The Spread interviews John Smithson, producer of Mount Everest documentary “Sherpa”.
In 2013 news channels around the world reported an ugly brawl at 21,000ft as European climbers fled a mob of angry Sherpas. Determined to explore what was going on, a group of filmmakers set out to make a film from the Sherpas’ point of view.
Instead, they captured a tragedy that would change Everest forever: a 14 million ton block of ice crashed down onto the climbing route through the Khumbu Icefall, killing 16 Sherpas, the worst tragedy in the history of Everest. The disaster provoked a drastic reappraisal about the role of the Sherpas in the Everest industry. Sherpa tells the story of how, in the face of fierce opposition, the Sherpas united in grief and anger to reclaim the mountain they call Chomolungma.
We sat down and spoke to John Smithson, producer of Sherpa to talk to him about the film, his other works and the future of theatrical documentaries.
How did you come to work on this project?
Jennifer Peedom, the director… I knew she’d done work on Everest before and got quite close to the summit. She approached me with this idea of doing a film from the Sherpas’ point of view, trying to establish what was a voice that had not been heard and track the relationship that used to be happy and smiley but more recently had some tension, including a sort of ugly scene on Mount Everest in 2013, a row between some western climbers and Sherpas. Jenn persuaded me this was a very interesting story and she approached me for two reasons. One, she’d never done a theatrical documentary before whereas I have done some and have experience so she wanted that sort of creative experience. Secondly I produced this film Touching the Void which was a well known British feature documentary a few years ago. She loved that film and thought there was some similarity with Sherpa so wanted me to be involved. And I liked the project.
What we never knew in the very earliest days of our filming of course, was that this terrible avalanche would occur, killing 16 Sherpas as they were going through the icefall. It was a terrible tragedy and it meant we had to make a completely different film… The events on the mountain in all the emotion and grief, which morphed into anger that really blew all the tensions to the surface - it led to a clash of cultures between the westerners and the Sherpas, which culminated in the Sherpas using their influence on the mountain, effectively shutting the mountain down, ending the climbing season. Although it was a horrible tragedy we had a much stronger film because of what Jenn was able to do - that is, just follow the events as they unfolded, a classic proper documentary.
What was the decision-making process after the avalanche took place, was it “no question, we have to keep going” or was there a possibility you would stop filming?
No, the fortunate thing is communications - even despite the avalanche - were very good so either on satellite phone or cell phone I could get through to Jenn the director. We had a number of conversations where we said we’ve just got to keep filming, get whatever you can, and keep filming as long as you can because we knew there was potentially a very good film to make but we had to have the material to enable us make it.
During a master class Cinema Jam recently held with producer James Gay-Rees, he explained how harrowing it was to make the film AMY with its heavy subject matter. I imagine there may have been something similar, possibly even more traumatic, for you and your team on this project.
I’ve been involved in quite a few films about major tragedies, things like 9/11, we’ve done films on that, and yes it is harrowing… you are in this highly dangerous place where you know accidents happen and most years there is an accident or someone dies, you know you’re dealing with that material. It is sometimes upsetting, but we deliberately chose to be restrained. We held back on shots of people trying to dig out Sherpas buried in the snow by the avalanche, we thought it was better to show real restraint rather than to be seen milking the tragedy.
Arrow has a focus on producing films that are often about extreme things, sports, mountaineering, and so forth. How important is it for a production company to have a niche?
What unites all the things we do is we’re very story focused, you’re looking for a very powerful, involving story and the reason that we have done disaster films, both natural disasters and manmade disasters, is they can often be powerful, compelling stories full of human interest, full of emotional connection and so on. It’s not really a niche, it’s more of a guiding principle that we try to do those sort of things. I personally think that if you’re running a production company it’s rather bad to have all your eggs in one basket and just be known for just one sort of film. To be known for good storytelling - that would apply to whatever type of television or film you’re doing.
You have quite a broad experience in production over the past decade. In your opinion what has changed in the UK film industry and where do you see things going?
I do a lot of work in television as well as film and obviously I feel in both there is massive opportunity but there is also massive challenges, and they may be about finance as much as they are about the story. One of the reasons we work more in television is there’s more direct opportunity and there’s less development hell than there is in film because the stakes are higher on film. Doesn’t mean TV is easier but generally speaking you can get things made more quickly whereas you can be developing a feature film for years.
A lot of producers have started collaborating with VOD platforms and some just prefer to make premiers via VOD rather than a theatrical one. What are your thoughts about that?
I think it’s just another great opportunity. I mean, how people view content is in a process of constant change, but I think ultimately our job is creating content as a producer or production company. I don’t see it as a problem; I see it as an exciting opportunity and you can see it happening already with theatrical documentary. It’s much harder to get a big theatrical run but equally expert players are creating a real market for doing and buying big ambitious things.
So you don’t mourn in any way the fact that many documentaries that otherwise would have had theatrical premieres are now going straight to VOD.
Well you can still do limited you know, like Sherpa we’re doing doing some theatrical runs and a lot of people will see the film on the big screen where it was designed. In one way it is sad that our world is changing, and the way people are viewing content is changing all the time. I’d rather people watching things than not watching things. I’d rather have people watching things on VOD than not watching them in a cinema.
I’m asking this question in particular because not only Sherpa but some of your other films as well, they are films that are gonna be better served seeing on a big screen, they’re really grand stories.
Yeah, I think you’re looking still to do a short window at festivals and during awards and everything. I think you can still; just to refer to Sherpa - it’s a film that feels theatrical and works on a big screen because some of pictures are stunning and the music and the sound mix and the epic nature of the story all mean it sits very comfortably on a big screen. Some theatrical docs could work just as well on television because they don’t have that visual majesty or the story that feels so big. On one hand you would like everyone to see a film that was made for big screen on the big screen but equally people watch content on an iPhone.
You’ve won an enviable number of awards over the years, and yet I don’t get the impression that this is particularly what motivates you. What does it mean to you to win these awards?
Well it’s because of good stories, it’s as simple as that. Those things that have won awards, won because they’re good stories, not because they have some mega movie star in them. One thing that we’re discussing is people view content in a different way but one thing that has not gone out of fashion and will never go out of fashion is the power of a great story well told. A great story well told, is a winning combination that doesn’t change. Everything else changes, the means of distribution and ultimately great stories win prizes don’t they.
On the theme of awards, in your opinion which of your films do you feel were the most successful based on your own personal criteria?
Well, of the theatrical films, Touching the Void is a film that resonates with a lot of people and to this day is mentioned as a film people liked. One I was really proud of was called Deep Water. It was about an around the world yacht race. It was a massive challenge to make because we had virtually no material and I thought it was a particularly well told and well crafted film. I’m proud of that and I’m proud of Sherpa because of the difficulty of having to make completely different film in difficult conditions.
What type of advice would you offer someone who’s in the earlier stages of their career and wants to be doing what you are doing?
The biggest thing is to maximize the story you have. It’s all about the stories, a similar theme I’ve been saying throughout this conversation. If you found a good story and you’re telling it well, you’re well on your way. It’s not just about the visuals, or the names, or the special effects, or the graphics, or the CGI. It is absolutely about a story that will move people or involve people or amuse them or whatever, that’s the single most important thing.
Sherpa is out in cinemas on December 18th and will be broadcast globally on Discovery Channel in 2016. Find out more at sherpafilm.com.
