Talking with Karen Whitehead of HER AIM IS TRUE

Last week, I got a chance to chat with Karen Whitehead, director of Her Aim Is True. Focused on the career of Jini Dellaccio, Karen’s documentary takes aim at both the world of 1960s rock ‘n’ roll, asking how a young woman photographer made such an impact in a largely patriarchal subculture. From The Rolling Stones and The Who to The Beach Boys and The Sonics, Jini’s shots became the standard for “cool”. An icon in her own right, this is the story of Jini’s journey and where she is at today.

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What inspired you to make a documentary about Jini?

Karen Whitehead: Well, my background as a journalist and I think I’ve always been drawn to revealing stories that are not in the mainstream. I was particularly interested in this story that brings so much together about women’s experiences that are not really generally known about. In particular Jini, when I met her, was just so intriguing to me. How she got to do what she did, the choices she made, were very unusual for a woman in that time period. And she was such a good character.

When you’re a filmmaker or a journalist, and you write stories and interview people, it’s a whole other level, when you’re talking about how you’re going to tell that story officially. And whether the person you want to talk about and feature… whether that person can actually essentially engage an audience. And what struck me, in the cinema, was the regular laughing and gasps. People laughed with her at her extraordinary sense of humor. She’s so charming, and she tells a great story, and the camera loves her. And it was amazing, because when you sit in a, because when you sit in a editing room, as well, and you think you’ve found something and you think it’s going to work, you actually don’t know until you actually watch it with an audience, which is something, unfortunately, most filmmakers don’t get to do until right at the end. I’m very excited that we got the reactions that I had hoped. And it very much goes back to what I felt, to answer your question, with the first meetings and encounters that I had with Jini. I just knew there was something fascinating about the way she describes her experience and approach to life, as well as the particular stories she tells.

Of course you have the archives but I also thought we could do something different. It’s not an art gallery. It’s a film, we’re telling a story. I just felt that we could do something that would bring out Jini’s incredible artistry and experience that would be inspiring, but also would have universal appeal, but also tell her particular story and how she documented her very unique music scene, from a perspective that actually no one’s seen. And that’s something that we got into a bit in the Q and A, after the screening. A lot of people were very interested in how we got that balance, and they were excited about the music. My whole approach of having herwas based on mixing the music of the 60’s and the current music, and showing how Jini could move and relate to young people, whether they were in the 60’s or whether they are right now. All these ideas I had and how I put that into the film, very much extended to my responses to her storytelling and how she talked to me when we first met.

Did you meet with Jini, before making the film? Did you know of her before, or had somebody turned you on to her and then you sought her out? Or did you always know of her as an artist?

KW: Well, I lived in Washington D.C and like everyone else in the world, until I made this film, I had not heard of Jini Dellaccio. Actually how it happenedwas serendipity really, because what happened was I got lucky. Basically some work was already under way by the Jini Dellaccio collection, to preserve her archive. And Chuck Pennington, who’s interviewed in the film and is the archives advisor, for the Jini Deelaccio collection, had been involved in producing this coffee table book, which you may have seen or heard of. It’s called Rock and Roll by Jini Dellaccio. It was certainly sold in at least one bookstore in the Seattle area. I mean, it was a really small run… a niche kind of thing, but a beautifully produced book of a handful of some her iconic rock images. And they decided to have a tribute birthday party to her, and this was in 2009 for her 92^nd birthday. And they invited some of the musicians.

What happened was an amateur Youtube video went viral and somehow a friend of a friend of mine, here on the east coast, saw it. And musicians were saying things like, “Thank you to Jini for making us look so amazing.” I think it was Merrillee Rush, specifically, that there’s a little clip of. I realized there was this amazing rock and roll photographer that nobody has heard of, so I got in touch with JDC and I was able to come and meet some of the musicians and Jini and got to look around more. And that’s when I realized that this isn’t just an interesting story, this could potentially be a fascinating documentary.

In the film, Jini says at one point that music was the best part of her life and was an inspiration to her always. What do you draw on for inspiration? What do you consider the best part of your life?

KW: Oh my goodness. Well I’m about half Jini’s age so I hope I’ve still got more to come. I grew up in London, and I was always fascinated by listening to people telling stories. That’s really how I got into journalism. I take a lot of inspiration probably from my own parents. They were teachers. And I grew up in a place where I had very easy access to the arts, music, theater, being in London. And I saw a lot of amazing productions and you know. Always in London… you know the national theater was on my doorstep, so I get a lot of inspiration from the kind of upbringing I had, with parents as teachers who were very into me experiencing the arts. I spent many Sunday afternoons walking around the Tate Gallery. So I think the visual arts have always been a part of my life. And I’m very lucky, because of that.

At one point in the film, towards the end, a photographer was being interviewed and he said that Jini was never a rock and roll photographer, rather a fashion photographer working in the rock and roll scene. But it’s this that made her so different and really changed the mold. What original approach do you bring to your work?

