Christina Costantini has reported and produced for the New Haven Independent, The Huffington Post, ABC News, Univision, and Fusion. Her first TV documentary, which looked at sex trafficking in Mexico, was nominated for two Emmys and her reporting on immigration has won awards from GLAAD and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
“Science Fair” will premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival on January 21. The film is co-directed by Darren Foster.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
CC: “Science Fair” is the story of the biggest and most competitive science fair in the world: the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). It’s a story inspired by my own experiences as a competitor more than a decade ago.
We set out to make a movie about the science fair journey as I remembered it: one of the most stressful, exhilarating, sublime, and terrible experiences a young person could go through.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
CC: “Science Fair” is a love letter to the subculture that saved me. As a dweeby kid growing up in a sports-obsessed high school in Wisconsin, the international science fair became my lifeboat. It validated my passion for science, taught me how to dedicate myself to a goal, and set my life on a trajectory that would have otherwise been totally impossible.
But most importantly, science fair is where I found my tribe. The idea of doing a documentary about science fair has been an obsession of mine since I first went to ISEF as a freshman in high school in 2004. I had seen “Spellbound” the year before and when I got to ISEF, I thought: someone needs to make a documentary about this crazy little world.
We wanted to tell the story of brilliant kids trying to navigate the sweet, confusing purgatory between childhood and adulthood. But during the making of what was supposed to be a quirky competition documentary, things changed in our country.
We realized that many of the characters at the center of our film — scientists, women, Muslims, and immigrants — had suddenly found themselves at the center of very ugly national debates. And as the nation changed, so too did our movie.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
CC: Of course we want everyone to fall in love with the world of science fair as much as we have. But we also want to challenge people to consider if we’re doing enough at every level to foster young talent. Do your local schools support science fairs? How can we do more to celebrate our science all-stars? How do we want our politicians to talk about science?
We’re at a moment when the country seems to have turned its back on science, so part of the mission of this film is to restore a bit of hope. We want people to appreciate these brilliant young minds and to better understand how science fairs can be transformative for students who lack opportunities or may not excel in traditional educational environments.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
CC: “Science Fair” was supposed to be a break from investigative reporting for my co-director, Darren Foster, and myself. After a dozen-plus combined years hanging out with drug dealers, pimps, warlords, and cartel kingpins in some sketchy places, we were ready for a break.
Never in all of our reporting had we had our gear stolen, but lo and behold at the end of our first shoot for a light-hearted doc about the science fair, our AirBnB in Phoenix was broken into and all our stuff was stolen, including our laptops and drives with all our footage. When we walked into the house and saw that everything was missing, the whole project flashed before our eyes.
We realized, however, that the thief had left a sliding glass door open on his way out. The house was next to a golf course and on the other side of the fence we found a backpack. Inside was a wallet with a driver’s license. It had to belong to the guy.
We immediately switched back into investigative mode and quickly figured out the guy had been previously charged with heroin possession and a bunch of other ancillary crimes. The irony was that Darren, my co-director, has been covering the opioid epidemic for years and has worked with many people in the throes of addiction. But in all his coverage he had never had any trouble. Then he goes and does a sweet film about science fair and he gets robbed.
We knew based on his profile that the guy was likely going to fence our stuff to get money to buy drugs. So we contacted every pawn shop within a five mile radius and were also able to track down his family, friends, and associates. We put the word out that we needed our stuff back or we would get the police involved. We even tracked down where he was living at the time.
After 24 hours, we handed over everything we had to a streetwise Phoenix-based private investigator we had worked with on stories in the past. He was able to negotiate the return of the most valuable things — our computers and hard drives with all our footage. Crisis averted.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
CC: The film was funded by Fusion Media Group, a subsidiary of Univision. I’m incredibly grateful to Isaac Lee and Keith Summa for trusting the crazy 27-year-old girl who walked into their offices and asked for money to make her first feature documentary about a weird nerd convention.
W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at Sundance?
CC: It’s not often that a person like me gets to make a movie. I’m 29 years old, I’m Latina, I’m from the Midwest, and I’m the daughter of an immigrant; I’m a total outsider to this world, so just getting to make a movie at all is a dream for me.
I also thought our film just wasn’t the kind of movie that gets into Sundance. At the beginning of the project, my co-director referred jokingly to our Sundance premiere because it was so outlandish to us at the time.
We had a tiny crew and the film just felt very different to me than the movies that go to Sundance. We had no expectation that our film would get noticed. So it was a total shock when we found out. I didn’t understand that we were in Sundance until about 30 minutes after I was called and told we were in Sundance. And I still can’t quite believe it.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
CC: The best advice I’ve ever gotten comes from my friend/mentor/idol, Mariana van Zeller, who also happens to be my co-director’s wife. She’s also one of the reasons I became a journalist. The advice is simple: don’t work with assholes.
The worst advice I’ve gotten was maybe just a few months ago from an executive at a media startup. I told him I was getting ready to pitch another film and he told me I should pivot to making short viral Facebook videos instead. He said it would be “good practice” for me.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
CC: My advice is to seek out smart, kind, funny ladies who are a bit further in their career and befriend them. Every time I have become friends with a cool lady further along in her career, she’s always really looked out for me. Women have guided me through almost every step of the filmmaking process, from pitching, to applying to festivals, to securing a sales agent.
So many wise women have gone out of their way to give me advice, put me in touch with their friends, or talk me through tough situations. It’s really been remarkable. I hope someday it’s something I’ll be able to pay back if I’m lucky enough to continue making movies.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
CC: I absolutely love the movie “Mad Hot Ballroom” by Marilyn Agrelo, which is about a cutthroat ballroom dance competition in New York City public schools. I saw it for the first time in 2005 when it came out and have watched it probably a dozen times since. It’s definitely one of the movies that inspired me to make “Science Fair.”
Marilyn and “Mad Hot Ballroom’s” producer, Amy Sewell, were actually kind enough to go out to dinner with me right after I got approval to start filming “Science Fair” and they let me ask a million questions about filmmaking before we even started the project. Their advice was invaluable. They are brilliant and their movie is such a perfect portrait of a little world filled with uncensored, adorable, passionate kids. It is just so fun to watch.
W&H: Hollywood is 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 do you think of the recently announced anti-sexual harassment Commission made up of industry leaders? Do you believe that it will help make systemic change? What do you think needs to be done to address this issue?
CC: I don’t think it will be just one thing that changes the existing culture of our industry, but I really do believe every little bit helps and I’m hopeful this can move us in the right direction. But more than the women in Hollywood, I’m concerned about the least powerful women in America.
Before I worked on this documentary, I was a reporter working on stories related to undocumented women, trafficked women, and women in detention centers. I found that so often the issues faced by our gender are much worse for women of color, poor women, trans women, and women without papers.
I hope as Hollywood moves to expel sexual harassment from its industry it keeps these women in mind. This is an issue that the movement seems to have acknowledged recently with its response to the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas and the Time’s Up campaign. I hope as the movement grows it will keep its focus on the women in the shadows, and not just those of us who are privileged enough to make movies for a living.
