Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Ellen Farmer of 1895 Films Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment Industry

To see the world through new eyes is an exciting experience. There are so many ways to see and tell a story. Too often we are locked into one worldview. By being willing to see a familiar story through someone else’s eyes, it’s as if the story becomes new again.

As a part of our series about Inspirational Women In Hollywood, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Ellen Farmer.

Ellen Farmer runs Peabody Award and Emmy Winning production company 1895 Films based in Los Angeles, California, alongside her husband, journalist-turned-filmmaker Tom Jennings.

1895 Films is renowned for documentaries that weave compelling archival footage with captivating narratives to tell more complete stories behind some of history’s most legendary events. Projects include “The Real Right Stuff” (Disney+), as well as award-winning shows on the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination and the Challenger Disaster, to name a few.

While Ellen and Tom partner on several projects, they are also busy raising two small children and have recently made the move back to LA during the pandemic. Like so many working mothers, Ellen is juggling the demands of a toddler and preschooler, while running an award-winning production company.

In addition, they just launched a podcast series Artifactual,in accompaniment to their popular documentary and nonfiction programming. The podcast reveals stories behind amazing archival material scattered across the world — from libraries to universities, radio station basements and even grandparents’ attics.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

My family has its roots in North Carolina. I grew up in Charlotte, along with my older brother and sister. Being the youngest, I always had to make my presence known. That is a behavioral trait that has mostly served me well throughout my life. Though our lives in Charlotte were great, my heart lies 130 miles to the west in Asheville. My grandparents on my father’s side lived there. My father grew up there in an area called Biltmore Forest. It’s a magical place, right next to the wonderous Biltmore Estate, constructed by the Vanderbilt family in the 1890s. I would spend my summers there as a kid, running through the woods, splashing in the streams and sneaking my way onto the grounds of the huge estate to admire the gardens built by landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmsted (my personal favorite). It was there that I fell in love with horses and wanted one for my own. My grandfather, a doctor, said I could have one only if I memorized every part on the horse’s body to understand its anatomy. I was determined. I did it and soon I was riding all the time. It was my passion. It was challenging, but it filled my heart with an excitement I had never known. I rode throughout school and then rode on the professional circuit for a year before heading off to college. My husband and I were married in the church in Biltmore Village. And 15 years after my grandmother passed away, we purchased her family home — the one my father had grown up in — in Biltmore Forest. I may live in California now, but my heart resides on the East Coast in the Carolina mountains.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

My husband, Tom Jennings, and I co-own our production company. We like to joke that it was the assassination of an American president that brought us together and led me to the career I have today. I have a master’s degree in environmental policy from King’s College London. I was working in Washington, D.C. and met Tom Jennings. He was in town to make a film for The History Channel about the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth — the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Tom and I were talking one night, and he told me he had a problem — a big problem. He was set to film a major sequence the following night with horses and needed a stunt rider. I told him that I could do that! At first, he didn’t believe me, but I showed him photos of me riding in the Hunter-Jumper circuit and he was thrilled. The next evening, I showed up at the set thinking it would be a couple of people and a camcorder. I was so wrong! There were dozens of crew members. It was like a real movie! The crew dressed me up as a man, the accomplice, put a microphone in my ear so I could hear Tom give directions, and off I went. We were filming at the Samuel Mudd farmhouse, the same place Booth rode to in the early morning hours after shooting the president. It was like living through history. Tom said I did a great job. A few days later he asked me to dinner to thank me. And from there, our story takes flight.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

