Jennifer Fox Dramatic results from a long-haul observer Now scheduled for broadcast on public TV on the nights of Sept. 12-16, An American Love Story already was well into production five years earlier when Current published this profile, Dec. 12, 1994 By Diana Claitor Inside the Manhattan office of Zohe films, boxes of videotape--850 hours worth--line the walls. This raw footage, which documents the real-life experiences of a black man, a white woman and their children, will become Bill and Karen: An American Love Story, a 13-week series for public television. Thirty-five-year-old Jennifer Fox is its director, cinematographer and driving force--a documentary filmmaker whose commitment is remarkable even within the stringent environment of independent filmmaking. David Fanning, executive producer of Frontline, described Fox as a perfectionist. "She is an artist who becomes deeply involved with her work," he said. "She never gives up on it." Fanning was an early supporter who came in as executive producer when Fox was struggling to raise money to complete her first feature documentary, "Beirut: The Last Home Movie." A portrait of the last days of an aristocratic family in battered Beirut, the film won nine major awards, including the best film and best cinematography awards from the 1988 Sundance Film Festival and best screenplay from the Writer's Guild in France. Fox devoted seven years to the film, which was eventually seen in 25 countries and aired on PBS as a Frontline special in 1991. Even with this enviable achievement, Fox is still hunting for money to complete Bill and Karen. The scope and ambition of the project seems overwhelming to some. Others see it as a breakthrough in filmmaking, and Fox as a pioneer. "Bells and whistles and slick technology pales next to the raw strength of her storytelling," said Ellen Schneider, co-executive producer of P.O.V. "I don't know of other projects of this depth, that captures the essence of America in all its complexity." While the interracial aspect of the story is crucial, Fox says much of it is about the way Bill and Karen and daughters Chaney and Cicily interact as a family. Despite the typical (and some not-so-typical) problems, Bill and Karen have created a home full of love. That, for Fox, was crucial to her desire to make the film. Fox's own experiences in a interracial relationship with an African-American man inspired the original project. It was conceived as a one-hour film, "Love, in Black and White," which would document the lives of three interracial couples for a year. Fox and co-producer Jennifer Fleming soon realized the dynamics of one particular family were more compelling; moreover, Bill and Karen gave the filmmakers total access to their lives. Fox and Fleming, who did the sound, began shooting in the spring of 1992. The two women lived and traveled with Bill and Karen and their two daughters for one year; they spent a second year interviewing relatives, friends and co-workers. The idea of an episodic series evolved as Fox and Fleming observed the way the family dealt with day-to-day life as well as crises. "They'd face a drama, reach a climax, then that would fade and they'd face a new episode," Fox said, describing the film as an entertaining, real-life soap opera. According to Fleming, the little things in the story will hook viewers. "The smaller details are universal, like the first kiss of the 12-year-old," she said. "I think that will bring people back to that moment in their own lives, and cause them to reflect on their own [experiences]. And they'll come back to see what happens next." On another level, the film reveals national concerns and issues: ongoing racial tension, the conflict between work and family, the struggle to make a living, and the problems of raising children in a volatile, urban environment. This intimate portrait  is reminiscent of the documentary series, An American Family, about the Loud family that PBS aired in 1973. While similarities abound, the differences are also significant. Fox taped the program using a three-chip Hi-8 camera, for example. The small, relatively inexpensive camera allowed Fox and Fleming to shoot in Bill and Karen's cramped apartment in Queens and to follow the family--spontaneous and unpredictable as they often were--with a backpack full of tape. Using Hi-8 also held down costs during initial production, a crucial period for the typically underfunded independent filmmaker. Fox gives credit to Lindsay Law and Lynn Holst at American Playhouse for "sticking their necks out" in terms of early financial support for Bill and Karen. Other funding sources include the National Endowment for the Arts, Channel Four in Britain, and private funds and deferments. The total budget is $1.75 million, and the project still lacks about $700,000 needed to cover postproduction costs. These days, Fox spends much of her time raising funds. Fox said she is candid about the financial realities of documentary filmmaking in the classes she teaches at New York University and Film Video Arts. Independent filmmakers need not only talent and skill, she warns, but also the ability to go out and hustle for the money, while receiving little or no pay themselves. Her own determined efforts to distribute and market "Beirut: The Last Home Movie" are chronicled in "The Heck with Hollywood," a documentary about independent filmmakers. Recent disheartening developments, such as a movement toward commercial programming at both PBS and Channel Four in Great Britain, is further reducing the sources of funding for independents. Fox was philosophical about the reasons for the trend. "PBS is moving away from independent filmmakers in their desire to pay their own way," she said. "They're between a rock and a hard place." Fanning, however, believes there is an audience for "literate" programming and that PBS is the natural location for that work. "I would hope that public television will preserve a corner for that work," he said. "There should be P.O.V. and other places to publish a personal vision." While few of those places exist, many believe Fox will always find a way, based on the strength of her personal vision and her artistry with the camera. Independent filmmaker Robert Stone said that's why Bill and Karen has come this far, despite the obstacles. "It's the next step, and I think it's an amazing project," he said. "I was very skeptical when she started, but she's been able to pull a story out of it. . . . It's a very new kind of filmmaking." The author of this article, Diana Claitor, is a freelance writer based in Austin, Tex.

Sims and Wilson, subjects of Fox's documentary series, in preparation for air on PBS in 1999.

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Later story: Fox looks back on production of An American Love Story, 1999.

 

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