By Dan Thornton on December 5, 2013
Some people just know what they're
destined to be. For me, I reached the last day of
high school and still didn't know what kind of career I should pursue. I
thought I'd work a bit and take classes until it became more apparent.
Eventually, for better or worse, I sorted it out and found some semblance
of a trajectory in my life.
Katie Damien is one of those people that always knew what she wanted to
do. What a luxury that must have been to know exactly the field of work
that was right for you. By the way she had made this decision before she was
even a teenager. So when the time came, she applied for film school at
the University of Central Florida. No backup plans. No other school
choices. The film program at UCF is where she intended to be, period.
After completing her studies and
working in the Florida market Katie decided it was time to see the world. How do you do that? Her way was to work, under
contract, in broadcasting on cruise ships. It agreed with her and she
spent several years sailing the sea and earning her keep.
"And if you've surrounded
yourself with a really good team, when everything clicks and everyone can set
their egos aside, it's like magic."
During this time, when she was doing
these tours aboard ship, her parents had moved from Florida to Asheville, North
Carolina. Not really needing a house or apartment since she was away so
much of the time she started calling Asheville her home base and stayed with
her parents when not aboard ship. After the cruise contracts ended she
took up permanent residence in Asheville. Which leads us to her soon to
be released feature length film.
The seed from which My Toxic
Backyard unfolded came from her attempt to buy a house in
Asheville. A rather continental city skirted by the Pisgah National Forest.
Progressive, with a touch of the old and new, it receives people from all
over the world to see the sites and to enjoy the fresh mountain air. It
does have a dirty little secret though, as Katie discovered.
After finding some nice homes that
were affordably priced just outside the city limits, it seemed too good to be
true. Most homes in Asheville are very expensive. Thank heavens she
was curious enough to find out why. Many of the homes in this area have
wells where the toxicity levels of the water reach hundreds and thousands
of times the amounts the EPA considers safe and has resulted in a higher than
normal rate of cancer among the residents.
My Toxic Backyard tells the story about what happened in this area.
Katie investigates the history behind the contamination and talks with
the residents about the issue and what can be done to resolve it.
Hopefully, having seen this film, we will understand better how to
prevent it in the future and how to deal with it if it's already happened in
our community.
One thing I've noticed about Katie
is she likes to "play" with her equipment and effects, as you will
see in her demo reel below. This experimentation has paid off with some
dramatic footage and five Emmy awards for her. In fact, she made a fun
little film of her trip to the Emmys using her iPhone and a lens attachment
that looks like it's done with a pro rig. Proving, once again, that it's
not the equipment but the talent behind it.
I see you majored in film production
at the University of Central Florida. How did you know a life in the film
business was your calling? Did you have a backup plan?
Fortunately or unfortunately, I had
no back up plan when I went into filmmaking. I was twelve at the time and
just decided that that's what I was going to do the rest of my life.
Whether I could make a living at it or not was irrelevant. I was
just going to make movies until I couldn't make movies anymore. As it
happens, it all worked out pretty well. I didn't even have a back up film
school (which in retrospect seems like a silly thing to have done.) I
only applied to UCF's film school because I had decided that's where I was
going to go. I didn't apply anywhere else because it didn't occur to me
that I wouldn't get in, even though I knew it was very competitive (the Blair
Witch Project had just come out and the filmmakers were UCF film school
alumni.) Maybe that's a part of the secret to success: don't leave
yourself any other options and you will find a way to make things happen...
because you must. That, and be really lucky.
The irrelevant part of making a
living as a filmmaker factors in when you just have a passion for something.
It doesn't matter whether or not people like what you do, as long as you
love it and you know that you don't need the approval of others to make
yourself happy in what you're doing, then you are free. You might be
limited in the type of film you can make on your own and that's not to say it
doesn't hurt when you get rejected (and if you've spent any time in any art form,
you've had your fair share of rejection.) The difference is that if
you're really passionate about what you're doing, you can keep going after
you've been turned down, turned away and in all other ways turned inside out.
Just keep going. That's how I do it.
I agree with you 100% Katie and I
think that is the way all true artists feel. They must do it so they're
all in, odds be damned. What drew you to Asheville?
I'd been doing freelance work in
Florida and had gotten by okay, but I was doing a lot of below the line work,
which was very fun and good experience, but I really wanted to direct and
that's a hard thing to break into. No one wants to hire you without the
experience, but you can't get the experience because no one will hire you.
