BeatRoute Magazine Alberta print e-edition - November 2016

FILM
ACCIDENTAL COURTESY
‘how can you hate me when you don’t know me?’
Documentary highlights one man’s “lost art” of friendly conversion.
The original title of Accidental Courtesy:
Daryl Davis, Race & America was Courtesy
Accidental, which is a musical term. It made
sense given that the star of the documentary,
Daryl Davis, is a notable R&B and blues musician,
having played all over the world with legendary
musicians such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
However, as director Matt Ornstein explains,
during one of the test screenings someone wrote
THE HAPPY FILM
life, documentary and the pursuit of happiness
In bold letters warns the audience at the beginning
of the documentary: This film will not make
you happy.
It’s a good thing that the filmmakers, Stefan
Sagmeister and Ben Nabors, placed the cautionary
caption there in case anyone got the wrong idea. If
you were unfamiliar with The Happy Film’s premise,
you might think it was about relaxing on the couch
with Netflix and a beer; yet in fact, it’s a serious
insight into the science behind happiness and one
man’s quest to find it. Along the way, he’ll attempt
the answer the question: Is there a formula one can
take to find happiness?
It may sound like a social experiment, but the
origins of The Happy Film come from genuine questions
asked by the film’s main subject and co-director
Stefan Sagmeister. “It is the true story of a graphic designer
who thinks he can design himself to be better,”
said Ben Nabors, co-director of the film.
Throughout the film, Sagmeister will run a series
of experiments on himself to change his brain,
including a total nine-month trial with meditation,
cognitive behavioural therapy and medication.
What he found, though, was that it’s not always so
simple. What begins with a tone of levity, Nabors
explains, becomes more serious throughout the
documentary’s running time.
“It is [a social experiment] too, but it is certainly
the true story of what happens to a guy who turns
himself into a lab rat for happiness,” said Nabors.
Sagmeister’s drive for happiness may confuse
FILM
Accidental Courtesy instead and audiences were
seemingly more receptive to it. And since Daryl
Davis has become most famous for his extracurricular
work in befriending members of the Ku Klux
Klan, you could say the new title makes sense too;
as in, that has to be an accident, right?
“How can you hate me when you don’t
know me?” Davis asks his supposed adversaries
throughout the film. It’s a good question, and one
Pursuing happiness isn’t all smiles.
some, as he is initially very successful as a graphic
designer, having designed record covers for The
Rolling Stones, Jay-Z and Aerosmith, to name a few.
Furthermore, he seems quite content. As Nabors
explains, however, “He just became very interested
in this question, if we can train our bodies. If we can
exercise to be healthier, why can’t we similarly train
our minds?”
that must work, as Davis has been successfully
befriending, and often converting, members of
the KKK and other identified racists for “20 to 25
years,” Ornstein says.
That said, “He doesn’t go in trying to make a hard
sell,” Ornstein adds. He doesn’t try to convert anyone,
or tell them to get out of that life. “He has lunch
with them, he’s friends with them. He starts there.”
Davis’s old-school methods of personal, face-to-face
interactions in the impersonal age of social media are
the likely reasons for his success.
Ornstein’s reasons for wanting to document
Davis’s life and capture it on film are pretty self-explanatory.
How many others have attempted such a
bold idea?
“I read a newspaper article about Daryl and was
pretty interested, just because we come at this
issue [of racism] from the same angle over and
over again. And here is someone doing something
different and I wanted to know why he did it. I had
so many questions.”
Perhaps Davis’s modus operandi was born out of
naiveté; it seems like it’d be easier to slay a dragon
than convert a Grand Dragon. Yet, he kept asking
that question: “How can you hate me when you don’t
know me?” Asking the question seemed to work, as
many of the Klan members had never met a black
person, or bothered to speak with one. And sometimes
that’s all it took to make them think otherwise.
Speaking of terrible names, Dragons and Grand
“As a graphic designer who finds improvements
to things, it makes sense that he would pose that
question,” he adds.
In the film, Sagmeister states that making a movie
about happiness is like making a film about life. “It’s
too big and too complicated,” Nabors adds, finishing
the thought. “So we focused on area where we felt we
had some expertise which was his happiness.”
by Jonathan Lawrence
Wizards? C’mon, KKK. That’s pretty lame.
Spending his early years abroad, the young Davis
didn’t physically experience racism until he came
home when he was older. “His initial goal [was] him
trying to understand racism,” Ornstein explains.
“Suddenly he wants to know why people dislike him
because of his skin, which led him down a road he
never thought he’d be on.
In his travels across the United States over the
years, he’s collected robes and other artifacts from
friends who have left the Klan, slowly building a
collection in hopes of eventually opening a museum
of Klan memorabilia, so to speak.
Ornstein said his goal with the film was “trying to
explore [Daryl’s] psychology.” He continues: “[Daryl]
tries to spend time with people and that’s a lost art…I
saw a tangible effect he’s had.”
When asked what it was like to make such a
bold documentary about relevant issues, Ornstein
responds that “it’s been an inspiring process for me.”
“But I was definitely uncomfortable sometimes,”
he laughs.
Accidental Courtesy received the 2016 SXSW
Special Jury award for Portrait Documentary and the
2016 Nashville Public Television Human Spirit Award.
It will be available on Netflix in the spring.
Accidental Courtesy screens during this year’s CUFF
Docs festival at the Globe Cinema, which is happening
Nov. 17-20.
by Jonathan Lawrence
Although the documentary’s subject matter
focuses on Sagmeister’s life and problems, Nabors
assures that there is something for everyone to take
away. “There is a lot of relevance and a lot of answers
observing his successes and failures throughout the
film. You [might] learn what to do, what not to do,
and hopefully apply it to your own life. That was
always our goal.”
Self-financed and six years in the making, The
Happy Film is an ambitious project; one that Nabors
sounds proud of, and is happy with its critical response
so far, pardon the pun.
“Six years in the making was never the plan,”
Nabors laughs. That said, it seems the extra time gave
the filmmakers room to develop their theory and to
see where it went, including all the highs and lows
that can happen in someone’s life during that time.
“Documentaries are interesting; you can choose
when you end your story. If we had stopped the
story on a high moment, Stefan’s journey would
have been very positive. If we stopped it on a low
moment, Stefan’s journey would have been wasted.
We gave ourselves the time and space to properly
contextualize it.”
So, remember that The Happy Film will not
make you happy, but knowing that you didn’t have
to go through Sagmeister’s experiment just might.
The Happy Film screens during this year’s CUFF Docs
festival at the Globe Cinema, which is happening
Nov. 17-20.
BEATROUTE • NOVEMBER 2016 | 17