Past Filmmakers

Mary Dalton
Tom Whitaker:  Potter at Large
(Premieres November 22, 2003, at 11 PM)

1. How did you come up with the idea for the film?

I made a film a little over a year ago about a self-taught artist in Winston-Salem—Sam McMillan. My aunt, who lives near Tom Whitaker in Cleveland County, thought a project on him would be perfect because I enjoy meeting interesting people and helping tell their stories and because I have collected Southern folk pottery—mainly face jugs—for almost 20 years.  I went and visited Tom and his family, and we just clicked almost immediately.  Tom and his wife, Anna, have a delightful daughter, Abby, and I felt welcomed by all of them.  This was an especially fun film to shoot because of the people involved.

2. How long did the production process take?

We shot three different days in October and November 2002.  The first day, which was a very warm fall day, was devoted to interviews with Tom and his family, to shots of digging and processing the clay, and to shots of turning pots.  The second day, which was really a late afternoon and evening shoot in November, was spent documenting firing the pots, which seems as much like a party as it does hot, hard work because of all the folks from the community who come by to help or just hang out and eat.  The final day, a very cold, Saturday morning when I was uncharacteristically quiet because of laryngitis and a sore throat, we shot the pottery sale.

3. What challenges did you experience in the creation of the film?

Honestly, the biggest challenge with this project was figuring out what to cut.  It’s a good thing I had a great editor (Brett Ingram) who kept me on task and encouraged me to streamline the project because Tom is such a wonderful participant (I don’t like the word subject), and everything he says is relevant or very funny.  Also, my videographer (Phil Smoot) shot some really beautiful footage of the entire process, which also meant losing a lot of powerful images because they just didn’t fit the story we constructed.  There were very hard choices to make to come up with the final cut, but I’m happy with this film and am not second-guessing myself as much as I have with the first two projects.

4. What is your favorite memory from creating the film?

There are a lot of them.  My favorite parts generally in any project are thinking about the idea before shooting and the final tweaking in the post, especially seeing the difference music makes.  And I do think the music in Potter at Large is especially wonderful.  Ezra Edgerton is a friend of Tom and Anna’s, a local chiropractor who plays a little fiddle and guitar on the side for fun.  I met him when we were shooting the kiln firing when he stopped by with his girlfriend to check out the scene.

Later on, Tom suggested that I talk to Ezra about playing something when I asked Tom what types of music he’d like for me to consider for the film.  A few weeks after that, Ezra brought his fiddle over to the Whitaker’s house and sat across the kitchen table from me playing some tunes.  He told me upfront that he didn’t, strictly speaking, play songs as such but just little tunes that came into his head and that we’d never get the same tune twice.  I thought his approach was a little like Tom’s unconventional and very self-sufficient approach to pottery-making (and, to be perfectly candid, I was a little reminded of the way Ada played her instrument in The Piano, like a “mood sweeping over her”), and I loved the sounds that came out of his fiddle. 

Several months later, when I had a rough cut of the film and Brett and I had talked about where music would work well and how long it should generally be, Sid Williams met me at Ezra’s chiropractic office in Columbus, NC, and we recorded the music that delights me still.  Moving all that sound equipment into Ezra’s office up in the North Carolina mountains, turning away patients who stopped by when they saw his truck there on a Saturday morning, and spending an hour recording him playing the fiddle and guitar may be the memory that makes me smile the most.

5. When someone has finished watching the film, what do you hope they take away from the experience?

I hope they enjoy meeting Tom and find an appreciation for his self-sufficient “do it yourself better and cheaper” attitude as well as for the beautiful pots he makes and how all of that process is connected in very fundamental ways to the people in his life.

I sent a copy of the film to a former student of mine living in DC who’s been making documentaries longer than I have, and his response back pleased me very much: 

“I tell you, it's just a relief to watch a film with the word "Potter" in the title that doesn't feature a bespectacled young wizard...I love the little opening montage, but more importantly, it's a very important thing you're doing, creating this little visual record of these crafts in a world where most everything else is made on an assembly line in a far-off land…”

The few other people who have seen the film and talked to me about it at this point have appreciated the “personalness” of it and what they have felt is its evocative sense of personality and place.  I feel all of those things, too, and am pleased that others share in this experience but equally pleased when they come up with new ideas and impressions that have never occurred to me.

6. What type of reaction has your film received from viewers?

Generally, people just love Tom and want to go to one of his sales—which I’m sure he’s happy to hear because he loves interacting with all types of folks.

7. What advice would you give to aspiring young filmmakers?

I’ll offer two ideas that are important to me.  First, there are many stories that should be told, and some of them are local.  Look around.  Second, be aware of the implications of the work you do and take responsibility for it.  It really doesn’t matter if you are making a documentary or working from a fictional narrative because creative expression is never separate from a larger critical context, so choose your projects with an awareness of that. 

8. Please tell us about the next film you plan to work on.

I’m actually working on three projects right now.  The one closest to completion is a personal documentary called Dalton Got Hit.  Here’s a synopsis:

This personal documentary explores how lives change in a moment when the filmmaker's son is involved in a traumatic accident.  On April 30, 2002 nine-year-old Dalton Smoot was struck by a van at the end of his driveway as he prepared to walk to school.  His mother was watching.  Interviews with Dalton, his mother, his doctor, and others help contextualize the accident into a short life marked by other obstacles he has already overcome—four months in neonatal intensive care for complications related to his premature birth and Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, which has been in remission for three years.  One year after the accident, Dalton seems fully recovered and untouched in marked contrast to his mother, whom he calls “obsessed,”  “paranoid,” and “overprotective.”

My other two works in progress are films about North Carolina artists:  Seagrove potter Crystal King and self-taught Statesville painter Addie James.   

9. What are your thoughts on the film industry in NC?

I support any opportunities or enterprises that nurture the work of North Carolina writers, directors, and producers and that employ people in crew and support positions.