I already had a good body of work in short films, but that wasn't enough.
Plus, I'm impatient. I also wanted to travel the world and I saw no
need to wait until retirement to do that. So I started working in
broadcasting on cruise ships, doing 6 month contracts. I was going to do
2 contracts for 1 year figuring that would be enough to get the traveling bug
out of my system. 5 years later, I finally decided I was done. I
packed everything up and moved it into my parent's basement because I didn't want
to pay for an apartment when I wasn't living in it most of the time. My
parents had moved to Asheville and when I wasn't working on a ships, I would
stay with them. When I decided I was done with ships, I didn't want to
move back to Florida. I liked Asheville too much, so I stayed.
That's very interesting Katie.
What led you to My Toxic Backyard?
A: It all started because I wanted
to buy a house. In Asheville housing prices are generally high no matter where
you go. So when I found a section of town where the houses were affordably
priced, my first thought was, what's wrong with this area? There was no high
crime rate, no dilapidated houses, it was close to city limits, but not too
close. I thought I might have stumbled upon a hidden gem. My realtor showed me
multiple homes in the area and I started to get excited. I told a friend of
mine about this amazing find and as soon as I told him where it was, he stopped
me. "There's something bad in the water out there. Don't buy a house
there!" he said. "What's in the water?" I asked, perplexed that
I had never heard about this before and I had lived in Asheville for more the
five years. "I don't know, but it's making people sick."
I stopped looking for houses in that
area, but I was curious and started digging. There were newspaper articles, and
TV news stories, it was no secret. There was a whole community fighting for
clean, safe drinking water that I had somehow managed to remain oblivious to.
Even when I had been actively looking for a house in the area, there were no
red flags, no warnings from my realtor or anyone else. If I had not done my own
research, I never would have known that there was a toxic Superfund site
leaking chemicals into the water table. I felt like I had dodged a bullet, but
I couldn't stop thinking about all the people still living out there who
weren't as lucky. That's when I started making the documentary. It was
just a story that needed to be told. I was amazed at what I had uncovered
in making this film. Most of my work in film is meant to entertain.
With this documentary, I feel like I have the unique opportunity to make
a difference.
Hard to imagine the realtor didn't
know this and if they did shouldn't they be required to inform you of it.
Property disclosure is not always as
cut and dry as you might think. For example, if your water has been
testing negative for contaminates, but your neighbor's water is contaminated,
you don't have to say anything. You only have to disclose what is on your
property. Even though common sense would dictate that if there's
something bad in your neighbor's water and there is a large source of
contamination near by there's a good chance it's heading your way. You
don't have to speculate about what might happen in the future when selling your
property.
What stage of development is My
Toxic Backyard in and what are your plans for it when it's released?
It's nearly finished. I just
have to review everything one more time to make sure that there aren't any
errors I've overlooked. The first chance it will have to screen in public
will be at film festivals (providing it gets into any of the ones I have
chosen) from January till May. After that I'll submit it to local PBS on
UNCTV. I'm also sending copies to the state legislature who are right now
deciding whether or not to loan the city money to run municipal water to all
the houses in a one mile radius.
The EPA hasn't been testing more
than a one mile radius, though it could reach further especially where rivers
are concerned.
Tell me about your other films.
What other genres do you work in?
I've worked in a lot of genres.
I've made dramatic films, comedy, stop-motion animation, horror and even
a western.
I imagine that finding actors and
crew is fairly easy in Asheville and there are lots of varied locations to work
with. Is that assumption correct?
The more time I spend in Asheville,
the more talented people I run into. I've found if you have a decent
production going on, film professionals will come out of the wood work.
There are a lot of industry professionals living in the mountains who
travel for work. They leave for months at a time working on a picture and
come back home for a few months before their next gig. There are also a
lot of really talented actors that I am finding here who have only done theater
work, or who have never acted before, but some of these people you put in
front of a camera and they will blow you away with their performances. I
think this town in particular draws a lot of artists and creative types in
general. That makes it easier for me to find talent.
And as far as locations go,
everything is amazing. You can go to a number of national and state park
to get rivers, waterfalls, woods and mountain vistas, but sometimes you'll find
those amazing scenic views in someone's backyard. We get every season
too. In the winter there's snow, in the summer everything is lush and
green, in the fall there's plenty of color. And because we have kind of a
small town feel, you can go up to business owners and private residents, tell
them about your project and most of the time they are happy to work with you
and let you use their space for shooting. Everyone is just super nice.
