by Sam Kulla

I met documentary filmmaker and novelist Daniel Emmerson in a hotel bar in Shanghai while he was working with Joel Nelson on a series about how people learn English throughout the world. After spending a few days in and out of his presence at the same bar, as well as a night on the town with a unique party of other travelers, he struck me as an insanely charismatic, talented and focused. He granted a telephone interview with me for High Contrast Review from his home in Wroclaw, Poland, earlier this month. -SK

High Contrast Review:

For starters, thank you for agreeing to this interview. I appreciate that as a filmmaker and a writer you are constantly busy, which kind of relates to my first question. I mean, it’s not at all uncommon for an artist to pursue those two interests simultaneously, but I feel like different people relate them to each other distinctly. What’s the case with this in your life?

Daniel Emmerson:

They are very much a part of each other. My book, for example, focuses on various excursions around Poland that mostly came about through film work and throwing myself into various situations that arose because of that. They are very much interwoven. The Veddas piece is a fine example of that. The situations I find myself most comfortable about writing are when I have been filming, particularly documentary film. You meet people you wouldn’t meet if you weren’t interested in a particular subject and the writing side of it sort of spirals from there.

With The Veddas, that was something that was a part of the filming schedule, to stay and live with these people for a time, so there were things that happened that did not relate to interviewing these people, climbing trees, and the project’s formalities. It was the first big documentary film project I ever worked on, so I was there with real basic equipment, I didn’t have any lighting equipment, and couldn’t film at night. But really interesting things happened when it got dark and so I decided to write them down instead of filming them.

High Con:

So, from what you’ve shared prior to this interview, I get the sense that film is your primary medium. Why do you write?

Daniel:

It’s cathartic. I get a sense of release from it, particularly if something has had some sort of emotional impact on me. I enjoy being creative with vocabulary and this helps in easing the ventilation process. Some people get drunk. Some hit a wall. I like to write stuff down.

High Con:

In writing, which is almost always based at least the shape of true life events and human interactions, there seems to arise a possible struggle between maintaining the meaning and feeling of what you are trying to express, while not revealing too much about the real people you write about. An example of what I am talking about could be heartbreak. How do you straddle this line in your own work, or does it even present itself as an issue?

Daniel:

“A concrete concept is the combination of many abstractions.” I think Marx said that. Every time I hear it or read it I feel there is something substantial there, everything you believe is happening or that you remember happening or plan in the future is abstract, based on previous experience and your way of philosophizing. It’s sometimes different to put yourself into a different frame of mind than what you are writing or filming based on that.

When you are writing about people you know, like when I wrote the book, I was writing about people I was still in contact with and spoke to and met regularly. A good way to deal with this is to be direct and talk to these people. Be direct about it.

It sounds pretentious, but I have also written things about people I have not maintained a relationship with. I wouldn’t say heartache was a part of it, but I have wondered if the person has seen what I have written and if they remember it. It’s quite strange. With the book, people can just pick it up off a shelf and start reading about real social predicaments.

Complete strangers have written to me in the past before. I think of Poland as a small community with people that would be interested in reading what a foreigner has written about their life, that they would know somebody who knew me. (the phone went dead for five seconds) …and in documentary that is encouraged, but with a book it is different. It’s nice when something comes back.

I think it’s maybe dangerous to publish or widely distribute anything you make before the age of 25, which I guess is a really bizarre comment. But since I released the book last year, I have experienced so much that I think my world view and politics have changed. And it’s a personal book. I sometimes wonder if I should have waited. It’s completely stupid to say, because that happens throughout your entire life, unless of course you live in a cave. I just wonder if I should have been as cavalier.

High Con:

How do you cope with the solitude that so often comes with the territory of this type of work?

Daniel:

I wouldn’t say it is solitary. I find it with a sense of release, you get a sense of joy out of writing something down even if that is a little bit dark. Denis [Shapira Wajman] is an example of what I am talking about. He went out with us that night in Shanghai and then I interviewed him the next day. That was the only time I ever saw him. Then I went to Sao Paolo, to continue the film project, and met his family. His sister picked Joel and I up and took us to the family beach house where we stayed with them for three days. They fed us, housed us, it was amazing. Through interviews and such you find a bond you can’t find in any other situation.

High Con:

I guess that way you get to ask the questions you can’t always ask in bars. Why have you chosen to live in Poland?

Daniel:

It has a lot to do with the language. Ever since I learned Polish, I have felt a cultural tie here. I much prefer it to the UK. It may be something to do with being on the continent. I love Europe, and being a part of Europe, which is such a diverse prospect compared to what I’d get in Plymouth or Essex. In Wroclaw, I have all the diversity of London without the isolation. It’s a mishmash of people all moved here from various Eastern regions, many after World War II, they helped to rebuild and stayed. Over 40,000 students live in my town. Myself included, I’m doing an M.A. here, I feel at home.

I have a new project starting in November that will take me back to Shanghai, and I’ve been studying up on my Mandarin—spoken Mandarin is perhaps easier than Polish, it’s the writing that blows my mind—and there is a chance I could live there for a year or two in the future. But for now this is home.

High Con:

With regards to your written work, and I guess I ask this with the assumption in mind that there is generally an exchange one makes with their audience, some kind of give and take that is exercised when you write, what is the currency? What, if anything, do you give through writing?

Daniel:

In all honesty, I guess because of the cathartic nature of it, I am writing for myself. I have no intention of giving back other than an interesting story people might read and enjoy.

High Con:

I admire your frankness, to tell you the truth. Who in film and literature would you say are your mot notable influences?

Daniel:

(Pauses) …Ryszard Kapuszcinski, who is published in Polish and English, he’s a wonderful writer. Also Milan Kundera, and of course Dostoevsky. Especially here, though it is a bit of a cliché. It is compulsory to read him here in Poland. William Burroughs, though I don’t think he influences my style as much as I love his style. And Brett Easton Ellis, who wrote American Psycho.

I think I hesitated about influential writers because I am more influenced by filmmakers. When I am relaying a scenario in my mind, I often relate to a style of direction I am particularly fond of and that is a big part of my process. Writing that reads like a film, that’s the influence. Andrzej Wajda is a prolific Polish filmmaker and particularly influential. Almost all of his films have real nostalgia in the, I think his first one was in 1953 and his most recent in 2008. He has this certain composure with every one of his shots and is also obsessed with his own upbringing and environment. Dark. It doesn’t happen with all of his films but in the majority, it is a very special experience. Also, Jean Luc Goddard, he’s done a lot of strange stuff, most famous for his French new wave pieces, I think Le Mepris is perhaps my favorite film of all time. It was one of the first films I ever saw as a student being introduced to the artistic nature of cinema, and I still find something different each time about the way he uses the camera. A visual attraction.

High Con:

Last question, what is your life like these days? What’s your rhythm?

Daniel:

I’ve got my M.A. to work on as well as two films shot in China and one shot in Brazil that still require several months of attention, so now it’s a matter of study by day, edit by night.

Daniel’s book, Ktoredy, is only available in Polish. He has no plans to release an English language version, though interested parties are advised to revisit this site soon for translated selections, as well as to keep an eye on Daniel’s website for information about his documentary projects.