Mary Wharton has dedicated her career to making documentaries about music. Her work includes “Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and “Sam Cooke: Legend,” which won a Grammy for Best Music Film in 2004. Wharton directed and executive produced “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President,” which was selected as the opening night film of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, closing night film for AFI Docs 2020, and an official selection of over a dozen other international film festivals.

“Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free” is screening at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, which is taking place online March 16-20.

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

MW: This is a portrait of an artist at a crossroads. Capturing the period of 1993 to 1995, during which Petty created his seminal, most emotionally raw album “Wildflowers.” The film offers an unvarnished look at the enigmatic icon at a pivotal moment in his personal and professional life.

Never-before-seen footage, drawn from a newly discovered archive of 16mm film and new interviews with album co-producers Rick Rubin and Heartbreaker Mike Campbell, along with original Heartbreaker Benmont Tench, show the legendary rock star at the height of his creative powers. It is an intimate and emotional view of Tom Petty as he has never been seen before.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

MW: I’ve been a fan of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers since I first saw the “You Got Lucky” music video on MTV in 1981. When I was first starting my career at VH1 in the early 1990s I was lucky to work on a documentary about Tom Petty when he was releasing “Wildflowers,” which, for me, was on-the-job training on how music docs are made.

It was a powerful full-circle moment for me to look back at this part of Tom’s story now. When Tom’s daughter Adria approached me about the project, I leaped at the opportunity.

W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?

MW: Tom Petty was a master of understated life lessons. From “Most things I worry about / Never happen anyway” to “You belong somewhere you feel free,” his lyrics offer simple but often profound words to live by.

He reminds us to believe in ourselves, and that lesson helped me to get through the darkness of 2020, when it was hard to know what to believe or where I belonged. I’d love for people to find hope in Tom’s music and inspiration in how he turned to his creativity to overcome a tumultuous time in his own life. It certainly was inspiring to me and was a gift to be able to turn to my own creativity to get through the challenges and loneliness of pandemic life.

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

MW: The fact that Tom Petty was no longer alive to help us tell this story meant that we had to rely on existing interviews to get his voice into the film. We were lucky to find a few recorded interviews from the same period that the footage was shot. It seemed important that his voice always comes from that perspective of being in the moment, rather than as an older man looking back on his life.

That creative choice — to rely on interviews from the period the film covers — made it harder to get the story right with limited options, but it was worth it in the end. It’s a subtle thing that most people won’t even register, but it has a surprisingly significant effect on the overall feeling of the film.

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

MW: The film was independently funded. I’ve had every kind of funding source imaginable for various projects over the years and all I can tell you is that there is no magic formula nor secret that I can share. What worked for one project never works for every film.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

MW: I think that I always wanted to be a storyteller of some kind. I definitely thought about becoming a writer, and I secretly wanted to be a rock star but it turned out that I didn’t have much in the way of musical talent.

When I learned how to use a camera in high school, my teacher told me that I had a good eye. It was like a secret door opened for me because it was the first time that I was good at something that I enjoyed. I had absolutely no idea how to become a filmmaker and did not have female role models, but I pursued it anyway. I never had a fallback plan. It was the only thing I could ever imagine doing.

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

MW: The best advice I’ve ever received came from my southern grandmother, who taught me that sometimes you have to smile real pretty to get what you want because “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.” I’ve found sometimes that a friendly and open demeanor puts people off guard, so they aren’t expecting it when I become tough as nails if I need to — like when I have to fight for my film.

I’m sure I’ve gotten tons of bad advice over the years, but I have a pretty sensitive bullshit meter, so I think I ignored most of it. I’ve ignored lots of good advice too, by the way, like when my mother advised me to learn computer programming in the 1980s because she saw that computers were the future. File that under missed opportunities!

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

MW: Be like Ginger Rogers, who could do everything that Fred Astaire did, but did it backward and in heels. You’ll always have to be twice as good at your job, three times smarter, and work four times as hard as any man — so be sure what you’re doing is worth it.

Ginger was born to be a dancer. Find the thing that you were born to do. And don’t forget to dance along the way!

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

MW: That’s not a fair question because there are too many to narrow down to one! I love Kathryn Bigelow and Patty Jenkins for their badass work, and they each have several films that would be on my top ten list. But if I had to pick a single film that had a profound influence on me, I would say “Paris Is Burning” by Jennie Livingston because it showed me that a documentary could tackle serious issues, be deeply touching and emotional, and also be a helluva lot of fun.

The fact that it was beautifully shot and served up realness at an Olympian level had me obsessed from the first frame to the last.

W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how? 

MW: I was so fortunate to have this archival-based film to work on during the pandemic. I set up a proper edit station at my house for the first time and mirrored drives to my editor’s so we could share sequences back and forth. Sometimes I missed the creative energy of collaborating with someone face to face, but we made it work.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I left my home in New York City to live in the country with my husband. It was a drastic change and I felt very lonely without eight million people around me, but falling in love with this music and these characters, and piecing together this film were what saved me.

I lived and breathed and dreamed about Tom Petty and his music, and it was such a huge source of joy in an otherwise dark time.

W&H: The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world more inclusive?

MW: I think that we have to keep advocating for change at every opportunity. The actions I’ve taken have been mentoring young people of color and young women whenever I can. I make extra effort to seek out BIPOC and female crewmembers for every project.

I know that hiring a few BIPOC folks now and then might seem like a small gesture, but as my mother likes to point out — from a quote by Margaret Mead — “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”