Michael Winterbottom

Interview By: Stephen Snart

StephenSnart@TheCinemaSource.com

Over the past ten years, revered British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom has directed twelve feature films. The films vary dramatically in content but the caliber has been consistent. Winterbottom is a director with an immense love of cinema and a clear vision of what he wants to contribute to the medium. When he starts a project he asks himself, “What do I think is going to be the best way, the most interesting way, to tell this particular story? Even if someone said to me, ‘Well actually, OK, that’s interesting but if you made this film in this way, you could reach ten times as many people. That wouldn’t interest me that much. I’m more interested in making a film that I think is an interesting film to me. It’s not a very popular approach!” the determined director admits with a burst of self-acknowledging laughter.

Appeasing the masses has never been one of Winterbottom‘s goals. Nor does he care about adhering to cinematic conventions. “I do have a personal temptation of: if something’s there, you should break it. I’m not a big fan, in terms of working anyway, of the ‘well-written scripts,’ the arc of a character’s journey. On a sort of moral kind of level, I don’t really buy into the idea that everyone learns something along the way and you end up a better person. These are things that seem to me to be absolutely fine and enjoyable in drama but nothing like reality. Nothing like life. For me it’s quite tempting, if you’ve got a story, to mess around with it.”

Winterbottom has operated in more or less every genre one can imagine, but that’s not intentional. For him, the story is always the focal point. “You’re just looking for something you want to make a film of, not whether it’s in the right category really.” After a moment, he returns to correct a previous comment, “Moral is probably

the wrong word. What I was meaning is… all these things you can do in drama that don’t correspond to reality. It’s more interesting to make a film that you feel is more accurate about the world… that corresponds more to your experiences. It’s not about making difference. It’s not moral like ‘the right side.’ It’s trying to engage with how you see things rather than thinking [about] what you’re supposed to in film.”

In his latest effort, The Road to Guantánamo, Winterbottom chooses to tell the story of the “Tipton Three,” a group of British citizens who were wrongfully held captive by the United Alliance as a product of the rigorous terrorist investigation after 9/11. In this case, Winterbottom felt a familiar sense of immediacy that has been present in his past works, Welcome to Sarejevo and In This World. “My feeling was not, ‘is this an interesting cinematic thing to do?’ It was just, ‘how are we going to tell this story effectively and simply?’ Guantánamo is still there. We should try and tell this as soon as possible so that people can remember it’s still there.”

In the film, he incorporates real-life interviews, news footage and filmed reenactments to tell the harrowing story. Winterbottom worked directly with the real-life subjects and wanted to make sure they were an active part of the final product. “I wanted it to be clear it was a true story. I wanted people to be able to see the real guys. But at the same time, I thought them just talking to us for 90 minutes would not be effective. We should also see a recreation. We had a lot of archival footage. At least the physical recreation of [of the prisons] is very, very accurate. We dropped in archival footage next to ours and it looks the same.”

The integration of news footage and newly shot material is seamless. Winterbottom reveals that this was achieved rather

economically and easily. “The guys inside their particular cell, they don’t see much beyond the camp privy to their little section. So we built one section of [Camp] X-Ray, then one cell block of Camp Delta. Anything wider than that is archival material.”

Not surprisingly, the film’s topical nature and scathing look at governmental practices has created outrage and contention. Nonetheless, the film is getting a wide release all over the world. When asked about the possibility of it being shown in Pakistan, Winterbottom replies pragmatically, “I think the only way to really show it would be to [put] it on the internet and let people download it for free. The distribution system is so minimal. It has been on the internet so I’m sure there are enterprising people who have downloaded in all sorts of countries anyway. I’ve done a couple of screenings [where] I met people from various Arab countries that said they’d like to buy it. I think it will get shown to some extent in those places but exactly how… I’m not sure.” The rare advocacy of internet file sharing is an endearing acknowledgement of how important this project is to Winterbottom and how important it is that the film raise political awareness rather than make money.