Marilyn Ness is a two-time Emmy, Peabody, and DuPont winning filmmaker who has produced and directed documentary film and television for over 15 years. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Ness’ producing credits include “Cameraperson,” “Trapped,” and “E-Team.” She directed “Bad Blood: a Cautionary Tale,” which aired nationally on PBS.

“Charm City” will premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival on April 22.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

MN: “Charm City” delivers an observational portrait of those on the frontlines during three years of unparalleled gun violence in Baltimore. With grit, fury, and compassion, a group of police, citizens, and government officials grapple with the consequences of violence and try to reclaim their future.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

MN: The nightly news has a way of focusing on the most tragic, the most heinous, the worst offenders, the most corrupt. It has certainly been the case over the last three years as we watch cities confront police abuse and rising violent crime. We would often hear the refrain, “It’s just a few bad apples,” or we need to eliminate “the worst violent repeat offenders.”

But I always wondered about the many thousands of people living and working in cities rife with crime who were regular everyday people, like you and me, who also hated witnessing the worst in people and its effect on society. Then I wondered what would it look like if we focused on “good apples” — the people who were trying to make their communities safer in ordinary, everyday ways, on both sides of the law enforcement divide.

Documentary film — and vérité film in particular, which mandates you stand in one place and let that world unfold before your camera — is uniquely suited to explore the everyday lives of people just trying to live.

With that in mind, we set out to understand what was happening in the day to day when the news cameras were long gone and regular life needed to be lived.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

MN: Whoever the viewer thinks of as the “other” when they walked into the theater — whether it is community members like Alex and Mr. C, or the police, or the Councilman — I hope the viewer will walk out thinking, “I never thought about it from their perspective before.”

I hope people will see that everyone is more alike than different, that the systemic failures that have allowed poverty, crime, gun violence, and trauma to persist are hurting everyone standing amidst the violence. That using the long arm of the criminal justice system to remediate these deeply entrenched systemic failures isn’t working for anyone: not the citizens, not the police, and not the politicians.

I hope people will see that in order to improve the situation for one “side” it means improving it for all of those caught in it. Perhaps a tall order, but if it works, it’s the start of a conversation that allows people to find common ground where currently there is opposition.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

MN: People from Baltimore love their town. They know all of the city’s flaws but they are fiercely loyal and will defend it to the outside world. Though we started making the film about four months before Freddie Gray was killed in police custody, once the powder keg was lit and the national news descended to watch the city burn, all of the new and tenuous relationships we had built were stressed.

The police department became more cautious, community members and funders were increasingly skeptical of the press — rightly so — and there was a fatigue with having cameras around. Katy Chevigny, my producer, and I were not interested in making a film about one particular case, but all of the funders and potential distributors seemed to think that it must be “the Freddie Gray film” if we were in Baltimore with access to the police in 2015.

We simply had to let time pass, keep making the film we wanted to make, and hope that we could get everything back on track. All filmmaking is an act of radical patience but making “Charm City” was ten times what I have ever experienced before.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

MN: The film largely was funded by grants and donations from local Baltimore funders and individuals, and from the documentary film funding community. More than any other town I have ever seen, Baltimore gets a huge amount of work done through its philanthropic sector.

Meryam Bouadjemi, our local co-producer in Baltimore, promised her network of supporters that “Charm City” and the associated impact campaign would help re-write the city’s legacy — that we could show a city trying to find a way forward. People came in droves to support that vision.

Once we had secured enough funding from early believers in Baltimore and through development film funders like Catapult Film Fund, we could begin shooting and move the concept into something that resembled a film. We continued to build it bit by bit as we made the film eventually securing the support we needed. No magic tricks. Just a slow and steady approach.

W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at Tribeca Film Festival?

MN: I am a born and bred New Yorker, so to have a hometown premiere for my baby is a huge thrill for me.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

MN: Best advice: Never take no for an answer. Take it as: no, for now.

Worst advice: Never take no for an answer! You can get a long way down a road without any solid footing if you keep hoping you can spin no into yes. I still think the original advice is solid — it’s just not for the faint of heart.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

MN: Be confident in your vision. Ask for what you need. Being collaborative is not a weakness and often reveals great gifts, but remember this is your ship to pilot and your vision to fulfill. Also, be kind to the women coming up around you. There is strength in numbers and collaboration, and we will need to work together to find equity and balance.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

MN: “The Hurt Locker” by Kathryn Bigelow. War genre films have always seemed like the domain of men — just blow stuff up, make a spectacle. And while she never softened the presentation, Bigelow insisted we also look at the trauma, the humanity, and the real toll of war.

As more women helm films, I believe we absolutely need to tell the stories of women — but I also believe more women need to tell the stories of men, a radical act that will allow for a whole new way of considering the world.

W&H: Hollywood and the global film industry are in the midst of undergoing a major transformation. Many women — and some men — in the industry are speaking publicly about their experiences being assaulted and harassed. What are your thoughts on the #TimesUp movement and the push for equality in the film business?

MN: I have a long list of #MeToo stories from growing up in the film business in the 1990s. Until recently, I didn’t really know anyone else who had been treated similarly. It was just thought of as that “crazy time.”

It’s insane to me that we are still talking about harassment and equality in 2018, but that’s where we are, and I am grateful we can find power in our common stories to change the industry once and for all.