PROMOTIONAL ISSUE PRESENTED BY
TO THE STARS NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON RETURNS WITH COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS—NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S BIG PICTURE LOOK AT HOPE FOR THE FUTURE AND HUMANITY'S FULL POTENTIAL
CONTENTS FEATURES 4
INTO THE WOODS How the team behind Barkskins recreated the historical French Canada of Annie Proulx's epic novel
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TASTE SENSATION Gordon Ramsay discovers far-flung culinary secrets in Uncharted
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COLD WORLD The Life Below Zero team on witnessing the evolution of their offthe-grid cast after eight seasons
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MISSION CURIOSITY In The World According to Jeff Goldblum, the eponymous host explores everyday favorite things
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INNER SPACE Back with a new incarnation, Cosmos: Possible Worlds summons an inspiring vision of our future
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ADRENALINE RUSH Running Wild with Bear Grylls producer Robert Buchta on the secrets of the show's success
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iNTELLIGENCE TEST Brain Games EPs James Rowley and Casey Kriley reimagine a fan favorite
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BLOOD IN THE WATER How Richard Ladkani's team on eco-thriller doc Sea of Shadows dodged death threats
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UNDERGROUND OPERATION The risks overcome to document Dr. Amani Ballour's work in The Cave
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THE ANCIENT FOREST BARKSKINS SHOWRUNNER ELWOOD REID INVOKED THE MAGIC OF LOCATION IN TELLING THIS HISTORICAL FRENCH-CANADIAN TALE BY NADIA NEOPHYTOU
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t first glance, Annie Proulx’s 2016 epic bestselling novel Barkskins—coming in at a hefty 700 pages and spanning over 300 years of North American history—would seem somewhat unwieldy TV material. But showrunner Elwood Reid (The Bridge) relished the chance to bring it to screens. “When you're a writer, you're always looking for those worlds that aren't out there,” Reid says. “It was so weird and so difficult that it felt like a challenge. It was exciting to me.” Reid developed a script that honed in on a portion of the sprawling story Proulx tells in her book, focusing on two immigrants, René Sel (Christian Cooke) and Charles Duquet (James Bloor), who arrive in New France from Paris as indentured woodcutters, or the eponymous ‘barkskins’. The eight part limited series follows a group of outcasts and misfits, along with the English soldiers, Hudson’s Bay Company fur-trappers and members of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Iroquois) who inhabited the area France colonized—an area now known as French Canada. Reid, who also serves as executive producer alongside Proulx, got the author's blessing to add more characters that didn't
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exist in the book. “For me, just for my writing process, it always comes back to character,” he says. “Whether they're wearing costumes of 17th Century New France or an Armani suit, the character has to jump off the page, jump off the screen. It has to feel vibrant and current to someone now.” Including Oscar-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden, who plays whip-smart innkeeper Mathilde, and David Thewlis as the wealthy landowner Claude Trepagny, the cast traveled to Quebec, where the small settlement of Wobik was recreated by production designer Isabelle Guay and the crew. Taking cues from Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, The Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, which were both set in the Amazonian rainforest, Reid wanted to try immersive filmmaking and hand-build as much as possible. “I’m a big fan of Herzog's movies,” says Reid. “I had read somewhere that he believed in the ‘voodoo of location’— that if you went to the place where you were shooting something, it brought another dimension to the film. It seeps into the actors.” Being dedicated to this idea meant shooting in the remote wilds of the Canadian forest. "We bought this giant area of woods
that was going to be sold off for development,” says Reid. “And then we built a huge, palisaded village, there. When the actors came to the set, they were immediately transported. There was mud on the streets. There were horses. We had to bring power up the mountain. And then they were wearing these handmade costumes that were uncomfortable, in boiled wool and handbuilt boots.” Reid also created an entire Native village. “There were a lot of pre-existing First Nations tribes out there that we went and consulted with, and said [to them], ‘There's not much of a historical record because it was all written by white people at the time, but how can we try to get close to historically reconstructing what some of these First Nations societies were like?’” Looking back, Reid is proud of the authenticity they were able to achieve. “There was nothing faked. The minute the cameramen left, these actors were all alone out there by themselves in the woods. And that's the way it was.” ★
WILD WOODS (Clockwise, from above left) René (Christian Cooke) and Mari (Kaniehtiio Horn) meet in the woods, Claudette (Rose-Marie Perreault) relaxes, Yvon (Zahn McClarnon) brings Elisabeth (Carla Turcotte) to the village.
