Documentary Makers Talk Wellbeing – and the Importance of Sleep – at Ji.hlava Doc Festival: ‘Have a Therapist, Share Responsibility and Build a Community Around Your Film’

According to Hungarian filmmaker Anna Rubi, there are three rules to follow when making a film about extremely difficult subjects.

“Make sure you have your own support network. Have a therapist. Get a specialist involved as early as possible, because when you’ll need them, this person is going to be there. Share responsibility. Build a community around your film, have co-creators involved,” she said during Ji.hlava Film Festival’s “Conference on Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking.”

Rubi’s recent film, “Your Life Without Me,” followed a group of elderly mothers suing the state to secure a dignified future for their disabled children.

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Forgetting about your own wellbeing is a common mistake, but it’ll ultimately hurt the film, argued Marek Kozakiewicz (“Silent Love”).

“In order to be there with the camera, we have to go through a lot. We are already tired! And then we have to enter these people’s lives,” he said, while Tomáš Hlaváček noted: “Sleeping is really important. I have been doing participatory documentaries for 10 years and I’m exhausted. And apart from sleeping? Having a good team. For me, making a doc is a kind of social work. Even when we know we won’t change the world, [having] this community is empowering.”

Hlaváček’s “The Impossibility,” world premiering at the Czech festival, takes on difficulties in providing decent housing for families in need.

“Only when you look back, you realize how hard it really was. When you are tired, you react – or overreact. I have to protect my mental health because otherwise, I can’t be present for others,” added Maia Martiniak.

During discussion about “Artistic Vision and Accountability: A Central European Perspective on Freedom, Censorship, and Filmmaking Dilemmas,” the directors also opened up about their methods.

“I don’t like to be anywhere without the camera. My camera is not a weapon, but I don’t like to ‘pretend’ I’m not there. I need my protagonists to know I am fully engaged and to accept my presence. I don’t want to just ‘observe,’ I want to have open dialogue,” said Hlaváček.

Others underlined the importance of spending time with their protagonists also outside of filming.

“This way, I gain their trust. I work a lot with traumatized people and it’s a long process. They wear masks in their everyday life – it takes time to find out the truth,” revealed Martiniak.

Rubi added: “I followed that Kafkaesque lawsuit for seven years, but I never wanted to make a courtroom drama. I stayed close to the families and their community, and when you collaborate with someone who cannot communicate with words, it’s another challenge. I had to put in the time.”

Her protagonists signed the release forms only at the end of the seventh year.

“It was very risky. But I felt the right thing to do was to spend all this time together and show them the material.”

“I always tell them we’ll get rid of anything they don’t want in the film. This way, they feel safe enough not to censor themselves during the shoot. It’s risky, yes, but I wouldn’t want to feature scenes they wouldn’t want there anyway,” noted Kozakiewicz.

In “Silent Love,” he depicted a sister coming back to conservative rural Poland to take care of her younger brother. As well as her secret relationship with another woman.

“There were moments when they wanted this film and there were moments when they didn’t. They felt safe and then I had to leave, go back home. Later, I had to rebuild this sense of safety all over again.”

According to Hlaváček, showing the almost-finished film to your protagonists can be tricky.

“I have a problem with it. For me, it’s important to make sure they are okay with being in the movie in the first place. We talk about the scenes right after we shoot them,” he said.

Martiniak had to accept that one of the women she followed in “Unseen,” about childbirth trauma, changed her mind about appearing in the film.

“She said she didn’t want it to be seen internationally. We decided it was more important to show the film everywhere than to include her scenes. When people suddenly don’t want to be involved, you need to ask: ‘Why?’ One of them admitted she was scared that if something happens, she’ll be alone. I said: ‘No. I will be right here.’”

“They had my promise they would see their parts and decide if they wanted to proceed. Also, we made sure not to re-traumatize anybody when editing. One sales agent told me there ‘wasn’t enough blood.’ For me, it was more important to respect these women’s feelings.”

Listening to external voices can be dizzying, noted Martiniak, who talked about her run-ins with local commissioners.

“I don’t want to offend anyone, but our commissions are dominated by older men. It was difficult to explain to them why this film was important. The way they talked to us was very patriarchal. I even had to issue a statement about one encounter. I had to say it wasn’t okay.”

Kozakiewicz added: “The more partners there are, the easier it is to have different ideas on what the film should be. There was an edit [of ‘Silent Love’ the financiers] didn’t approve of, I changed it and they said they preferred the first one. Right before our premiere at Hot Docs! Luckily, we didn’t have time to change, but they still made me believe I’d ruined my own movie.”