American Cinematographer - January 1993 - 16

Documentaries Examine Many Facets

of Life

compiled by Marji Rhea

Abortion: Desperate Choices

Maysles Films, Inc. has produced
an intense, intimate exploration of the sub¬
ject of abortion in America, titled Abortion:
Desperate Choices. The film reveals the
history of abortion in this country through
first-person stories spanning seven de¬
cades. Focusing on women who faced un¬
planned pregnancies and the painful deci¬
sions they had to deal with, the documen¬
tary travels from illegal back-alley abortions
and the harrowing brutalities of the recent
past to the angry picket lines at today's le¬
gal abortion clinics.
Produced by Susan Froemke and
Deborah Dickson with Albert Maysles, the
film declines to take political sides, concen¬
trating instead on the historical and per¬
sonal perspectives of women with varying
views. Subjects include a pregnant 17-yearold and her pro-life mother, whose conflict
unfolds before the camera; an unhappy
mother of two who is expecting a third chi Id
when her marriage hits the rocks; a 22-yearold pro-life protester who became an activ¬
ist when she learned that her mother had

ture of

filming. Pleaded by Emmy-win¬
ning writer/director/producer Bud
Greenspan, Cappy agreed to the project,
which would have to be shot and completed
handle the

in about four weeks.

Nancy Beffa, Cappy's vice presi¬
producer, spent eight

dent and coordinating

days in the ancient city overseeing the pro¬
duction of the 81/2-minute film, which was
viewed on November 5 in Acapulco during
an IOC meeting. Beffa, who had filmed in
China twice before, was accompanied by
four crew members, including director of

photography Wayne McConnell of Canada,
photographed several other Olym¬
pic projects for Cappy.
The shoot marked only the sec¬

who has

ond time that a Western filmmaker was al¬

lowed to film inside

Beijing's historic For¬

almost aborted her; and a

71-year-old
grandmother who still grieves for her
mother, the victim of an illegal abortion in

bidden City; director Bernardo Bertolucci
was the first with The Last Emperor. The
crew from Cappy was even allowed to film

the 1920s.

Beijing from a military helicopter, making
them the first Western filmmakers permit¬
ted to film the city and its environs (includ¬

Maysles Films' previous credits
include Salesman, Gimme Shelter, Grey
Gardens, Ozawa, Soldiers of Music, and

ing the Great Wall) from the air.

Christo in Paris.
For information:

Maysles Films,
Inc., 250 W. 54th Street, New York, NY
10019, Phone (212)582-6050.
Beijing Olympic Bid

bidding for the
Olympic Games in the year 2000, decided
The city of Beijing,

American company to pro¬
duce a high-quality presentation film about
the city which wouid open the eyes of the
International Olympic Committee. As a ges¬
to work with an

14

goodwill toward its hosts, Miracle

Films, which will be producing a film in that
city, offered to produce the Olympic project.
Miracle Films' next step was to
contact New York-based Cappy Produc¬
tions, known for its documentaries and tele¬
vision series about the Olympic Games, to

American

Cinematographer

U.S. Presidents
Aerial Image Videoservices

has
completed work on documentaries on
George Bush and Bill Clinton, the Kennedys,
and George Washington. The company did
video motion control on stills for the two-

hour PBS special The Choice, a biography
of the two most recent presidential candi¬
dates

produced by the Lennon Documentary

Group for WGBH. The program reached
back into the childhoods of Bush and Clinton

January 1993

RbyLoasry
Phot

Producer/director

and had,

David Sutherland

to

consults with extras

during the filming of
The Man Who

Would Not Be

King.

according
producer Thomas

Lennon, "lots and
lots of stills, which
needed to hit pre¬

cisely- no bumps,
no

unwanted swerves."
Aerial staffers also used their

proprietary video motion-control systems on
the video motion-control stills for the fourhour documentary series The Kennedys,
which involved in-session detail enhance¬
ment and color correction.
Work on the stills for David
Sutherland Productions' piece on George
Washington, The Man Who Would Not Be
King, required camera movements to focus
in on Washington's eyes, often using pic¬
tures in slide format only. Faced with a dis¬
tinct lack of interesting visual material on
his subject, producer/director Sutherland
decided to create his own. He began by as¬
sembling scores of actors dressed in au¬
thentic Colonial and British military uni¬
forms at original sites of the Revolutionary
War. His five cameramen shot in grainy
black & white film running at 12 frames per

second, capturing battlefield scenes of
American Cinematographer - January 1993

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