Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Andrea Fuller and Patrick Reasonover of Just Add Firewater Are Helping To Change Our World
An Interview With Edward Sylvan
Patrick: We collect the kindling, build the fire, and tell our stories with the hope that we inspire audiences to be better versions of themselves, for our society to be a better version of itself. Often, the only real conflict we face is a failure to understand each other and to empathize with each other. Our forthcoming documentaries are all about inspiring meaningful change, from reimagining our approach to healthcare to bringing sunlight to problems with our criminal justice system.
Andrea: And, we’re showing that there are things that people of different political leanings can actually agree on and work together on. Patrick and I are very different politically but respect each other and find many areas of common ground. It helps that we both always agree on whiskey and are willing to make fun of almost anything.
As a part of our series about “Filmmakers Making A Social Impact” I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrea Fuller and Patrick Reasonover.
Andrea Fuller and Patrick Reasonover are partners in the film production company, Just Add Firewater, and most recently produced the feature documentary They Say It Can’t Be Done. Patrick is a wanna-be William Faulkner who fell back on producing films to pay rent; Andrea is a middle-aged mom and former management consultant who, like Liz Lemon, believes she can have it all. Somehow, they have managed to find common ground and tell stories that matter.
Thank you so much for doing this interview with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit. Can you share your “backstory” that brought you to this career?
P: Growing up in Alabama, I never thought for a second about someday moving to Los Angeles and working in film production. But I love storytelling and through a series of fortunate accidents, I produced 2 feature documentaries, 40 narrative shorts, and more animated content than I can remember. The best lesson I’ve learned in the past 15 years is to kill your ego and allow the story to emerge through imaginative collaboration with others. That is the only way to acquire self-knowledge, which I believe is the focus of the craft of storytelling. Second lesson, when possible, be funny.
A: Unlike Patrick, I had no background in film (except for a short stint at PBS) when we decided to partner up and make movies. But, I knew how to run a business without hemorrhaging cash which seems amazingly easy to do in the film business. Also, I had 20-years of experience in the stand-up comedy business, which is a very different art form than film, but it has been fun trying to adapt.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your filmmaking career?
P: There is no end to bizarre stories in the film industry, like bringing my own mattress as a prop in a 1960s truck that broke down on the way to set, only to have said mattress permanently stained with fake blood when we finally arrived. For They Say It Can’t Be Done, stories ranged from weird but cool like eating real meat made entirely in a lab to harrowing, but cool like getting our entire production team to jump from one boat to another over sloshing Pacific waves with tens of thousands of dollars worth of camera gear in hand.
A: For me, the most interesting parts are the crews we get to work with on projects and all of the small moments you share. Like, on a shoot in rural Texas after Hurricane Harvey, where 8 of us crammed into a van for a week endlessly ribbing other crew members for attempting to order lattes and kale salads from the local diner.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
P: Does it get more interesting that people who created plastic trees that suck carbon out of the air at a 1000% the rate of a real tree (Klaus Lockner), who created a way of producing real animal protein without the death of any animal (Josh Tetrick), who developed the means of 3D printing human organs (Dr. Anthony Atala) or who opened the first open ocean farm (Brian and Scotty Schmidt and Brandon Barney)? The joy of documentary filmmaking is meeting incredible people and bringing their stories to audiences.
A: In our current documentary about Civil Asset Forfeiture we have met people who have been seriously victimized by law enforcement. Their stories are heartbreaking, yet they all exhibit resilience and resolve that I am not sure I could muster in myself. As Patrick said, it’s such a privilege to bring their stories to light.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
P: Tough question since we only work on interesting, exciting projects. We have a feature script set in Iran about a young female metal singer trying to find a way to pursue her dream in a place that forbids it. We have three documentary projects, one on reimagining healthcare and one on Civil Asset Forfeiture. I leave the third to Andrea.
