Midnight in Paris was featured at the 2019 True False Film Festival. Emily Aiken sat down with directors James Blagden and Roni Moore to chat about how they met, their interactions with the Flint students featured in their film, and the deeper meaning behind the story.
Here's a transcript with excerpts from their conversation:
Emily Aiken: So, my first question is how did you guys meet?
Moore: I moved to New York in 2005 or 2006; went there for college, finished college there. One of the first jobs I got out of college, James also was sort of a part of that ecosystem. So we met through work, I guess. Which then turned into actual friendship, and then a working relationship outside of working together.
Blagden: That kind of friendship developed into collaboration, collaborator and then creative confidant.
So how did you guys come up with the idea that you wanted to make this film? Where did it all start?
Blagden: I was just going to say, it’s interesting because I think that both of us came to it together but also separately. Personally, I was working as an animator and I had some minor success in the field and I had this feeling that I wanted to start pushing myself to make live action films. At that time, Roni and I were, as we said, friends and working together and we were talking at the time about different ideas for things and I was particularly interested in American institutions. Enter Roni; he knew about the prom and how special it was; how much energy went into it and not just from the kids but the people around them. So it was sort of an ecosystem of support and excitement around graduation and the prom, which in reality is kind of juxtaposed to what people know about Flint outside of Flint. So all these pre-conceived notions about Flint and none of them were very positive. So I think we were very interested without overtly having a plan to go there and make this particular film. So we were just being who we were and didn’t want to make a film that was going to exploit anybody or romanticize, as we were talking about black pain and this was the result.
Moore: Flint is a part of me, so I was very close to the story.
What are some of the challenges you guys faced while shooting?
Moore: To be honest, we were so into the idea and concept that it willed us through to get what we wanted. Not to sound corny, but it was just such a good energy. The whole time we were there the people were very receptive. They appreciated the fact that we were excited about prom and wanted to tell this story. I think they could feel our energy; not trying to be exploitive or play anyone out. I feel like the feedback has been a “feel good” piece. People said ‘yo that made me feel good’. But I think that energy just translated from the time we stepped foot there.
Blagden: It’s weird to think of it as feel good because it does exist in such a particular space. But we enjoyed ourselves. While we were there people were warm and receptive and welcoming. Like Roni said, they appreciated that we were interested in the prom because as big as it is they were kind of like, ‘oh, you guys haven’t seen prom before?’
Moore: It was very normal to them. They were like ‘yeah, this is how we do things around here,’ sort of attitude.
Blagden: So they realized it was a chance for them to present themselves.
Everyone takes away something different from film. But if you could say ‘this is what I want everyone in that theater to take away from this film,’ what would it be?
Blagden: I guess that life is…complicated. There are terrible things, a lot of sadness, and a lot of joy. They can be in the same hat. One of the best things we heard in the process of making this was something along the lines of ‘that was weird and sad, but also beautiful.
Moore: I think I want people to come away with a non-judgmental eye. Everybody just wants the same thing at the end of the day.
