00:26This is Tim Wasper from Fast Track Unstruck TV.
00:29I'm here in Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest Film Festival.
00:33Is documentary much harder than here this week?
00:37Absolutely. 100%. Oh my God.
00:40Like, you know, with the scripts, the story can change in the edit,
00:45but not to the point of 110 different cuts of a movie,
00:49which is I think what we, this was, it was just the story unveiled itself.
00:54It needed the five years.
00:56It needed the time for the, like, for some of our investigators
01:00to track down the witnesses for us to be able to get the witnesses
01:04to go on camera and, like, make calls and all of that.
01:10So, yeah, hell of a journey.
01:11When did the whole idea of Tim Wasper, was that already in the mix?
01:16Because that's a whole other logistical filming nightmare.
01:20So that was, that actually comes back to something you talked about earlier,
01:24about, like, how did we get Mandy to open up and trust?
01:28And Laffrey Whiprod, the cinematographer, they are such a singular, unique spirit.
01:37By that point, I'd shot a few movies with Laff.
01:41And with Laffrey, I was able to have a chat with him beforehand
01:45and be like, okay, we're going, we're going to be really deep
01:48in someone's trauma who's still there in a lot of ways,
01:52like, still processing, still, and you can see it in the tension,
01:55in the muscles, in, like, the neck, eyes, and that.
02:02I had a lot of that going into this climb.
02:05You can't do it.
02:06You're going to hurt yourself.
02:08I didn't tell you that story about how I started the first time.
02:12And someone was like, you cannot do this.
02:16You're lazy, you know.
02:17Oh, I've heard that.
02:18And that was like, see me then.
02:23Because if we, myself, also, I listened to those buddies,
02:26even someone, like, my family, they really care about, like,
02:30no, we don't want you to hug.
02:33But I was like, this is something that I like.
02:35They're like, no, no, no.
02:37People just tell me I'm crazy.
02:40I've been told many times, so.
02:42And so, with Lafri and with Francis,
02:47we were like, okay, if we're going to do this,
02:49we need to keep it small.
02:50We need to earn the trust.
02:52We just need to be patient and quiet.
02:54But we also need to, like, set very clear boundaries.
02:58Where if we're going to go over to Kilimanjaro
03:00and go on this adventure,
03:03we're showing how resilient and how strong she is.
03:06But we need to be able to make sure that if something does go wrong,
03:10we need to be either ready to, like, go, great, we're out.
03:14We're pulling the plug.
03:15This is, you know, this is way too dangerous.
03:18We don't want to be complicit in, you know,
03:21when there's a moment where the hands get infected
03:24and that sort of stuff.
03:26And that, for me, personally, was like,
03:28this is climbing the mountain cannot be worth, you know,
03:31the risk of losing your hands.
03:33But, yeah, there was a – it honestly came together –
03:37that part came together incredibly fast.
03:40Climbing and preparing for the mountain was one of the easiest things,
03:45easiest parts of the documentary.
03:47Absolutely.
03:47It was the investigation.
03:49You're not playing, right?
03:50I used to do a bit of distance running.
03:52Okay.
03:53But, yeah.
03:54No, look.
03:54I joke.
03:56Runyon Canyon.
03:57We're good.
03:59Kilimanjaro?
04:00Yeah.
04:01But it was a bit of, like, yeah, we'll figure it out.
04:05I don't understand.
04:33Just to get here before dark,
04:35that was partially me being stubborn and pushing a little harder.
04:38But now I'm going to pay for that.
04:42And with Laffery and with Francis,
04:46we were the three amigos.
04:49Because we've done some crazy shoots before.
04:51Like, my first time working with Laffery,
04:54they – this is just incredibly random,
04:59but I first met them when I got invited to a music video shoot from a friend.
05:06And I was doing music videos at the time,
05:08and I saw Laffery just running around,
05:13setting up, like, Home Depot lights,
05:16using, like, old trash bags and everything to get balance in this.
05:21And it was, like, the most low, low-fi, low-budget set.
05:26Like, I'm talking, like, $100 max.
05:31Yeah.
05:32And I'm seeing some of the choices that they're making.
05:35I'm walking around being, like,
05:38I've never seen it done this way.
05:40Like, and I've done some, I've done some low-budget stuff before,
05:42but I was just, like, what are they doing?
05:45And then I saw the monitor, and I was, like,
05:47oh, that's actually working.
05:49Interesting.
06:02Work a little bit.
06:04Oh, that one's open.
06:08Can you –
06:09Yeah.
06:09Yes.
06:10Okay.
06:13Sorry.
06:14You're all right.
06:15Sorry.
06:16But we can't get infection in there now.
06:19Yeah.
06:22Tough day, huh?
06:25Okay.
06:27You'll just see.
06:28I might suck it a little bit.
06:34But it was that kind of spirit that went into,
06:37we can figure this out.
06:39Like, we are the three people who –
06:42you know, Francis is a veteran.
06:45He served in Africa,
06:48part of the quick reaction force over there for the UN.
06:53And then I was just able to bring the –
06:58yeah, sure, let's go.
06:59Let's do it.
07:00She's a force of nature, for sure.
07:03And we were definitely a bit worried about how raw do we get?
07:11Because especially these last few days with the premiere
07:14and seeing Mandy watching herself 50 foot up on the screen,
07:20every beautiful quality, every floor,
07:22everything just gets magnified out and out and out and out.
07:26And we didn't set out to make a documentary that she liked,
07:30that it's been nice that she has found the locus asus and validation.
07:36And I'm like, okay, let's – yeah.
07:38And I heard there was a standing ovation for Zach.
07:41Yeah, the standing ovation was a nice surprise.
07:44It was – yeah, it was a beautiful thing.
07:45Everyone was very moved.
07:46I got a little video of it,
07:48and I sent it back to the Tanzanian crew.
07:50So, Whitey and Carl and Sally,
07:54and they were – yeah, they were very moved.
08:21And they were – yeah, they were very moved.
08:23And they were – yeah.
08:23And they were – yeah.
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