CHANDLER GRIFFIN Chandler is a New York City-based, documentary filmmaker and educator, as well as the Founding Director of Barefoot Workshops. He has more than ten years of experience instructing over forty film and video workshops, starting out at the prestigious International Film & Television Workshops in Maine.

 Interviewed by Karen Kohlhaas

From Karen Kohlhaas: I attended Barefoot Workshops' 2-week Mississippi Delta documentary workshop in February 2008 and found it to be lifechanging. I went with an interest in film and a desire to overcome my techno-phobia when it came to cameras and editing (both were pretty much overcome!). My friend Rachel Hamilton and I made a 12-minute documentary about blues musicians who teach the blues to kids called THE BABIES GOT THE BLUES. In the workshop, Chandler Griffin, Barefoot founder and workshop leader, along with 3-4 co-teachers, takes participants who have some-to-no filmmaking knowledge from zero to a public screening of their short documentaries in just twelve days! I loved the workshop and Barefoot's philosophies so much that I went back this past February to take it again. As a theater director I deeply enjoyed the challenge of storytelling in this new medium. As a teacher, I was blown away by the depth, inspirational philosophy, and care with which the workshop is taught. I was thrilled to be invited to interview Chandler for ActorsLife.com and that interview is below.

For New York City area folks: on Saturday July 11th from 4pm-6pm Chandler and Barefoot are doing a presentation at the Atlantic Acting School about Barefoot Workshops' upcoming programs. Chandler will speak, workshop alumni will talk about their experiences, and films will be shown! We are almost full; there are limited seats available. Email me for more info. For more information on Barefoot's programs go to www.barefootworkshops.org. Also, you can see many of the past workshop films on my website.

Chandler, there is such a large scope to what you and your wife Alison Fast do with Barefoot. Maybe we should start with, what is Barefoot Workshops?

Chandler Griffin: Barefoot teaches individuals and organizations how to use the power of media to tell stories. We give people a voice, a platform to tell their own and other people's stories. We use media to educate and inform in three different ways:

1) We teach documentary filmmaking workshops in two and four week formats. The next ones will be held in the Mississippi Delta (2 weeks in September) and in Capetown, South Africa (4 weeks in November/December).

2) We help NGOs (non-governmental organizations) with custom-designed training programs to fit the needs of the organizations. For example, in the Middle East we have trained 35 NGOs in five countries to make 30-second public service announcements on topics from land rights to honor killings, human rights, workers' rights and conflict resolution.

3) We make films ourselves: Alison is a Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker and currently we are both working on a film about the Red Ribbon (AIDS) Awards commissioned by the U.N.

What made you start Barefoot?

Chandler: I was teaching in a large film training program for five years and developed strong feelings about the way I wanted to do it. I wanted it to not just be about how to operate a camera and write and edit, but to focus on a bigger picture. I wanted my own platform to create a world where the focus was not only story and technique, but to really answer, "Who are you? Why do people need to hear your story? How is your film going to impact the community you are working in?" Because when people struggle to truly answer those questions instead of just 'making a film,' they get the most outstanding results.  A lot of programs are heavy on either technique or story; I wanted to emphasize both and also address these larger issues.

It's about you as an artist and an individual and what you need to express. It's about going into a community like Clarksdale, Mississippi and learning about people you would never otherwise know, and what is important to them. It's about being respectful of other people's lives and stories. In journalistic and media settings it's often about getting in and getting the story and getting out. And, "Who wants our story, who is going to run it?" I want people to really think about what it means when you tell someone's story.

Where have workshop participants come from, and what have been their backgrounds?

Chandler: In both workshops we get people from all over the US and all over the world. This year in Capetown we will have one, maybe two people who previously did the Mississippi Delta workshop in Clarksdale. This last year in Mississippi we had students from Nepal, Argentina and Australia as well as the US.

Some have previous experience in related fields like journalism, theater, or photography or filmmaking but not all. Many are at turning points in their lives and asking themselves what they really want to do with the rest of their life. There are all different reasons they are there. Like a Sudanese film student I am trying to get sponsored so that he can take the workshop and tell the stories he wants to tell. Some wanted to pursue filmmaking at an earlier point in their life and for some reason didn't-because of family obligations or other career choices, so they have finally committed to pursuing this learning process. Everyone has a different story.

Please describe the workshops and what you do in them.

Chandler: In Mississippi, most of the students have never been there, so they don't really know what stories they are going to find. They arrive on Sunday and we jump in right away. They have to go out in the community, talk to people and figure out what stories speak to them pretty quickly. There is a lot of group interaction with me and other teachers leading discussions about story, so you're not on your own; everyone is working it out together.

At the same time the stories are all getting figured out, we are holding classes in image making, composition, and starting to get to know the camera. It's total immersion. Class starts at 9am and sometimes we work till midnight or 1 in the morning. Then people start going out to shoot and conduct interviews; we're dealing with sound and lighting and microphone techniques and learning all the tools properly.

