Natalie Avital’s feature documentary, The Three Hikers, will have its world premiere at the 13th Annual AFI DOCS Festival in Washington, D.C. on June 18th at 8:30pm. Tickets are available now.
The film documents the story of three American hikers — Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Josh Fattal — who mistakenly wandered off the beaten path near Iraq’s poorly marked border with Iran in 2009 and the draconian consequences of their error.
When I joined the team in the Spring of 2014, Natalie had already logged and edited countless hours of footage to tell their story. As a narrative device, she wanted to withhold the actual images of the three hikers until their subsequent release. To accomplish this and help raise the tension and visual energy of the film overall, she approached me about shooting reenactment scenes.
With their frenetic handheld energy and dramatic lighting, the reenactments sharply contrast the surrounding footage. The 50mm Lensbaby Muse quickly became one of Natalie’s favorite weapons. In total, we shot four days on-location together in the Spring and Summer of 2014. We utilized my Canon 5D Mark III camera package with the CineStyle picture profile.
I had a unique perspective watching the film evolve as our brilliant editor, Mo Stoebe, added motion graphics and continued to shape the film with our additional footage.
On the day before my birthday (November 19, 2014), I joined Natalie and colorist Joel Ides at Anarchy Post in Burbank to put the final touches on our work.
