Interview: Shaul Schwarz (Narco Cultura)

Shaul Schwarz comes from a different ilk of filmmaker than your standard shooter of vérité imagery and sit down interviews. He made his name shooting stills from the front lines of the Israel Lebanon War and the conflict in Gaza for publications like Newsweek and Time, but with his go-to equipment now sporting high end video capability, it only made sense for the battle embedded journalist to broach the documentary form. He’s since pieced together startling shorts on the rise of cremation in America with Ashes to Ashes, and the devastation in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti with Breach of Faith (both of which can be seen in full on Schwarz’s personal website).

His first feature, Narco Cultura, debuted in Park City earlier this year, where I sat in for the world premiere, but it wasn’t until several months later that I caught up with the filmmaker at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto to discuss his first foray into long form video. We spoke at length about how the film came into being, the use and meaning of violence in the film and the odd juxtaposition that the film is based around. Our conversation follows directly below.