Norah Shapiro is a Minneapolis-based filmmaker who left a decade-long career as a public defender to pursue documentary filmmaking. Her prior credits include “Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile” and “Minnesota 13: From Grain to Glass.” She is a recipient of the McKnight Filmmaking Fellowship, and her films have screened at DOC NYC Film Festival, SF DocFest, and Asian American International Film Festival.
“Time For Ilhan” will premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival on April 21.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
NS: “Time For Ilhan” is a campaign drama and personal portrait of one of America’s biggest rising political stars. But it’s more than that, it’s also almost a how-to for grass roots, local level citizens, women of color, young people, and anyone who has felt that the political system is impenetrable and hopeless, on how they can show up and make change.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
NS: I was drawn to this particular story in part based on my curiosity about the Somali immigrant community in my hometown of Minneapolis, and the intersection in that community of race, gender, and the growing dynamics of Islamaphobia in contemporary America.
I was also compelled by my sense that, regardless of the outcome of this particular race, Ilhan Omar was a rising star. I was attracted by the access that Ilhan and her team were willing to afford me, which presented an opportunity for observational and vérité material in a high stakes setting that would unfold over a relatively compressed time period. [This was happening] parallel to the presidential race taking place at the national level.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
NS: I’d like them to think about how they can personally get more involved in this living, breathing opportunity that we have in this country to change things at the grass roots level. I’d like them to think about the barriers to entry in our political system that they might not have been as aware of, but also feel that a redistribution of power is possible, and that they can and should have a role in that happening.
I’d like them to think about all the men who have hogged the political stage for so long, and the change in our everyday lives that is possible if they are replaced.
I’d like them to have a new awareness that when one woman or outsider runs, others often follow — that there is a ripple effect. They too can participate: they can run, they can support women who run, and they can actively work to make our democracy more representative.
Parity for women in American politics is a long way away, even more so for women of color. But while we are working towards that goal — on a very practical level, by working on behalf of down-ballot candidates — we can both create a new bench of more representative candidates and along the way, bring more diverse people into the political process to change the face of who is making decisions that affect all of our lives.
Mainly, I want audience members to be thinking about how and where they will get involved!
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
NS: Probably one of the bigger challenges in making this film was the compressed timeline, and the need to do development, production, post, and fundraising all simultaneously. As Ilhan’s story unfolded in real time along with the results of the presidential election and the intense response to it, I realized that her story was very much part of a larger moment and movement. I felt an enormous pressure to get the film finished and out into the world in order to hopefully play a role — through the ambitious outreach campaign we have in our mind’s eye for the film — in the conversation about who gets a seat at the table in our political system.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
NS: Our film has been funded mainly through a combination of grants, individual donors, and private foundations. Building relationships along the way with people and institutions who share the same values and goals has also been a key part of our strategy.
W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at Tribeca Film Festival?
NS: It sounds clichéd, but it means the world to me. I’m especially honored to be the first ever Minnesota director with a feature doc screening at Tribeca. And I’m incredibly thrilled to be screening this year in particular when Tribeca has programmed roughly 46 percent of its feature films with women in the director’s chair, the highest percentage in the festival’s history.
While Tribeca is far from limited to the documentary realm, it has emerged as one of the best festivals for new documentaries.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
NS: Best advice — to not to take rejections personally.
Worst advice — can’t think of any!
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
NS: Find your trusted collaborators — making indie docs is hard work, and no one does it alone.
And if you aren’t already a member of Film Fatales, join, immediately — big shout out to them at the national and local chapter level! On an almost daily basis these days, I find myself tangibly supported by my sister Film Fatales, an incredible resource and community for women directors.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
NS: Oh, that’s such a hard one! Probably a tie, between an old one — Barbara Kopple’s “Harlan County U.S.A.,” and Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing’s “One of Us.” “Harlan County U.S.A.” because I still am in awe when I watch it now about what and how Barbara Kopple captured, both in terms of her courage as a young female director and the courage of the men and women she followed in her cinema vérité documentary about a coal miners’ strike in Kentucky in the 1970s.
“One of Us” because it simply is one of the best documentaries I have seen recently, in its sensitive penetration and portrayal of a cloistered, cut off world, and the restraint and artfulness with which they crafted the film.
And also one more: Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern’s “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.” I love that film, too.
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?
NS: At least in the documentary world, women directors seem to have relative parity in numbers with male directors. However, in the realm where many of us doc makers find our side hustles or freelance work, I’m afraid — much like the barriers that Ilhan and other women and POC political candidates find themselves up against — it feels like there are similar barriers in terms of the access to and availability to the commercial world, in terms of the hiring of women directors.
I think there is a lot of room for improvement and change there. It seems obvious to me that with more women-centered or at least women-represented film environments, the likelihood of sexual harassment of women by men in positions of power in the film industry goes way down.
I’m particularly intrigued by the current push for inclusion riders in the film world. As it happens, I’ve tended to naturally structure my film crews this way, and while I definitely have a number of ongoing trusted male collaborators, including the incredible ones involved on this film, I lean toward female dominant teams, which is something I intend to continue.
