Lockdown Madness
During the early-morning hours of January I happened to stumble across a Louis Theroux documentary on BBC Knowledge called Behind Bars.
In case you haven't seen one before: each documentary sees him immersing himself into different sub-cultures - he spends time with the people involved, asks probing questions and his camera team do a superbo job of capturing the essence of things.
Behind Bars is about San Quentin prison in the US and my mind was blown. I couldn't stop thinking about it for days afterwards because what he revealed was
crazy.
You just can't believe there are people in the world who've lived such lives and think the way they do. One prisoner had a sentence of 500 years and explained how he's psychologically and physically adapted to accepting his reality.
He also spoke about his crimes as if someone else had committed them - he was jailed for housebreaking and torture.
Another interviewee was gay and dressed in drag - he explained that the reason drag-trends happen so often in prison is that if guys dress up as women, they're less likely to be attacked.
Back: Weird Weekends 2
If you've haven't seen the series or want to re-watch episodes, Weird Weekends 2 will be back on BBC Knowledge next week for a re-run (was on BBC Prime previously).
It premieres on Tuesday, 2 March at 22h30 and runs weekly. These are the episodes:
Tuesday, 2 March: InfomercialsLouis tries his hand at hard selling on the Home Shopping Network in Florida, and meets some of the people who provide products for the channel.
Tuesday, 9 March: SwingersThere is a new middle class sub-culture of swingers in California and Louis is invited to the party, but first he must find a partner to bring along.
Tuesday, 16 March: The Black NationalistsLouis looks at the current state of black nationalism in America, after the recent shooting of an unarmed black man by four white police officers.
Tuesday, 23 March: Demolition DerbyMichigan is the heart of America's Demolition Derby. Louis meets up with local drivers and gets involved - two drivers help him prepare for his first race.
Tuesday, 30 March: Off Off BroadwayLouis investigates the world of off-Broadway theatre, attending agencies, acting classes, and castings. Will it be an actor’s life for him?
Louis ExposéShortly after seeing the San Quentin episode I happened to chat to
Sunday Tribune journo Colin Roopnarain at a press event. We were speaking about cool shows and I was like: "Wow, - have you ever watched?" and he was like "Yes-yes, I'm hooked - I've spoken to Louis for an interview," - which he's kindly sent through for us to pour over:
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| Colin |
Louis under the lens |
Colin: Wikipedia says you got your first break on Michael Moore’s TV Nation. How did that come about, and what was the experience like? And how much did that influence your move into documentaries?Louis: I was working at Spy Magazine in New York. The magazine folded because of money problems and a couple of friends went off to work for Michael Moore.
They said he was co-funded by the BBC and might want to hire a British reporter. I went along and met him. I would have taken any job he offered - making tea, washing dishes - but he sent me off to interview some millennial religious groups for my first segment. Then more segments followed - about the new Ku Klux Klan, Avon ladies in the Amazon, and so on.
After two seasons of TV Nation, the BBC signed me up to a development deal, which led to Weird Weekends, my first series of my own. In some ways, it was a longer version of the TV Nation segments.
Colin: How do you select a subject, and are there any criteria that inform your choice?Louis: I choose subjects I’m interested in and that I think we, as a production, can get access to. There are plenty of interesting subjects we can’t get close to, so that rules out a lot. We tend to look at worlds in which the people have made choices that, to me, seem questionable or unusual.
To begin with, it was offbeat lifestyles, like porn performers, gangsta rappers,
the mail-order bride industry. More recently we’ve looked at criminal lifestyles and therapeutic professions.
My last story that went out in the UK was about a maximum-security mental hospital in Coalinga, California, where they keep and attempt to treat paedophiles.
Colin: How long does it take to research and make contacts?
Louis: It varies from story to story. The Coalinga story took more than a year of dialogue with the hospital. Sometimes it’s a lot quicker. To do The Most Hated Family in America, the assistant producer just called them up and a few weeks later she was on a plane to do a recce.
Colin: How often do people say no to being shadowed or filmed?
Louis: People say no quite often. We’re interested in opening up areas that
can sometimes be quite controversial. It’s a lot to ask of someone to talk about themselves and their world on national television - even when the subjectisn’t sensitive.
