By Nicole Rivard

The last several months have been filled with moments that Brett Morgen will never forget. The most recent came before the premiere of his documentary Chicago 10, which was chosen to kick off the Sundance Film Festival back in January. He was backstage at the Egyptian Theatre waiting for Robert Redford to arrive for a press conference they were about to do for 700 journalists.
    “I was sitting alone in ‘the green room’ when I heard a familiar voice from down the hall say, ‘Where’s Brett?’ I looked up, and there he was, Mr. Sundance, Robert Redford. Redford could not have been more gracious. His enthusiasm for the film was contagious and immediately gave me the confidence to face the sea of journalists,” says Morgen, who helms spots via bicoastal Anonymous Content.
    Using original animation and archival footage, the film explores the build-up and aftermath of the week-long anti-war demonstrations staged during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago throughout which protestors clashed with the Chicago Police Department and National Guard. Eight of the most vocal activists were held accountable for the violence and brought to trial in ’69.
    When the screening was over, the audience gave the film a standing ovation. Halfway into his Q and A, Morgen looked down and Nick Nolte (one of the actors in the film) was raising his hand. He asked what Tom Hayden, one of the protestors, thought of the film. Hayden’s response: “I don’t know how someone who wasn’t even born at the time could have got it so right.”
    Morgen says he has been in negotiations since the festival and will hopefully announce a distribution deal soon.
    Another life changing moment came while shooting Kleenex’s “Let it Out” campaign for JWT New York last fall. The footage was shot in London, New York, New Orleans and San Francisco. In the spots and web films, we see a “good listener” with a big blue couch on the streets of various cities inviting passersby to have a seat, talk and open up. In case opening up results in happy or sad tears, a box of Kleenex is on hand to wipe them away.
    “Shooting in New Orleans was incredible. I don’t think that we heard a single story that didn’t bring tears of sorrow to our eyes. Yet the people down there are so inspiring that the tears would often turn into laughter, into a celebration of their perseverance, their ability to charge on with their lives post-Katrina,” Morgen says.
    “At the end of our shoot, I got a brass band that was bothering us all day–they wouldn’t stop playing while we were recording–to sit on the couch and play ‘When the Saints Came Marching in.’ The boys from JWT and I as well as our entire cast and crew charged onto the set and danced with the band for what seemed like an hour. There must have been 100 or more people just ‘letting it out.’ This was a moment I’ll never forget.”
    Morgen knew that the key to the success of the campaign would be putting people at ease on the couch, which meant shielding the performers from the process as much as possible. The crew was kept at bay and most of the cameras were on long lenses positioned a good distance from the couch. Three HD cameras rolled non-stop during the “confession” so retakes wouldn’t be necessary. They prescreened most of the participants, but Morgen wouldn’t let “the good listener” interact with them until they met on camera on the couch.
    “The way we positioned the set, nearly every person who sat down would quickly forget they were being filmed and fall into conversation with the ‘good listener.’ I had a microphone that I used to communicate with the ‘listener’ during the shoot to help steer the conversation where I felt I needed it to go,” Morgen says.

Coming full circle
    Morgen began directing commercials for Anonymous Content in ’03 following work on two films, Robert Evans’ biopic The Kid Stays In The Picture, which premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, and On the Ropes, which premiered at the ’99 Sundance Film Festival. There it received the Special Jury Award and was later nominated for an Academy Award.
    His first campaign for Anonymous Content was “NIMRODS” for ESPN. Kevin Proudfoot and Garry Kreig of Wieden+Kennedy hired him. To shoot the “funny little spot,” he recalls spending a week in the tiny town of Watersmeet in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where life in the long winter months revolves around hunting and its high school basketball team the Nimrods. The spot became a cult sensation and is the inspiration for his latest television project, NIMROD NATION, an eight-part documentary series that Morgen also introduced at Sundance and that had people floored. The show is executive produced by Kevin Proudfoot.
    “I remember that I had a conversation with Kevin that week about how one knows when a commercial has ‘hit,’ says Morgen.
    “Kevin said that you know a spot works when people are talking about it. Since I was new to the spot world, I thought this was kind of a funny response. I couldn’t think of a time when my buddies and I sat around talking about commercials. Uh, Kevin, maybe like in your world people sit around talking about commercials all day, but I’m not sure the rest of us do.”
    Three months later Morgen was in London shooting a job when he received a call from Proudfoot telling him the Nimrods had just been asked to appear on The Tonight Show and CBS Sunday Morning. In addition, the New York Times Magazine and The Washington Post were both running stories about the spots.
    “I was shocked. While I was out of the country our little spot had gained a cult following,” Morgen says.
    “A few months later I called Kevin and told him that I thought we should do a television series about the town. We ended up selling it to the Sundance Channel where it will premiere this November. It’s probably the first time a commercial has inspired an entire television series.”
    He says NIMROD NATION has the same tone as the spots, but obviously delves much deeper into the town’s psyche. 
    “The show looks like nothing on TV–It’s a cross between Twin Peaks and Fargo with a little bit of Hoosiers thrown in. I’m as proud of the series as any film or spot I’ve ever been involved in and can’t wait for people to see it,” Morgen says.
    He also can’t wait to turn his focus back onto directing spots.
“I’m also looking forward to creating more branded content. As a commercial director who also directs features and produces television, branded content is a way for me to marry all of my passions. In addition to directing spots, I look forward to developing content for brands and finding new and exciting ways to explore emerging content.”

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