Interview by Greg Carlson
Zachary Stauffer’s documentary “A Day Late in Oakland,” named Best Short Documentary at the 2009 Fargo Film Festival, will be shown at the Fargo Theatre on March 4 at 7:15pm.
Fargo Film Festival: Is it true that “A Day Late in Oakland” was the project you completed as your master’s thesis at the University of California Berkeley? How did you find the project and settle on your approach to the story?
Zachary Stauffer: Exactly. I was a master’s student at the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. It’s a two-year program and I was one of the students concentrating on documentary production. I was actually wrapping up my summer internship when Chauncey Bailey was killed. I was at my desk at Al Jazeera English in Washington, DC, when I saw on the news that he had been killed and that the raid on Your Black Muslim Bakery had taken place. All of this, right back at home.
The first meeting of the documentary class was about a month later and we all had to come in with three ideas, each with a simple two sentence description, to pitch to the class. I pitched some version of this story at the time and considered it and several others for the first six weeks or so of the term. Stanley Nelson, an excellent filmmaker and one of my professors, was the first to suggest following two paths: Bailey’s and the bakery’s, and see how they come to intersect with each other. That proved to be much more interesting and challenging to the audience than some sort of who-done-it piece or a mere eulogy. I think somewhere in mid to late October, I finally settled on doing this film, wrote the treatment, and started shooting.
FFF: Given the dual stories, how did you manage to find a balance in the rhythm and pacing of the film itself?
ZS: The spring semester in the documentary production class was pretty much all post-production. We’d screen our assemblies, rough, and fine cuts to the class. So every few weeks, we’d get comments from 10 other talented students, plus input from Jon Else, the head of the documentary program at UCB, and Jean-Philippe Boucicaut, a documentary editor who joined us for the term. After each screening, everyone chimed in and noted those places in the story that were working well or the problem areas.
The advice was invaluable. The other thing that I think helped a lot was adding narration. Once I decided that I was going to use it – like many filmmakers, I resisted for a while – I realized that I could hustle certain sections along with concise writing, rather than wait for the interviewees to explain things. Done this way, I could state the facts and have people elaborate upon them. Our projects could not be any more than 26:40 in length, the standard PBS half-hour, and I used every frame of it. Had I not used narration I never would have gotten as much substance into the film.
FFF: The story you tell is so complex, it could have been a feature length film. Did you ever consider expanding the story to include material that had to be left out?
ZS: Briefly, but never seriously. I had time limits for the thesis version of the film. Some students graduate from the program and talk about expanding their projects, but I was pleased with what I had done and felt it complete. The film did things that the newspaper coverage wasn’t doing; it made a point that I wanted to make; and it makes people think. Sure, I could have delved into the trial, but that still hasn’t happened yet and I’d have to worry about scraping together the funds for additional production. Once I graduated, I lost access to the school equipment. I’ve left a little room at the end of the film to add another title card to say what happens at the trial, but I don’t expect to pick up this project again and expand it. I’m proud of it. I want to let it go and figure out what I’m doing next.
FFF: I know the Oakland Police Department declined interviews, citing a gag order. What was the most difficult challenge you faced during the production phase of your project? Were there interviews you were unable to secure because people did not want to speak on the record?
ZS: The most challenging single day was when I went out for a day of shooting in Oakland and my tires got slashed. Some local drug dealers didn’t like the fact that I was hanging around with a camera. I got towed out and hung it up for the day.
I tried really hard to get members of the Bey family in the film. I spoke with Ali Saleem Bey, Bailey’s source, a couple of times on the phone. We had good conversations and I felt I was making progress. He seemed open for an interview, but would make it seem like now wasn’t a good time, that if I try back in a couple days, he’d have a better sense of his schedule and would be able to sit down with me. Then he wouldn’t pick up the phone for another six weeks.
A similar thing happened with Yusuf Bey, Jr, the oldest of Yusuf Bey’s children. He runs an auto detailing shop in Southern California. Again, we spoke by phone and had a good conversation. I told him that I was trying to figure out what good actually came out of the bakery and I needed someone to talk about Bey Sr. and felt that family was the way to go. For a stretch of a few weeks, I was leaving messages for him every day to try to schedule an interview.
Then with the advice of Lowell Bergman, a top notch investigative reporter – Al Pacino plays him in “The Insider” – and professor at the school, I went down to Yusuf Jr.’s house. He was at work and I spoke with his wife for a bit. She said, “Oh, you’re the guy that’s been leaving all the messages.” She invited me inside. She showed me old family pictures that were really interesting, talked my ear off about how Yusuf Sr. was such a great guy, and we waited for Yusuf Jr. to get home. When he did, I explained again what I was doing and why I thought it was important for him to sit for an interview. This isn’t the kind of film that would include an ambush-style interview. I tried to be as non-threatening as possible. He said maybe in December. We shook hands, I left, and when I started making calls to set up the interview, he didn’t pick up. I tried a handful of other Beys, including trying to set up an interview in jail with Yusuf Bey IV, but no one came through.
FFF: “A Day Late Oakland” accomplishes the challenging task of allowing the audience to get a sense of Chauncey Bailey through the archival footage and interviews with close friends. Did you know him?
ZS: I did not know Chauncey. But, yes, I got to know him later through other people. It was really interesting to talk with so many people about him. Obviously his siblings will have one view of him, but his former wife elaborated in different ways. Oakland Tribune reporters knew him one way, but Chris Thompson of the East Bay Express presented almost a completely different person. In my reporting, I realized how complex of a guy Chauncey was. Yusuf Bey was too. With both men, I could not help but wonder that if a few decisions had been made differently in their lives, what could have been? Would I even have made this film?
FFF: Have there been any developments or updates related to the story or Your Black Muslim Bakery since your movie has been released?
ZS: The Chauncey Bailey Project, a coalition of journalists and journalism organizations, have released some powerful stories since I completed the film. There was some footage that I knew existed, but couldn’t get my hands on, that they reported about. It’s of Yusuf Bey IV and some of his friends being secretly recorded in a police holding cell. Bey IV is describing – and laughing about – the Bailey murder scene in incredible detail. The Bailey Project also wrote a great article that used cell phone records and info about a tracking device on Bey IV’s car to chart his activity before and after the murder. He apparently was on the phone quite a bit both immediately before and after the killing and was stalking Bailey’s apartment.
FFF: What is next for the movie?
ZS: Next up is a screening at the Cleveland International Film Festival on March 20. That same weekend is the College Television Awards gala and screening. I’m one of the three winners in the Best Documentary category, but I won’t know until the night of the gala which place I got. I was fortunate enough to shoot one of the other winners, so I’ve got a good chance to be involved with the first place film. There are a couple other festivals I have lined up for April. But one road I still need to go down is finding a broadcaster and a distributor. I think “A Day Late in Oakland” will play well in classrooms.
FFF: More information related to Stauffer’s film is available at www.adaylateinoakland.com.
