SHUT UP AND SING An Interview with Director Barbara Kopple
By Stacey Chapman

October 25, 2006

Two-time Academy Award® winner, Barbara Kopple teams with co-director/producer Cecilia Peck for their newest film SHUT UP AND SING. This project takes an intimate and copious look at the rise and fall of Country Music’s most infamous female band, the Dixie Chicks. Once considered the musical darlings of the industry, these country rockers unintentionally alienated their American fan base by insulting President Bush, while oversees during the height of his presidency in 2003. Today, if asked, it is almost impossible to recall the exact comment made by Natalie Maines, their lead singer. However, with an extended absence from music and a new album, it remains to be seen whether the damage is irreversible. Barbara Kopple shares with blackfilm.com a unique moment in American music and the impact it has had on her filmmaking career.

In the film, you see the Dixie Chicks working with Rick Ruben which is a significant creative jump, and in a way it was a real blessing in disguise. Did the Dixie Chicks feel strongly about that as well?

Barbara Kopple: Yeah, I think what happened to them, as Marty said, was the best thing that could have happened to their career. It forced them to be creative. It forced them to dig deep and to come up with songs that speak about politics, that speak about infertility, that speak about love and all the universal human issues.

Is it just a coincidence that this movie is coming out right before the elections? Was it calculated?

Barbara Kopple: Uhmm…perhaps…I think the Weinstein Company, who is distributing this film has a great knack for bringing films out at certain points and I think they very much wanted to see this come out before the elections. So, it’s deliberate.

Barbara, you are certainly best known for HARLAN COUNTY, a landmark in documentary filmmaking. What’s changed the most for you in making movies from that time and what’s changed the least?

Barbara Kopple: Every film I do is like starting for the first time because it’s a new story and it’s a new person, whether it’s HARLAN COUNTY USA, COAL MINERS MAINSTREAM KENTUCKY, or AMERICAN DREAM about meat packers, or Mike Tyson or Woody Allen or Gregory Peck or any of the despairing witnesses, which is about female war correspondents. It’s always different; there is nothing prescribed. You always have to allow your characters to take you where you want to and go on this journey with them.

You began this project as footage was already being shot. How much did you have to shoot that was concert footage or was that pretty much made available to you? How different was it to shoot concert footage?

Barbara Kopple: I’ve done many concert films. MY GENERATION looks at the three Woodstocks. I filmed in ‘94 and ‘99. So, it wasn’t different. You always like to do everything yourself, but the 2003 concert material we got was from other sources. Then we filmed Shepard’s Bush and a bunch of other places. So, there isn’t really a difference because it’s not a concert movie or a music movie. It’s a human story about the Dixie Chicks.

The group, having gone through everything that they have gone through made this album so personal and mature. Where do you see them in music today?

Barbara Kopple: In music today, the Dixie Chicks are just finding themselves, and they are struggling to find an audience. They are probably part country, part pop and part rock, and I think time will tell to see where they go and in what direction. They made one album where they have written all the songs. I think the album is magnificent and it really moves. As far as the music genre, it takes you to a lot of different places and it stirs your soul.

What’s driving the interest in documentary films these days? Is there a heightened interest in documentaries?

Barbara Kopple: Yeah, I think with documentary films, people want to be able to connect with what’s real. I think media, television media and news can only spend a very small amount of time telling a story. “Documentarians” can spend years sometimes allowing different stories to unfold, and people want to have a sense of what’s true, and what’s real, or at least a sense of truthfulness. I think people are also realizing that documentaries are entertaining. They are sad. They take you through all the different emotions that fiction films take you through except that they are real, and that holds a whole dimension to them.

Does reality TV abrogate the interest in documentaries or the reality of documentaries? It seems like a lot of different entities are trying to connect with the reality of the power of documentaries.

Barbara Kopple: Well, it’s hard to speak about reality TV because it’s very manipulated, in a sense. The news can only go so far, except for some of the CNN news shows that are long-form documentaries, but when you have control of your own work, you are really allowed within yourself to stay with these characters and really watch them, even if it’s over two or three years. You are really doing a longitudinal study and then bring something to an audience that’s pretty profound.

Do you get tired of the process of documentaries where you have to do two or three years, whereas a theatrical feature can be shot within a few months, edited, and done with within a year?

Barbara Kopple: I think feature films take forever to get a green light because they are so expensive. Sometimes you have to wait five years before you can do that one fiction film in one year. The magic of documentaries, with the equipment that is now available, is that you can start right away and you can beg, borrow and steal to try to make the film you want to make and you are always in the process of it because life doesn’t stop; it continues and you have to go with it.

You have your feature coming out soon, I believe or where is it at?

Barbara Kopple: HAVOC?

Yes.

Barbara Kopple: HAVOC went to DVD. It’s showing in Europe in theaters. It was a wonderful time and I hope to make other features. With documentaries you are always moving forward. You’re always getting closer and closer to that end point and it’s not as if you have to wait until somebody gives you a green light. You can just step on it and go.

What did you find out about the Dixie Chicks that you didn’t know while making the doc?

Barbara Kopple: I found out how honest they are, how real they are, how talented they are, what phenomenal mothers they are. They are extremely funny and have a strong bond. I think they will be role models for younger women because they stand up for what they believe in. Even if it’s uncomfortable, people will probably join you in it.

Would you like to go back in and do a movie with them again five years from now, three years from now?

Barbara Kopple: I am always game to follow up. I’m not tired of the Dixie Chicks.

DIXIE CHICKS UP.

Barbara Kopple: Right! (Laughter) That was very good; Michael (the manager) would like that.

There is a big issue running throughout the film about the issue of free speech. How does it tie to the fact that the poster for this film has the words “bimbos” instead of “sluts”?

Barbara Kopple: I did not design the posters. I don’t know. It’s not my doing.

How has technology changed the way you work?

Barbara Kopple: I still wish I was working with 16mm film. I love film. It has beauty and richness; however, video makes things more economical and the cameras are very small. You can shoot more material and you can finish your film without having to spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to do it. Also, what’s so wonderful too about video is that new filmmakers who have never done anything before are able to go out and really be able to tell stories that they care about, with all the passion and with all the heart that they want to put into it.

Can you talk about the experience of seeing the film at the Toronto Film Festival and finding out that it has been picked up?

Barbara Kopple: The film was actually picked up by the Weinstein Company before the Toronto Film Festival. Showing it at Toronto was an amazing experience. It was the first time in fourteen years that a documentary has been shown at the gala, and there were 2,000 people there who saw it. The audience stood up and clapped for seven minutes afterwards, and Cecelia and I were so moved by the experience.

What’s the challenge of actually getting people to buy that ticket and getting them into the theater to see it if they are not predisposed?

Barbara Kopple: With the wonderful instrument that we call the internet, people will start chatting away about it and talking about it. Maybe controversy will build depending where you are on the political spectrum, and that will entice and interest people to go. Plus, they are beautiful women. Who wouldn’t want to go see a film about hot beautiful women who are extremely musically talented?

Do you have other projects at the moment?

Barbara Kopple: I always have lots of projects but you never know which ones are going to happen. So I have a few.

Anything that you think is really going to happen?

Barbara Kopple: I don’t know. I have been working 24/7 on this, and as soon as this is shown in theaters, I am going to be working 24/7 on something else.

Barbara, if someone was to ask you what this film is about, what would you say?

Barbara Kopple: I think I don’t want to define what this film is about. I think that I would prefer to have people go and see it and think about what it is about. I mean, it is so multi-layered; it has so many different dimensions to it. Try and put your finger on one, okay, it’s political. Okay, no, it’s humanist. No. It’s about mothers. Okay, it’s about musicians. It’s about censorship. It has a lot of different universal levels, but to put your finger on one of them I think isn’t fair. It’s a very complex film about some very kick-ass women.

You mentioned filmmakers starting out. What advice would you give to new filmmakers based on your experience doing documentary films?

Barbara Kopple: If you feel passionate about something, just go for it and there will be so many people that will help you and that you won’t be alone. It’s the most wonderful experience ever, being able to go out in the field and tell a story and bring it back for other people to see. It’s a sense of real achievement, and once you get into it you get very addicted to it, although sometimes when you are in the field you are thinking about the loneliness of being away from family and friends and thinking I’m never doing this again. It’s too much pressure. It’s too hard. Then once you’re able to show that film to people, you realize how valuable it is.

Barbara, when you are working on a film, When you can’t figure out how to go forward or what to do?

Barbara Kopple: I don’t think that I have ever felt stuck because people in their lives are not stuck. They keep moving forward and the story keeps moving forward and so that has never happened.

What were some of the tougher decisions you made in the film, like how much more of the concert not to use?

Barbara Kopple: Well, we have a saying in the editing room. If it doesn’t let the story progress, you have to let it go. What’s wonderful is we can use it in the DVD.

Or on the website…

Barbara Kopple: Right.