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Ross Kauffman's Shortlist

Published on November 13, 2007

The Shortlist article series is your opportunity to learn about the films that inspire intellectual, artistic and activist leaders--leaders like filmmaker Ross Kauffman. We asked Ross to share his favorite films and his thoughts on the power of documentary to change the world. So what films make Ross Kauffman's Shortlist? Keep reading to find out.

Filmmaker Ross Kauffman at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, Photo by Soren McCarty, Courtesy WireImage.com

Who is Ross Kauffman?

Ross Kauffman spent eight years working as a documentary film editor from 1992 to 2000. In 2001, he teamed up with photojournalist Zana Briski to direct, produce, shoot and edit Born Into Brothels, a documentary about the children of Calcutta's prostitutes that won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Born Into Brothels was accepted to over fifty film festivals worldwide and has since received over forty awards, including National Board of Review Best Documentary 2004, L.A. Film Critics Best Documentary 2004, and the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award.

Kauffman is currently working on a variety of projects including; War Photographers, a television series following the lives of five present-day photojournalists from around the globe; Dear John, the story of a mother's spiritual and emotional search for her son who went missing twenty-three years ago; and Penny, a narrative feature-film about the life of a thirteen-year-old Tanzanian girl's descent and eventual escape from a life of domestic servitude.

Ross Kauffman on the Power of Film

I am a filmmaker, not an activist. Yes, I want my films to have a positive effect on society, and for me the only way to do that is to tell an entertaining, personal story on an emotional level. Story first, message second (or third, or fourth). If the heart of a story comes through, then the message will follow.

Filmmaking is storytelling. It is primal. Humans love being told stories. It started thousands of years ago with men and women sitting around a fire telling tales and continues to this day. Stories let us relax, sit in a space and vicariously experience the lives of others. Even if those very lives illustrate great hardship, we can watch and listen, we can feel, and we may even learn something. And when the story, book, song, play or movie is over, we can take a deep breath, get up and leave and go back to our daily existence, whatever that may entail.

If the filmmaker has done their job well, then we may take something away from the experience, something that might change the way we function and exist on a day-to-day and very real level. If the filmmaker has done their job extremely well, people may even get up off their asses and do something positive. For me, that is the goal—to affect people emotionally. If we can do that, then everything else will take care of itself.

The following films are chosen for different reasons. They are not necessarily activist-oriented films. Some are extremely moving and others have been part of my education in filmmaking, but all of them are movies that tell incredible stories and encourage me to keep on trying to make films that inspire and move people.

Ross Kauffman's Film Picks

Salesman: Salesman is a film about Bible salesmen in the sixties. There are days when I feel like the "badger" or the "rabbit," selling my wares to executives and broadcasters and the public at large. Salesman is a comedy, tragedy and great drama. As I watch this film, I laugh, I cringe and am saddened all at once.

Harlan County, U.S.A.: Just watch it. Stop what you are doing, go out and buy it right now and watch it. One of the best vérité films out there, Harlan County, U.S.A. is a story told from the inside. Barbara Kopple's ability to inject herself into her characters' lives and commit herself to their emotional struggle comes through entirely.

Night and Fog: A meditation on the holocaust, Alain Resnais' film is so moving it makes me question whether I should even try to make films.

Style Wars: This is one of the best-edited films around. Try to analyze the structure editorially--it can't be deconstructed, but somehow it works. I love this film for its energy and ability to capture a moment in the history of New York City. This film is also a part of my journey as a filmmaker. I grew up watching Style Wars as a teenager, quoting lines from it with my best friend in the eighth grade, only to learn years later that my editing mentors, Sam Pollard and Victor Kanefsky (along with Mary Alfieri), had spent a year editing it.

Gimme Shelter: I feel like a fool for trying to say why I love a film like Gimme Shelter. JUST WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!

Streetwise: A beautiful rumination about street kids in Seattle. The first shot alone is worth the price of admission.

Jackie MacLean on Mars: Jackie MacLean was a jazz player that came of age in the fifties and sixties. This thirty-five minute short by Ken Levis is about the man as an artist and a rebel.

American Movie: This film says so much about the American dream. One of the funniest films around, it encapsulates so much that is good and bad about our culture in the most entertaining way.

The Fog of War: Luckily I wasn't around in the sixties when Robert McNamara was in power, so I don't have the emotional baggage that a lot of older people have when watching this film. And that is not to dismiss their feelings—McNamara was an extremely controversial figure. This treatise on war and its effects on society is one of the most important films of our times.