Ana’s Playground: war’s dirty little secret

Eric D. Howell has just completed a movie of complex moral perfection.  Ana’s Playground is a short 20 minute film made  from a screenplay he wrote two years ago.  His film, examining the horror of children in war including children as soldiers, is a stunning achievement for a first time filmmaker.  It is demanding of those who see it, demanding that viewers look deeply and uncompromisingly into the humanity of a child as we have never had to before. 

Around the globe, children are singled out for recruitment by both armed forces and armed opposition groups, and exploited as combatants. Approximately 300,000 children under the age of 18 are thought to be engaged in various conflicts around the world, and hundreds of thousands more belong to militias who could be sent into combat at any moment. Although most child soldiers are between 15 and 18 years old, significant recruitment starts at the age of 10 and the use of even younger children has been documented.

This is the sickening reality that drove Howell to take what began for him as a simple writing experiment and nurture it to become as bold a statement on children and armed conflict as we have seen.  It was filmed in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis and made to look like it could be Colombia, Bosnia, Kosovo or any urban landscape we have come to know as cliche newsroom war zones.  He wants us to feel as though this militarized mess could be closer than we like.  It’s an important aspect to this artist’s connection with his audience and a subject matter that it would surely prefer to look away from.

We are honored that Eric Howell consented to our interview request.  He is an emerging artist who has taken on as heavy a subject matter as the world has to offer.  It is our hope that the profile will bring people to his film and a subsequent awareness of one of mankind’s gravest dilemmas.  We begin with an exclusive preview of the film’s trailer.

Ana’s Playground Trailer from Eric D. Howell on Vimeo.

 You mentioned that the film began for you as a writing experiment. Tell us how a humble writing experiment evolved into a film project with this kind of moral scope and accompanying production values.

It’s true, I did not start with a cause or a mission of any kind. I wrote the script to experiment in empathy. Because it is a short story, I needed to establish empathy quickly. With kids empathy is universal and automatic. It took about 2-4 weeks to write and re-write the 20 page script, and I immediately got strong reactions from people. The strongest was from a British friend who said to me “Americans learn geography from the wars they create and see on TV – what the fuck does an American know about war-affected children?”  That comment pissed me off. (This was just before we got into the Iraq war)

As a filmmaker who travels the world on a regular basis, that stereotype motivated me enough to push ahead with getting financing for the film. The issue I had written about was real – and my American point-of-view on the issue was valid, but my friend had a point. As I presented the project to people I was blown away by the number of well educated people who had no idea about the issue of child soldiers and war-affected children. I realized that I had a story with the potential to open people’s eyes.

My crux was that this was going to be an expensive film to make in the way that I envisioned it. I spent a few years trying to get the financing – came close on several occasions – but in general, there is no return on investment for a short film. The financial aspect of the project just didn’t make sense. So I gave up on it.

Then in 2006 I got a call from the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival telling me that I had won their “Best Screenplay” award. This was significant in that the festival is an Academy qualifier – films that win at this festival become eligible for an Oscar nomination. If I could only get the film made I just might actually reach an audience.

This is when my producing partners and I came up with the notion of utilizing the film as a charity piece rather then a traditional distribution model.

Our mission statement: We intend to create and Oscar-worthy film, that reaches the broadest audience possible, to raise the most amount of awareness about war-affected children and the organizations working to improve their lives.

Within 6 months we raised all of our production funding.

The child actress who plays Ana is remarkable and gives your film a deep emotional anchor. Where did you find her?

I had worked with Raven Bellefleur on a feature film titled Older than America. She had the role of a child that was being abused within the story and as the Stunt Coordinator for the film it was my job to make sure that everything was done safely. While working closely with her on that film, I was amazed with her intelligence and instincts. What she has cannot be learned in acting class. I gave her and her mother the script thinking that she could play the part of the Little Girl in Ana’s Playground (since she was too young to play Ana). Well – that was 2 years before I locked the financing – Raven grew up. She was 11 years old when we finally filmed the movie and was simply perfect. Eight months after production she has grown so much that I hardly believe she is the same girl in the movie. Serendipity.

