Last week, we featured a review of a documentary about prescription pill abuse in West Virginia titled Oxyana. While it was filmmaker Sean Dunne’s first feature-length film, he has a selection of shorter documentaries all available for free from his site (VeryApeProductions.com). From the stories of a real-life man that is an embodiment of The Big Lebowski and The Hustler all contained in a human to conversations with everybody that would talk to him at the annual Gathering of the Juggalos, Sean has a talent for capturing certain slices of humanity that are sometimes overlooked by others around them. In 2011, he was nominated for an Emmy in honor of his work The Archive (also available to watch from his site), about how the man with the world’s largest record collection faces the decision to sell them based on his medical struggles. Then through the help of Kickstarter, he funded Oxyana which became an Official Selection at the Tribeca Film Festival. He left with the awards for Best New Documentary and Best Documentary Feature (Special Jury Mention). Now, he is hard at work with Cam Girlz (also funded with Kickstarter donations), about the lives of webcam models. Even with him currently filming that, he was helpful enough to talk to us about his life and body of work. If you like this, I’d encourage you to rent or buy Oxyana from whatever OnDemand service you use (Amazon Instant, iTunes, et cetera) and to read our review of it.

AGGIE CONFIDENTIAL: You’ve mentioned on Kickstarter that your father dealt with drug dependency for over two decades, and that his struggle was your inspiration for filming Oxyana. How did his trouble with medication abuse come to be, and in what ways did his addiction manifest itself for you and the rest of your family? Besides the inspiration behind Oxyana, how else has his battles with this burden influenced you as an individual and as an artist?

SEAN DUNNE: My father is about 7 years sober now, so luckily he came out alive. The details of his struggle are his to share all I can do is speak from my experience. Pills are a slippery slope, that’s where it started for him and eventually led him to street drugs. As an innocent bystander it’s both scary and confusing to watch someone you love do that to himself. It’s something I felt I got a better grasp on as I was making this film for one reason or another. When it’s you and your family going through the hard times everything is under a microscope, when I got to Oceana I was able to look at it as an outsider and give an outsiders perspective that I think helped people see addicts as people.

AC: Tell me about some of the other formative moments in your childhood and adolescence that you feel influenced you to involve yourself in filmmaking (and more specifically, in directing documentaries). Basically, if Sean Dunne were a book instead of a being, what would be some of the most relevant moments from the first few chapters be?

SD: I was really into baseball and history, spent a lot of time thinking about those things. I think I have an insatiable need to learn and an undying curiosity about people. I love people for who they are. Maybe that came from my interest in history, I don’t know. I remember my parents always helping people by letting them stay with us or having them for dinner or whatever. That stuck with me. We’re all the same, hopefully my films can help people see that a little more clearly.

AC: What have you witnessed while on location for your documentaries that you didn’t have the opportunity to record but would’ve wanted it to be in the finished film? Have you experienced anybody that expressed adverse reactions to you and your crew there?

SD: I’m sure there is a ton of stuff but nothing comes to mind because I really can’t focus my energy on what we’re not capturing, it’s counterproductive. We put ourselves where the magic is happening and usually we’re able to get something worth sharing. Of course there have been haters but surprisingly many of them turn into our subjects. During American Juggalo a lot of ninjas were rolling up to us initially to fuck with us or hassle us about the cameras but the hate turned to love when we explained what we’re doing. That’s the thing, we’re never trying to represent something that’s not happening or something that someone wouldn’t say. We give our subjects a voice and try to get that to the audience in as pure, entertaining and enlightening a way possible.

AC: What are your thoughts on the ‘anti-Oxyana’ movement that has broken out since the release of your documentary? Have you spoken with anybody involved in that movement?

SD: Call it a “movement” or call it what it is; a dude who started a Facebook page to slander our film before we had even edited a frame of it. We understood the sensitive nature of this subject matter before we approached it. We expected this kind of stuff but were actually really surprised that by and large we had the town’s support. This is a real issue, people are really dying at an alarming rate and something needs to be done. We didn’t make that stuff up, we just brought it to national attention. Of course there are going to be people who don’t appreciate it, that’s to be expected but I’m not going to validate it or pretend it’s anything more than a few people who didn’t see or understand my film trying to shoot the messenger.

