Interview
WAMG Interview: Pat Longstreth – Director of the Documentary IRON FAMILY
Filmmaker Pat Longstreth’s documentary IRON FAMILY is a portrait of Jazmine Faries, a 32-year old woman with Down syndrome obsessed with soap operas, Barbie dolls, and Matthew McConaughey. For the past 5 summers, her family has performed her original stageplays for a small audience in their town of Iron River, Michigan. In this sixth season, we follow the creative process of writing, rehearsing, and performing the play. Family bonds between her brother Chad, and her mother, Kate, are strengthened and put to the test by the mishaps and chaos of coordinating a production with limited resources. Along the way we see Jazmine’s personal struggle for independence, her yearning for a romantic partner, and how a single spark of creativity can spread joy throughout a community. The site for IRON FAMILY can be found HERE
Pat Longstreth’took the time to answer some questions from We Are Movie Geeks about Jazmine, his film, and future projects.
Interview conducted by Tom Stockman
Tom Stockman: Tell me about your filmmaking background before you started production on IRON FAMILY?
Pat Longstreth: I’ve had a career in editing and visual effects for over 20 years ago, but I didn’t get serious about making my own documentaries until about 5 years ago. I got the opportunity to travel to Uganda and Kenya to film a web series for Patricia Arquette’s foundation GiveLove. They build and maintain compost toilets in underdeveloped areas. That was a life changing trip for me and it made me realize that I could direct my own documentaries. Then in the spring of 2019 my friend Chad Faries approached me about filming his younger sister’s play in Michigan.
TS: Did you grow up a film buff? Who are some of your filmmaker influences?
PL: I grew up watching a wide variety of films and my family would discuss films often. I loved searching for the most bizarre stuff I could find at Blockbuster, like Zardoz or Leonard 6. At some point in my teenage years I discovered Roger and Me by Michael Moore and it blew my mind. Some other early influences were The Thin Blue Line and Fog of War by Errol Morris. When I was living in LA around 2012 I went to a screening of The Act of Killing with Herzog and director Joshua Oppenheimer in attendance. They talked about how it took them 7 years to make the film and that made me want to never attempt a feature documentary. But here I am now with my first one!
TS: Tell me about the first time you met Jazmine Faries and How did you come up with this idea of making a documentary about her?
PL: Jazmine’s brother Chad convinced me and my wife to travel to their hometown of Iron River in a very rural part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. So I guess it was Chad’s idea originally. Within the first 10 minutes of meeting Jazmine we were rolling on an interview. She was ready to get down to business.
TS: What about Jazmine’s story did you think was worthy of a feature film?
PL: We thought we would shoot for 2 or 3 days and come away with a short, but there was so much interesting stuff happening with the family and around town so we decided to film for 7 days straight. We filmed the play as well as interviews with family members, Jazmine’s day-to-day life, and interactions between Jazmine and Chad. On that last day I knew that we had captured enough entertaining moments to pursue a feature. So we made several trips back to Iron River over the course of the next year to fill out the story and get establishing drone shots.
TS: Your film is very well-organized. Did you start out with a treatment, or did you just start filming and see where the story took you?
PL: We started filming in that first week with no preparation, but then I quickly started working on an outline. I created digital index cards that I could shuffle around for each scene. I created a graph for each character’s emotional arc, inspired by the lessons of Kurt Vonnegut. When I realized we had a gap that needed to be filled, we went and shot those scenes, like writing the script with Greg in Milwaukee or seeing Chad as an English professor in Savannah. What you see in the film feels like a linear storyline, but it was actually shot completely out of sequence.
TS: How many hours of footage did you shoot?
PL: I’d say around 100 hours.
TS: How long did it take you to edit your film?
PL: About a year. My wife Anne helped me as an assistant editor with assembly cuts and logging footage. I got my friend Elizabeth Kaiser to take on specific scenes and she ended up editing about a third of the film. We showed an early cut to friends and family and that helped me realize that we needed to clarify the characters more in the beginning. We changed the opening scene several times.
TS: Were there some moments you would have like to have left in the final film but had to cut for length?
