Video: ‘SPLIT: A Deeper Divide’ trailer

Dorri Olds: Your film does an amazing job of stating the problems with partisanship in America. Do you think there are any solutions?
Kelly Nyks: William McKinley’s campaign manager said it best, “There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money and I can’t remember what the second one is.” I bet if you asked one hundred Americans standing on a street corner if they thought it was a good idea to have money determine elections, ninety-nine out of the hundred would probably say, “That’s a bad idea.”
But hasn’t money always played a role in politics?
Yes, but there’s a huge difference between a $3,000 dollar contribution and a man like Sheldon Adelson who can donate $5,000,000 dollars to Newt Gingrich’s campaign. Then, the following week, his wife can give another $5,000,000 dollars. That is the new terrain.
Who who was it in the film that said Republicans and Democrats will rue the day finance was allowed to play such a huge role in politics?
Senators from both sides—Chuck Hagel and Evan Bayh. Young generations only know rhetoric and screaming in a shrill tone. That’s what they see on cable. It’s so disconcerting. The days of objective reporting are over. Politicians that were known for crossing the aisle—which gave them great credence—are now gone. We wanted to create a film with no agenda.
How did you get the funding to make this film?
It was entirely self-financed. We made it on a shoestring.
The sharp film quality looks expensive.
We worked very hard to make the production value look as high as possible. Amazing technological advances like 35-millimeter lenses for all types of cameras aided us. Historically the equipment would’ve been prohibitively expensive.
Did you try to get sponsorship?
No, we self-financed because we wanted our film to be totally unbiased. When we were making this film, Jared and I were looking through as wide a lens as possible.
Pun intended?
[Laughs]. No, I mean we wanted to try to understand and then depict how it came to be that partisanship divided this country and we needed it to be free from anybody’s agenda or expectations.
Your film is now being used as an education tool in schools. How did that come about?
The last thing we expected was for our movie to be embraced by the U.S. State Department. So far, we’ve screened it everywhere from Barcelona to Paris and all around the world. Our movie is being used in high schools in Europe—400 high schools in Germany alone. It’s being translated into French, Spanish and German.
Has it been shown in Muslim countries?
In Turkey, we screened the film in seven different cities. The fascinating thing there was we learned Turks hadn’t known that America has a secular split. They thought all Americans were in favor of the Iraq war. That was their sole impression of us.
Before our first screening in Turkey, we were told to be aware that only one out of every 10 Turks like Americans. At past events things had gotten so bad that Americans had to leave the stage. The great thing for us was, because our film takes an honest look at how our democracy is failing, the Turkish people had a very positive reaction. Our sincerity in trying to focus on America’s problems seemed to be why they responded favorably. Partisanship is not a made-in-the-U.S.A. phenomenon. Almost every country has some of the same worries—global climate changes, economy—these are things that affect everyone, everywhere.
You must feel proud of your accomplishment.
It’s surreal. Here we made this little independent film with no funding. I paid for it by putting it on credit cards with 17.5% interest. It was a tough challenge. The perseverance of Jared and all the other people working on the film was what kept us going, even in the bleakest moments.
Can you give examples of bleak moments?
Even though the technology is a great blessing, there were times we were dealing with uncooperative hard drives and wrestling with formats and nothing was working. We had compiled an overwhelming amount of footage. There I’d be, exhausted at 3:00 a.m. with so much more to do, and not able to drink one more cup of coffee. At those times I felt like giving up and selling all the equipment. Jared would carry the torch, then sometimes I would. We were working against all odds.
What do you mean?
A lot of Indies don’t make it. There were a number of times we could’ve been one of those. With an Indie, you’re betting against the house. To have a small film like this, one that doesn’t take an aggressive political stance, has no shock value, and was made outside the system, it’s always going to be difficult to get a film like that into theaters. It’s incredible we’ve gotten this type of release.
How did you get it into theaters?
You have to do all the things that people say you can’t. We went to theaters and approached them directly. We told them what our movie was about and they would show interest and watch it. I think a lot of it had to do with the sincerity of our request. In the middle of a place like, say, Missouri, when you arrive with no money and you’ve undertaken something that you really believe in—even in an era as polarized as ours—you can receive an incredibly positive response.
“SPLIT: A Deeper Divide” is playing at Quad Cinema in Greenwich Village, 34 West 13th Street. Unrated. 75 minutes.
Extra treat: Writer and director Kelly Nyks will be present for Q&A’s following the 5:35 and 7:10 Shows on Friday 10/12, Saturday 10/13 and Sunday 10/14, and the 2:00 shows Saturday 10/13 and Sunday 10/14.