By John Wildman
AFI FEST Daily News Staff

DON HARDY & DANA NACHMAN (WITCH HUNT)

In the documentary world, there are films that are interesting, fascinating, and have wonderfully original viewpoints on a world we only thought we knew…The film WITCH HUNT is exactly such a film.

The journalistic directing team of Don Hardy and Dana Nachman have taken a painstaking and heartfelt look at a travesty of justice that took place in Bakersfield more than twenty years ago, when Kern County District Attorney wrongly prosecuted countless families for child molestation – putting several of them away for 15 to 20 years.

Think about that for a moment. Twenty years of your life lost, all because someone was in control of a system that was horrifically corrupt.

That alone should be enough to inspire theater-goers to load their cars with the latest in torch-and-pitchfork-technology and make the drive to Bakersfield. However, the remarkable peace that victims like John Stoll have with the cards they’ve been dealt forces you to pause and realize that those instincts are the very thing that started their horrible nightmare in the first place.

WITCH HUNT
7:10 p.m. Sunday, November 2 @ ArcLight 8
3:15 p.m. Monday, November 3 @ ArcLight 8
Hardy, Nachman and many of the subjects of the documentary will be in attendance and take part in a Q&A after the screenings.

1 How did you first learn about this case? Why did you feel it needed to be explored further in the documentary format?

Don – The story began with a call to the Northern California Innocence Project. They were working on the case of John Stoll and we followed his case for our day job as television journalists. When John was exonerated, he told us about the dozens of other people just like him that were convicted of similar crimes and served lengthy prison sentences. We couldn’t believe something like this could happen in our country, our state, and we had to look deeper. We found out that John was right on the money and we were compelled to tell the story. It was time to set the record straight.

Dana – In our careers to date we were able to tell many short – two to three minute stories. After we learned that John’s story was way bigger than just one man, we knew we could only scratch the surface with regular news stories. That’s why we wanted to make a documentary. With that said, there wasn’t really one day that we decided to do a documentary. We just started doing what we do; we would call people to see if they would do interviews with us, then we would sit down and just talk to them. Once that happened, we couldn’t help but put it together into a documentary.

2 The officials responsible for erroneously putting all of these people in jail either remain in those same jobs or have been promoted despite being blatantly incompetent. How does that happen?

Don – We’re not lawyers, but what we’ve been told is that it’s extremely difficult to prosecute elected officials. These cases were investigated by the Attorney General of California, and while he wrote a detailed report that outlined many of the numerous problems with the cases, many of the convicted still sat in prison for years. The question that stumps me the most is why do these officials continue to get re-elected?

Dana – I agree with Don. I think that people need to be informed when they vote and also take it very seriously when they are called to serve on juries. We all have the power to make a difference in situations like this. We are all powerful!

3 How did Sean Penn come on board for the project?

Don – Luck and persistence.

Dana – We have become friendly with a man who was in a television documentary that we made. He happens to be friends with Sean Penn. One day he told Mr. Penn about our project. He saw a glimmer in his eye, that glimmer kept us going for the two years that it took us to get a copy of the film in his hands.

4 Was it difficult to put a lot of energy into presenting the side of people like Kern County District Attorney, Ed Jagels?
Don – It was difficult because he has never spoken about these cases. He refused numerous requests by us for an interview.

Dana – We always want to try and get both sides of the story, so it wasn’t difficult, it is just part of the job.

5 What was the biggest lesson for the two of you personally investigating this story and learning about the people involved?
Don – Giving each story enough time. We wanted to keep the time down to a manageable length…91 minutes is the current runtime.

Dana – We’ve never done a project that has taken so long – 4 years. It’s amazing how close you become with the people in the film. This is sort of our M.O., becoming friendly with people in our projects, but this time is different because of the time it took and the trust that they had in it. In many ways, they’re like family now.

6 How did the directing dynamic work between the two of you?
Don – We break up the responsibility pretty evenly, but our busiest times of production are different. Dana does most of the pre-production and I do most of the editing. It’s good though. We generally aren’t stressed out at the same time.

Dana – It’s really good to have someone to bounce all ideas off of. We have different individual strengths, but we tend to like the same things. I think we also like to impress each other. I like to come up with a good idea or write something clever so that Don is proud, and I think he feels the same way when he sends me edited scenes.

7 What recent documentaries have made an impact on you?

Don – THE THIN BLUE LINE, AMERICAN DREAM, MANDA BALA, CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS

Dana – MY KID COULD PAINT THAT, SPELLBOUND, MURDERBALL

8 What is the best thing about having your film at AFI FEST

Don – It’s a great festival in the heart of LA. You can’t beat that. Also, our story is set just up the road in Bakersfield and many of the people whose stories are featured in the film will be here to be part of the premiere.

Dana – We’ve never screened our movie in this country before and we’re fiercely patriotic, so we are very proud to be here and presenting our film. And to be in Hollywood, at the heart of the film world is such a thrill. The AFI programmers came up to Don and I just minutes after our world premiere to tell us how much the film moved them. That meant the world to us, we won’t forget it.

9 What’s up next in Hardy’s and Nachman’s pursuit of cinematic justice?

Don – Keep pushing this film forward. It’s all about getting people to see the film.

Dana – We will continue to work closely with the Northern California Innocence Project… we already feel like we are on staff there.

10 Popcorn or candy?
Don – Popcorn

Dana – Both