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Community Corner

Q&A: Libby Sherrill, Director of Pit Bull Documentary

Sherrill's first film is already gathering steam as it premieres in cities across the U.S. The film focuses on what she sees as discrimination against pit bulls and other similar breeds.

[Last night the JP-based MSPCA of Libby Sherrill's documentary about pit bulls, "Beyond the Myth." One of the dogs forced to fight in Michael Vick's dog pits, , also attended. Here's a Q&A with Sherrill.]

So how did you get interested in this issue?

The inspiration for the film came from the first two pit bull mixes that I met, Angus and Boris, who were a friend’s dogs. At the time I didn’t know anything about this issue, but once they became a part of my life I started experiencing discrimination from neighbors who would see them at my house, so that tipped me off that this was happening. I was in grad school at the same time and had to come up with a senior project. I wanted to move in the direction of documentary work, because I was already in television, and so it was really organic. I had to come up with something, this was something that was affecting me at the time, so I thought, “Hey I can do a documentary about this subject.” And even when I decided that, I didn’t realize how vast it was. So the short answer is, I met two dogs and then I was in grad school. So I put together a pre-production packet for my committee and pitched it and wrote a script for a one-hour show, and then graduated without really doing any production on it; I just had to do the pre-production. And then about six months later I started on it after months of research. I set out for my first interview, which was with Dawn Capp, who is the lead interviewee in the film.

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How long was the process?

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I began filming in September of 2007, four years ago.

 

What did you learn the most from the project?

Well I was pretty naïve about what to expect. It was my first film, so obviously I had a lot to learn about filmmaking itself. But as far as the subject matter… I think when I started this project I didn’t realize how many people I was going to affect.  I knew there was an injustice and I knew the angle I wanted to push was the media influence because I have a background in communications, and the agenda setting function of the press that is shown in the film is something I studied in grad school. I was aware of it and I thought, “this is exactly what is happening,” so I did my own research and took that approach.

When you set out to make a film like this you want to change people’s perspectives that are ignorant and don’t know a lot about the subject, whether they are put bull owners or not; you want to change the laws, you want to influence the legislators, you want to open their minds and actually create awareness – not even change people’s minds but create awareness where there is none. 

But I never expected to influence people that already knew about the subject. That has surprised me the most, because when I’m at these screenings, I’m kind of preaching to the choir – most people here are already on the same page. But I also don’t think they know what’s really going on a lot of the time as much as they thought they did, as far as Denver and the other places. But I see the people that are out there fighting this fight, inspired by my film, and honestly, that’s not ever something that I considered. I never set out to inspire the people that are already fighting the fight. It ignites people in a way that I didn’t expect and that’s really humbling. Obviously I want to reach people who need to be educated as well and that is the struggle. That is the hardest part about this project. Getting people to see a film – regardless of what it’s about – when they disagree with it, is really hard. Like Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, almost everybody in those theaters already agreed with him. You didn’t have Republicans attending that.

 

What was the hardest thing you shot for the film?

Well the most difficult interview was with Desiree and Joe, talking about Coco, who was confiscated and killed because of the way he looked. And setting up your equipment in their living room and asking them to talk about this was really weird, you know, because you’re trying to be a professional and get them to work with how they need to answer questions to work well on screen, and they aren’t experienced with this. And to hear them talk about it and maintain my composure – for their sake, because they’re trying to tell their story – was really hard.

My videographer Paul, who is 60 and very stoic and is from Boston, he broke down and started crying during that interview. We had to stop. I started crying, he started crying and they weren’t crying because they had cried all their tears pretty much. And they were consoling us, you know, because we’re sitting there conducting this interview with the dog’s ashes sitting on the table – you can’t prepare for that. The other places we went to, it wasn’t as tragic. So getting people to open up on camera about something that has truly affected their lives in that way is very hard.

 

You began this film in 2007 and around that time the Michael Vick case broke – how did that affect your work going forward?

The Michael Vick case didn’t really change my course much. But what it allowed me to do was acquire footage that was shown on national cable. The dogfighting raids that occur all the time don’t make it to national news unless there’s a celebrity involved, so it gave me the ability to get that footage and use it under the fair use clause, whereas trying to get local television footage is extremely hard for an independent filmmaker. So it allowed me to talk about the subject I needed to talk about and show the face of it at the time.

 

So what is next for you? Do you want to pursue this subject further or take on another subject entirely?

Well as far as the end of this project, we have approximately ten more screenings between now and the middle of November. And I’m taking it to Toronto in November – Ontario has a pit bull ban so I’m pretty excited about being able to have a Canadian premiere. And then we’re going to move to release the DVD and hopefully get on HBO, PBS, a few television stations. And obviously I want to develop an educational component to the DVD to allow people to give it to legislators and schools – we’re working on all that.

Beyond that, I do believe that there is a film to be made about the subject of breed specific legislation and profiling in general without focusing on pit bulls. I believe there is a way to get the general public interested in the subject and that is something I’d like to consider. I’d love to explore another way to get mass audience appeal to the subject.

And I do want to do another documentary on another animal-related subject besides that. Something that interests me is the overpopulation issue with shelters and the conflicting philosophies of no-kill and just what shelters are up against.

 

Any last thoughts?

On a personal note, I didn’t know the film was going to change me. I set out to change the world – and I know that sounds cliché but this project has changed my life in ways I could never have imagined. The people and the dogs I have met and come to know, especially the people in the film – documentary work is an interesting thing because those people become sort of your friends through the process and you become close to people. You sleep on their floors! You know, they put you up for the night. Dorothy and Jim in Cincinnati, I consider them my friends now and when all this is over I’d love to just go hang out with Jim and Dorothy. They’ve had a baby since then… So it has changed my life more than I imagined it would in the most wonderful way.

And the way that the rescue community has really responded to this has been phenomenal, and the film would not be seen in theatres without the support of the hosting organizations, it just would not happen. 

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