Shooting in Haiti: An Interview with the Renaud Brothers

The illustrious American Cinematographer says this about the Renaud Brothers: “The cinema verite label often is misapplied in the film industry, but on the Renauds the tag sticks, reinforcing the notion that content is king” (http://renaudbrothers.com).

The Renaud brothers pose during their award ceremony at the International Documentary Association in 2007 (courtesy renaudbrothers.com).

The award winning filmmakers’ work includes: Warrior Champions, Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later, Taking the Hill, Off to War, and Dope Sick Love. Their most recent work, The Heroes of Children’s Hospital, aired on NBC’s Dateline on Jan. 31, 2010.

They also produce short docs for The New York Times, which have included forays into Juarez, and most recently a trip to Haiti. The interview below was conducted via email after their recent return from Haiti, and it reveals some of their secrets in shaping vision of documentary journalism and documentary filmmaking.

LANCASTER: How did you get your start in the documentary field?

RENAUD: We both started our career working for the documentary filmmaker and former NBC News Correspondent Jon Alpert (Life of Crime, Baghdad ER, Alive Day Memories). From him we learned a lot about the craft, but also about surviving and thriving and coming back with the story in some of the most dangerous places in the World. We started out as editors as I believe all young filmmakers should do. If you can become a good editor first, it is easy to become a good shooter.

LANCASTER: How do you get your work on the Time’s site? Do you pitch an idea or do you send a completed work? What is it like to work with the Time’s staff?

RENAUD: At a time when television news invests less and less in foreign stories, the New York Times has stepped up in a serious way and is leading the field online in producing original foreign news video content for the web. Dave Rummel and Ann Derry at the Times are both veterans of TV news and documentary, and among the best producers we have worked with. This kind of reporting is expensive and requires a lot of resources and the fact that the Times put people like Dave and Ann in place to head up the division shows the commitment they have to the form. We worked a lot with the excellent Discovery/Times channel when it was broadcasting, and it has been a natural fit for us to work at NYtimes.com.

In producing stories, we work together with Dave Rummel in a way that is very similar to that in the television world. We submit a rough cut of our stories and the producers give us notes and it’s a back and forth collaboration. What makes publishing online different is that a story can be “broadcast” twenty four hours a day seven days a week, whenever news is happening, from anywhere in the world. We love that excitement and freedom, but there are challenges. Filing stories from a disaster or war zone can be difficult. Sometimes, as was the case in Haiti, the only means of transmitting our stories is by a portable BGAN satellite system. This is expensive, and the file sizes have to be small. Often there is only one opportunity to send the story, and back and forth editing with a producer in NY is impossible. So being on the same page with the producers on the front end is important. We trust them and they trust us. The best supervising producers are the ones who don’t have an ego in the fight, in other words their only interest in altering a story is to make it better. With Dave we know that when he gets involved in shaping a story, the work will only improve.

LANCASTER: What camera(s) do you shoot on? Have you looked into shooting video on DSLRs?

RENAUD: We shoot on small HDV and digital HD cameras. We don’t use the DSLRs so much, however we have friends who are full time photographers and the DSLRS that shoot video have revolutionized the way they work. These days magazines have an insatiable appetite for web content. If you are a photographer or a writer, you need to be able to provide video as well. With a DSLR a photographer can still do what they do best and take photos, but they can quickly shoot a bit of video without losing their rhythm and carrying separate equipment. Later they can edit their video, photos, and voice into a multi-media piece for the web. The editors love it, and its going to keep a lot of photographers in business. We have used DSLRS a bit for some underwater video, but because our primary medium is video, we still need equipment that is dedicated to shooting it. Equipment that allows monitoring of sound, the input of xlr cables for audio, and a more stable body for handheld shooting.

LANCASTER: For the “Savings Lives” piece and the work you did in Haiti, can you walk us through the process of how you produced the piece–from concept, how you searched out your story, to shooting and editing. Do you both shoot, or does one shoot and another edit?

Saving Lives on the U.S.N.S. Comfort

RENAUD: Haiti had been out of the news for awhile when we requested the Times send us there in November. It seems ironic now, but we wanted to go there to report on the ways in which this country with so tragic a history seemed to be turning a corner. Over the last 40 years, Haiti has experienced one disaster after another–the Aids epidemic, political coups, foreign occupations and emabargoes, and serious criminal gang activity that has paralyzed the country, preventing foreign investment and the development of a tourism industry to match its neighbors in the rest of the Caribbean. Most people were not aware of the fact however, that in 2009 the security situation with the help of a UN peacekeeping force was under control, many of the gang leaders were in jail, and the political environment was relatively stable. UN Envoy Bill Clinton was actively promoting foreign investment, new roads and airports were in the planning stages. This was the kind of underreported story we like and think is important, and The Times agreed to let us report on it. And then, shortly after we returned to the states the earthquake hit, and we knew we had to go back, if nothing else then to update the stories we and just shot, and find out what happened to the Haitian people we had met there.

