Amy Berg
West of Memphis
Interview by Frank Kelly
12/28/12
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| Director Amy Berg |
Around the same time, filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh
became involved with a campaign to free three men; Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin
and Jessie Misskelley, known as the West Memphis 3. Jackson and Walsh believed, like many others, that these men
had been wrongly imprisoned for the rape and murder of three 8 year-old
boys. Echols, the so-called
leader, was sentenced to death. The campaign to free them became a global
phenomenon that involved thousands of people.
Jackson and Walsh began bank rolling an investigation in an
effort to bring new evidence and testimony to light, and tackle what Jackson
himself called “Institutional Bullying.”
It was when new DNA evidence discovered at the scene of the crime was
refused as a reason to reopen the case, that Jackson and Walsh decided to make
a film and bring this injustice to greater public awareness.
Being no stranger to controversy, and with a background as
an investigative journalist, Berg was first choice for Jackson and Walsh to
direct the film. Stepping into the
center of this infamous case, which had attracted the attention of Henry
Rollins, Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder and many more, Berg did not quite know the
scale of the project she was taking on.
But it was her distain for bullying and injustice that fueled an
insatiable desire to find the truth.
Berg spoke to me on the phone from a New York hotel room
just before she was about to record the commentary for the West of
Memphis DVD release. She
explained that the journey of this film had been a long one.
Frank Kelly: You’ve had a busy year.
Amy Berg: Yes, it was full on to get the film ready for
Sundance and it’s been full on since Sundance, so it’s been a pretty intense
year. Plus we opened on Christmas
Day. So there’s been a lot of travel too.
FK: Last time I spoke to you was in Dublin five years ago at
the Irish Premiere of Deliver Us From Evil. Were you on the road much with that
film?
AB: Deliver Us From Evil happened
quicker. It went to the LA Film Festival and then to Toronto and then it was
released, where as with West of Memphis there was a lot of
waiting in between things.
FK: Were you on this project the entire time? Were there
gaps while you were waiting for the case to progress?
AB: Not as much as it may seem. We were always following
certain leads and if they led down the wrong path we would just go back to the
start. We had several leads going
at the same time. It was a really
intense three years of investigation with so many moving parts and we had to
make sure we crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s
FK: Were you prepared to follow the case until the end?
AB: I don’t know that you know what you’re getting into. I
knew that I was taking on something massive. I also knew that I didn’t know
everything that was going on under the surface. But I was very curious and just
wanted to keep figuring it out.
FK: I suppose
your challenge then was to translate the shock and awe you were experiencing
while making the film to the audience as they watch it?
AB: Yes, the film is a good measure of all the shock and awe
we experienced. Every time you see
something you can’t imagine it getting worse and then it does because it’s all
about lies. People are not coming
clean about what they know or mistakes they’ve made and those things just
mounting up. And you want to believe that the justice system will work in a
fair and balanced way so that something like this couldn’t happen but the more
truth that came out, the less willing the officials were to admit culpability.
FK: It felt like the officials didn’t want to be embarrassed
by admitting they made the wrong decision.
AB: I don’t think they were embarrassed. I just don’t think
they cared. They regarded these three guys as just poor white trash and didn’t
care about going back. I don’t think it crossed their minds.
FK: You would think the accused would be angry after going
through what they did, but when you see Damien Echols in the film he appears to
be very relaxed, calm and at peace with himself. Was that something that surprised you when you met him?
AB: He surprised me on every level. He has done so much work on himself and
on protecting himself against the things that would generally take a person
down. So I was surprised that he
was able to exist in such a positive mind-space knowing everything he’d been
through. It says a lot about him.
FK: You approach your films from a very personal standpoint
– it has to mean something to you for you to take it on. I know you didn’t know much about the
case before Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh approached you, so how then did you
attach yourself to the project? What was the moment that made you want to make
the film?
AB: Peter says it in the film, he hates bullying and this is
about institutional bullying. The most interesting thing to me is the systemic
abuse. I think there are similar
themes in Deliver Us From Evil, where something is
fundamentally wrong but kept being allowed to happen.
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| Producer Peter Jackson and Director Amy Berg |
FK: All of Peter Jackson’s movies seem to have a similar
theme – the characters go on a similar journey, in that they are trying to
escape the darkness and find their way back to the light. Your films have similar themes – the
people you follow are trying to find their way out of very dark situations. Do you think that’s something you both
have in common as filmmakers?
