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Burlington Free Press Review
Documentary: Sacrifice, motivation
behind peace movement
From a mother who lost her
son at the
Marking the 6th anniversary
of the start of the Iraq War, Dream Catcher
Films will present a special screening of the
documentary Wednesday at the Merrill's Roxy
Theater in
Narrated by Martin Sheen,
"Finding Our Voices" is an independent
self-financed production of Dream Catcher
Films, which Stadtler has owned since 1996.
After beginning her career at NBC Nightly News
and Discovery Channel Pictures, Stadtler went
on to produce and direct documentaries for the
Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, TBS
Superstation, National Geographic Television
and independent
documentaries.
Her experience includes
work on shows in all genres from history to
science and technology, including a high
concentration of natural history
films.
Here is a bit about the
woman behind the lens.
Has the making of
the film offered you perspective on the role of
peaceful dissent and debate in a
democracy?
Yes, the entire time we
were making the film, I continued to ask
whether dissent is effective. And while I
prefer peaceful dissent and practice same, I do
see that sometimes when people are disruptive
they get attention. That's not my method, but I
can't deny the results sometimes. I came to the
conclusion after working on the movie for
several years that dissent is effective but it
does not generally achieve results immediately.
It's a long process and persistence is
required.
Have you learned anything
about war and politics that really surprised or
touched you in some way?
Yes, sadly I've learned that our
culture is easy to anger, eager for revenge in
many cases, and that violence is too prominent
in the
What message do you hope
viewers take away with
them?
I hope viewers
will be inspired to stand up and speak out for
what they believe, whether it's a political
stand I agree with or not. And I really hope
that viewers will see the importance of dissent
and be open-minded and not immediately label
dissenters as unpatriotic or traitorous. I had
family members tell me I was a traitor when I
started this movie. It was because I didn't
give carte blanche to my president and spoke
out for peace rather than war. It was very
hurtful for me to feel I couldn't speak out
against a violent action without being labeled
unpatriotic.
As a former broadcast
journalist and now an executive film producer,
do you see commonalties between news and
documentaries?
Both are reporting the facts and
searching for the truth. However, documentaries
allow us to take a point of view, to craft a
message that is biased or unbiased whereas news
should be unbiased. Having a background in
journalism, I would underscore that it's very
important to me that my scripts are fact
checked with three independent sources and that
sound bites are taken in proper context. But I
do recognize with documentaries we have more
leeway in manipulating the audience's emotions.
But I say that with utmost
respect.
What do you like most about
the documentary format?
I like the length that allows
you to get more in depth with a subject or
genre. I also like that because you spend so
much time with the subject or material you
become a kind of expert in the subject matter.
And again because you spend so much time with
the material, the focus, approach, style, etc.,
may change over the project's evolution. This
also is the result of the collaboration with a
team of people, producers, writer, editor,
composer, etc. I am truly invigorated by
working with a team that has a stake in the
story, all wanting to make it interesting,
dynamic and accurate. And as compared to
fictional moviemaking, I like that it's real
and can have a great impact on an
audience.
Meet the
filmmaker
• NAME: Holly Barden
Stadtler
• AGE:
48
• HOMETOWN: Born Tyrone,
Pa., but spent first 17 years in Halifax, Va.
Currently lives in Huntington.
•
FAMILY: Married with one
13-year-old son named Sundance (not after the
festival)
• PETS: Two dogs: Shady
(border collie mix) and Freckles (pointer mix
that looks like a Dalmatian with her black
spots on white, hence, the name
Freckles)
• OCCUPATION: Documentary
filmmaker
• FAVORITE
FILMMAKERS: I enjoy Fred
Weissman's documentaries, which are cinema
verite. I am also a fan of a little-known
documentary director, Allison Argo, who has
produced a lot of films for PBS Nature strand
and for National Geographic. I find Werner
Herzog's films very stylistically interesting
too. Ron Howard, Sydney Pollack and Oliver
Stone are a few of the fictional directors I
like.
• MOVIES: My tastes are
wide ranging and include "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad,
Mad World," "Lion King," "Diehard,"
"Bourne Identity," Roberto Benigni's "It's a
Beautiful Life," "Schindler's List," "People of
the Forest" (documentary), "It's a Wonderful
Life."
• RESTAURANTS: I love
Toscano in
• MUSIC: I like blues and
rock. I enjoy bluegrass but not constantly, and
I listen to country for a small percentage on a
long car trip (like maybe 45 minutes out of
nine hours). I enjoy reggae but I'm not an
aficionado. I play piano and sing in my church
choir so I really enjoy singing southern gospel
and African spirituals.
• BOOKS: I just finished
reading "The Wolf Country" about the wolves of
Algonquin for my recent trip to track wolves in
•