Filmmaker Therese Heliczer: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became An Artist
Pick a subject you love. You will spend many years on your film so make sure it is something you want to live with for a long time both during pre-production, production, post-production and distribution. Most documentary films take 7–10 years to make. My film took seven years and, of course, it was a subject that I love and cherish as it has helped me understand my father, my family and myself.
As a part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became An Artist” I had the pleasure of interviewing Therese Heliczer.
Thérèse Casper (née Heliczer) graduated from THE FILM SCHOOL and Wesleyan University. As an emerging filmmaker, Casper has been very active in the independent Seattle film community for the past several years and thanks the mentorship and resources from the Seattle Documentary Association, Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), Women in Film and Northwest Film Forum. Casper was also a programmer for the Post Alley Film Festival and a cast member in the short film, “Signs Everywhere,” and the feature film, “The Boy Who Lived Before.” Casper has spent the last 25 years in public sector communications and project management.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
My parents were bohemians. They were both filmmakers who met in New York City at the Film-maker’s Co-op. They spent time in Europe showing films, staying at my father’s farmhouse in France. This is where I was born on July 13. The next day was France’s celebration of Independence (July 14), and my mom would say that the fireworks and parade were a celebration of my birth. As such, I now celebrate my birthday a day late at a French restaurant to enjoy a traditional French meal.
After I was born, my mother realized that their nomadic lifestyle would not be conducive to raising a child, so she returned to the United States–without my father. He continued to be the wandering filmmaker and poet, and she became a Buddhist in Boulder, CO where I spent most of my childhood. I had an independent, free-spirited childhood with summers on the horse farm of my aunt and uncle. I felt like Huckleberry Finn as I helped paint the fences or romped through the foothills on a horse or on foot. I also grew up skiing, biking, hiking and enjoying the mountains. Nature continues to be important to me today where I live surrounded by mountains and trees in Seattle, Washington.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
My father, Piero Heliczer, is an almost forgotten Beat poet and experimental filmmaker. He helped shape NewAmerican Cinema and was enmeshed with iconic filmmakerAndy Warhol and The Velvet Underground at the very start of their careers in 1960s New York. Though I grew up without him, I was always intrigued by his story and lived in the shadow of his legacy. When I started my own family, I saw my daughter’s strong relationship with her father and realized I was missing something. I felt that making a film was the right way to honor his legacy and find my own creativity. It all started when a gallery in New York celebrated renowned experimental filmmaker Jonas Mekas’ 90th birthday by hosting a show of my father’s work and Jonas’ archive. I knew that if I was going to make a film about my father, I would need to get footage of this important event. So, even though I was still in the initial stages of making a documentary film, I had to jump in feet first and start filming and interviewing people. I learned on the go but was smart enough to hire good people to help me.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
My first interview for the film was with Jean-Claude Van Italie, a playwright and Harvard classmate of my father. I went to his apartment in New York in the Village. This is where my parents lived and the scene of underground culture in 1960s New York. It was like stepping back in time with Jean-Claude was my guide. While it had been many years since Jean-Claude had seen my father, I could still hear the emotion in his voice when he shared his memories. He asked me about my relationship with my father and I told him about the only memory I had of meeting him. My father was drunk and disheveled at a poetry reading and was not the image I had of a father nor the “brilliant poet” my mother had talked about. As I left Jean-Claude’s apartment after the interview, he gave me a big hug and said this was the way my father wanted to greet me even though he couldn’t in the state I met him. The connection I felt having only met Jean-Claude that one time has stayed with me and was such a healing moment in my journey to get to know my father.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I’m continuing to work on personal documentary films. This next one is about an axe attack on two women cyclists in Oregon in 1977. As a cyclist myself, it’s important to me personally as well as professionally. In the late 1970s, shortly after the creation of the TransAmerica Bike Route, two women set out to cycle across America, beginning at the Oregon coast. They only made it seven days before being brutally attacked by an ax-wielding madman. Both women survived, as did the entrenched idea of cycling being dangerous for women. Forty years later, we are retracing their route with two female-identifying cyclists, telling this forgotten story while reflecting on what it’s like today for female riders.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
In researching my father’s life, I was able to talk to many interesting people from the Beat poetry and underground film world who are still active today. One of the most inspiring people was Jonas Mekas, who is considered the godfather of American avant-garde cinema. He was a big supporter of my father, Piero, both as a film critic for the Village Voice and as a film historian who preserved my father’s films at Anthology Film Archives. Jonas shared a lot of his memories and said he felt like a father figure to him. That made sense as Piero grew up without his father and Jonas was older than him. Jonas had also escaped the Holocaust, so I think they shared a deep connection. When Jonas shared how he allowed my father to sleep in the lobby of Anthology FilmArchives when Piero had nowhere else to go, I was touched by his compassion. He also shared with me how Piero was never unhappy with his lot in life and still saw the positive in every day. This is something I inherited from my father even though I didn’t grow up with him, and I appreciated learning about that connection from Jonas. Jonas was also inspiring to me because, as a filmmaker, he continued to produce work on a daily basis through his 365-day project and was busier than most people half his age. I’m sorry he is not here to celebrate the release of the film, but I know he is up in the clouds with my father having a great time.
