By Robert Goldrich
This week’s SHOOT contains our fall Directors Series, with profiles of leading helmers and a rundown of up-and-coming talent. But more importantly, this edition of SHOOT also reflects the fact that a number of spotmakers aren’t only doing good work–they’re trying to do good.
A case in point is in the Production View column below in which director Matt Ogens writes about his recent trip to the Gulf Coast. The column consists of excerpts from his notes.
Having lived in New Orleans for five years, Ogens felt the need to help those impacted by Hurricane Katrina. He volunteered at his local Red Cross chapter, where he met some other filmmakers. They came together and approached the Red Cross about going to the Gulf Coast and shooting documentary footage of the trip.
The Red Cross gave Ogens and his colleagues the green light. They visited three states–Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi–over a span of nearly three weeks. They spent time in Dallas and such Louisiana towns as Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Chalmette Covington, Gonzalez, Mandeville, New Orleans and Slidell, and Mississippi’s Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, Gulfport, Pass Christian and Waveland. Ogens was still in the Gulf Coast when Hurricane Rita recently hit, causing destruction primarily in West Louisiana and East Texas.
The documentary footage has been turned over to the Red Cross. During the trip, Ogens also took still photographs to help chronicle the stories of victims and relief workers.. Ogens recently returned to Los Angeles.
The director’s ties to Louisiana include his having attended Tulane University in New Orleans.
In May 2005, Ogens earned inclusion into SHOOT‘s third annual New Directors Showcase. At that time, he told of how he got into directing, which was in part prompted by personal misfortune when he was held up at gunpoint in New Orleans. He decided the next morning to make a documentary about violent crime and within weeks was shooting in the housing projects of New Orleans and at Louisiana State Penitentiary. “This was my first directing gig–I had no idea what I was doing. Trial by fire,” he recalled.
Meanwhile, in this issue’s Directors Series, reporter Christine Champagne profiles helmer John O’Hagan, who earlier this year came aboard bicoastal RSA USA after a lengthy tenure at bicoastal/international Hungry Man.
Champagne interviewed O’Hagan via cell phone. He was in a Taco Bell parking lot in Waveland, Mississippi, a town left in ruins in the wake of Katrina. After seeing the devastation on television, the director was moved to collect donations from friends, load the supplies onto a cargo van and make the drive from New York City to Mississippi, arriving in Waveland about a week after Katrina hit the area.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said O’Hagan. “There are parts of the town where there is nothing but splintered wood where there were houses.”
O’Hagan has been spending much of his recent days helping to prepare meals for anywhere from 150 to 200 people. “People really need to help down here–just sitting watching it on TV was frustrating,” he related. “And I was lucky enough to be in a position where I actually had some time off, so I just decided why not?”
FX Series “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” Sheds A Different Light On Disgraced NFL Star
From a podcast to multiple documentaries, the rise and fall of the once revered NFL star Aaron Hernandez is certainly well documented. An FX limited series is latest to rehash the saga, attempting to go beyond the headlines and dig deeper into his story.
"American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez" stars Josh Andrรฉs Rivera as the New England Patriots tight end. It details Hernandez's troubled childhood with an abusive father who demanded his son play football and project masculinity and toughness to the world. Secretly, Hernandez also struggled with his sexuality.
He played college ball at the University of Florida and was drafted by the Patriots. Over time, the series shows how Hernandez's behavior grew increasingly erratic. He was convicted of murder and died by suicide in 2017 while serving a life sentence. After his death, research showed Hernandez's brain showed evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
"What we tried to do with this show โ is take a tabloid headline, take some story that you think you know about Aaron Hernandez ... and go behind it and see what it's like to walk in the shoes of all the people who are part of this," said Brad Simpson, one of the series' executive producers, in an interview.
Hernandez's life, crimes and death have been detailed before in long-form writing, documentaries including Netflix's "Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez," and the podcast "Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc.," which is the basis for "American Sports Story."
Rivera, known for his supporting roles in the recent "Hunger Games" prequel and 2021's "West Side Story," said playing the former tight end was a "responsibility that you have to approach with a certain level of sensitivity."
Once he... Read More