This really is an ideal area for indie filmmaking.
You've won five Emmy Awards. Is that
right? How does it feel being nominated by your peers much less
winning one?
I do have five Emmys and it's so
freaking awesome! It is truly an honor. When friends and family
tell you how great they think your work is, that certainly feels fantastic and
helps bolster confidence, but they're biased. When complete strangers who
are industry professionals honor you with an award like that, it's validating
in a different kind of way. I think it gives me the confidence to take on
bigger projects. Those kind of wins definitely make you want to reach
even further and strive even harder.
I've noticed you often work with
Eruch Adams, Rebecca Morris, and Matt Shepard. Should I be keeping my eye
on these people and what they're accomplishing?
Yes, yes and yes! Eruch is a
brilliant writer who is working on his first novel. He's very funny.
Comedy is a hard thing to master, but he does it effortlessly. I'm
terrible at comedy, but I make good comedy films mainly because of his scripts.
Rebecca is super talented, so is Matt. Rebecca has a very diverse
range. I feel like I could throw her into any role and she would nail it.
She has the ability to hold in character, something I find most actors
have difficulty with. She can give a brilliant performance with her eyes
and nothing more. I find with many actors, they perform better if you
give them something to do. It helps them to focus and act more naturally.
Rebecca can just be and she can do it in character. It's brilliant
to watch. She's a hidden gem in this area. Matt has a great look.
The camera loves Matt. If you meet him in person, he's still good
looking, but it's not the same as when he's in front of a camera. He just
has a natural charisma that translates well to film. He's also very raw
and not afraid to go to dark places that might appear false in less skilled
hands.
Do you know Kira Bursky?
I've worked with Kira a few times.
She worked on my documentary a little bit and she also worked on the
comedy feature, One Hell of an Angel that I directed (in
post now.) Everyone in the crew wanted her in their department.
People were literally fighting over her. I wished I had had ten of
her on that shoot. She reminds me of myself when I was younger, only she's
leaps and bounds ahead of where I was at that age. She has a ton of
natural talent and good instincts, and you can't teach that. She's also
honing her craft and it's great to watch. I've seen so much improvement
in her abilities from film to film. She will make it. Not everyone
can make it in the industry, it can be really brutal, but she will. She
has a great attitude and people just want to work with her. She is also
crazy talented on multiple fronts. She writes music too. She's like
a one man band of awesome. I'm always excited to see what she'll do next.
What excites you most about about
making films?
I think production is the most
exciting part for me. I love being on set. I feel like when you're
shooting, that's the biggest culmination of all that you've been working
toward. It's generally the largest gathering of people all there at the
same time to make a movie happen. There's generally a lot of down time on
a set, but everyone is there for a reason. From the cinematographer who
shoulders the formidable responsibility of the visual end of the film to the
lowly PA who fetches coffee, everyone on set is important. And if you've
surrounded yourself with a really good team, when everything clicks and
everyone can set their egos aside, it's like magic.
What do you know now that you wish
you'd known early on in your career?
That's a great question. I know now
that there are some stories I can tell well and some I can't. You should always
do what you know. And if you want to tell a story you don't know anything
about, be sure you do your homework. I've learned to find stories that resonate
with me. I've also learned to say no when a project isn't a good fit. I think
that just comes with experience though.
You have a catalogue that includes a
mixture of commercial work, photography, writing, and film. This
must keep you very busy. Is the variety something you prefer or just the
way things worked out?
All my work has to do with story
telling, so to me it's just different disciplines that accomplish the same
thing. I love doing all of them. When I was a kid, I had to take
one of those tests that grade schools make you take so that they can figure out
what job you will have as an adult. All the other kids had jobs like
detective, fireman, scientist. My job came out as "undefined."
I was mad at first because I wanted it to tell me I'd have a cool job
too. Later someone told me that I had so many interests that I could
probably do just about anything and enjoy it.
I am always very busy, but I love
it. Some day I'll find balance. Maybe tomorrow. Right now,
there's just too many fun things to make.
- See more at:
http://www.gigspotting.net/a-look-at-filmmaker-katie-damien.html#sthash.PursQUEt.dpuf
