Film Director
1. Your film is entered in our Best Documentary Award. What is
your film about?
Samson is the story of a dog who
suffered an unexpected spinal cord
stroke or canine FCE
(fibrocartilaginous embolism). Veterinary
science does not
know why it happens, but it usually happens to dogs
during
activity, a piece of cartilage breaks off a disc and blocks
blood
flow to the spinal cord, causing a stroke that result in
paralysis
to one or all limbs. Samson had the worst kind of stroke,
being
paralysed in all four limbs. My husband and I documented
his
condition and progress for ourselves, with no intention of
making a
film. Later, after we had successful produced the
documentary Got
Pain? we decided to make a film about Samson’s
story.
2. What are your ambitions with your
project?
We want to bring to light everything we
discovered about canine
stroke, especially the lack of help from
Veterinary science for dog
owners. We found they push
expensive MRI’s and surgery, costing
around $5,000-$7,000 that
does not cure the paralysis, and they
offer little to no advice
or hope. Many owners opt for euthanasia.
We felt our
experience could help other dog owners whose dogs suffer
this
terrifying and debilitating condition.
3. What was the
most important lesson you had to learn as filmmaker?
That
making the film is the easy part, getting distributed and seen
is
the hard part. While is pretty easy to get launched on
a
streaming platform, it is difficult to stand out from the
crowd.
Marketing and finding the right distributor is as just as
important
as making the film.
4. For what target
group is your film?
While our target group is all dog
owners, our film could also be
inspiring for humans overcoming
spinal injuries, or anyone
overcoming a challenge. We want
to give people hope, not just for
dogs with canine stroke, but
for every difficult situation. Tragedy
always strikes suddenly,
but holding on to hope can make the
difference between
overcoming or losing a battle. It is about
doing everything you
can for your pets, your loved ones or even
yourself and never
giving up.
5. Why should distributors buy your
film?
Our film has really touched people at festivals,
winning 28 awards
so far. It hits home with people
emotionally, and while it has sad
moments, it leaves the viewer
feeling hopeful and uplifted. _Samson
_has the potential
to find a large audience.
6. Why did you decide to
become a filmmaker?
My husband and I have done
extensive work with chronic pain through
our 501c nonprofit, the
Vandry Hope Foundation. (www.vandryhope.org
[1])
We wanted to share some of our knowledge and empower people to
care
for their own health and so we produced our first movie _Got
Pain?_
That experience helped us learn a lot about filmmaking and
led
us to produce our second movie, _Samson._
7. Which
movies are your favorites? Why?
While I love good
sci-fi and horror movies, I also love a great
documentary, which
can be hard to find! Many seem to struggle with
finding
the balance between presenting too much information or being
too
much filler. A great documentary tells a story and makes
a
point. While my husband and I have watched a ton of
documentaries,
there are only a few that have really left us
thinking about them
afterwards, whether we learned something we
didn’t know before, or
felt touched by the story.
8.
What do you consider most important about filming?
The
story! You can have beautiful sets, stunning camera work,
great
special effects and still lose your audience if they are
not
compelled by the story.
9. How would you rate
current filmmaking?
I feel like the big studios have
been turning out too many big
budget, overly CGI flops. There
is a lot of flashy visuals, but
they lose the character
development and the story. There are
several big budget
movies lately I can think of that come off like
first person
shooter video games, and while they have an audience
for a time,
they come and go quickly. I appreciate that there are
so
many Indie film makers out there trying to make it, but I feel
like
they often suffer the same issue of trying too hard to make a
film
visually appealing without a great story or characters to back
it
up.
10. What are your next projects?
I
hope to do a project in the future on nutrition and health, as
a
follow up to Got Pain? While we can’t give people a
one-size fits
all answer to their health issues, we can try to
give people a good
foundation to start from, presented with
accurate data and research.
I also want to expose some of the
mis-leading documentaries out
there on veganism and fad diets,
that distort the data to support
their particular diet.
Nutrition is another area that has become so
over-saturated
with information that it becomes harder and harder to
discern
what is really true. There a lot of people out there
struggling
with obesity and health issues and trying to
find
answers.
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13042470/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1
Website: https://samsonmovie.net/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samson.movie/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/samsonfilm