By Crystal Schelle / Journal staff writer
Don Diego Ramirez, left, filmed his documentary “Trailer Trash.” David Wanger, right, was the editorial director for the film. (Journal photo by Martin B. Cherry)
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MARTINSBURG — It is Dylan Thomas’ words that are first seen in “Trailer Trash: A Film Journal.” “My art is or should be, useful to me for one reason: It is the record of my individual struggle from darkness towards some measure of light” and “whatever is hidden should be made naked, to be stripped of darkness is to be cleaned.” It is in the words that local filmmaker Don Diego Ramirez, of Shenandoah Junction, hopes viewers can begin to understand why he recorded and, more importantly, has shared the film of his family’s journey over three years. Bad things are said to come in threes. And for Ramirez and his family, it was no different. Within a matter of months, his beloved grandmother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. “She was the strength that held our family together,” he says in the film. His newborn daughter had to undergo surgery — twice — at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. Then even before his grandmother’s funeral, Ramirez was notified that his grandfather had been murdered and his youngest sister may have something to do with it. And through it all, Ramirez captured his family’s story on film. The result is the 53-minute short, “Trailer Trash: A Film Journal,” which will be screened for the first, and last, time at 7:30 p.m. March 8 at Shepherd University’s Frank Center for the Creative Arts. The event is free and open to the public. There will be a brief panel discussion after the screening with Ramirez. Because of its gritty and truthful portrayal of Ramirez and his family, “Trailer Trash” won the “Best Documentary” at the U.S. Super-8 Film and Digital Video Festival held in Rutgers University in New Jersey on Feb. 17. This week, the film was selected as a finalist for the Rosebud Film & Video Festival in Washington. All stories have a beginning and for Ramirez it started in the Eastern Panhandle. Ramirez grew up in the shadow of Shenandoah Downs, owned by the Charles Town Races and Slots, in a small mobile home, or trailer, of his grandmother. “Trailer trash, how I’ve grown to hate the words. It reduces all that you are and all those you love into nothingness,” Ramirez says in the movie. His mother was an alcoholic and drug addict; she died in 1999. Often times there wasn’t hot water, heat or even electricity in his grandmother’s trailer. But somehow, Ramirez was able to shed the “trailer trash” image, becoming a husband, father, teacher and artist in the same community he had grown up in. And in 2000, he purchased the first home his family had ever owned. But for his youngest sister, the trailers seemed to cast a longer shadow over her life. And in “Trailer Trash,” Ramirez weaves a tale that can be told almost anywhere in the United States, be it Appalachia, the inner city ghetto or the Deep South. It is one of love, tragedy and loss, and what happens to those who are left behind. Ramirez was looking forward to the birth of his first child in 2004, when his beloved grandmother, Mary Francis Patnode, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The film opens up with Ramirez’s pregnant wife, Karla, and his grandmother standing in the older woman’s favorite garden. In the beginning, Ramirez narrates the story intertwined with recorded audio of his grandmother’s oncologist telling her that she has ran out of options. It is that day in the garden when Ramirez instinctively decided to capture his grandmother on film. “I went and picked up a super 8 film camera,” he says. Initially, it wasn’t about a documentary. “I didn’t know what I was going to do at the time,” he says. But as Ramirez continued to film over the weeks and months, he felt that it would become a documentary focusing on what happens in a family when a loved one dies; when birth and death collide. “All people experience loss,” Ramirez says. “... it’s a universal theme.” A visual artist, Ramirez eventually began to think that maybe he could turn his rolls of film into a finished product that he could enter into a short film festival. “Loss is something that everyone will go through. Everyone has love for someone or has loved someone deeply,” he says. Ramirez shows an unflinching side of his grandmother’s cancer. And when he was notified of his grandfather’s death and that his sister, Mary Crawford, nicknamed “Tookie,” and her boyfriend, Scott Cole, were arrested for his murder, Ramirez decided to keep shooting his personal journal. “I made the decision to continue collecting the material,” he says. The story has less to do with his sister and his grandfather’s death, then about how the