AC: What are some subcultures or issues you would like to document but cannot film it (be it due to the illegal or unethical nature of it, the risk associated with being there to film it, or some other reason entirely)?

SD: Nothing comes to mind. I pretty much film whatever interests me. I’ve obviously never been concerned with legal ramifications or people questioning my ethics. The work speaks for itself and that gives me the confidence to approach whatever subjects I like. Nothing stops this train.

AC: How do you think that social media and the internet have influenced filmmaking and distribution? More specifically, how has it influenced the documentary genre and yourself as a documentarian? How do you imagine it will continue to change them in the near future?

SD: If it weren’t for the emergence of social media and self-distribution tools I don’t think we would be having this conversation…no one would have ever heard of me. I made my first film The Archive and just put it on vimeo for free and it took on a life of its own. It shocked me and awoke me to the possibilities, I’ve just been running with it ever since. There was a time in the not too distant past that no one was interested in documentary because it was time consuming and boring. Now it’s being brought to the masses and people like me are trying to take new approaches and it’s making us become better storytellers.

AC: What was your experience like employing the Kickstarter system to seek donations for both Oxyana and the upcoming Cam Girlz? In what ways, if any, do you feel like the Kickstarter model could be improved for either the project coordinators or the financial backers?

SD: We had a really positive experience during both the Oxyana and Cam Girlz kickstarter. It goes beyond money, it gave us confidence and PR that we would have never had otherwise. Kickstarter helped put both those films on the map. I think crowdfunding is going to go through a bit of an evolution as the novelty begins to wear off and more established artists start to utilize it. We want to be on the forefront of that. I don’t want people to roll their eyes at the thought of crowdfunding, basically making us look like beggers, it can be more than that and that’s what we want to show people. We’ve built our team for Cam Girlz based on people we met through our kickstarter. That’s something that would have never happened in the past, I would have never known who those people were or had access to them and now they’re working on my project. It’s rad. In terms of improvement, I think that allowing for equity to be sold would be a game changer. Tough to enforce and it probably comes with a shit ton of other issues, but that would be a step in the right direction in terms of making it more sustainable. For us at least.

AC: As someone that uses Kickstarter to assist in the funding of your films, what are your thoughts on some of the controversies brought about by other Kickstarter endeavors like established and financially secure directors (Zach Braff and Spike Lee, for two) crowdfunding their projects?

SD: I don’t know enough about that stuff to comment on it. The internet is full of trolls who make it their mission to tear down people who are making a go at it. If you don’t dig what someone is doing, especially on Kickstarter, how easy is it to just ignore it. I can’t hate. I’m all for people trying new things. I’d rather have a spectacular failure on my hands than nothing at all. Of course there are people that are in this for the wrong reasons, but who am I to judge? It’s self-correcting, projects won’t get funded if they’re not worthy.

AC: Financial contributions through Kickstarter for Cam Girlz, your next documentary, wrapped up on April 2nd. What was your inspiration to explore webcam models? What have you filmed so far for it? Tell me what you can about the individuals you have interviewed or intend to interview for it.

SD: We’re a little more than half way done shooting Cam Girlz. They are amazing, independent women who have completely blown me away. I was shocked by how strong and empowering the community was so I decided to make a documentary about it. We have a bunch of teases as well as a trailer, those give a good sense of what this is all about. I can speak to it, but the girls do it way better justice than I ever could. That film should be out at the beginning of next year. Stay tuned.

AC: Most of your documentaries deal with a subculture that is usually either stereotyped or ignored by mainstream society. What makes this theme so close to your heart and what has motivated you to return to this theme over the course of your career?

SD: I’m attracted to a certain type of stripped down honesty about the human condition. I don’t like bullshit and for some reason there seems to be a lack of it on the fringes.

AC: What advice would you toss out for filmmakers that are still developing their means of creative expression as well as for those that want to seek out a wider audience?

SD: Put yourself in a position to take huge chances in your life. If you don’t buy into the society trap in the first place, it will not be of consequence during your artistic pursuits. Take advantage.