An in-depth exclusive interview with writer/director/editor TONY STONE talking about the riveting and chilling story of Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, with TED K.
I first met TONY STONE in 2007 at Los Angeles Film Festival with his debut feature film, Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America. Tony’s attention to detail and using strong visuals and sound to tell the story of the early days of the Norse in 1007 A.D. arriving and living in the Northeastern shores and forests of North Amerca demonstrated a real grasp of storytelling and how to use visual grammar and select tools in the cinematic toolbox to tell a solidly engaging story on film. While he has delivered a documentary and some short films as director and/or cinematographer since that time, Tony now gives us his sophomore narrative feature with the intimately mesmerizing TED K, the story of the Unabomber.
Ted Kaczynski is a mathematics prodigy, an academician who was a math professor before abandoning academics in 1969 and becoming a recluse, moving into a small cabin off the grid with no electricity or running water deep in the woods of Western Montana. In 1971 he wrote the now-infamous 35,000-word manifesto, “Industrial Society and Its Future” advocating for “an ideology that opposes technology” and the “counter-ideal” of nature. Kaczynski consistently argued that technology and an industrialized society would bring about the destruction of human freedoms because it needs to “regulate human behavior closely in order to function.” Over the course of 17-years, Kaczynski conducted a series of attacks using mail bombs targeting academics, business executives, and others. The bombings began in the late 1970’s eventually killing three people and injuring 23 before Kaczynski was caught in 1996 following what became the longest and most expensive manhunt in the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Directed by TONY STONE with a script by Stone together with Gaddy Davis and John Rosenthal, TED K explores the life of Ted Kaczynski in the years leading up to his eventual arrest in 1996. Stone, a strong visualist, delivers a film that is visually arresting yet intimate thanks to delicious visual grammar and tonal bandwidth designed by Stone and cinematographers Nathan Corbin and Ethan Palmer. Using all the tools in the cinematic toolbox, we are greeted with the visual artistry of dissolves, horizontal and vertical swipes, 360-degree lensing, and unexpected but extremely powerful use of slo-motion, all of which showcases the award-worthy performance of Sharlto Copley, taking us into the mind of a genius and madman. Adding to the gravitas and power of the story is Tony’s own connection to the environment and the earth, leading him to build a replica of the Kaczynski’s cabin and shoot on the very owned by Kaczynski.
Punctuating SHARLTO COPLEY’s performance and the power of Stone’s visuals is the sound design. It is stunning as Stone celebrates silence, relying on visuals and sound design much more heavily than dialogue. Using voiceover from Kaczynski’s own manifesto immerses us deep into his thoughts which are emotionally personified with an eclectic meld of music thanks to Blanck Mass embracing classical, techno, and opera to create a tone akin to a work by Dario Argento.
TONY STONE talks about it all and more.
TAKE A LISTEN. . .
by debbie elias, exclusive interview 02/10/22