A: While doing research for our Civil Asset Forfeiture doc, we ran across a fascinating story of a law student who uncovered and successfully litigated unlawful activity of a number of “drug task forces” in the state of Missouri. These task forces were operating with a complete lack of transparency and oversight resulting in rampant misconduct. Unfortunately, this is not limited to the State of Missouri and we are now working with him to expand this story and shine a light on how these task forces really work.
Which people in history inspire you the most? Why?
P: Mark Twain, because he was a merciless satirist who believed mankind could be better.. He held up the mirror of humor to show society its true nature, warts and all. I wish we had his live performances on camera.
A: Stacey Abrams is my current inspiration. She’s fighting one of the biggest battles of our time with data, smart strategy, and really good stories. She’s relentless. And right.
Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview, how are you using your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share with us the meaningful or exciting social impact causes you are working on right now?
P: We collect the kindling, build the fire, and tell our stories with the hope that we inspire audiences to be better versions of themselves, for our society to be a better version of itself. Often, the only real conflict we face is a failure to understand each other and to empathize with each other. Our forthcoming documentaries are all about inspiring meaningful change, from reimagining our approach to healthcare to bringing sunlight to problems with our criminal justice system.
A: And, we’re showing that there are things that people of different political leanings can actually agree on and work together on. Patrick and I are very different politically but respect each other and find many areas of common ground. It helps that we both always agree on whiskey and are willing to make fun of almost anything.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and take action for this cause? What was that final trigger?
P: I have to say, we have a pretty amazing job. It is a privilege to play with toys and tell stories as an almost grown-up. My Aha moment, like most aha moments, was realizing something that should have been completely obvious from the start: storytelling is not about the storyteller. It is about the story and for the audience. All that matters is that the audience walks away feeling that the hour and half of their lives they gave to our film was worth it. As I have embraced that, I’ve not only become a better storyteller, but also a much happier human being.
A: I loved working on the innovation documentary because I am a former engineer and love science and anyone who is able to dive in and figure out an elegant solution to a problem. But, it’s the criminal justice reform that really has my heart now. Living on Capitol Hill and experiencing the events of the last year gave me a much better understanding of just how much I never knew and understood. Now I need to deepen that understanding and tell these stories.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
P: It is always a dream that our work will bring evildoers to justice and inspire some hero to invent the warp drive. But since our role is to craft a story that appeals to broad audiences, we don’t always learn about the individual impacts we make until years later. Occasionally, we do get the chance to see the inspiration first hand, like in a Q&A I did for a small high school class in Arkansas about this film. Young people are idealists who too often get buried beneath a life’s worth of cynicism. The best impact we hear are stories of when we are able to grab hold of that young idealist in each of us and remind you of who you really are.
A: For our current documentary, They Say It Can’t Be Done, I think we have been able to help out the individuals featured by bringing focus to just how difficult it is to bring their life-changing innovations to market. It is our hope that this film can be used to have those discussions at a policy level so we are not constantly making a false choice of innovation vs. safety and can think more creatively about how to support entrepreneurs.
Are there three things that individuals, society or the government can do to support you in this effort?
P: When it comes to challenges, too often people think like royalty. The Queen says do this, her loyal subject does exactly what she says, and the problem is solved. In fact, social advances only happen when we embrace individuality and decentralized, nonlinear solutions when all people are free to imagine and bring those solutions into being. Our film is about the future, and there is no policy playbook for that. Instead, our film asks only one thing of the viewer: Empower innovators to innovate. How you do that depends on who you are.
A: 1) Watch the film. 2) Consider your position on regulation. Do you think they are all good? All bad? How can I think more critically about this topic? 3) Do something cool.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
P: 1. Why so SERIOUS? — The Joker
I made the mistake of being way too serious for way too long. I wanted people to take me seriously, so I became a serious person, which was in reality a barrier preventing deeper connections. What people take seriously is trust, and the way you build it is through honesty, which begins with being yourself. You are funny, quirky, and most worthwhile in your particularity. People want to work with other people, not robots… at least not yet.
