Tell me a little about your background. How did you get involved with Lifecasters?

Adam and I are close with Wayne and Margaret Saadi Kramer.  Margaret was the music supervisor on my first feature film “Fully Loaded” that was recently released, and we all met acutally when Wyne did some scoring on Adam’s movie Taledega Nights.  Margaret was contacted by Gita and Aron about Lifecasters and she recommended Adam and I as filmmakers when PBS chose Wayne as one of their subjects.  I am a theatre director and grew up in a family of theatre artists and started making films about 6 years ago.  Adam was a writer and performer and wrote for Saturday Night Live in the mid 90′s and started directing shorts at SNL before he directed Anchorman in 2003 and started his feature career.  He has always been very outspoken politically—he blogs for Huffington Post and is active on Twitter as a political/comic animal.

We share many of the same poltical points of view and were drawn to Wayne as a former radical and current activist.  I also teach an extremely physical and emotional style of acting with the actors gang theatre (TIm Robbins artistic director)  to inmates at the California Rehabilitation Center at Norco.  This gave me a familiarity with prisons and inmates and the arts which helped me navigate the world of Wayne and Margaret’s Jail Guitar Doors organization, which brings instruments into prison.

What attracted you to Wayne Kramer’s story?

I am obsessed with the idea of how people change deeply.  How does real inner change happen?  How does a man who could not would not get clean until the age of 50, give up his addictions and turn his life around so totally?  I also believe there is something heavy about helping people whom society has abandoned–prison inmates.  My experience teaching Commedia Del’Arte in prison has shown me that these men and women are no different from us.  We share this belief with Wayne and also the notion that people are nurtured through being allowed to create art, and that inmates benefit from it in a very tangible way.  It is like giving water to people who have been stranded in the desert.  You see joy and gratitude on their faces as they hear the music or receive the guitars.

Many folks probably came to Kramer through the MC5, but might not know about his outreach work with inmates or his personal connection to it. 

Yes.  Wayne was in prison in his 20′s because of his involvement with drugs.  his work in prison both connects with the addict in him and the musician in him.  Those who know his music know that the scene he was part of was often a heavy drug using scene.  He used his knowledge of the darker side of the rock and roll lifestyle to connect with people who have made mistakes in their lives too and wound up in prison. Bringing guitars into prison is a way of bringing music to those who need it–it is another type of concert, another way a musician connects with an audience.

Finding a renewed sense of creative purpose is one theme that connects each Lifecasters portrait. Have you ever experienced your own moment of “creative recharge” and what was the outcome?

I was a theatre artist from a very young age.  I acted and taught and wrote music for the stage and directed my first stage piece at age17.  I became a theatre director full time at age 29 or 30.  I always wanted to direct film but was frightened of the technical aspects and the scale and scope of the production side.  When I shot my first feature film in 2009  I was thrilled I was finally making a movie but did not know that I would fall in love with it.  I discovered I loved almost every creative aspect of filmmaking from shooting to editing to casting to the collaboration with all the many creative heads of department. The outcome is that I want and plan and am delighted to have the opportunity to make more movies.

What do you hope viewers will take away from “The Beast and the Angel”?

I think different viewers see different things and that is part of the beauty of any artistic experience, but Adam and  I hope viewers see something that is of value to them in this short portrait.  We hope they see themselves somewhere in the film.  It is essential to the piece that we expose inmates as vulnerable and human and we  hope we have at least achieved that.  We also hope they see through Wayne’s life that profound personal change is possible.

What surprised you about the process of documentary filmmaking?

The ratio of the huge amount of footage and photographs taken to the relatively small amount used in the final product was amazing. I was also impressed with Aron’s attention to the visuals and how the natural texture, colors, shapes, or just general aura of what he was viewing would capture his eye and be incorporated into the documentary. We also had a discussion of the editing process when he saw that I could spend many minutes over just the blending, placement and volume of a single note in my composing endeavors. He indicated that he also can spend a great deal of time in splicing the documentary. This is another way of saying than we are both compulsive nut cases.

Can you share more about the history behind your family story and how it relates to the music? Can you talk to us about each of the movements and how it personally impacted you and your creative work?

My family’s Jewish immigration experience is not unique. The hardship, persecution, separation and finding freedom and safety in America is common to millions of people in various religious and ethnic groups. It’s the story of untold families. It is the story of this symphony.

