Minamata is the story of famed photojournalist Gene Smith who travels down to Minamata, Japan to photograph and document the poison that mercury is causing on the coastal communities in 1971. As Smith sees the devastating effects on the people of Minamata he begins to expose the corporate corruption and greed covered up by the local police and government.
Screen Rant had the chance to speak with Minamata director Andrew Levitas about how Johnny Depp got involved in the project, the influence of Gene Smith on Levitas's own personal work, and why it was important for him to tell this story.
Screen Rant: Andrew, what an amazing job on this film. First of all, Minamata, I had no idea really about this story and by the end of this film, I was in tears when Hiroyuki Sanada was giving that final speech. I mean, it really is this sense of inspiration that you're left with at the end of this film. I know you have a photography background and I know that you were teaching at New York University. Gene Smith really captures the human spirit in his photos and I know that you're a photographer as well. Can you talk to me about Gene Smith's work, just kind of in general, and your knowledge of his work prior to the film?
Andrew Levitas: At a really young age, I recall seeing specifically the Minamata work, I may have seen other Smith work, but it didn't stick with me in that same way and at the time. It's funny because you go make a film like this and you have all this recall and it's hard to know how it all went over the years, but it stuck with me because I had seen the picture of Tomoko in the bath with her mother and I think I was 10 or 12 years old or something and I wasn't devastated by it. It was weird at the time, I just remember thinking I should be really upset looking at this photograph, looking at this image, but for some reason, I don't feel as heartbroken as I should, what's going on here?
Years later, I studied photography and art and I learned more about Smith I became more aware of his work in general and also just had a better comprehension of what you're actually looking at and why. I realized that even at a young age, his work, it's so clear that it speaks to you and that hope, that humanity, that love, which is the thing that we all want and need, it's the thing that makes us human, it's the thing that makes life tolerable frankly, is so present and it pops even more and comes even more clear when it's juxtaposed with the absolute worst of humanity.
For us making this film there were a lot of challenges, but one of the big ones of course was, "Gosh, how do you interpret this work and how do you remake this work and do justice, of course, the victims and the patients and the people that need our help now around the world, not just in Minamata, but also, how do you look at this amazing artist and the work that he did and the important work that he did and replicate it in some way?" But fortunately, I had a million frames or something, whereas he had one to take that image anyway or to express that image. We had some extra tools that he may not have had.
I want to talk about that for a second because the visual storytelling in this is very unique compared to other films I've seen. You find really creative ways to kind of capture these famous images and the stories behind them, I was wondering, can you talk to me about that a little bit and how your background as a photographer helped that a little bit?
Andrew Levitas: It's quite interesting on this film and maybe, probably on most of my film projects, I think without having to be part of the interview process, in talking to cinematographers and talking to production designers and talking to actors, I inevitably end up with painters and photographers on my crew in front and behind the camera and this film was no different. Almost everyone there was a painter and most of them also played around with photography. There was just a real kind of discourse they’re ongoing about how to do these things in a really collective effort, but primarily one of the challenges was making sure that the audience could understand the language of a photographer. I've gotten so many wonderful letters and notes and things on social media from other photographers and incredibly successful ones who were really pleased with the way that we showed process, the way that we expressed it and shared it, but I also wanted to make sure that someone who's just used to shooting with an iPhone also could understand what goes into it and finding it and all that.
I needed to, or we, me and Benoit Delhomme, my cinematographer, Tom Foden, my production designer, we needed to build a situation or a strategy where we could kind of teach an audience our tools basically so that as we progress further in the film and Gene Smith moves from basically being in front of our camera to behind our camera and the perspective of the film shifts to be exclusively about the victims, the patients, and the real heroes on the ground and he just becomes our eyes in. That we could make that work and have everyone feel satisfied when you get to the image at the end that you're talking about. I think the fact that we had comfort with the camera certainly played into it. I mean, we were able to geek out on those things for ourselves.
You brought up a really good point here. because we're introduced to this story through Gene Smith, but as the story progresses, it's really about Minamata. Can you talk to me about the balancing act of that a little bit in the film of really focusing on Minamata and having the Gene Smith character kind of take a step back and we do become a kind of a Gene throughout the course of the story?
Andrew Levitas: Firstly, it starts with the fact that I had an actor that's a global superstar, that was willing to not be in front of the camera all the time. That's unusual, that he was willing and understood who the real stars of the film were, the stars of the story and so having that kind of agreement up front before we even started down this path was incredibly important. Ultimately, this is a film about those heroes and they're meant to inspire everyone out there, people who are voiceless, people who haven't found a way through. I mean, it's a struggle to be alive. It's a struggle to put it together and we're all victims of industrial pollution really.
