The lovely Marsha Keene-Hutchason, Executive Director of the Susanna Wesley Family Center in Missouri said to me in an interview, “Things are not as they appear.”
It may not sound overly profound, but I must hear her voice saying those words at least once a day.
Because we all live with these preconceived ideas of how things are- which is often diametrically opposed to how things really are. Like everyone thinks that documentary filmmaking is so “exciting” – but then when they have to do an interview and sit for an hour while the lights are adjusted and the paint dries☺ — not so glamorous.
I’ve been dwelling on this idea even more than usual due to the death of Rochelle Shoretz, the Founder and Executive Director of Sharsheret (Hebrew for chain), a non-profit devoted to helping young Jewish women facing breast cancer.
I didn’t personally know Rochelle, but I had heard a lot of incredible things about her. She had started the organization when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer, fourteen years ago. I had contacted Sharsheret when I was working on Divine Prescription, our documentary that looked at how people of faith were called to lend a hand in issues of health and sickness.
Maybe you didn’t know, but the worst part of producing a documentary is trying to find the funds to make the film. So I thought Sharsheret would be a great story and, of course, I hoped they would financially support the documentary as well.
They said no.
So of course, I am not a happy camper. It’s not that I threw eggs at their offices or anything—it’s just that I was really annoyed that they couldn’t see the importance of my documentary.
Documentary producers are always feeling like the “little supplicant” constantly with their hand out trying to fund their work—and resentful of those who don’t support them, imagining those funders of having “it all” which they won’t share with a talented hardworking filmmaker☺ But here I sit, grateful I am here to write about it; sorry that I forgot what having it “all” really means. Things are not as they appear. Rest in peace Rochelle.
Film makers work so hard to make their work represent truth as much as possible. People do not realize that the film is shaped tirelessly by the heart of the producer, much like a potter shapes his latest creation.
Just as the hands of the potter must finish her work, so must the heart of the producer tell the story.