Family Dynamics: Q&A with MIRACLE FISHING director Miles Hargrove & THROUGH THE NIGHT director Loira Limbal and subjects Nunu and Patrick Hogan

On our final day of NFF NOW: AT HOME, enjoy these stories that celebrate family and community bonds.

MIRACLE FISHING: On September 23, 1994, American journalist Tom Hargrove was kidnapped outside his home in Cali, Colombia by separatist guerillas. His wife and two sons had no choice but to take matters into their own hands and negotiate directly for his release... and they kept a video diary of the entire process.

THROUGH THE NIGHT: An exploration of the personal cost of our modern economy through the stories of two working mothers and a child care provider whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center.

Take a look at these final director Q&As and take advantage of your last chance to watch these intimate films by Miles Hargrove & Christopher Birge and Loira Limbal - through tonight, June 30, at 11:59pm EST!

For Science Lovers: Q&A with BABY GOD director Hannah Olson and LAPSIS writer/director Noah Hutton

Today we’re highlighting films at NFF NOW: AT HOME that explore the intersection of technology and ethics. These two thought-provoking films detail the far-reaching consequences of new technological developments.

BABY GOD: Hailed a miracle worker, Las Vegas fertility doctor Dr. Quincy Fortier practiced for decades. Now, with the advent of commercial DNA testing, his secret is out.

LAPSIS: In this sci-fi parable, deliveryman Ray Tincelli is struggling to support himself and his ailing younger brother. When he turns to a strange new corner of the gig economy, Ray faces a pivotal choice to either help his fellow workers or to get rich and get out.

Take a look at these two filmmaker Q&As, and catch these technologically-focused films through tomorrow, June 30, at NFF NOW: AT HOME!

For Music Lovers: Q&A with JIMMY CARTER: ROCK & ROLL PRESIDENT director Mary Wharton and RIVER CITY DRUMBEAT directors Marlon Johnson and Anne Flatté and producer Owsley Brown

For the music lovers: enjoy these two stories that share how the power of music brings us together.

JIMMY CARTER: ROCK & ROLL PRESIDENT: A testament to the power of music, JIMMY CARTER: ROCK & ROLL PRESIDENT traces how popular music helped propel Jimmy Carter into the White House and explores the significant role that music has played in President Carter's life and work.

RIVER CITY DRUMBEAT: For 30 years, Nardie White has dedicated his life to empowering African American youth in Louisville, Kentucky through his River City Drum Corps. With retirement approaching, he must train his successor in this powerful, uplifting story of music, love, and legacies.

Take a look at these two filmmaker Q&As, and watch these music-filled documentaries now through June 30 at NFF NOW: AT HOME!

For Strong Women: Q&A with 9TO5 dirs Julia Reichert & Steve Bognar and editor Jaime Meyers Schlenck, & JULIA SCOTTI: FUNNY THAT WAY dir Susan Sandler & subject Julia Scotti

Today at NFF NOW: AT HOME we’re spotlighting stories of indomitable women!

9TO5: THE STORY OF A MOVEMENT - In the early 1970s, a group of secretaries in Boston decided that they had suffered in silence long enough. They started fighting back, creating a movement to force changes in their workplaces.

JULIA SCOTTI: FUNNY THAT WAY - Decades ago, Julia Scotti performed as Rick Scotti, and appeared on bills with Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock. Now, the trans comedian returns to the stage as “the crazy old lady of comedy,” in this tender, funny, and triumphant comeback story. WORLD PREMIERE!

Take a look at these two insightful interviews, and celebrate the power of women by watching these two stories now through June 30.

For Art Lovers: Q&A with AGGIE director Catherine Gund and MADE YOU LOOK: A TRUE STORY ABOUT FAKE ART director Barry Avrich

Today we're profiling films for art lovers!

AGGIE explores the nexus of art, race, and justice through the story of art collector and philanthropist Agnes “Aggie” Gund, a true maverick who demonstrates the power of art to transform consciousness and inspire social change.

In MADE YOU LOOK: A TRUE STORY ABOUT FAKE ART, controversy erupts when an unassuming couple floods the American art market with a collection of fake art valued in the millions, bewildering the art world elite. This is an entertaining and suspenseful tale of an ingenious con that everyone wanted to believe was real.

Take a look at these filmmaker Q&As, and stream their films now through June 30 at NFF NOW: AT HOME!

NFF NOW: AT HOME Opening Night Q&A with BOYS STATE directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine

Boys State is an entertaining and revealing look at American democracy and political division, following a group of high school boys as they create a mock government at an annual civics program hosted by the American Legion in Austin, Texas.

Before NFF NOW: AT HOME opening night film BOYS STATE, Digital Operations Director Allyson Morgan talks with directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine. Take a look, and join us this evening for our one-night-only presentation of BOYS STATE!

Five Questions With... Sarah Colt & Josh Gleason (TRUE BELIEVER)

TRUE BELIEVER is the story of Arkansas pastor Robb Ryerse, one of the only evangelical Christians who spoke out against Trump’s rhetoric of hate.