It kind of just happened naturally, honestly, it wasn't complex in editorial because we built it that way. We built it so that you're with Smith, he's your eyes in, and the gift of doing it that way is that when we come around, we're able to do things that are visually unique because we're interpretive and poetic because we're working through Genes' eyes. So we've now taught you about Genes' eyes. We've given you our language and his language and now the second half of the film, you can sort of enjoy what it would feel like. I've always wondered what would it feel like to have this other person's eyeballs in my head, if I was looking at the world truly through someone else's eyes physically, what would that feel like, not metaphorically, but really doing it and that was our goal.
As the movie progresses, you get further into his minds' eye and really see what he sees. It was really nice to be able to do it and I think it also because he naturally sees the beauty and the hope and love, we were able to express that in a way even when you're tackling a more complex subject matter, you don't want to look away because it's still beautiful.
Andrew, I actually completely forgot Johnny Depp was in this movie because Johnny Depp is not in this movie, that is Eugene Smith. And it's quite incredible, not just the physical transformation, but his whole ability to kind of just shift and become a different person. Can you talk to me about working with Johnny, in the collaboration process with Johnny?
Andrew Levitas: Johnny and I, we got together, a mutual, actually agents put us together and said, "You guys really have a lot of the same interests and you speak the same language, you should get together." And was supposed to be one of these half an hour Hollywood meetings and I'm showing up all covered in paint and stuff, walking out of my studio, I go sit down with him and nine hours later, we've agreed to go make a film, but we've barely talked about the film, all we did was use literary references and art references and photography references. From that point on, we got quite involved in every detail.
I must have put a thousand pages of reading and 50 documentaries in front of Johnny. I made him shoot with certain cameras and shoot certain ways and just really pushed him to become the guy. He sort of has a lot of Gene Smith in him already that sort of light that won't be extinguished, that hope, that love. He brought quite a bit to it, but then when it came to being on set, our team was so dialed in and everyone was pulling in the same direction, we all knew why we were making the film and what the point was. We created these 360-degree environments where, not just Johnny, but all of our actors could step onto our set or step into our town or wherever we were shooting and really just live and exist and be those characters and not feel that they had a technical responsibility to the camera, our responsibility was to them and I think that's why you see such beautiful work for Johnny.
Absolutely. Another performance I was impressed by was Minami. Wow. She blew me away as Aileen. I just have to ask you, what did she bring to the role that wasn't necessarily on the page?
Andrew Levitas: Minami is incredibly special and I think that... I hope that other filmmakers will get the real treat of working with her. She's this very sort of small and sensitive and quiet woman, but the second that you turn the camera on her, you see something that walking down the street, you don't see. It is this immense sort of power and intelligence and just inner strength that just jumps out at you and confidence. You really need to put the camera right there to see it and it's quite remarkable.
I remember sitting... I auditioned hundreds of actresses and she came in and I was just thinking to myself this isn't the person and then I started looking through my lens and I just couldn't believe what I was seeing and what she was expressing because it's so subtle, but the camera, of course, picks it up and it's not that it wasn't on the page, but it was a really difficult thing to find in a woman from the early '70s, a Japanese actress in particular.
This is a woman who had this unbelievable strength. She was from two different cultures and she had a will that was in direct conflict with societal norms and customs where she was from. It was just a unique makeup of a human being and Minami, much like Johnny with hope and Gene sort of had that. She had that ability to give you that traditional Japanese woman from 1972, but also that other thing that so many of those women in real life at that time, but that they often didn't show, it was an absolute, I mean, we did a screen test with the two of them and everyone just couldn't believe what we were seeing. It was just fantastic.
Incredible performances. Hiroyuki Sanada, everybody in this film just knocks that out of the park. Now, the last question I have for you is, this film to me is really about the bravery of speech and the truth of power. Can you talk to me about what you're hoping audiences take away from Minamata?
Andrew Levitas: That's absolutely right. We're in a world where unfortunately the powers that be, right, money, greed, big corporations, even in our industry, whether it's media, whether it's entertainment, obviously in all big tech, in all these areas, they are making judgments, placing judgment, deciding a lot for individuals and it's not on our behalf. It's not for the benefit of us as a society and my real hope for this film is that all of us feel. Just trying to get food on the table for our kids, trying to have time with our partners, just trying to find joy and survive, that we realize that we're really not in it together, right. These are global issues and we have the power if we stand up and we are heard.
In the end credit sequence, there's a song, One Single Voice, and it's true if one single voice can start a tidal wave, one little ripple can start a wave, one match starts a forest fire and that's the thing like we have that power inside of us to speak for ourselves and I think it requires us to be uplifted and sort of own our own power and live the way that we should.
Minamata released in theaters on December 15, 2021. It will be available on VOD/Digital later this spring.