The Fare Forward Interview With Lori Miller
Lori Miller is a documentary filmmaker with over half a dozen credits on narrative films, and five feature-length documentaries. They Came to Play and Virtuosity are about classical music, while Shakespeare High explores the lives of high schoolers studying Shakespeare. More recently, Lori has expanded beyond this focus on arts and culture in the documentaries Day One and Living Wine. Day One tells the story of a trauma-informed public school for refugee children transitioning to the American school system, and Living Wine examines natural wines and winemaking.
Fare Forward: How did you get into documentary filmmaking? What initially interested you in it?
Lori Miller: I started out in the early nineties working in the independent film world. I always loved feature films and scripted narrative movies, but I hadn’t really thought about documentaries. I worked for about 15 years on the narrative side of the industry, before developing an interest in documentaries in the early-mid 2000s. I noticed that they were becoming less academic and more film-like. I had seen a few that I really enjoyed, and I started to think of it as something I could do. I really wasn’t planning on making a film until I came up with an idea I felt strongly about. That’s something I’ve noticed over the years when new film projects crop up—sometimes they have this gravity and energy that you get swept up in. And that’s what happened in 2007.
I love classical music—I played a lot of classical music up through my twenties. I heard about the Cliburn amateur piano competition, and I thought it was a really interesting event, because it’s for people over the age of forty—some are even into their eighties. These are people who had a dream of being a classical pianist when they were young, and this was a way for them to come back to it when they were older. This idea really spoke to me as I’m interested in classical music, ageism, and in inspirational stories that show people outside of the conventional norms of society doing things I think are unusual and compelling. So, I was very interested in that story. I contacted the Cliburn Foundation to see if they would be open to having us film the event and cover some of the musicians. They agreed, so I was able to put it together very quickly. I found a bunch of investors, I found a young director who was just starting out, but who was also a pianist, and we made the film.
That’s how I got into documentaries. I found the process to be extremely challenging. It’s hard to get funding. It’s hard to get distribution. I’ve always had to work on a shoestring. Sometimes working with difficult people in a creative process is stressful. I could go on and on, but there was a beautiful story that came from that first documentary, They Came to Play, and that made it all worth it and started me in my journey of making documentary films.
FF: Is there any through line from what you were working on in narrative film, or were you starting something completely new when you stepped into documentary filmmaking?
LM: It was a new thing. Even after a couple decades in the film industry, it was my first chance to do something I really believed in. All the documentary films I’ve made—five feature length docs—are stories I felt strongly would be worthwhile to tell. I had always worked for other people prior to They Came to Play, and was more the person who would oversee the process rather than make the final decision about what films would get made. When I started making documentaries, I was already a bit older, but I think it’s important that young woman in particular keep in mind that you may not find your best career or true calling in your twenties or even your thirties. You can do it in your forties, your fifties, your sixties, any time. That first documentary was an exciting chance for me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it really was the beginning of something new.
I like to try to find subjects that I can film in one or two years at most, then put the film together and get it out into the world so I can work on another one.
FF: It sounds like the story you’re telling is an important part not only of what starts you on a new project, but also what carries you through it. How do you identify stories that will resonate with you in that way?
LM: It’s a combination of discovering something that jumps out at you and following a pre-existing passion into it. For years I’d been thinking I would love to make a film about classical music. The space is under-storied, so to speak, so I felt there was a place for it. I had read a lot of screenplays about composers or other aspects of the classical music scene, but nothing clicked. When I read that story about the Cliburn competition, the puzzle pieces finally came together.
A couple of the other films came to me from sometimes unexpected sources —someone either had an idea, or funding and asked me to produce for them—but even those resonated with me. One was Shakespeare High, which is about teenagers who study Shakespeare, many of them from underserved neighborhoods. Arts education is important to me because it helps kids stay in school and get through difficult times, and it was a story I thought was worth telling. Day One is about a public school for refugee kids from all over the world who suffered war traumas. Day One was pitched to me by a friend who was involved with the school featured in the film, and Living Wine was inspired by my brother’s story. You never know where the story’s going to come from, but for me it has to be something meaningful that I can stick with for a while. I’ve definitely passed on other ideas or jobs over the years that weren’t as compelling to me, and I didn’t think I could stay passionate about the subject for a period of years.
FF: Do you think it’s changed the way you move through life or move through the world, to always be thinking about, or open to these stories?
LM: Definitely. It’s actually kind of a frustrating way of thinking. There was a director I worked with years ago on the second classical music film I did, Virtuosity. And he was always saying that you can’t read an article, you can’t read a book, you almost can’t have a conversation or meet a new person without thinking: would that be a good film? You have to try to turn it off sometimes because it can be intrusive to regular life. But I had that even before getting into documentaries. Maybe everyone thinks that way, or maybe that’s why I’m in storytelling.
FF: How long do you work on any given documentary film you’re making? How long do you live with that one particular story?
LM: Most of the films I’ve made have been on a shoestring where I’ve ended up having to do a lot of the work myself. In that case, I end up sticking with these films for anywhere from two to four years, at minimum. If I had a bigger team and better funding, I could move in and out of the stories more quickly.
But then again, there are people that work on documentaries for five, ten, even twenty years. I really admire those filmmakers because in order to do this type of work, you need such a passion for what you’re doing and such an obsession with your story. Filmmakers that spend ten years on a project really get to the core of the issue and can follow their subjects over a long period of time, which is fascinating.
But I like to try to find subjects that I can film in one or two years at most, then put the film together and get it out into the world so I can work on another one.
I try to balance making a film that keeps people’s interest and makes good points, while also being true to the subjects’ intentions and words.
FF: Working with a smaller team, you’re also probably involved in many parts of the process. Do you have favorite stages of the process of creating and releasing a film?
