaghan's film as my own.
 
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?
 
I optioned this mother fucker a bunch of times and every time I was about to make it someone would call me (or not call me) and tell me that they were sorry but their company was going out of business. I finally took it as a sign that I could depend on nobody but myself to make it happen. Ultimately, with the help of Robert Kessel we got the script to the future president of Paramount Pictures Celine Rattray who got the money and to who I am very grateful. And then there was the lead actress. I could never settle on someone and it made it tough to commit to going for it. I absolutely believed in this movie and the story, really, of this one character, Diane Ford. And although I could sort of see a lot of actresses in the role nobody ever really got into my bones over it until Michelle came along and when she agreed to do it the planets lined up just right and we went and made it.
 
 What are your goals for the Tribeca Film Festival?
 
My goals for the Tribeca Film Festival are to go see that Mike Figgis discussion panel, watch the restored "Once Upon a Time in the West, hopefully participate in this student film mentoring group, check out the films "Quiet Chaos and "Theatre of War if I can get a ticket, meet filmmakers and get good and drunk on at least one night - maybe two.
 

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling directors who have films screening at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Screening in the Discovery section of the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, short film director Brin Hill makes his feature debut with "Ball Don't Lie." "Ball" tells the tale of Sticky, a young streetballer who with a lot of talent for the sport but also a lot of baggage from a childhood tragedy. Starring newcomers Grayson Boucher and Kim Hidaglo, as well as Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Nick Cannon and Rosanna Arquette, "Ball" is based on the popular novel of the same name by Matt de la Pena, who co-wrote the screenplay with Hill. indieWIRE talked to Hill about the film and his expectations for its world premiere at Tribeca.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking?

Growing up, I was gifted with the myriad life of multi-cultural and socio-economically diverse environments. We are so often defined, for better or worse, by how we are socialized. We then spend much of our lives attempting to either redefine ourselves or trying to constantly evoke the lessons we learned from neighborhood and extended family. My environments were complex mosaics that selected unusual mentors for me; mentors that weren't as cut-and-dried as the ones I saw in fiction. Both good and bad at once, there was a complexity to them and their world that I was drawn to share. My parents were both filmmakers, so I was organically attracted to the power of this visual medium as means of exploring the world I knew, a world I saw as under-represented. "Ball Don't Lie" is direct lineage of that socialization.

What was the inspiration for this film?

The obvious inspiration is the source material - acclaimed novel "Ball Don't Lie." When I read the manuscript before it found a publishing house, I discovered truth and authenticity. There are no punches pulled in it - it is a book about teenagers that's honest to both their world and the world around them, and because that's so rare, it appeals to teens and adults alike. It captured a world I recognized and was looking to share. We wanted to do justice to the book and appease its fans, but we also had to be honest to the medium of film and make protagonist Sticky's story a unique filmic journey. The movie has to be its own visual experience and we feel like we've created that. It's not better or worse, it's just a different, still very honest, ride with a kid named Sticky.

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film...

We wanted the film to feel immediate, urgent and real, thus we made choices that would lend themselves to those sensations. The story unfolds in much the same way many of us tell stories when we're talking to friends; it's not overtly linear, there are jumps in time and space, but we always return to the main thread. We made very specific choices on color and film treatment in the interest of audiences immediately understanding where we are at all times based on visual execution. Also, as a former athlete, I always hate when sports look fake in films. So, in the interest of authenticity, we cast a real, well-known street basketball player "The Professor" in the lead role and other ball players around him to assure that the sports action would be credible.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

The first challenge was in the adaptation. There's so much rich material in the book that we found it difficult narrowing it all down. We tried to make choices in the interest of Sticky's narrative and perform smart edits that enriched him and his truth. Our most overt hurdle was probably getting people to understand and believe in a non-linear script that jumped time and space so much. We knew it would work on screen, but it took imagination on paper and sometimes that's asking a lot of script readers. In shooting, basketball was a challenge. As a ball player and fan, the biggest gripe I have with sports in films is that it comes off looking wack. Actors often seem like they've never been on a court or shot a ball before. We used no camera tricks, had no actors jumping off trampolines, because we want people to believe in our story and give themselves over to the unusual journey in "Ball Don't Lie" without suspension of disbelief.

What are your goals for the Tribeca Film Festival?

