arts & entertainment

Making Documentary
Films: A 'Black Art'

War correspondent's death changed the course
for Oscar-winning Jewish producer Simon Chinn.

Beth Kissileff
I JNS.org

involved in documentary films, where one
"parachutes into situations, has adventures
and leaves."
he career of British-Jewish film
Chinn recalled that for years he worked
producer Simon Chinn, who has
on documentaries for British television —
received two Academy Awards
on "Zimbabwe, the Balkans, South Africa,
in the Best Documentary cat-
Serbia, Iraq after Saddam was
egory, might have taken a very
captured."
different direction if not for the
Once he married and had
death of a journalist in the line
children, however, Chinn said
of duty.
he wanted to "stop that" and
Chinn, who won Oscars in
"not go to hairy places."
2009 for producing Man on
Not that Chinn's current
Wire and in 2013 for Searching
line of work is risk-free. He
for Sugar Man, was initially
said he has been involved in a
interested in a career in jour-
project on the narcotics wars
nalism. But a sniper in El
in Mexico through which he
Salvador killed war correspon- Oscar-winning
has been "helping a direc-
dent David Blundy, the father
tor who is putting himself at
British-Jewish
of one of Chinn's friends, in
considerable risk."
producer Simon
November 1989 while Blundy
Being a producer is "sort of
Chinn
was working for London's
a black art:' Chinn told JNS.
Sunday Correspondent.
org. He explained that there are "many
Though impressed by Blundy when he
things involved:' but that he mainly "origi-
met him, Chinn said in an interview with
nates projects" and is the "person who has
JNS.org that after reading Blundy's obitu-
the first vision of the film, creative and
aries, he understood that he "did not want
financial."
[Blundy's] life, a perpetually unsettled life."
Chinn said he must figure out "how to
It was a life Blundy "thrived on:' but
get the resources to make the film we want
Chinn realized that he could have a
to make, how to get the work out in a way
reasonable facsimile of the war corre-
that will maximize its potential."
spondent's experience — but with more
As the producer, Chinn said he is
stability and less danger — by getting
"where the buck stops" because he is ulti-

T

Detroit musician Sixto Rodriguez in Simon Chinn's Oscar-winning
documentary Searching for Sugar Man

mately respon-
sible for bring-
ing a film in on time and on budget. But it
is a fundamentally creative role because
he also is enabling the directors he works
with to realize their ambitions to make the
films they want to make.
How does Chinn decide which projects
to take on? He said the types of movies
he is interested in making are "those with
bigger themes:' that are concerned with
human dramas set in a human context"
He cited as an example his work on
Project Nim (2011), a film adaptation of a
book on an experiment done in the 1970s
involving having a chimpanzee raised
in a human family. Chinn said this "ani-
mal biography" is something "not seen
on film:' and that what appealed to him
was that the story "generates huge ideas
— who we are as humans, nature versus
nurture in parenting, how we discharge
responsibility to those more vulnerable
than ourselves:'
Project Nim also fascinated Chinn as a
"parable of parenting; he said.
Asked about the role Judaism played in
the films he has made, Chinn was tempo-
rarily flummoxed, acknowledging it was the
"first time I've considered that question:'
After pondering for a bit, he said
Judaism is "culturally what I am used to,
lots of discussion and debate, the Passover

table, [so it is possible] that sort of dis-
cussion and debate informs the way I
approach documentaries:'
Chinn said documentaries are an
"opportunity to tell stories in ways that are
surprising and complex:' and that he is
"drawn more to the moral gray in charac-
ters and stories than the black and white:'
Currently, Chinn is at work on The
Green Prince, a documentary telling the
story of Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of
one of the founders of Hamas who goes on
to become an informant for Israel's Shin
Bet security agency.
Chinn called The Green Prince, directed
by Nadav Schirman, an "extraordinary
human story" about people "whose moti-
vations are complex:'
"In a funny way, I have always been very
wary of making a film about this — such
an emotive issue said Chinn, who noted
that he has a nephew about to serve in the
Israeli army.
Winning his most recent Oscar in
February 2013 felt "absolutely incredible.
[It was] the best feeling in the world:'
Chinn said. But staying true to his practi-
cal nature, Chinn said that after earning
such accolades, it is still important to "roll
your sleeves up and get back to work7
"The glow fades, I need to make hay
while the sun shines:' he said.

❑

Jews

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

At The Movies

Now in theaters:

Blue Jasmine, the new Woody Allen
film, stars Cate Blanchett as Jasmine,
a combination of a younger WASP
version of Ruth Madoff, the wife of
swindler Bernie Madoff, and Blanche
DuBois, the tragic central character of
A Streetcar Named Desire. Jasmine's
husband (Alec Baldwin) is a Wall
Street swindler whose downfall
leaves Jasmine broke and forced to
move in to her sister's modest San
Francisco apartment. There she meets
and derides her sister's working-
class ex-husband (Andrew Dice
Clay, 55) and blue-collar boyfriend
(Bobby Carnavale). Look for Michael
Stuhlbarq, 45, as shnooky dentist Dr.
Flicker.

50

August 15 • 2013

Opening Friday, Aug.16:
Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker
stars in Lee Daniels' The Butler
as a witness-to-history, an African
American White House butler named
Cecil Gaines, who serves from 1952-
1986; the film is based on the account
of real-life butler Eugene Allen. Oprah
Winfrey plays Gaines' wife, Gloria. Liev
Schreiber, 45, is one of many big-
name actors/actresses who play a
president/first lady (he plays LBJ).
Butler is directed by African
American Lee Gaines (Precious), with
a script by actor-writ-
er Danny Strong, 39.
Billed as a "high-
stakes thriller,"
Paranoia stars Liam
Hemsworth as Adam
Cassidy, a regular
guy who makes a
costly mistake and is

forced by his company's ruthless CEO
to spy on the company's corporate
rival, Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford,
71). Cassidy is well paid for spying on
Goddard, his former mentor; however,
he comes to realize that his boss will
stop at nothing, even murder, to get
his way, and he has to find a way to
stop him.
Ashton Kutcher has the title role in
Jobs, about the late Apple Computer
co-founder Steve Jobs. It begins
with Jobs in college and ends with
his return to head Apple in 1997 and
the launch of the
first of the "i" prod-
ucts. Josh Gad, 32,
co-stars as Apple
co-founder Steve
Wozniak, with Lesley
Ann Warren, 66,
appearing as Jobs'
Gad
mother, Clara.

The Director's Chair
Israeli author Amos Oz, 74, recently
told Reuters that Natalie Portman,

32, will direct and co-star in a feature
film adaptation of his autobiographi-
cal novel, A Tale of Love and Darkness.
Filming will begin later this year, and
Portman will play Oz's mother.

ESPN Goes Silver
East Lansing native Nate Silver, 35,

will join ESPN later this year. Silver is
most famous for his FiveThirtyEight
blog for the New York Times.
But his roots go back to statistical
analysis of sports. The newly expand-
ed FiveThirtyEight.com will cover poli-
tics, sports, culture and technology.
Silver says: "This is a dream
job for me. I'm excited to expand
FiveThirtyEight's data-driven approach
into new areas while also reuniting
with my love of sports."

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