Crawford

Bush is only an instigating, background character here. But with only months left of him in the White House, have you ever been concerned that your film has a shelf life?
I think the film will stand up in five or ten years as a reflection on the Bush era through a portrait of a town. In terms of the ideal window in which we would broadcast and distribute the film, it's certainly within the next nine months. As we begin to turn the page on the Bush era, it's an opportunity to look back. We can look back through the eyes of the media or pundits, their articles and essays, or we can step through all of that and get the hidden history — the people's history — of this time. So the ideal window is nine months in terms of, I don't know, the sexiness of the topic. But I think that the film will stand up because it's not issue-driven, it's really a story of the people of Crawford.

Your approach is admirably nonpartisan, but did you ever feel like you had to bite your tongue while interviewing those with outspoken, fundamentalist ideologies?
Yeah, that's a great question. When people began to assert political opinions, I chose not to be combative or question their opinions in any way, but rather to encourage them to feel comfortable expressing themselves as clearly and dynamically as they could. I felt like my job was to gather these stories, viewpoints and anecdotes, then get out of the way and let the audience make their decisions about what they felt about these characters' political viewpoints. I think it served the project well not to be politically combative, to encourage people to assert their viewpoints. But it wasn't always easy.

Crawford

Jake Gyllenhaal, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen's names pop up in the end credits. How did they become attached to the project, and in what capacity did they help out?
I sent an early cut of the film to all of them. I had pathways to get them the film, and they responded really positively. I think they were excited about the nonpartisan nature of the film, and Jake said to me, "I found myself identifying with the people of Crawford, who I never would have thought I'd identify with. Because of this whole ride of the Bush era, I could see my experience in theirs, or I could see their experience in mine." That's what he was excited about. So I created an advisory board because they didn't put any money into it, they weren't going to be producers or executive producers. But they were excited about the film and gave notes on that early cut. Since then, they've given me advice about approaching festivals and distribution. They really acted in an advisory capacity.

In an Austin Chronicle interview, it's mentioned that some of them are family friends?
[Kimberley Jones] wrote that in the Chronicle. I grew up knowing Jake a bit [during summers in Martha's Vineyard] when I was a kid. But my parents don't really know — I mean, I wouldn't consider them family friends. I would consider Jake a friend.

It still brings up another question. Bush is obviously a real poseur down in Crawford, and I'm curious if — since you're not originally from Texas yourself — if you feel any specific sense of class identity, especially when speaking with some of these small-town residents.
Sure. I'm not from Texas and I think the best observations of a people, town or event can often come from observers from the outside. Not to be pretentious, but the example that comes to mind is Alexis de Tocqueville, who came and wrote maybe the greatest treatise on American Democracy. He was not an American. There's a Japanese story about a man who goes to the edge of the water, sees a fish and says, "How's the water?" The fish looks around and it's like, "Well, what water? What are you talking about?" I think when you're coming from the outside, you can sort of see the water. A lot of things stood out to me because I wasn't from a small town and I wasn't from Texas. Being an outsider had its advantages. In another regard, I don't have a Texan accent and it was clear to them that I wasn't from [there], but they were willing to open up nonetheless.