Film Production Notes | The Jamiesons' Mission

Film Production Notes
Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown was a shoestring production with a total cash outlay of under $20,000, excluding donations of time and equipment. Producer/ director Nancy Fliesler did most of the shooting herself on a Hi-8 camera; friends provided camera and production assistance on certain shoots. Kris Jamieson ran the camera for Marni Jamieson's interviews of Fliesler. Shooting took place over 28 days, from late summer 1996 until mid 1998.

Fliesler did some of the early editing at local cable-access facilities, until she met veteran filmmaker Jack Churchill, director of the Mental Illness Education Project (MIEP), which produces and distributes educational videos on mental illness. Churchill was interested in Fliesler's project and loaned her a 3/4" video editing system. In the midst of editing, part of this system was stolen from Fliesler's apartment. It was eventually replaced, and Fliesler ultimately became editor and production manager at MIEP, where she was able to transfer her Hi-8 footage to BetaSP and complete offline editing on an Avid Media Composer.

MIEP fronted the costs of her final picture edit at Cosmic Blender and sound mix at Bill Wangerin Associates, to be paid back from royalties once distribution is secured. From her own funds, Fliesler hired Boston-based composers Paul Lenart and Billy Novick who wrote and produced the original music in Lifestyles. (See complete list of production credits.)

FILM SUBJECTS HOPE TO CHANGE POPULAR THINKING ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED
"Even growing up, my mother used to say, 'Marni, not everyone in the world is going to like you,'" recounts Marni Jamieson in Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown. Stung by stigma and rejection because of their developmental disabilities, why would Marni and her husband Kris Jamieson agree to go public in a documentary?

"I wanted people to know what it's like to have to grow up to be different," explains Marni in an interview. "What I would really want is for people to realize, yes, we have a disability, but we're also human beings." Initially, Kris agreed to participate on the strength of his relationship with filmmaker Nancy Fliesler, Marni's sister. "I didn't realize how much fun it would be," he adds. "I hope it turns things around, so that handicapped people have a better time." Kris also appreciates having video images of himself and Marni (he has copies of all the raw footage, some 40 hours, and refers to them often).

Fliesler, producer/director of Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown, recalls that when she first picked up her Hi-8 camera in the summer of 1996, Marni immediately left the room and shut the door behind her. But hours later, Marni was holding forth for the camera on the subject of her marriage. Thus began two years of shooting.

Marni and Kris, avid television watchers, understood what it meant to be videotaped and the potential for their story to reach a wide audience. Kris, while more awkward in front of the camera, was the less shy of the two because he had been on TV before (as part of the studio audience of "Good Day New York"). Marni, wanting to tell her story, dug deeply and voiced memories and feelings she had never told anyone, not even her sister. "I just opened up, I guess," she says. "I'm still shy and self-conscious, but not as much anymore." The Jamiesons, with their strong sense of humor, had a major influence on the tone of the film.

Before Lifestyles, Fliesler had not known exactly how Marni and Kris lived day to day. She was changed by the experience of making the documentary, gaining new respect for her sister and her brother-in-law. Making the film was a way to start talking more about having a handicapped sister, and the tapings also helped her and Marni confront issues such as Marni's jealousy (as seen in one touching sequence).

As both director and editor of Lifestyles, Fliesler felt enormous responsibility in shaping peoples' perceptions of Marni and Kris. Through the power of editing, she could make them appear alternately more or less visibly disabled, and debated with herself how to produce a balanced portrait. "Marni and Kris are both multi-dimensional people," she says. "Sometimes they seem obviously handicapped, but other times they don't." Audiences have noted that as they get involved in the story, they adjust to Marni's slower pace of speaking and the need to read subtitles for Kris, and the couple's differences start to disappear.