In our long form documentary work everything is about character. We are more likely to start a project with a character we like rather than an issue or a story. The short form news stories that we produce for the Times are a little different, but not a lot. With these stories often we are starting from a larger concept, like the Drug War in Jaurez, or the earthquake in Haiti, but whereas most news stories are dominated by a correspondent either on camera or in voice-over, we are still looking for characters to drive the story. We do use some voice over in these news pieces because it helps focus and keep the stories short. However we use as little as possible. We believe the look on a child’s face, or a gesture from a politician, uncommented on can sometimes speak worlds more than a an all knowing voiceover.

Both of us shoot, produce, and edit. We are totally interchangeable and you would never know which of us is behind the camera. This allows us to cover a lot of ground at once, multiple characters and story lines.

LANCASTER: What is your process in writing narration?

RENAUD: Most TV news pieces are edited like radio. This is how reporters turn them around so fast. In fact they often call the first pass of a story a radio cut. We learned to make documentaries first, and are still learning about making news stories. We still like to rely on the footage and our characters first, and we write the narration around that. Usually for us the narration is not even so much necessary as it is often repeating what is already said in the story, but by saying it in narration helps us shorten the piece to the appropriate lengths.

LANCASTER: It looks like you traveled on the Comfort, were you given ready access? What was your process in convincing authorities that you wanted to shoot stories on ship?

RENAUD: We are used to working with the military having been embedded for long periods of time in Iraq and having worked with the US Paralympic Military program on a recent project. We were given exclusive documentary access to the USNS Comfort on this trip. We were able to go wherever we wanted anytime we wanted on the ship. This kind of work is our specialty, we know how to get as close as you possibly can and still not disrupt the process. You have to get close, but you can’t get kicked out. It’s a delicate balance. The military no doubt wants press for a mission like this with the USNS Comfort hospital ship, it’s a humanitarian mission that paints them in a good light. So we understand that, we just always try to use the access we are given in a way to tell a unique human interest that brings something new to a larger news story.

LANCASTER: How do you work through the issue of not becoming overwhelmed in the midst of destruction and suffering?

RENAUD: We have spent the last decade working in the toughest parts of the world. Like an ER doctor you get accustomed to the suffering, keeping in perspective that what you are doing is for a greater good. I think we were just born to do this. We don’t get overwhelmed, fear never paralyzes us, and we are able to work through just about anything. This is our job. I don’t think we are adrenaline junkies like some of the war correspondents who we know. We don’t seek out the dangerous assignments. But once we are committed to a story, we are willing to do whatever it takes to tell that story.

LANCASTER: What are some of the things you look for when seeking out a subject to shoot?

RENAUD: We are always looking for characters who we believe provide a unique window into a news story. And of course the access those characters can give you is crucial. In one of our stories for the New York Times we met Alix Sainvil, a Haitian American UN cop who was working inside Cite Soliel, one of the most dangerous slums in the World. What better way to see what is going on there than through the eyes of someone who American audiences can relate to, but who is Haitian and knows the forbidding streets of Cite Soliel as well as anybody. On top of that, he is an emotional, thinking man, he speaks from the heart and not like a spokesperson. That is gold.

Security in an Insecure Land

In covering the drug wars in Jaurez, we focused on the children who have been effected by it most. In particular a boy who’s father was a hitman for one of the cartels and was murdered. When you tell audiences that Juarez is the most dangerous city in the World with executions on the streets in broad daylight common, it is hard for an audience to wrap their heads around that, to really feel what that is like and what it means. But profile a child who is articulate, genuine, and it puts a human face on the issue that audiences can relate to.

Juárez: Children in the Crossfire

LANCASTER: What was one of your most powerful moments in doing your Haiti stories? Was there a particular moment in one of your videos that stood out to you, something that you felt made it worth it all?

RENAUD: We love to tell stories that won’t get told otherwise or at least not in the same way. In one story we produced for the New York Times recently we focused on the young Haitian American Navy Corpsmen aboard the USNS Comfort hospital ship who have been called upon to be translators for victims of the earthquake in Haiti (see image below). With no training at all, these young men and women stepped up and became a lifeline for vulnerable Haitian patients coming aboard the ship, a foreign country really, unfamiliar and scary. The Corpsmen comfort the patients and attend to their needs, letting them know that the United States is here to help. Sometimes they tell the patients that their legs will be amputated, or even that they will soon die. Through the experience of these translators the viewer is given a totally different and interesting look at this crisis. These Corpsmen are national heroes, and had we not profiled them, very few people would have known it. Showing things like this to the world is something that makes us proud.

“These Corpsmen are national heroes, and had we not profiled them, very few people would have known it. Showing things like this to the world is something that makes us proud.”

Whatever the sacrifices, anytime we get to do this kind of work and be a part of history as it unfolds, it is worth it. There are fewer and fewer places where this kind of work can get seen. The New York Times is one of the places picking up the slack right now, and we hope that they can succeed in this mission.