JONATHAN KARSH INTERVIEW (Director):
"My Flesh and Blood" is your first film. What's your background in filmmaking?
I came from television. I was a host and producer and reporter for various TV shows for 15 years before doing the documentary, and doing little three-minute stories for years. I have a reel of thousands of little stories and my stock and trade was getting a story done in the morning and putting it on that night - turning it around and banging it out. It's a rush of adrenaline of getting the story and running the tape "Broadcast News"-style to the edit room and putting it on the air. That was what I did for a living. After doing it for 10 or 12 years, I got burned out on it and creatively. I really hit a crossroads and wanted to sink my teeth into something a little more serious.
I would see documentaries and covered Sundance and was so moved by so many films, I just wanted to give an audience that same experience. That was in my head for a long time and I watched a lot of documentaries. And then one day, my producers for this TV show I was doing in the Bay Area said, "Oh, you're meeting this woman and her 11 kids. Go do it." And it was just supposed to be another day at the office. I couldn't have cared less. That was totally out of my familiar. But when I met Susan and these kids, it really changed my life. I was so taken and shaken by the kids and by Susan, I just wanted to follow up. I was sensationally curious about them and how they operate, how they function with these disabilities, and how Susan does it. I just wanted to follow up and that's how I came to it.
How has this family maintained such a sense of humor?
Well, I think they've got a mother with a really strong sense of humor. She does Halloween by putting the kid without legs on a table with fake legs and sawing her in half. That's Halloween. They have this very funky, macabre sense of humor and sense of themselves. And that comes down from Susan who sees the world a little differently than we all do. And I think that's where the kids get it.
Why haven't they tried prosthetic legs?
They can't physically get prosthetic legs and I'm not quite sure why. When I've asked the girls that they say they don't want legs because they don't want to get a sprained ankle. They do not want legs. These are two girls who like not having legs. They like having incredible upper arm strength. They like being able to get under tables and around things quickly. They love it in fact. They love that they're singled out for it. They love that they have each other. They have no interest in getting legs, and certainly not prosthetic legs.
How much home video did you go through?
Hours and hours and hours. Susan shot so many holidays and firsts and when kids would come. She would go to Russia and pick up four new kids. She would come home and then she would shoot their first Christmas on her little home video camera. So there were many, many hours of footage to sift through. I used a lot of it in the movie.
How much time did you spend with the family?
Spent a total of one year shooting it and it was a full time job, no question about it. It was around the clock, talking, shooting, being with the Toms.
How much footage did it amount to?
About 120 hours, narrowed down to 84 minutes.
Were there any good outtakes?
There are no big scenes that we couldn't fit in. Every scene that unfolded that I wanted in the movie is in the movie but there are some great lines, great one-liners that the kids had, that didn't make it into the film. We've got a little bin of greatest hits sitting on the desktop that we might put on the DVD.
Why are all the interviews with the family, with no outside perspectives?
I think it just seemed extraneous. We shot a lot of outside perspective and I just felt like they were saying the same things that an audience would say. And the outside perspective should really come from you, the audience member watching the family, as opposed to watching somebody watching them.