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IT TAKES A VILLAGE HOW BARKSKINS PRODUCTION DESIGNER ISABELLE GUAY PAINSTAKINGLY RECREATED 17TH CENTURY NEW FRANCE
What was your starting point for beginning to recreate this world? I started with the light. I wanted to make sure that it was all going to be natural light, even if you're inside. I pulled a lot of my inspiration from paintings, from the 1600s and from the 19th Century, engravings and photographs. [Dutch-Canadian painter] Cornelius Krieghoff’s paintings are images of Canada, describing the traditions of the French settlers and the Native people. [Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da] Caravaggio’s paintings from the 16th Century are exactly what Barkskins needed as light for the interiors—all really directional, focusing on the subject. That's how I wanted it to be, that you're inside, but there's one source of light that really focuses on the actors, and keeps the intimacy. And one more
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inspiration I really, really loved was the photographs of Edward Curtis, an anthropologist at the beginning of the 20th Century. He did a lot of research into, and photographed over 80 tribes of native nations. How did it help to be filming in the actual area, in French Canada, where those settlers arrived? I was very, very lucky because there were historical sites that were nearby. Some in Montreal, like the Maison Saint-Gabriel, which has a full reconstitution of the passage of the Filles du Roi in Montreal. You can see all the furniture, fabric, food, kitchen and their everyday tools. Everything is authentic there. It’s a great source of historical details. Where we were shooting in Quebec City, there's also Île d'Orléans, which
FROM THE GROUND UP Various concept pieces and scale models for the village Barkskins production designer Isabelle Guy built on location.
PLOTTING LAND One of several drawings of Wobik village produced as Guay and her team recreated French Canadian life.
has four houses that were great resources for construction details and textures, because they had been remodeled exactly to that period. And then, of course, the five main museums, including Pointe-à-Callière, La Musée Canadien de l'Histoire, and Château Ramezay in Quebec Province, were all very good for maps and fabric and emblems, and all the graphic details. Some historians were really helpful to us as well, in creating the Quebec City streets. And all the First Nation research was a big, big part of it. I would say this was the hardest thing, because it's a little bit more complicated to have access to that information, so the First Nation consultants were really helping us out with all those details. We really wanted to make it as precise as we could.
This was your first time creating a village on screen. What was your biggest challenge? Finding the right location for Wobik village [where the story is set]. When I started on this show, it was winter, and there was six feet of snow and no leaves on the trees. So, with Michèle [St-Arnaud], our wonderful location manager, we explored many, many territories. But all our possible locations were fully covered with beautiful white blankets at the time. So, we had to use skis, snowshoes, ATVs and even helicopters. I had to envision the needs of a village, and of the people that were going to live in it. Then, once that was done and approved, I had to jump on my second challenge, which was to get the richness and the detail of a village that was founded centuries ago. I didn't want it to look fresh and brand new. —Nadia Neophytou ★ D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
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AN ODYSSEY OF FLAVOR GORDON RAMSAY ON HOW UNCHARTED TAKES US AROUND THE WORLD ON A CULINARY TREASURE HUNT In Uncharted you’re meeting people from distant corners of the globe, learning about rare ingredients and cooking methods. Yes. I'm almost becoming a pupil—a student under their guidance—and then coming back at the end of the week and trying to match what they already know perfectly, using methods that are not well-known outside of their circle. That was the premise, and it was just really cool. In Alaska you actually breathed into raw animal lungs to prepare them to eat. How did you handle that? I think the lungs were a delicacy, and how people survived. That Tlingit community, how self-sufficient they were was bloody impressive. You think that when there's a lane shutdown on the 405 [freeway], it's bedlam here in LA. Over there, in Alaska, because they know how brutal their winter is, they get prepared. So, watching an 11-year-old girl plait the small intestines of a seal to dry it out, to take to school to snack on as some form of jerky, that's impressive. As a chef, you'll jump in to taste everything and come up with what
