Filmmaker Alexander Jeffery talks to Fest Track about logistics, approach of narrative vs. documentary, texture and balance in regards to his film: "The Last Thing Lost" playing the Documentary Feature section at the Deep In The Heart Film Festival in Waco, Texas.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:26 So "You Have No Idea" is a feature-length documentary
00:30 about one family's journey with autism.
00:32 And I say one family's journey with autism
00:33 because autism is a very wide spectrum.
00:36 No two stories are the same.
00:37 But we think that there are some universal elements in our film
00:40 that can relate to other stories.
00:41 So I think one of our approaches going in--
00:45 I was very close with the family.
00:47 I still am very close with the family.
00:49 And so we wanted to be very authentic and honest,
00:53 show the good, the bad, the ugly, everything in between.
00:59 And throughout doing this on the circuit,
01:01 we've heard people talk that a lot of autism documentaries
01:04 focus only on the negative.
01:05 And they don't show any of the positive, the joy,
01:07 the impact that Evan has had on his community
01:10 is such a big part of the story.
01:11 And so that was important for us to show.
01:13 We're not trying to create unnecessary drama
01:15 or anything like that.
01:16 We're trying to just paint a picture of what is
01:19 and give it a cinematic touch.
01:22 A lot of people ask me, was it a weird transition
01:27 to get Evan in front of the camera?
01:31 Was that hard to navigate?
01:32 And it truly wasn't.
01:33 Evan, like his father Dennis James, who passed away--
01:37 and that's one of the things we talk about in the documentary--
01:41 is a ham.
01:41 He loves the spotlight.
01:43 He loves being in front of the camera.
01:45 And so we very quickly realized the cameras were not
01:47 going to be an issue for him.
01:49 And in fact, when we weren't there filming him,
01:51 he would ask his parents.
01:53 He would go up to them and say, movie star, which
01:55 meant, where are Paul and Alex and why aren't they
01:57 filming me right now?
01:59 So it was not a challenge to get him accustomed to the camera,
02:07 to get him to act how he normally
02:09 would in front of the camera.
02:10 He wasn't shy.
02:11 He didn't clam up.
02:12 We got very lucky in that aspect.
02:14 And then as far as the interviewing
02:17 of the people in the doc, I come from the community
02:20 of El Dorado, Arkansas.
02:21 I grew up there.
02:22 I know a lot of these people through the South Arkansas Arts
02:25 Center being in plays.
02:26 And there was just a level of comfort and trust,
02:29 I think, amongst everybody that participated in the doc.
02:32 That it wasn't like, who is this guy?
02:35 Why is he trying to tell this story?
02:36 What's the agenda?
02:37 They already were.
02:38 They were a part of it.
02:39 They were part of the process of, let's make this thing
02:43 and let's put ourselves out there.
02:46 And there was not a--
02:48 I don't think there was a trust that had to be earned.
02:51 I think it already existed.
02:53 I had no idea there was anything wrong with him.
02:56 Goodness.
02:56 Oh, no.
02:59 We had no issues.
03:01 Evan has a plate.
03:03 Mama has a plate.
03:05 And keep in mind, as we tell the stories,
03:06 we're talking about the early '90s.
03:09 OK, look.
03:11 I'm not sure I'd ever heard the word autism before.
03:14 If I had, it just didn't seem to be a prevalent topic.
03:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:24 My name is Evan Mitchell James.
03:27 How are you?
03:28 I'm fine.
03:29 I am a very special person.
03:33 Yeah.
03:34 Well, I mean, but you know, what's interesting
03:35 you're talking about is that there's no--
03:37 like, he doesn't have a mask.
03:39 Evan doesn't have a mask.
03:40 Right.
03:40 And yet, there's always the aspect
03:42 that we're always worried about is the perspective
03:44 and perception of our lives and how we live it.
03:47 Right.
03:47 And by taking that away, you get a very raw--
03:50 Yeah.
03:51 --portrait.
03:51 Oh, yeah.
03:52 Could you talk about that?
03:53 But finding that, because there was probably
03:55 stuff that he did that you probably only saw probably
03:58 in the edit.
03:59 Or did you see it as you were shooting?
04:01 You know, it's funny you say that.
04:02 Like, I think we--
04:03 so the very first shoot of the movie
04:05 was there's this scene that takes place in the kitchen
04:08 where Beth is writing him a story.
04:10 So the way that she communicates with him is through stories.
04:13 And that's a big part of his vernacular.
04:16 And she's telling him that he's going to have
04:19 to go back to his group home.
04:21 You know, COVID has kind of tampered down a little bit.
04:24 It's now safe for him to return.
04:26 He's got his own room there.
04:27 He can be separate.
04:28 And it was like, you know, he gave us the raw, honest
04:33 reaction to that.
04:34 He wasn't happy.
04:35 He was not happy to leave his parents
04:37 and have his world kind of adjusted at this moment.
04:40 But it's like, you know, he--
04:42 we kind of quickly realized that, like, he
04:44 was going to show us--
04:47 wasn't going to be different for the camera
04:48 than it was in real life.
04:50 Right, so when we shot those scenes in the kitchen,
04:53 I thought, like, you know, I think we got good stuff.
04:55 It was me and my buddy Paul running camera.
04:58 And we had our friend Richard on sound.
05:00 But then going back and, like, looking
05:01 at those clips in the edit and seeing
05:03 all of his facial expressions and the moments,
05:06 like, landing with him, like, when
05:08 Beth's telling him the story, we're like, oh, wow.
05:09 We captured something a lot more special than we
05:12 thought we did on the day.
