Tonight at 9PM (presumably EST), HBO will air Lance Bangs’ “The Lazarus Effect,” an insightful and hopeful documentary about the AIDS crisis in Africa, with the focus on crucial antiretroviral (AVR) drugs. It’s a short documentary (about a half hour), but the amount of material that is covered and the fact that it’s an AIDS documentary that doesn’t make you want to stick your head in an oven, are just a couple of the reasons to watch this miraculous little film. We got a chance to talk to talk to Lance about making the documentary and his future projects.
How long did it take to film this?
We started making it exactly a year ago. We just got on a plane ran around with a camera and started meeting people who were in a very weakened state and were starting to get the treatment. Then we went back in September to get the follow-up to see what their progress was and what they looked like now. And then, we went back in December for a little bit, just to get some completing footage and to be there for World AIDS Day.
Was it always conceived as a shorter documentary?
It was tough. We just wanted audiences to see it – telling it in a simple, clear way and focusing on a couple strong characters felt more effective than asking people to sit through an exhausting, emotionally draining 90 minute version of the same story. So, there’s definitely a ton of strong footage about the complications and nuances of AIDS in Africa that we could probably make other films out of that material. But for this particular audience, getting it on HBO, which is kind of the best outlet for documentaries (in the United States, at least), we wanted to make a film that was less than 40 minutes long. So, it feels like the right format for this message.
When you met Constance [a woman who is HIV-positive and does amazing work for awareness and works in one of the clinics and is more or less the emotional center of the movie], did you think “Okay, now we have the movie?”
Yeah, it was interesting. It was very clear that she was a really great character and we would want to spend time with her. She was someone who was working at a clinic and helping us find other people and then we learned a little more about her and her personality – her dominance and charge over the clinic. And it was like “Wow, this woman’s really remarkable.” Then, when she opened up and told her own personal story and it became clear to structure the film around her. I think her entrance, when she comes charging in, is one of the great screen entrances in cinema history.
Could you talk about finding the tonal balance?
I think that’s something that comes from my own aesthetic or my own personal work. I’m not that sympathetic to documentaries that are overly manipulative or are “oh poor victims.” For me, I love the personality and idiosyncrasies of these people and weird moments that come through. So capturing that and focusing on that was important, as well as not relying on outside narration or someone commenting on people but rather have the camera linger on them and hope that they open up and reveal themselves to me on camera is the way that I approached the structure of the film. And there are weird moments of levity and goofiness and hope those moments play out.
Were you as shocked as the audience will be about how much better these people looked after being on the drugs?
Yeah. There are a couple of people that didn’t even make it into the film that you wouldn’t even recognize as the same person because it looked like their facial structure had changed. It makes such a radical difference when they’re so emaciated and gaunt and wasted away and then when you have that given back to you, it makes a big difference in recognize their personality. The people who are in the film are so vibrant. You realize they’re not some poor victim.
A really interesting fact the movie talks about is how the AIDS clinics are manned by workers that have AIDS so that they have that connection to the patients.
In my own background of hospitals in the West, you’re kind of intimidated to go to the clinic, you don’t want to go. But the way the clinics were set up there wasn’t this kind of judgmental person you’re dealing with but other people who know what you’re dealing with, almost like a community center. And it’s such a great holistic way of doing things.
Did you come up with the thesis for the film while there or did the people from (RED) come up with the concept and told you what they wanted the movie to be about?
I kind of structured it myself, based on who I was meeting and what I was seeing. I think that they kind of gave me the idea and then gave me latitude to make it my own style.
What’s it like going from filming Spike dressed up as a vampire on the set of “Where the Wild Things Are” to something as serious as this?
The emotional stakes and the gravity and the genuine peril of someone losing their lives versus filming Johnny Knoxville jumping over a lake is very different. But I don’t know, it’s kind of been a range of personal films in my life with homeless teenagers or shooting in rural Appalachia, I’ve sort of traveled and put myself in different circumstance and made films where I get to know someone and hang out with a camera and get them to open up and then find a sensitive way of portraying that. That’s what I was drawing upon more for this.
And it’s not too much of a downer.
Yeah, hopefully there’s enough striking visual and footage of what it’s like to be alive there and what the colors are like and you can enjoy the film on that level while connecting with the film emotionally.
Are you going to do more documentaries like this for (RED)?
There’s definitely enough footage shot over the time that I was there that cover all these different aspects and complications of AIDS. Things like the transmission from mother to child or how important the access to clean water is while taking these medications, I think hopefully we can take that footage and make a series of short films that flesh out that information.
Are you working on any other documentaries right now?
I’m finishing a movie with Sonic Youth for “Daydream Nation” made of documentary footage over the years. And then I’m shooting the 3D “Jackass” movie which is really crazy and really fun.
How’s working with the 3D camera?
It’s amazing. It’s definitely a fun thing to learn and figure out and hopefully we’ll make the ultimate 3D film and no one will need to work in 3D after we’re done. We’ll destroy the format.
Do you think 3D is a viable thing?
I mean, “Avatar” had you immersed in a world that may not have been a great film on its own. The stuff in “Jackass” so far looks like a ViewMaster. It’s like candy, all the colors and levels of depth. But it’s tough to imagine that you’d want to strain your eyes for everything you do in the future.
Would you be interested in doing a documentary in 3D?
Yeah, if we could rig the camera to work in a lightweight way to get more of a sense of scale or depth or people moving around in the background, it’d be great. There’s some really beautiful footage of soccer matches or moving through the markets [in “Lazarus Effect”] that would have been even more involving if they had further depth to them.