Where do you draw inspiration from? Can you share a story about that?
While my father died in 1993, I am still drawing inspiration from him today. Most of my life I did not think about him but, as a parent myself, I realized I was missing a part of myself by not understanding his creativity or influence on me. I was able to understand more about him through stories of his friends and artists. What really struck me was what an authentic person he was and his influence on the artistic culture of the 1960s onward. Jean-Claude Van Italie told me a story about how he and my father would leave notes for each other and sometimes they would meet up and sometimes they would miss each other. Piero left a message for
Jean-Claude when he was performing a play in Paris and miraculously Jean-Claude found the note in the poster posted on the front of the theater. It was all a part of their friendship and the nature of the times when people did not have instant gratification nor communication. I appreciated hearing about the playfulness of their interactions and how they did not dwell on missed connections. That was all part of being poets, actors and creatives during the 1960s–a time that seemed so free and liberating. No one was obsessed with their Instagram feed and how many likes they got. It was about real connections and play. It was a moment in history that we can all learn from in collaboration, playfulness and authenticity. This inspiration propelled me to continue in my filmmaking journey and I’m continuing making films today.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I have found my voice and creativity through filmmaking. As a filmmaker you have a responsibility to who you give voice to since being in a film will give them more authority and agency. A documentary film is about giving voice to those we don’t typically hear from and unearthing stories to help the world. The more personal a film, the more it brings goodness to the world by sharing stories we can all relate to. The personal story becomes universal. Many who have seen my film about my father have shared stories of their own families or childhoods and are able to relate to the need to know your parents and how that impacts you. While my story is unique, there are universal needs we have such as wanting to better know ourselves, our parents, our families and how this influences who we are. Many have said they want to start taping their parents’ stories and I encourage everyone to do that. After their passing, there may be things you wished you wrote down or understood better and having an oral history can help with that.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1. Don’t quit your day job. I was hoping to pivot to documentary filmmaking full time and make a career change but was advised that it is basically a “non-profit” endeavor. I was able to get a few small grants and had a successful Kickstarter campaign to pay for my crew, but I was not able to pay for my own time. Since I kept my day job, I was able to take adequate vacation time to work on the production and that allowed me to make the film without needing to pay myself.
2. Pick a subject you love. You will spend many years on your film so make sure it is something you want to live with for a long time both during pre-production, production, post-production and distribution. Most documentary films take 7–10 years to make. My film took seven years and, of course, it was a subject that I love and cherish as it has helped me understand my father, my family and myself.
3. Hiring an editor is like picking your life partner. Your editor is one of the most important roles in your film and having a good relationship, like a marriage, is critical to the success of your film. You need to work with someone with a common vision or one who agrees with your vision, so you don’t have too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak.
4. Audio quality is important. In a documentary film, people will forgive the visual quality but the sound quality can not be compromised. You can always use something to cover missing visuals but, if you don’t have the sound, you don’t have a story. I learned this early on and, when I was shooting in London, made sure to hire a sound person in addition to my camera person. Even though I hired the camera person for the whole day, he had to leave early to go to a funeral in Ireland. He missed shooting my last interview which was the most important. But, I still had my sound guy and was able to capture the interview with my OK camerawork. So, in a pinch, I was able to make the most out of the situation since I had the sound.
5. Ask for help. Film is a collaborative medium and you cannot do it alone. You must involve others, asking for help and advice. This has been critical to my journey as a filmmaker. Seattle has a strong independent film community which I was lucky to tap into. I’ve been able to connect to classes and mentorships and met the people who would become “my people.”
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I grew up recycling and caring about the environment. I walked with Greenpeace when I was ten years old to save the whales and my first career was as an environmental organizer working for policy change on many issues including climate change. It was the 1990s and Al Gore was talking about it to almost deaf ears. While I knew it was happening, I did not expect to see the effects in my lifetime. Climate change is the most urgent issue facing humanity today. While there are many important causes, without this Earth, humanity will cease to exist. A worldwide, collaborative effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so we can still live on this planet would bring the most amount of good to most amount of people.
We have been blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she just might see this.
This is a great question. I would pick Todd Haynes as I would love to compare notes on his Velvet Underground research for his documentary film. I’m sure there are a lot of great stories he wasn’t able to include in the film and I would love to hear the backstory.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
All the socials are on our film website: www.pieroheliczer.com
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
