Out on digital today, Film School Africa is a documentary chronicling a major career change of a Hollywood casting. We speak to filmmaker Nathan Pfaff about the film and his beginnings in the industry.
How did you become a filmmaker?
Nathan Pfaff: I starting making films in high school as a fun hobby with my friends. Since I had a passion for it I decided to study filmmaking in university as well. In 2015 I moved out to Los Angeles to try to pursue a career in the filmmaking.
Did you have supportive parents?
NP: Yes I am incredibly blessed to have parents who have always supported me in my film projects.
Where did you school? Or did you learn filmmaking on the job?
NP: I studied film at Taylor University where I took a documentary filmmaking class that first peaked my interest in making documentaries specifically. But it wasn’t till I got out to Los Angeles that I realized I wanted to try to pursue it as a career. As always, you can only learn so much in a classroom, so most of my knowledge has been hands on experience and figuring things out myself.
How did you get involved in film school Africa?
NP: I first heard about Katie and the film school when she gave a presentation about it to my class at university. I was impressed the students with limited technical knowledge were telling raw stories from their lives and using their projects as art therapy. I always thought it would make a great documentary someday so I tucked the thought away. A few years later when I was doing some other film work in different parts of Africa, I reached out to Katie and asked if I could pop down and spend three months documenting their lives. Having only met me once before she agreed to let me observe a school semester, and the rest is history. Slash, in the film.
Can you talk about Katie – what type of person is she?
NP: Katie is an incredible woman who has the biggest heart for each individual person. She used to work in film casting before and can really support people and draw out the best in them. She might show the students a tough kind of love, but it’s exactly what they need to excel. And they do. Katie is very driven, and I’m constantly amazed by how much she is always able to accomplish. Watching her has really been an inspiration to me and made me wonder how much I’d be willing to give up to help others. To understand her more, you’ll have to watch the film.
Is there anything about Katie that isn’t in the film that you think the readers would like to know?
NP: Katie is one of the hardest working people I know and I’m not sure how much of that comes across in the film. Starting your own non-profit school for underprivileged youth is a huge task!
Was she happy to be captured at all times for the film? Nothing was off limits?
NP: Katie was very open with me almost right away, and almost nothing was off limits to be filmed. I never filmed in her house, which was good since that was a safe haven for her to get away from the students. Sometimes she questioned why I was filming certain things, but I feel that’s normal for any subject of a documentary. Katie also very much knows the filmmaking process herself, so I am very grateful to have had a very understanding subject.
Being an independent film, I imagine you ended up wearing more hats than originally intended. Can you talk about all the things you did on the movie?
NP: I did almost every part of the film except for the music composing and sound mixing. I feel like capturing audio is always the biggest challenge for documentaries, and even more so when you’re also trying to be the camera man and director and everything else, so that was probably the hardest part for me. I enjoyed editing a lot more than I thought I would, and it was fun reliving all the moments I had with the students all over again.
With such terrible things going on in the world right now, do you feel we need more inspirational films like this?
NP: Yes. I would obviously love for people to watch more positive and inspirational films like this instead of consuming themselves with negativity, especially when there are so many amazing individuals and so many hopeful things out there.
Could you ever envision turning the documentary into a narrative feature?
NP: Anything’s possible.