We want a New York audience to walk away feeling like it has found a truly unique film that offers a ride laden with raw intensity. We want folks to believe they've unearthed a distinctive, normally untold story about a survivor named Sticky and the 100,000 foster kids just like him in this country. And, we hope a distributor will discover our film and share it with a wider audience that doesn't normally have access to a wonderful festival like Tribeca.

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling directors who have films screening at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Huseyin Karabey's "My Marlon and Brando retells the true story of Turkish actress Ayca Damgaci, who heads to Baghdad in search of her husband (her "marlon and brando"), Kurdish actor Hama Ali Khan. Damgaci co-wrote the script with Karabey and stars as herself i the film, which also features Khan's actual love letter videos he sent to Damgaci. indieWIRE talked to Karabey about the film, which is screening in the World Narrative Competition at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking?

I am one of four boys from a working class family. Growing up in Turkey, I felt that what I had lived or what I had witnessed was never represented on the screen. It used to upset me and then I decided to do it myself but I wanted to be in the film business in my own way which meant working in the right way for my stories. Some of our methods seemed like madness to the conventional industry but I hope we are inspiring young filmmakers in Turkey to get out there and tell their own stories in their own original ways. I love cinema so much. I will continue making films untill there is nothing left I want to say or show.

What was the inspiration for this film?

Ayca is a close friend of mine. Two years after she told me what she had gone through in her quest to be reunited with Hama Ali, we decided together to make the film. What she had lived and what I had lived were so close to each other so I combined her experiences and mine. "My Marlon and Brando" is a movie of anti-heros, true love, true people and true wars. Unfortunately, nowadays, we are too often offered untrue stories and fictions that do not reflect life on the ground during wars. My characters in the movie are going from West to East to find their happiness. Normally it is the contrary. In addition, I always want to tell stories that are standing just behind us in our daily life. It is too easy to miss the real things going on around us everyday.

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film...

We didn't want to lose the feeling of reality. For that reason, some of the actors in the film are acting themselves and others worked alongside people who participated in the real-life drama. Throughout the production, reality intercepted. When one of the drivers asked if he could stop at his parents' grave in a destroyed Kurdish village, we ended up incorporating this in the film because his experiences were so reflective of those we were trying to represent in the story. What I am really looking for in making films is sincerity- sometimes that comes in humour, sometimes that comes in silence.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

We were not just dealing with the usual challenges of raising funding but also juggling this with the complexities of filming in this region. In fact, we were the last film to shoot in this part of Eastern Turkey and Iran before it became a militarised zone. We had to go ahead and shoot before it became impossible to do so. The scenes that were supposed to be in the burning Iranian heat were actually shot in the freezing snow as production was brought forward to the middle of winter.

What are your goals for the Tribeca Film Festival?

Tribeca Film Festival will be the first step for me to meet the American audiences. It is a great honour that my film is being shown at the festival. The main actress and my co-screenwriter, Ayca Damgaci, will be joining me to do lots of press interviews. It is so important because it her true story. My Producer, Lucinda Englehart, will also be with us to encourage the buyers! This is a critical stop on our festival circuit. From New York we go to Jerusalem and then Sarajevo!

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling directors who have films screening at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Screening in the World Narrative Competition at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, Dan Castle makes his directorial debut with "Newcastle." Previously helming a number of award-winning short films, Castle tells the story of three Australian brothers, each struggling to find a role in a world centered around surfing culture. indieWIRE talked to Castle about the film and its world premiere at Tribeca.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking?

I came to filmmaking really through writing, back in the early 90's when I was banging around LA. A friend of mine who is a playwright, Michael Dinwiddie, copped on to my sensibilities and advised me to pursue writing so that was really the vein that led me to directing. In 1998 I started Jour De Fete, a boutique distribution company with Mike Thomas. Working with other filmmakers, making trailers and preparing release campaigns, and going to every film festival worth going to for about 7 years was such a great education in terms of cinema and the business of it all. I don't have a formal degree in filmmaking but I've had a lifetime of experience. I do a lot of drawing/painting and photography so I'm really into framing, composition and color schemes.

What was the inspiration for this film?

