Filmmaking | Interviews | Massachusetts

Waiting for the Documentary Storyline

1 Mar , 2009  

Written by Mike Sullivan | Posted by:

Co-director Franco Sacchi discusses how waiting for a documentary’s focus to emerge can bring objectivity to a hot-button issue like Christian fundamentalism.

Why do we make films? Beyond mere entertainment, what is the reason we go through all the grief and aggravation that is filmmaking, especially for documentaries? It certainly isn’t the money. Is it to educate? Perhaps, if said films are for the History Channel or a museum. How about giving a voice to your own specific opinions or ideas? Also a possibility, especially if you’re Michael Moore or Bill Maher. Or is it something else, something more important and more difficult to pull off?

I recently had a conversation about this very topic with Boston filmmaker Franco Sacchi. He is co-director, along with Kate Davis and David Heilbroner, of a new documentary making the festival rounds called Waiting for Armageddon. Hermine Muskat, Roberta Dougan, and Andrew Herwitz are the producers of the film. Waiting for Armageddon is about America’s Evangelical Christian community, their views about Biblical prophecy, and how those beliefs affect their day-to-day lives as the End of Days approaches. The film follows Evangelicals in their homes and in their churches, and accompanies a church-sponsored trip to Israel to tour the site where they believe Jesus Christ will return again. Young and old, North and South, Christian and Jew, everybody has their say. What the film does not do is offer its own opinion on any of these people. There are no clichés or stereotypes here. The filmmakers were extremely strict about making what Sacchi called an “anthropological film, not a political film.”

The original idea came from a conversation between Sacchi, Muskat, and Dougan in 2006. An Italian who came to the US after graduating from the University of Bologna, Sacchi is able to observe America and Americans from a different perspective. He noticed the very large and still-growing impact Evangelical Christians have on the social, political, and cultural climate of the US. Sacchi also noticed that most people, especially here in the Northeast, were not aware that Evangelicals number in the millions and can be found across the country. The filmmakers saw that there were many possible topics for a film in this area, but they also knew, “as a documentarian, we all know that if you don’t narrow down your story and focus on one idea… you go nowhere.” Or as Sacchi explained: “We knew that the people would be extremely fascinating for an audience who’s not used to thinking in these terms. These are your next-door neighbors. These are tens of millions of Americans who are totally foreign to you.” Although not their usual modus operandi, they decided to begin making a film in the hope of finding characters as they went along. Sacchi was quick to point out, however, that he does not like the term characters, “these are real people,” he said.

Funding the project themselves, the filmmakers found many people from across the country to populate their film. Families and professionals from Oregon, Oklahoma and Connecticut all have prominent roles in the movie, but as production moved along it became clear that the issue of fundamentalism was still the main ‘character’ and it would be the issue that was the thread that ran through the film from start to finish.

But, an issue alone cannot produce interesting conversation nor can it deliver exciting visuals. The filmmakers uncovered those crucial elements when they traveled with a Christian Study Group to Israel to see the Holy Land. The group wanted to walk the same ground that Jesus walked and where, they believe, He will return very soon. After reassuring the Evangelical group that the project was indeed an independent documentary and had no partisan political agenda, the crew was able to follow the tour as they traveled across the country of Israel. The relationships between the Evangelical Christians, the Jewish people, and the Muslim world would become the centerpiece of the film.

There were 35 days of production on Waiting for Armageddon — spread over the course of 18 months — including two weeks in Israel. And then came the edit. Kate Davis handled the editing duties and it took about a year to cut the film. Anyone who has ever been in an edit for a documentary knows that it’s there in that dark room that the film you think you’re making can quickly and easily turn into something completely different. Fortunately for this film, all the filmmakers were on the exact same page when it came to the final objective. They all agreed that they were not making a film that critiques or attacks, said Sacchi. “We were quite in agreement that it was important [for audiences] to know more about the fundamentalist evangelical mindset in contemporary America.” That was the rationale behind each and every cut and dissolve and fade to black.

So far, reviews of the film have been positive and what had begun as a labor of love eventually found substantial outside funding. In September 2006 the film was screened at the IFP Market and received additional funding from The Sundance Documentary Institute and the Fledgling Fund. Since then the film has also received funding from the Foundation For Jewish Culture. In January 2009 Waiting for Armageddon closed out the New York Jewish Film Festival with two shows — one of which sold-out. It seems as though Sacchi and his colleagues were able to make the film they set out to make. “To me, this film should make people think and encourage them to listen. The ultimate goal of this film is to start a conversation.”

Visit the film’s website: www.waitingforarmageddon.com. The film screens this month as part of Jewishfilm.2009, the annual film festival of the National Center for Jewish Film housed on the campus of Brandeis University.


Visit the film's website: www.waitingforarmageddon.com. The film screens this month as part of Jewishfilm.2009, the annual film festival of the National Center for Jewish Film housed on the campus of Brandeis University.

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