[Swprograms] HBO documentary - Behind scenes at Air America

[Joel Rubin <jmrubin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/293720p-251485c.html

By Denis Hamill

Air America can thank Kate O'Callaghan, Patrick Farrelly and the horse
they rode their movie in on after "Left of the Dial," a terrific new
documentary about the launching of the fledgling liberal radio
station, airs Thursday night at 8 on HBO.

"When we were done, after we'd shot 350 hours of tape over nine long
months, and after we'd spent all our savings, ran up our credit cards,
we had no money left for editing," Farrelly said.

"So I called my sister on her farm back in County Cork in Ireland to
borrow some money," O'Callaghan said. "And she said we were in luck,
because her daughter had just sold a fine horse named Jose and that
they could lend us the money from that."

In Irish circles, this is known as the Paddy Factor.

The horse was resold and wound up in New Jersey, and so Jose, too, can
tune in this week to see his hoofprints on "Left of the Dial," a
thoroughbred piece of documentary filmmaking by this Irish immigrant
husband-and-wife filmmaking team of the Bronx that got a start working
for Michael Moore's two TV series, "TV Nation" and "The Awful Truth."

"We learned so much from working with Michael," Farrelly said. "We'd
never done TV before, and so he gave us both a chance to learn the
business. Moore showed us how to make films with a point of view, sort
of like the new journalism in the 1960s.

"Michael showed us that a political film can be highly entertaining,
and that humor is often the best way to make an argument," O'Callaghan
said.

Both filmmakers honed their craft working for New York Times
Television, doing documentaries for the Discovery Channel. In one,
O'Callaghan follows paramedics as they treat the wounded in the midst
of a tornado in Oklahoma City.

"If you can shoot during a tornado, you gain the confidence to shoot
under any circumstances," she said.

During one of the most contentious presidential election years in
American history, all the filmmakers' skills are in evidence as "Left
of the Dial" chronicles a suspenseful, humorous, highly entertaining
warts-and-all peek behind the curtain of the launching of a brand-new
liberal radio network in a nation where the national conversation had
been steered by right-wing talk radio since the early days of the
Clinton administration.

"When we first heard that Air America would happen, with Bush in
office, with Iraq on everyone's mind, we just thought it would make a
very dramatic film," Farrelly said.

The filmmaking couple struck a deal with Air America honchos, and,
assisted by additional camera operators Erica Soehngen and Robert
Palumbo, just started filming. And during the jittery 12-day countdown
to launch, the camera probes into all the lefty nooks and crannies as
people such as Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Marc Maron and the
hilarious Randi Rhodes try to find their sea legs on the airwaves of
this operation that in its early stages resembles the set of a Marx
Brothers movie.

The camera is there March 31, 2004, the triumphant first day of air
time. It's there at home with Rhodes, the only host with seasoned
radio experience, who comes out of Brooklyn and Queens as a sassy,
wickedly funny tough broad who on the first day on air hammers out
Ralph Nader in a first-round knockout, causing the potential liberal
spoiler to hang up.

The camera also is there to chronicle Franken's endless wit, offering
a liberal corrective to Rush Limbaugh's daily screed. It chronicles
Garofalo's loving but contentious debates with her conservative
father. It captures morning host Maron's daily preshow meltdown. The
cameras are also there when paychecks start bouncing, medical coverage
flatlines, Chicago and L.A. affiliates shutter, and it's in the
distressed faces of the short-circuiting financial backers, harried
techies, frustrated producers and unpaid worker bees when it looks
like the curtain might fall.

"The irony was that at the same time Air America was running out of
money, so were we," Farrelly said. "We were shooting this
independently, on speculation, without a release deal, and we were
just financially in over our heads."

The cameras are there when new funding is found, and when the first
Arbitron ratings show that Air America is kicking butt against most of
their conservative counterparts in the crucial New York market.

The only thing missing is the day when Sheila Nevins, head of HBO
documentaries, snaps up "Left of the Dial" for a national airing.

"It was a triumphant day," O'Callaghan said. "Sheila Nevins is a truly
remarkable woman to work with."

"Plus we were thrilled to come out with a small profit," Farrelly
said. From which they oughtta buy Jose the horse some oats.


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