Handmade Nation: Q & A with Director Faythe Levine
August 14, 2009 | By
Faythe Levine is a crafter, writer, musician, and the creator of Handmade Nation, her first film and documentary about the current world of DIY and craft. With a punk sensibility and an obvious love of the craft scene, Handmade Nation is a seminal work about the craft scene and is a documentary that every creatively oriented individual should see as a compliment to their own creative practice due to its combination of historical framing, current crafters, and insider’s look into craft shows.
Previously, Just for Fun reviewed the Handmade Nation film; this week, the incomparable Faythe Levine joins us for a little bit of Q & A!
Handmade News: Please tell us a little about your background. What made you want to make this documentary about the resurgence in DIY and craft?
Faythe Levine: I grew up in Seattle, Washington during the early 90’s. It was around this time that there was a lot going on with punk and riot grrrl, and this influenced me a great deal. Punk was my gateway to DIY.
The documentary was made out of my love and respect for a community I am a part of. I wanted to make sure to capture what was going on around me, which I felt was very important and life changing. It’s always an important time for consumers and makers to be thinking about where stuff comes from, how it’s made, who is making it. It’s very beneficial for the DIY community at this time, however, due to the marketability of Handmade being “green.”
HMN: Many of the crafters you interviewed have a background in art. Do you feel there's a gap between public perception of the difference and value for "art" versus "craft?"
FL: The debate about what is art and craft is endless. I am working on promoting the idea that making is empowering, and less on the battle on defining what is what.
HMN: How did you go about choosing the cities and craft shows that were featured in Handmade Nation?
FL: I chose the cities based upon people I wanted to interview. About 95% of the folk who are in the film are people I had worked with or was familiar with before starting the production. Of course there were places I wanted to go that I didn’t. This was due to financial restraints and the fact that I needed to be finished at some point and had to make a decision to be done.
It’s been a three-year process making Handmade Nation, and we shot 80 hours over this time. The editing process of the project was a struggle on a lot of levels but my editor Cris Siqueira did an amazing job with what we had.
HMN: Most of the crafters portrayed in the film seemed to be white women in their 30s. Is there a reason you chose to focus on them, and not to include older and younger crafters? Do you feel as if the current popularization of DIY and craft is more of a middle class phenomenon?
FL: I focused on the community that is around me in the film. Like I previously mentioned, I knew 95% of the people I interviewed before starting the production. A lot of us had never met and knew each other from online and some of us had met at craft fairs or gallery shows. The indie DIY art craft and design community tends to be mostly women between 23-35+ so that was who I interviewed. I didn’t go out of my way to ask people their nationality before meeting up with them, it seemed strange to curate the film on race instead of the work makers were doing. It just happened that the majority of the featured people are white. I do, however, think that the there is a lack of diversity within the indie scene and I agree that “the current popularization of DIY and craft is more of a middle class phenomenon” like you mentioned.
HMN: Are there future plans for a continuation of Handmade Nation?
FL: I have no current plans to make any additional Handmade Nation projects. I am just following through with the completion of the DVD and touring with the film through Feb. 2010. I am really looking forward to working on something new.
HMN: Overall, what was your primary purpose in making this documentary? As a crafter, what do you think is the most important thing to take away from Handmade Nation?
FL: I wanted something for people within the community to be able to share, as well as people who were not familiar with what is going on to educate themselves. It seems to be doing just that since most of the screenings are in schools, museums, and galleries and the book is available in a lot of libraries around the country, which is really exciting to me.
The best feedback I get after every single screening is that people leave feeling encouraged, inspired, and motivated to go home and make stuff. Which to me is fantastic.
See the Documentary!
Handmade Nation is currently on tour around the country. Special screenings and appearances by Faythe are coming up next in San Francisco at the Fort Mason Center in association with the American Craft Council, Los Angeles at the Cinefamily in association with the Reform School and Home Ec., Atlanta at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, and Milwaukee at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Check out the Handmade Nation News and Events blog for a complete listing of screenings.
In case you miss it, the Handmade Nation DVD arrives in bookstores everywhere October 2009!
And don’t forget to pick-up a copy of the accompanying book also titled Handmade Nation.
Further Reading
Handmade Nation Documentary Review
Subverting the Paradigm of Art and Craft
Julie and Julia: Film Review
The Importance of Handmade Education
Photos courtesy of Handmade Nation.
<---Go back to the Just for Fun department homepage for more crafty fun!
'Trie is an ex-academic geek who spends her free-time arting and crafting, working on her webcomic ...quixotic or not, and blogging.
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