Mar 8 2008
What made you choose film, and specifically environmental films?I got here by twists and turns, essentially. I was a lawyer in the 70s and I made the transition into films. My first film on the environment was also about a river, Old Quabbin Valley, and it was about the conflict between Boston and western Massachusetts over using the resources of the Connecticut River. The disagreement turned into a big fight. It was a very emotional, very powerful story. That film did very well. Next was a commissioned film for the nature conservancy and it was nominated for an Academy Award. That was called The Garden of Eden. So then I was launched.
I had done, as a lawyer, a lot of environmental work and other political work. I made the transition to film in order to do something I felt would have more of an impact and wouldn't take as long as legal work. I was naive. I thought on average a big case takes five to eight years and this would be a faster process. I've since found the average film takes five to eight years, as well. Since that time, though, I've been working steadily as filmmaker.
How long has your current team been working together?
My wife, Diane Garey, is a writer and co-producer. We started working together almost from the first day. She was a professional writer and would come into the editing room, criticizing me and the writing. She said, "I could do better." I said, "Prove it." So she started working with me on the writing of films. On the first film she was an assistant writer and on the second the official writer. On the third she was co-producer, and somewhere around the seventh or eighth film she became the editor. She's been a co-producer and editor since 1991.
You said you can't make it to the festival because you're headed for an Alaskan shoot. What else is next on your agenda, and does it involve returning to Ohio?
I'm doing a film called 1812: The War we Forgot, and it will have big Ohio component. I was there over the years many times for the two films. I really know it pretty well, and it was a real pleasure when I started working with local film crews. My soundman, Kevin Hines, and Darryl Dickenson really knew where everything was, restaurants, bars, that sort of thing and they knew how to get around. Through them I had much better view of Northeast Ohio. That made a big difference, getting to know the place and enjoy it.
All the people from Ohio I worked with were just great. I had a local guide, Chris Alvarado, who works at Cuyahoga County Planning and he was one of those people who would do anything to help. He took me all around many times to all locations; he was just fantastic.
First, though, I'm doing the three-week shoot in Alaska. We'll be doing a lot of environmental films. In fact, the main camera man from The Return of the Cuyahoga, David Litz, is coming to Alaska. He's a Parma boy.
I have two big projects coming up: Thin Ice, about the impact of climate change on the Bering Sea. Which is a co-production with Smith College, and War of 1812, co-produced with WNED in Buffalo. We do a lot of work with PBS and affiliates. The affiliates are completely independent, so mostly we work with affiliate stations. PBS is not like other networks; they rarely hire anything directly. All production comes from independent stations. Most of the money comes from other sources rather than PBS.
Anyway, War of 1812 focuses on the three-year war between Britain and the US and to some extent Canada, although they did not exist as a separate nation. Many Native Americans in the west were involved. It was a very complicated war. You can ask 100 scholars what it was about and get 100 different answers. The war ended in stalemate and the biggest losers were the Native Americans. One of the major battles was fought on Lake Erie; that's the major Ohio component to the story.
I don't know what's next after those two projects. Would love to work someplace warm, for a change!
What do you feel are the greatest ecological concerns we face and how should we address them?
More land has to be set aside for conservation and truly protected. We need an energy policy. We've needed it since the early 1970s and have been aware since '73. Really, we needed it since the 1920s but it was even more apparent since the first energy crisis. It's criminal how little has been done and the taxes just aren't in place for it. [President] Carter was ridiculed for calling this problem "the moral equivalency of war," but it is. It is. You can make a direct connecton between energy and war, as we know. The Clean Water Act was a wonderful thing to happen, but it needs to be strengthened.
One of the main reasons I got into this business was to inspire people to work for a clean environment and encourage us to preserve resources. We did a two-part series called The Wilderness Idea. The first film was used for years by forest service to train rangers. The second, Wild By Law, was about the Wilderness Act and has been used by the fish and wildlife service to train employees. Those are just two examples of how the work that we do is, we hope, influencing the next generation.
What do you feel was the most important thing you discovered about The Cuyahoga River or conservation from this project?
Keeping rivers and watersheds clean are the responsibility not just of corporations and government but of the individual. Pogo has a wonderful line. Remember, the comic strip Pogo? It said: we have met the enemy and he is us. It's so true. We are all responsible. You can see it very clearly: anything you put down a drain ends up in the river. Not to absolve the responsibility of bigger players, but that's part of why the Parma people taking individual responsibility are having such an impact; they are just regular people who really care about taking care of their own area.