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you think is the definitive perfection and how you can push those ingredients. I'm not really that squeamish, honestly. You’ve been shooting Season 2, what are some highlights? We got back from Guyana a few weeks ago, which was extraordinary. This season I want to push the boat out even further, and dig deeper in many ways. Georgetown was fascinating. You take two planes, sea boats, and plunge down in the middle of the jungle. But it is survival. From fishing for the most amazing huge black piranha, to chasing caiman, they only went hunting for what they wanted to eat. They were just literally fishing and hunting to live. Then, when we went diving for giant crayfish in Tasmania one day, I just saw this big, dark cloud go past me with a white bottom for the belly. A shark. It was about 35 meters away, and I'm thinking, Holy shit. This thing was so slow, it was really majestic in the way that it was just gliding past us. When I got up [to the surface], my buddy said, "Yeah, I forgot to tell you, this is the Great White highway." —Antonia Blyth ★
THE FROZEN
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hen cinematographer Michael Cheeseman first got the call for Life Below Zero in 2013, it was just another job, a series that would chart the lives of people living in extreme weather conditions in Alaska. “Obviously I didn’t know it was going to continue to go all the way until Season 8, which we’re filming now,” he says. “And on top of that, having the awards and accolades that we have now is pretty phenomenal.” Indeed, after nearly a decade on screen and winning four Primetime Emmys, for editing and cinematography, the show has more than struck a chord with audiences, getting under the skin of its subjects. But for
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executive producer Joseph Litzinger, longevity was always the plan. “A lot of shows at the time simply followed people doing their work,” he says, “and even now, some are very matter of fact. There’s a lot of story, but very little substance—you can only see someone harvest meat so many times. How do you make it different, make it interesting, make it unique? We wanted to go deeper into the psyche of people who choose to live off the grid. What we were trying to explore was, why would someone choose this lifestyle?” Part of the appeal of the show, thinks editor Jenny Nelson, is its approach to the location. “What’s interesting about working on Life Below Zero that’s different from a lot
SNOW BOUND (Clockwise from left) Sue Aikens tracks sheep, the aurora borealis, Skyler DeWilde hunts with his father Ricko, Carol and Ting Hailstone haul ice, Jessie Holmes rides with his dog team.
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of other shows is that Alaska itself is also a character,” she says. “Whether it’s beautiful Alaska or treacherous Alaska, the location they’re shooting in really has a life of its own. We have to create the feel of what it’s like to be tromping through the snow in total darkness, because they have days of the year that they have no sunshine and it’s 50 below. We want you to feel what that’s like.” Litzinger agrees. “In that sense,” the producer says, “I believe we completely changed how Alaska was portrayed on television, in terms of delivering what you think of when you think of National Geographic and the big nature shows.” As well as its beautiful imagery, the show has unexpectedly created its own stars. “We’ve been with some of the cast now for eight years, through a wide variety of experiences,” says Litzinger. “There are times
IN ITS EIGHTH SEASON, LIFE BELOW ZERO HAS MADE STARS OF BOTH ITS OFF-THE-GRID CAST AND OF ALASKA ITSELF BY DAMON WISE when you’re all literally sharing a room with a bucket in the corner. You really get to know each other.” And so do the public. When the show started, none of the cast had the internet, and now most— like Sue Aikens, who lives 80 miles from the nearest road—have Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. “I love it because you get to see somebody grow and evolve in their life,” says Cheeseman. “We’re lucky enough to be able to document that growth. When I first started filming Sue, she was this lady that lived up in the middle of nowhere, that helped people out when they needed it, refueling planes and providing food and water for people that were there. Now she’s becoming such a giant personality. So, for me, that’s been really fascinating, to be able to watch these people evolve and grow.” ★
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EVERYDAY
ICONS IN THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JEFF GOLDBLUM, THE ACTOR LOOKS AT THE CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS, FROM ICE CREAM, TO DENIM AND SNEAKERS
What really piqued your interest when you heard National Geographic’s pitch for this docuseries? Their previous work is just terrific, and I really liked them when I worked with them before. They said, "So, you did that thing for us with Explorer for a few episodes, and you were able to make that your own." And I said, "Well, what would really interest me is if we did even more of that." There were some areas that I could have fun with, that would really pique my curiosity. I could learn something, and just be authentic, not pretending to know anything that I don't, and bring the audience along with me. How did you guys figure out what topics to cover in the first season? Was it collaborative? Well, they're very good. It is collaborative. I give them my opinion about something, but it seems like I have a feeling about all sorts of things under the sun. We finally came up thematically with this idea of things that people love widely. Barbecues, cosmetics, jewelry, and pools, and all that stuff.
