SXSW Film Festival Pt.2: Exposé films, Wikileaks, Code of the West, and Bay of All Saints

On the second special installment of BYOD at SXSW, Vlad and Ondi focus on exposé documentaries that screened at the festival.
First we talk with Patrick Forbes, the last man standing in the race to get a Wikileaks documentary about his film, “Wikileaks: Secrets and Lies.”
The feature, “Code of the West” director, Rebecca Richman Cohen and talk to her about medical marijuana in Montana, and the process of integrating her legal and filmmaking knowledge.
Finally, we spoke with one of the breakthrough directors of the SXSW festival, Annie Eastman, about her film “Bay of All Saints,” which details the life of people in Bahia, Brazil that are on the border of homelessness. From living in sea shanty towns, to moving through the wilderness of political ambivalence, the film tells a moving story of heroic people dealing with adversity.

Guest Bio

Rebecca Richman Cohen is an Emmy Award nominated filmmaker and a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School. She did investigative journalism at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and subsequently made a documentary detailing warring factionalism, War Don Don. That film won a Special Jury Award at SXSW in 2010. In the same year she was also profiled in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces in Independent Film as an “up-and-comer poised to shape the next generation of independent film.”

Annie Eastmanis an independent filmmaker that had a background in Capoeira and travelled to Bahia, Brazil, where she soon was shooting her documentary feature, “Bay of All Saints.” Ms. Eastman studied at University of Colorado, and she also worked on the lauded feature doc, “They Killed Sister Dorothy.”

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Episode Breakdown

00:01 BYOD Intro.
01:50 Wikileaks, clip.
04:24 Introducing Patrick Forbes, director of Wikileaks.
06:28 The competition for the Wikileaks story.
09:39 Talking to “funny” sources for information.
11:45 Getting access through the film and becoming a sleuth.
13:17 “Why did Assange do it?” The real meaning of ‘Freedom of expression.’
15:01 “What happened to the other projects around Wikileaks?”
16:41 The new frontier without privacy.
17:03 One of the key scenes of the film-Julian dancing.
19:06 “Do you have distribution?”
19:46 Thanks and keeping track of the film.
21:39 Wikileaks, clip 2.
22:39 Code of the West, clip.
24:44 Welcoming Rebecca Richman Cohen.
25:21 “What is the film about?” The Montana marijuana election.
26:43 Shooting in Montana.
27:48 Code of the West, clip 2.
29:29 The beauty of the filmmaking.
31:12 “Why did you want to make a film about medical marijuana?”
31:40 Influences and heroes in filmmaking.
32:47 “How was Code of the West funded?”
33:52 Filmmaking for lawyers.
34:52 The hardest issues around making the film.
35:24 The shoot length.
35:38 Where to reach for grants.
37:17 The goal of the film, and the moral hazards of filmmaking.
39:57 The American disconnect between sentiments and policy.
42:15 Where to find out more about the film.
42:52 Code of the West, clip 3.
44:03 Bay of All Saints, clip.
45:30 Welcoming Annie Eastman, director of Bay of All Saints.
46:15 Bringing the audience into the make-shift community of Bahia.
48:14 “How did you get interested and involved in this community?”
49:02 Choosing the subjects from the community.
50:12 Bay of All Saints, clip 2.
51:44 “What does the title mean?” Providing the subjects with exposure.
54:04 The fickleness of the government aid programs.
56:07 Covering seven years in the film.
57:30 The SXSW world premier for the film and moving forward.
57:55 “How did you raise money to create the film?”
58:32 Where to learn more about the film.
59:24 Bay of All Saints, clip 3.
1:00:20 Show credits.