The #HoldTheLine Directors Series launched with Lana Wilson last February 19. She is the first of three directors featured in Maria Ressa’s new interview show.
This interview series focusing on directors was conceptualized by Ressa who was curious about how documentary filmmakers work towards fulfilling their creative cinematic vision as filmmakers while accessing their rational minds as individuals seeking to achieve social impact with the issues they investigate in their documentaries.
“#HoldTheline means a lot of things to a lot of people,” says Ressa. It’s a way that people push boundaries for themselves and others while staying true to their core values.
Director Lana Wilson is known for her most recent documentary, “Miss Americana” which follows the journey of Taylor Swift’s political awakening. According to Wilson, she was shocked when Netflix approached her given her previous two documentaries tackled issues like abortion (After Tiller) and suicide (The Departure).
In this interview, Wilson describes her journey from knowing Swift only from her songs to seeing her as a fellow female creative. She saw that at the core of it all, the struggles and pain were the same. Swift’s experience just happened on a more massive scale being an international popstar.
The filming of the documentary started at a time in Swift’s life where she had not given any public interviews for 3 years. According to Wilson, Swift was coming out from a place where she wanted to shut out the negative noise happening around her, the pressures of living up to certain standards imposed upon her, and the constant public scrutiny. Throughout this process, Wilson decided that the film was really about Swift’s capacity to grow and change as an individual despite her larger-than-life status.
This was a crucial moment in Taylor Swift’s life, it was a coming of age – from being notoriously apolitical to being a force for change. She managed to influence millions of young Americans to register to vote and even elicited a response from the former US president, Donald Trump.
Wilson explains that Taylor’s journey connects to other people’s experience – anyone who is worried about what people think of them, people who want to create art but fear what people will say will and most especially people who want to speak out but don’t because of the possible backlash. These are the themes that #HoldTheLine hopes to explore further in the coming episodes.
The #HoldTheLine series with Maria Ressa aims to investigate the lives of people and the choices they make to keep doing what they do. Live interview recordings of this show are available for Rappler+ members to attend. After the interview, members also have a chance to ask questions and talk to the show’s featured guests through the exclusive Live Chat.
Monthly (P400/month) and annual payment (P3500/year) options are available for Rappler+ memberships. – Rappler.com
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