“Over 40 years after the comedy film 9 to 5, working women are still fighting for the same serious issues of inequality the film tried to showcase behind a veil of humor.” Filmmaker Gary Lane on STILL WORKING 9 TO 5 which is screening at SxSW 2022. Co-director Camille Hardman also joins us for this interview!
Welcome to SxSW! Is this your first SxSW experience? Are you attending in person or doing the virtual fest?
Gary Lane: Yes, this is our first premiere at SXSW. We are attending all three in person screenings. We are so excited to witness the audiences seeing the film. We are also excited for film goers to enjoy the world exclusive new 9 to 5 duet with Dolly Parton and Kelly Clarkson! It will not be released on music platforms until probably May. Hopefully the same day we have a streaming platform world premiere. The duet was created exclusive for our film. Dolly and Kelly have even gone in studio and recorder footage they plays as our end credits roll.
We have never been lucky enough to visit Austin or the SXSW film festival. We are coming for all 11 days. We plan on staying until they ask us to leave!
How did this whole project come together? Give me a rundown from the preparation to execution to now!
Gary: With an initial idea in 2018 to make a documentary about the 9 to 5 iterations leading up to the sequel. Upon partnering up with Camille Hardman, we learned about the 9 to 5 organization and working women’s movement, and the documentary took on a whole new life.
Camille Hardman: Gary Lane called me and said he had watched the Emmy’s with Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton and it gave him the idea to do a documentary about the 9 to 5 sequel, the original film and the musical. He called me and asked if I wanted to be involved. At first I was sure if it could make an interesting documentary, but when I looked at the history of the original film and saw that the idea for the film was originally germinated from the 9 to 5 Organization of Women Office Workers I was completely intrigued and decided to become involved with the project, especially after the MeToo protests and revelations. Once this happened Gary approached Steve Summers, Dolly Creative Director and he agreed to come on board as an EP. The first interview was Karen Nussbaum who was an old friend of Jane’s and one of the Founders of the 9 to 5 Organization, and then fairly early on Dolly agreed to be interviewed. Patricia Resnick also gave her blessing which allowed us to talk to cast of the London Musical, Broadway Musical, and Ellen Cassedy the other founder of 9 to 5. After we came back from London Lily agreed to be interviewed, we self funded the entire project until Sept 2020 when Regina K Scully and her foundation came on board and help us with fund the film. We tried for grants, but no one would fund us, so we limped along working and funding the film by credit cards. During filming Shane MacAnally at Steve Summers house in Nashville Tennessee, Steve said to Shane all of us, wouldn’t it be a great idea to do a melancholic version of 9 to 5. And that’s how the duet came to be.
While working on a project, what’s your creative process?
Gary: We jumped in feet first, and Started shooting interviews. Dolly was our first big score. After we sat her down, all of the other leading ladies followed. Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda from the film. Even Rita Moreno from the 9 to 5 tv series and Allison Janney from the 9 to 5 musical. Our amazing editors took care of it all as the interviews came in. That’s the dream editing team Oreet Rees and Elisa Bonora.
Camille: A documentary has to have a good message. So it’s crafting what the message with be, and sometimes this does develop over time after you do the research, but it is something that initially grabs me. Then it is crafted along the way after I do a lot of research, and I do a lot of research. I research online. Talk to as many people as I can, so I can get all the facts. Being armed with information is the most important factor when making a documentary to understand the subject matter, societal history, cultural landscape, and the people being interviewed. Once I have done the initial I wanted to get a great team around us. I knew Brian Tweedt, a fantastic cinematographer, from my years on working on Restored and he he believed in the project as much as we did, because we were all doing for love. Not for money. We then found great editors in Elisa Bonora and then Oreet Rees who really helped craft the project.
What was your biggest challenge with creating this feature, and what was the moment where you realized “Yes, this is IT!”?
Camille: The biggest challenge was financial. Constantly running out of money, and trying to work out what jobs we could do to generate money. Because the documentary was so labour intensive I wasn’t able to get a full time job to support the film. Larry and Gary really supported the film. Regina K Scully can in to help us with editing, but we had to scramble again to finish the film. So that was our biggest hurdle. We applied for grants, but got turned down because of either film-maker inexperience or the project was too commercial.
Gary: This is an archival documentary with over 1000 photos and vintage clips of the leading ladies so we think fans will love this film. So getting all of that licensed and cleared was huge for us. Also, Dabney Coleman at 90 was our last interview February 21st 2020. Then COVID hit and shut LA and the world down. Having finished all of our interviews we were blessed to edit the film over the next 15 months.
I am a tech person, so I would love to know about the visual design of the movie from the cameras to the formats used and how it was made from a technical standpoint!
Gary: Brian Tweedt is our cinematographer. We took him with us from DC to NYC to London. He shot on 8k red cameras. The interviews and B-roll are absolutely beautiful. Brian equals cinematic perfection.
Camille: We shot on RED camera at 24fps. We filmed all the interviews and as much B-roll as we could. Over a half of the film is archival footage which is incredibly labor intensive to source and get approved. We edited on Avid.
What are you looking forward to the most about showing your movie at SxSW?
Camille: Hopefully selling the film, but also spreading the message of women in the workforce and how things still need to change to reach full equality. Also, meeting really interesting people and watch other fascinating projects. I hear the SXSW energy is infectious!
Gary: Watching the film with audiences for the first time. After almost of editing and filming. Four years of Seeing Austin up close and personal. Also having my twin brother Larry Lane with Camille and myself on hand to enjoy all of our hard work paying off.
Where is 9 TO 5 going next? More festivals or a theatrical or streaming release?
Gary: We will be playing at AMDocs in Palm Springs on April 9th and we will also be playing at Hotdocs in Toronto April 29th – May 8th. We ask fans to please follow our journey at stillworking9to5.com!
What is the one thing that you would say to someone who is wishing to get into making movies, especially now as the world is changing at such a fast pace?
Gary: If you have an idea, run with it. Four years ago, we would have never dreamed that this idea would lead to sitting down all four original iconic cast members Dolly, Lily, Jane and Dabney sharing onset stories and behind the scenes insight the fans have never heard. Also, get a great creative team to work with! Bringing on Executive Producers like Steve Summers and Shane Mcanally! They get the full credit for the reimagined duet version of 9 to 5 with Kelly and Dolly that is sure to be a hit! And to quote our new original song in the film, “Make sure your dreams have wings”.
Camille: Just do it. You have a mobile phone. Anyone can make a film, you just have to have the courage to find a good story and go out and film it.
And final question: what is the greatest movie you have ever seen at a film festival?
Gary: This is going to sound rehearsed, but my favorite film is 9 TO 5. Not only because of a love for Dolly, but also because we now know why the film needed to be made at that time, and with the issues still ever present for working women, we really do need that 9 to 5 sequel that fans have been waiting on for so long. While we’re at it, let’s get the ERA passed and final have women represented in the Constitution of the United States. It’s actually embarrassing at this point.
This film and many others like it will be showing at South By Southwest taking place March 11-20. For more information point your browser to www.sxsw.com!