![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/EAsZUpI.png\")
When was Home Team Productions conceived and what films do you specialize in?<\/strong>\nStephanie & Vic:\u00a0<\/strong> The two of us founded Home Team Productions in late 1998.\u00a0 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).\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cThe Flying Neutrinos.\u201d\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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\u2019S EVE IN TIMES SQUARE.<\/p>\n
How has the film business treated you guys since you started documentaries?<\/strong> However, it\u2019s a rugged world out there for indies.\u00a0 It\u2019s often an uphill struggle.\u00a0 It\u2019s very difficult to find funding and to interest networks in new ideas.\u00a0 For us, we produced three indie films in the space of roughly six years, with other projects in the pipeline for even longer.\u00a0 We broke a cardinal rule of filmmaking \u2013 \u201cNever spend your own money.\u201d\u00a0 (Not to mention our time.\u00a0 We were often working \u201cday jobs,\u201d albeit within the industry, and then using nights and weekends to complete our own projects, from shooting, to editing, to promoting.)\u00a0 Nobody wants to go broke.\u00a0 But a person doesn\u2019t necessarily choose art \u2013 art chooses us, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 And the rewards are immeasurable.<\/p>\n Vic:<\/strong> Somehow we\u2019re still here; and I\u2019ve always said they\u2019ll have to kill us to stop us.<\/p>\n How long have you been in filmmaking?<\/strong> Stephanie:<\/strong> Other than my involvement in the baseball films we did in the early 80\u2019s, 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.<\/p>\n 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?<\/strong> Did either of you attend film school or did you learn by doing?<\/strong> Who influenced you to seek out documentaries as a form of artistic expression?<\/strong> 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?<\/strong> Why do you think documentaries and non-fiction in general are so popular in today’s film market?<\/strong> What’s the most important lesson you two have learned while making documentaries?<\/strong> Why do you think America is so compelled by the documentary in the modern film age?<\/strong> Which film among your array of projects has been your favorite?<\/strong> 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[285,292,501,502,535,672],"class_list":["post-1438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-directing","tag-documentary","tag-indie-film","tag-indie-filmmaking","tag-jenny-mccarthy","tag-mock-documentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nStephanie:\u00a0 You might say it was the best of times and the worst of times.\u00a0 We were doing what we loved, we were growing as filmmakers, we were learning all the time, which is indescribably enriching and exhilarating.<\/p>\n
\nVic:\u00a0<\/strong>When I was about nine or ten years old, my cousin Stevie and I made a ton of 8 millimeter movies.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 After a couple of other projects in the 80\u2019s, I became addicted to rotisserie baseball.\u00a0 I was excellent at it, and ultimately got bored of winning.\u00a0 So at the turn of the century, I returned to filmmaking with a vengeance.\u00a0 The past ten years, in terms of a body of work, is what I am most proud of.<\/p>\n
\nVic:\u00a0<\/strong> Stephanie is a good writer and I\u2019m a good editor.\u00a0 (Plus, we only have to pay for one hotel room on the road.)
\nStephanie:\u00a0<\/strong> We\u2019ve worked together and separately, but we share many of the same goals and sensibilities.\u00a0 Our skills and talents have always complemented one another.\u00a0 As a team we believe we maximize our potential.\u00a0 (That said \u2013 it ain\u2019t always a day at the beach\u2026)<\/p>\n
\nVic:\u00a0<\/strong> I studied marketing at Hofstra.\u00a0\u00a0 (It was rumored that Francis Ford Coppola went there also, though I have no idea what he was studying.)\u00a0 I took one film class during my sophomore year, but unfortunately they were screening films like LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, which I completely didn\u2019t understand at the time.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t 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.\u00a0 That\u2019s when I realized that I really liked filmmaking.\u00a0 Then I was lucky enough to get a job at a production company carrying cans, putting away lights, and all the grunt work.\u00a0 I learned a great deal at that company, which did a variety of different kinds of films.\u00a0 At the time I found myself gravitating toward the editing side of it.
\nStephanie:\u00a0<\/strong> Absolutely learned boots on the ground.\u00a0 But as a non-traditional college student (read, um, older), my study of literature informed my love for storytelling and feel for story structure.<\/p>\n
\nVic:<\/strong> When I first got into the film business, my first credit was on WOMEN IN CELL BLOCK 7.\u00a0 I was also cutting trailers for Kung Fu movies and exploitation films.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 When I saw how editors such as Geof Bartz (PUMPING IRON) and Milton Ginsberg were making real people\u2019s lives as dramatic as fiction films, my aspirations to cut Hollywood movies fell by the wayside.\u00a0 A year or two later I made my first film, the documentary CHASING A DREAM.
\nStephanie:\u00a0<\/strong> New Yorker articles, particularly profiles; ditto Rolling Stone articles (Hunter Thompson a big favorite, as well as Mikal Gilmore); Norman Mailer, notably THE EXECUTIONER\u2019S 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\u2019Karma, 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.<\/p>\n
\nStephanie:\u00a0<\/strong> Because they are closer to the bone, since the stories are true.
\nVic:\u00a0<\/strong> Basically because I can\u2019t write, and any fiction story that I\u2019ve attempted has always ultimately seemed incredibly lame.\u00a0 I realized that leeching off other people\u2019s real stories was the way to go.<\/p>\n
\nStephanie:\u00a0<\/strong> People may tend to want more substance and meaning in their lives in these difficult and confusing times.\u00a0 Docs also tend to offer a global perspective and insight into the lives of others that more mainstream \u201cHollywood\u201d films don\u2019t offer as readily or as truthfully.
\nVic:\u00a0<\/strong> Because real people let you shoot them and you don\u2019t have to pay any goddamn actors, so you can probably make the film cheaply.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 A bad fiction film is just plain hard to watch.<\/p>\n
\nVic:\u00a0<\/strong> That it\u2019s a lot like crime, it doesn\u2019t pay.
\nStephanie:<\/strong> To never, ever give up.\u00a0 And to learn as much as I can from our subjects, who have ignited my curiosity, passion, and courage.<\/p>\n
\nStephanie:\u00a0<\/strong> Could be we\u2019re looking for some truth in a world of lies.
\nVic:\u00a0<\/strong> Hopefully it is a counterpoint to the puke that oozes out of the television screen in the name of reality TV.
\nDo you think mock documentaries hold the same insight in to the human soul as documentaries can and do?
\nVic:\u00a0<\/strong> Last year I saw EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, and I really don\u2019t 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.\u00a0 We also made a short film with Jenny McCarthy, even though she didn\u2019t know she was in it.\u00a0 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.
\nStephanie:\u00a0<\/strong> Two words \u2013 Christopher Guest.\u00a0 Not only is he hilarious, but he somehow brings a poignant humanity to his characters that mirrors real life, only bigger and funnier.\u00a0 We come away \u201cgetting it,\u201d whether we know it or not.<\/p>\n
\nStephanie:\u00a0<\/strong> I love them all like children.
\nVic:\u00a0<\/strong> 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\u2019ve 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\u2019t have to waste each other\u2019s time.<\/p>\n
\n“Lensing with Love” Part Two>><\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"