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| SXSW 09 Interview: Crude Independence Director Noah Hutton |
by David Cornelius
The South by Southwest rundown on “Crude Independence”: “Crude Independence” is a documentary film about the heartland in the process of transplanting itself, and its new heart is pumping oil. In 2006, the United States Geological Survey estimated there to be more than 200 billion barrels of crude oil resting in beneath western North Dakota, and now oil companies from far and wide are descending on small rural towns across the state with men and machinery in tow. First-time director Noah Hutton takes us to the town of Stanley (population 1300) and captures the change wrought by the unprecedented boom. Through revealing interviews and breathtaking imagery of the northern plains, “Crude Independence” is a rumination on the future of small town America, a tale of change at the hands of the global energy market, and America’s unyielding thirst for oil.
Just what is “Crude Independence”?
Our title is meant to suggest some paradoxes that the film explores.
How did you come across the people of Stanley, and what made you decide to document their story?
I first read about Stanley in a New York Times piece written about the oil boom in North Dakota, published in January of 2008. I boarded a plane two days later and took an initial scouting trip out there, driving all around the state in a Ford Explorer I rented through Craigslist because I wasn’t yet 21 years old to get a proper rental. I came to Stanley on this first trip, met some of the people mentioned in the Times article, and knew their story was one I wanted to tell, mostly because I was hearing multiple viewpoints on the boom - those who own their mineral rights, those that don’t, and those who were staying in the motel temporarily to work on the oil rigs. It struck me as an important American moment - the intersection of small town values with change wrought by multinational oil companies.
At first glance, your movie seems like another in the modern trend of documentaries with a heavy political goal, but the trailer suggests a larger focus on the people. What were your initial goals with this movie, and what evolved during filming?
There is no heavy political goal of our film and there never was. I think the initial vision of the film as a human tale of change in one small town affected by an oil boom has remained constant throughout the process. We never wanted to make this a sprawling geopolitical oil documentary. I was more interested in what happens on a personal level to people who have been living in Stanley their whole lives, people whose grandparents first settled on that land by chance when they emigrated to this country from Norway one hundred years ago.
You were filming in Stanley during the 2008 elections, right in the middle of all the “drill here, drill now” debate. What was it like to be in an oil boom town at such a time?
Besides a few mild concerns about the beautiful vistas now being dotted with drilling rigs, we really didn’t hear much opposition to the boom. The only complaints had to do with not owning mineral rights or about the poor condition of the roads and other infrastructure that has been affected by the descent of workers and machinery to Stanley. The political orientation of the town was most certainly conservative. This was accepted, and the election really wasn’t causing much drama at all in Stanley. We met one Democrat that I can remember while we were there, and he was lovingly teased by his friends for his views.
You also scored the music for this film. What’s that process like?
I think music in a film like this is incredibly important and I had a pretty clear idea of the kind of feel I wanted, so it was natural for me to have a go at it myself. It became a very organic process because I was scoring the film as it was coming together in the editing room, and my co-editor Alex Footman would go off and work on segments while I recorded the music, then we’d lay it in and see if it worked. Because we were doing all of this in-house, we were able to work pretty quickly and had finished a cut of the film with music within about three weeks.
Jonathan Demme is listed as an executive producer on your film. How did that come about?
Mr. Demme and I frequent the same independent film house in Pleasantville, New York: The Jacob Burns Film Center. I first worked behind the refreshment stand there, then got involved with their educational programs and had the good fortune of being able to travel to Uganda to work on a documentary. Mr. Demme, who hosts a monthly rare cinema series at the Burns Center, came to see the Uganda piece, we met there, and I soon after submitted the proposal for Crude Independence and he was generous enough to come onboard.
This is your first feature. What got you started making movies?
I’ve been making little shorts with friends and family movies since I was a kid. I’ve taught myself how to use all the equipment I’ve worked with and love every stage of the process. Traveling to Uganda to work on the documentary “Shooting for Peace” was a defining experience for me and made me want to get a project of my own together. I also have been deeply inspired by filmmakers like Werner Herzog and John Cassavetes. These are really two of my biggest heroes - Werner I’ve had the good fortune to meet several times and I hold his films and his writing in the highest regard. His awesome fearlessness has definitely inspired me to just get out there and make something.
Any lessons learned while making this movie?
I learned a lot about trust and what it takes to capture a story you have a feeling is out there but is reluctant to show itself on film. There was absolutely no way we could have made this film if we had shown up in Stanley with an agenda. It took nights at the bar with locals and oil workers just having beers and playing pool - no cameras involved - to build the necessary trust before we were able to get the interviews and access we needed for this story to come across on film.
Are you nervous about coming to South by Southwest?
I’m not nervous about SXSW - I’m thrilled, and enjoying everything about this experience. I’m excited to see all the terrific films at the festival and I’m proud that we are going to screen “Crude Independence” for such wonderful audiences in Austin.
Would you like to continue working with documentaries, or do you plan to jump to fiction? (In other words, what’s next for you?)
We have a fiction film in development as well as another documentary. Which one of these I make next is up in the air as of now, but I hope to move back and forth between fiction films and documentaries. I will also say that line between fiction and non-fiction is also a bit muddier in my head than it is depicted out in the world.
Finish this sentence: If I weren’t a filmmaker, I’d probably be...
A neuroscientist. It’s my greatest interest, it’s the subject of most of the classes I’ve taken for the past two years at college and the books that I read, and it has become and will continue to be the defining field of this young century. My hope is to make a film about the brain and the people that study it.
Rock, paper, or scissors?
Show, don’t tell. That’s what I’ve been told.
In ten words or less, convince the average moviegoer to watch your film.
See the small-town story of an American oil boom.
“Crude Independence” joins SXSW as part of the Emerging Visions series. It screens 5:30 PM March 16 and 11:30 AM March 18.
link directly to this feature at http://efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=2680
originally posted: 02/17/09 01:49:30
last updated: 02/21/09 13:29:56
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