2. Listen. — Flannary O’Connor
A storyteller is a talker, so if you just won’t shut the hell up, you may have a career in storytelling. However, in order to tell stories about being a human being — which is what all stories are about — you must first listen to actual human beings: how they talk, how they move, how they feel. Listen, so that you can be a conduit for the wisdom of others. Listen, so that you can establish trust and connect empathically to others. They will appreciate it, I promise.
3. Never Give up, Never Surrender — Galaxy Quest
Being an entrepreneur is hard. You will work too much for too little pay for far too long. You may never get the million-dollar mansion or drive James Bond’s Aston Martin. You will be confronted over and over again by the word “No.” You will face problems for which there is no clear answer and people will be looking to you for that answer. You will fail. If you don’t, you aren’t doing it right. And what do you do when failure is at the gate: Never give up and never surrender. While you may not ever take your company public, you will take your life in your own hands and live in a way that you can look back on with pride.
4. There’s always going to be tension between the creative and business side.
I have to be careful not to suck the joy out of a project by filtering all ideas through the schedule and budget. Sure, that’s my job in the end — joy sucker — but I need to get excited by cool possibilities and work with the artists to figure out how to make it happen.
5. It’s really hard to get a film across the finish line, but when you do it, it’s amazing.
There are so many moving pieces and parts and so many cooks in the kitchen with “ideas”. And, there are so many things that can go wrong during the process and so many unexpected turns that you really want to take. It takes an immense amount of persistence and persuasion and humor to “land the plane” as we call it. But, if it were easy, everyone would do it.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
P: In film, they will tell you you need a three action structure. Why? Because you are born, you live, and you die — see, three acts. Socrates said that the beginning of ethics is knowing that you will die. When you are conscious that you only got one shot at this rollercoaster ride, you see how much every decision matters. One day you will look back on what you did with the time gifted to you. How bad would it suck to realize that you wasted it, that it didn’t really matter to anyone whether you were there at all? There is something with you that this world needs. It is your job to discover it and fearlessly bring it into being because you are the only one who can.
A: I am not a young person — but I would tell the young people that we left you a lot of messes to clean up. Sorry about that. Please get to work making a difference.
We are very blessed that many other Social Impact Heroes read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would like to collaborate with, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
P: Elon! Call me! Why? Because, obviously, someone must document the beginning of human civilization on Mars, which will be the human greatest accomplishment of all time. Andrea, you’ll come to Mars with us right? Andrea? Hello? Andrea?
A: I loved your article on Scott Frisch of AARP. I am over 50 myself and feel like I am just getting started in terms of my ability to make a big impact. At this point — career established, 401K doing ok, kids grown, time on my hands, a lot to say and nothing to lose. Come on Scott, let’s make AARP sexy again!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
P: You are the idiot — Jim Grimsley
As you may gather from some of these responses I thought quite highly of myself as a young man. Some might say I still do. Anyway, one day I was talking to my fiction writing mentor about how I didn’t like the other kids at my university, because and I quote, “They are idiots. They care about nothing. They have nothing to offer me.” He replied, “You are the idiot. If you want to be a writer, it is your job to connect with every human being, discover what is special within each person, what he or she cares about, and bring it out. If you can’t do that, or won’t, then quit writing.” Bonus lesson: All the best lessons hurt a little bit.
A: Anything by Seth Godin
His blog gives me a life lesson everyday reminding me just to do the work, do not strive for perfection, and when in doubt just make it up like everyone else does.
How can our readers follow you online?
Justaddfirewater.com
Theysayitcantbedone.com
On Facebook + Instagram: @addfirewater and @ItCantBeDoneDoc
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreafuller/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-reasonover-284b821/
This was great, thank you so much for sharing your story and doing this with us. We wish you continued success!
Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Andrea Fuller and Patrick Reasonover of Just Add… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.