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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 6/23/10

"LOST ANGELS" at LAFilm Festival, Friday 6/25: Director Thomas Napper Illuminates Skid Row

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From what I've ascertained through interviews and conversations with workers and volunteers, unlike THE SOLOIST, which many on Skid Row didn't like, the reviews of LOST ANGELS are glowing.

General Dogon, Civil Rights Organizer for L.A. CAN who is featured in the film, approved wholeheartedly. He particularly appreciated the attention paid to the inequities in the Safer Cities Initiative that criminalizes poverty and victimizes the residents of Skid Row, while affording the wealthy on bordering streets disproportionate freedom.

My friend Jamie, an impassioned and seasoned advocate for the homeless, called THE SOLOIST an insult to the people of Skid Row. But she had the opposite view of LOST ANGELS, stating:

LOST ANGELS is a very accurate depiction of the caring and familial community that exists on Skid Row. It is a great counter to THE SOLOIST, which with its grossly exaggerated violence, did a tremendous disservice to the community. It also strongly suggested there is but one redeeming human being [Nathaniel] in a sea of sickness. LOST ANGELS proves this isn't so."

But the truest testament to the uniqueness of Skid Row and its people is revealed through the words of director Thomas Napper. Here are some highlights of my interview with Thomas. It's an illuminating window to his compassion and humanity:

LM: How about some personal info on you? Isn't this your first time as principal director?

TN: Yes it's my first film as director. I've been working as Joe's [Joe Wright's] Second Unit director since 2004... Making this documentary at times has been a really steep learning curve for me - telling the story inside out so to speak. With the features we were always following a beautiful blueprint, but working in the documentary form, I think really suits me. I loved writing the film inside out, writing in the edit, and responding to the edit by returning to characters & stories with more specific intent.

Tyler Hubby my editor was very patient with me and his experience really helped contain my child-like enthusiasm without dampening it. Our writer Christine Triano worked with us constantly to build the story blocks and find the design. I cant overstate how much they both helped me.

LM: What was the most important "thing" you learned from making this film relative to the characters and the lives they lead?

TN: The whole experience was a learning experience. There was nothing familiar for me in the process except a camera with glass on one end! I think I arrived on Skid Row with a lot of pre-conceptions and fear. I was also grieving the death of my Dad a few months before so I was a bit of a mess really, pretty raw in some senses, but also willing to put my guts into a new experience.

Walking the streets of Skid Row day after day, on my own or with KK [Skid Row resident featured in film], I was just amazed at how decent people were to each other. I would say that this really surprised me. That's not at all what I expected. I thought it would be a mess; dog eat dog, and really hectic. But the residents and the community all know each other - have been through a lot together, and pro-actively do a lot together. They are more aware of the needs of their friends than any other community I saw in LA. This has really affected me and I have tried to bring this back with me. I helped to set up a community association for my building as soon as I got back to London. We have just built a public garden in London which was directly inspired by Skid Row in LA.

LM: Can you give me a short inspirational statement regarding your experience making the film?

TN: I mentioned [on the phone] that we were making this film while Senator Obama was running for the democratic nomination and calling on Americans to selflessly build a better nation. KK and I were pretty inspired by Obama at that time. Who wasn't? It just felt like the truth was on the table again after the Bush era. I knew that these [Skid Row] people were prepared to tell their stories in an honest way, and that that honesty would cut through people's preconceptions and fears about mental illness, about drug addiction and homelessness. That's what happened to me when I met them. They blew my mind again and again. So that was my goal at every stage - not to lose that raw honesty and the surprise of hearing someone with schizophrenia talk eloquently about schizophrenia and homelessness.

When new camera crews came down and sat in on interviews I would watch their faces, and it was the same thing time after time. They were blown away by these people - by what they had been through, by their honesty and their dignity. This is the vulnerability people generally try to hide from each other, their failures, their addictions, the voices in their heads, or their arrest sheet - and here we are listening to the most authentic stories from the people we just ignore in the street. That became the guiding intelligence of the film, and that's how we approached the wider themes and issues, through characters and their experiences.

LM: How long did it take to make the film?

TN: I met Bam Bam, Lee Anne, Linda and Detroit [extras in THE SOLOIST; featured in Lost Angels] in those first rehearsals/improvs for The Soloist supporting artists. That was Jan '08. KK and I met at an extras casting a few days later on San Julian. Danny was my 2nd on the Skid Row shoot of The Soloist in May '08. OG and General Dogon came from attending church and human rights meetings at LA CAN respectively. I started production with producer Agi Orsi in July '08, and we were based at Big Time [Big Time Picture Company] where you caught the screening. We started editing at the end of the summer '08. I think Tyler started in August.

I wanted to shoot slowly and really build relationships with the wider community and film our characters at real events, so we shot once a week for about 20 weeks. We started with a lot of interviews. I think we did these for two months. Each interviewee recommended other people to talk to and that's how we built up our network. People knew people knew people. The main characters selected themselves in the edit. They were just so powerful. The biggest headache was keeping the number down. I wanted to include everybody, but that film would still be in the edit! We stopped filming around the beginning of '09. I think we edited into spring '09, screening the film regularly to get feedback from the community, advocates and the cast. That was really important to my process - sitting with an audience and having these amazing Q & A's even though the film was not at all finished. Those Q & A's really galvanized us. They were very intense debates about the issues in the film and sometimes went on for longer than the film.

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Linda Milazzo was a Managing Editor of Opednews until Fall 2014, and a Los Angeles based writer, educator and activist. Since 1974, she has divided her time between the entertainment industry, government organizations, community development (more...)
 

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