By far, it was traveling to Cuba. We were doing a show about Fidel Castro. While a lot of footage of Castro can be found outside of Cuba, we knew a lot of great material was housed at the Cuban archives and television stations in Havana. This was long before Americans could travel freely to Cuba. We secured journalist visas and off we went. I had to carry $10,000 in cash because U.S. credit cards are not valid in Cuba. We had to pay for everything — including the footage — in cash. A colleague had great connections in Cuba, so she joined us as our “fixer” (someone who knows their way around, knows the language, the best hotels and places to eat, etc.). We spent several days going through the archives, and we found wonderful footage. Near the end of our trip, our fixer said she was good friends with a family living outside of Havana. It was New Year’s Eve, and they were having a party. Their apartment home was far from the tourist areas, so we were able to see how real Cubans lived. We danced and sang and ate wonderful food. This family didn’t have much but they were happy. At midnight, the Cubans have a tradition of filling buckets of water and tossing the water off their balconies — to symbolize tossing out the stress of the previous year, washing it away. I was able to do that. If not for the work I do, I would not have been in Cuba, I would not have been able to see their archives and I would not have had one of the most interesting New Year’s Eves of my life!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When you work in non-fiction and documentary film the crews are often small. Because of that, we are all called on to do different jobs. We had developed a series for Investigation Discovery titled “Call 911,” about how 911 operators help save lives. We were in South Carolina filming an episode about a woman who was injured in a car accident. This series used a lot of recreations. On this day, we were shot on actors. We had some great — and real — paramedics who participated in the rescue, but we didn’t have anyone to play the accident victim. That wound up being me. Tom was directing. They laid me on a backboard as if I had just been pulled out of a wreck. Tom was directing. After he said “action,” he started giving directions to the paramedics about which was to move. I couldn’t hear what Tom was saying, so I thought he was talking to all of us. In the middle of the shot — and sadly several more — I would sit up on the backboard and say, “What?”. Everything would stop because I was supposed to be injured and not able to move! What I learned was to keep doing your job until you’re told otherwise. There is a term used on a film set — Woof! Like a dog barking. When a director is working with a lighting crew to adjust the lights he or she will say — “A little more, a little more, Woof!” It means stop. If the director just yelled “stop” about 20 people doing their jobs would just stop! My lesson learned — be in character until you’re told otherwise.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My husband and co-owner of our company, Tom Jennings, can take the credit for that. When we started working together, he taught me everything he knows about the documentary and non-fiction film business. Tom has been doing this work for several decades and before that he was a newspaper reporter. Though I was not a trained journalist before teaming up with Tom, I feel that I am now. We would go together on film shoots. He would show me how interviews are shot. I learned about lighting, cameras and recording sound. There is so much that goes into a documentary film. Before doing this work, I just thought the images magically appeared on the screen with little or no effort behind them. That is very far from the truth. It’s hard work that requires patience, practice and the ability to solve problems at a moment’s notice. We were doing a film about a helicopter pilot from the Vietnam War. His family ran a farm in north Florida. For one of the shots Tom wanted a group of cows to move into the background to “make it more cinematic”. He said to me, “Ellen, you grew up with horses, can you get those cows to move about 20 yards to the right?” I explained to him horses and cows are not the same thing! Knowing the shot would be much better with the cows in it, I was soon out in the field herding cattle for the first time in my life! And Tom was right. It was a terrific shot.

You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?

Nothing comes easy. Nothing happens overnight. If you think you’re going to get a camera, shoot something, edit it and have a big hit, you’re going into the wrong business. It takes about a decade before you really start to hit your stride. Don’t let failures stop you. If you have a passion for telling stories on film, keep going. Don’t stop. Learn everything you can about every job in this industry. I started out like most would- doing the dull but necessary deliverables that are required at the completion of each show. Even if your heart is set on one job — being an editor, for example — you need to understand how stories are developed, what a crew does in the field, how interviews are done and how films are finished with music and color correction. Soak it all in. It’s an amazing world in which to be a part. Not all of it is fun, but when you sit down in a theater or in a living room and your film starts to roll in front of your eyes, your friends and really the entire world, you can sit back and say to yourself, “I was a part of that”.

What drives you to get up every day and work in TV and Film? What change do you want to see in the industry going forward?

The great thing about our business is every day is different. One day you’re developing new concepts for a network. The next day you’re talking with top experts in their field gathering information for a film. You go out shooting a film for weeks at a time and that often will take you to places around the world, places you would otherwise not go and meeting people you would otherwise never meet. I hope that never changes. However, with new technology advancing almost daily, everyone is becoming a filmmaker. That can allow exciting new voices to share their visions with the world. My hope is that the quality in filmmaking that we follow will be pursued as passionately by those who are entering the field today. We always joke that you can only live on cat videos for so long until the audience wants to see something professionally made. A teacher once told me that if you’re going to do something, do it well. TikTok videos are good fun, but to tell great stories and have them resonate with an audience… do it well.

You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?

Currently, I am working on a passion project and am developing out a new division of 1895 Films. This new division will build on the award-winning filmmaking that is 1895 Films and expand into developing elevated premium non-fiction branded content for companies who want to tell compelling stories and connect with diverse audiences on a variety of platforms. We are building out the areas of integrated commercials, sponsorships, philanthropy, industrials, art installations, etc.

We are very interested in looking at diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture and our youth growing up today?

It’s true that for too long there has not been enough diversity in non-fiction filmmaking. That is changing and new life experiences and points of view are being expressed as never before.

1. To see the world through new eyes is an exciting experience. There are so many ways to see and tell a story. Too often we are locked into one worldview. By being willing to see a familiar story through someone else’s eyes, it’s as if the story becomes new again.
2. Many members of our staff have journalism backgrounds. They are adamant about seeking the truth. The more points of view, the more diverse the backgrounds of our employees, we vastly improve our ability to tell a story with a much richer understanding.
3. At our company, we wholeheartedly embrace finding diverse voices. We work with colleges to find great interns, many of whom become members of our staff. As an employer, being a part of nurturing young people entering our field is one of the most rewarding parts of our job.

