Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1097515
DGA QUARTERLY 53 PHOTOS: (TOP) HBO; (BOTTOM) COURTESY MARINA ZENOVICH boys went through," the director says. "I wanted to know what it was like for them, and for me that was enough for this film. If one of those boys had reached out late in the process saying they wanted to talk, of course I would have done the interview, but [it] didn't happen." For her latest documentary, which is currently under wraps, Zenovich recently took a road trip to San Clemente, CA, to meet with a potential subject after sending a handwritten letter request- ing participation. "When I got to her house, the woman told me that she got my letter and looked at it every day for three months," Zenovich says. "I was blown away. I'm still not sure if she's going to let me interview her, but when I was leaving, she said, 'Thank you for being kind.' That's what it all boils down to—being respectful of people and their experience." Assembling the pieces H I L E T H E R E M I G H T B E mutual interests at hand, ultimately the director holds all the power over the interview. During the edit they, not their subjects, decide what to use and what to leave on the cutting room floor. Thus, the director can make a subject look good or bad. It's a power that comes with plenty of strings. While some documentarians become friends with their subjects, others become foes, while still others maintain a distant-yet-professional relationship. For James, who admits to having had difficult conversations with his subjects after a film's release, it's important that they don't regret their interview with him. "I want my main subjects to know that we are making the film together," James reveals. "That we have a real relationship. And even though I get to make all of the final creative decisions, I try to make it clear that I care very much about what they think of the final outcome. That informs everything in how you deal with people throughout the process." Known for his documentaries about infamous public figures, including his most recent film, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, about Elizabeth Holmes, Gibney says that he, too, thinks quite a bit about how his main in- terview subjects will respond to the final product. "My ultimate allegiance is to the audience," Gibney notes. "I'm committed to telling a truthful story. That said, anything I include, I have to be able to imagine myself sit- ting and watching the film with the interview subject and I have to be able to defend to them why it was I included what I did." No matter the subject's response, Zenovich says when it comes to the documentary, the interview is the founda- tion. "If the people you have chosen to interview aren't engaged, the film is, well, just boring." ® "I KNEW I COULDN'T PUSH THEM BECAUSE IT WAS A VERY SENSITIVE TOPIC THAT INVOLVED SUICIDE AND ILLNESS." —MARINA ZENOVICH On not getting two of her late subjects' wives on the record for Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind W