A Seat At The Table: 2022 Oscar Documentary Nominees

The Hollywood Reporter’s (THR) Rebecca Keegan met virtually with Oscar nominee filmmakers Stanley Nelson (Attica), Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (Summer of Soul), Rintu Thomas (Writing With Fire), Jessica Kingdon (Ascension), and Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Flee) for a Q&A session. The filmmakers talk about their films, how they brought it all together, their views on documentaries, and how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their productions.

“The people are getting old. If I didn’t get them real soon, they will start disappearing and their memories will start fading.”

Rebecca started the interview by asking how Stanley put together his documentary. He believed that the stories behind Attica needed to get out before the people and memories of them fade away. Stanley’s concern about stories being left untold pushed him to complete the film sooner than planned. Ahmir chimed in since his documentary also involved people who won't be around for much longer. He realized that he would have few people available to interview who attended the events of Summer of Soul due to five decades of time passing. Ideally, Ahmir wished to have people who attended the events between ten and twenty years of age to avoid lapses in memory due to age.

“Oftentimes, the locations, the people, and the processes I was trying to capture was completely different than what I expected it to be.”

Rebecca then questioned Rintu about her logistics in filming around various locations. Rintu revealed that she spent four years filming the numerous locations found in Writing With Fire. She strived to be a tight and subtle team that respected the decisions of the local people. She and her crew came with the attitude of making a film, but the dismissiveness of the local people towards female journalists allowed little if any confrontation or complication.

Jessica added on her experience filming various locations. She was unable to scout the locations beforehand. However, she found enjoyment from the uncertainty of filming those locations and, thus, became more malleable in her approach. Jessica commented that typically, filming in industrial locations gave off dehumanizing behaviors. To counteract that, she included as many first-person sensory emotions as possible. Jessica also frequently requested to record at random timeslots in order to catch unexpected events.

“We took elements directly from the stock footage, and put it into the animation…redrawn and put it in there so that it felt like it belonged to the same world as the one in the stock footage.”

When asked about the animation style portrayed in Flee, Jonas stated that it was crucial to be as precise as possible when depicting Afghanistan during the 1980s. For this, he and his team researched old photographs, newspapers, and stock footage. Since it was his first animation, Jonas took inspiration from local artists and testimonies to better portray the trauma. He even accepted help from third-party studios for the animations.

Rebecca also asked about Stanley’s experience working with stock footage for Attica. He first exclaimed relief that he and his team had already drawn up a structure for the documentary before the production even started. As a result, he was able to make a few assumptions early on. Instead, Stanley set up a day-to-day structure for the events in Attica. He made this decision in the hopes of simplifying the structure enough for viewers to better understand the series of events.

“The pandemic hit and everything shut down, and so we had to shut down. But it allowed us to do more research for the film.’

Rebecca then proceeds to ask how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their film productions. Ahmir felt that March 16, 2020, was a crucial day for his team. It was the day when the rest of the world felt like everything stopped. He debated on whether to push through production despite the pandemic. Deciding to move forward, Ahmir had to almost start from scratch, and the result was very different from the initial documentary structure. In addition, he had to adapt to nontraditional methods such as starting production at the end and proceeding to the beginning.

Stanley also commented that the pandemic led to the closing of many archival departments across numerous media stations. This proved a problem due to the archival nature of many documentaries. Jessica added that she was lucky enough to have finished filming by December 19, 2019. She explained that the people in her documentary wore masks because people often do that in Asia due to pollution and working in factories.

“There were a lot of cuts I had to do. Initially, I wanted to include the hits and the exciting moments. When you’re whittling down to two hours, I decided to go with my heart and go with the exciting moments.”

Rebecca inquired about the difficulties Ahmir and Jonas faced in getting the music they wanted for their documentaries. Jonas answered first. For him, attempting to include a Daft Punk song into the ending proved especially difficult. To gain permission to use one of their songs, Jonas needed to contact Daft Punk. Despite three years of no contact, he finally received permission to use Daft Punk’s song for his documentary.

For Ahmir, old contracts and playtime limitations were the most difficult hurdles. Some contracts were still in effect concerning specific productions made fifty years ago relating to Summer of Soul. In addition to working around the contracts, Ahmir had to work with Searchlight Pictures’ demand to keep the playtime of the documentary to within two hours. As a result, he had to make a lot of cuts, and had to choose between cutting out specific moments or some hit songs. Ahmir ended up deciding to prioritize the exciting moments of the documentary to show the paradigm shift in 1969.

“We had a lot more to prove consistently. The fact that the film has reached so far while being outside of these systems gives us confidence in other filmmakers, who are outside the region, to say ‘Okay, independent documentary filmmaking can be robust, and we can get into those doors and keep them open for others.’”

Rebecca then asks about the industry side of documentaries and first asks Stanley about his opinion on making a living off creating documentaries. For Stanley, he believes things have gotten easier for him and other documentary filmmakers. To him, documentary filmmaking has become a business that has changed things for first- and second-time filmmakers as well as people of color. Rintu believes it is difficult. This is especially the case, in her opinion, for productions companies outside of the U.S. and Europe. Rintu states the lack of documentary infrastructure in India, so self-learning was necessary for her and her team. For her, it was hard in the beginning, but now, she believes filmmakers like her can push for more.

“It (documentary) opens a window to a world you didn’t know and you’re able to know, to relate to people you wouldn’t normally identify with.”

Rebecca ends the interview by asking each of the filmmakers about their views on documentaries. Jonas believes documentaries are about the identification, in other words, being able to relate to the stories because it comes from something personal. Stanley feels that documentaries put together many things and tell a story in a way that can’t be found outside of its art form. Ahmir states that documentaries resonate with others, especially when history comes full circle. If this occurs, he believes that documentaries allow improvements in relatability with history. Rintu claims that documentaries are typically about lives that would be invisible if left alone. Documentaries look in that direction and highlight that story. In this way, Rintu believes that the stories of people in documentaries become our stories. Lastly, Jessica sees documentaries as not being separate from other art forms. Whether it’s a cinematic art, visual art, or novel form, she feels that her job as a documentary filmmaker is to identify the quietly poetic moments in reality.