The Reel Blog
ZOOMER
19/02/2010
0 Commentsadd commentLast week The Reel team were invited to the screening of the documentary feature ‘Zoomer’ by newcomer Sam Huntley. Following Mary DeBoutez Zellmer-Fenoglio, the film is a touching and intimate portrait of the zany, frustrated and fascinating protagonist and her 'Zoomer's Treasures', a junk lovers paradise and somewhat unlikely local landmark that stands by the side of Highway 171 in rural Kansas, USA. We thought it was hilarious, heartbreaking and offered a marvellous snapshot of a slightly off-kilter world.
Enough babble, we’ll let the trailer do the talking:
After leaving the screening full of questions, we thought we’d pose a few to director Sam Huntley – and he was kind enough to respond.
How the heck did you find Mary DeBoutez Zellmer-Fenoglio?
I was midway through a roadtrip with my friend, photographer Annie Collinge. We were driving from New York to San Francisco. I can’t remember exactly why, but we had taken a wrong turn in Kansas [I think we were trying to find this town called Liberal which holds a 3 day Wizard of Oz festival every year].
Anyway, we just happened upon Mary’s property completely by accident really. It’s not the sort of thing you see every day and I remember we sat outside for ages, trying to figure out what it actually was, and slightly nervously deciding whether to go in or not. We finally went in and realized it was a shop. We met Mary and were both instantly taken with her. I remember she was loudly slagging off some customers which I thought was hilarious and then I realized they were still in the shop.
We spent a couple of hours with her, filming/photographing her sitting on her giant welsh dresser ‘Big Bertha’. When we finally left, I stopped the car at the end of the road and said to Annie that I have to come back to make a film about her – I don’t suppose at the point either of us really thought I ever would.
Over the next year I couldn’t get Mary out of my mind and I finally decided to try and contact her. She had given me a number at the time but it didn’t work anymore. Luckily a local journalist had just done a story on her that I found on Google. I got in touch with her and asked if she would go down to Mary’s place and get me her number. After I finally made contact with Mary, it was about 6 months before I actually went out there to shoot the film. Although she was up for it, I don’t think she believed it would ever actually happen and didn’t want to get her hopes up. Even after I booked my flight, I still don’t think she actually thought I would turn up.
When deciding to direct your first feature, was documentary always the path you wanted to take?
No not really. Even though I had been making short documentaries for a while, ultimately my aim was always to direct narrative films. However, I think the moment that I met Mary that all changed in an instant – it really was one of those ‘Eureka’ moments, and I just knew I wanted to make a film about her. I still want to make narrative films more than ever, but I think I will always make documentaries as well now.
The area Mary lives in is a little … er … peculiar? How long did you stay and how was the shoot?
I stayed for about 3 weeks, and yeah even though it is quite a peculier area it was probably 3 of the best weeks of my life. Mary is one of the funniest, most charismatic people I’ve ever met - we just clicked instantly, and ended up having a really amazing time together.
As the whole film was self-funded I had budgeted about $35 per night to stay in a grotty motel somewhere. Well for some reason, even the worst motel around was about $55 per night. Though not keen, I would’ve paid it. But Mary saw the room and immediately said no. I took this to mean that she would invite me to stay with her, but then her friend Pete [the one with the trick fish] offered to put me up on his sofa.
So I left Mary’s place after midnight and after a long drive through the pitch black Kansas night, I turned up at Pete’s place [which is literally in the middle of nowhere] at about 1am, to find him watching the escalating ‘tornado watch’ on the local news. Well within about 90 minutes the tornado sirens were going off, and 20 minutes later I had lived through my first tornado. It was pretty terrifying - I didn’t sleep for the rest of the night, got up early and drove back to Mary’s, assessing the damage along the way. Mary greeted me at the door with the words, “Right, fuck that. You’re staying here”. I think I had proved both my dedication to the cause … and also the fact that I wasn’t a serial killer.
