DOC NYC<\/a> on Nov. 13.<\/p>\n\n\tYou have made several short docs. Why did you think this film needed to be a feature?<\/p>\n
\n\tThis story had so many layers. Beyond just the competition element and the \u201ccheese knowledge\u201d element, there were so many personal stories from nearly every American cheesemonger I spoke to that each could have sustained their own doc. There is also a whole world of international cheesemongers with entirely different cheese cultures and entire other cinematic universes\u2019 worth of incredible personal stories. Editing down some of the interviews we did with the international cheesemongers at Mondial and excluding most of them entirely was a painful challenge.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat was the biggest challenge of making \u201cThe Big Cheese\u201d as a first-time feature doc director?<\/p>\n
\n\tFunding for documentaries has always been challenging, but [it\u2019s] particularly right now. As this is my first feature as director, I didn\u2019t have an extensive track record or established funding relationships to rely on, which made things even tougher. I\u2019m deeply grateful to our funders and investors for believing in the vision of this project, trusting me with it, and for embracing a more unconventional, out-of-the-box approach. It took a lot of \u201cno\u2019s\u201d and a lot of perseverance to make this happen.<\/p>\n
\n\tWith competition docs it\u2019s always nerve-racking because if one of your subjects doesn\u2019t win, it\u2019s a bit of a let-down for the audience. Was that a concern of yours during filming?<\/p>\n
\n\tThe challenge of making an underdog doc is that, by definition, the underdog is unlikely to win. The very tension that makes the story compelling is the same tension that makes a \u201cHollywood ending\u201d improbable in real life. You have to approach it assuming they won\u2019t win, and if they do, it\u2019s an extra, unexpected bonus. So a key question I always asked myself, in both development and while filming, was, \u201cWhat is our story about if the Americans lose?\u201d I had always imagined Adam\u2019s journey with addiction and sobriety as a key emotional backbone of the film. In 2019, during his last trip to the Mondial du Fromage, he hit rock bottom and even contemplated taking his own life. The 2023 competition, the first he\u2019s attended since then, marks a powerful return. This isn\u2019t just a story of redemption for the American cheese community; it\u2019s also a deeply personal redemption story for Adam himself.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou wanted to make this doc \u201clight\u201d and funny? Why?<\/p>\n
\n\tThis film does get into a suicide attempt and drug and alcohol addiction, so it\u2019s not without its darker themes. But I felt leading with the fun and approachable elements of the film would be an easier entry point for a prospective viewer into an exploration of those more serious issues. Humor can be an incredibly powerful way to build empathy and while there are many heartbreaking stories on this topic, I think it\u2019s important to also highlight hopeful and inspirational narratives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sara Joe Wolansky left her job as a video producer at The New Yorker in 2022 to pursue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[54795,6332,156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-132362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-doc-nyc","9":"tag-documentaries-to-watch","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}