Wednesday, August 30, 2017

A Conversation With The Director of The Documentary "The Horse Boy," Chronicling A Family's Trip to Mongolia With Their Son Who Has Autism

  part one of  a four part series

Introduction: Potential Problems With The Documentary
In this Michel Orion Scott documentary, a Texas family dealt with their son's autism by taking him to Mongolian shamans. There were so many ways that this project could have gone wrong. Michel recounted a few of them during an hour long interview in Austin this week.
The three major areas of concern, to my mind and with which he agreed (I will delve more into each later in this piece), were:
- The father of the family, who wrote his own memoir about the journey, also called The Horseboy, was also the executive producer of the movie. As a former journalist, I know that handing too much control to the subject is a dangerous proposition. He agreed, saying he was taught as a film student at the University of Texas that it is a "no-no" to give your subject so much control.
Fortunately, this worked out well since he did not exercise that power to in any way hurt the film.
- The trip to Mongolia was a logistical nightmare. How does one shoot footage for a documentary while on horseback, their main mode of transportation in that nation?
What happens if the director gets, say, giardia, as he did during this trip? Giardia is a parasite of the lower intestine.
- Due to his autism, their son daily experienced tantrums lasting several hours. How could this be handled, both during the trip and on film.
- There are few issues currently more touchy than autism since some will react strongly to any suggestions of anyone being cured of autism. What I did not know going into the film is that Michel and Rupert agreed the word "cure" did not fit the overall message of the film.
I also did not know that there was a comment in the movie from Temple Grandin, a woman with autism who is a best-selling author for books about her work with animal behavior, that even if there was a "cure" for autism she would not want it.
Why? Because there are advantages to being autistic, particularly being able to focus more deeply on areas than people without autism.
It was that last point that had me most concerned going into the movie. In fact, I thought I would dislike it but now I am a big advocate of the film. I am eager to read the father's memoir and interview him. That interview should come through within the next few weeks. I hope to also meet Rowan and see the ranch Rupert started and runs, The New Trails Center, which is for kids with autism. It is located outside Elgin, Texas, near where the Isaacsons live.
The Movie's Release and Future
Not only did this documentary overcome those potential problems, but it premiered at the Sundance Festival back in January. When it was shown in March as part of the South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) in Austin, it won a prize as the audience favorite.
Michel said he thinks it won the award because the movie is so stirring. People have an emotional reaction to it. He knows, he said, of some who even cried after seeing the original trailer for the movie. The film touches the general public. He said it is both “worldly” yet “personal at the same time.”
While it was exciting to have the movie premiere during Sundance, Michel told the audience at a screening added due to demand and popularity, the more meaningful showing was in Austin since that is where he lives and works.
You can see the trailer for the movie here.
Since then Michel has been preparing the movie to be released in theaters in September and editing the movie down to 53 minutes so it can be shown on PBS in spring 2010 and, later on the BBC. The DVD will contain footage cut from the original 200 hours of film edited to 94 minutes.
He said he was able to deal with the cutting and editing of the film knowing that one day, the original will be seen in its entirety on DVD. The DVD will also include more footage of interviews with autism experts about the disorder.
How Michael and Rupert Isaacson Met
Michel's early film career consisted mostly, he said, of skating videos and doing some editing work for a documentary filmmaker.
But Michel, who prefers doing edgy experimental work, was disillusioned after doing some other film work. Around that time he attended a talk given by Rupert Isaacson. Isaacson was giving a talk on a book he wrote about the bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa.
Michel too was fascinated by indigenous cultures, calling it "one of his hobbies." After the talk, the two had a meeting which changed their lives. Rupert and Michel decided to begin making a documentary about the San Bushmen. At that point Michel was willing to do the project regardless of whether he was paid for it.
Then Rupert told Michel he had another idea. He told Rupert he was planning a trip to meet with
shamans in Mongolia and wondered if Michel wanted to join them and make a documentary about that instead.
Michel jumped at the chance saying even if the trip and project was a flop, he would, at the very least, get to visit Mongolia; a place he had always wanted to go.
“What did I have to lose? It is an amazing story. And I get to go Mongolia," Michel said.
By then Michel had seen Rupert and his wife, Kristin Neff, with their son, Rowan, and he was amazed at their patience and dedication as parents. He knew, he said, if nothing else the film could be a story about "the devotion of parents... no matter what happened." At that point Michel knew very little about autism.
The Book Deal
There are many ways in which this documentary is atypical and one of the more noticeable ones is Rupert, both because he was a producer for the documentary (which meant he had the power, if he so chose, to at least try to shut down the project) and since he was writing a memoir about the project.
Rupert had some contacts in the film and television industries so he began seeing if there was a way they could get some funding for the work. Michel was prepared to make the movie no matter what but was stunned when Rupert told him during one phone conversation that he had just received a seven-figure book advance.
