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The Challenge of “Robbery”
By Andrew Lauren, producer of This is Not a Robbery
(from 2008 Tribeca Film Festival) The first time someone tells you about a 90-year-old guy who robbed banks, you are hooked. Instantly, everyone becomes a journalist and starts to rattle off the five W's: who, what, when, where and, most interestingly, why? |
I was hooked from the moment I first met directors Lucas Jansen and Adam Kurland nearly two years ago at the IFP Market. They had about 70 hours of footage and had done extensive research on J.L. "Red" Rountree. They were looking for a partner with whom to collaborate and turn this unbelievable story into a completed film. When you spend so much time searching for film projects and developing scripts, it is refreshing to find a true story that doesn't need rewriting - a story that just needs to be told exactly as it is. I think that is what excites me so much about documentaries, and this story in particular.
So the task we set out to accomplish was simple enough: not only give people insight into the life of this unique senior citizen, but to help them see him as we all came to know him - a true American anti-hero. JL was a happily married man for 50 years, who, at one point, was a millionaire living in Texas high society. As he approached his twilight years following the death of his wife, he bucked the tradition of fading into his old age. Instead, he wanted to do something sensational: JL not only began robbing banks in his late 80s, but also married a 30-year-old stripper and started doing hard drugs. JL refused to live his twilight years in solitude in a trailer collecting Social Security.
The challenge in making this film came from the fact that our subject was deceased. We didn't have the primary source to go to. In truth, there are only about 10 pictures that were ever taken of him, and we had one audio interview of him and one partial on-camera interview. So the true challenge became having to assemble a story about the whole man and make sure the "why" was answered.
Most of "why" was answered by the audio recording from prison in which JL tells his life story. We used his firsthand account as the backbone of our film, and let JL narrate his own story. For our interview subjects, we were lucky enough to find some old friends, children of old friends, lawyers, judges, law enforcement officials and - the coup de grâce - his second wife, Juanita, also a former stripper. Fortunately, everyone knew him at different stages of his life, so we were able to piece together the story over the course of his nearly 100 years. |
Our biggest focus was tracking down additional Red footage and photos, including what we deemed the "Holy Grail": security camera footage of JL robbing a bank. Even a bad still picture from a security camera of him robbing a bank would have been adequate. After a two-month courtship, we finally convinced the FBI to release video they had of JL's last hurrah, a 90-mph car chase on a Texas freeway. I remember all of us standing around watching this low-quality VHS footage from a dash-mounted camera, thinking it was greatest piece of tape we had ever seen. But still, we had no footage of the robberies. We decided to fill this visual gap in the film with animated scenes. While the implementation of animation was, indeed, practical, it also enhanced the characterization of JL. Red's personality easily lent itself to a larger-than-life character.
Now, animation was a great solution and a definitive tonal choice that enhanced the film's style, but it is not cheap. We had to narrow down certain moments we wanted to animate, which forced us to whittle the story down to its core events. While it was not easy to extract a limited number of scenes from such a long and eventful life, I am extremely pleased with our final selections. Presenting Red's story in its final form, I think we have something that people can walk away from with many answers and, we hope, even more questions.
Photos: (top) J.L. "Red" Rountree, (middle) Andrew Lauren, (bottom) J.L. "Red" Rountree; courtesy of the filmmaker.
This is Not a Robbery screens at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival (click for times and ticket information). Festival runs April 23-May 4. |
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