This story begins in Prague in 1735 when a man named Calman was born. My middle name is Calman and he was my maternal great-great grandfather. In 1796 he had a son Yeshea whose picture is seen on the insert of the CD of the symphony and on my website. The reason that we have a picture of a man born so many years before the invention of photography is that Yeshea live to be 106.

Movement I (Origins) interweaves moods and themes that might reflect the changing emotional landscape of my ancestors in their eastward migration from Prague to Russia. In order to seek a better life Calman and his family settled in a little farm village in White Russia called Milkowitz in 1780. Milkowitz is my mother’s maiden name. Obviously the family took the name of the village and not vice versa.

Movement II (Separation) starts in the late 1800’s, when the family suffered under the Russian pogroms. I remember hearing how the family would hide in the attic as the Cossacks would terrorize the little village. In 1900, the family elders told my grandfather that he must flee with his family and find safety in America. My grandfather came alone to New Britain, Ct. and saved enough money after working for 4 years to send for his wife and the rest of his family which included my mother. This movment starts with the Cossacks on horseback and with sabers drawn terrorizing the town. The music suddenly stops and you hear the elders (as represented by the lower instruments of the orchestra) sing out “You must go” and the younger family members counter with “no no no”. The movement continues with the younger family members recalling the village dances and songs, as I would imagine them. Despite the closeness of the family and their attachments to their life in the village, the decision of these elders prevail. This decision is made with full knowledge that the separation will be permanent and they will never see each other again which, in fact was the case.

Movment III (Remembrance) memorializes the agonizing separation. To begin to feel only a part of the wrenching sadness that they felt I simply have to look to my immediate family – my 3 children, their spouses and my 6 grandchildren. How would I feel if I had to say to them you must now go to another part of the world and we will never see each other again.? That was the inspiration for much of the third movement. But in addition to the sadness I wished to also portray a feeling of affirmation which comes from the foresight and sacrifice demonstrated by the elders. And so several minutes into this movement I came up with the second and slightly more hopeful theme. The movement continues and toward its end there are glimpses of a brighter future, ending with a few uplifting notes from a horn solo.

Movement IV (Arrival) begins with the voyage over the ocean from Europe. Upon sight of the Statue of Liberty the triumphant sounds from the orchestra herald the family’s final arrival in American. The music continues to recapitulate many ideas from the earlier movements. In addition to these recapitulations, new material is also introduced including a song I wrote as a teenager and which was entitled Remembrance. Apparently this symphony has been percolating in me for a long time.

The importance of family legacy you allude to in your above discussion of how your own history relates to your music is a subject also touched on in the film. Can you talk about the first time your family saw the film and their reaction?

They were obviously moved and impressed because they know deeply I felt about the hardships involved in my family coming to America. They were also very much aware of how I had given so much effort and emotion to this project.

Are you surprised by the emotional reaction and response to your story and your music? Can you share one of your favorite stories of someone discovering your music and how that impacted you?

I have many poignant favorite stories. I have been so touched and moved by the emotions of those who listen to this music. I will bracket these with one of the earliest and the very latest.

When my music was first played by the Hartford Symphony Orchestra I received a note or phone call from a woman who had been at the concert. She said that her life situation was very difficult. She had a child and her husband had just left her. She was senior in college. After hearing the music and how I had beaten the odds in getting it performed she now realized that she also could confront her difficulties and vowed that in someway she would go law school and take charge of her life.

Just a few weeks ago I received a phone call from an acquaintance with whom I have had almost no contact over 40 or more years. I have had no contact with her husband during that period of time. She called a day after he had died and told me that her husband was a lover of classical music. As he was dying he only wanted to listen to a piece by Mozart and my symphony.

What are you working on now?

I am working on setting a Longfellow poem dealing with the Civil War to music It will be a symphonic work with chorus and be about 8 to 12 minutes in duration. I hope have to completed in about two months.

Finally, many people watching your film have their own personal goals and dreams. But may be struggling to reach them personally. Do you have any words of advice for them?

Dare to be a dreamer and pursue your goals now matter how lofty. But you must also be realistic and get totally objective second opinions from unbiased sources in deciding if those dreams are within the realms of possibility.

As you go forward but be sure that you are walking on very solid ground.