The town itself inspired me to write the story that would become "Newcastle." The way the place is laid out - the coal ships that line the horizon, the Stockton Dunes that were close by, the working class community, and the town's history as a surf haven and birthplace of some of the sports greatest riders - all contributed to me wanting and then having to set the film there. It reminded me of the towns I heard about growing up that lined the California coast when I was a kid. Now that I surf, live in LA, and travel up and down the Southern California coast, I know that for the most part those towns have pretty much all morphed into one big extension of each other - from Santa Barbara all the way to Mexico. But Newcastle, Australia is still a somewhat isolated little place with a real sense of its own identity, quite apart from Sydney and the rest of NSW.

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film.

I'm really into European films. They have a much deeper sense of reality in terms of the human experience. Having studied acting, I get really into it with the actors in terms of prepping and even the audition process. For "Newcastle" we did a workshop that incorporated Mike Leigh's improvisational approach to character building. We used his techniques to help build the back-stories of all the characters and their relationships so the characters were acting and behaving as if they've known each other for years, rather than some actors who just met each other on set. Also having a background in music really influences my approach to film in general. The Composer, Michael Yezerski spent hours talking about the sound of the film, what instruments, rhythms, the drums and percussion aspects to the score and of course the big guitar sound it if all. I also co-wrote two of the songs in the film, "No Complications," the song the kids sing as they drive out to the dunes and the end credit song - "These Days."

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

Money and the lack thereof is always the challenge of any independent film. So that was an obvious one from the get-go but because I'm an American who was trying to research, write and get finance so I could direct a feature film to be shot in Australia. It was a really complicated process. Just surviving financially for the 6 years it took to get it all going, while spending money to go to Australia from LA plus the logistics of lining up the funding for the film. Fortunately I had a great and committed production team in Producer, Naomi Wenck and Executive Producer, Charles Hannah. Charles was able to attract investment from CINV, a Japanese Investment firm along with Becker Entertainment, the sales company who backed the film. With those companies committed we were able to present a strong package to the FFC in Australia for the eventual funding.

What are your goals for the Tribeca Film Festival?

After six years of effort it is so gratifying to be coming back to New York City where I graduated from NYU to world premiere "Newcastle" at the festival. I have so many friends here and my family is coming up from New Castle, Delaware. So for everyone it is one of those moments that are rare in life - when you get to celebrate publicly your accomplishments with the people you love. I'm really honored that Tribeca chose us and I can't wait to see how the film is received by audiences - like 1,500 people are going to see it in the course of the ten day fete - it's gonna be great.

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling directors who have films screening at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Screening in the World Narrative Competition at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, Alfonso Pineda-Ulloa's "Love, Pain & Vice Versa" follows Chelo, a woman whose dreams are visited by a mysterious man. The dreams develop into an obsession, as Chelo is certain the man in the dreams is the man of her dreams. Pineda-Ulloa, currently an MFA student at UCLA, is making his directorial debut with "Love," and talked to indieWIRE about the experience, and his hopes for Tribeca.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking?

When I was 13 or 14 years old a friend of mine invited me to spend the summer in Acapulco while his father and grandfather shot a film. I used to hang around the crew asking questions and basically just watching everything and everyone. One day the cameraman told me look through the eyepiece. I will never forget what I felt when I saw the actors through that camera. Until now I can't explain it, everything looked and felt so different. I believe that was the moment I fell in love with filmmaking. My friend's grandfather, the great Mexican filmmaker Gilberto Martinez Solares later told me making films wasn't about looking through the camera but about telling compelling and interesting stories. After that I would watch at least eight films a week. I also spent my high school years reading and directing plays, while attending a photography school in the evenings. In college I studied business and literature. Like many parents who have no connection to the film industry, mine thought I was crazy for wanting to be a filmmaker. So I graduated and worked for my father's company for a few years while I continued directing plays and taking pictures on the side. One day I decided to drop everything and come to LA to learn the "craft". Since then, life has been a beautiful ride, hard and difficult, but mostly beautiful

What was the inspiration for this film?

I had a different project in mind for my first film. Everyone in the Mexican film industry loved the project. I remember them saying the script was phenomenal, brilliant, a true page-turner but it was "too big", "too expensive" and "too ambitious" for a first-time director. So I decided to find a "smaller", "less ambitious" and "cheaper" project. I needed a story with fewer characters and locations, with no special effects or anything that would blow up the budget. I remembered a short story that was perfect. A friend had shown it to me a few months ago, so I called him and a year later I had a script ready to go. On a side note, I translated the original project I wanted to shoot in Mexico into English and if all the planets align, I will be shooting it at the end of this summer. It's still a phenomenal, brilliant, true page-turner, too big, expensive and ambitious project, but I guess I'm not a first time director anymore so we will see...

