Mark Samels director of A Brilliant Madness, a documentary about the life of John Forbes Nash, Jr., contrasts how documentaries and feature films like A Beautiful Mind depict real-life stories. In addition to showing at DoubleTake, A Brilliant Madness will premiere on PBS' "The American Experience" April 28 at 9pm.
Q: John Nash has historically been a very reluctant subject, yet you gained unprecedented access, to what do you attribute your success?
A: It's true, he's remarkably publicity shy. When we first approached him about doing the documentary, he was very hesitant. Most of last summer we spent trying to win his trust. We started last fall--speaking to his son, speaking to his teaching colleagues, speaking to his former classmates. Nash came by one day as we were finishing up these interviews, and went out and had lunch with some people we interviewed and the next week he agreed to come be interviewed, as well as his wife Alicia. Nash saw the care and diligence we were exhibiting and agreed to be interviewed.
Q: To what do you attribute the sudden fascination with Nash's life story?
A: A year ago, when I told people I was going to start working on John Nash, I got a response "John Who?". While the feature film deserves most of the credit for bringing it to the public's attention, at the same time, it's such a powerful story, everyone I know who has seen the feature film wants to know more about John Nash. They want to know, "was he really a codebreaker?", "can someone really recover from schizophrenia?" We hope our film answers those questions. Also, underlying everything is the mystery of the human mind--this twining of genius and madness in one individual fascinates people. We all wonder about our own capabilities and our own insights and our own fragility.
Q: In general, does Hollywood do an adequate job of adapting real events and people into dramatic features?
A: First of all, I think that the controversy surrounding A Beautiful Mind is largely misguided. But, I do think that Hollywood is increasingly trying to play it both ways--they perceive that people are more drawn to stories that are based in reality, yet they take a lot of stories and translate them into formulas. I think that part of it is where Hollywood falls short. Most stories in life have messy complexities about them. I think basically it's a disservice to audiences that Hollywood doesn't allow more nuanced portrayals to make to the audience.
Q: Do you have any advice for students looking to pursue documentary filmmaking?
A: Documentary films are basically about one thing--they are about a willingness to learn and a curiosity about the world. You have to have a really deep, deep desire to learn about the world--to absorb it and translate it into a work of art. It has to be an intense feeling, because the realities of the industry are very brutal. My advice is usually don't get into documentary films unless you have to, and people who have to generally know it.
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