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MAGIC MUSINGS SHOWRUNNER ARIF NURMOHAMED REVEALS HOW GOLDBLUM’S VOICEOVER WAS KEY TO THE SHOW’S APPEAL BY ANTONIA BLYTH The episode where you ride a bicycle through Detroit was especially moving. Yes. I still have that bicycle that the lovely people of Detroit Bikes gave me, and I ride around with [my son] Charlie. I was particularly moved by that slow roll and seeing the city of Detroit and the artisanal people who are making these bikes. It was also fun going back to my hometown of Pittsburgh, and seeing those people get tattoos with me. And going to Hawaii and meeting the people there, who were very beautiful, who were doing the traditional tattoos was really something. Then the people from NASA in the "Pools" episode that I met down in the neutral buoyancy lab. And I met a couple of astronauts there, and even talked to one who was up in a space station. I talked to him on my cell phone, believe it or not. Watching the show, it feels like we’re discovering things at the same time as you. Did you always plan to avoid a ‘prepared’ style? Yes. For instance, every location we go to and every person they've cast, I really don't see them until the camera sees me seeing them. And I really discover things. I read a couple of things so I know what I'm going into, but most of it is just my own fresh experience with whomever it is and wherever we are. Then I talk to the camera, as you see, and in these voiceovers, that are also like a spontaneous podcast, where I'm just musing. Out of my sometimes incoherent ramblings, they can cull a moment or two of something that might be interesting and tell the story. —Antonia Blyth ★
“When you're working with talent like Jeff, in terms of his level of commitment, I've never known anyone who's thrown himself so wholeheartedly into making these shows as good as they can be,” says showrunner Arif Nurmohamed. Aside from visiting multiple locations and diving into many topics for the show, Goldblum really embraced the voiceover work that ends up being a key part of the storytelling. “We developed an approach to the voiceover where I'd sit with Jeff and we'd show him a rough cut. Then he would spend two or three hours where he would be riffing on what he was seeing.” That dedication to detail allowed the show to make the most of its dynamic host. “It was a commitment to spontaneous honesty, and just Jeff, he is an improviser,” Nurmohamed says. “That's the way he works, very often, on film sets, and we were able to tap into that with this documentary, which is great. Bringing that level of performance and spontaneity, and just his Jeff-ness.” ★
INTO THE UNKNOWN COSMOS CONTINUES ITS INSPIRING DIVE INTO MEANING, EXISTENCE AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANKIND WITH POSSIBLE WORLDS BY DAMON WISE
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he science series Cosmos first aired 40 years ago, and its third iteration, Cosmos: Possible Worlds, sees humanity at a crossroads in its existence. For writer/ producer Brannon Braga, it’s a chance to take stock. “What Cosmos does so beautifully is to take science out of the realm of equations on a chalkboard, or a boring hour at school, and make it what science is—a deep and profound human endeavor to understand our universe and our place in it. Cosmos is the only science-based show I’ve seen that can bring me to tears. And, if you can move people, the concepts are really going to stick with them.” The show’s host Neil deGrasse Tyson agrees, and credits the show’s co-creator Ann Druyan—who began it with her late husband, former show host Carl Sagan—for that emotional heft. “In general, Ann is the creative force here,” he says. “Though not a scientist herself, she is hyper-scientifically literate, and she’s also emotionally literate, so when it comes time to tell a story, she has a particular
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access to your soul, to your curiosity, to your sense of purpose and the meaning in life.” The result, he suggests, is that Cosmos offers “a pathway to enlightenment. That enlightenment triggers within you a sense of duty, and you go forward feeling that we have the power to make this world better. It’s not all, ‘We’re going to die.' There are suggestions of how we might emerge on the other side of this, not only just surviving, but thriving.” And thanks to its excellent technical team, Cosmos really does entirely transport the viewer. Says Druyan, “It’s a tribute to the original series—and also the abiding and growing love for Carl Sagan—that we were able to attract tons of talent that worked on big-budget movies. I think of Jeff Okun, our brilliant VFX supervisor, and Karl Walter Lindenlaub, our magnificent director of photography, and Ruth E. Carter, who designed the costumes for Black Panther, and won an Oscar for it. In terms of the development of the technology, we’ve always, from day one, wanted Cosmos to be
a cinematic, transporting experience, to really make you feel what the science is saying, so that the music by Alan Silvestri, the camerawork, the direction, and Neil’s brilliant performance—all of it—would combine to make you feel what the scientists are telling us.” This is absolutely more than a television show for Druyan, it's a mission to educate. “Unless we start taking science to heart, and stop compartmentalizing it into 45 minutes of boredom, or terror, a few days a week in school, then we’re not going to solve the problems we face,” she says. “As Einstein said, its inner meaning has to penetrate the consciousness of the people. That’s exactly why I do the work I’ve been doing all my life.” And the million-dollar question: What would Carl Sagan himself think of it? “I wouldn’t dare to speak for Carl,” says Druyan, “but I have my fantasy, and my kids tell me all the time, ‘Daddy would be so proud of you,’ which makes me very happy. There’s no way of knowing; I just hope he would feel that we were continuing and protecting that candle in the darkness that he first lit.” ★
STARMAN (Below, from top left) Cosmos: Possible Worlds host Neil deGrasse Tyson, co-creator Ann Druyan and writer/producer Brannon Braga.