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film...

I fought really hard for a good cast. I believe directing is 90% casting, as they say. I focus a lot on actors because of my theater background. Working with actors is one of the things I truly love about filmmaking. And I love to rehearse. During preproduction I pushed hard for a several weeks of rehearsals. I wanted an elegant and captivating film, shot in 35 mm. "Love, Pain and Vice Versa" is a psychological thriller that takes place in a world of loneliness, where reality and fantasy collide on a constant basis, as a result of an extreme solitude. I best describe the story as a perversion of a fairy tale. So I worked intensively with the creative heads of every department to make sure the element of fantasy was present in the photography, in every location, in the score, in all the performances and in every single creative decision.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

Fortunately the response to the project was positive from the very beginning. Getting it set up at a production company and finding the money was not the biggest challenge as is usually the case. We ended up shooting the first draft of the script, which rarely happens. The biggest challenge happened during the editing process. Love, Pain and Vice Versa is a nonlinear story and sometimes nonlinear material is a bit difficult to pull off. We wanted to make the story clear enough, but not so clear as to spoon-feed the audience. It meant a lot of long nights in the editing room, and a lot of intense discussions, but in the end I believe we did it brilliantly. Also, getting the print ready for Tribeca wasn't easy. We raced to get the sound mix, color correction, synching and subtitling done in time. Actually, I'm flying in to NY with the print the day before the premiere!

What are your goals for the Tribeca Film Festival?

I am dying to see the film on the big screen, with the dolby digital mix and the color correction together for the first time. More than anything, I am very excited to see it with an audience. Hopefully it is well received. I hope it thrills people and they come out of the film talking about it... good or bad, as long it creates conversation. I would like very much to network and meet other filmmakers, financiers and film industry people with whom I can collaborate in the future. I am also looking forward to mentoring a young aspiring filmmaker at Tribeca's Film Fellows mentoring program to give back to the next generation of filmmakers much like my mentor Rodrigo Garcia gave to me when I was a student in LA.

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling directors who have films screening at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Four years ago, Baghdad-born Mohamed Al-Daradjireturned how after Saddam Hussein was overthrown, and directed the award-winning narrative feature "Ahlaam." The experience of shooting in the film was so challenging that Al-Daradji made a documentary about it. The result, "War, Love, God & Madness," is screening in the World Documentary Feature Competition at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. Al-Daradji talked to indieWIRE about the film, and his hopes for the festival.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking?

I used to watch the old films of Iraq before Saddam Hussien stopped filming in Iraq. As a child this made me wonder what Iraq must have been like before war. Filming my country is my way of understanding what has happened there and also to create hope through film, something magical happens when a camera rolls in a country, it means there is life and hope.

What was the inspiration for this film?

After Saddam's Regime was overthrown in 2003, I went back home to Iraq. On my arrival, I found utter chaos and was really shocked by the sight of mentally-ill patients wandering helpless on the streets of Baghdad. It inspired me to write a fiction film called "Ahlaam" whilst making the film what was happening behind the camera was more dramatic and couldn't be ignored.

I thought I could create a film for my country and make my family proud. Filming in Iraq, it was my hope to help my countrymen re-define their future and show that growth can come through the revolution of culture, bridging the divides that war has created. Above all, I want to give hope to my family and do my part for Iraq. At times I fear the grief and sacrifice I caused my family may not have been worth it and so making this documentary is a way to find peace.

This film I hope is finally the Iraqi people's chance to show the world their side of the fence, told by the people that live there and not by an outsider looking in. I hope this film will give me the meaning and the some answers to the last three years of my life, the war, the love, God, and my losses and madness.

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film.

"War, Love, God & Madness" as with my first film "Ahlaam" is a gritty, behind the scenes look at my dream to create opportunities and hope in Iraq. I hope to open the world's eyes to what is really going on in a country destroyed by wars, politics and oil in the hope we can learn from it and not have it happen again by keeping its as real as possible.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

Although it was draiing for me to face the footage on a daily basis and took a lot from me, the greatest struggle was during production when we constantly faced by unimaginable circumstances with no money, Struggling against time, persecution, imprisonment, injuries, terrorist attacks and the American army, our own survival sometimes took over.

