Director John Trainor (left), with Ted Postol – Professor of Science, Technology, and International Security at MIT, Akari Ohashi – PA and Judith Beuth – DOP.

What does your daily practice as a filmmaker look like?
Well, it has really depended on the time of year and stage of the project at hand. At the moment, I’m spending my days working on the rough cut for my documentary, which consists of assembling sequences, trying out ideas with our editors, and going back through my script to determine what works and what doesn’t. So, it’s intensive work right now constructing our narrative.

Last year, however, we were finishing production and faced large gaps of time (several months) between shoots. A lot of my time in 2020 was spent thoroughly going back through all of my notes on the project dating back to 2015, and researching more on our subject matter + any tangential stories that have come out of it. It’s mainly a lot of time spent thinking. Thinking about our subject matter, as well as thinking through our camera work and interviews for the shoots.

In terms of refining my craft as a filmmaker, I do a fair amount of photography on the side. It’s a nice hobby, but also a chance to observe things, capture memories, and work on my composition and framing. I also like to do director studies. I think I watched more films during quarantine than I had probably in the previous 2-3 years combined…Ha!

What is the topic of your project and how did you come to understand that you wanted to do a documentary film out of it?
Our film investigates an incident that occurred in the north of Norway in 1995, when a science rocket studying the northern lights triggered an alert in Russia of a nuclear attack. It’s an intriguing and telling story about how miscommunication or misinformation can escalate to a decision to launch nuclear weapons. It’s important to note that it’s a post-Cold War story, as we investigate the dynamics of how nuclear dangers have changed and become increasingly serious since the end of the Cold War.

Interestingly enough, the story of the “Norwegian Rocket Incident” has changed over time, and there are multiple versions about what actually happened. So, I was intrigued when I first heard about the incident back in 2015, and I decided that I wanted to learn more. I believe it is an incredibly important story and anecdote given our current political situation. So, my own personal concern about the increasing post-Cold War nuclear danger has been a propellant to do good work and present a fair, thoughtful, and memorable documentary on the incident and its implications.

You’re part of Mattima films for three years now and you’ve been working with producer Andrew Grant for a very long time as well as cinematographer Judith Beuth on the last three shoots. What role does collaboration play for you in your filmmaking?
Collaboration does play an important role, and I’ve really appreciated the ideas that Andrew, Judith, and others have brought to the table. I think it’s especially important to get second opinions and “fresh eyes” on something when you have been doing it for such a long time… After a while, you start to get tunnel vision and a narrower approach in your methods of how you are going to tell a story, so it can be refreshing and useful to have someone else jump in with questions or suggestions to collaborate on finding the best approach. I think that this is more of a problem on big productions, where you often encounter hierarchy or power trips while on set. It’s important to acknowledge that every crew member has something valuable to bring to the table, and it’s important for a director to be open to listening to others. At the end of the day, everyone should walk away feeling proud of the work that they’ve done.

What are the most pleasurable parts of making your documentary and how do you balance that with the less pleasurable parts?
The feeling of achievement is definitely the most pleasurable. Whether it’s achieving financing after all the hard work that goes into an application, or achieving a great interview, or being able to travel to an interesting, far away place in order to achieve your vision and what you’ve set out to do… It’s really the sense of purpose that I think is important for documentary filmmakers.

The amount of time, energy, and struggle that goes into a project is certainly the least pleasurable part of the process because so many documentary filmmakers will reach a point where they start to question their ideas and lose that initial awe that drew them to the story in the first place. Documentary filmmaking demands a lot of patience and perseverance, and also a lot of acceptance. You have to accept the road bumps that come along the way, and that your project might not be as “perfect” as you intended it to be… but overall, getting to those points of achievement, fulfilling your vision, and seeing your work have an impact are definitely the most pleasurable and rewarding parts of the process that makes it all worth it.

I’d also add that you get to know your crew members well. You are traveling together, working together, living together for extended periods of time. So, you have lifelong memories that you can share with other people – for example, experiencing the rocket launch from Andøya in 2018 is certainly something that Andrew, Judith, and I will all remember as one of the cool things that we have gotten to do in our lifetime. It’s cool to be able to share those memories with other people and have fun stories to tell about your adventures.

When the audience has seen your film. What do you hope they take away from it?
I hope they can learn something from it. Whether or not they have heard of the Norwegian Rocket Incident before, we present new perspectives on the story that will hopefully stir some ideas and raise awareness about the modern, post-Cold War nuclear danger.

While An Inconvenient Truth did not prove that global warming existed, it raised enough alarms to be worthy. Nuclear issues are so often overlooked, and we hope to re-ignite the conversation.

A modest goal is for the viewer to walk away from this film with new insights into the post-Cold War nuclear danger that are motivating enough to talk about it with even just one other person. Climate change and nuclear weapons are the existential threats we face today, but nuclear weapons issues remain nowhere near as prevalent and concerning in the public mind as climate change issues. So, we hope to tell an entertaining and informative story that can get the public talking again. In turn, we hope we can contribute to that increased public awareness that can put pressure on politicians and decision-makers to make the changes that we desperately need.