Dawn Porter is an award-winning author and producer. Her work has been featured on HBO, Netflix, CNN, PBS, MSNBC, MTV Films, and different platforms. Porter’s 2016 movie “Trapped,” which explores legal guidelines regulating abortion clinics within the South, gained the Special Jury Social-Impact Prize on the Sundance Film Festival and a Peabody Award. Her different credit embrace “37 Words,” “The Way I See It,” “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” and “Gideon’s Army.” She is the recipient of the 2022 Critics Choice Documentary Awards Impact Award, and is an honoree on the 2022 Gracies Leadership Awards.
“Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net” is screening on the 2022 DOC NYC movie competition, which is working from November 9-27.
W&H: Describe the movie for us in your individual phrases.
DP: “Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net” is a rare journey again from the brink of collapse. Cirque virtually didn’t survive the pandemic. Their employees skilled important hardship and isolation. A 12 months later, the reopening of reside leisure at massive was unsure however it was additionally too essential to let go. We embedded backstage at “O,” Cirque’s hottest present, and filmed for 2 months because the solid and crew labored tirelessly to place their present again collectively. What we uncovered was a narrative fraught with uncertainty but additionally filled with hope and resilience.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
DP: I’m a information junkie, and a 12 months into the pandemic, I used to be utterly exhausted by the state of the world. I needed to deal with one thing else. I’ve at all times been fascinated by the wonder and artistry of Cirque and jumped on the alternative to discover their world.
W&H: What would you like individuals to consider after they watch the movie?
DP: Something that I thought of quite a bit whereas making this movie was the concept of connection. All of us misplaced a way of connection in some unspecified time in the future throughout the pandemic. Many are nonetheless looking for it. What is it about gathering in individual that may’t be replicated? A sense that’s indescribable and but, important. The expertise of sitting in a theater and watching a Cirque du Soleil present has the whole lot to do with that connection — between the artists on stage, the crew within the background, and the viewers of their seats. I hope this movie may also help remind us all how magical it’s once we come collectively.
W&H: What was the largest problem in making the movie?
DP: Filming each day for 2 months was each a blessing and a curse. Think about how visible a Cirque present is — individuals actually do flips whereas flying via the air. “O” is a water-based present, so there are difficult and complicated particulars unfolding each above and beneath the floor. We filmed all of it, from a number of angles, rehearsal to rehearsal, day after day. We had been lucky to seize hours and hours of beautiful footage. But when it got here to post-production, it was a problem to sift via the sheer quantity of footage to search out the very best moments.
W&H: How did you get your movie funded? Share some insights into how you bought the movie made.
DP: It is privately financed.
W&H: What impressed you to change into a filmmaker?
DP: I felt I had one thing to say.
W&H: What’s the very best and worst recommendation you’ve acquired?
DP: Best recommendation: don’t be deterred out of your objectives so long as you understand who you might be. If you understand who you might be and what you need, your interior voice is an efficient information.
Worst recommendation: Buy crypto! I didn’t — I don’t purchase issues I don’t perceive.
W&H: What recommendation do you will have for different ladies administrators?
DP: My recommendation for feminine administrators is identical as for any director: determine what you wish to say and maintain asking your self in case you are saying it.
W&H: Name your favourite woman-directed movie and why.
DP: “The Oath” by Laura Poitras. It’s so sincere.
W&H: What, if any, obligations do you assume storytellers must confront the tumult on the earth, from the pandemic to the lack of abortion rights and systemic violence?
DP: I feel it’s a provided that documentary storytellers are pushed by a want to proper wrongs and confront injustice. But at this level, the sector is crowded and audiences are coping with info overload. We have a duty to ensure we create tales that transcend simply exhibiting the horrible factor that exists on the earth: what else can we are saying with our story?
W&H: The movie trade has a protracted historical past of underrepresenting individuals of shade on display and behind the scenes and reinforcing – and creating – adverse stereotypes. What actions do you assume have to be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world extra inclusive?
DP: There are so many individuals concerned in making a movie — executives, financiers, administrators, brokers, writers, producers, DPs, and so on. The selections that every of them make compound and may have a big impact on which tales are advised, and by whom. The extra individuals of shade we now have in decision-making positions all through the trade, the higher outfitted we’re to inform genuine tales.