What are your goals for the Tribeca Film Festival?

Hopefully to generate a lot of press and awareness of the film and let people see the real Iraq and Iraqis in the US. Also it is a massive oppertunity to show the need and potential for foreign language films in the states and the rest of the world. To put a real face on what is happening outside our comforts zone. We want the industry to get behind this film and showcase it and not be affraid of it being a "difficult film" outside the festival circuit.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Yung Chang's interview for his doc "Up the Yangtze" first appeared in indieWIRE as part of our profiles of first-time feature directors with films debuting at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Zeitgeist Films opens the film today (4/25) at IFC Center in New York.]

Premiering at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in November and then Sundance in January, Yung Chang's "Up The Yangtze" examines the effects of the construction of the massive Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. The dam is to become the largest hydroelectric power station in the world, but with this comes the displacement of millions of residents and the destruction of landmarks. Yang follows two young people effected by the project, and the result provides "a final snapshot of a rapidly disappearing cultural landscape," says Sundance's Rosie Wong. Wong notes that "juxtaposing the Yangtze's stunning panorama with the reality of Yu Shui's poignant story, Chang shows the tenuous balance between China's rich cultural past and its modernized future."

My name is Yung Chang. I am 30 years old. I have a film at Sundance in competition called "Up The Yangtze." I have lived and worked in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Montreal and China. I am currently based out of Montreal, Canada. I studied film at Concordia University in Montreal and the Meisner Technique at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City.

What led you to become a filmmaker?

I realized I wanted to become a filmmaker or have something to do with the arts, when I was in high school. I was too shy to join the theatre department and too afraid to tell my parents. Eventually I got into photography and joined the film club. I started making elaborate, ambitious documentaries and experimental films with analog video. An English teacher showed us early video art by Colin Campbell, Midi Onodera and General Idea. My first documentary was simply titled "Jazz" and had almost an 8 minute intro on black leader using the first track from Tony William's Live in Tokyo album. Pretty bad. Lesson learned: Never edit your own films.

Aside from making films, I like to play ping-pong and am looking forward to starting the first ping-pong club at Sundance. Bring your paddles.

Have you made other films?

I have made a short fiction film called "The Fish Market" and a medium-length documentary called "Earth to Mouth." Even though I attended film school, I am still learning about filmmaking - the process never ends. Case in point: The executive producer of my film, Daniel Cross, was also my first year professor at film school. I think filmmaking is very much a self-learning process. It's about being open to everything and not just watching movies. Reading, traveling, walking. Read "Herzog on Herzog"; Elia Kazan's "A Life"; Nicholas Ray's "I Was Interrupted"; and Tarkovsky's "Sculpting in Time."

What prompted the idea for "Up the Yangtze" and how did it evolve?

I first traveled to the Yangtze river in 2002 as a tourist with my parents and grandfather when I went on one of the Farewell cruises, a kind-of "disaster eco-tour" where the aim is to offer tourists the chance to visit the area before it is flooded by the Three Gorges Dam. The idea for "Up The Yangtze" was inspired by a surreal moment. We arrived to the southern Chinese city of Chongqing (Chungking), the largest municipality in the world. The city reminds me of a scene from "Blade Runner.

At the city's port, considered the Gateway to the Yangtze, we walk down a steep embankment to get to the waiting ship. Coolies grab our luggage and sling them on their bamboo poles. I arrived at night. Everything was in silhouette lit by neon lights. As we approached the gangway, a marching band began to play "You Are My Sunshine" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy." At that moment, I decided to make a film about this surreal journey: "The Love Boat meets "Apocalypse Now."

The film evolved from being about the culture of tourism and the tourism of culture into something much more than that. There are so many metaphors and symbols. The epic landscape of the Three Gorges, the Yangtze River and the dam were inspirational in discovering that to make this film, I had to get off the boat and onshore in order to capture the Chinese perspective. Tourists are easy targets so to get the full perspective, in order to amplify the commentary on the Westerners point-of-view, I had to tell the story through Chinese eyes.

