In Friday the 13th's edition of the Greeley Tribune, Dan England did a very nice story on me and and my film 'La Quinceañera"
I am trying to link to the acual article but in the meantime here is the text for it. Also if you would like to visit my website go to www.laquinceaneradocumentary.com
"Documenting a Special Day"
As Adam Taub watched the beginning preparations for a quinceañera for the youngest of five Mexican daughters, it suddenly occurred to him that it would make a good documentary.
The only problem was, he knew nothing about how to film one.
He took photography all through high school, but he had no digital video experience, no knowledge on how to use a program like Apple’s final Cut Pro and no experience on any kind of a documentary, other then watching a few. The documentary that inspired him the most, ironically, was “American Movie” about a clueless filmmaker attempting to make his first full-length feature.
He did even own a video camera.
“It was a spur of the moment thing, really,” Taub said. “But I loved talking to people and hearing people’s stories. Everybody has a documentary that could be made about them.”
But Taub, who graduated from Greeley Central in 1994, wasn’t a fool with a dream. After a stint with massage therapy, he was going to school at the University of Colorado for a degree in cultural anthropology and digital art and a minor in technical arts. He was the son of Marsha Taub-Edmunds, who along with her husband, Ed Edmunds, owned Distortions. Taub-Edmunds agreed to act as executive producer and knew a thing or two about art, performance and production, given the success of the creepy costume, special effects and high-end haunted house supplies business (the place that, among other things, helped create Brutal Planet haunted houses for Six Flags).
Finally, he knew the family well. He first met everyone in 1998 while volunteering in Tijuana with a spring break group, after the family took in the 15-person group when housing fell through. He remembers skating with the subject of the film, Ana, at a rink when she was 10 and felt connected to the family despite the brief visit.
He continued to stay with them on visits to Tijuana while working with a friend who delivered supplies and donations from San Diego to orphanages and families. When another daughter had a quinceañera, he would agree to sponsor the dresses, while others in the community sponsored drinks and other aspects of the dance.
So he read tons of books, learned how to use Final Cut Pro and, finally, he got a camera and sot the film during a two-month period. He managed to work with that friend from San Diego and work on another documentary on him while he did this. He survived on the family’s good cooking (He helped pay for food) and excitement over the quinceañera.
This was in 2003. A tape was 42 minutes. He shot 70 of them.
And then the real work began.
That’s a lot of footage to edit, and for the next four years, Taub struggled to get it done.
“I never wanted to give up, but you start to wonder when it will be done,” he said. It’s like a relationship with someone, almost.”
But he was encouraged from others in a filmmakers group in Boulder, where Taub continues to live. The group was made up of doctors, lawyers and other professionals who had no intention, and no money, to work on their movies full time.
“Its fairly common for a project to take years,” Taub said. “There’s a lot of People trying to do documentaries, but can’t spend their whole lives doing them.”
He knew he was getting close when he took the rough cut to the family last year. Everyone approved, and so he got it down to 42 minutes and finally called it good in April.
“There has to be an ending point.” Taub said. “I felt I couldn’t shoot anything else until I finished it.”
He’s done, but the work isn’t over. Now just getting it seen is taking a lot of time. He wants to show it around libraries and, of course, at film festivals in Colorado and the region. He’s also selling it on his web site.
He knows now he wants to shoot documentaries full time in between editing video projects to make a living. His next, a film on the Dominican Republic, focuses on the music and dance in the area.
He’s now grateful he didn’t know much, or anything, really, about filming a documentary when he started. It led to what he hopes is a full career.
In this case, ignorance was definitely bliss.
It was one of those things that you wouldn’t start if you knew what was coming,” he said. “But I’m glad I did it now.”
Labels: Adam Taub, Article, Greeley Tribune, La quinceañera documentary, Quince Años celebration, XV años
