Marc N. Weiss: An Independent Point of View

“P.O.V.” is a cinema term meaning point of view. It’s also the name of the acclaimed PBS series that showcases independent nonfiction films. The 12-week series kicks off its third season Tuesday at 10 p.m. (on Channels 28 and 15) with “Through the Wire,” a documentary about three women in prison for politically motivated, nonviolent offenses. “P.O.V.” is the brainchild of its executive producer, Marc N. Weiss, a former independent filmmaker, who talked about the series with Susan King.

What is an independent film?

The thing that really defines independents is that the editorial control is in the hands of the filmmakers. They decide how it’s going to be made, what style it’s going to be and what they will be including and not including. The best of the crop bring a real commitment to their subject, a real kind of passion. It’s totally different than anything you see on commercial TV.

The independent filmmaker makes a commitment of time, usually somewhere in the realm of a number of years, to make a film. Part of the reason it takes so long is because the fund-raising is not readily available for independent films. Just knocking on doors takes months and years, and the filmmaker takes the time to stay with the subject. Sometimes the shooting alone will take two or three years. A film like “Best Boy,” which we showed in our first season about the filmmaker’s cousin who is a 52-year-old retarded man, took him three years to film and then it took another two years to edit.

Up until “P.O.V.,” there was no mechanism set up to look at the work that was being done. There are literally hundreds of films made a year, and there was no money available in public TV to pay for the rights to broadcast the stuff. So it was a real morass. People would send their films in and they would sit on somebody’s desk for months and they didn’t know if it was going to be shown. It’s kind of a cycle of horrors for the filmmaker.

Did you have a difficult time persuading PBS to air “P.O.V.”?

It was pretty hard. It wasn’t as hard as trying to raise money for an independent film, but it took about a year and a half. There were some people within the system who were very enthusiastic about it, and there were others who were indifferent to even outright hostile to the idea. Unfortunately, some people who were in very powerful positions were indifferent or hostile. They’re not there anymore.

Were they hostile because they feared the content of the films would be too controversial?

They wouldn’t say that to me. They would say, “If it’s good, we already get it.” That was easy to respond to. I simply drew up a list of films that had won major awards in the last three years that hadn’t been on public TV. The list is long enough to make a couple of series.

I raised money outside the system primarily from the MacArthur Foundation and another foundation in Chicago and the National Endowment for the Arts. Finally, at the very end, we got some money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. That money came in May and we were going on the air in July of 1988. That gives you some idea how close to the wire it was.

How many films does “P.O.V.” receive a year?

We get between 350 and 400 films a year. We have a group of pre-screeners and I will probably look at 150 of them. It’s pretty enjoyable.

I don’t know how they (filmmakers) continue to do it because the money is so limited. It’s interesting just to look at the levels of funding for various shows. There are some films that have gotten pretty decent support because they are more established filmmakers. We have two shows in the area of half an hour each (“On Ice” and “Larry Wright” airing July 10) and the actual out-of-pocket cost was $5,000.

The great thing about the independent community is that people get a lot of help from friends and colleagues. They find a lab willing to give them a break and will let them edit at night. They learn how to cut corners. You can’t do that forever. I have a friend, an accomplished filmmaker who has won an Oscar and been nominated for a second, and she is burned out. She just finished a new film and she’s in debt up to her eyeballs. She’s burned out. I am burned out; that’s why I am not a filmmaker anymore.

Did you have any problems with PBS stations not wanting to show certain films?

There have been controversial shows. In a way, part of our mission is to find controversial shows. We also look for things that are entertaining and engaging, but feel that independents have something to say and they deserve a forum and chance at stimulating public discussion.

The things that have been the most controversial are not about the issues. The ones stations have shied away from most are the ones that had any nudity.

The first season, the big one that caused the most unhappiness among stations was “Rated X,” which was a feminist look at pornography. It was done kind of satirical, but there were some scenes in the film that had some nudity. We actually made two versions of the film to try and accommodate the stations, but some wouldn’t even carry that.

There’s been a lot of controversy surrounding the documentaries “The Thin Blue Line” and “Roger and Me.” Several critics and filmmakers don’t think they are true documentaries. What do you think of those films?

I think both of them are wonderful films. “The Thin Blue Line” is a knockout and (with) “Roger and Me,” the test of the film is how many people went to see it, which were millions. Are they true documentaries? Maybe not, but so what? They keep the form fresh.