Street roots
3
Aug. 29, 2014
Film on Portland's impoverished families gets Emmy nod
'American Winter”
documentary nominated
for outstanding reporting;
awards given in September
♦
BY JOANNE ZUHL
S T A F F W R IT E R
-
“ A
¿A
merican Winter,” thè documentary
film about the trauma of modern
X X poverty through the eyes of eight
Portland families, has been nominated for an
Emmy. The film originally aired on HBO,
but it has been shown in theaters across the
country and continues to leverage
community discussions about poverty,.
homelessness and what co-director and
producer Joe Gantz calls “the other
America.” "
“This film is about one of the critical
issues of our time in that people are getting
poorer — and jobs are paying less, and are
being shipped oversees, and are being done '
by robots - at the same time that the tax
laws have given the wealthy more money,”
Gantz said in a phoneConversation with
Street Roots. “The system is getting rigged
to benefit the wealthy, and not just through
the tax laws, but the political system. It’s a ®
rigged system, and it’s getting worse. There
are two Americas, and one America is
struggling mightily and having less political
representation and making less money each
year. And the other America is doing better
and better.”
Gantz and his brother Harry co-directed
and produced the film and are nominated
along with co-producers Aaron Butler and
Devon Terrill as part of the production
company View Film.
nominations for their series -“Taxicab
Confessions.”
The crew worked on the film for several <
years, documenting the lives of eight.
Portland families struggling with poverty
and living in fear of crisis after crisis. Gantz
said they still stay in touch w ithsome of the
people ih thè film, and their struggles '
continue.
“Every week or two, someone calls and
says this is working better d r this has set
me back again,” he said. “In this-country
there are these myths. People doing well
are told they’re doing well because they
deserve it and they are capable and they
work hard. And the people who are not
doing well are told it’s because they're not
capable, they don’t work hard and they don’t
deserve it,' When you see-these people in
the film you see things couldn’t be further
from the truth.”
Gantz said the film, continues to be
screened weekly across the country in
P H O T O S C O U R T E S Y O F JO E A N D HARRY G A N TZ
Above, a still fr o m “A m erican Winter. ” A t .
left, co-directors a n d producers Joe a n d
H arry Gantz.
partnership with local advocacy
organizations. They are followed by a
discussion about the myths surrounding
poverty, which he says prevent people from
seeing the opportunities for change.
“American Winter” is nominated in the
category of Outstanding Business and
Economic Reporting Long Form, which is
part of the News and Documentary division.
The News and Documentary Emmys will be
awarded on Sept. 30. (The redcarpet
primetime categories were awarded |
Monday, Aug. 25.)
Soon after the film aired on HBO in
March 2013,. several family members
featured in the documentary were invited by
Sen, Jeff Merkley to testify before the
House Banking Subcommittee on Economic
Policy about poverty and the future of the ,
middle class. Gantz hopes the nomination,
and possibly winning an Emmy, will further
elevate that discussion.
“It would be very gratifying to win W t ;
Emmy but it will also help us get this
message out,” Gantz said. “You do it
because you hope to effect some change.
And I think the film has effected some
change. There have been things that have
happened, and then there’s been this feeling
that since the film came out, the amount of
attention in the media and in the New York
Times about rising poverty and income
inequality has just grown, and the discussion
has grown.” ...
The filmmakers have said they chose
Portland as a backdrop for their film
because it wasn’t the obvious choice when
people think of poverty. He also tries to
approach documentary filmmaking with an
open mind, letting the story play out before
him without a prescribed ending. But in a
sense, this one isn’t over.
“I don’t come to a subject with, an
outcome in mind, but having spent eight
months dr so with these families, and seeing
what’s going on in this country and learning
in the process of making this film, I feel like
I’m very much an advocate because the
system is not fair. And the disinformation iS
destructive. And to the extent that I can
promote this film and a different point of
view, I feel obligated to do that.”
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