Take a look at our Five Questions With… directors Sarah Colt and Josh Gleason, and see the film in the “Characters Welcome” block of documentary shorts on Sat, June 22 at 9:30am!

NFF: Please say a little about your inspiration for, or how you found the subject of your film.

SARAH & JOSH: In the days following Trump’s victory, we wanted to tell a story about the surge of political newcomers running for office. There was no shortage of amateur candidates running on the Democratic side, but we wanted to focus on a campaign that transcended party and drew attention to the process itself. That was how we found US congressional candidate Robb Ryerse, a progressive evangelical Republican who pastors a church in Fayetteville, Arkansas. What initially struck us about Robb was that, unlikely the majority of evangelical Christians, his ministry focused on love and social justice issues.

Robb started his grassroots campaign with the support of Brand New Congress, an upstart political action committee that recruits non-politicians to run for office. One of Robb’s fellow recruits for the 2018 midterms was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

 NFF: You’re in the documentary block. How do you balance entertainment value with a factual accounting of events?

SARAH & JOSH: We come from a background in journalism, so the facts take precedence. We are always mindful of our ethical obligation to depict our subjects fairly. But entertainment value is an important consideration, and we tend to gravitate towards stories that we believe will have a beginning, middle, and end. Following principal photography, we typically sketch out a dramatic narrative structure that will guide us in shaping the footage. The goal is to create an emotional experience for the viewer, not just an intellectual one. After all, if the story doesn’t capture the attention of audiences, then its message obviously won’t spread very far. 

To make sure that the film hasn’t drifted away from the facts during the editing process, we rigorously fact-check prior to completion. With a véritéfilm like TRUE BELIEVER, we screened a fine cut for the protagonist, Robb Ryerse, and gave him the opportunity to tell us if there was anything he considered inaccurate or misconstrued. We always maintain editorial independence, but it’s important to us that our subjects feel they have been portrayed accurately.   

 NFF: What do you find the biggest advantages and challenges of making a short as opposed to a feature?

SARAH & JOSH: Since most stories don’t rise to the level of a feature, the short form opens the doors to all kinds of enlightening, artful, and socially urgent stories that wouldn’t otherwise be told. It’s been inspiring to see how the form has given filmmakers the confidence to take more creative risks. It was never our expectation that True Believer would turn into a feature. Knowing that there is an audience for shorts took some pressure off, and gave us the confidence to pursue the story. 

The short form pushes you to be economical and precise with your editorial choices. True Believerwas edited from over 70 hours of footage, so it took some time to compactly layer a rich, compelling story. It really is like a literary short story in that every detail serves the storytelling in some way. If a scene or a piece of dialog wasn’t playing a well-defined role, then there really wasn’t room for it. 

 NFF: What are you working on currently, and/or where can we see more of your work?

SARAH & JOSH: We’re currently in post production on an vérité feature documentary that we’re very excited about. The working title is PROMISED LAND. It interweaves the personal stories of a factory worker in Ohio, a fifth-generation Kansas farmer, and an Uber driver in Florida. For years, their hard work paid off, but corporate consolidation and the erosion of union wages force drastic changes. We’ve had exceptional access to their personal and professional lives and have watched as all three made dramatic life choices in response to changing economic realities. The result is a kaleidoscopic portrait of a middle-class on the edge—and a time capsule of this moment in American history. We plan to release the film in early 2020 and hope to show it at Nantucket next summer! To stay up to date on the latest news about the film, follow our Facebook page.

 NFF: Why are you excited to screen in Nantucket, and/or what do you hope Nantucket audiences might relate to or take away from the film?

SARAH & JOSH: We are honored to have the east coast premiere of TRUE BELIEVER at such an esteemed festival, with such a deep commitment to meaningful storytelling. We look forward to providing Nantucket audiences with a window into a part of the country, and a type of Christian, that they may not be familiar with. We hope that the film’s portrayal of an idealistic effort to create political change, no matter the odds, is inspirational. 

Five Questions With... Irene Taylor Brodsky (MOONLIGHT SONATA: DEAFNESS IN THREE MOVEMENTS)

In MOONLIGHT SONATA: DEAFNESS IN THREE MOVEMENTS, filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky turns the camera on her own family to craft a moving, intergenerational exploration of living with deafness, as her teenage son grows up, and her parents confront growing older.

Hear more from Irene in the video below, and see the film on Wed, June 19 at 12:45pm and Thurs June 20 at 11:15am!

Five Questions With... Jenifer McShane (ERNIE & JOE)

Two compassionate officers with the San Antonio Police Department's innovative mental health unit divert people away from jail and into proper treatment, one 911 call at a time, in ERNIE & JOE by Jenifer McShane.

Read more with Jenifer below, and see ERNIE & JOE on Wed, June 19 at 3:15pm and Thurs, June 20 at 9:45am!

NFF: Can you talk a little bit about your relationship to this subject, and/or how you met Ernie and Joe?

JENIFER: While I was researching and making my last film MOTHERS OF BEDFORD it became  painfully clear to me how many people with mental health challenges are sitting behind bars.  When the work of Ernie and Joe and the rest of the SAPD mental health unit came to my attention I felt strongly it was a story that desperately needed to be told. I initially visited San Antonio and rode along with Ernie and Joe with no camera to get a clearer sense of the their work and who they were as people. I felt that these two officers were characters that an audience could connect with and their perspective would be a compelling way to reveal the wider story of our mental health crisis. 

