Awards Daily talks to the Emmy-nominated directors of photography—Kris Kaczor, Sebastian Lindstrom, and Alicia Sully—about what it was like working on NatGeo/Disney+’s documentary We Feed People.
We Feed People is an all-hands-on-deck kind of film project. With director Ron Howard at the helm, he enlisted director of photography Kris Kaczor to work with World Central Kitchen directors of photography Sebastian Lindstrom and Alicia Sully, the latter of which have been following around José Andrés for nearly 12 years as he traverses the globe feeding people who’ve survived natural disasters.
“It’s not about José, but it is about José,” says Lindstrom. “It shows how one person can ignite and shift consciousness and how we can all do our part in feeding humanity. If Ron would have said this was the film he wanted to make from day one to José, José would have said, ‘No way—I don’t want this to be about me.'”
In fact, Andrés was often resistant to participating in the film when there was so much to do.
“That was the only day that José allowed me to put a lavalier [microphone] on him and he was very angry at the beginning,” says Kris Kaczor. “Absolutely. He didn’t like me because I was the guy that was trying to get a mic on him so we could ask him some questions that Ron wanted to ask him. That’s basically the process, so he was a moving target.”
I had a great conversation with the directors of photography about what the collaboration process was like, how to stay out of the way when filming the action, and what it was like capturing Andrés at his most vulnerable in a scene toward the end of the film. Watch below!