I'm in New Delhi, working on a documentary about an American in exile.  It's a true documentary, filmed in near-real-time, and I'll start editing footage in a few days.  This self-exiled man, (an author, engineer, pilot, geologist and more), is going to declare himself independent of any nation shortly, and he may be thrown in jail for it.  He'll declare himself an "illegal human," without name, birthright, or government-sanctioned status.  My goal as a filmmaker is to remain objective, and to ensure that I don't become a part of the story itself.  But that's turning out to be very difficult. 

When my partner and I arrived in India, we were immediately whisked away to the deep Himalayas, where we began to experience the best India has to offer: good food, hospitality, and  amazing views. 

Instantly, we felt ourselves becoming part of the story, as our host became tour guide and interacted directly with us as his guests.  It almost feels like having your cover blown in an undercover mission.  

While this surely wouldn't ruin the documentary, it certainly could alter it,  especially if we get caught up in the drama of the events to come.  

After a week in the Himalayas, we took the 10 hour trip to Delhi by car and train, arriving in Delhi early in the morning.  Aside from the experience of the place, which is NOT the focus of our story, we have experienced plenty of drama, and have become involved more than we want to be in the story.  The difficult task of unweaving ourselves from the story is ahead of us. 

As our subject moved forward to his "action" of declaring himself "stateless," we must distance ourselves from him simply for the sake of our own protection.  The last thing we want is to finish our film from inside an Indian prison!

LESSONS LEARNED:
Since our goal is to produce a story about this man and his actions, but NOT to produce a story about our involvement with him, we have learned that we must not become "friends" with our subject, lest we become wrapped up and involved with his struggle, ultimately altering the focus of the movie, not to mention possibly altering his story.  We must remain detached, yet maintain a level of trust that allows us to film intimate and sensitive moments.  Our friendship DID allow for this, yet it also altered the nature of our filming, as we ended up interacting directly with the subject. 

In the end, we will produce the documentary we had planned, but it will require much more editing than we had set aside time for.  From a purely practical standpoint, this was a mistake.  From a documentary filmmaker's standpoint, our mistake was in potentially altering the outcome of the story, and in becoming part of it.  From a human standpoint, however, we have gained amazing experiences with people and locations, and have met an amazing individual.  

So, stand by for the results, as we head off to film his "action" this evening.  If we stay out of jail with him, we'll post an excerpt, along with an update of anythng else we learned