One of the feature-length films that made it’s Texas debut last weekend offered a homecoming for the husband-and-wife filmmakers. Handmade Future, a film documenting artisan craft in six countries, won Best Documentary at the festival.
Kirsten and Brandon Dickerson joined Friday Forum on July 17 to talk about the film.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Molly-Jo Tilton: Can you tell me a little bit about your film Handmade Future? What inspired it? And how long have you been. I know it's been a long project, so how long have you been working on it?
Kirsten Dickerson: Well, I'm the director of the film and this is my first film. Brandon's made several movies, but this is my debut film. We both produced it and he's the director of cinematography. And really the idea came about when I was leading one of my craft and culture tours in Morocco. At the end of it, everybody on the tour was like, “Kirsten, you have to lead more tours, more people need to experience this because they learned so much, especially from the artisans that we visited.” And it really impacted the way they wanted to live and see the world, the beauty they experienced and the connection they experienced to these handmade, beautiful rugs and other items.
And they were like, “can you do more tours so more people can come?” And my answer was no. And then they were like, “what about a book?” And I was like, you can't capture this in a book. And then that night I had the vision for this film. And the next morning I just said, what if I made a documentary? And those were the people that funded this. This was in October of 2024. They were the initial donors. It's a nonprofit film and so for about a year, I traveled to six different countries and captured some of the stories of these incredible artisans. And Brandon helped to film it and helped me kind of understand how to do this
And I realized, gosh, if I could capture just a taste of the beauty of global craft and its importance and its connection to people and the impact it's having, and then also show how artisans around the world are being challenged and exploited and craft is absolutely disappearing – it will be gone in many places within a decade, even within a few years. Yet, there's all these incredible, inspiring people and stories and organizations that are trying to keep it alive. So I wanted to capture all of that and document it and share it with the world.
After we finished, we were living in London - it was last August, and then we edited through August to January. And then we premiered the film at the Justice Film Festival in New York the end of February.
It sounds like an amazing film. Brandon, I know you've been a filmmaker for a while. You've had films premiere in Waco before, tell me what it was like to be able to go on this journey with your wife to work on this film.
Brandon Dickerson: It was incredible. I mean, I had been to all of the places before, but never with a camera in my hand. And so you can imagine she comes home and says, “I'm making a documentary.” And I realized, yeah, you are making a documentary. And, you know, great filmmakers have vision, and they have a singular vision. And the best filmmakers, I feel, are the ones that only they could make that film, and that's what I realized very quickly, was that only Kirsten could make this film. And because of her relationships, I think that's what really comes through in the film.
So for me, it was a blast and I think we realized we're in the Atlas Mountains in the middle of Morocco, and I'm jumping out of a car, and Kirsten's showing me what to shoot, and it's high pressure and crazy. And I realized, like, wow, this was a risk for us personally. This was a big risk to throw ourselves into a professional environment. And it was a blast. I loved it. I loved just focusing on the camera, focusing on support. And I had a director with an incredibly clear vision which inspires everybody that works with them.
K D: We had fun.
B D: Yeah, we did.
What are some of the stories that are most important in this film that people are gonna get to see?
K D: Well, we actually follow a variety of craft, a variety of what artisan communities might be so that you can kind of get a taste. There's no easy way to understand the impact of handmade [items]. So we do visit my friends in my favorite places in the world. What might surprise you is that I also include the United States and the UK because this is a global conversation about how since humans were made, we've always looked at the world around us and learned, no matter what culture we came from, for over a thousand years, people have been making things from the earth: making pottery, weaving, learning to do natural dyes. No matter where they lived in the world. And then they would often weave in stories about their culture. The symbols for nature, meaning about their faith is all integrated into craft.
So one of my favorite stories is actually from Oaxaca. And we visit an artisan family that's three generations and he explains to you in the film what. When we look at, we think it's just colors and stripes that look interesting, but every single color and every single pattern has meaning and he explains it. So that's an example. And you kind of understand the generational impact when you visit his studio.
But then we also go to visit some of the broom makers in Kentucky, which we maybe don't think about, like, this idea of craft and artisans in our country, but this is an example of one of the last craft communities actually dying as well. But there's some young people trying to keep it alive, and they are amazing. And I love inviting people to, like, discover what. What is happening, what could be even in our own country.
You both went to school at Baylor. You met at Baylor, and then you, have come back to Waco several times in your life. What does it mean to be able to have this film shown at Waco? And Kirsten, especially since it's your first film?
K D: Well, you know, this is the Texas premiere, and it was a very intentional decision because we chose not to show it in other festivals in Texas because we live here, and we really wanted to support the Waco Independent Film Festival. We wanted to be a part of it, and we felt like this is our home and this is where we wanted to premiere. So we're super delighted.
B D: Yeah, absolutely. 100%. And I've shown films here before. It's been very exciting to see this festival grow. So I think we're fans as well. And, yeah, it was a very intentional choice to have the Texas program.
K D: It connects us to our community, too. So a lot of people that know that we're here now are excited to come support the film.
Brandon, am I correct in having read that you're returning to Baylor to teach in the fall?
B D: Yeah, absolutely. I'll be teaching in August, starting in the fall. So we rolled into town a few months ago. Very excited, like Kirsten said, from London and Portugal. And, yeah, so I'll join the FDM crew and be teaching, focused on producing, which is great. And, in fact, this film is sort of a case study that will start with, I'm producing another documentary film right now. So I'm teaching both undergraduate and graduate producing classes, one in a short film and then the grad students as well. So sort of been out on a journey and coming home sharing all the adventures.