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. Walk through every open door. I had no idea that riding a horse in a History Channel show would lead me to a wonderful marriage and a thrilling career. It would have been easy not to say anything to Tom about my ability to ride, but I saw an opportunity to have fun and maybe learn something new.
2. There will always be bad days. It’s not all fun. It’s not like, “Hey kids, let’s go make a movie”. You must fight hard to do what you love. You’re combing art and commerce, one of the most difficult things there is to do. Realize when the business gets you down, something good is just around the corner. There was a time about 13 years ago that we were not getting orders from the networks. Our company was down to just three employees. But the film we made at that time, about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, won The Peabody Award, the highest honor in television.
3. Be the first one on the job and the last one to leave. We hire a lot of ambitious young people right out of college. But only a few pursue their passion for this work with a “whatever it takes” attitude. An assistant who basically got coffee for the office learned editing on the side. When a crisis came up with one of our programs and something needed to be fixed late one night, this guy stayed and made things right. It took him four times longer than an experienced editor because he had not yet refined his skills, but he stayed until the job was done. He’s now one of the most sought-after editors in the non-fiction television industry.
4. Learn to be creative in problem-solving. Every day, 100 problems must be solved. Most of them have easy solutions, but not all of them. One time an interview location fell through. The person we were interviewing had arrived and was ready to go — and he had to leave for his job in an hour. We had nowhere to go to film him! Down the street was a small coffee shop. We asked the manager if we could film in there — after offering him $50. He said yes, but that he would have to run the espresso machine. He agreed that we could ask a question, have our guy answer, and then they would make the next cappuccino. We repeated this for an hour and got the interview.
5. Triple-check everything. It may sound a bit OCD, but in our business, there is little room for error. Make sure the contracts are signed properly and check them again. Make sure the film crew knows where they are going, and check with them again. Make sure the cost of archival footage in each program is accurate — and then check it again. We produced a program once that used a lot of sports archive footage. We relied on a fancy new computer program that would automatically count the number of seconds of the footage used from each source. We were promised the program was accurate, despite it being brand new and not tested by us. Instead of having an assistant editor hand-count the seconds of footage as usual, we relied on this new program. You can guess what happened. The program was flawed, and we had to scramble to cut out footage because otherwise, we were going to be way over budget.

Can you share with our readers any selfcare routines, practices or treatments that you do to help your body, mind or heart to thrive? Please share a story for each one if you can.

Running a production and having two young boys to raise is challenging, but not impossible! It takes planning and often a lot of patience. Some of the things that I do to help keep me sane include:

• Putting the phone or pocket computer down. I find that when I am a mom I need to focus and give my boys 100 percent of my energy and attention. And then when I am working I need to 100 percent focus on my job. For me I have to get a quiet space and open the computer and dive in. Trying to give my full attention to one role at a time is what allows me to focus and thus thrive.
• Spending time with my girlfriends reminds me that there is life outside of work and being a mom. Our group tries to meet at least once a month for long lunches to talk about things we love. For me, it’s always horses.
• Walks at sunset. We are so lucky to live near the beach. I’ll often take the boys to the beach to watch the sunset. The sound of the ways and the bluish orange light of the sun sinking in the sea is probably the most peaceful thing I can do for myself. It’s life-affirming.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My Dad was great with Life Lesson Quotes. He learned a lot of them in the army and repeated them routinely while we grew up. My favorite and most true to date is you don’t get what you expect — you get what you inspect. For me this means I do not just blindly forward work that a staff member might have done to help me out- I read through it, understand it and check it for mistakes. I also don’t just blindly take assurances that things are handled… I go and ask questions and check to ensure things are actually on track. In the production world there are so many moving parts that mistakes happen quickly and can impact the entire show. You have to keep asking questions and inspecting the work being done as it moves along.

You are a person of huge 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?

We tell stories for a living. We often tell stories that the audience thinks they know, but they really don’t. There is always more to be found about every story out there. From that experience, I’ve learned that we too often judge others too quickly. We don’t know why the person in the car ahead cut us off. We just get mad. Sure, they could just be a jerk. But they could also be a parent rushing to their kid’s school because a teacher called to say their child was injured. If I could start a movement, I would find a way for us all to cut each other some slack — to incorporate into ourselves a thought process that would allow compassion and empathy to flourish. To teach kids not to jump to conclusions about others, but to take just a moment to try to understand another. I think I would call my movement: “You have no idea what the other person is going through.”

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!

I would love to have lunch with Amy Pascal. She is a Hollywood powerhouse and I would just love to know her opinions on what it takes to make it to the top of the industry.

Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?

Absolutely. Our company, 1895 Films, has a big presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And we can be found at www.1895films.com, where people can see highlights from much of our work.

This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!