Typeface
UW-Madison alums will be the focus of Cinematheque’s “Spotlight on Documentary” series, Sept. 6-7.
“We’re excited to bring back these three very accomplished people doing very different work,” says series organizer Matt St. John.
The selected films — curated by St. John and co-organizer Kelley Conway — and their producers provide a wide-ranging view both of the documentary form and its industry.
Justine Nagan’s 2009 film, Typeface, explores the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, which preserves a world of printmaking before digital graphic design. Typeface will run with a short by Nagan, Sacred Transformations, which provides a glimpses into a Chicago studio where artists reshape tattoos from people’s pasts.
The films are each interested in examining “decisions made in the past, and asking ‘how do you transform something important that’s faded into something beautiful again?’” Nagan says.
The Price of Gold
Nagan directed and produced both films during her seven-year tenure as executive director of renowned documentary house Kartemquin Films. Since 2015, she’s worked as the executive director and executive producer of PBS’ acclaimed POV program — television’s longest running documentary series.
“Making Typeface was a pivotal moment for me,” Nagan says. “Going through the process and understanding the pain and joy of it made me much more grounded, informed and sympathetic. It’s a humble film, but a really meaningful journey.”
Documenting Hate: Charlottesville was released just weeks ago; the coproduction of PBS’ Frontline and investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica unflinchingly examines neo-Nazis who participated in the Charlottesville rally where white supremacist James Fields plowed into a group of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer.
The film was produced by Raney Aronson-Rath, a veteran journalist and executive producer of Frontline. Since 2015, the program has won accolades under Aronson-Rath’s leadership, among them four Peabody awards and more than a dozen Emmys. Charlottesville is half of a couplet that will be completed with the release of another Documenting Hate entry later this fall.
“We weren’t sure we’d have the option to screen it,” says St. John, “but I’m glad we can. Investigative journalism is extremely important and particularly important right now.”
The “Spotlight on Documentary” series will wrap with ESPN Films’ The Price of Gold. Produced by Libby Price, vice president of ESPN Films, the film documents the scandal around figure skater Tonya Harding and rival Nancy Kerrigan. The film features a lengthy interview with Harding and explores the role of the media that stoked the story.
“The Price of Gold did a lot of the work I, Tonya did,” St. John says, “... three years beforehand.”
What does the organizer hope audiences take away from the series?
“Documentaries aren’t just one thing!”
Screenings and discussions will be held in 4070 Vilas Hall. A Sept. 7 panel with the Documenting Hate: Charlottesville filmmakers will be moderated by fellow alums and documentary scholars Nora Stone and David Resha.
