Exclusive Event: Late James Gandolfini-Produced DCTV Documentaries Screening and Q&A at Firehouse NYC.
When one thinks of the late great James Gandolfini, one doesn’t immediately think “documentary producer”. They almost always associate the gifted actor with his emotionally complex portrayal of mafioso Tony Soprano on the hit HBO series The Sopranos. But with his brilliant acting, also came a more tender and compassionate side. As he gained notoriety with his acting work, he was also quite busy with his involvement in two immensely profound and illuminating HBO documentaries.
Those documentaries are “Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq” and “Wartorn: 1861-2010″ from 2007 and 2010 respectively. Both films were screened on September 26th at the Firehouse theater and media center (celebrating one year in operation) in NYC through DCTV (“New York City’s preeminent community of and for documentary storytellers,” celebrating its 50th anniversary). These powerful films were paired with an excerpt from another fantastic (untitled and unfinished) documentary which highlighted prison inmates in an attempt to better themselves. Gandolfini produced this film as well and in 2012, joined the DCTV board. This incredible evening also included an enlightening Q&A moderated by Gandolfini-collaborator, actor, and filmmaker Steve Buscemi among others and the evening was absolutely eye-opening.
All three documentaries share a common theme and this is: resilience and overcoming the odds. “Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq” features soldiers who have returned from war and now have a new day to celebrate aside from their birthday: Their Alive Day, the day in which they survived battle and made it back home to their families. This documentary is truly fascinating and simply shines a light on hope and how precious life is. The sacrifices made by these brave men and women are displayed here in full force.
The next documentary, Wartorn: 1861-2010, highlights the horrific reality of war and how it ravages not only the bodies of soldiers but their minds as well. With cases documented as early as the Civil War, we get a deep look into what combat can actually do to a person. The final documentary excerpt screened showcased hardened criminals who, while incarcerated, are still finding ways to educate themselves and to look to a brighter future. Each film was artfully done and dealt with some very serious subject matter. Overall, the screenings were truly out of this world.
After the screenings, Steve Buscemi moderated a fascinating panel consisting of director Jon Alpert (half of filmmaking-couple with Keiko Tsuno), colleague Tom Richardson, and Gandolfini’s son Michael Gandolfini. Also, in attendance but not a part of the Q&A was producer Ellen Goosenberg Kent. But part tribute to the late great actor and part inside look into three very important films, the Q&A was a real knockout and something fans of Gandolfini and documentary storytelling should always remember. Here’s a little look of how the Q&A went:
Steve: My first question is, how do you as a filmmaker, how do you cope?
Jon: We probably should have had a warning before we showed this, I apologize. You sort of get used to it. I mean, you really do, the same way that firemen get used to running into fires. We get used to this, and we have a job to do, and as long as you believe that the film is going to be effective and it’s going to be useful, it’s a little bit of the armor that protects you. Of these three films, the one that troubles me the most is the last one because it never got seen.
Steve: Well, what’s happening with it? It looks amazing.
Jon: HBO killed the film to collect the insurance. Sorry, that’s what they do. For him, he was worth more dead than alive, and they killed it, and it was really important to him for reasons we will talk about.
Steve: Michael, how old were you when these films came out, and did you see them at the time?
Michael: I hadn’t seen them, no. I watched them later, knowing how much it meant to my dad when I began to sort of, I think I saw them when I turned 18. I was interested in my dad, who – not only who he was, sort of finding him as I grew up again, but what was really important to him, what causes he believed in, and watched them.
And when I watched them again, I was a part of a film that took place during these wars, and I watched them again just to learn and was so inspired by them. You know, but I had known about my dad traveling to Iraq and Afghanistan and his work with Jon has been in my life forever. So has Tommy. So I was aware of these things and had gone to events with my dad, and he began to teach me about sort of these causes, but I was too young to really understand until I watched these films, yeah.
Steve: He may have wanted to protect you as well.
Michael: Absolutely, yeah.
Jon: Is it hard for you to watch? Does it bother you?
Michael: No, no, I mean, obviously it’s really moving for sure, but there’s such a strength in not only these stories but in sort of, I personally find it especially in both, you know, he’s really, the platform that you gave to these people, he’s not shown in them, and I think that’s what you taught. These films and their stories are about service. It’s all about service to something higher and something bigger and like, it’s incredibly inspiringto not only hear these stories but, you know, see how my dad just lived his life in humility. You know, his face isn’t shown, it’s not about anything, so I just find it incredibly moving and inspiring.
