In an interview with Brooklyn Magazine, director Vanessa Gould reflects on the similarity between documentarian and obituary writer, the subject of her latest film OBIT.
According to Gould, the kinship between the two points of view helped shape the film: “That common bond, which was unspoken, was a sort of friend along the way while we were making the film. We were strangers to [the writers], but they’re strangers to the people they call. And you come with a deep interest in reporting on something accurately but also as you point out expressing it creatively. There’s also this wonderful similarity with the structure. The Times reporters are trying to say as much as they can in about 1,000 words, and we’re trying to say as much as we can in about 90 minutes. They’re bound by words; we’re bound by minutes. They’re looking at the enormity of a life; we’re looking at the scope of New York Times obituaries, which is also pretty enormous. You go through and you find the salient elements, the little details that you feel speak volumes, then you try to organize them and express it in a way that can say the most in the limited space/time that you have.”