As the footage gets shot we start teaching editing. Editing starts to happen around the clock. The stories get sifted down from all the footage. The difference between the 2-week and the 4-week workshops is obviously in the 4-week workshop you have more time to put in, you might have more time to explore the area and get to know it, but the stories are just as potent in both workshops. Clarksdale was originally a 4-week workshop; at one point we might see what it's like to do a 2-week workshop in Capetown.

What do you mean when you say "It's not about film"?

Chandler: Probably since the year 2000 when I started teaching, I felt strongly about the nature of the process. I had an experience making a film in Zimbabwe about a little boy named Arnold who was dying of AIDS. I really spent a lot of time with him and even though we didn't speak the same language he taught me "You are filming me, but it's not about what you are filming, it's the experience you are having with me. I trust you, with that funny spaceship thing on your shoulder, to sit here and be with me."

And it really had nothing to do with the fact that I'm shooting with a particular kind of camera or dealing with a wireless microphone. It's about getting to the core of what matters and connecting to people and to the self. To learn to use technology for the sake of storytelling. It's just a tool toward your larger purpose. The big picture I want to teach is to find that larger purpose.
 

I learned so much from each teacher at the workshops, including you, your wife Alison, Damien, Julie, Teddy and Sara. I have always believed that to really learn an art, you must study with artists who are actively working in the field. Barefoot definitely provides that level of instruction and I want you to explain the kind of support the teachers offer and why it is so important to have such a large teacher to student ratio.

Chandler: We have around 10 students in each group and I bring in as many co-teachers as possible. All of them are working filmmakers and media professionals. This year in Clarksdale we had Damien as a course manager and teaching camera, Julie teaching story, Teddy as another course manager, Sara for editing.

The students get one on one attention and we charge half as much as other programs. This is important: we support the students in finding their own way; we don't do it for them. When it gets into the final push in the editing and storytelling, sometimes people say "Leave us alone, we are working it out," and sometimes they say, "Oh please don't leave." Whatever someone needs, that's what we'll do.

Rachel and I locked our cabin door and turned the light off at one point so you would think we'd gone to sleep; we needed time to work it out.

Chandler: Exactly. Everyone is supported in figuring out what their story is going to be in whatever way they need. Also: the teachers are truly available 24 hours a day. If you need me or someone else to stay up late and help you with your edit, or get up at 5am and help you get that sunrise shot, we'll do it.

You get sponsors to provide brand new equipment for the workshops, and each team of two people gets their own complete kit of camera, lights, microphones, and a laptop. Can you describe the equipment and why you do it this way?

Chandler: For the Mississippi workshop (I'm still working on this for the Capetown workshop), past sponsors have included Canon, Sennheiser, Bogen, Lite Panels, G-Tech and Lowell. It's state of the art equipment. You get to use the latest and greatest technology that is still affordable. They aren't 50 thousand dollar cameras, they're $3500-$4000 cameras. So that the students can eventually buy the camera if they like it, and shoot professional quality films. Damien, one of the teachers, shot an award-winning full length documentary M FOR MISSISSIPPI on one of those cameras. In other workshops you might have to share equipment, it might have already been used hundreds of times and broken down.

What we are doing is an unusual scenario. And the sponsors value the kinds of films that are being made with the equipment. Yes, they want to make money and hope the students will want to buy the equipment later [however there is NO pressure to do so - Karen], but they also want to know that people are really learning to use the equipment to tell great stories.

Do people always work with partners? Why?

Chandler: What we do is, individuals pursue story ideas for a day or two and then we have a big discussion. We see who we can team up with who, so that we are working with five stories. Ten is too many. Filmmaking is always a group effort and you learn a lot about yourself and the process by working with your partner. The partners are never forced or assigned, it always naturally sort of works out that people decide to team up. Occasionally in the past someone has made their own film, like when the Mississippi workshop was 4 weeks long and the group was smaller, Sara, who is now one of the teachers, ended up making her own piece.

What's the schedule like during the two or four weeks of the workshop?

Chandler: Like I said we have class and activity all day and into the night. Sometimes people have to run out during class to grab an interview at the only time they can get it, so I or another teacher will catch them up on what they missed when they get back. Some places I was teaching before were rigid about the schedule: "Class begins at 10 and everyone is done each day at 8pm." I don't work that way. Especially in the second week: around Wednesday or Thursday a lot of people hit a wall and say, "I have no idea what I am doing. Hey thanks, this was a great time and I learned a lot but I'm not going to have a film for Friday, but that's okay." And we are there to help them work through that frustration.

The reality is great things happen when you hit a wall. Sometimes it's a discussion that helps, sometimes it's divine intervention or whatever and their epiphany happens and that is not on a set schedule. Then it's a race to get all the shots in that they need. The edit continues, maybe one partner will stay and edit while the other one races out to get shots. You need to do what the project demands, not stick to a set schedule.