Steve: Yeah, what’s really interesting is that, especially Alive Day, yeah, you don’t see your dad’s face. You see him leaning in a lot, and that to me describes him so well, just leaning in and wanting to know more. He was so empathetic, and you could see how people opened up to him, and that I think is such an important part of filming. Tommy, how did Jim get interested in the military? Was that something that he’d always had an interest in, or was this brought to him and he thought it was a worthy cause?
Tommy: I mean, there was a part of it where they talked about this generation, and this generation doesn’t know what they’re doing, this generation is lazy, this generation doesn’t have it, and Jim always said, no, this is our greatest generation. These guys that have dropped what they’re doing and go over to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Those stories need to be told, and you know, when we were over there, we were talking with General Chiarelli, and it didn’t make it into what Jon put together, but it was something that really meant a lot to Jim, was that these guys were told, you know, toughen up, you know, make it happen, you know, I don’t want to hear it. And doing this documentary with Jon and Jim and getting that kind of visibility on this, for the first time, when a soldier says, “I need help. I think I have PTSD,” he’s like, we’re going to believe you.
Rather than the way it went for one guy’s father, it was like, yeah? Prove it! Prove this! And then maybe, maybe we’ll help you. And that meant so much to Jim, and that generation meant so much to Jim. His father was in the military, and you know, he didn’t want to tell a lot of stories, but every once in a while, he would tell some stories about World War II. He was over in World War II in the fox holes, so it had a lot of meaning to him, what these guys were going through and the stories that they told.
Steve: That’s amazing that this film did in fact affect change. You know, and as I was watching it, I was wondering, did you get any pushback from the military? Because, you know, in some ways, not an indictment, but it’s, you can see like in the story that father tells, they were clearly doing something wrong, and if it’s that one soldier, who knows how many more? This has been the history of wars.That’s what I also loved about when I saw the documentary for the first time, that it goes back to other wars, you see how it has always been around. But it’s the contradiction of being a soldier. Like they say, you’re being trained both physically and mentally not to show any weakness.
Tommy: It’s so true.
Steve: What was it like working with Jim?
Jon: Well, first I think it’s important that we acknowledge director and Academy Award winner Ellen Goosenberg. Ellen went on after this to make a film about suicide prevention for the vets, and she won the Oscar for that. All of these films are actually used by the military, especially in training, so that the soldiers can know what they’re getting in for. The military has changed, and part of that change is embodied with these films and the use of these films. Matt O’Neill is not here. He’s making a film right now. So in the beginning, Jim was a pain in the neck.
He doesn’t want the camera to take his picture, okay? We didn’t have a single cutaway. We need a cutaway of Jim, and we don’t have any. You know, also, he understood his celebrity, but parts of him wouldn’t acknowledge it, and he was reticent to ask questions. The first interview that we did wasn’t a good interview, and Jim was a little bit shocked at the interviews that the soldiers had. These were quite profound and didn’t ask them a question. He was very frustrated after this, and we were all trying to figure out, you know, this isn’t working.
Jim, the next guy that’s coming in is missing his legs, okay? And I need you to ask him to roll up his pants legs and to show us what has happened to him, and he said, I’m not going to do that, and you thought it was improper for him to do and perhaps disrespectful. I said, Jim, he has flown all the way across the country. He is here to tell us that, okay? I’m going to tap him on the shoulder and at that time, you’re going to ask him to roll his pants up. Jim, he didn’t like this at all, so the moment came for him to do this, I tapped him on the shoulder, and he wouldn’t do it.
I tap him on the shoulder, and finally, he goes, “This guy here, he wants me to ask you to roll your pants up!” And the guy says, sure, and then he realized that this is really, he is the catalyst for these stories coming out, and when Jim was sitting down, you picked up on this, people knew him or thought they knew him because they had been watching him on TV for years, and he was familiar, and he could ask them to do anything, and they felt very comfortable with it. After that, he was one of the best interviewers I’ve ever seen. I’ve worked with everybody, and he became the best. You heard the questions he asked.
