Women In Film - Seattle



	It's really about realizing we can own a piece of each other's successes, and in so doing, learn to become successful ourselves. Lois Shelton, Foxglove Films



	Beth sporting her Grammy nomination medal WIF Featured Member: Beth Harrington Meet award-winning producer, director and writer, Beth Harrington as she talks about life and work, and highlights like: meeting music icon Johnny Cash, the Grammys, her background at the esteemed WGBH Public Television in Boston; networking with WIF, working with sisters… and miracles. “We are the framers of our reality.” – Beth Harrington Beth Harrington was born in Boston and transplanted to the Pacific Northwest and you'll find out why when you read about her. Her work often focuses on exploring American history, music, and culture. She's been active in various film communities, most recently having served on the board of Film Action Oregon as well as the Oregon Media Production Association. Beth is a past President of Women in Film/New England and a former Vice President of Women in Film/Seattle. Beth Harrington's independent production Welcome to the Club - The Women of Rockabilly, a music documentary about the pioneering women of rock & roll, has been broadcast on public television and screened at festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad, and was honored with a 2003 Grammy nomination. Currently Beth is in the final production stage of a feature-length music documentary about the Original Carter Family called The Winding Stream. WIF/S asks Beth: How did you get involved in filmmaking? Beth - I was born in Boston and come from a pretty artsy family. Mom was an art teacher. Dad was an illustrator and graphic artist who owned his own ad agency. All my siblings are creative types - I have three sisters and a brother. So the arts in one form or another were always there in our lives. Beth on the set of her short, “Blinking Madonna and Other Miracles” I went to Syracuse University for Communications but with no real plan to be a filmmaker (this was – ahem – 35 years ago and, the likes of Cassavetes and Warhol notwithstanding, there really was no independent film industry. And need I mention almost no women filmmakers of any sort). But as I pingponged around in media and the arts after graduation I worked as a PR person for a government manpower organization, a public affairs radio host, a writer for corporate AV, a chick singer in a rock band (touring and recording as a member of Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers (Warner Brothers/Sire Records) and I eventually started making my own documentary films in 1980. A big turning point came in 1983 when I joined Women in Film/New England. I met a great number of very cool women (some of my dearest friends even to this day) and threw myself into a bunch of projects - film festivals, newsletter editing, board work. I did this stuff because I enjoyed the activities and the camaraderie, but the networking also paid off in an unexpected way. Unbeknownst to me, a WIF colleague recommended me for an Associate Producer job with WGBH and a film company called The Documentary Guild and that job altered my career and my personal life for the better in ways I am still feeling. My work at WGBH was a real calling card when I came to the Northwest and wanted to work with Oregon Public Broadcasting. And at WGBH, I worked on a volcano film for the PBS science series NOVA and met a Washington-based volcano scientist who is now my husband and the reason I live in the Pacific Northwest! WIF/S - What are the challenges of running your own production company? Beth - The challenge is being able to keep all the plates spinning – projects coming in, funding coming in - being able to work steadily without getting terribly overextended. The all-or-nothing world of freelancing, as many of us know, can be trying. I strive to keep a mix of independent projects and work-for-hire going. Sometimes that’s possible, sometimes it's not. I'm not sure you can ever get it right. Still from Beth's short, “Blinking Madonna” Two of my siblings, my sisters Nancy and Amy have been working with me on my film The Winding Stream which has been 6+ years in the making. It's a documentary about the musical Carter and Cash families. It's been tough going at times working on this film because it's a big ticket doc and has required lots of time in development, fundraising, and deal making which has often overshadowed what we all consider the fun part – production. So the film itself has not been without stress but I am very fortunate to be working with my sisters; we share a hardcore work ethic. I never doubt for a second that something that one or the other said they would take on, will get done. They also have my back. They always have my interests at heart so I know their advice is sincere. But they also know me well and don't just tell me what they think I want to hear. They are definitely not “Yes Women.” We also