Although filmed in Minneapolis, the urban landscape appears universal. Did you want us to feel that this could, in fact, be happening anywhere including here?

Exactly. Too often audiences are able to disengage from a story by saying Well – that’s just what happens in Africa or That simply wouldn’t happen here.  The only way to take politics, religion, and racism out of the story was to create our own world. We created our own language and cast children of mixed ethnicity. What we got was a very American looking cast.

Inside the story the children are listening to a professional soccer match on the radio. The antagonist in the story is a sniper hidden in a building who is also listening to the same soccer game. The game is the common link that they are not aware of. We recorded the entire broadcast in our fictional language, then added crowd noises to make if feel like a real game.

The result of these efforts create a convincing world that is completely believable, yet unrecognizable. Rather than feeling a sense of pity for “those poor people” the audience feels empathy for characters that could very well be their own child.

The moral horror of war goes beyond our ability to fathom especially when we are asked to further comprehend that children are actually forced to become engaged in it as soldiers. What specifically compelled you to want to take this much on as an artist?

I feel that my job as a filmmaker is to perform two tasks. My first job is to entertain. My second job is to inform and ask questions. Without both of these elements working together my films will become irrelevant and boring or heavy-handed and preachy. When I write a script I sometimes start with an interesting and exciting plot – sometimes I start with a moral message – but in the end both of these elements must be in the proper place and balanced. In the end a filmmaker only asks the questions in a thought provoking way – it is up to the audience to find the answers. 

You used classic guerrilla style film-making tactics and shot the film in 6 days. You were then offered to take your sound editing to the world class facility Sky-walker Ranch for final production. How were you so fortunate?

Our mission, the quality of the script, the passion of the people that I’ve been surrounded with, and a whole lot of tenacity. We got that script out to everybody, including a legendary sound effects editor named Richard Hymns.  He’s won 3 oscars for sound effects editing, including one for Saving Private Ryan. Because there is very little dialogue in the film the story relies on sound effects. After reading the script Richard wrote a 5 page essay on how he would handle sound for this film and offered to help get it to the people at Skywalker Sound. It was like taking a pilgrimage to the Mecca of film, and quite frankly it changed my life. By the time we finished our mix with Gary Rizzo (The Dark Knight) the people at Skywalker were impressed with the final film and they asked to place it on their showreel! I told them we’d think about it

What are your plans for the film’s release? What do you see as its distribution strategy?

We have a multi-level distribution plan that we are working through with our PR team at Tunheim Partners. The old film distribution model for film is dead if not gasping for air – we intend to utilize a combination of traditional and non-traditional screening platforms.

The more buzz about the film, the more audiences we reach, the more we are making people aware about organizations like RIGHT TO PLAY, OPPORTUNITAS AEQUA, WARCHILD, UNICEF, and HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH.  First we will be distributing to film festivals around the world. (Our first will be on September 25th at our World Premier at the Calgary International Film Festival) We hope to hit Sundance, Aspen, Santa Barbara, Cannes, and all the other usual suspects in order to create ‘buzz‘ about the film. 

 We are working to find corporate partners that want to utilize the film to launch a movement to aid the organizations doing great work for kids around the world. (Known in the biz world as ‘Cause Marketing’.)

 Other screening venues we are seeking are IN FLIGHT on airlines to and from next years World Cup in South Africa, limited theatrical release with a feature, DVD supplement release with a feature, university and college screenings, and eventually screenings on the internet.

We’d like to create the first-ever social media Oscar campaign.

Because this film plays in all languages, and has a non-political and universal theme we are seeking screening opportunities and underwriting partners with a vision and intention to help children in a unique way.

The bigger the splash we make with this film, the more exposure we create for a corporate sponsor, the more we drive people to actively engage in helping kids living in horrific conditions. Anyone who has ideas should contact me directly at ericdhowell@me.com

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