They were at the right moment, they were simple, they were sensitive, they were questions we would have asked, it was phenomenal. And working with him, doors opened. Without Jim, for us to get to that lakeside in Iraq would have taken us three weeks, and it didn’t take three weeks with Jim. And so this combination of celebrity, sympathy, and his ability to communicate real sincerity – I’ve worked with lots of reporters who pretend that they are, but they are not sincere, okay? As soon as they are done, boom, the shade goes down. Jim kept in touch with everybody. I mean, you know this, Tommy. Do you have a story about it? I don’t know the answer to this question!
Tommy: Well, the first thing that truly blew my mind was when Dawn came up on the screen and her Alive Day was June 19? That just really struck me.
Jon: Why?
Tommy: Because that’s the day Jim died, June 19. But she had a poster from Alive Day, and she had everybody sign it, so Jim signed it, and he told her, “I left a special message for you on that.” And Dawn, I don’t know if you remember, she was the one who said, “I don’t know if my kids can love me.” If that was me, I would have jumped in there, but Jim was able to just let that moment breathe and let her process that and gothrough all that stuff.
He wrote her a note on that poster, and she said, “I’m not going to read it now,” and she rolled up the poster and put it back in the sleeve, “I’m not going to read it until I’m ready.” And he would talk to her every once in a while, “Are you ready?” And she would say, “No.” She actually became one of the leading people in the Wounded Warrior Project, which Jim did millions of charities over the years, so yes, it’s very true that he kept in touch and supported these peoples’ lives.
He had that ability that when he looked at you and when he focused on you and you were in his gaze and his presence, you know, the cameras melted away and everything else melted away. It was just you and him, and you really had a kindred spirit that was listening to you, and I think they all felt it, and when you’re watching the film, I think you feel it too.
Jon: And what did the note say?
Tommy: I don’t know! Every time she answered, she said, “I haven’t opened it up yet. I haven’t seen what you wrote.” And Jim never told me what he wrote for her.
Steve: And that was one of the moments I really remembered from watching it before was that moment when she kind of puts her head down and Jimmy lets her do it and waits at the perfect moment to say, “What were you thinking about?” It’s almost like he was a therapist at that moment.
Jon: You two guys are actors. What would they be trying to get you to do to be able to make a moment like that? Because that moment occurred naturally, but it occurred from something that came from him. If you were processing this, if you were directing someone, what would you do?
Steve: I don’t know! I’m going back to you saying that Jim thought acting was silly, and in many ways, it is. He was so hard on himself, and what’s also moving to me is seeing the third film.
Jon: We made that film for you. You want to talk about that?
Steve: Yeah, and I want to hear you talk about it, but I want to say one thing, because I worked with Jimmy, and it was really hard for him, I think, to retain. He had so many lines, the character was so dark, he really struggled, so knowing this about him just makes my heart go out to him because he truly struggled with what he had to do, and he did it so brilliantly. You know, I worked with him first as a director, and so I would oftentimes, not see, I didn’t understand what he was doing. He would take his time, and I would be like, what the fuck is he doing? Say the line! And then you watch in editing, and just go, oh my god, you could see the process, you could see him thinking.
Michael: Yeah, I think a lot of these stories are just a testament to the patience that he had. He was a patient dad, he was a patient friend, and he was a patient filmmaker and a patient actor, and I think that is one of the best qualities that he could have. Yeah, you know that third doc is just so moving, and it’s such a shame that it’s never really going to get to be seen. I have dyslexia and ADHD, and my dad definitely had ADHD, maybe a little bit of dyslexia too with some of those numbers and math, but you know, I think it’s a testament to my dad and I think his sympathy for all different groups, right?
The veterans, the men and women, people in the jail system, it’s anyone who feels like they are being held back for any reason, and that there is a community of people that want to hear them and want to hear them speak and people that will be patient with them because sometimes you just give them a moment and that’s all they need to be remarkable and do remarkable things. You know, I think my dad always taught me, even if I have a learning disability or can’t read.
I was in the third grade, and I would look at the pictures in the book and sort of make it up, but there was never a sentiment that I couldn’t do great things, you know, and I think that in some backgrounds and cultures and places, there is that sentiment, that if you can’t read, if you can’t toughen up, can’t be tough or strong or read or do things that maybe are normal, then you can’t do amazing things, and that’s exactly what these documentaries and what my dad believed, it is just not true. It proves that it is not true. Those are the stories that need to be told. Those are the stories that matter.