An insightful exclusive interview with director GABRIELA COWPERTHWAITE going in-depth on the making of and the power of her latest “Must See Documentary”, THE GRAB.
SYNOPSIS: THE GRAB is a jaw-dropping global thriller combining hard-hitting journalism from The Center for Investigative Reporting with the compelling character-driven storytelling of director Gabriela Cowperthwaite (BLACKFISH), taking you around the globe from Arizona to Zambia, to reveal one of the world’s biggest and least known threats. Quietly and seemingly out of sight, governments, private investors and mercenaries are working to seize food and water resources at the expense of entire populations. These groups are establishing themselves as the new OPEC, where the future world powers will be those who control not oil, but food. And it’s all beginning to bubble to the surface in real-time. Global food prices have hit an all-time high, threatening chaos and violence. Meanwhile, Russia is using food as a weapon against the Ukrainians, and as a geopolitical tool to wield global power.
Directed by GABRIELA COWPERTHWAITE and featuring subjects who, among others, include Nathan Halverson, Emma Schwartz, Mallory Newman, and Brigadier Siachitema, like Gabriela’s prior work with the award-winning “Blackfish”, THE GRAB is a documentary that needs to be seen the world over. If there was ever a “must see” documentary for today, it’s THE GRAB,
Together with investigative reporter Nathan Halverson and his team at The Center for Investigative Reporting, Gabriela has crafted an investigative thriller that explains in cogent and cohesive layman’s terms what is happening with land and water grabs, exposing the “business as usual” cracks, breaking down the inner-workings of governments and corporations alike with the manipulation of land and water on the planet, and more.
Always wonderful to speak with Gabriela, she teased me earlier this year about THE GRAB during our interview about her narrative feature I.S.S. and boy she wasn’t kidding when she told me THE GRAB would blow my mind. Talk about being gobsmacked! Knowing a little something about land grabs and water rights issues around the globe before screening THE GRAB, I had no idea just how big and how deep manipulation and corruption ran with this issue. I do now and so will you.
As we dug into the “making of” THE GRAB, Gabriela discussed every aspect of the filmmaking process, including but not limited to:
- spending the better part of ten years on this project with Nate Halverson; who does what
- finding a through-line and shaping it into a film; connecting the dots
- character-driven storytelling
- being faithful to all the facts, but also all the nuance, all the complexity
- communicating the urgency of the situation and distilling it down
- giving human agency to what is being done to land and water because of global warming and climate change
- the global geopolitical situation
- going down the filmmaking rabbit hole with Nate Halverson
- “peeling back the onion”
- obtaining film footage of events and individuals around the world
- public domain footage versus new footage shot for the documentary (often surreptitiously)
- the editing process; preparing a “paper edit”
- finding the “villainous face” of the land grab/water grab crisis in Eric Prince
- deciding and debating where to stop gathering information for the documentary when this is an ongoing subject
- determining which global situations and events to include; which individuals to showcase
- protecting and preserving film footage; e.g. getting into Zambia, obtaining footage undetected, and getting it safely out of the country
- her filmmaker’s journey and lessons learned in making THE GRAB
- and more!
TAKE A LISTEN. . .
by debbie elias, exclusive interview 06/04/2024
THE GRAB is in theatres and On Demand starting June 14, 2024.