have fun with the project and share a love of music and the scene. Our production trip to the South X Southwest music festival was a blast. Ultimately, it's like any working relationship; there are moments when things can be trying, but because our underlying relationship is strong, we've made it work. I think all three of us hear the voice of our late mother telling us, “You have no better friend in the world than each other.” Of course, she was right. The good news about the film is that we are in post-production now and hope to have it finished sometime in 2009. Finally. Beth and friends with Julia Childs WIF/S - What was it like meeting and interviewing the legend Johnny Cash? Beth - One of the great privileges of documentary filmmaking is being in worlds into which you would not ordinarily be invited. Meeting Johnny Cash was one of those privileges. I got to interview him just three weeks before he passed away. He had only recently come from being in the hospital. His wife June Carter had passed away only a few months before. If I'd been in his shoes I would have said forget it. And yet, he honored the interview request and seemed eager to do it, and I realized why almost immediately once we got to his home. This was not an interview about him; it was about June and her family, whom he really loved and admired. He was kind and gracious and forthcoming and also very funny at times. It was just thrilling to be sitting knee-to-knee with him, listening to his stories. WIF/S - Tell us what he shared with you about June? Beth - The most memorable thing about the interview was when his voice filled with emotion talking about June and he sounded almost apologetic for going down that road. And I assured him that it was quite all right and I said “Lots of people would give anything to have the kind of relationship you and June had.” And he said, “I know. God gave me everything I ever wanted.” At which point, he mists up and the crew and I are in tears. And then, almost as a way of helping us all through this moment, he leans over and says in a conspiratorial tone, “God knows I wasn't I righteous man! I didn't deserve it!” And then he slaps his knee and laughs, which of course, broke through the sadness. It was amazing. WIF/S - You've worked in several film communities. How do they differ? Beth - I think different cities have different kinds of communities. Boston, because of the academic overprint of all the local universities and colleges, and also because of the influence of WGBH as a PBS flagship station, is very documentary oriented. Beth and Mr. Rogers There's a high premium placed on research and scholarship in making good films there. Of course, there are people making narrative films in Boston (more since they passed a nice tax incentive package), but many, many more of us came up making docs. We were pretty close-knit as a group of filmmakers - lots of personal contact and support. Portland, the community I now live closest to, is very DIY and sometimes I feel somewhat fragmented or segmented. Whole groups of people don’t really know one another. Portland's also very animation oriented (I think it has to do with the rain. You can stay indoors and make animated films.) Seattle seems like a good mix of various types of filmmakers and styles but I have a harder time characterizing the scene since I am not as intimately involved in Seattle's production life. The bottom line is there are creative people everywhere but I think different external factors contribute to different kinds of scenes. WIF/S – What you say is interesting because for years in Seattle we've said Portland has a tight film community. I wonder why we think it's so good there – greener grass? Beth - I guess it is “grass is always greener.” But as long as we're dealing in metaphors, it's probably more like the fable of the five blind men and the elephant. You know, everyone in the community is feeling a different part of a large and diverse “animal” that is filmmaking. Personally when I “navigate the elephant that is Portland,” it feels not that cohesive. Alive, but not any one thing. WIF/S - Congratulations on your 2003 Grammy nomination for Welcome to the Club - the Women of Rockabily. That must have been an exciting moment. Beth - It was a total trip. I had not expected it, never envisioned it. My editor had submitted it to the Recording Academy in the long form video category. I said, “Yeah, sure, right. Like that's gonna happen.” 'Last thing in the world I ever imagined coming true. But as a former musician and lover of all things musical, it was one of the most fun, exciting things that ever happened to me professionally. And just a great week of events in NYC – lots of parties, lots of interesting people to meet, lots of great music. The broadcast event was cool: Springsteen and the Foo Fighters, Eminem and Elvis Costello, Aretha and the Dixie Chicks. My husband and I danced and partied like teenagers. It was a blast. A film about the Clash won. The Recording Academy does hand out a swell Tiffany medal with the gramaphone on it for all the nominees. All the nominees are supposed to wear it around during the weekend of events. So now, when the Grammys roll around, I get in my pajamas and fleecy robe and dust off the medal and put it on and my husband and I watch the televised show together and reminisce. Beth with her sisters and musician Jon Langford WIF/S - Do you have a favorite project? Beth - The last film I finished for OPB, Oregon Public Broadcasting, which just aired a month ago was called Searching for York. It's a history documentary on York of the Lewis & Clark Expedition (the man enslaved by William Clark) and that was a pretty wonderful experience. I got to work with a lot of terrific historical interpreters and we filmed on the Oregon coast and out at Fort Clatsop where the expedition had wintered over. In many ways it was more like a narrative than a doc. That was a lot of fun. But my favorite project still after all this time is my autobiographical film called The Blinking Madonna & Other Miracles. It's about my Catholic upbringing and a miracle that allegedly happened to me in 1991. It was shot in my old neighborhood, the Italian North End of Boston and peopled with my neighbors as the stars and my friends as crew. Nothing's comes close to topping the vibe of that production. Everyone got into the spirit of it. Magic, or miraculous. WIF/S - Tell more about the miracle! Beth - Well, this could fill a book (or a movie) but basically, I filmed an Italian-American religious feast in Boston's North End. I'd been making ethnographic films for a while, but this time the filming was a favor to the folks who ran the festival. I was just using an S-VHS camcorder (it was a long time ago) and I'd gotten lazy and switched the camera into autofocus (the feasts go on and on for hours and hours). At some point, I went in for a close-up of the statue of the Virgin Mary (the patroness of the feast) and someone passed through frame at just that moment. The odd result was that it appears the Virgin Mary is blinking her eyes. HOWEVER…soon after that, my life, which had been going seriously awry (broken heart, laid off from work, big bills, lots of worries) suddenly got ridiculously good. Coincidence? Perhaps. But the faithful in my acquaintance believed the whole thing was miraculous. And though I am not a religious person, I did see it as a wonderful metaphor. So that's the point of The Blinking Madonna & Other Miracles. We are the framers of our reality. WIF/S - Do you find that your education has helped you in your film career? Beth - I think education is never wasted and I am glad I went to college for Communications, though I will note that much of what I learned technologically was obsolete almost as soon as I graduated from Syracuse's Newhouse School …and this was one of the state of the art universities in the world for media! That's what happens with technology. But learning is a great thing and I think knowing how to learn a prerequisite of filmmaking. I will also say that there is no one path to filmmaking and it's quite possible to study something completely different, or even come to it from a non-academic background and be successful. It's a question of focus and hard work and goal-setting. I also should say that I went on to get a Master's degree in American Studies from University of Massachusetts/Boston and that was as valuable as any of my undergraduate studies because it reinforced the interest areas in which I wanted to work. My goal was - and has panned out to be - making films about American history, art, and culture. I think my American Studies background has proved as useful as my media studies background toward achieving that goal. WIF/S – What more would you like to see from women in the industry? Beth - As I say, I've been involved with WIF in New England (I was VP and then President of the chapter there) and in Seattle (VP a few years back). Beth with Flying Dinghy I think it's an outstanding organization for support and networking. It changed my life in Boston and it allowed me to get rooted in the Northwest much faster because I was able to meet my peers in Seattle. I still believe some of our struggles are different as women filmmakers, juggling as much as we do. And clearly where the Big Boys play in Los Angeles, women directors are still grossly underrepresented. I'd like to see more of us in that arena. We do pretty well as documentarians, but with feature narrative films, there's still a long way to go. WIF/S - What advice would you give women who are just starting out in the biz? Beth - I think I'd say “Network. Get involved. Make yourself useful to other filmmakers. Be supportive of your peers and they will be supportive of you.” I think Women in Film is a great place to start. WIF/S - Take wing Ladies! We hope you enjoyed visiting with Beth Harrington. Being featured is a WIF/Seattle “professional member” benefit.