family struggles with understanding why. As his twin sisters, Sixta and Maria, by his side, as well as his wife, Karla, Ramirez constantly has camera in hand, asking the questions and getting reactions from his family. As he talks to his sisters, the brother of Cole, as well as acquaintances of Cole and Crawford, Ramirez’s film doesn’t answer questions, because in a way there will never be a satisfactory answer. Not for him nor his sisters, or for Crawford’s children, Christopher and Christina, whose lives have already been affected by their mother’s. It isn’t a True Hollywood Story. It is their lives. As the oldest child, Ramirez takes on the responsibility as head of household. “At difficult times in my life, I would go to my grandmother for guidance to set my moral compass straight,” he says. “ ... I realized that I was now head of the family. I inherited that burden to lead by example.” And as he struggles with his new family title, Ramirez is greatly affected. He suffers from insomnia and when he does sleep he has vivid nightmares about murder for months after he learned of his grandfather’s death. In one dream he is arrested for not helping to stop a murder. As soon as the audience is introduced to his grandfather’s death, the medium also switches from the grittiness of super 8 to digital. It was thanks to the influence of David Wanger, editorial director, that the switch was made. It was a hard transition to make for Ramirez. “I’m not a big digital person,” he says. Ramirez had filmed more than 10 hours of film by the time Wanger had entered the picture. And from that, Ramirez had managed to whittle it down to a still hefty 4-hour movie, editing it in the same room his grandmother passed. But both knew if Ramirez’s hope to enter it into the festival circuit, it would have to be shorter — much shorter. They also knew that in the world of filmmaking it is the editing that is important for such things as narrative and pacing, and it would have to be up to Wanger to do it. Ramirez says he knew he had to hand the film over to Wanger to finish the editing. “I was too attached to everything,” he says. And after working with Ramirez for nearly two years, Wanger too says he had to learn how to disconnect with each scene in order to have a tighter story, keeping out the side stories and focusing on Ramirez’s journey. But they both agreed its at the length it needs to be. “It’s more powerful at its current length,” Wanger says. But on the cutting room floor include a conversation with Ramirez’s grandmother during her last day of clarity, which he came to realize was the day after his grandfather’s murder. She had a dream about her granddaughter. “She said, ‘D, Shawn and Tookie did something really bad,’” he says. To make it a more finished product, Ramirez brought Ben Townsend aboard. He helped to clean up the sound, making it more clearer to the viewer. He also composed and arranged original music for the film. Although it is a tight in its short-length form, after a screening earlier last month at Frederick Community College in Maryland, one critic said there was still more to the story. “He feels its not over until the trial is done,” he says. Crawford and Cole are still awaiting trail in New Orleans. But for Ramirez, there has to be an end. “I can’t go on watching my grandmother die,” he says. Ramirez and the rest of his crew are waiting to see if “Trailer Trash” will be accepted into in any more film festivals. The hope is that they will be able to create enough buzz at smaller festivals to be able to be invited to play at a larger nationally recognized film festival. In the meantime, Ramirez is working on a new documentary, called “Mind Set,” which delves into what people believe. And Wanger is in pre-production of his first full-length movie, “The Fluid Drips Twice,” which he calls a cross between “Far Side” and “The Twilight Zone.” Although there is still healing to be done, Ramirez points out that he is successful member of society, so are his twin sisters, Sixta and Maria. “You can be more than your environment,” he says. And he hopes viewers can come away with an understanding of what murder really does to those who are left behind. “All life is valuable,” he says. — Staff writer Crystal Schelle can be reached at 263-8931, ext. 213, or cschelle@journal-news.net What: Screening of “Trailer Trash: A Film Journal” When: 7:30 p.m. March 8 Where: Shepherd University Frank Center for Creative Arts main theater Cost: Free For more information about “Trailer Trash” visit www.trailertrashafilmjournal.com Want to go? What: “Trailer Trash Revisited” photographs by Don Diego Ramirez When: March 8-25; artist reception from 4 to 7 p.m. March 9 Where: Lost Dog Coffee, 134 E. German St., Shepherdstown For more information: Call 876-0871 Section: Living Posted: 3/1/2007 |
