Monday, March 2, 1998
Director Makepeace bases documentary on own ordeals
FILM: Difficult emotional trials fuel touching look at life in
"Baby It’s You"
By Alice Suh
Daily Bruin Contributor
"C-is the way to begin, H-the next letter in, I-am the word,
C-was Cecile bird, K-just to fill ’em in. E-up near the N;
C-H-I-C-K-E-N, that’s the way to spell chicken!"
No, this is not a lesson in spelling. It is actually a cute
little jingle the audience can’t help but hum after viewing Anne
Makepeace’s documentary, "Baby It’s You," featuring herself, her
husband, Peter, and her close relatives. Makepeace admits it is
this "extremely silly song" which helped her husband woo her. But,
after viewing "Baby It’s You," the audience realizes its
significance.
Makepeace directed this personal film documenting her private
life and the lives of her family members. The documentary is about
the ups and downs of life, and how love and support is always
prevalent. Unfortunately, documentaries often have been stereotyped
as boring and tedious – but this film had many unexpected surprises
and outcomes not only for the audience but for Makepeace as
well.
One big surprise for Makepeace was when, after hoping to become
pregnant by the end of filming, she discovered that she was
infertile. She questioned and doubted whether to continue filming
since the film’s title was selected with future plans for
parenthood.
"I went through a period when we realized that we weren’t going
to have a kid, where not only did I think that the title wouldn’t
work, but I also felt like that there was no movie," Makepeace
says. "There was no point in making the movie,’cause there wasn’t
the ending that I wanted. But, then I sort of came around to feel
that actually the movie as it is is more important because many,
many more people have the outcome we had."
Infertility didn’t stop Makepeace from continuing her project.
She decided that her title was still perfect.
"Because what happened, our relationship became deeper, and the
meaning of the title changed." Makepeace explains.
Although the film focuses mainly on Makepeace and her painful
acceptance of infertility, she does not forget to include the lives
of her family as well. Her brother Doug is an important character
who brings light humor to the film as he considers abandoning the
socially accepted standard of monogamy and contemplates the
possibility of polygamy. Then there’s Makepeace’s younger brother,
Roger, who prefers goats to children. Her brothers obviously had no
problem with Makepeace documenting their personal lives.
"I think that my brothers were sort of flattered that I was
interested. They weren’t really resistant," Makepeace fondly
recalls.
Makepeace also films her husband’s family members, including
Peter’s sisters. There’s the artistic Mary who has had a secret
abortion because she felt alone and scared, very similar to
Makepeace’s own secret abortion when she was 18.
But, unlike Mary, Makepeace never confided in her parents about
her illegal abortion. Instead, after many years of silence,
Makepeace finally opened up to her older relatives whom she
believed to be very conservative since she grew up in a puritanical
household. But once again she was surprised to find out how
supportive her relatives were.
"For the film I wanted a totally different reaction. I wanted
them to show how screwed up my background was. So when they were
all really great, my first response was, ‘this isn’t what I want!’
But, of course that is what I really wanted. This is what I
needed," Makepeace says.
"I wanted them to illustrate how screwed up a puritanical
background is, so I expected them to be much more judgmental and to
be shocked and disgusted," Makepeace continues.
"Basically, what I really expected them to do was change the
subject because they were shocked."
There is also Peter’s lesbian sister Ann, who ironically was the
only family member with a child whom she shared with her partner.
However, Ann died unexpectedly in a car accident a week before her
daughter Laura’s birthday, adding even more sadness and grief into
Makepeace’s life.
"It was very emotionally painful; and life was painful, and
making the movie was painful. And it was really hard on Peter
especially because of things that happened in his family."
Makepeace says.
As an obligation and a commitment she made as a professional,
Makepeace filmed Laura’s birthday party with everyone’s consent.
She adds, "Nobody was happy about anything then. That was such a
weird bittersweet thing."
Makepeace had to deal with her mother-in-law’s death as well,
which is not shown or mentioned in the film. Instead of letting her
sorrows get the best of her, Makepeace succeeded in completing the
documentary as well as maintaining her sanity.
"My feeling with the movie is that it actually does have a happy
ending, and I believe that," she comments.
Her hard work and devotion did not go unnoticed. Her film earned
recognition at Sundance and foreign film festivals.
"I guess I didn’t really expect to get the attention it did get.
It got an incredible amount of mention in the press. I got such a
great response that I kinda thought that I might win something.
When I actually didn’t win a prize, that was sort of disappointing.
I had gone in not expecting that, but then when the response was so
fabulous I kind of hoped," Makepeace says.
Despite the fact that she did not win any awards at the
festivals, Makepeace feels that it was an honor just to be
showcased at them. That’s impressive considering she had no funding
for about a year. And when she finally did get funding it was a
small budget of $250,000. But it turned out that even this small
amount was more than enough for Makepeace.
"I finished for less than what they actually gave me; I gave
them back $20,000," she recalls.
One would assume after completing this extraordinary film and
earning worldwide recognition, job offers would be pouring in for
the filmmaker. But, she says, "No, it doesn’t necessarily work like
that. I kind of work for myself."
She’s not wasting any time either. Her next project is a
documentary about photographer Edward Curtis. And, although
documentaries seem to be her main line of work right now, Makepeace
is interested in working on other things such as dramatic feature
films. Her goal in the next 10 years is to have directed three
feature films and two documentaries. It’s pretty ambitious for
Makepeace, who’s been through so much – yet very possible.
FILM: "Baby It’s You" can be seen this summer on PBS as part of
the POV series.