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film

I approach my filmmaking as if I was making fiction. I don't mean that I stage scenes but rather that I prepare a lot. I think about the story, the narrative, and where I want to go. In the initial research process, I was inspired by films like "The Bicycle Thief," "Gosford Park" and "Aguirre Wrath of God" - these were my influences funny enough. I was also deeply inspired by Hou Hsiao Hsien and his framing and use of atmosphere. Li Yang's "Blind Shaft" showed me how to make a neo-realist Chinese film. I really wanted to approach my film with an Altmanesque/Herzogian cinematic technique. I like using fiction films as reference points. There's also a natural irony and humor that often permeates through the observation of West and East cultures so it was important not to make an overly heavy doomsday film but to capture those humorous flashes that make a human story all the more real and three-dimensional.

Of course, the beauty of documentary is that you're literally improvising and being spontaneous. You let the environment, your subjects, and the given moment carry you along. There's no storyboarding. When you're making a documentary, you shoot a lot of footage in hopes of capturing a few emotional moments. When you have those moments your story takes shape and you can build your film around those key scenes. Because my film was also a personal journey, I was definitely open to those Herzogian moments. I felt like I was Conrad traveling into the "Heart of Darkness" and I allowed myself to be open to interpreting my encounters and capturing those "ecstatic truths" like the dancing chicken from "Stroszek." I have a dancing girl that I shot on a blackmarket cellphone.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

It took a long time to figure out the right way to tell the story. I had so many elements I wanted to explore that the film went through a long development process. Luckily I had great passionate producers from EyeSteelFilm who believed in the project. The National Film Board of Canada came on board as co-producers. It took 4 years to finance the film. I went on numerous research trips but after each trip I'd come back with a stronger demo and a better grasp of the film. Eventually through pitching forums like Hot Docs' TDF, we secured pre-sales to National Geographic, PBS POV, CBC, Radio Canada, and ZDF.

There were many challenges during the making of the movie. I had permission to shoot on a cruise ship but we were constantly dealing with concerns from the company that we were making much more than a "promotional video." In fact, majority of the film was shot in 2006 but because it was such a long research process that spanned over three years, it's no wonder that the cruise line started getting curious. It was a constant threat that the Chinese boss wanted to shut us down. Luckily though, the American bosses were very accommodating and understanding. I had to use ping-pong diplomacy.

The other major challenge was working with a Chinese crew. I look Chinese and understand aspects of the culture, but there are lots of things that I didn't immediately grasp and my language skills are not 100 percent. Because of the local dialect, often I would have to speak through my crew. And the logistics of shooting are very different there - you can't shoot with location permits, it just doesn't work that way, so having a Chinese crew helped to deal with those cultural adjustments. And they could also gauge what was safe to shoot in the Chinese environment. They were gutsy - willing to carry hidden cameras if necessary.

Working with them allowed me to see both the Chinese and Western perspectives of the story, and I was constantly negotiating the two. The question came up as to whether I was making an anti-China film. So I had to reassure them that this was not my aim, that I was trying to tell a complex human story. As open-minded filmmakers, they listened to my perspective and were helpful in executing my vision. And they had their own blind spots. My DP, for example, was initially reluctant to film a peasant family. It's a class thing there, where peasants are looked down upon as uncultured, and Yu's family are at the bottom of the social hierarchy. But by the end, he saw the value in telling the Yu family story. I later learned that he himself was from a poor family but had managed to get into the prestigious Beijing Film Academy.

A scene from Yung Chang's "Up The Yangtze." Image courtesy of the Sundance Film Festival.

Please share your thoughts on the state of independent film today.

Making independent film has always been difficult and challenging, full of hardship and risk. I think it has been this way since Cassavetes' "Shadows" and Burnett's "Killer of Sheep." In this day-and-age though, I see more-and-more filmmakers of color making movies, more-and-more marginalized filmmakers getting their voice out. The future of independent film rests in the hands of those who are not recognized in mainstream media. More-and-more, places like the Sundance Institute and production companies like EyeSteelFilm, are supporting independent filmmakers and helping to guide emerging filmmakers in getting their work made and seen.

How do you define success as a filmmaker, and what are your personal goals as a filmmaker going forward?

Success as a filmmaker is defined by experiencing failure. You should never feel successful. You have to make films that you are not happy with. In that way you will always keep busy, have a rigid work ethic and never stop creating in the constant craving to hone your craft. My personal goal as a filmmaker is to continue challenging myself by making difficult, controversial films.

What are your upcoming projects?

I am currently working on a documentary/fiction hybrid about the Tiananmen Square Massacre.