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UNIVERSAL SOUND ALAN SILVESTRI LEANED INTO SCIENTIFIC STORYTELLING TO SCORE COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS BY DAMON WISE
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est known—and twice Oscar-nominated—for his work with Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, The Polar Express) and the go-to composer on Marvel’s record-breaking Avengers franchise, Alan Silvestri was a typical high-end hire for the new season of National Geographic’s science show Cosmos: Possible Worlds. A huge fan of the science fiction genre himself, Silvestri jumped at the chance to score the 13-part series when executive producer Seth MacFarlane invited him. “Science fiction, by its very nature, asks us to step outside of ourselves,” Silvestri reasons, “and this idea of being in the unknown, surrounded by unknown possibilities, is just very provocative. I always seem to enjoy that aspect of storytelling where I know how I’m feeling, but I don’t know exactly where I am.” As its title suggests, Cosmos: Possible Worlds covers a lot of ground, from the epic
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to the personal, from the microcosmic to the intergalactic. “There was a lot of music in Cosmos and artistically, you have to find your way in to how the story is being told,” he says. In this case, that’s in the form of renowned scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who hosts the show with authority and passion. “I envisioned Neil sitting around a campfire with a group of people and saying, ‘Hey, you know what? I’m going to tell you all a little story about science.’ And that really was the tone for me of the entire series: We’re being told this magnificent story with these magnificent images, and it’s a powerful story with a lot of emotion. I really just found myself following along with the story—when I was excited, the music showed that. When I became introspective, I became introspective with the music. So, I really just followed the story and it led me to where I needed to go.” ★
LIFE ON MARS VFX SUPERVISOR JEFFREY A. OKUN TRAVELS THE UNIVERSE WITH COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS
What were Cosmos’ key creatives looking for in their VFX Supervisor? They wanted somebody that could dig into the science and then find a way to show it in an incredibly beautiful, but understandable manner. Even though in my mind, I’m an astronomer and an astronaut, in real life, without my Night Sky app, I can’t tell you where anything is, except for Jupiter and the moon and sun, and occasionally Mars. So, it became that kind of challenge, to dig deeply into the science. Which resources helped bring the show’s many worlds to life? Our in-house science advisor, André Bormanis, was always ready with some link to show me. But what they encouraged was, “Do your own research.” They sent me to little, cobwebby corners of the internet where there was amazing stuff. We also had the resource of employing BUF, a visual effects company in Paris that did the last season. My PA also created a phenomenal database of every image, cross-referenced, that was used in Season 1 and Season 2, so there was a lot we could dig into. Research is king and fact is truth, so it was amazing.