PL: We were in a diner and Chad ran into a woman who was his “first kiss” in grade school. They went on a date and we filmed the whole thing. It was very entertaining, but it would have added 12 minutes to the film and it was too much of a distraction from Jazmine and the play. There was also a scene where Aunt Amy tells a story about seeing bigfoot, which was hilarious but I couldn’t find a place for it.
TS: What was your wife Anne’s job on the film and what was it like working with her?
PL: Anne has helped me in one way or another on many film projects over the last 10 years, but this was the first time she was able to really dive in as a producer, camera operator, interviewer and assistant editor. She would give me critiques and suggestions about each scene as I was editing. Our trips to the UP felt like a fun adventure. We enjoy living and working together, even during a pandemic, and with this film it was nice to share the laughter.
TS: The original score by Christine Fink and Ramiro Zamarripa is outstanding. Tell me about them and how you found them.
PL: Christine Fink and her husband Steve Nichols wrote the original songs for the film. I occasionally write for the local alternative weekly and I interviewed Christine for a music festival 4 years ago. Then, to my surprise, they moved to Savannah from Nebraska! Christine has a deep soulful voice and I knew she would fit with the vibe of the film. Jazmine’s card gave me the idea to create a cover of George Michael’s “Faith” with toy instruments. What they came up with was better than I could have imagined and it became the signature song of our film.
PL: Ramiro Zamarripa and I both worked on Pen15, so we found each other through the producer of that TV show. I had most of the film scored with stock music and Ramiro re-wrote the whole thing. He came up with new instruments that were perfect and he was able to make notes hit on exact edit points which was delightful. For the final scene, I sent him Youtube clips from Days of Our Lives as inspiration. I was worried he would hate the assignment, but he went with it and it really elevated the drama of Jazmine’s play.
TS: What has Jazmine thought about the film and all the praise it’s received?
PL: We showed Jazmine an early cut of the film and she loved it. We worked with her to make sure she was happy with the final cut. She loves doing interviews and attending festivals, even if it’s virtually.
TS: What has Jazmine been up to since your film about her has received so much attention?
PL: The film hasn’t really changed her life. Her daily schedule still includes Barbies, watching Days of Our Lives and attending Zumba. She has been exercising and eating better, which I think is partially attributed to seeing herself on camera. She has completed the script for Season 7 of The Double Life and it includes a celebrity baby shower.
TS: How are Chad Faries and Kate German doing since the film was made?
PL: Chad continues to teach English and run his vacation rentals. He moved in with a lady and it’s pretty serious. Kate had a couple surgeries but she’s feeling much better now. They’ve both been having a blast sharing the film.
TS: What was it like winning the Award at Slamdance?
PL: It was so gratifying! Some agents and producers have told us that this is a “niche” film, but we feel like it has a very broad appeal. It’s not just for parents of children with Down syndrome. This film has something for everyone, and winning the Audience Award was one step toward proving that.
TS: What are your future release plans for IRON FAMILY?
PL: We’re working with Sharon Wisni ( sharon@mojo.film ) at Mojo Global Arts to find distribution. We’re hoping to see it released on a streaming platform sometime this year. We’ve also reached out to Matthew McConaughey to see if he’d be interested in supporting the film in some way.
TS: What led you to making your home in Savannah? What is the local film scene like there?
PL: I moved here in 2009 to pursue a graduate degree at the Savannah College of Art and Design. It’s the largest art school in the country and this is a fairly small town, so it’s great being around a high percentage of artists and young creative people. We have a unique variety of locations to choose from – historic architecture, new buildings, marshes, parks, the beach and more. It’s relatively cheap to film here and there’s a Georgia film tax credit, so we’ve been able to attract some big films in the last few years. My wife worked in the accounting department on Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, Underground Railroad on HB0, and Gemini Man starring Will Smith.
TS: What’s your next project? Do you have ideas for more documentaries or would you like to film narratives?
PL: We recently finished a short biography called The Life of Bill Baggs, which premiered at the Miami International Film Festival and will be playing on the local Miami PBS affiliate. We’re working on a series about opioid addiction for Georgia Public Broadcasting. We love working on documentaries because we can have a small crew, keep it flexible, and follow the story where it leads us. I’d love to cast Jazmine in her own thriller/comedy, but we’ll have to wait until we get funding for that. Until then we’re looking for the next Jazmine, so please send us your ideas!
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