Main: Experiment in Democracy
360x270 version [8:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (51) 640x480 MP4 [8:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (52)Here’s the main mini-documentary that I created with local historian Jean Reynolds. Many details in the full blog post.
About the actual story
Many people are familiar with the story of Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworker’s Movement in California and around the nation. But because the movement was ultimately not very successful in Arizona, you rarely hear that part of the story. So we wanted to document the local farm labor law dispute, which culminated in an effort to recall then Arizona Governor Jack Williams. As part of this effort, Cesar Chavez conducted a 21-day fast here in Phoenix, and helped inspire the local community to take action to bring about social justice.
This should really be a half hour film. The events documented took place over a ten year period, and the political issues are somewhat complex. But those planning the exhibition relegated it to eight minutes, choosing to feature a film documenting the women’s movement in Arizona more prominently, so we did what we could with the time constraints. Which means there is an awful lot going on in the footage. And unfortunately, the local news reels contained more footage airing the point of view of those in power. Watch for contrasts between the voice you’re hearing and the footage you’re seeing - I had to resort to that kind of storytelling quite a bit. I even ended up narrating the piece, while the other project got professional voiceover talent, though this was partly because I could pronounce the surnames and Spanish words correctly, while the hired talent could not.
How we made this
With the exception of recording some voice over and scanning some old news articles, this piece is created entirely from 16mm film news reels from former Phoenix news station KOOL, which used to broadcast on local channel 10. KOOL donated all their film cans and log sheets to the Arizona Historical Society Museum at Papago Park. The museum has a big climate controlled room to store this stuff, and a makeshift film chain that channels the projected footage through an ancient but serviceable video camera and out to … any deck you can connect to the camera output.
Jean’s job directing this project was to do all the research, write the narrative and provide me with important dates on which newsworthy things probably happened. And just because I summarized her job in one sentence, don’t think it was light work.
My job was to check the news logs around the relevant dates in hopes of finding related news footage. Then, as part of the Exhibits Dept. agreement with the Archives Dept., I had to clean any reels I wanted to view. After cleaning, I would watch the entire reel and log it as best I could. If I saw anything related to our story, I’d record it to Beta-SP (best quality deck we had) and later transfer that to Mini-DV as well for a digital back-up.
Jean would review the collected footage, make notes, and often revise the script in order to work some of the best footage into the project. She would also do her best to identify people appearing on the reel, especially those on the MOS B-roll shots, sometimes bringing in people she’d interviewed for oral history to see if they recognized anyone.
The script was rewritten several times, and then I’d re-edit the project. We’d still be over budget on time, so we’d tighten it up some more, reorganize, figure out what to leave out - you editors out there know the drill. The look of the subtitles is inspired by Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County USA.
We were on a treasure hunt together. We were armed with facts. The actual events occurred before we were born to when we were kids (1968 - 1978). Some of the original footage noted in the logs had gone missing. Sometimes we found unlogged material. It was a trip seeing how Phoenix looked back then compared to now.
Even though the end result is imperfect (you’re never finished editing, right? you just stop at some point), I’m proud that this piece is on permanent exhibition as part of Arizona’s history.
If you have any questions I’ll happily answer in the comments.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
That’s a nice piece Cheryl, I agree it should be longer….good job on the editing though, I know how hard it had to be to get it to 8 minutes….
November 21st, 2008 at 1:57 am
Thanks for watching & commenting, Heath. I think I’ve bored everyone else to death. D’oh.
November 21st, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Well, you haven’t bored *me* to death. I’m delaying watching the first episode of the second season of Desperate Housewives to watch it again and comment. Imagine that.
I’m so psyched that you did this. It’s such a *good* thing to do - document a 36 year old moment in history that would otherwise get lost and fragmented - putting all that archive to use. I can’t believe that you were able to get hold of all that footage. The balance of power in who gets to speak on TV is interesting. My favourite moment is that bit right in the middle when it seems like Gus Gutierrez stops himself after saying “Greedy…” as if he’s about to say “Greedy Bastards” or “Greedy Pigs”, pauses and says “People” - that right there seemed to be a moment that you wouldn’t see today, when all the world is media savvy and the different points of view in a dispute like this are (slightly) better covered.
And I LOVE the old colouring and grain of the 16mm. And the way it reproduces the 70s fashions, hair, voices. It reminds me of Hearts of Darkness - I haven’t seen Harlan County, USA. All the official characters are straight out of an early 70s Hollywood movie. The Maricopa County Recorder *is* the DA in Dirty Harry. I swear it’s the same man.
It must have taken ages. Great work. Only notes - if you ever get back to tweaking - the music beneath your voiceover after the UFW press conference near the end is a bit loud. And the v/o at the start was a little fast and I worried that I was going to get lost… but actually there’s a lot of info to convey and I got into it pretty quick.
Inspiring stuff - thank you, and thank you for flagging it for me to watch
November 21st, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Aw, Ru, thank you! I totally agree with your feedback. I have the 20 minute version without music in a FCP project file somewhere. If there’s ever time, I’ll sweeten it, just to have a “director’s cut.”
Actually for about four months after completing this I enrolled in a documentary class I’d already taken in order to have access to my film school’s equipment, and I continued working on this project. Jean and I interviewed several of the key players in the story, including Gus Gutierrez. We also documented a march back to the Santa Rita Center where Cesar Chavez conducted his fast. But we never found a reliable source of funding to continue, and, well, the finished documentary is sitting on a shelf next to your completed novel.
I remain one of the few people who have made use of this film archive. I probably have the most extensive log notes on what’s in there. Every few months I think I ought to troop back over there and see what further mining might uncover. Since I know how to use the film chain, I bet they’d let me, just to get more of the footage cleaned and logged.