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BBC4:
Where did the idea for Chain Camera come from?
Kirby Dick: I'd made a film called Sick [about performance artist
Bob Flanagan] and in that film one of the subjects, Sheree Rose,
who was Bob Flanagan's partner, had shot a lot of home video footage.
In cutting it, it made me realise how much you get into the character
of the person who is shooting the footage. I became very interested
in setting up a construct where all the subjects could be involved
in that. A chain of cameras was a way of doing that.
BBC4: Did
you have another ideas apart from a high school?
KD: We did it originally across the whole country. We started
with three people. They would shoot their lives for a week and then
send it off. The cameras were criss-crossing the country and we'd
never know where they were going to go. There was something abstract
about that that was pretty wonderful.
BBC4: Has
that ever been screened anywhere?
KD: It was just something we presented to HBO and they came
in on the idea of doing the same thing in a high school. Which has
a great deal of plusses, because it was much easier for us to keep
moving these cameras. And also the kids really latched on to the
project when we said we want to hear what you have to say.
BBC4: Was
Marshall your first choice of school?
KD: Yes. Los Angeles is incredibly diverse. There could have
been a dozen similar schools but Marshall is perhaps the most diverse
because of where it's located.
BBC4: It's
also where Buffy and all those programmes were made, which have
a very Hollywood idea of what's diverse.
KD: That's very interesting. It's being used for Boston Public
right now. If you go to their website they list all the films that
were shot there.
BBC4: What's
fascinating from a foreign perspective is that most of what we see
about the US comes out of New York or Los Angeles, so it's always
interesting to see another side of LA.
KD: LA is always presented with the palm trees and the beach.
That's here, but that's a Beach Boys image. That's not the reality
of urban life here at all. Going to this school, we were extremely
impressed, not only by the diversity but actually how well these
people were getting along. There were certain tensions, for instance
between the Armenians and the Latino community, but beyond that,
considering the range of different communities, people were really
getting along. There is a really encouraging amount of mixing.
BBC4: And
the film shows some frank discussions about race too.
KD: Even when there were these moments, you can see the opportunities
to discuss issues of race or ethnic tension that would inevitably
come up any where. This was very much an open issue that was very
often worked out in a dialogue. Sometimes heated dialogue.
BBC4: Do
you think the students were making it with a sense that it would
be a completed film and be shown in cinemas or on TV?
KD: Yes and no. It is Los Angeles so they knew people in the
industry and films are always being shot there. So on the one hand
yes, but on the other, because the cameras were so small and we
came in with a very non film crew presence, I think there was the
feeling of "who knows?"
BBC4: How
involved were you with the continual production?
KD: We would go in six-week blocks and then we'd pull back the
cameras and take about six weeks off. We wanted the idea to be fresh
when we came back in again, so that people who didn't get the camera
were eager to be on the receiving end. There's a very impressive
audio/video department there. They put on a weekly newscast that
goes out to the school and a local cable outlet. The teacher there
took us in and let us work of that environment.
BBC4: So
the school itself was very supportive?
KD: Absolutely.
BBC4: What
did you find particularly striking or surprising about the kids?
KD: I was very struck by the warmth of the school. I was very
struck by how dynamic these urban kids are. In comparison, there's
another series on TV here called American High, which is more of
a suburban environment. It just seems that this is a much more interesting,
more fun, and more challenging, place to go to school, in spite
of the funding difficulties. The kids seem to be really very sharp,
very motivated, and very able to deal with the difficulties that
have been thrown at them. In that regard I thought it had a very
hopeful statement about the next generation. Also, the lack of prejudice.
Obviously not a complete lack, but certainly compared to when I
went to school. The racial understanding is so much more evolved.
BBC4: Were
you surprised that there wasn't much focus on what went on on campus?
KD: We knew that was going to happen. We didn't know it was
going to happen quite as much, but when you say to a high school
student, "Show us your life", they don't think about their
lives being primarily at school. They probably do everything to
not think about their lives being there. So that was something we
expected. And we were really pleased. They completely took to the
task and dived in.
BBC4: Was
it difficult to choose which students to feature?
KD: We had perhaps twice as many students that we could have
used and what we tried to do was give a range of students. We also
tried to build an arc into the film. You see such a diversity of
characters that we still wanted some kind of underlining emotional
thread running through the film. But it was such a pleasure to cut.
The footage is so vibrant.
BBC4: Were
there any characters you were particularly sorry to cut out?
KD: There was one. He wasn't really a gangbanger. He was more
of a general delinquent than a gangbanger. But I'm sure he was associated
with gangs. He would go out and do a lot of tagging and he actually
shot a neighbour with a pellet gun. It was such a wonderful [camera]
shot. We didn't use it because we didn't have enough footage to
sustain that character. His friend was using the camera, and they
were both looking through the window and backing up and seeing passers-by
and taking shots. And he hit a neighbourhood boy in the neck. It
didn't hurt him too much, but it hurt him enough that he knew who
shot him and started swearing at him. It was such an interesting
POV to see him peeking up around the window and ducking back, the
flash out of the barrel of the gun.
BBC4: I suppose
audiences respond very differently to the film depending on their
own background.
KD: That's a very good point. It's like a Rorshach test. That's
one thing that surprised us early on. People would have very different
reactions to these subjects, and in some ways to the entire film,
based on how they'd grown up. People's reactions were much more
a reflection on them than on the film. That became very interesting.
There's somewhat of a class differential. If you grew up in a relatively
upper middle class environment and never really rejected that, then
this film was not as embraced. People start to think it's these
really troubled kids, without really realising that yes, these kids
have problems and maybe more problems that most, but all teenagers
have problems. It goes against this idea that a teenager lives a
perfect life and it's only the exceptions and the failures that
have to struggle. That's really not true. But that image is kept
much more intact in an upper middle class environment.
BBC4: Any
plans to do the same thing in other environments?
KD: We are. We're shooting in two wildly divergent environments.
One is we're giving cameras to patients in a Hospice programme and
their families. We're not chaining in this case, but it's going
to look very similar. And they'll keep the cameras for several weeks
to several months as they go through the dying process. And we're
also giving cameras to dancers in a Las Vegas show. It's interesting
because each of them present their own challenges. Obviously in
some ways there's nothing so rich as the drama around somebody dying.
It brings out every social, inner-personal and religious issue you
can imagine. With Las Vegas it's much more like the high school
and these people are very eager to show their lives, show their
experience, show their point of view. It has a different kind of
energy, but they're both really fascinating.
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