Famed filmmaker Stanley Nelson talks to Professor Orlando Bagwell about the joys and challenges of the work

Stanley Nelson’s passion for filmmaking started early. He recalled using a tape recorder with a cable that connected to a camera that shot black and white
film. He’d check it out at school, take it to the park, and film his friend, “laughing and cracking up that you could actually do this,” he said earlier
this month, in a special Bay Area edition of the International Documentary Association (IDA) Conversation Series.

Five decades later, Nelson is considered to be one of the most influential documentary filmmakers of all time. He is the recipient of an Emmy Award and a
MacArthur ‘genius’ grant, as well as President Obama’s National Humanities Medal in 2014. He is the director and producer of the enduring works, “Freedom
Summer, Freedom Riders,” “Jonestown: The Life and Death of People’s Temple,” “A Place of Our Own,” and “The Murder of Emmett Till.” His most recent film,
“The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,” was released in September and opened to multi-city distribution on October 2.

BEGINNINGS

Fellow filmmaker Orlando Bagwell, of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism’s documentary program, began the conversation by asking Nelson about his
start in film. When Nelson was a teenager, “Bill Greaves was the first African American who had his own film company, who made docs,” he said. “When I got
out of City College, it was one of those things that just happened.” Nelson, searching for a job, looked Greaves’ address up in the telephone book and
knocked on his door. He started out as an unpaid apprentice, observing the same long hours Greaves worked, noting how he did whatever he had to do to get
films made. “I saw a guy who was independent; I think that sunk in,” he said. For a year, Nelson lived with Greaves’ family in Sheffield, Mass.

Greaves’ passion was something Nelson had been searching for. His father was “a dentist with the soul of a jazz musician,” who retired at 55 after growing
tired of the work. “I didn’t want to do something I’d get tired of,” said Nelson, “or where I felt like I knew everything there was to know about the
profession I was in. And that’s proven to be true with filmmaking.”

Bagwell said that he had been following Nelson’s work since the beginning. “You rarely see another black person out there in this space making films,” he
said.

CHALLENGES

As prolific as both Bagwell and Nelson have been in their careers, they said the work remains challenging. “For some people, they sense that the more we do
the easier it gets,” said Bagwell. “Every film is another challenge.”

“It’s just like writing a good novel; that doesn’t mean your next novel is going to be any good,” Nelson agreed. “There’s so many things that can go wrong
in the process. When I’m seeing a film, I’m amazed that it came together, I’m amazed that it’s in sync,” he said later.

They also connected on the challenges of reporting difficult subject matter. Nelson spoke about his film “Jonestown: The Life and Death of People’s
Temple,” which explored the People’s Temple religious group and their 1978 mass suicide in Guyana. “Jonestown was cursed! Everything was horrible! And to
deal with the survivors of Jonestown, many of whom had lost their whole families, and to deal with them day after day”_ It was unbelievable to be around
people who had suffered so much pain. That was a really hard film to make.”

Bagwell asked if Nelson keeps up with his subjects after filming. “I don’t, because there’s something about the emotion of staying in touch with people,”
Nelson said. “The affair is over. It’s hard to admit because there are a lot of filmmakers who stay close; I envy them, and I feel something lacking in me
that I can’t.”

Nelson also addressed the fact that one of the Black Panthers wanted to be taken out of the film, a request he ultimately denied. “At some point you have
to go with your gut and make the best film you can, the most honest film you can. With “Panthers” we spent a lot of time being kind to people, coddling
people, but we had to take break for six months to finish “Freedom Summer,” and then it was like ‘That’s over, we can’t do that anymore,'” he said. “Close
your eyes and imagine a film that everybody would like about the Black Panthers. What film would that be? I don’t know. It doesn’t exist.” The audience
cheered.

TECHNIQUE

Nelson also spoke about the joys of “experimentation and doing different things,” not only between films, but within the space of a single film. “An hour
is a long time,” he said. “A lot of things have to happen in an hour. People come up to you at a party and say ‘I have a really great idea! It’s about the
first black postmaster general of Roanoke County, Virginia.’ It’s like ‘OK, then what? I think I’ll go get the cheese dip.’ An hour is a long time.”

Nelson is currently making a documentary about the history of black colleges and universities. He’s excited to uncover archival footage and photographs
that he says “nobody’s ever seen and nobody’s ever thought about.”

Nelson works with a team of archivists and researchers, whom he allows to do their work unaided. “If I get into that, it’s just going to be one more cook
in the kitchen who doesn’t know how to cook.” They print out all the stills in a book and Nelson chooses the ones which will be digitized, then goes back
through with Post-Its to indicate what he’s looking for to achieve the feeling, whether it’s someone with their back to the camera or a hand on their
shoulder. He’s also heavily involved in the scoring and general art direction.

But, for all of Nelson’s attention to detail and care, he insists that when the project is done, it’s done. “Last time I [screened] a film, somebody stood
up and said ‘Maybe you could change this, put this here,'” he said, laughing. “I was like ‘No, it’s done! It’s done!’ I’ve been very, very lucky with the
films I’ve made “Ò most of them “Ò to be able to say, I’ve done the best I can do. It’s not time to sit there and think about those things; it leads to
madness. The joy for me is seeing the film with an audience.” He’ll have that opportunity this fall, as Nelson travels on a major press tour with the film.

LOVING IT

For all of the challenges each film contains and the dedication it requires, Bagwell and Nelson agreed there’s no better job. Bagwell, who switched from
pre-med to filmmaking, said, “When you find something you love, and you know that you love it, you can’t escape it”_ Your parents can be yelling at you
because they want you to be something, none of it’s easy, but there’s something about it that is so fulfilling. You can ask anyone in the field, and
they’ll tell you a different story about how they got there.”

“Most of my life isn’t sitting up here on a stage talking about my work,” said Nelson. “It’s not like when I get to a restaurant they go. ‘Oh, Mr. Nelson,
can I give you in the best table in the house’ or [someone says] ‘You make documentary films! Can I get you a bank loan?” He laughed and continued. “It’s
not like that. So you’ve got to love the process.”

By Melissa Batchelor Warnke (’17)