What happened was Rupert did something unusual in book publishing, namely using an early trailer for the movie (this was before they even went to Mongolia but it did show Rowan's relationship with horses) as he shopped around a proposal to write a book about the journey.
Publishers recognized the interest in the topic of autism and the potential draw of a book about the family's journey. The tie-in to a documentary also helped; this was the trailer that brought some to tears. A bidding war erupted and then Rupert was given a contract of at least $1 million for the book, which came out earlier this month.
For the trip, they had a film crew of three, still pretty small, including Michel. Now, though, they had the luxury of knowing they would be paid and would not have to worry as much about funding for the film.
Given that Rupert's work and contacts helped obtain financing for the movie, it made sense he was to be the movie's producer.
This gave Rupert more control over the documentary than would usually be the case for the subject of a documentary. Michel admitted that early on he had some concerns on this front but they went away over time. Rupert never used his role as producer to alter the movie or make him look better.
Indeed, one reason I was so moved by this movie was Rupert's self-reflection as he expressed his worries and regrets. Early on in the journey, there is a scene where Rupert makes a mistake and then worries that he has been a bad father putting his own self-interest above the interests of his son.
Michel remembers that day well. Before then, he was wondering if he was just documenting a family doing something out of the ordinary. But at that moment, when Rupert began to express such real concerns and worries, Michel, said, "We have a film!"
As someone who has worked in special education in the schools and with special needs adults in their homes, I can tell you that the issues Rupert expresses are those I often hear. This movie will strike familiar chords with those families, some of whom still remember the days when terms like "refrigerator moms" were used, blaming autism on mothers.
The trip
To avoid making this piece excessively long, I am not going to go into great detail about the trip and the positive changes by Rowan. Instead, I will accompany the piece with links to articles about the book and movie by CNN, the New York Times and other news organizations.
I did, though, want to include some of Michel's comments about the journey. During the four months leading up to the trip the crew began practicing shooting film while on horseback, not an easy task. That was also when they interviewed Temple.
They later interviewed a few other experts on autism, who are also shown during the movie, giving the issue of autism some context and overview.
One reason I love the chance and opportunity to interview directors and authors is to ask questions about their craft and logistics. So I wanted to know how Michel was able to shoot beautiful landscape footage and conversations with the family members while on horseback.
What did they do, I asked, ride ahead of the family and then wait and film them as they went by and then do it again? Frankly, he said, that is exactly what they did. As if that was not enough of a challenge there was also the matter of getting shamans to agree to let them film their ceremonies in which they worked with Rowan.
The footage of the trip is incredibly, no pun intended, moving. I challenge those watching the movie to not be generally moved when the family's wishes, which at the time seemed so unrealistic, that Rowan would learn how to use the bathroom on his own. Not only does Rowan did accomplish that but he also began communicating and playing with other children, something he had never previously done.
The editing and the film's release
After the trip, following a well-deserved two week break, Michel got down to what he says is the hardest part of documentary filmmaking, namely cutting it down.
There was another reason why it was exciting when the movie premiered: Michel had refused to let family and friends see any of the movie until it was finished. So his immediate family went to Sundance to see the movie there while friends finally got to see the movie he had been working on for three years.
The movie has received good media coverage, Michel said. The only criticisms he is aware of come from the autistic community have from people who have not actually see it, who had the visceral reaction I initially did, namely fretting the movie would be touting a miracle cure or something.
But Michel explained he knew early on that was an issue and concern and planned ahead on that front. They decided to present the movie as what it really was, not about ending Rowan's autism but rather finding a place for autism in their family and in our culture.
Michel's future He is currently starting to work on two projects. One is a feature-length fictional film. The other is a documentary about the Hopi Indians and their relationship with the food they make. He plans to shoot footage in Bolivia about that culture's relationship between their people and their food. This will be partially a way to commenting in the great beauty in how indigenous cultures raise and provide their food and compare and contrast that with how other cultures do so.
However, first he needs to continue work cutting the movie down to the appropriate length for PBS and the BBC, which he called a painful process. It helps to know that people who will see the DVD can see the whole movie.
Conclusion
I strongly urge you to see this documentary when it is available for your viewing pleasure. Meanwhile, why not join me in reading the memoir by Rupert? I waited to start the memoir until I finished this piece because I wanted to try, as much as possible, to approach the two projects separately. When an interview with Rupert is scheduled I will begin soliciting questions you want put to him.
In a nutshell, this movie looks at this family's journey but it also does a good job, through footage of interviews with experts on autism, of putting issues relating to autism into proper context.
Thanks again to Michel for doing this interview with me.

No comments:

Post a Comment