Steve James' affiliation with Kartemquin began in 1987 with the start of production of Hoop Dreams, for which he served as director, producer, and co-editor.He has since then become one of the most acclaimed documentary makers of his generation, with noted works being Stevie, The New Americans, The War Tapes, At the Death House Door, The Interrupters, Life Itself,.
A mixture of guilt and curiosity drove Chicago filmmaker Steve James to check in on his one-time 'little brother,' Stevie Fielding, after an absence of nearly 10 years.
In 1995 James, director of the award-winning documentary 'Hoop Dreams,' traveled to the rural southern Illinois town where he had known Stevie as a troubled boy while serving as his advocate Big Brother.
What James found was an angry 24-year-old who had been in and out of foster homes and amassed quite a criminal record.
Intending to tell the story of what happened to Stevie in those 10 years, James and most of the 'Hoop Dreams' production team started on the film project in 1995.
But in the course of filming, James became a part of the story when Stevie was arrested and charged with a serious crime, the nature of which is revealed in the film.
Like the other people in Stevie's life, James struggled with how to help Stevie and how to view him after the crime. The result is an emotional documentary that focuses on a family who at first glance appears to be a walking cliche of rural trailer park residents. But as the story unfolds, so do the complexities of this family and the heartbreaking realities of their lives.
RedEye talked to James about 'Stevie,' which opens next weekend.
When you started, what did you intend the film to be?
The goal was really modest, which was to go back and see what had become of Stevie in the 10 years since I lost touch with him. .. Lenovo sk 8845 keyboard driver for mac. But in the course of doing that, he was arrested and charged with a crime, and that changed everything.
What was it like to be pulled in as a character in your own film?
It was scary to become part of my own film. It's not something I ever set out to do. When he was arrested for this crime, I got caught in the middle. .. I felt an impulse to want to do something, to not just sit back passively and observe what happened to him.
How did it affect your approach to the film?
Any documentary filmmaker who spends any extensive time with their subjects telling their story--especially if the story has some misfortune in it--struggles with that whole question of, 'Am I just an observer? Should I do more? Should I put the camera down and help?' It's an age-old issue and one that's hard to resolve.
Fairly quickly in the process, I decided that I was going to cross the line, that I wasn't going to make a pretext to objectivity, to a dispassionate examination of someone's life.
How did it feel to observe Stevie and his family dealing with this troubling chain of events?
It felt like being inside a complicated novel. .. It's a heartbreaking story that people can watch as if they are watching a dramatic fiction film. But I think when it's real people's lives, and it's not fiction, it makes it a little more emotionally draining to be in the midst of that, especially when it's people you know and have a history with.
How do you think viewers will see the subjects of your film?
We have so many cliches in our minds and caricatures of what it means to be white, rural and living in a trailer park. We think of 'Jerry Springer' people and all of these awful caricatures we've seen over the years.
But by spending as much time with this family as we did over the course of four and a half years--and as you do as a viewer--I think it really pushes you beyond those stereotypes.
Even though Stevie exhibits a great deal of troubling behavior, behavior that I and people watching the film struggle with, I do hope that what you get from the film is an underlying humanity.
More works by Steve James
- 'Hoop Dreams': A 1994 documentary chronicling the lives of two Chicago high school basketball players. The film garnered much critical acclaim and many awards. James was nominated for an Academy Award for editing.
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- 'Prefontaine': A 1997 dramatic feature film about legendary distance runner Steve Prefontaine, written and directed by James.
- Next up: James and the team at Chicago-based Kartemquin Films are finishing up a new miniseries for PBS called 'The New Americans' that tells the stories of recent immigrants and refugees.
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Where it's playing
'Stevie' opens March 28 at the Landmark Century Cinema (2828 N. Clark St.), Century CineArts (1715 Maple Ave., Evanston) and Landmark Renaissance Place Cinema (1850 Second St., Highland Park).