We Speak With Producer Undine Buka About Her New Film ‘This Land’

From the London Olympics to Election Day 2020, producer Undine Buka has worked on projects both meaningful and exhaustive – and yet none of them are alike.

When did your career as a producer and filmmaker begin, Undine?

I was driven to movies from a very young age. I started to produce while I was getting my Film Production BA at Westminster University in London. Right after graduating I worked on the production of London Olympics 2012 and produced my first short films, working my way up to features.

And when did you feel “this is working, I’ve found my footing in this industry’?

Back in Europe, the market is definitely smaller so it was much quicker process to get started. After I moved to US I kind of needed to start all over again. The film industry is tricky, you always need to remember that even when you feel you have found a footing, that could all change tomorrow and you’re back to square one. It’s a very difficult path at times, but one of the most rewarding too. 

When did you first start collaborating with Ben Rekhi?

Ben graduated from the same Peter Stark Producing program as me, just six years earlier. A common friend and classmate introduced us and we have been collaborating ever since.

Was Ben encouraging of you branching out and doing productions outside of his company?

I have always worked on projects on a freelance basis. Even when Ben and I are not working on all the projects together, we still watch each other’s cuts, read scripts and give feedback. It’s a great collaborative process. 

How did THIS LAND come about? Have you a natural interest in politics?

First, we had an idea just to capture an American portrait, but down the line we decided that it would be great to do it on the election day. One objective being that even it’s a big day, people still are doing their normal routines, they wake up the next morning and the world hasn’t changed that much, at least for the moment. We are still dealing with the same issues and struggles day to day. 

I’m definitely interested in politics and following them on a daily basis. Particularly coming from a country with more than ten political parties I have always found it a bit frustrating that US has been built between these two powers and people are identified by their belonging to a party which really doesn’t happen when you have like 15. The other advantage of many parties is that there is always a bigger representation involved and parties need to figure out how to work together and agree on things in order for anything to happen.

And what was the general motivation behind the doc?

We wanted to show at least a little portrait into America, to show the human side behind democrat and republican. Our values and believes are just much more nuanced than two options. I hope THIS LAND manages to show how different Americans are and how the circumstances and environment impact their votes when unfortunately given just two options when it comes to voting. 

Was the doc scripted? Or did you organically just roll as it came?

As the research period was also during the lockdown, we couldn’t travel to meet people in person so we tried to do as much research as we could over zoom and phone calls. We had rough story maps going into it, but ultimately the film is purely observational. Since we shot in seven locations, Matthew, the director of the movie, needed to give guidance to the unit directors that were in other locations, and be live with all shoots at once from a sort of ‘command center.’ We also split some between us. Matthew and the other producer on this project Brian Gagliardi went to New Mexico, I went to Texas. Rest of the material we just saw when we got the hard drives back and hoped that at least some of the stuff we planned before will be there…and it was, with lot of amazing extra footage. There was so much great material we couldn’t put in the movie, but it’s exciting to see the final tapestry of emotions and characters woven together. 

Anyone refuse to take part? Or did you have open access to anything and everything?

Thankfully people were open and welcoming. It was sometimes challenging earning the trust of characters on the right,  because unfortunately there is a belief (which is not untrue) that Hollywood is liberal and wants to show them in a bad light. But once we spent enough time with those characters, we earned their trust that our intent was to tell a human story, with no political agenda. We hope that’s what we’ve achieved… 

THIS LAND is now available on digital.