NFF: How did you and EJ approach filming to capture what you wanted/needed while remaining respectful of your subjects?

JENIFER: From day one I wanted the experience to feel immersive without being exploitive. I wanted to illustrate how personal and intimate the rapport can be without intruding on the process or ruining the connection being developed between Ernie, Joe and the person in crisis. This was done in large part by getting excellent sound coverage and shooting from a respectful distance. 

NFF: Was anything off limits while filming was happening, or in your editing/assembly?

JENIFER: No, the access was excellent. I returned to ride with Ernie and Joe again and again over a 2 1/2 year period. The access made a huge impact on the intimacy of the story.

NFF: What are you working on currently, and/or where can we see more of your work?

JENIFER: I am researching a story about mental health treatment. ERNIE & JOE reveals the importance of decriminalizing mental illness and training law enforcement to recognize people in crisis and deescalate situations.  Now we need to find better treatments.

NFF: Why are you excited to screen in Nantucket, and/or what do you hope Nantucket audiences might relate to or takeaway from the film?

JENIFER: I am absolutely thrilled to be screening in Nantucket FF!  Several filmmakers have told me how wonderful the experience is. I have a never been to Nantucket before.  As a kid I hoped to visit some day and that day has finally arrived in the best possible way. 

Five Questions With... E.J. McLeavey-Fisher (THE GUY: THE BRIAN DONAHUE STORY)

In THE GUY: THE BRIAN DONAHUE STORY, we take a journey through the checkered career of veteran stunt actor Brian Donahue.

We spoke with director Director E.J. McLeavey-Fisher about the short film. Read more with E.J. below, and catch it in the “Characters Welcome” short documentary film block on Saturday, June 22 at 9:30am!

NFF: Please say a little about your inspiration for, or how you found your subject of the film.

E.J.: I met Brian during a casting session for a commercial I was directing for a healthcare company. We needed to interview stunt people about their histories, and Brian came in and blew me away. Turns out he wasn’t the right guy for the commercial (as he will tell you “they wanted the beautiful twentysomethings”) but I emailed him that night (with that bad news) and then asked if he’d be interested in discussing another kind of project. We spoke on the phone for two hours the next day, with Brian spinning the most incredible stories about his time in and out of the industry, and I knew we had to make something together, which is what ultimately became THE GUY: THE BRIAN DONAHUE STORY.

NFF: You're in the documentary block. How do you balance entertainment value with a factual accounting of events?

E.J.: We always wanted to approach this project more like a narrative than a traditional doc project, so we shot our first day, the main interview day, then started to build our visual story around that. Using Brian’s story as our guide, we tried our best to either capture or re-create each scene in the most cinematic and powerful way possible without the style interfering with the viewer’s ability to connect with Brian as a real person. I don’t think a stylized approach like this is always appropriate in doc work but in our instance, when you have such a big character like Brian at its center, not to mention the fact that it’s a film about stunts and movies, it made sense. I must say, it’s also a lot more fun shooting this way and having a bit more control rather than following someone around with a camera and waiting for something to happen!

NFF: What do you find the biggest advantages and challenges of making a short as opposed to a feature?

E.J.: I think shorts are great because there’s so much flexibility in what the story is that you ultimately want to tell. Despite the approach I mentioned above, we were still creating a documentary and weren’t working off of a script, and until you get into the edit it’s hard to know how long a film needs to be. If you’re filming a short documentary the story might be twenty minutes or you might realize it’s better off being half that length- this is a luxury that doesn’t exist with features. You’re boxed-in to a stricter format in terms of duration.

The challenge with short films, for me at least, is that I spend as much time on them as I might shooting a feature otherwise. I haven’t done that yet so I can’t exactly compare, but we worked on this project for about three and a half years and only actually filmed 8 days in total. This was due to the fact that everyone involved with it had to work on it in between our paid work (for the crew, shooting commercials and for Brian, splitting his time at UPS and his acting and stunt gigs)- trying to coordinate all of our schedules was incredibly tricky, but we eventually made it happen!

NFF: What are you working on currently, and/or where can we see more of your work?

E.J.: I’ve got a few projects in various stages of development: one super short profile piece about a guy who has been teaching himself to skateboard at age 40 and documenting the process daily on YouTube, a baseball story about Armando Galarraga’s near-perfect game, and a music doc about a band with a cult following from the 70s (who I don’t want to mention yet because I’m waiting to hear back from some lawyers about whether I’ll be allowed to pursue it).  You can see my previous short docs COMIC BOOK HEAVEN and THE DOGIST on my website at www.ej-mf.com, along with some of my commercial work.

NFF: Why are you excited to screen in Nantucket, and/or what do you hope Nantucket audiences might relate to or takeaway from the film?

E.J.: I’m really excited to screen at Nantucket because I grew up on Cape Cod but have never had the opportunity to screen my work on the Cape and Islands until now! Hopefully it’ll be the first of many at NFF.