One half of the directorial duo responsible for the fantastically creepy documentary Cropsey, gives us an insight into the film making process…

1. Did you have an aim, or a specific point of view you wanted to get across when you decided to make Cropsey? If so, did this change at all when you began filming?

We had always wanted to tell the story of these events that affected us growing up on Staten Island as residents of a community…the facts behind jennifer’s disappearance, and then the discovery that other kids that had gone missing before her, and of course Rand’s connection. A very cut and dry, but engaging whodunit about our hometown. However, it was also important for us to tell this story in the context of the fiction that pervaded these cases, the local legends, the folklore, the whispered rumors that taint any crime – because this is where we connected with the story emotionally. We wanted to frame these crimes in the context of a ghost story because that’s how we rationalized them as children growing up. On top of that, I think we wanted to show how the two, the fact and the fiction, overlap in any crime, especially in a small town like Staten Island. As we were editing, we slowly began to pull out the fiction, but by the end of the film, we threw caution to the wind and decided to put it back in. The response has been interesting from both sides. Some people think it really adds a creepiness, and other people think it takes away from the crime story. Personally I love it. Its like the opening scene in Blue Velvet….Who knows what evil lurks beneath the surface of suburbia.

2. When you began your investigations did you believe Andre Rand to be guilty of the crimes he was accused of? How did you feel at the end of filming?

Its interesting. Barbara and I had different opinions about Rand, whether he was guilty or not. During the course of the filming, we both changed our opinions. I think that helped us remain neutral, or at least consistent in our portrayal of Rand.

3. You were exchanging letters with Rand during filming, was there any further correspondence between you after the last rather frightening letter we see towards the end of the film?

Yes, in fact there have been quite a few correspondences with him after the case. In one letter he was quite angry that we had missed some important “facts” about the case. Once the film comes out theatrically, I hope the District Attorney and the Prison Warden allow us to show him the film. I’d like to get his opinion.

4. Have you had any feedback from residents of Staten Island? How do they feel about how the film turned out?

A good question. I think people really liked the film, and the portrayal of Staten Island – warts and all. There’s no doubt that we are a bit harsh about the Island, but I feel it’s justified, and more importantly we have license to do so – after all we spent 20 years of our lives, growing up there. It’s not easy to forget that you lived next to the largest garbage dump in the world at one time! As for the people portrayed in the film, I think dealing with these missing children was one of the most intense experiences of their lives, so I think they were happy to finally see someone telling their story.

5. The most unsettling thing about the film to me was the footage from the children’s psychiatric unit as it brings to light all that we, as a society, try to cover up- anything that is not beautiful or ‘normal’, and it seems as though Rand’s experience with this under-belly has been a large factor in shaping him into the person he is. What would you like, if anything, viewers to take away from experiencing this reality?

That footage is by far one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. And it was proof, at that time, that as New Yorkers, we failed in adequately caring for the mentally ill. We knew better, but it was easier and better for the community as a whole, if we dumped these people in Staten island, and threw away the key. Yet, we reap what we sew, and it seems to me that Rand, if you presume he was guilty, was the physical embodiment of fate coming back to take our children. Unfortunately, Staten Islanders  had to endure the tragedy of those decisions made by politicians generations before them.  I’m really fascinated by urban politics, and it makes total sense in the context of history that, as a major and overcrowded urban centre, you ship your mentally ill to the “country” – Staten Island was the country at one point. The Island also had one of the largest sanitariums in the world and where they cured Tuberculosis. Before that, one half of the island was a walled quarantine for immigrants coming over from Europe before Ellis Island. And as mentioned previously, it was one of the largest dumps on the world. Now one might say its overkill for one place to become such a ground zero for dumping, but that’s the past. The problem I have is when politicians try to gloss over the past with asphalt and strip malls as they have done today. You have to adequately recognize the past before you can move on, or the mistakes will only be repeated. Its like Poltergeist, where the developers removed the headstones, but never removed the bodies.

6. Do you think your film will add to the legend of Cropsey or diminish it’s impact?

Haha. We went back on Halloween night to one of the abandoned buildings just for kicks, and met some kids who told us a new urban legend – one that involved a documentary called CROPSEY, and all this “stuff” that went on in these buildings that they never knew about. One of their friends had gotten a “bootleg” copy of the film and so although they hadn’t seen the film, they had come here to check it out – to legend trip.

That’s happened to us quite a bit. It’s the same urban legend, all we did was add another chapter to make it more contemporary, more believable. Or maybe all we did was make the monster seem more real.