AB: Not until you say it like that, but it makes a lot of
sense. It is a really important
thing for me, it’s more about the gray area, so yes, I guess that is trying to
find the light in the dark. It’s
about the journey from hiding to coming out. And it’s not just the three guys, everyone in the story is
on a similar journey, the victims’ parents and the people who gave false
testimonies and are experiencing this shame for being a part of something that
was so dishonest.
FK: You don’t appear in your films, though your presence as
director is definitely felt.
Stylistically your films are very similar. Is that something that comes from your past as a news journalist?
AB: Yes, I don’t want to be in my films, I’m never going to
do that. It’s a challenge, I think
it’s more difficult to do in terms of the edit and the storytelling, but that’s
the way it works for me. A friend
of mine came out of the film and said to me that she felt like she was in very
safe hands, as if I was guiding her through the story without having to be in
the film, which was one of the biggest compliments I could have received
because you put so much into the interviews, the process, the journey for all
the people involved, but I think that it is their story and I’m just helping
them to tell it.
FK: Do you spend a lot of time with them before putting them
on camera?
AB: Yes, I do that a lot. First of all, in this day and age with what reality TV has
done to documentaries, you want to know that people are telling you the truth. I also feel that after you build a
level of comfort with someone over time the camera becomes invisible.
FK: Are the ever moments when you want to turn the camera
off? I remember one scene in
Deliver Us From Evil when the father of one of the victims
has a breakdown on camera, and it’s an intense, personal experience we, the
audience, are witnessing, you almost feel like you shouldn’t be watching.
AB: For me personally it is difficult when the camera is
rolling in that kind of situation.
But you really just have to remember that you’re doing this for the
overall thread of the story. If he
had expressed he was uncomfortable with keeping that in the film it would have
been difficult for me to put it in.
But there are these moments where these people are breaking out and you
can’t stop rolling because that’s part of the process and part of their
experience.
FK: I think that moment encapsulates the entire emotion of
that film. It really says in that
single moment “This is what has been done to these people.”
AB: And the truth is, that moment happened every time I went
to his place. That was who he was.
FK: There was a similar moment in West of
Memphis, when you show the footage of the discovery of the bodies,
it’s one of the most unsettled and shocking moments in the film. Was that a difficult decision to
include those images in the film?
AB: Yes, it was.
But there was no question about it. The reason why is that every single person that was called
to testify on the stand saw all the same images. Every person on the jury were given those photos, and there
were much more graphic and disturbing images than were in the film, showing the
postmortem effect of the animal activity that took place. So I felt that it was important that we
were seeing what the West Memphis 3 were being judged on. Because every time you asked someone
about something scientific that should counter balance what their decision was,
they referred to those photos, “I saw those photos! What those boys did! I can’t
get that image out of my mind.”
FK: It is a stark reminder of what it’s all about and how
the jury was swayed away from the evidence, such as it was.
AB: Yes.
FK: We are almost out of time, so I wanted to ask about your
next project.
AB: I’m actually shooting my first narrative. We begin pre-production in January.
It’s an adaptation of the book Every Secret Thing by Laura
Lippman with Frances McDormand and Anthony Brigman producing.
FK: Was narrative filmmaking something you always wanted to
try?
AB: I wanted to try something new and this is a story that’s
very important. After three long
experiences with my documentary films I wanted to work on something with more
of a contained schedule, and on a project that I feel passionate about.
FK: I suppose with filmmaking, documentary or fiction,
you’re always in search of the truth.
AB: Right.
FK: One of your DPs on West of Memphis
was Maryse Alberti, who is know for her documentary work but has also work on
The Wrestler and Happiness, which have a
very documentary style to them.
Will you bring a documentary style to your fiction work?
AB: Yes.
Totally. We’re shooting
with a very free style, but I think we can still find a cinematic look, but
yes, a very documentary style.
FK: I’m very much looking forward to seeing your first
narrative work and congratulations on the success of West of
Memphis.
AB: Thank you.
Amy Berg
Interview by Frank Kelly
12/28/12
West of Memphis is on limited release at
selected theatres in Los Angeles and New York.
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