This is HYN's newest member Jeremy Vest interviewing Ben Affleck for the On The Campaign Trail documentary out on Channel 4 soon. For more on Jeremy, click here.
The best film that Ben Affleck ever starred in didn't even make the newspapers. It was a documentary made last year by a group of people with disabilities who all work together as part of a news team called How's Your News?. The film On The Campaign Trail, follows the team as they report on the Republican and Democratic conventions on the run up to last years' American election. Amidst all the brow-furrowing journalistic hoo-haa and showbiz surrounding the election, this documentary arguably revealed more about the way the whole shebang works than any tear-stained Michael Moore documentary.
Here's the main guy behind How's Your News?, Arthur Bradford, to explain why Vice Films co-produced the documentary and the main reasons why we're doing The Special Issue.
VICE: Arthur please explain what's going on.
Arthur Bradford: We all met at a summer camp for people with disabilities about 12 years ago. I was teaching a video class there and trying to figure out how to make watchable films with this population. One day we decided to go downtown and the campers began approaching random people on the street and asking them questions. The questions and the reactions were so funny. They were also strangely revealing. These man-on-the street interviews became the basis for HYN.
What about the On The Campaign Trail movie?
We applied for press credentials and we weren't sure they would let us in but enventually they did. We were able to interview many high level politicians and public figures like Hillary Clinton, Ben Affleck, Andre 3000, and Michael Moore just to name a few. The interviews are completely unique and totally unscripted, which is refreshing. I think you can tell a lot about a person's character by the way they react to being confronted by a person with a disability.
When people see the film don't they go "ewww that's so exploitative and in bad taste, I am disgusted"?
No, people like them. But HYN isn't very well known. Film festivals are often concerned that the material will be seen as offensive or exploitative in some way. This upsets me because our cast and their families are so proud of their work.
How did this issue of Vice come about?
It's actually been sort of a tough fit because while we at HYN like Vice, we don't have any desire to offend anyone. My impression is that Vice isn't afraid to offend people. But we don't want to do that. We want people to realise there's nothing offensive about people with disabilities being funny and expressive. It's been hard for us to get publicity in the mainstream media. They are all too afraid we might offend their audience in some way. So we end up in Vice.