DOC spoke with the director of “American Carny: True Tales from the Circus Sideshow” about his filmmaking roots and some of his favorite documentaries.

NB: I was one of those kids who was making little amateur films when I was twelve, organizing kids from the neighborhood as actors and crew. I was always into old monster movies, star wars, sci-fi fantasy, EC Comics; things like that. I went to film school at the School of Visual Arts, (SVA), in New York City. Most of my crew are still the friends I made in film school, especially my cinematographer Trent Ermes. This is our sixth film together. I loved that experience of film school; constantly making and working on each other’s films. We’re still doing that together. My top five favorite filmmakers would be Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, and Ingmar Bergman.

NB: First, I’ve always been interested in freak shows, magic, horror, the macabre. I devour anything like that. When I was going to film school a friend of mine brought me on as an assistant stage manager at Monday Night Magic, a long-running magic show that runs once a week in NY and features different magicians. One of the MCs and producers of the show was this guy Todd Robbins. Todd is this very extraordinary personality and performer. I had also seen Todd do his one-man show about the sideshow at the NY Fringe Theatre Fest called “Carnival Knowledge.” I immediately fell in love with the world he painted in that show, the world of a working carny sideshow act. Todd is a great storyteller. He also has a limitless knowledge of this stuff, in addition to him being able to perform fantastic feats like eating a real light bulb. Yes, the light bulb he eats at the beginning of the movie is real! So while working at Monday Night Magic I got to know Todd and I knew he had appeared on a lot of TV shows and did his act or talked about sideshow, but I asked him if anyone ever did a doc on him or did a taping of his stage show. He thought about it for a second then said, ‘Sure let’s do it.’ Every interview or featured act led to another; you kind of meet one person and they say to you ‘Well you have to meet Jennifer Miller, she’s a real woman with a beard,’ or ‘Harley Newman who is a professional lunatic’ and you end up having a jam-packed movie.

DOC: What were a few of the challenges you encountered while making "American Carny?"

NB: Because of Todd we had great access to the people and performers of this world. They all respect Todd and when I came with my cameras and they heard Todd was involved, they opened their doors to me. I mean their acts are their bread and butter, and to let me tape them and include their performances and do interviews was really gracious and an act of trust on all their parts. So I want to say ‘Thank You’ to all the people who appear in the film. The toughest challenge as any filmmaker knows is  money, or the lack of it. You put everything you’ve got into it and get little to nothing financially in return, especially with a documentary, unless you’re Michael Moore. But you do it because you love it. It just takes longer though to finish things because you are constantly waiting or borrowing things. But I am also very grateful to friends and companies like Orbit Digital and Sound One in NY who donated editing rooms and mix time in the studios. This movie would have cost triple and we would’ve been unable to have it turn out with such good quality without people donating their time, equipment and talent. The film also benefits from a great original score by composer Paul Johnson.

NB: A great subject that you are willing to live with for years while you make the movie. Any movie, but especially a documentary, you spend so much time immersed in that world with your subject, you just have to love it and be constantly inspired and curious to know more. That shows in a film. Also a great editor! My editor, Brian Reali, is a very talented guy and when you’re directing a doc, and I’m not saying anything new here, the story is constructed in the editing room. You find the story from the interviews and footage together. You spend so much time sitting together, usually in a windowless editing room, you’d better enjoy that person’s company and enjoy working with them. It is like a marriage. I still think my editor’s wife harbors some resentment that I robbed her of so many hours with her husband! But they have a new baby girl now, and I have a film, so we all ended up happy.

DOC: Are documentary films more relevant to contemporary American cinema than in years past?

NB: Yes, absolutely! I think the audience for documentaries has grown, and there are more being made, since they are technically the cheapest type of movie to make. Also the way people receive media today and watch movies online or rent Netflix, that all works in favor of the documentary form and makes it more accessible.

NB: Well, besides the obvious difference, I actually believe there seems to be a blending of the forms. I mean there are more and more narrative films, which want to emulate the realism or naturalism of a documentary to tell a fictional story. A sense of naturalism, it’s a new form of neo-realism. How many horror movies come out which show or tell the story through a faux documentary style. Handheld, shaky cameras are an aesthetic which emulates that. Shooting on video is also cheaper and feels like a “real” captured moment. Also the comedic mockumentary is getting more and more popular. Certain documentaries also are using techniques of narrative filmmaking for purposes of entertainment. There seems to be a cross blending going on, for better or worse.

DOC: Please list for some of your all-time favorite documentaries.

NB: I love anything by Barbara Kopple. I think she is one of the best and most underrated filmmakers. That’s probably because she is so good she disappears into her films leaving you to live with her subjects rather than being this personality who injects herself onto everything. Also Errol Morris is a big influence especially “Fast, Cheap & Out of Control.” I also love that doc about the making of the Broadway show “Moon Over Buffalo” by D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus called  “Moon Over Broadway.” It’s a great doc about show business and the theatre. I’m also a fan of Richard Schickel’s work, “The Men Who Made the Movies” series, and other docs about filmmakers and movies.

You can read more, watch a trailer & buy a DVD of Nick Basile's film "American Carny: True Tales from the Circus Sideshow" here !

*Upcoming Air dates on DISH channel 197 (all times are EST):

Oct. 23rd (Fri) at 5pm
Nov. 04th (Wed) at 8pm
Nov. 04th (Wed) at 11pm
Nov. 19th (Thu) at 4:45pm
Dec. 31st (Thu) at 9pm

- times are subject to change, please check our online scheduler for the latest updates here !!

*Air dates for other partner channels can be located at:
Nashville (NPT2) = www.wnpt.org
New York (NYCTV) = www.nyctv.com
Denver (KBDI) = www.kbdi.org