“Shoot from the Heart” is a short film centered around a rollicking evening with Haskell Wexler, D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, Nick Doob and Joan Churchill. We debate about cinematic representation, whether it’s possible to capture reality, how the camera affects a situation and whether or not there is such a thing as objectivity. 

 

We shot the dinner in a participatory manner, sometimes passing the camera from person to person.  This is not a traditional doc with an invisible director whose questions have been cut out.  Everyone present becomes a part of the film.

 

Penny, who was possibly the greatest vérité shooter of all time, states that when he’s shooting he doesn’t think, he’s “like a cat watching a room full of people.  And when people say, how do you decide?… I’m in there floating in that camera, watching what goes on.  Sometimes I feel a little guilty, like I don’t take responsibility, like the painter who doesn’t look at the canvas while he paints.”  Haskell defines what art is for him in a deeply emotional moment.

 

The film is an introduction to Haskell who Churchill and Alan Barker followed during the last ten years of his life.  He was not an easy film subject.  Haskell, the great cinematographer, was averse to being in front of the camera and he definitely did not want to be seen with a film crew tagging alongside.

 

“Shoot from the Heart” is the first act in a long form work which will consist of many encounters we filmed, each a free standing ‘chapter.’  We want audiences to share a moment in the rich lives of these two iconic filmmakers, Haskell and Penny - no longer with us.