That day I moved into the junk room and slept on an air bed for the duration of my stay. I think this was the best thing that could have ever happened for the film. It meant that we were basically together for 18 hours a day. We would sit up til 2 or 3am watching trash tv and talking, then again in the morning from 6am onwards we would sit and talk over breakfast. It’s these intimate moments which really helped us to bond so quickly, and I think I would have missed so much if I had of been driving to and from a motel every day.
Mary seems to be a very emotional person, with jubilant highs followed by crashing lows. Did her breakdowns ever shock you, and were you worried about how they would cut together in the finished piece?
Yes undoubtedly Mary is very emotional, but because I had got so close to her I understood where the emotion was coming from so in a way I wasn’t shocked. However, that’s not to say that it’s an easy thing to deal with when someone is basically breaking down in front of you.
There is one scene in particular in the film where Mary became very emotional that was very difficult to shoot. But again I think it is a measure of how much trust had built up between us that she felt comfortable enough to show such raw emotion in front of me and on camera.
I was never particularly worried about how it would cut together. I had decided quite early on that the film would have quite a ‘loose structure’, so I knew I would be able to accommodate most things. From the outset I was also determined to show all of the different sides to Mary’s life and personality.
It seems like Mary likes to talk a lot. Were you ever worried how you were going to trim her commentary down?
Again, not really. She’s probably one of the most natural people I’ve ever seen on camera, completely unfazed. I much prefer someone to talk too much rather than me having to constantly prompt someone. I’m always reasonably confident in the way I edit that I’ll be able to straighten out any problems afterwards as well.
Mary speaks about her husband and son quite a lot in the film, and yet we don’t see them. Was this a conscious decision on your part or were they just not keen to appear on camera?
It was a bit of both I suppose, but mainly a conscious decision on my part I would say. I was aware that both Wayne and Kenny [son and husband] were not that keen to appear on camera, so I didn’t realIy push it [although I do have some footage].
I decided early on that I wanted it to be purely Mary’s story, and I wanted to only show things that I felt had had a big baring on the person she is today. Of course Wayne and Kenny have contributed to this, but I felt the key influences were from her childhood, based around the relationships with her mother and father.
Thus it was a big decision whether or not to include her brothers and sisters in the film. Although they are only brief scenes, I felt that they were important because they helped to establish the baring that their childhood has had on all their lives and also helps to establish the strength of Mary’s character and resolve.
The documentary doesn’t really have a ‘story’ to speak of, as it is more of a character study. Did this cause you any headaches in the construction?
No not really. It is essentially the film I set out to make. I think that because I had spent so much time thinking about it beforehand, I had such a strong idea of what it would be like when I actually came to shoot it.
Most of my work tends to be like a character study anyway, its what I’m interested in and it’s the sort of documentary that I want to continue to make. I’m massively influenced by the Maysles’ films, specifically Grey Gardens and Salesman. I like ordinary peoples’ stories.
I don’t think that this type of film is necessarily to everyones taste [which probably explains why it was continuously turned down for funding at every stage of production]. There seems to be a leaning towards more social and political films by the people in charge of the purse strings, which I think is a shame as I definitely think there is room for all types of documentary, and I certainly don’t think that portrait films are any less relevant or worthy.
How much footage did you shoot and what did you shoot it on?
I shot on a Sony Z1 with a Redrock adapter and Nikon lenses. I took 50 hours of stock with me, and had every intention of using all of it. When I got there though I had loads of problems with the camera initially, so didn’t end up shooting anything at all for the first 4 or 5 days. I think this was a real blessing in the end as it gave me and Mary time to really bond and feel comfortable with each other.
It also gave me time to really ‘find the story’. I decided in those first few days to drop loads of stuff that I had intended to shoot, as I just knew I wouldn’t end up using it. I was also becoming really conscious of how long the whole thing was going to take me to edit so I really didn’t want to end up with 50 hours of rushes.
I ended up only shooting 14 hours of footage,and I think out of that at least 11 hours of it was probably really useable stuff. It was still a nightmare to edit, so I’m so pleased now when I look back on that decision to shoot less footage.
