I once heard doc director Nick Broomfield ("Soldier Girls," "Kurt and Courtney") say at a UCLA seminar that one of the hardest parts of making a documentary is deciding when to stop shooting. The nature of "real life" is that it keeps on going. But the nature of film financiers is that they want a movie to distribute, so somewhere in between the director has to reconcile these two strong natural forces. That's where I find myself at the moment, but fortunately I think I see the light at the end of the viewfinder.

Of course, I'm not *exactly* sure how I'm going to end this documentary, but my hope is that this weekend's First Annual Research Conference of Citizens for Truth will offer some clues. I know that every member of Citizens for Truth (the grass-roots group that is more or less the subject of the doc) is looking to this conference as a milestone. Held one year after the assassination in the very hotel from which gunman Alex Hidell fired his shots, the conference is bringing together a tremendous collection of Gates assassination researchers, as well Julia Serrano, one of the original eyewitnesses to the infamous "Running Man." The anniversary of the assassination seems as good of a climax as any for the documentary (and at the very least, I'll have 30 more hours of footage in the can to edit). And, needless to say, since "MacArthur Park" is focused on the questions that remain about the Gates assassination, I'm looking forward to having just about every significant researcher from around the world in one place, to descend upon with my camera. Plus, as per our usual arrangement, the Citizens for Truth leadership has promised me full access to the behind-the-scenes stuff, so I can see if conference-making is anything like sausage- or law-making.

To be candid with you, though, I am worried about one aspect of the conference -- Citizens for Truth is plugging "meet documentarian Brian Flemming" during their cocktail party on the closing night (part of our arrangement, *sigh*). I just know that all of these Gates researchers are going to be asking me MY opinion on Running Man, the recanting of testimony, and the timeline of official events, and I'm not so sure I'm ready to share my own personal theories on this subject yet--turnabout is fair play, I suppose, but I'm not looking forward to it with pleasure. It's always a difficult spot for a documentarian to be put in -- I really want people to be able to draw their own opinions about the Gates assassination from the film without my being seen as advocate of one position or another, and getting sucked into the action of what I'm trying to document puts me on challenging ground. While I do like many of the films of Nick Broomfield (if you only know him by his recent celebrity-chasing persona, check out his early film "Soldier Girls," one of the all-time best docs ever), one cue I don't plan to take from Nick is the documentarian-as-participant style. This website writing is about as front-and-center as I'm comfortable with, and frankly I'm shaking with stage fright as I type this sentence.

Meanwhile, post production progress on MacArthur Park continues apace. Still working with 3D artist George Kelly on the animation, and looking forward to hearing what composer Laurence O'Keefe comes up with this week as he tries to figure out what the main theme of the score will be. I'll post an MP3 file of Larry's progress as soon as practical.

Next week I'll definitely be posting a report on how the conference went, and maybe some more 3D stuff, which is getting cooler every time George sends me a file. Feel free to email the site to let us know what else you might want to see posted here.

Best,
Brian Flemming
doc@nothingsostrange.com
Brian Flemming's Weblog

Here's a sample of what I drew to get George started on the animation. You can see why I'm not doing the 3D art myself. George said, "these are fine director's storyboards." Note the use of "director" as a pejorative term.

An early draft of the animation. Final version will have more detail and probably a black background. You should see this flying shot in motion. Kick-ass. I'll post a QuickTime sometime soon.