Awards season is here and National Geographic Documentary Films has four shortlisted projects that could nab some gold before winter is over. The Flagmakers is creating buzz in the short film category, while Fire of Love, Retrograde, and The Territory are contenders for documentary feature. And while Oscars nominations have not yet been finalized, the directors of each film gathered at the TCA Winter Press Tour to provide insight into the creation and distribution of their films, all of which are now streaming on Disney+.
(Disney/Picture Group)
“When we were making Fire of Love, we really conceived of it as an art-collage film,” director and producer Sara Dosa said of her independent film, which was acquired by National Geographic at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. Fire of Love tells the story of volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft whose love of lava created a love for each other. “It was a nature documentary that was about a love triangle between two humans and an elemental force. It was very French New Wave inspired. These are all elements that one doesn't necessarily associate with a large streamer. So, the fact that we were acquired by Nat Geo and had the opportunity for this collage-art film to reach wide audiences was such a surprise but also such a delight for us. Because we really did feel like they were taking what we so believed in and very much guided by Katia and Maurice's own artist’s renegade spirit, and we got to share that with the world. It felt like this kind of intimate process all of a sudden going global thanks to Nat Geo.”
“After we sold the film to National Geographic, we went back and looked at the old catalogs of the magazine and actually found this amazing 1988 issue of National Geographic – Cover story: ‘Will We Save This Fragile Planet?’” Alex Pritz’s film, The Territory, examines the geopolitical conflict of the rainforest in Brazil, empowering the Indigenous peoples who live there by giving them cameras to tell their own side of the story. “There was a photo series documenting the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau Indigenous community, this group of less than 200 people, just seven years after they were first contacted by the Brazilian state and also interviewing a lot of these farmers and settlers who are invading Indigenous territory. The exact same template as our story nearly 45 years earlier. And, so, it was really interesting to talk about that and also talk about the way that that story was represented with a white ethnographic outsider coming in and documenting that community as opposed to our film, which, I think, does something new where the Indigenous community themselves pick up the cameras and are empowered to document their own version of these events from the inside out. I felt like that was a really meaningful move for National Geographic as a company to lean into these new ways of telling these stories.”
“I am so grateful to work with National Geographic, because we were thinking that maybe we were done with our film and National Geographic said, you can be done, or if you want to spend a little bit more time, you can.” Cynthia Wade is already an Oscar winner for her short film Mondays at Racine. Her new short, The Flagmakers, tells the story of immigrants hand-making the American flag in Wisconsin and was filmed over the course of three years. “I'm so glad they gave us that time. You normally don't have that time in this industry. It's normally rush, rush, rush, rush, and get it out there and it's like a machine. But because of the time, we were really allowed to follow more that happened in this country and more with our characters. And that's vision, and that's patience and that's a sense of artistry… It feels like working with this highly emotionally sensitive and intellectual boutique as opposed to working in a factory where you've got to hit deadlines.” The Flagmakers could’ve easily been a feature film, with so much left on the cutting room floor that the Broadway producers of Come From Away have optioned a stage musical adaptation that could see those other stories being told.
“It's a strange journey being on the awards circuit with everyone, but it's so fun to do it with filmmakers and people that you really respect, that you love, and with films that really inspire you,” Retrograde director and cinematographer Matthew Heineman said. The film chronicles the final months of the war in Afghanistan, a story the filmmaker hopes doesn’t drown in a sea of dire headlines. “I'll never forget the first time we screened Retrograde at the Telluride Film Festival. I'd screened the film millions of times for friends and colleagues and people for feedback, but it was so emotional sitting in a room, finally, with a room packed full of people. It was really emotional. This young woman came up to me, bawling, crying, saying that her brother had died in the war. And I figured it was the war in Afghanistan, and she was from Bosnia. It made me realize that this film actually speaks to a larger theme. In some ways it's allegorical. Human beings have invaded countries, taken over countries, left countries for hundreds of years. We will continue to do it long into the future. Hopefully, it's a vehicle through which we can maybe learn something from. This awards attention just helps amplify those discussions. I think that's why we all make films, to elicit emotion and to generate conversation.”
You can experience Fire of Love, The Territory, The Flagmakers, and Retrograde streaming on Disney+.