Erik Ljung is a freelance Producer and Director of Photography currently based in the midwest. He has produced content and short documentaries for the New York Times, VICE News, Al Jazeera, PBS and the Wall Street Journal.
Salem Film Fest program director Jeff Schmidt caught up Ljung ahead of THE BLOOD IS AT THE DOORSTEP's New England premiere on Friday, March 23 at 6:45 at CinemaSalem.
JS: How did you get into filmmaking?
EL: I think making videos has been apart of my life since I was about 10 years old, but I never thought a career in a creative field was a legitimate career option for me. I didn’t really start working as a filmmaker until I was in my late 20’s. Back in 2010 I took a week off of work to help some friends make a documentary that took me from Milwaukee to Boston and back. We basically just followed a local band on tour (the film ended up being very little about the band), but after that week I was hooked and knew I had to work “in the field” and not behind a desk. When I returned to work, I promptly quit without much of a plan, but I cut my teeth assisting stills photographers and shooting weddings, which eventually morphed into smaller one man band video work and went from there. My primary source of income now is from freelance DP work, mainly in video journalism and documentary work, as well as some ad agency work. I’ve found that having a hire-able skill has helped sustained creating independent projects such as THE BLOOD IS AT THE DOORSTEP. Working freelance can also get in the way of trying to make that film, but finding a balance between paying the bills and getting your project done is key.
JS: When did you become aware of the Dontre Hamilton shooting and at what point did you decide to film?
EL: I found out about the shooting the day it happened, when Dontre’s name had not even been mentioned yet. I live just a mile from the park where he was killed, and that park is literally right across the street from the job that I quit that I previously mentioned. It is the most central park in downtown Milwaukee, and it was the middle of the business day. Dontre was shot 14 times by an officer responding to a non-emergency wellness check of someone sleeping in the park. It didn’t make sense, and the number of shots was hard for people to comprehend. The day after the shooting, Dontre was labeled as a violent, mentally ill homeless person, etc. I grew up with a cousin who developed paranoid schizophrenia and is literally homeless in my hometown of Sonoma, CA. So Dontre’s story hit close to me, and the way the Chief immediately scapegoated mental illness only added to the stigma of mental illness and the families that struggle to support their loved ones struggling. Those first couple days, I knew I would do something, but wasn’t sure what.
JS: As you watch the film, it's really impressive the amount of access you gained and searched out in trying to tell the different sides of the story. How did you approach the family of Dontre Hamilton and Milwaukee Police chief Ed Flynn to participate in the film?
EL: I wanted to get involved earlier, but I had a lot of doubts about approaching the family. I had to really question myself if I was the right person to tell this story, if I could even handle the responsibility, if I would be able to see it through, and why did I want to do this story. It is extremely intimidating to approach a family going through a tragedy like this and try to explain why a documentary should be made, so you really have to question yourself if it should and if you should be the one telling it. I finally approached the family once they put themselves out in the public at their first rally at Red Arrow Park. I was introduced through mutual acquaintances, and it really began with just filming the family at rallies until we both grew comfortable with each other.
Getting access to the police department proved to be difficult because I was not affiliated with any news agency, and so I think they saw me more as being an activist than a documentary filmmaker. I did not have a lot of connections in the independent film world, so I ended up pitching portions of the story to news outlets in order to get funding to keep working on the film. It wasn’t until I started covering the case for The New York Times and Al Jazeera that the police department started to open their doors a little bit.
JS: What has the reaction to the film been by the participants?
EL: The family has been very supportive of the film. I think it is still difficult for them to watch at times, but they sit through every screening and always catch something different. The family has attended quite a bit of screenings and we have been trying to set up more community and educational screenings with them in order to connect with audiences on issues of police violence and mental health, and ways to be involved.
We screened the film at the Milwaukee Film Festival back in October, and recently held a screening for Milwaukee politicians, but Chief Flynn, nor the District Attorney or Police Union President has accepted our invitations yet. Police Chief Flynn went into early retirement in February.
JS: Your story is highly charged with emotions on all sides, as a filmmaker can you talk about your process in filming in these circumstances?
EL: In a lot of ways I was an outsider. In particular, there is a scene where a group of Milwaukee mothers who have lost sons to police violence meet in order to be supportive to one another as they fight together and individually in their sons cases. I was the only one who was not a parent in the room, the only man, and the only white person in the room. I primarily worked as a one man band in the field. Part of this was due to budgetary constraints, but more importantly it was in order to maintain the intimacy of these situations and environments. I didn’t want people to feel like they were on a reality television show, I wanted to be as invisible as possible. I kept my mouth shut and tried to stay out of the way. They were letting me into their lives in a way that showed them at their most vulnerable, and I was fully aware of how personal these moments were. I did not deserve to be there, but the Hamilton family trusted me and were eager to have the full story out there about who Dontre was and who there family was.
JS: What role do you think documentary film can play in creating change?EL: This is the golden question and always the hardest thing to quantify. With a film like this I hope to challenge people’s assumptions, no matter what their perspective. But, how do we translate this film into real tangible action or change? I don’t want people to walk out of the theater and think of it as just a movie, or something that happened far away to someone else. The blood is on everybody’s doorstep, and it is going to take everyone to chip in and make the changes that they want to see, whether that is issues related to police violence, gun violence, or the environment. It is important to keep people informed and share information online and on social media, but it is going to take more than that. It is going to take figuring out what you are concerned about, what your skillset is, and how you can contribute. It is going to take getting out into the community. It is going to take voting in ALL of your local elections. Local elections always have very low turnouts, but are the elections that will most likely directly affect you the most.
