Click here to learn more about Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman and to view clips of the movie.
Q: Tell me about why you created the technique of “passing the camera.”
A: The film really grew out of me noticing that I was having these incredibly special conversations with my girlfriends and they seemed to be different from any other conversations I’ve had in my life. They went on for hours; they were circular in nature. We hashed and rehashed the same issues over and over again. They were not goal oriented. At the end of the conversation, or the meal, or the coffee, I always walk away feeling better.
So, as a filmmaker, my goal was always to try to figure out how to capture some part of real life on film. Often when we bring out the camera, it destroys the event—or the real kind of presence, or life, in the event, because people start to act. I’m very, very interested in capturing the real moments of intimacy. So I felt if I brought a camera person into the room, it would destroy the kind of incredibly charged intimacy between me and my girlfriends. Even if I put the camera in a third position, like on a tripod, I felt like we would begin to become very self-conscious … I thought about how the conversations are circular—maybe if we used the camera in a circular way and literally passed it between us, so that I’m not the filmmaker, they’re not the subject … so we both have an equal power in the scene, then maybe we would be able to really capture what happens between women … I began to experiment and it worked well. In fact, it heightened the conversation because people get really excited. “Give me that camera!” ... It’s like a modern-day talking stick …
Q. How did you film on the plane?
A. Sometimes one person would hold the camera. A lot of times, it looks like there’s a camera person, but I’m actually holding it at arm’s length …