05:14 And so that was really interesting to, you know,
05:16 be in the edit room and, you know,
05:18 forget something that was said in the interview
05:20 or forget something that you captured that was just
05:22 a candid moment and go, like, holy cow, like, this is--
05:25 this is magical.
05:26 Like, this is amazing that we have this to work with.
05:28 So that was really cool.
05:29 Evan was not a child that, you know,
05:34 was going to become an adult and have his own life.
05:37 They were told that he was never going to be
05:39 able to go to a restaurant or he was never
05:41 going to be able to, you know, function as an individual.
05:45 And yet there's something special about him.
05:48 To him, everything is a video.
05:50 That's how his brain works.
05:52 I think he hears more than we hear.
05:54 I think he sees more than we see.
05:57 His senses are magnified.
05:59 You're being a movie star again, Evan?
06:03 Movie star.
06:05 He loves an audience.
06:06 If he knows that he's got an audience,
06:09 he loves it and he's not stopping.
06:12 Well, sometimes with documentary--
06:13 especially feature documentaries,
06:14 you don't know what you have until you fully put it
06:17 together and realize-- and you have so much footage.
06:20 Yeah.
06:21 Could you talk about that?
06:22 Because it's-- I try to explain this to narrative filmmakers.
06:24 Yeah.
06:25 And they don't quite get it.
06:26 Right.
06:26 That, you know, it is almost sometimes
06:28 beyond their comprehension how somebody
06:30 can make a documentary.
06:32 What has been your--
06:33 Yeah, so I am--
06:34 you're talking to the right--
06:35 I'm a narrative filmmaker first and foremost.
06:37 I came from that background.
06:39 And so this documentary was a hugely creative exploration
06:43 for me.
06:44 I loved it.
06:45 I loved the idea that you go in knowing nothing
06:48 and that you're discovering all the time.
06:51 But yeah, I mean, it was like--
06:53 Because some of the best narrative filmmakers
06:55 are now doing docs.
06:56 Yeah.
06:56 Oh.
06:57 Think of anybody.
06:57 For sure.
06:58 Yeah.
06:58 I mean, Spike Jonze--
06:59 Scorsese.
06:59 Scorsese.
07:00 Everybody, yeah.
07:02 No, it was hugely creative and collaborative.
07:05 And it was a really fun process of discovery.
07:08 And like you said, you're discovering
07:10 and you're remembering things you forgot you had.
07:13 And you're shaping the story in the edit primarily.
07:16 And so there would be--
07:17 even very late in the game, we have this device in our film
07:21 where the whole thing is kind of told through VHS tapes.
07:25 So it's like labeled VHS tapes that are put into the machine.
07:29 And then you're rewinding, you're fast forwarding,
07:31 you're going back and forth in time.
07:32 And that device came to us very late in the process.
07:36 And I mean, it shapes the whole movie.
07:38 It's a different movie because of that device.
07:40 And it's like that's kind of the creativity
07:42 that documentary allows is you can be sitting there like,
07:44 we want to be done with this movie in two months,
07:46 and discover something totally new, and try it, and it works.
07:49 And bam, you got a different movie.
07:51 This commitment that Beth has to Evan,
07:54 you can't help but be moved by it.
07:57 Did you miss me?
07:58 Miss me?
07:58 Yeah.
07:59 There are times where you get very tired.
08:03 We don't have to do this by ourselves.
08:05 We have such a huge support network.
08:10 He's taught us so much through the whole thing.
08:15 I just think of how much my life has
08:17 been enriched by knowing Evan and him being a part of my life.
08:23 The end.
08:25 Good job.
08:28 I think it was really scary to have that premiere.
08:30 So we premiered at the Hot Springs Documentary Film
08:33 Festival, which was perfect fit for our story.
08:35 We're an Arkansas story.
08:36 This is a great documentary film festival in Arkansas.
08:39 And we were terrified.
08:40 It's like, A, it's very personal for the family
08:43 to share this much of themselves on the big screen
08:45 in front of not only friends and family, but strangers.
08:48 And I think that was scary.
08:50 But I think the thing that kind of initially
08:53 gave us a lot of confidence was there
08:56 would be people that would come up to us just in tears
08:58 after screening and going, thank you for making this movie.
09:02 And I think there's been some really great conversations
09:06 that have come out of it.
09:07 We've screened with audiences that
09:08 know nothing about autism.
09:10 We screened with the Temple Grandin Institute
09:13 in Colorado, which is a totally knowledge-based around autism
09:18 audience.
09:19 And so both audiences, like the people who know nothing,
09:22 the whole you have no idea aspect, that's our title,
09:25 and then the people who have lived this life,
09:27 both respond in a really interesting way.
09:31 And I think in a way that is a positive reflection
09:34 of the film, which is this story needs to be told.
09:37 Again, you're shedding light on this subject matter
09:40 in a way that is positive.
09:43 It's not like trying to create drama
09:45 where drama doesn't exist.
09:46 And yeah, I think we've been really
09:49 lucky to share it with people and have such a good reaction.
09:52 So our film, we knew going in we weren't
09:55 trying to educate people about autism necessarily.
09:59 I think we were very specific in that our movie was
10:03 about one family, about one person's journey.
10:05 We're just presenting you with a story.
10:07 It's a very personal story.
10:08 Personal story.
10:09 And I found you can't tell stories
10:12 unless you tell it through somebody's point of view.
10:14 It has to be.
10:15 Totally.
10:16 Totally.
10:16 And I think that point of view in this story
10:19 is it's really about a mother's love for her son.
10:22 And who can't relate to that, right?
10:24 You can take the autism out of it totally.
10:26 This is about a mother who's advocating for her son.
10:28 And that could be in a variety of situations.
10:31 And that's kind of the universal element.
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