Still photography is a new addition to the Festival this year, with an exhibition at the Free Word Center – Salt Water Tears by award winning photographer Munem Wasif – during the Festival, reminding us of the potency of the simple photograph: sans voiceover, sans split screen, but still a lasting effect. The Shoot Experience runs fantastic photography competitions with an edge that I’ve been wanting to participate in for ages. You pay to register, then get a group of friends together, give yourself a funny group name, and head off round the chosen area of London with your cameras with a pre-written story and take pictures of your interpretations of the answers. Read the rest of this entry »

‘Playground’, Libby Spears’ 78 minute expose on the child sex industry, has been aptly programmed in to coincide with the Filmmaking for Social Change: Pakistan series at the next-door Stevenson theatre. The childish cartoon illustrations immediately give way to a damning story of an American who paid to get himself off the charge of child sex offender after opening a child abuse establishment – one of the 25% of child sex tourists who are US citizens. We are then brought back to the US to meet those fighting the shockingly thriving child sex industry there – this isn’t a film about “somewhere else” as many on this side of the Equator presuppose documentary filmmaking to be about, but instead is focussed on the Western world. Read the rest of this entry »

Today at the British Museum we are celebrating the fantastic LIDF Filmmaking for Social Change  project in Pakistan that, now in its second year, has been giving young people a platform on which to make their stories, viewpoints, and ideas heard by the wider world.

The aim of this important project is to explore the humanist side of the issues at the centre of  Pakistan, highlighting the daily lives of the Pakistani population, the individual stories, the names and lives behind the Western media’s negative portrayal of this complex and rich country. Read the rest of this entry »

Is a hacker a social nuisance or a new breed of artist? Come and join the debate at tonight’s screening of Hacker at the Horse Hospital.

Whether you’re a fully fledged hacker, a wannabe, or just curious as to why there is such a huge sub-culture of ‘mathematical artists’, as one teenagers proclaims of himself, then head out for tonight’s conversation in film at 8, and find out what produces ‘an immense feeling of power’ in a hackers unusual world, and why they feel their work achieves a ‘a new perspective’ on life.

Or, if life in Israeli-occupied Syria is of more interest to you, the Free Word Centre is screening Shout tonight at 8, a simply wonderful film about two friends struggling with ‘undefined citizenship’ and their desire to go back to their ‘free’ homeland in order to study in Damascus. A fascinating journey of discovery that is not to be missed.

The Free Word centre in Farringdon is a creative hive, brimming with arty types and interesting underground events…the perfect setting for an LIDF evening of short films.

The well attended evening kicks off with In Long Forgotten Fields, the first English documentary I’ve seen so far this festival, and a beautifully made film exploring two brothers trying to understand their turbulent relationship to the land in rural Shropshire.

“The area can get you down, there’s not that much to do, sometimes there’s nothing but your thoughts”.

The film sensitively follows the boys as they ruminate upon their lives; from a variety of jobs, to close-knit camaraderie, drugs, partying and the ultimate realisation that the countryside will always be part of them. Read the rest of this entry »

The Free Word Centre was packed for the second half of tonight’s shorts and second showing of London Perambulator, which was shown last Saturday at The Hub during ‘The Invisible City’ day. The preceding shorts, ‘LoopLoop’ from Canada and ‘Surveillance of a Camp in Spring’ from Taiwan, were perfectly chosen to create a dialogue between the three films of forgotten, liminal spaces. ‘LoopLoop’ loops sliced images viewed from trains to a clunking, rhythmic train-track soundtrack, using animation and almost optical-illusion to create an experience something any commuter will be familiar with. Read the rest of this entry »

For those thrill seekers and horror lovers among us (and I admit to being one of them), tonight is the night to stop trying to convince yourself the Saw films are any good, turn off The Orphanage on DVD, put your Stieg Larsson book down and head over to the Horse Hospital in Russell Square to watch Cropsey.

This is the genuinely spooky, real life story of a deeply unsettling myth that comes true.

Filmmakers Barbara Brancaccio and Joshua Zeman return to Staten Island, where they grew up, in the wake of the disappearance of five children to search for the truth behind ‘Cropsey’; the childhood legend of an escaped mentally ill patient who murdered kids in the tunnels under an abandoned psychiatric institution.

It is gripping, provocative and at times highly disturbing viewing.  You won’t want to go and see it alone, as the walk home in the dark will not be very appealing!