Thank you, DOC NYC and IFC Center, and everyone who attended our SOLD OUT festival World Premiere of “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence.” It was a dream night.
What an honor to share the stage with extraordinary singer-songwriter Janis Ian and my talented and committed core collaborators for a Q&A following the screening. Sharing the stage with Janis Ian and me were our Executive Producer and my Co-writer Pierre Hauser, Producer Alessandra Pasquino, Director of Photography Matthew Wilder, and Editor Ryan Larkin.
I enjoyed this Q&A tremendously. It’s always illuminating to hear different points of view and perspectives on a shared creative experience.
This is my first film set, primarily in the past. Finding ways to bring the past to life presented a unique challenge. Inspired by collage, we combined contemporary original interview and performance footage with archival footage, archival photographs, animation, and my imaginings of Janis Ian’s memories, which we call mood shots. From an aesthetic perspective, my primary concern was maintaining a fresh and original approach, inviting the audience to experience a vibrant, living, and immediacy and ensuring that these disparate elements came together to create a coherent whole.
When our DP Matthew Wilder was asked how he would describe my approach to our shoots, he summed it up beautifully. He called it “controlled chaos.” Editor Ryan Larkin echoed this description when discussing our post-production. “Controlled chaos” sounds a little scary. It is. This was a risky approach I had never taken before. To be truly creative, we have to take risks. While this approach felt right, I was in a state of “not knowing” for most of the production, adhering to the theory that it is in “not knowing” that creativity arises.
It was reassuring to experience DOC NYC audiences responding to “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence” with deep emotions and lively enthusiasm—lots of hugs, kisses, and even tears.
We’re in the early days of the film’s release, and how the general public responds to the film has yet to be determined. My state of “not knowing” persists as we plan to bring “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence” to the world–a good state to be in, I believe, since it is in “not knowing” that infinite possibility resides.
