Assets World

rehna June 17th, 2010

Interview by Rehna

Bhutto film trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwAPubfJ0r8

Q. Having made this film and lived with the Benazir legacy for 3 years how do you see Benazir’s position in modern history?

A. Without question the purpose of the film was to enlighten people like me, western men, who have been sheltered from an accurate depiction of this family who have left an indelible mark on Pakistan. Benazir is undeniably the transformative female figure of this country and even region. She’s the best known politician no-one knows in terms of her achievements. The first woman leader of a Muslim country. A woman with a spine of steel who broke the glass ceiling in the Muslim world which a women has yet to do even in a country as advanced as the USA.
Whatever your view of Benazir’s politics, her role in history is certainly secured.

Q. What was the response from your friends and family when you first announced the project and what has been the public response since it opened?

A. My family asked didn’t I have enough to do already! But then they became a good sounding board. They advised me not to fall in love with the subject of the film.
My friends said what the hell do you know about Pakistan?
Of-course their initial questions intensified my own wariness. I knew I was wading into turbulent waters in trying to make a film that would be both respectful to Pakistan but also enlightening.
But I was fascinated by the complexity, of the strength of a woman who could rise in Pakistan. Plus I thought she was stunningly beautiful!

Since the film’s release the response has been astounding. Reviews come in on an hourly basis. Audiences are seeing amazing footage that is new and fresh to them. Every time I hear that I’ve done justice to another culture, I am validated.
At the Sundance film festival we were the best reviewed film. At the Toronto festival we were in the top 3 hot docs even though we only showed twice. People said the film made a real impact on them. They found it moving, it was fresh and new, accessible and an entertaining story.

My mantra while making it was; I want to make a different kind of documentary. I self financed it, so that meant I was free to make it as I wanted. Also I was free to fail!

I wanted to make an exciting movie with pace and action. So I used Hollywood graphic designers for the opening sequence about partition which was the most complicated part of the story to get across but which was the foundation for everything that followed. Then I just kept it moving.

Q. You have tremendous access to the personal Bhutto archives in this film. How did you pitch the film to her family?

A. My point of entry began and ended with a man who was trusted by Benazir and therefore her family; Mark Siegel. He was a personal friend of mine before I even knew of Benazir Bhutto. That friendship allowed me entry into the family and I pitched a film to them that would allow them active involvement. The family opened up and the film is therefore made through complete trust. They felt able to share their words of loss, their remembrances of a mother, sister, daughter and wife.

Q. How did you then go about pitching it to the film world?

A. I had an eye to 2 countries: Pakistan and the USA. I felt if I could do justice to a purely Pakistani story I could also engage the US because Pakistan is the most strategically important country to the west right now.
Then the more I peeled the layers of this particular onion I saw a commercial endeavour; one with mysteries, hijackings, conspiracies, years in prison without conviction. It’s the stuff of commercial Hollywood films.
The best reviews we’ve had so far have all said this is a cinematic, dramatic film not just a documentary.

Q. I understand HBO and a Broadway producer are now looking to turn Benazir’s life into a film and stage play as a result of seeing this documentary.

A. When you’re working on a project your antennae are always raised to competing projects. We were aware of half a dozen similar productions, all of which ultimately failed or died because they did not have the blessing of the family.
Benazir’s niece Fatima also wrote a book which came out and was tagged onto our film because ultimately we have a fantastic cinematic film which people are responding to including Hollywood film makers. This is a story that will be told cinematically and I feel like a steward of it, not in a reverential way but in a bid to protect the accuracy of any depiction.

I’m not surprised people are seeing the drama potential of this story. It was a drama making even the documentary! We had to fight with Hollywood institutions. We had to struggle to get people like General Pervaiz Musharaff to sit down and do interviews for us. But it was all worth it.

I’ll even say this; our film is the definitive documentary on Benazir Bhutto. We’ve got it all in there, even the kitchen sink!
We found 50 hours of audio tapes, some 25 years old. They allowed us to make it look as if Benazir herself is narrating this film.
We had 1000 pieces of archive footage that we spent $250,000 obtaining. The camera doesn’t lie. We found evidence of her humanity in these photographs and films. Benazir herself said, there is something special about being seen as the mother of a country. We’ve captured that in the film.
So, a drama version of her is the obvious next step.

Q. What qualities in Benazir struck you most whilst making this film and which of her flaws stood out?

A. She was exceptionally driven, dedicated to her country, unstoppable. When you have no fear about your personal wellbeing you are free to put your country and legacy first. Her refusal to be stopped, even though she grew up in a country where women weren’t given the opportunities men were, her bravery, these qualities were admirable to me.

As for flaws; these may be what link us all together. People accuse her of corruption, weak ethics. My role was not to have an opinion but to allow others to have their say, whatever that was and then let the audience decide.
I simply took out a timepiece and turned it over and let the sand flow. I set up interviews with Musharaff, with Fatima Bhutto, with women who said Benazir wasn’t a feminist. I gave them all free airings of their intellectual beliefs against her.
But mostly my job was to put a human face on Benazir Bhutto and her family and that humanity which is in all of us then diminishes the negatives, maybe because we are all aware of our flaws.

I feel the movie is very balanced. I appreciate criticisms of it which say it doesn’t look enough at her flaws. There’s room for debate here which can then lead to change.

Q. Any passing thoughts on the future for Pakistan?

A. One of the most hopeful things I have seen is that the Obama administration has built a partnership with President Zardari which will see $7.6 billion used on healthcare, education and electricity. It will be delivered over 10 years with the money actually going to the people. Such a sea change in policy and expectation can only give me optimism.

[Duane Baughman is the owner of the San Francisco-based Yellow Pad Productions, through which he spent nearly 3 years, directing, producing and funding BHUTTO. He is the owner of the nationally regarded political direct mail firm, The Baughman Company which has been responsible for helping elect Michael R. Bloomberg mayor of New York City, and the historic presidential campaign of another barrier-breaking woman, Hillary Clinton]

Review in Variety
A worthy portrait of a phenomenal woman, “Bhutto” is as thorough a history of the late Pakistani prime minister and her country as one can imagine, without actually knowing who assassinated her in 2007. Bio skews a bit triumphal, perhaps, but it’s an even-handed history of a person who might have led a very comfortable life, but ended up dying for the cause of her nation’s hobbled democracy.

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