KW: To some extent, I think it’s important to let the audience decide how they feel about how I experienced it. That’s a really good question though, because I think the way I feel very strongly about storytelling is that the person that’s had the experience, as much as possible, should be the one telling the story. I’m not a huge fan of narration, which you will see if you look at the way I constructed the film. It’s not linear, it’s not necessarily in the order that you might expect, and I like to unravel layers. All documentary filmmakers find their way and their story. I think particular stories call for particular approaches. I had the challenge of working with someone who was in her nineties and we can’t follow Jini around, in a way that you might in other approaches to filmmaking. We can do bits and pieces, but we have particular challenges. For me, it was about building a really strong visual aesthetic. This is a film about photography. So I think, in the approach I took, I wouldn’t call myself necessarily original. I think I tried to pull together some ideas about how you can tell this kind of story, and put them in a form that makes sense and be enjoyable for the viewer.

What was the most difficult part of making the film, for you?

KW: There are two answers. As I alluded to, one particular challenge is working with someone when you’re spanning 90-plus years. There’s that challenge of getting 90 years into 70 minutes and we made sure to. We’re not trying to do an art gallery and tell her entire life story. We’re not showing her entire archive. We’re showing a period. We’re particularly showing what I think is a fascinating period in her photography. It’s not what anyone’s expecting to see and it gives you the essence of her artistry. And there is much much more, there to be enjoyed. I also think all indie films have the unavoidable challenge of funding.

We’ve had a lot of support from fundraising and that’s very important for all indie films. I would particularly hope that, as more films like this come out, Searching for Sugar Man is another example… Art films need to be given a chance. We have very few places to go to for grants. Most of the grants and funds that are available are for very important storytelling and issues of social justice, which we all need to be out there in the world, but there are very few spots for those of us who find these kind of stories. And that has been the difficult challenge of this film. I don’t want to dwell on it, but you did ask.

What do you personally think has been the biggest impact of Jini’s work, to this day?

KW: I think that, again, you have to look at that in levels. She clearly has had an enormous impact on many lives, in terms of the musicians and friendships. She was able to form really close bonds with those musicians. In a broader sense, she has brought an approach to art and beauty… Of observing beauty and documenting music and the natural world in a unique way. Given that, she leaves an incredible legacy, for anyone looking to be creative and pursue their own individual spirit. It is an important legacy, for those two things. I personally think my life has been enriched from meeting her. But I also know, from people I spoke to in the audience afterwards, and people who have contacted me since doing this film, that she has touched lives she does not know. There’s a couple of musicians in the film who have not met Jini, like the people in the band Girl Trouble, but knew her work. And then think about all those photographers and people, who have seen those album covers. You can go on for so many levels of seeing her influence, not just what we showed in the film. Obviously, she is one of the most famous rock photographers now. She definitely was doing something that we describe as “trailblazing” and “pioneering.” But I actually think, fundamentally, I’d like to think, and I’m sure Jini would enjoy the fact that she can be such a positive role model for women and girls, which is really great.

Absolutely. It seems like that probably is one of her biggest impacts, just being a woman and emerging into this scene, which was unprecedented at the time. Were there some band members that you really wanted to get a hold of that, for one reason or another, you weren’t able to get into the film?

KW:It’s obviously unfortunate, but people die. Unfortunately, Kent Morrill was very seriously ill with cancer, when I started filming. There were practical problems. Someone like Kent would have been a great interview, but it wasn’t possible, because he was deteriorating in his house. So that was unfortunate. I actually made a conscious decision not to seek out quote “rock star legends,” because their memory of Jini is going to be fleeting, because the bands she shot in a rock concert are a moment in the film, but it’s not… I actually got her interviews with musicians that she had close relationships with. To me, that was the essence of the film. The other person who would have been great to interview, would have been not a musician, but Alan Little, who helped her design the house. Actually, in the end, we have a bonus scene for the DVD more about the house, because he had actually died when we were starting production. So that kind of changed a little bit.
What’s next for you Karen?

KW:: Well, I do have another project that I hope to get off the ground, and I have been working on a little bit. I’m very involved in the Women in Film and Video community, in Washington D.C. And I love mentoring other filmmakers. Other than those sorts of things, I actually have to now work on getting this film really out in the world. We hope to do other film festivals, art community screenings, and wider distribution, but we still have some final challenges. There is a lot of music and photography in the film. I have to put out licensing. That’s still remaining. Next step for us, to sort that out with, is distribution plans, which we have.

What’s coming up for you on the festival circuit?

KW: We’ve applied for a few other festivals. I have just started to receive a couple of invitations. So we’ll be looking at what we can do, over the next few months. There’s usually a bit of a break in the circuit, as you know, so I expect people will be seeing this film, hopefully, around the autumn, if not before. We’ve got a few possibilities that we’re starting to look at.

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Check out the trailer for Karen’s documentary, Her Aim is True, right here: