I was introduced to directors Victor Zimet and Stephanie Silber in 2007 when I reviewed their film “Songs and Stories.” Though I didn’t give it such a glowing review, the professionals I now consider close friends didn’t waver in their persistence on winning me over in their talents and unique subjects for focusing their documentaries on and sent me “Random Lunacy” in 2007. Suffice it to say after watching that film I was won over by the filmmaking duo whose entire filmography has been strictly documentaries.
And after chronicling the legendary Poppa Neutrino and his life as a family man journeying across the world with his band of sons, daughters, and enduring wife, I had to keep seeing what the pair would put out there, and I had to pick their brains. The devoted and fiercely loyal married couple are known Victor Zimet and Stephanie Silber, a twosome of talented and humble filmmakers who love what they do, and they do it with a devotion that is admirable and true to the indie spirit. Also, it helps they’re both loyal classic rock buffs like I am. The two took the time out of their busy schedule to let us pick their brain and here’s what resulted out of random lunacy, the roads less traveled that they traveled for a reason, and some genuine good humor.
When was Home Team Productions conceived and what films do you specialize in?
Stephanie & Vic: The two of us founded Home Team Productions in late 1998. We had worked together on documentaries years prior, which was inspiring, then pursued individual directions (Vic editing for film and television, Stephanie doing a stint in print journalism prior to producing and directing docs for television). A few auspicious opportunities converged at the same time: Vic was able to lease an AVID at an affordable rate, and a friend/colleague drafted us for BRAVO Profiles Cyndi Lauper and Robert Duvall.
We have a passion for telling stories around artists and their process, and our indie projects have included a portrait of the late Irish blues guitarist Rory Gallagher, SONGS & STORIES, and RANDOM LUNACY, about the stranger-than-fiction adventures of the busking family called “The Flying Neutrinos.” Poppa Neutrino, a radically itinerant poet/philosopher, and his wife, sea captain Betsy Terrell, raised their five children on the road, living homeless by choice. Sadly, the world lost Poppa at the age of 77 in January, 2011. We also did a film about the New York City fixture, Irish roots rock band Black 47, NEW YEAR’S EVE IN TIMES SQUARE.
How has the film business treated you guys since you started documentaries?
Stephanie: You might say it was the best of times and the worst of times. We were doing what we loved, we were growing as filmmakers, we were learning all the time, which is indescribably enriching and exhilarating.
However, it’s a rugged world out there for indies. It’s often an uphill struggle. It’s very difficult to find funding and to interest networks in new ideas. For us, we produced three indie films in the space of roughly six years, with other projects in the pipeline for even longer. We broke a cardinal rule of filmmaking – “Never spend your own money.” (Not to mention our time. We were often working “day jobs,” albeit within the industry, and then using nights and weekends to complete our own projects, from shooting, to editing, to promoting.) Nobody wants to go broke. But a person doesn’t necessarily choose art – art chooses us, doesn’t it? And the rewards are immeasurable.
Vic: Somehow we’re still here; and I’ve always said they’ll have to kill us to stop us.
How long have you been in filmmaking?
Vic: When I was about nine or ten years old, my cousin Stevie and I made a ton of 8 millimeter movies. Then when I turned thirty, I made my first real documentary, CHASING A DREAM, which was propelled by my passion for the game of baseball. After a couple of other projects in the 80’s, I became addicted to rotisserie baseball. I was excellent at it, and ultimately got bored of winning. So at the turn of the century, I returned to filmmaking with a vengeance. The past ten years, in terms of a body of work, is what I am most proud of.
Stephanie: Other than my involvement in the baseball films we did in the early 80’s, I began writing, producing and directing full-time in 1996, with highlights including an hour-long film that was part of a series for The History Channel, THE GREEN BERETS; THE JEFFREY MACDONALD MURDER CASE for Court TV, and a short film for Amnesty International and The Sierra Club, ENVIRONMENTALISTS UNDER FIRE.
Most couples would decide to branch out on their own when seeking careers as filmmakers, why did you two decide to go at it side by side?
Vic: Stephanie is a good writer and I’m a good editor. (Plus, we only have to pay for one hotel room on the road.)
Stephanie: We’ve worked together and separately, but we share many of the same goals and sensibilities. Our skills and talents have always complemented one another. As a team we believe we maximize our potential. (That said – it ain’t always a day at the beach…)
Did either of you attend film school or did you learn by doing?
Vic: I studied marketing at Hofstra. (It was rumored that Francis Ford Coppola went there also, though I have no idea what he was studying.) I took one film class during my sophomore year, but unfortunately they were screening films like LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, which I completely didn’t understand at the time. I didn’t pursue any other courses until I needed a couple more credits in my last year, so that summer I took some film courses to complete my degree. That’s when I realized that I really liked filmmaking. Then I was lucky enough to get a job at a production company carrying cans, putting away lights, and all the grunt work. I learned a great deal at that company, which did a variety of different kinds of films. At the time I found myself gravitating toward the editing side of it.
Stephanie: Absolutely learned boots on the ground. But as a non-traditional college student (read, um, older), my study of literature informed my love for storytelling and feel for story structure.
Who influenced you to seek out documentaries as a form of artistic expression?
Vic: When I first got into the film business, my first credit was on WOMEN IN CELL BLOCK 7. I was also cutting trailers for Kung Fu movies and exploitation films. After a feature that I cut called THE ASTROLOGER (later re-titled SUICIDE CULT) I got a job on a docudrama for NBC entitled LIFELINE. When I saw how editors such as Geof Bartz (PUMPING IRON) and Milton Ginsberg were making real people’s lives as dramatic as fiction films, my aspirations to cut Hollywood movies fell by the wayside. A year or two later I made my first film, the documentary CHASING A DREAM.
Stephanie: New Yorker articles, particularly profiles; ditto Rolling Stone articles (Hunter Thompson a big favorite, as well as Mikal Gilmore); Norman Mailer, notably THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG; to name only a few documentarians, Albert and David Maysles (Grey Gardens knocked my socks off), Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, colleagues and friends such as Louis Gorfain, Hank O’Karma, Geof Bartz, Joe Sucher and Steven Fischler; Peter Weir, for his non-docs, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK , THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY, and THE MOSQUITO COAST, for their fictionalization of stories based on fact.
The independent film market is choked with horror, comedies, thrillers and almost every other conceivable genre by filmmakers trying to prove themselves, why are documentaries so much more a draw to make for you?
Stephanie: Because they are closer to the bone, since the stories are true.
Vic: Basically because I can’t write, and any fiction story that I’ve attempted has always ultimately seemed incredibly lame. I realized that leeching off other people’s real stories was the way to go.
Why do you think documentaries and non-fiction in general are so popular in today’s film market?
Stephanie: People may tend to want more substance and meaning in their lives in these difficult and confusing times. Docs also tend to offer a global perspective and insight into the lives of others that more mainstream “Hollywood” films don’t offer as readily or as truthfully.
Vic: Because real people let you shoot them and you don’t have to pay any goddamn actors, so you can probably make the film cheaply. Also, kidding aside, what I have found on the festival circuit is that a bad doc can still be worthwhile watching if the subject is good. A bad fiction film is just plain hard to watch.
What’s the most important lesson you two have learned while making documentaries?
Vic: That it’s a lot like crime, it doesn’t pay.
Stephanie: To never, ever give up. And to learn as much as I can from our subjects, who have ignited my curiosity, passion, and courage.
Why do you think America is so compelled by the documentary in the modern film age?
Stephanie: Could be we’re looking for some truth in a world of lies.
Vic: Hopefully it is a counterpoint to the puke that oozes out of the television screen in the name of reality TV.
Do you think mock documentaries hold the same insight in to the human soul as documentaries can and do?
Vic: Last year I saw EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, and I really don’t know how much of it is mock or not, but I found it exhilarating, and its commentary on the art world to be very insightful. We also made a short film with Jenny McCarthy, even though she didn’t know she was in it. The film, THE SEARCH FOR JENNY, was all true, but it bordered on mockumentary, which is what is truly so wonderful about this art form that seems to exist without rules.
Stephanie: Two words – Christopher Guest. Not only is he hilarious, but he somehow brings a poignant humanity to his characters that mirrors real life, only bigger and funnier. We come away “getting it,” whether we know it or not.
Which film among your array of projects has been your favorite?
Stephanie: I love them all like children.
Vic: I think in some ways RANDOM LUNACY was the most complex film that we have made up until this point, so while I love each film that we’ve made, passionately, I usually use that one to represent my sensibilities, and therefore, as far as the assholes who are looking for something slick, we don’t have to waste each other’s time.