How To Make A Documentary Thriller by Christopher Smith
and Stephanie Lincoln of CURRENT SEA
Film Courage: In the Kickstarter video Christopher you talk about how you’d like to make CURRENT SEA different from other environmental documentaries. That sometimes [environmental documentaries] seem more science-like, more of an academic video or something. How do you propose doing this with CURRENT SEA? How will it be a little bit different without giving away too much about the film?
Christopher Smith: What drew me to CURRENT SEA as a film in particular (as a filmmaker) is that I thought it was a very exciting story. There is a lot of inherent conflict over these resources and even thought the setting and what’s at stake and all of that is definitely environmental in its nature and has to do with protecting the environment, at the heart of it, it’s really the human drama. There are a lot of different aspects to that drama, too. There is poverty and people trying to get by, but there is also politics and government and corruption. There is also more broader themes like greed and love and kindness and all these things.
I just thought that was an amazing framework to address a social issue. And also this came about not too long after CARTEL LAND was around and it really struck me as when I saw CARTEL LAND I thought (and I think there are some fair criticisms of that movie so I’m not trying to sell it as the best thing ever) but it’s a great movie, I enjoyed it a lot that I felt inspired to make similar film with a similar vibe to it. But I wanted to do an environmental one and I thought this had all the pieces for that. It’s by no means the first environmental film that’s like a thriller. I think THE COVE and RACING EXTINCTION (which I was involved in) also have elements of that. Although I think those are less gritty than what CURRENT SEA will be in the end. There is also filmmaker (I am forgetting his name right now – Mark Grieco) but he did MARMATO and another film that premiered at Tribeca called A RIVER BELOW and I think that he does similar kinds of things. So I don’t want to claim like this is totally unique in its tone or vibe. (Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
LEARN MORE ABOUT ‘CURRENT SEA’ – Which raised over $28,000 on Kickstarter
https://kck.st/2rbyVvf
CONNECT WITH CHRISTOPHER SMITH
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