LM: Yes. I love production and editing the most. I enjoy meeting subjects, interviewing them—rolling up my sleeves and getting to the details of what makes these people do what they do. I’ve been fascinated by everyone I’ve been able to meet. Editing is where you find and hone the story. It’s hard work, but it’s interesting to take forty or fifty hours of footage and try to turn it into an hour and a half story. Where’s the beginning? Where’s the middle? Where’s the end? Where’s the suspense? Which parts do you highlight? How do you make your audience care about these people and want to know more about the subject you’re addressing? I really love those parts.
FF: How do you decide what pieces to put together to tell the story?
LM: As a director, you have to be flexible about where the story might go or what will occur while you’re filming. The best thing is to have good access to your subjects, and hopefully have people who are willing to be part of the project. Then you try to ask good questions and find compelling themes and storylines.
As we were beginning each of the documentaries I directed, I was very aware of what was going on in our subjects’ lives and what might create a story. In the case of Day One, we started filming at the beginning of the school year. We were very sensitive about filming kids who had lived through war traumas and spent years in refugee camps. It was difficult to find people who wanted to be on camera. In the end, we were lucky to meet several, and we tried to find events throughout that year that would create plot points in their story. Most of it was about getting them to graduation—and whether they could get to graduation. We spoke to them and to their teachers along the way, and they were so charming and inspirational that we felt that was all we needed.
With Living Wine, we looked for natural occurrences in their lives. To me, harvest was a key moment in the making of wine. They were doing it all themselves, all naturally, so the methods of farming and harvesting—and then how they were hand making their wine—spoke to me. We were lucky to start out in the spring so we could prepare to be around during harvest and create a natural arc that way.
The hope is that the through lines that you are looking at and following during the filming process come together during editing, and you can go back and add in some pieces if you’re missing something. But I try during filming to look out for interesting storylines and events and steer the questions and the filming in a direction that will help the story come together in the post process.
FF: How do you mentally navigate the difference between telling a true story and creating a story? Because in making a documentary, you’re doing both. How does that work for you?
LM: It’s different for each film. Documentary is such a broad term these days. There are the traditional documentarians, who believe everything is verite, and you just turn the camera on and let people speak. That’s my inspiration, but I do more of a hybrid. It’s definitely a responsibility as a filmmaker when people agree to be in your movie. While on some level we’re creating a narrative, I try as hard as I can to stay true to the feeling and the thoughts the subjects are presenting in their interviews.
Sometimes a subject will speak for a long period of time without stopping, so I have to break their interview into smaller pieces, which can be difficult. Then other subjects say very little, and I have to make that work, too. I try to balance making a film that keeps people’s interest and makes good points, while also being true to the subjects’ intentions and words. One of the things I try to do is to inject a little humor throughout, even when stakes are high and there are obstacles, so I may lean into that a little more than came through in the interview. We always get transcripts of the main interviews, so we have the words in front of us. That helps me as stay true to what the subjects are saying.
I’ve met and worked with other filmmakers who will say things like, “I try to trick my subjects into saying and doing the most outrageous things so I can get a really good moment for the screen.” That is a filmmaking technique I totally disagree with, but sometimes I make choices that might not be the best. I just do what I can to stay true to my subjects and what they want to portray.
I wanted to take the basic principles of storytelling that I learned from narrative filmmaking and apply them to documentaries.
FF: You came to this telling of stories and particularly of true stories in the documentary form from a love of film. How do you feel like that medium lends itself to the stories that you’re telling?
LM: I’ve always loved stories. I loved film even before I started working in the industry, and I was an English minor in college—I love novels. One of the things you learn making movies is it’s all about the quality of the script. Everything is connected—your audience will be engaged if they care about your characters, and creating meaningful obstacles fosters empathy for them. I still hope to make a feature at some point in the future, but I wanted to take those basic principles of storytelling that I learned from narrative filmmaking and apply them to documentaries.
Some documentaries can be a bit dry, going from interview to interview with a couple situations sprinkled here and there. But my favorites always have actual storylines mixed with educational materials. In Living Wine, we interspersed the stories of the farmers/winemakers and what they were experiencing during the season of extreme drought and fire with informational segments about corporate wine, how it differs from natural wine, and how farming affects the environment. I try to put those drier informational segments in there, because I think they’re important. But the main thing is to have subjects you really care about, and then watch them go through something.
FF: If you could have access to anything and anyone you wanted, what would be your dream documentary to make?
LM: There’s two ways to go. One is that I’m really interested in the idea of corporate responsibility, and it would take a huge budget to explore that in a bigger way. But then there are these beautiful films about art that I’ve always loved, so I’d like to make more music documentaries. There’s a lot of amazing music out there that would be cool to look at in detail—music from around from around the world, folk music, lesser known but brilliant artists. Those are the two directions I’d want to go in.
FF: What do you watch for fun to unwind?
LM: Lately I’ve been watching Scandinavian noir police procedurals or English murder mysteries. Throughout Covid I’ve discovered fascinating series from so many countries. I feel like I’m traveling—I’m seeing how people live in other places. There was an amazing series in Norway called Home Ground. It was about a female soccer coach who’s coaching a men’s professional team, and the challenges she faces.
FF: Do you have a favorite project you’ve worked on?
LM: I always go back to the first documentary, They Came to Play, about the amateur pianists. It was such a joyful, incredible story about the healing power of music. That theme is so universal to me. It’s been out in the world since 2009, but apparently people are still finding it and watching it—that brings me a lot of joy. I love the film we just did, Living Wine. It’s so early in the distribution process that I’m still in the weeds of it, which is always nerve-wracking. We’ll see how I feel about it in a couple years!