Better the Devil You KnowA Cinema Verite/Super 8 Film
Better the Devil You KnowA Cinema Verite/Super 8 Film
THE CONTINUED VERSION
We were inspired to make this film after seeing Allan King’s 1967 WARRENDALE, Fredrick Wiseman's 1967 TITICUT FOLLIES, and Lauren Greenfield’s 2006 THIN. The reason Allan King’s cinema is so important to us is that he has mastered the discipline of taking the filmmaker out of the film. Greenfield’s THIN was a beautiful, important response with a similar aesthetic, but THIN became an excoriation of the American health insurance system in its editing. The only aspect shown of the subjects’ post-treatment lives was their relapse, which, while it certainly happens, is not the inevitable outcome of ED treatment, even if one's insurance does run out. The successful removal of bias from King’s work is both the reason why it’s successful and the reason why it’s art. It was 40 years between WARRENDALE and THIN -- we don't want another 40 years to go by before continuing the cinematic dialog!
The first half of our film begins shooting in November 2008 at Providence Hospital in Anchorage, AK, where our contact is Renee Rafferty. The proposed location for the second half is a state or university treatment program (we are still negotiating with several.) We want to show the contrast between how the facilities and methodologies treat adolescents who self-mutilate and/or have eating disorders. We will work with at least two girls at each location (hopefully more), giving each of them a Super 8 camera and film to shoot their own stories. Alice and I will shoot on digital video.
This film will not show triggering behavior, because between THIN and the popular A&E reality series INTERVENTION, there’s enough graphic representation of ED and SI behavior available to young girls already. This is not to shy away from the reality of the conditions, but to glorify recovery instead. Although relapse is certainly part of EDs and SI, it is not the story we want to tell. This is a story about finding a new, positive obsession to replace the old, negative one. It is only when this happens that one can really be “cured.”
True to the method by which King made Warrendale, we will spend a week at each center with our equipment pretending to film without actually doing so. This week will serve to get us used to moving through and visually assessing the location, and to get the patients and staff used to having the cameras present. We will then spend two to three weeks living in the environment and shooting the footage.
WHAT WE WANT
One buck from everyone who reads this, until we reach $50,000 USD. Donate $100 or more and mad knitter Stacy will even send you a handmade hat! We will stop accepting money at $50k, we'll keep you posted on how it's going, and once a month we'll publish receipts and QuickTime clips so you know we're doing what we said we'd do and spending the money they way we said we'd spend it! We believe in the power of the internet and the power of doing what you set out to do, according to nobody's vision but your own. So please donate one dollar and get 49,000 of your closest friends to do the same!
THE ULTIMATE GOAL
We have two goals with this film: one, to show that recovery from EDs and self-harm is absolutely possible; and two, to give girls another means of self-expression and, hopefully, another passion to replace these behaviors.
CREDENTIALS
We’re legit, we promise: Stacy (director) is a writer with a forthcoming memoir from W.W. Norton called LOUD IN THE HOUSE OF MYSELF. Stacy is represented by Penn Whaling at the Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency. She has an MFA from the University of Cincinnati College of Art, with a concentration in film and video installation. Stacy’s play THE COLOR WHEEL was one of two pieces chosen for NYC Company The Intravenous Theatre’s Spring Reading Series in 2007. She will be writing the companion book, a memoir of the making of the film, which will contain stills from the Super 8 films shot by the subjects. Stacy struggled with her own eating disorder for many years but is now recovered, due to having found alternate obsessions!
Alice (cinematographer) has photographed award-winning features, shorts, music videos, and commercials. A USC Cinematic Arts Production Program graduate, highlights of her work include Pretty Dead Girl, an Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival, Spanish Boots (director Domenica Cameron-Scorsese), and last years cult thriller, Ten Til Noon. In 2007 she won an LA Drama Critics Circle Award for cinematography in the Mark Taper Forum production iWitness(director Barry Edelstein). Currently she is in post-production on the indie North By El Norte (starring Danny Trejo and Patricia Rae) and David Hayter’s Schism Chasm. She is in pre-production on Lost and Unfounded for Magnolia Pictures (director Heidi Van Lier) and Remorse (starring Jerry O’Connell) for FeverPitch Pictures.
We have several prominent consultants in the eating disorders and adolescent psychiatry fields. Please email for more information.
WHY ADOLESCENTS?
There are many reasons why we want to work with teenagers (and please remember, 18- and 19-year-olds still count as adolescents, and we will feature older teenagers whenever possible.) The primary reason is that Stacy herself suffered from an ED and psychiatric illness as a teenager in a small town, and would have loved to be handed the means of telling her own story, offered a platform for the telling of that story, and assured that speaking out was important. We are not out to exploit anyone, and the subjects of the documentary will be allowed at any moment to tell us to turn of the cameras.
In speaking to multiple treatment facilities while doing research for this film, we found that the phenomenon of cutting has increased greatly amongst teens over the past decade, and we'd like to know why. Instead of coming to our own conclusions, we want to give those who engage in the behavior a chance to speak up and state why it became "necessary" in their lives. Please remember, again, that we will not, at any point, show our subjects engaged in self-harming behavior. It is extremely important to us to be sensitive to and aware of the needs and rights of teenagers, and not to overstep our boundaries in the name of "entertainment."
WHY SUPER 8?
The reason Super 8 film is essential to this production because it will serve as the beginning and end of each girl’s section. We chose Super 8 because the cameras are inexpensive, we want the girls to have the experience of editing both manually and digitally, and because, of course, it's beautiful. Thanks to eBay, we can afford to supply each girl with a camera and projector to keep. We are excited to introduce young people, raised their entire lives with digital technology, to this analog medium, and to hopefully help create a new generation of small-format motion picture filmmakers.
Also, we feel it is symbolic that film is another thing that can be cut with a blade.
CONTACT INFO
Stacy Pershall
c/o The Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency
30 Bond Street
New York, NY 10012
pershall@hotmail.com
There are four ways to donate:
1. Mail your donation in an envelope to the address above.
2. Make a donation using the paypal button below. (Paypal takes out a percentage, so please consider giving $1.33!) This is how we would prefer to receive donations of less than $100.
3. Make a tax-deductible donation through Fractured Atlas . This is how we would prefer to receive donations of more than $100.