{"id":16693,"date":"2021-08-25T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T13:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2021-08-26T09:35:52","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T13:35:52","slug":"not-going-quietly-director-on-the-empathy-engine-of-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/not-going-quietly-director-on-the-empathy-engine-of-documentary\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Going Quietly Director on the \u201cEmpathy Engine\u201d of Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nicholas Bruckman, director of Not Going Quietly<\/em>, talks to TV Real<\/em> about the documentary and the activist Ady Barkan and his fight for universal healthcare amid battling ALS.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Barkan, who had the previous year been diagnosed with ALS shortly after welcoming a son, confronted Senator Jeff Flake during a chance encounter on an airplane in an effort to get him to vote against a tax bill. Not long after, Liz Jaffe, who captured a video of the exchange that would go viral and catapult Barkan and his activism into the spotlight, reached out to Bruckman to help them launch the healthcare-focused Be a Hero campaign with a YouTube video.<\/p>\n

When Bruckman met Barkan in 2018, he was inspired to take on a project far greater in scope than had been planned. \u201cI flew out to Santa Barbara, met Ady and realized what an incredible human being he is and that there was a much bigger story there and pitched him this idea of making a film,\u201d says Bruckman. \u201cBecause he was already sick for a year at that time and we didn\u2019t have a lot of time left with his voice, we dove in very quickly into this crazy project that developed into what you see in Not Going Quietly<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruckman was attracted to becoming a filmmaker by the idea of using it as a tool to bring people closer together, to give audiences a chance to spend time in another\u2019s shoes, building bridges of understanding. \u201cDocumentary film is an empathy engine and is probably the best tool that artists and communicators and people that want to shape our world have to build empathy and connection for people that they might not know,\u201d says Bruckman. \u201cA lot of the division in the world comes from fear and distrust and xenophobia, from not knowing the other. What documentary or factual media does is truly allow you to step into that person\u2019s shoes in a way that no other medium can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chosen for season 34 of the PBS documentary series POV<\/em>, Not Going Quietly<\/em> follows Barkan\u2019s political journey as he fights for Medicare for All, which is made all the more personal as he battles ALS and the mounting costs of said battle. \u201cYou see the injustice in the film for people who aren\u2019t able to access healthcare and the expense it costs and the burden it incurs on families,\u201d says Bruckman, who adds that along with the film\u2019s political message is one of humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe movie and Ady\u2019s message really transcend politics because Ady has turned this absolutely otherwise meaningless tragedy of ALS and this illness into this amazing tool to shape a better world,\u201d says Bruckman. \u201cHe used this disease to organize and galvanize and mobilize people around the country to fight alongside him, to create a better world for his son and for all of us. I think that message in there is not just about being an activist or an organizer; it\u2019s about, how do we spend the time we have left? And how can we turn difficult, challenging and tragic situations\u2014what is the underlying potential or value or meaning that we can find [in them] that can actually help propel our lives forward from those circumstances?\u201d<\/p>\n

For Bruckman, it proved challenging while making the film and growing close to Barkan to see the harsh progression of his ALS. But it was Barkan\u2019s own resilience that offered an antidote. \u201cWhat was really rewarding was to see his humor and resilience and the way he fought back against it\u2014both on a personal level as a father and a husband and also as an organizer,\u201d says Bruckman, who adds that Not Going Quietly<\/em> is injected with plenty of fun and humor as it captures Barkan\u2019s road trip through America.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat road trip was a celebratory and joyous experience and community with a lot of young activists that I had the great privilege to go on and be a part of to make this film,\u201d says Bruckman. \u201cIt speaks to this idea that doing the work, fighting for justice, being in community with other people who want to make a better world is actually not always hard work. Sometimes, it can be a lot of fun and it can be super funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balancing the personal tragedy of ALS that powers the political thrust of Not Going Quietly<\/em> with humor\u2014and sometimes slightly darker comedy from Barkan\u2014was important for Bruckman. \u201cThe humor has an element of resistance to it,\u201d says the director. \u201cHe\u2019s not going to let himself be defined by ALS, and he\u2019s not going to let our government be defined by the special interests and the corporate lobbyists that are fighting against the needs of working-class people and fighting against universal healthcare. The humor is connected to the politics. Then, of course, it\u2019s a movie, and I think there are elements of it that are really like a buddy comedy and something that I hope people want to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not Going Quietly<\/em> is produced by Duplass Brothers Productions and People’s Television, a studio founded by Bruckman that creates video content and digital campaigns for a variety of organizations, as well as films and documentaries. It\u2019s worked with the likes of Black Lives Matter and its parent company Global Network, Greenpeace and The Nature Conservancy. \u201cPeople\u2019s Television is all about the empowering of people who are changing the world through storytelling,\u201d says Bruckman. \u201cThe company is founded on this idea that stories have the power to shape the world and that stories like Not Going Quietly<\/em> can be a tool that activists and changemakers use to create a more just and fair society.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nicholas Bruckman on the documentary and the activist Ady Barkan and his fight for universal healthcare amid battling ALS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1033,"featured_media":16694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[5745,5746],"class_list":["post-16693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-nicholas-bruckman","tag-not-going-quietly","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nNot Going Quietly Director on the \u201cEmpathy Engine\u201d of Documentary - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/not-going-quietly-director-on-the-empathy-engine-of-documentary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not Going Quietly Director on the \u201cEmpathy Engine\u201d of Documentary - TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nicholas Bruckman on the documentary and the activist Ady Barkan and his fight for universal healthcare amid battling ALS.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/not-going-quietly-director-on-the-empathy-engine-of-documentary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-25T13:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-26T13:35:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2017\/07\/AdyDCRallyNotGoingQuietly-821.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"354\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chelsea Regan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chelsea Regan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/not-going-quietly-director-on-the-empathy-engine-of-documentary\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/not-going-quietly-director-on-the-empathy-engine-of-documentary\/\",\"name\":\"Not Going Quietly Director on the \u201cEmpathy Engine\u201d of Documentary - TVREAL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-25T13:00:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-26T13:35:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/2a2c6d8fb3c7c8b4220b8877ecffb79a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/not-going-quietly-director-on-the-empathy-engine-of-documentary\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/not-going-quietly-director-on-the-empathy-engine-of-documentary\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/not-going-quietly-director-on-the-empathy-engine-of-documentary\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Not Going Quietly Director on the \u201cEmpathy Engine\u201d of Documentary\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\",\"name\":\"TVREAL\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/2a2c6d8fb3c7c8b4220b8877ecffb79a\",\"name\":\"Chelsea Regan\",\"description\":\"Chelsea Regan is the managing editor of World Screen. 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