For the hunting programme, my assistant producer and director approached lots of safari outfits and game farmers who turned us down because they felt the media would never give them a fair hearing. There was barely a handful that agreed to film. That’s an extreme case, but it’s not atypical.
Colin: What makes people open up to you? You’ve spoken to level four prisoners and extremists, and even wanted criminals, and they all talk to you very casually. Do you think it’s the presence of a camera, the fact that it’s the BBC, or do you think they recognise your sincerity in questioning them?Louis: A little of all three. We also tell people that the programmes won’t
air on TV in America. That helps a lot. Plus we put the hours in to get to the people who are willing to talk.
Colin: After watching Law and Disorder in Johannesburg (about the crime in Hillbrow), I noticed you seemed surprised by how far up the corruption went. In hindsight, any thoughts about it?Louis: It was a very tough film to make. We made it last year and the day we flew into Jo’burg, the xenophobic violence had just kicked off. The army was called in and the townships and squatter camps were no-go areas.
We ended up making three trips, for a total of more than a month. We’d started out wanting to make it about the police, but never got access. Then we realised that for many of the poorer areas, the police weren’t even part of the picture - law enforcement (such as it is) was being carried out by mobs and vigilante groups. So that’s where we went with the story.
Colin: You came face to face with a wanted hijacker who told you that he would put children “into ovens” to show how serious he was. Do these kinds of people exude an aura of evil?Louis: That guy was called Maleven and I believe he’s now dead. That’s what I was told. He did not seem normal, that’s for sure. I think he was drunk.
I’d wondered if Maleven might be exaggerating for effect but I had my fixer, Sydney, there, a local Soweto-born South African, and he’d known Maleven from childhood and vouched that he was telling the truth.
I didn’t feel scared exactly. It was more surreal than anything. People who commit hideous crimes don’t generally brag about them, but Maleven may have been an exception.
Colin: Are you ever afraid for your own safety?Louis: We’re always aware of the issues on the higher risk shoots. I did a five-day “hostile environments” course to learn some basic first-aid and safety stuff. The BBC is very safety conscious. Touch wood, nothing’s gone wrong so far.
Colin: I’m sure your research prepares you somewhat for some of the people you meet, but how are the people different when you’re actually face to face?Louis: It varies. It’s less a question of how people are than the nature of the situations you get into and figuring out your role as a journalist - and also as a human being.
When we met up with a coordinator for the security-cumvigilante group Mapogo, he had a badly beaten man in the back of his truck. I’d known that was part of what they did, but the reality of it was something else.
Colin: I was very disturbed when watching The Most Hated Famil in America (about an extremely homophobic family), but was fascinated by your journey from being an outsider to someone who ended up almost understanding them and, at some point, becoming almost desensitised to their extreme beliefs. What was that like? What was the reaction from the public and from the family after the show, and have there been any updates?Louis: The film got a tremendous reaction from the public. I think people couldn’t quite believe that this strange, bigoted, inflammatory family existed.
Spending three weeks with them was odd in the sense that their message stopped being shocking in a visceral way, because I’d got so used to it.
The family themselves liked the programme - they enjoy getting a reaction from people and any coverage is good coverage to them. In the two or three years since taping, several of the younger people in the church have run off to pursue more normal lives, though none of our main characters.
One of the girls who left e-mailed me to say that our conversations during taping were one of the motivations that made her leave. We did talk about doing an update but in the end decided against it.
Colin: What’s next for you and what can we look forward to? Any more books?Louis: Got some good shows coming up, which we’re about to start taping. No plans for any more books but you never know.
Colin: What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?Louis: Spending time with my family. I’ve got two boys - one three-year old and one one-year-old - and I take them to feed the ducks in the park and play on the swings. I enjoy seeing movies with my girlfriend, and reading.
Colin: What do you enjoy watching on the telly? What’s your guiltiest pleasure?Louis: I like the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Also University Challenge - that’s a British quiz show. My girlfriend likes American Idol and sometimes I get sucked into that.
Ends
Will keep you posted when a new series premieres too.