What was most challenging on this series? When you’re looking at things that are not common to everybody, there’s really no way to portray scale. So, that became one of the major challenges of the series. When you’re talking about a bridge of fire that is seven million miles across, how do I show the scale of that? What did you take away from the experience of working on Cosmos? Because of the space I shared working with Ann Druyan, I walked away from it with a different kind of respect and yearning for real science. I learned so much that it's really impacted my critical thinking about everyday life on the planet. It hurt my brain. It created new pathways, and it made me a better person. —Matt Grobar ★
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DARE DEVIL RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS PRODUCER ROBERT BUCHTA TALKS SAFETY, CELEBRITIES AND CHASING TOM CRUISE BY DAMON WISE
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unning Wild with Bear Grylls, a survivalist reality show that’s part travelogue and part talk show, is now in its fifth season, continuing to attract A-list guests—Barack Obama was a guest star in 2015—even though it appears to break all the usual rules of TV health and safety. But while it may look scary—we see model/actress Cara Delevingne dangling on a rope between two mountains in Sardinia—it's carefully staged and security is paramount. “We have an idea of what Bear is going to do,” says executive producer Robert Buchta. “But he tends to go off script, so we’re literally hustling just to keep up with him, and you can kind of sense that when you watch the show. Everyone’s
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out of breath, including the crew. But we pick areas that are solid enough, and diverse enough, where Bear can improvise.” Time is at a premium since the guest’s schedule is always tight. “This is a two-day journey,” Buchta says. “We’re out there for about a full day, a whole night, and then two thirds of the next day with them. That’s a lot from a celebrity.” Despite this, Grylls is able to dig deeper than any chat show could. “The guests are always out there alone with us,” says Buchta. “We don’t let agents and managers and hair and makeup come along for the ride. It’s too risky and cost-prohibitive. They’re without their cell phones, so the outside world isn’t pecking at them, and we’re spiking their adrenaline. When you’re sitting around a campfire eating a dead skunk, after a day of helicopter rides and crossing raging rivers, they kind of open up.” Is there a particular celebrity guest on their wish list? “We’ve been chasing Tom Cruise every season,” he says. “He’d be the crown jewel, just because he fully embodies that spirit of adventure. And personally, because I’m a child of the ’80s, I want to get Arnold Schwarzenegger out there. That would be amazing.” ★
GREY MATTER HIT FAVORITE BRAIN GAMES PUTS CELEBRITY GUESTS AND VIEWERS TO THE TEST WITH A COMEBACK SERIES BY DAMON WISE
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rain Games first appeared as a one-off in 2011, and its return as a full series in 2013 resulted in some of National Geographic’s highest viewing figures. With its ingenious blend of pop psychology and science, the show proved a hit with audiences of all ages, which provided a formidable challenge to production company Magical Elves when the time came to reimagine the show for 2020. “The challenge was always finding what's the essence of the show,” says EP James Rowley. “What are the things that people love about it, and then how can that be expanded, re-imagined, but always retained? It’s about being aware of what the original fans value that you can’t lose, and then being able to retain that while still upgrading, or expanding, the growth of the series.” Adds executive producer Casey Kriley,
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“Brain Games was a very successful show for National Geographic, so it was fun to have the opportunity to take that original format and turn it into a new kind of show, one that’s not only driven by celebrities and exploring their brains, but one that’s done in front of a live studio audience. Nevertheless, our ultimate goal with the reboot was simple: to learn about your brain—and have a lot of fun while you’re learning.” The eight-episode season, hosted by Keegan-Michael Key, brought a dash of Hollywood to its classic mind-bending format by challenging an eclectic roster of celebrity guests—including Jack Black, Tiffany Haddish and Rebel Wilson—through interactive games, illusions and social experiments. “One of the big things we want to make sure of is that this isn’t school,” says Kriley. “This is a fun, entertaining, celebritybased, shiny-floor show with pretty lights and big set-pieces and lots of fireballs and all sorts of fun stuff. But at its core it is explaining these sometimes surprising aspects of your brain.” The first new-look season of Brain Games has given Rowley and Kriley a taste for more. “I feel really good about it going forward,” says Rowley. “Sometimes you don’t know until you put it on its feet in front of an audience. We feel it lives up to the original appeal of Brain Games, which is these ‘Aha!’ moments. Having done it eight times already, we can really refine that even further.” ★
LIFE GUARD The Mexican Navy fight against illegal totoaba fishing.
RISKY BUSINESS SEA OF SHADOWS DIRECTOR RICHARD LADKANI REFLECTS ON THE DANGERS OF MAKING THE ECO-THRILLER
Your film pits environmental activists against narco-traffickers, with the survival of the vaquita porpoise at stake. How concerned about safety were you? We knew we were going to face the drug cartel as the enemy because they were running the illegal trade in totoaba fish, dropping gill nets, which kill the vaquita. So, we were very intimidated. The cartels are heavily armed.
who were totoaba traffickers. They were inside the base in San Felipe. [Their supporters] wanted to force the release of the prisoners by storming the base. Rocks started flying, shots were being fired, and we just felt in the middle of mayhem. I heard bullets ricocheting off walls around us. I have been in very dangerous situations before and the one thing I learned was, run for your life—but make sure your camera is rolling.