The workshop takes place in such a concentrated period of time. You are learning all these new skills with the knowledge that people are going to see your work-soon!-before you feel you have mastered the technology and while you are struggling to work out your story and your structure with your partner. Why is it so important to have the public screening at the end?

Chandler: We always, always have a public screening at the end. People put in a ton of time and they need that reward, to feel like they have accomplished something. The screening is a hard deadline. When they know people in the community are coming they really push to work through their stories and their frustrations and finish their films and make them as polished as possible. They are putting their stories out for the community to see an honest portrayal of the subjects. And every year I think, "This is insane! How is this ever going to work? Holy s*** we have 5 projects happening-not one-but every year everyone finishes their project. This year in Clarksdale we even overcame a hard drive crashing at the last moment - a teacher named Teddy rescued it by putting it in the freezer.

What have been the reactions of the communities to the screenings?

Chandler: In Clarksdale they love the screenings - some people come every year. They are moved and every year they say it was the best showing ever. They have been impressed by the honesty and the quality of the filmmaking. Even when the subject matter is challenging to the community-like last year Brooke and Bec made a film about the Mississippi Democratic primary that was coming up, and got a range of reactions about Obama and Hillary Clinton, people loved it and felt it was honest.

Someone like Floyd Graham, a man who was the son of wealthy plantation owners tells his story to us every year in the cotton field. He had a revelation in his life about his family's history and is now telling people about it. This year someone made a film about him for the first time. He is getting to say and express things he probably would not in any other setting. He is not going to go down to the local diner and tell his story in that way-the film gives him an opportunity to express himself and for people in his community to hear it and think what they will about it. We come in as outsiders and that allows people to tell stories they might not otherwise tell.

I absolutely fell in love with the people and the landscape-and Blues-and food-of Clarkdale. I even went back on my own with a friend to spend time hanging out and hearing music. We are both theater teachers and visited actual places that are mentioned in Tennessee Williams' plays-he grew up there for several years-like the stone angel from "Summer and Smoke" and Moon Lake Casino which is the site of important scenes in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Suddenly Last Summer." Clarksdale is such a perfect place for a workshop like this and I was wondering why and how you chose it.

Chandler: I am from Jackson, Mississippi. I left for college and didn't think I'd go back. I wanted to get away. It wasn't until 10 years later I realized, "I don't understand where I am from." I wanted to know more about where I came from. And I was starting Barefoot Workshops. I sent an email and got 10 former students who wanted to study with me.

I went driving around Mississippi with Damien Blaylock, who became a workshop teacher and who is the brother of a good friend of mine. Once we got to Clarksdale and saw it and saw the Shack Up Inn (where the workshop is held), we knew in five minutes it had to be there.

Clarksdale is the home of the Blues. There are also a lot of creative people in the community. And Mississippi has such an important civil rights history. There were slaves and then sharecroppers on those plantations not so long ago. We are not talking about ways of life that ended 100+ years ago; some of it only ended about 50 years ago. And that history is still very present in the culture. So between blues and civil rights you have the start of a lot of stories, obviously.

But people have done stories about all kinds of other things. Or taken blues or civil Rights and just focused on a tiny aspect or an individual. Like the film about Floyd, or like your and Rachel's film about the two blues musicians who teach kids at the Delta Blues Museum.

What have workshop grads gone on to do?

Chandler: There have been five Clarksdale workshops and people are doing tons of things. Your film partner Rachel is an actor and improvisation artist who took the workshop then went to the Edit Center in New York and is now working as an assistant editor with some award-winning documentarians and she is developing a documentary herself. Sara Newens is a news editor and has been accepted to the Stanford University documentary program, which is the most prestigious in the country. She comes to the workshop every year and helps teach editing, and also shoots more footage to add to her original Clarksdale project about a girl who is a blues prodigy. Tristan who came to Clarksdale this year is teaching the skills to a friend and they are going to make films in India. Amy, from Seattle, came last year; she and her husband have a small production company and she built up her skills to match his, which was huge for them as a production team. Wade, who came this year, had worked as a production assistant on movies before and as a result of taking the workshop is making a film with Sara and he's helping Teddy on projects and basically has his hands full. In one of the first years, an amazing woman from a human rights organization in India named Indu came with other Dalit women and now uses the skills to teach Dalit youth to make videos. Another of those Indian women started a production company with her husband. You are working with Teddy on another project-there is kind of a community of grads in New York, which is great. Ben and Florenzia both live in L.A. and they are expanding their film on Floyd into a longer film. Sichendra, a doctor who came this year, is from Nepal and will use his skills to document this tribe in Nepal of people who are facing extinction. And there are many others.

Thank you, Chandler. I hope people can join us at the July 11, 2009 event at Atlantic Acting School (for more info Email me ), or check out Barefoot's programs at www.barefootworkshops.org. If you are interested in either the 2-week Mississippi Delta workshop in Clarksdale, or the 4-week workshop in Capetown, South Africa, contact Chandler from the Barefoot site and he will get back to you! 
  

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