Documentary director explores wind energy

Last weekend, the Talking Pictures Festival screened "Windfall," a documentary exploring how wind turbines affected the rural town of Meredith, N.Y. The Daily spoke with Director Laura Israel about the creation of the documentary and what Evanston residents should do about the controversial issue of wind turbines.

Excerpts:

The Daily: How many films have you made, and how was the creation of "Windfall" different from your other films?
Laura Israel: "Windfall" is my directorial debut as far as a feature goes and especially a documentary. I've made a couple of short personal films, more like personal diary films. I mostly work as a film editor for artists and photographers.

The Daily: Do you have plans to go further into documentaries?
Israel: I enjoyed it. It was a lot of work, and it was really interesting to do the research. But my favorite thing of all was just talking to people and getting out of the editing room and going to people's houses and getting to know them. I would do that again in a minute. The editing part was not as much fun for me.

The Daily: How did you get the idea for the documentary?
Israel: I am from a rural area to begin with, so I grew up in the country. I bought a cabin in the woods in Meredith, and I started reading tiny little things in the local paper about wind energy. My first instinct was, "I'd love to have a wind turbine. That sounds like a great idea." Like the other people in the film, I went through the same process of discovering about wind turbines. The thing about wind energy is that it's so complex. I could have made a 20-hour film. You see wind turbines everywhere, and they become an icon for being green and renewable. It's not that it's bad, you just have to look into it more and ask the right questions about it.

The Daily: What do you think people in Evanston need to do before committing to a wind farm?
Israel: Find out as much as they can about it and ask a lot of questions. If anybody takes anything from the film, it's to ask questions. Do your homework. Get unbiased information. Go to sites on the Internet, find the drawbacks, get balanced information. Make sure that the town is going to get something out of it, financially. I really feel that's important.

The Daily: Do you have any advice for aspiring filmmakers?
Israel: Just do it. I know it sounds really corny, but I really think with digital video now, people are able to just go out and do what they need to. I went to film school, and it was really difficult. There was this sort of attitude that everybody couldn't do it. It was hard at the time for the female to do it, which has become a lot easier now. I think it should be accessible to people of all ages and genders and anyone who wants to do it.