Mar 6 2008
Jason Zone Fisher, co-director of the movie Swing State, documenting the 2006 gubernatorial race of his father Lee Fisher and Ted Strickland, is in town for the Cleveland International Film Festival.I caught-up with Jason in between last minute film tweaking and polishing on the eve of opening night. Here’s his take on being a director, last-minute editing touches, his dad, life in a political family and, yes, even the Cleveland Cavaliers:
In one of your Huffington Post blog entries, you refer to yourself as your family’s first child and “subsequently, one more campaign volunteer.” What was that like, growing up in a political family?
Well, it’s a little crazy. For example, my co-director John [Intrater] was friends with me in college. He had never even voted in a campaign before and didn’t know a thing about politics, but then he lived with us during the campaign in Shaker. It was a huge adjustment for him; he was in shock and awe. To me it’s almost normal, having our driveway look like a parking lot, seeing twenty people working out of our kitchen. For most people that’s insane, and I guess it really is insane, but for me and my family it’s kind of like “Oh, of course. Why wouldn’t there be 20 people in the kitchen?”
It’s just a different way of life. Not that I’d recommend it to anyone, but growing up in politics has its benefits, for sure. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of incredible, incredible people over the years, got to spend time as a kid with people like the Clintons and Al Gore. As a kid I thought it was cool but didn’t realize until looking back when I was older how really cool it was. Still, there are a lot of sacrifices, a huge downside for a family. Even now, we live in Cleveland but my dad works in Columbus. So he’s in Columbus five days a week. That’s a huge sacrifice for my mom, my sister Jessica and really for our whole family. There are a lot of things like that all politicians go through.
Being raised in that lifestyle, do you think you’d ever want to get involved in politics yourself?
No, I don’t want to get into the field, myself. Parts of politics and campaigning I love. I find campaigning fascinating in general, but I think you have to really, really have this kind of ‘fire in your belly’ for it. I’m passionate about things, and I get juiced-up about other things: performing, acting. Still, I wouldn’t like politics. It’s not the best lifestyle to lead. Even the people running for president right now–-they’re incredible people, Clinton, Obama, even McCain. They’re all incredible but they have to be crazy to travel the country for two years. What they’re campaigning for if they win is really no vacation either, if you think about it. It’s a grueling, grueling lifestyle.
You started out with a love of performance and stage work. How did that become journalism and now, filmmaking?
It’s interesting how the film came about. I've always been interested in filmmaking; it always was my passion. When my dad ran for governor in 1998, I was a freshman in high school, about 14. I knew it was an important election but didn’t really understand how important. But I knew I should film it. So I took the family video camera around with me and filmed the last 40 or so days of that campaign. I edited by hooking the camera up to our VCR, pressing play, record. I had no clue, no experience, no equipment. I’d made the film just for family and showed it to them. Anyway, I hadn’t watched in years.
Fast forward eight years to Syracuse and studying broadcast journalism. I was the host of a show as a teen, Browns Blitz, when the team came back to town. The show targeted a younger audience towards the Browns. It was amazing for me. I was a huge sports fan and got to do interviews in locker rooms, do fun segments. That’s what got me interested in the broadcast aspect and that’s how I decided to go to Syracuse. Anyway, it’s senior year [at Syracuse] and everyone’s wondering what to do with rest of their lives. That’s when John came home with me to Cleveland. It happened to be the same week Ted Strickland asked my dad to be his running mate. My dad had been out of public office for awhile. So Ted asked and my dad accepted. When John came to town, we stopped at press conference. John was really impressed and interested; when we got home from the game he was still talking about it. So, I showed him the 1998 documentary. We were surprised at how good it was, considering I didn’t know what I was doing. It showed a really unique angle that I had, this access to a story that nobody else could really see.
We thought we should maybe do this again – partly as a way to not get a real job (laughs). We tricked ourselves, big time, with that. This experience is like five full-time jobs in one.
In May 2006 we graduated. Five days later, on May 19, 2006, I started filming Hillary Clinton’s fundraiser for Ted Strickland and my dad’s campaign, in New York. From there, I met with everyone and anyone in the film business to ask advice, from what they thought of certain ideas to what type of equipment to use.
I first met with H. Spencer Young, who is from Cleveland originally. He started as an advisor and now is a co-director on this film. We relied on him more and more, and he came into Ohio for the last week or so of the election. He filmed everything with us, and we did the post-production in New York.
