CEO of Documentary Australia Foundation, Mitzi Goldman
KIRSTY DE GARIS: I’m interested to hear from you about storytelling as a catalyst for change, how you choose which documentaries to support. And what impact do they make, which ones cut across? You’re a filmmaker. But what was the idea at the seed of Documentary Australia?
MITZI GOLDMAN: Documentary has been my entire working life. I have my own production company – I make films – and I also ran the documentary department at AFTRS, the film school in Sydney. And had done a PhD as well. We launched Documentary Australia 15 years ago and at that time I was feeling intellectually and creatively restless. I was observant of what was happening internationally in the documentary sector: It’s a small sector, I’d go off into the international television markets, IDFA and Sunny Side and Hot Docs and I could see a change happening. There was less and less commitment from the broadcasters for social issue documentaries. My passion within the documentary genre, which is broad and diverse, is social impact: Social, cultural and political issues. That was always where I found my passion, in that sub-genre of the genre. The marketplace was changing radically. A lot of my peers were moving into factual entertainment – reality formats and factual entertainment were taking over the broadcasters. The public broadcasters were behaving like the commercial networks, and there was a loss of commitment to the kind of documentaries that I love. It’s a bit of nerdy detail, but the background was that there had been an accord between the government funding agencies and broadcasters ABC and SBS. If they commissioned a certain number of hours of Australian documentary – so in that way they’re supporting the local industry – that would unlock funding from government agencies. So if you got that commission from the public broadcasters you would basically have your film funded. And it would go to air on ABC or SBS and reach an audience.. It might have been 20 hours originally, but the hours were reduced. It was 10 hours of Australian-made documentary content for a long time.
In a year?
Yes, which is not much. Then it dwindled until the accord fell over and stopped, after pressure from the broadcasters against being locked into the commitment. I’ve always felt a fierce commitment and devotion to this form of social impact storytelling. These stories are different from factual, they’re different from reality. They’re generally not scripted. I’m loyal to the observational documentary genre but I also love archival compilation films and I love a really good interview. I love the form. I wanted to keep it alive somehow.
I’m interested to know what it is about storytelling on film that particularly cuts through differently with audiences. You can’t respond to current events the way that a podcast does, or a news story. What is it about documentary films that reach deeper into the human heart?
It’s the visual language. There’s what you see and there’s what you hear. A picture tells a thousand words. All the clichés in the book. Visual language is almost more powerful than being told something because you make your own connections. You can follow somebody’s life, watch them and be with them and be close to them and not be told anything much, but deeply understand emotionally.
As a teacher of documentary filmmaking, you can turn somebody onto documentary and they really understand the power of the form and that it is harder to make than drama. You do have to frame the real world and you have a different relationship with your subjects, or participants, in the film. It’s a real choreography, which is what’s exciting. And once people get into it and love it, they’re hooked. But it’s not for everybody.
Are there great examples of when people have wanted to make something happen and it’s happened? That their film has brought about that social change?
That’s happening more and more. People are understanding how to work with this model. In the beginning I was pitching to philanthropists why they might support documentary storytelling, how it can leverage their gift-giving strategies. How can storytelling make a difference to what you fund and support and do? I was also pitching to filmmakers and saying, “Shift your vision away from the government subsidy and the broadcaster model. If they come on board, terrific, that’s great. You need all the money you can get. But there are other pathways to engaging new audiences. We need to take our films to the people, wherever they are. They’re not going to just show up at the cinema or necessarily find it on ABC or SBS because things have changed.” So we talked to the filmmakers about how to shape their work to be more impact-focused. I use the word “impact” broadly, I know everybody uses the word “impact” now. What would you like to see happen? You’re telling us this story – why? Why has it resonated with you, and why do you think it will resonate with other people? And who else might come on board with you, agree with you and want to carry this film into the work that they’re doing? And how can we use this story to wake up hearts and minds and move people to action?
It takes time, obviously. It depends a bit on what goals they’ve had. A standout film for me has been Backtrack Boys. Bernie Shakeshaft is based up in Armidale and he takes in kids who are slipping through the cracks. His mantra is, keep the kid alive, keep them out of gaol and chase their hopes and dreams. Those are the things that drive him. When I first met the filmmaker, Cathy Scott, she came to one of our workshops. She fell in love with the BackTrack program that Bernie was running. He gets these dogs and he’s got the boys, the wild boys, and these dogs. And he gets the boys to train the dogs. In fact the dogs train the boys. They learn about responsibility and empathy and all these things. It’s a beautiful program.
Cathy had been knocked back by all the broadcasters at the time. Bernie was struggling: trying to be everywhere, trying to raise funding. And at the heart of this story were these beautiful boys and their dogs. It was a beautiful film and a beautiful story to tell that would just melt anybody watching it. It melted me in the workshop. And there’s Cathy producing, directing, shooting, sound recording, editing, doing everything herself. She’s an excellent filmmaker. I thought, I can help. I offered to executive produce it. We raised the money. Once it was finished, we hired an impact producer. And now there’s eight or 10 other BackTrack-type organisations in country towns around Australia. They’ve raised millions of dollars from philanthropy.
Wow.
The film has had an incredible impact, not just for the organisation, but also for the boys. Most of the boys are doing very well. And it’s also had this wonderful ripple effect into communities in other parts of Australia.
Was there a documentary in your young life that you saw that switched you onto this as what you were going to do as your life’s work? Was there a moment?
I would say film generally, to begin. I remember having a bit of an epiphany when I saw Hiroshima, mon Amour. Which is not a documentary. I loved experimental and hybrid films when I was studying – I did a degree in philosophy and fine arts – I didn’t go to film school. I came to documentary in a roundabout way. I remember seeing Hiroshima, mon Amour and I think it was the combination of love story – it’s a beautiful film – and what happened in Hiroshima, how do we make sense of the horror in the world? I guess the driving question that has been a constant for me is How do we make sense of the world? In all its beauty, in all its horror.
Last question. What advice would you give someone wanting to go into the documentary world today?
I would say just go out there and start watching and listening. And observing. And start framing up what you see. Even if you’re using your phone. I’m a bit of a fan of shooting stuff on the phone – it’s so versatile and you can shoot 4K on these phones now. Also, deeply listen: be super attentive and observing. Don’t shoot hundreds of hours, but 30 seconds here and there is good. Frame the world and look at what you’re framing and think deeply. Develop a critical thinking tool in your brain. It’s not passive absorption: you’re unpacking what you see and hear. Then start applying it to what it is you might want to say. Develop that voice visually from what you see around you. I don’t think that everybody needs to be an original author necessarily. We recycle ideas, we respond to other people’s ideas. We mash them up and make them our own. You don’t have to be the original. The way that we can reframe the world is enormously powerful and helpful to people. To understand someone else’s perspective on some issue they might be grappling with.
