Butterfly

We first met Irma when she was just 16 years old and were immediately struck by her intelligence and self-awareness. Her story is extraordinary, but we believe the process she goes through can resonate with all of us. What happens when you leave what you know to strive for something bigger? What if you work hard but fail to achieve your goal? Was is worth it? Did your single focus blind you from other parts of your life? How can failure make you face your conflicts and allow for personal growth? Beyond these more universal themes at the heart of the film, are subtexts unique to the characters and their environment. For example, the formation of identity in adolescence, instant stardom and its impact, managing pressure under scrutiny, the role of a mentor, female participation in male dominated sports, and whether sports is an effective way out of poverty. The film follows Irma Testa throughout an extraordinary period of her life: a history making victory, a destabilizing defeat, and a comeback that is hesitant and uncertain. On the bigger level however, the film is primarily about a teenage girl who is trying to come to terms with who she is. The search for identity is the driving force of the film, making Butterfly’s scope both simple and broad at the same time.

This is a documentary film because it follows the real story of a real person without knowing exact outcomes. However, our approach is strictly cinematic and most people watching it will consider it “a movie.” After screenings, we hear many people say: “that wasn’t a documentary, I felt like I was watching a film.” This is because of the filmmaking style. There are no interviews and no voiceover….no external explanations in order to understand the story. Irma’s story is told using scene after scene after scene. This is an extremely difficult and lengthy way to make a documentary, but it is highly effective. It requires 100% access to the subjects but also full participation of the subjects. This is because we get their full advice and input before deciding which parts of their life must be filmed to tell the story. There was a huge amount of work done with Irma and the secondary characters off camera…like directors work with actors. Because the story is told through scenes only, and you cannot string it together afterwards in the edit (by using interviews, voiceover, title cards, etc). We never knew exact outcomes but we had a clear sense of where where the storylines were going. In order to bolster this process, we worked with a fiction screenwriter - not a “story consultant” as often used in the doc world - but a fiction screenwriter. Because we knew the story and characters so well, we could usually imagine the possible outcomes. We discussed those outcomes with our screenwriter and worked in many brainstorming sessions to create well balanced arcs and tight narratives. The process went like this: brainstorm, write, work with Irma and the other characters, shoot, rough edit, brainstorm again, write again, shoot again, edit again… and we did this process over and over again throughout the whole production. The screenwriter was fundamental throughout the production of the film because we worked and re-worked off a treatment/screenplay that was always “alive” and changing as the story developed.