Kenji, the self-effacing character in our close-to-finished film, came onto the scene after Kenji, the filmmaker, had been shooting for 8 years. It’s not that earth-shattering a decision, other documentary filmmakers have made themselves characters in their own films. I’m a filmmaker, I’ve done it too.
Because the gritty, real stories of the other three characters in Kenji’s film were essentially shot, the question was, how to make him part of the film? Seemed obvious, put him on camera. But we learned that – unlike the other filmmaker/characters who have done this, including me – he is extremely camera shy. Considering the warm, friendly, outgoing person he is in real life, that was a stunning discovery. Through animation, we created a Kenji avatar.
Once we had images to represent Kenji’s character, the challenge was to delve deeply enough into the arc of his story that people felt it was profound and satisfying.
Some of story is dramatic, but is it deep enough?
There’s a sequence where he almost dies on a bike ride because he has a heart attack. The EMTs took him to the nearest trauma center, which was in a Catholic hospital. He was raised Buddhist and while he was unconscious, the crucifix on the wall of his hospital room bothered him. His unhoused spirit spoke, said something he never would have said if he was conscious, “That bothers me.”
The nurse gladly covered it up with a piece of paper. He didn’t know that spirit was in him. Maybe that spirit is the missing fire in his character’s story.
When he got out of the hospital, his doctor told him, “Take it easy.”
That fire made him rebel against the doctor’s advice. Ignoring his wife’s very reasonable fears that he would have another heart attack and that this time, he’d die, he did what he wanted, needed and must do.
He was a changed man.