Abigail Disney is an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, activist, and co-founder of Fork Films, a nonfiction media production company which produces the podcast “All Ears.” She is the Chair and Co-Founder of Level Forward, a new breed storytelling company, created the nonprofit Peace is Loud, which uses storytelling to advance social movements, and the Daphne Foundation, which supports organizations working for a more equitable, fair, and peaceful New York City.
Kathleen Hughes is an award-winning producer, director, and writer. She has produced, directed, and written many Bill Moyers documentaries, as well as films for PBS’ “Frontline” and ABC News’ “Turning Point.” Her work has received numerous awards including three national Emmys, a New York Emmy, the DuPont-Columbia Gold Baton, the Gracie Award, the Sidney Hillman Prize, the Dateline Club’s Society of Professional Journalists’ First Amendment Award, the Harry Chapin Media Award, the Christopher Award, and honorable mention for the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
Disney and Hughes previously co-directed and produced “The Armor of Light,” which premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival and was shortlisted for a 2017 Peabody Award.
“The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales” is screening at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, which is running online from January 20-30. More information can be found on the fest’s website.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
AD: The film uses the Walt Disney Company as a lens through which to see the dramatic changes in the norms and laws around the American business culture in the last 50 years, changes that have left us with historic income inequality and a deep debt to the American worker.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
AD: I have a deep memory of and respect for how my grandfather, Roy O. Disney, Walt’s brother and co-founder, did business. He was far from a perfect man, and goodness knows there are ways he operated that I wish he hadn’t, but on the question of the meaning of work for his employees, he was resolute. Workers should have our respect: they are our partners and if they are doing their jobs then they should be able to raise families and have decent security on the wages they make.
I wanted to make a film that highlighted how that has changed and make a more general case for a total moral overhaul of the American system of business.
W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?
AD: I want people to be thinking about what they do to contribute to the problem by assumptions or expectations they have about low-wage workers. I want them to ask if there needs to be new policies in place, if we have to restore and rebuild our regulatory and antitrust environment, and whether a CEO should sleep well at night when his workers can’t feed their families.
I am asking for a fundamental shift in the way we all understand business and its role in society.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
AD: For me, the biggest challenge was my own fear — fear of betraying my family, of being hesitant to speak the whole truth, of making myself so vulnerable to criticism and attack. Those were hard barriers for me to overcome.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
AD: I knew I couldn’t fund this film myself or it would have seemed to be a vanity project, so we went to individuals and foundations and asked them to help us make the film a reality.
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
AD: I started my first film when I was 46 years old. Until then, I didn’t imagine I’d ever do such a thing. But I found a story that was so compelling and important that I just could not stay silent. I made my first film because film was the only way to do justice to the story. I make films now because I don’t know how to stop!
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
AD: The best advice came from my college volleyball coach: always be moving forward. Sounds silly, but if you move forward every day, it’s harder to lose yourself in doubt, in apprehension, in despair. Moving forward makes you react and adapt to changing circumstances more effectively; it makes you more aggressive and it makes you feel like you can do anything.
Worst: “Don’t be afraid.” That’s silly. I’m never not afraid! It should have been: never let fear stop you from doing what is right.
W&H: What advice do you have for other women directors?
AD: Don’t undercut yourself. Do not rely on self-deprecation for humor. I’ve seen a million men step straight into leadership whether or not they were qualified. Go for it. Jump first and build your wings on the way down.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
AD: I know this is kind of lowbrow, or middlebrow, but “A League of Their Own,” directed by Penny Marshall. If it had come out when I was younger it would have changed my life. As it is, it came out when I was grown-up and it made me feel like maybe everything I’d been doing wasn’t such a giant bunch of mistakes, and maybe it was good and right to be strong and able.
W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how?
AD: I would love to tell you that I am thriving, but being a people person has put me at a distinct disadvantage during this pandemic. I am languishing. But this film saved me. I am so lucky to have been able to pour myself into this as I await the day I can, with reckless abandon, hug everybody I see.
W&H: The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color on screen and behind the scenes and reinforcing – and creating – negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make it more inclusive?
AD: I would start by making this the first, not the last question. This concern, until it moves to the top of the list for white people, will move glacially. If young white students from the North could risk their lives to register voters in Mississippi in the Civil Rights era, then surely we can risk our reputations and careers to move forward the idea that everyone deserves to be seen, to be understood, and to be honored in all their human dignity.
