Made Here filmmaker Christopher Wiersema from Montpelier, Vermont explores history and memory in the new experimental documentary film Rough Blazing Star. Wiersema creates a unique vision, combining an original score, layered visuals and interviews, to explore the confluence of anarchism, history and memory through historical records, the Old Labor Hall in Barre, and personal memory. Rough Blazing Star won the best documentary award at the 2024 Made Here Film Festival.
Filmmaker Christopher Wiersema answered questions about the film via email with Vermont Public's Eric Ford. This interview has been lightly copy edited.
Eric Ford: What was your inspiration for making Rough Blazing Star?
Christopher Wiersema: Having grown up in the Chicagoland area with Italian grandparents, I was interested in the Italian-American immigrant story. My grandfather worked for the City of Chicago as a laborer. I've been fascinated by Chicago's influence and significance in labor history and the international labor movement. When I moved to Central Vermont in 2015, I learned about the Old Labor Hall and Barre's rich connection to Italian immigration and the overlap with the labor movement at the turn of the century. I heard rumors of Emma Goldman visiting the Old Labor Hall and Barre and wanted to learn more and so I decided to make an experimental documentary film with that inquiry and interest as a starting point. When I read Emma Goldman's Living My Life, I was inspired by the juxtaposition between Emma Goldman's idea of anarchism as a beautiful idealism filled with music and flowers and the earthly granite industry powered by immigrant workers - who organized for a better quality of life.
Eric Ford: Can you talk a bit about your approach? The film is not a traditional documentary.
Christopher Wiersema: That's right. It is not a traditional documentary film per se. I was, however, inspired by the 'poetic mode' of documentary filmmaking and interested in the challenge of exploring a living history and memory experimentally through superimposition, collage, performance, and long-form interviews.
Eric Ford: What draws you to this style of filmmaking?
Christopher Wiersema: I've enjoyed making experimental films over the years like one would make music or experiment with playing an instrument - using the feeling and energy of the piece to move a viewer or listener through it. There can be an intimacy and vulnerability that comes with this, which is moving in all art. I also gravitate towards work that plays with the form and the medium itself - while connecting to the personal and the social. Experimental filmmaking lends itself to attempting and discovering new ways of making film in general, which in turn can inspire more conventional filmmaking approaches.
Eric Ford: You also composed all of the music for the film. Can you tell us a little about that process?
That is correct. Most of what we hear was composed in somewhat of a low-tech way, with a bass and electric guitar playing through an analog loop pedal, along with a cell phone recording voice memos next to a guitar amp. Some of the tracks were slowed down in the video editing software. As well, I worked with a close childhood friend from Chicago, who plays the drums we hear in the film.
Eric Ford: What were some of the most surprising things you uncovered about the history of the Barre area when making the film?
Christopher Wiersema: I think one of the most amazing things I learned was how much physical history, especially spaces where workers built community and organized, is now gone. Tomasi Hall and Carlo Abate's studio are some examples. I'd love to make another film looking at these spaces.
Eric Ford: What are you working on next?
Christopher Wiersema: I just finished a short personal documentary and experimental film talking with my grandmother about memories of my grandfather, who went blind later in life. The film also reflects on my own point of view as a father of two young sons. You can read about the piece here: https://www.christopherwiersema.com/light-in-my-eyes
Rough Blazing Star premieres on Vermont Public's main TV channel 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10 and is available now on demand.
