Interview: Bill Benenson (Dirt!: The Movie)

[This was originally conducted for the 25th edition of the Sundance Film Festival. The doc is currently being shown as part of IDA’s Annual DocuWeeks™ – for this annual showcase of documentary films qualifying for Oscar® consideration.]

Eric Lavallee: Judging from your background, would you say the genesis for the project is something you were toying with as an initial idea and then William’s book was brought into the project to support the documentary? Or was it the other way around?
Bill Benenson: About ten years ago my mother Dorothy Cullman told me that she had just learned that all of physical matter on Earth was made up of Stardust, this amazed me and we talked about making a film on that incredible revelation. But upon reflection, I thought that idea was insufficient to make a film about, alone. Then a friend gave me “Dirt, the Ecstatic Skin of the Earth” and we found out that not only was Dirt made up of Stardust but that Dirt was / is also alive. And we were off and running toward making the film when I discussed this with Gene.

EL: How did this become a story you guys wanted to tell?
BB: As we learned more about the Dirt and its friends, Dirt got hold of us and won’t let us go.

EL: I’m always curious to know how co-directors work – did you work in unison on the shoots? Or split the tasks among themselves. Is this the first time you worked with one another?
BB:We often split the locations, not the shots per se. Also we had different camera and sound teams in different countries or at different times. And yes, this is the first time I have worked with another director on the same film.

EL: Since your subject pretty much covers the globe, I was wondering when it came down to choosing the locations for your storyline – what guidelines did you use?
BB:The guideline was very simple actually— the locations were dictated by WHO we were shooting and nothing else really. Our Participants, not actors of course, we compass no matter where we were location-wise.

EL: Who among the people you interviewed surprised you the most?
BB: Overall we found that Dirt has many wonderful friends and each in their own way were not only unique but profound Earthrichers; however with that true platitude aside— it was the prisoners of Rikers Island who were the biggest surprise to me as unexpected new friends of Dirt / The Earth.

EL: What narrative decisions did you make prior to shooting?
BB: First, we decided that we weren’t going to make a negative film, because Dirt is a miracle to begin with. Secondly, that we were going to film people working or “doing” things with Dirt not just talking about what they knew or thought about Dirt. Off with talking Heads.

EL: What aesthetic decisions did you make prior to shooting?
BB: We would shot in color and digitally and use only the finest available local crews wherever we went!

EL: If you could name just one – what stands out as your most favorite experience you had during filming?
BB: Certainly filming in India was the remarkable and unforgettable but probably my favorite extended experience was filming with Andy Lipkis, the Founder of TreePeople in Los Angeles over several months time.

EL: Anatomy of a scene: What was the most difficult footage to obtain?
BB: This was by the hardest film I have ever worked on, in ever stage, because making Dirt lively for laypeople was incredibly difficult but ultimately completely rewarding—- because Dirt is alive and we need to know and tell to everyone.

EL: The doc seems to be a natural fit with Sundance programmers’ commitment to eco-friendly documentaries. When did you consider submitting your doc to the festival?
BB: We always thought we would submit it to Sundance, no question. Where else would Dirt fit in better than at Sundance? Even though Dirt is physically everywhere— Spiritually this is its Natural Cultural Birth Place.