Sheri “Sparkle” Williams is legendary in the Contemporary Dance Community.

She is arguably the best-known dancer in the Miami Valley. As a principal performer for the Dayton  Contemporary Dance Company, Sheri “Sparkle” Williams has been lighting up area stages for more than 40 years.        

Read more about Sheri in this Dayton Daily News article.

Wayne Kramer did time in prison and came out with a plan to make a difference.

He spent two years in a federal lockup for trying to sell cocaine to undercover agents, and all Wayne Kramer can think about these days is trying to find a way to get back behind bars. 

Read more about Wayne in this piece for the Huffington Post.

Alby Hurwit had a successful career as a radiologist. What would compel him to take up composing after retirement?

After 60 years of hearing this music in his head, Dr. Hurwit, with almost no musical education, decided to retire from his medical practice and teach himself how to use technology to translate this musical memory of his family into a symphony. Even his wife, Joan, thought he was crazy.

Read more about Alby’s life and music in this profile in Glastonbury Life.

This week, they share insight into curating this program, working with a team of award-winning, high profile filmmakers and successfully pairing inspiring film subjects and filmmakers.

Can you talk about your approach to this project? 

Aron: Two years ago, Sunny Side Up Films teamed up with BAVC to work on Lifecasters. The goal of the program was to share inspiring, innovative stories of incredible people, overcoming the odds, and finding ways to reach their goals and dreams.  We knew in the 60-minute program that we wanted different storytellers with varying creative visions so each film represented the thoughts and feelings of the subject and the filmmakers.

Gita: We also really wanted to bring new voices to PBS– not just documentary filmmakers but also other talented filmmakers from different genres. We were hoping to make this as high profile as possible so as we explored possible filmmakers and subjects, we were looking at who might be good candidates.

How did you find the subjects and the filmmakers?

Gita: We took a two-pronged approach to finding the best people to profile. We asked festival programmers to recommend filmmakers, we asked filmmakers to pitch us stories, and we even put out queries to various sites and associations including my alma maters– the University of Notre Dame and Northwestern University, asking for suggestions on stories.

Aron: Oscar nominated filmmakers, Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar, pitched us multiple stories. We asked them to focus on a story near their hometown, something that represented a piece of the Midwest. Together, we discussed a story about Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, the oldest modern dance company in Ohio. They really connected to Sheri “Sparkle” Williams and when they looked into her story in more detail, they really became fascinated by it and wanted to share more of her story with a national audience.

Gita: Yeah, and with Wayne Kramer [formerly of MC5], it was through his wife, Margaret Kramer. Margaret is a music supervisor in LA and she was talking to us about her husband and we just really connected to his story and thought it would make a wonderful additional film in Lifecasters. Margaret and Wayne wanted Adam McKay and Shira Piven to tell their story and we knew that they would be able to create a very intimate and personal profile on Wayne given the already established trust that existed between the filmmakers and the film subjects. And the film that we did– on Albert Hurwit– we had actually been working on doing something special with him for a few years. We found his story incredible. A couple of people in the industry introduced us to him and given how rare and inspiring his story was, we felt like we could tell his story and showcase his music.  We partnered with Connecticut Public Television on his film.

Aron: We felt these three stories really programmed well together. The theme around Lifecasters really became these inspiring people later in life through sheer hard work and determination finding ways to overcome their greatest fears and accomplish their goals.

What do you hope audiences will be able to take away from LIFECASTERS after the broadcast on PBS February 7?

Aron: We hope all three of these film subjects– Wayne Kramer, Sheri “Sparkle” Williams, and Alby Hurwit– will inspire people in the US and overseas to find ways to achieve their own personal goals and dreams. There are people beating the odds, finding innovative approaches and creative strategies to overcome tremendous obstacles. By sharing these stories, it makes these goals and dreams that seem so hard to grasp actually possible. And when that happens, that makes for a better community….a better society.

Gita: We’ve worked with this program and concept now for over two years and we continue to be inspired by the three film subjects and our incredible filmmakers. We hope this concept of bringing award-winning filmmakers together to share in these stories continues and has a place on television for years to come.

Once everything was approved in 2011 we dug in and worked fast and hard to produce a pilot – and now we’re thrilled to present three short films by three incredible directors and producers. We look forward to you seeing their work, hearing what you think, and reading your own stories on this site.