How did you protect your team? We hired a big, global security company to give us their expertise. We usually had four security personnel with us, two of them armed. The idea was to immerse the security into our crew. At our house, we had one guy outside the front door, and one guy on the roof all night. One night, a gang of guys in a car circled our house, pointing a finger [mimicking a pistol] at us. They were showing us, "We know where you are.” They were killing people, so it was not an empty threat.
You captured another dramatic moment—a pursuit between a Mexican navy vessel and a trafficker boat. That was a super high-speed chase, like 35 knots. The traffickers crashed into the rear engine of the marines and jumped over the ship we were in. My camera assistant was behind me and the boat flew over his head, maybe six feet above him. That crash could have been fatal.
You got caught up in a riot at one point. Mexican marines had taken three prisoners
Will your next film involve less risk? The next project is even more dangerous. We're dealing again with criminal syndicates. —Matthew Carey ★ D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
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BATTLE CRY HOW THE CAVE TEAM BATTLED AGAINST THE ODDS TO TELL A VITAL STORY OF SYRIAN WAR BY MATTHEW CAREY
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irstine Barfod and Sigrid Dyekjær are among the most seasoned producers in documentary film. But on The Cave they faced unprecedented challenges. “This was a unique experience,” Barfod says of the Oscar-nominated film set in an underground hospital in war-ravaged Eastern Ghouta, Syria. “It was extraordinarily difficult.” Shooting in a war zone brought built-in danger. On top of that, director Feras Fayyad was a marked man in his native Syria, having angered the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad with his previous films, including the Oscarnominated Last Men in Aleppo. To reduce the risk of being captured, Fayyad directed remotely, partly from the relative safety of Idlib, an area north of Ghouta then under rebel control. He had to communicate with his cinematographers through encrypted apps. “I sent them instructions on how the material should be shot, how they should follow Dr. Amani,” notes Fayyad, referring to his main character, Dr. Amani Ballour, the female physician who ran the hospital. “It was a very simple style, try to observe what’s happening in Ghouta. Focus on this woman.” But the cinematographers’ instinct was to aim their cameras on men, reflecting a taboo about filming women. “Normally they think this is disrespectful,” Fayyad explains, adding that he overcame their skittishness through a ruse. “I said to Dr. Amani, 'Can I tell them you will fire them if they don’t [follow] you?'" Fayyad recalls. “She said, ‘Yeah.’ I told [the cinematographers], ‘You’re going to lose your job if you just film men.’” Getting the footage out of Syria to Denmark, where Fayyad and the producers are based, proved another major challenge.
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D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
“We had access to satellite internet in the area of Al Ghouta so the cinematographers could upload the material to a dropbox,” Barfod reveals. That tactic worked until the Syrian regime’s Russian allies identified the satellite link and “then they bombed that office… From then on we did not get any footage until the cinematographers reached Feras in Idlib and he took the hard drives with him into Turkey and then later on to Denmark.” The film was assembled in Copenhagen. Editors would have to comb through hundreds of hours of material, much of it graphic—men, women and children injured in bombing and chemical attacks. “You’re in a very vulnerable position when you have to watch all this footage,” Dyekjær comments. “So quite early we decided to [hire] a therapist for the film team in Denmark—the translators, the editors, Feras… I think we had to. Otherwise we would have had a lot of people breaking down.” Hanging over the production was constant worry about the fate of The Cave’s protagonists. “We didn't know if Dr. Amani was going to survive,” Dyekjær says, “and we didn't know what was going to happen with our characters, or our cinematographers, for that matter.” In the end, all made it out of Syria safely just before the government quashed the last resistance in Ghouta. The filmmaking team and their subjects surmounted visa difficulties to unite at the Academy Awards in February, a chance to celebrate the film, and above all Dr. Amani and her colleagues. “They are like Marvel superheroes, but this is real and extremely human,” observes Fayyad. “They have human powers and they can change everything around them.”★
GOING UNDERGROUND The Cave crew captures Dr. Amani Ballour's valiant fight to save lives amid the horror of war in Syria.
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
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05/04/20