Did you have much of a crew?
No it was literally just me. At the time I was really keen for other people to come with me. At one point I looked into taking a camera and a sound man. Again, because it was all self-funded it sort of dictated that I couldn’t afford to take anyone else. I’m so glad now that that was the case as I think it would have been a totally diferent experience [and probably a different film] if anyone else had been there.
The reason I was able to get the footage I did is because of the bond that was struck between myself and Mary. As I said before, moving in to her house, and spending such an intense amount of time together is definitely what allowed me to get such personal and emotional stuff.
The downside of shooting alone is that obviously there is much more pressure and so many more things to think about. I’ve been so lucky with the people that I have managed to work with on the post that have really helped cover up some of the many mistakes I made during shooting.
The sound was a big issue – I used an on camera shotgun mic which was far from ideal and because of this the sound was really distorted and all over the place at the end. Luckily Joe Mount and Alex Nicholls-Lee at Wave Studios did an amazing job of cleaning up and remixing everything [they’ve actually managed to make me look professional]. I’d also have to say a massive thanks to Ben Rogers at Glassworks, Nick Timms at Ascent 142 and Jane Cina at Trim Editing for similar efforts that really helped improve the end product.
How can we buy some of Mary’s outlandish furniture? We think the oversized kitchen cabinet would look great in The Reel’s office!
Yeah its something positive that I would really like to come out of the film – to help draw attention to the amazing stuff that Mary builds. A theme running through the film is the whole ‘born into the wrong place’ issue. This definitely applies to Mary’s furniture – if she was anywhere but Kansas she would be making a lot of money out of the stuff she builds and the ‘junk’ she owns, but being in Kansas no one cares about it.
When I was there I had intentions of photographing/cataloging all of her stuff and trying to get a website together for her, but time just didn’t allow it. Also the sheer size of her furniture made the actual logistics of photographing it almost impossible. This link has more photos of her furniture though:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mariesmartdesigns/MaryFenoglioOriginals?authkey=Gv1sRgCM3Nn47d8JDKJQ#
And if anyone wants an oversized kitchen cabinet made to order they can contact me through www.zoomerfilm.com or www.samhuntley.com and I’ll hook them up with Mary.
Has Zoomer seen the film herself? What did she make of it?
No not yet. I’ve so far resisted the urge to send it to her [even though she is desperate to see it]. I think on a purely selfish level I would really like to be there when she first sees it. I’d also really like her to see it on a big screen for the first time, so the dream would be for the film to get into a big festival over there that we could both attend….. if not, I’ll have to start planning another trip to Kansas at some point this year.
What’s going to happen with the film now? Has it been entered to any festivals? How can people see it?
Yeah I’ve literally just started putting it into festivals, I think at the moment I’m waiting to hear from about 7 in the States. I think it could be tricky because as I said before I think there are certain types of films that are ‘flavour of the month’ at the moment and I’m not sure that ZOOMER will be one of them. I’m hoping though that if it gets in to one it might sort of snowball and gain some momentum…
I’d also really like to get it screened on terrestrial TV. Theres the ‘True Stories’ strand on More4 which everyone that has seen it says it would perfect for, so I just have to convince the people at More4 now I guess…
What’s next for you?
I’m just stating to think about new projects again. I have a couple of ideas for long format documentaries in the States that I would love to shoot, so ideally it would be great to get some funding from someone to go over and do those [but after my funding experiences with ZOOMER I won’t be holding my breath]. I’d also really like to get a commission from the BBC or Channel4 to do something.
I’m also talking to a few companies at the moment about signing for commercials representation which I’m really excited about, so I would really like to push that over the next few months. I’ve tentatively started working on an idea for a script as well…
Apart from that, I’m just seeing what happens with ZOOMER really, fingers crossed.
So there you go. We heartily recommend checking out the film, as Mary (aka Zoomer) is one of the most intriguing and eloquent docu-targets we’ve ever seen. If you want to get in touch with Sam about this or any of his other work, head over to www.samhuntley.com.
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