POV: Had your team worked together before the 2013 Doc Challenge?
Benjamin Leers: Our Doc Challenge team was a nice mash-up of old buddies and newcomers. Some of us had already produced shorts together, others had worked together at different film production companies in the past. A few were completely new to the team.
POV: How did you initially meet the Meier brothers and learn about their story?
Leers: When the International Documentary Challenge released the theme [harmony] and genre [social issue/political] for this year's competition, our first idea was to focus on the landscape around the surface mine that gets more and more degraded—a more essayistic film without any people involved.
After some research, we found a notice in a local newspaper mentioning the story of Helmut and Joachim Meier that attracted our attention. We found our story.
Through the local citizen action committee, we received their phone number and gave them a call, and three hours later we found ourselves standing in their nursery.
POV: During the Doc Challenge, filmmakers have five days to make a short documentary film. Describe to us the process of making Good Soil.
Leers: First, we had a meeting where we tried to collect and discuss all the ideas that came to mind. Once it was clear that we wanted to tell the story of the Meier brothers, our team split into two units: research/shooting and a post-production squad.
We shot for two days and edited along the way. In the meantime, our musician, Christian Engelhardt, composed the score and we translated and subtitled our interviews. At the end of the five days, time was pretty tight.
POV: What was the biggest challenge?
Leers: Our biggest challenge was not losing faith in our story and the concept. Because if you do, you won't make it in time. Another challenge was to stay calm amid the time pressure and still come out with a well-told story.
POV: How did you establish trust with the Meier brothers over a short period?
Leers: It would be an exaggeration to say that we established trust with the Meier brothers in one or two days. We think it was much more their open-minded character and the fact that there was sympathy on both sides that initiated a close relationship. However, when we showed them the finished film some time after the shooting, they noticed that we didn't exploit their openness and they felt appropriately portrayed.
POV: What is the status of the Meier brothers' home and garden? What about the village of Borschemich in Germany?
Leers: Basically, not too much changed. At the time of shooting, the Meier brothers expected the surface mine to reach their nursery by February 2014. But in the last year there have been several formal complaints lodged by residents and by [the environmental group] Friends of the Earth Germany about the Garzweiler II coal pit, and Germany's constitutional court had to issue a ruling on those. So the process slowed down a bit. Nevertheless, Borschemich is next. More and more people have relocated. Life in the village is dying out.
POV: Where are the Meier brothers today?
Leers: The Meier brothers still live and work in their nursery in Borschemich. They have a new family member: another huge Saint Bernard dog. Helmut Meier has a long-cherished dream that we didn't mention in the film: he wants to move to the Bavarian countryside in southern Germany. He envisions a wooden house in the mountains. More than half a century in the western German flatlands with a huge hole right beside him was enough for him!
POV: How have audiences reacted to the film?
Leers: People seem to relate to the story of the Meier brothers and Helmut Meier's wish to rebuild the village on 1:87 scale. The brothers are pretty likeable guys. We have received a lot of positive feedback, questions concerning the everyday life of the Meiers and many discussions of the political and social background of this story.
In Germany, the film screened at the 30th Kassel Dokfest and the Film+ festival, where it received the award for best editing by up-and-coming editors. So we are very happy and thankful that the film lives on.
POV: What are you working on next?
Leers: Each one of us is working on different projects, together and solo. Some of us are moving toward interactive media production or are developing new documentary projects. Our editor just started studying documentary filmmaking. Some don't work in the film industry at all.
POV: What recommendations do you have for filmmakers taking the Doc Challenge in the future?
Leers: Inhale and exhale. Keep focus. Enjoy and have fun—it's just a film. But it's a huge opportunity as well.