Through the Chaos by David Busse
Wisconsin (World Premiere)
Running Time: 6 Minutes
Screening Time: Saturday Sept 6th 4:40pm
At the 2013 Boston Marathon two bombs detonated near the finish line. This found footage documentary tells the story of a musician who decided to go explore and observe what was happening during the aftermath and how he used his saxophone to capture the mood of the city the following day. His memory of the tragedy is reconstructed through an interview and footage captured by spectators during and after the bombings.
Director Statement I found out about the Boston Marathon Bombings fifteen minutes after they happened via Twitter. As soon as I saw the news I was scared for the safety of my brother, Kevin, who at the time was living in a dorm a few blocks away from where the explosions occurred. I immediately called his cell phone and a few dropped calls later there was a voice on the other line, but the person talking wasn't Kevin. I had no idea who I was talking to or what was happening and I feared for the worst. Never in my life had I been so scared for my brother's safety. Twenty panicked minutes later I messaged a friend of his on Facebook who told me she had seen Kevin around after the bombings occurred. I took a deep sigh of relief and continued to follow the news. Turns out that so many people were making calls to Boston after the bombings that the cell phone towers couldn't handle the traffic and many calls were sent to the wrong phones or dropped. Hours later Kevin called me back and told me that after the bombings he had ventured out into his neighborhood to get a firsthand glimpse of the aftermath. I was just happy to finally hear his voice. The next day Kevin took his saxophone outside and played mournful and patriotic songs around the police perimeter and was subsequently interviewed by a reporter from Boston's NPR station who felt that Kevin had captured the mood of the city with his music.
Months later Kevin and I decided to work together to tell the story of what it felt like to be in Boston at the time of the bombings and how he made an impact with his music. To tell this story required taking NPR's audio which ended up dictating the creation of the piece in many ways because it led me to take much of my content from online sources. After scavenging to find the best footage that spectators from the marathon captured I explored many different options on how to tell the story. In many ways I found it much more difficult to construct a story with found footage than by writing a story because I couldn't just make something up in order to move the story along in a particular way. After at least a dozen revisions and many debates including the choice to leave out as much information about the perpetrators as possible Kevin and I feel we have completed a piece which places the viewer in the chaos of the Boston Marathon.
Production Notes
"Telling a story through found footage"
This project was challenging for me due to its reliance on found footage. Scavenging Youtube for clips taken by spectators of the Boston Marathon took many hours and compiling everything into a cohesive whole was very challenging. There were many times when I ran into roadblocks because I either ran out of footage or because footage that I wanted seemed to not exist. Due to this I feel that the final piece was guided by the footage available as much as it was by myself in the editing room.
