Texas Focus Film Series: The Pushback
A conversation with the film’s director, producer, and subject
This season’s Texas Focus Film Series at the Bullock Texas State History Museum explores the stories of unique individuals and their relationship with society.
In THE PUSHBACK, Kevin Ford’s most recent film, though not entirely a fly-on-the-wall perspective, Kevin stays clear and close to his mission — to, “amplify voices and stories of people on the front lines who are fighting to make change.”
We invited Kevin Ford (director, producer, cinematographer, editor), Emily Barclay Ford (producer) and Natasha Harper-Madison (film subject and Austin City Council member) to join us for a conversation with the Museum’s Film Programs Manager. The interview has been edited for brevity.
ALL, Let’s begin by each of you describing to our readers a little about you on a more intimate level.
NATASHA: I’m admittedly a very complex person. I love to be alone and love time with other people. I like loud music and activity around me but very much appreciate breathing deeply in absolute silence. I’m a homebody but love to travel and move around- when I feel like it. I never saw myself in my current reality. I’m a family lady- which I had not planned for in my formative experience. My deepest, most pure sources of joy come from time with my family. I love cats but am very much allergic- it’s a painful love indeed. As an entrepreneur by nature I constantly dream of innovation and problem solving business ideas. I’m also obsessed with capacity building in civic spaces and ensuring democracy is accessible to ALL. My retirement dreams include living in a coastal location and operating a small bed and breakfast.
KEVIN: I’m an independent filmmaker who started off making videos with my friends as a kid, and by high school it got more serious. I found a great mentor, Paul Moeller, who ran a local community TV station, and he taught me the fundamentals. By the time I finished high school I was confident that I could do this for a living, even though it’s been a long and sometimes difficult road over the past 25 years.
EMILY: I’m a producer and an executive at a production company in Los Angeles. I grew up in Oklahoma and moved to California to go to USC film school when I was 18. I’ve been working in the entertainment industry ever since. My time at USC was fundamental in shaping my world view, as I had left a sleepy rural suburb of OKC, and my freshman year the ’92 riots happened. Moving to an urban community and experiencing that first-hand was a big wake up call to reality and the injustices in this country that I had been fairly sheltered from as a kid.
I met Kevin while on a business trip to New York City seven years ago, and we ended up married a year later! We have collaborated on a few projects throughout our relationship, but this is the most important thing we’ve worked on together.
ALL, Even if you’re not currently living in Texas, what about Texas culture do you admire and what do you hope to see change?
N: Being a black woman in Texas can be such a bizarre reality, and as with everything it evolves constantly. At varying stages of my life I have felt an immense swell of pride for my Texan heritage as well as absolute irreconcilable shame. I admire the resilience of Texans, of every race and ethnic background, and the part of our culture that is deeply entrenched in a diversity of culture and class. I admire our commitment to being the “best” while recognizing that is relative and often inflated. Texas culture is built on grit, resourcefulness and loyalty- that is a source of admiration.
Texas was the last State to “officially” emancipate enslaved people- and it shows. This intentional and deliberate commitment to maintaining our “status” financially largely driven by being a slave state while circumventing the will of the rest of the country to abandon the practice of chattel slavery. I very much hope to see the state and its residents FINALLY resolve the manifestation of the remaining vestiges of this reality. The changes for the better I long for, for myself, my children and my future descendants are all rooted in our racist history and the much needed- long overdue necessary atonement.
K: I lived in Texas for 10 years. While living there I came to admire the fierce independence that Texas has on a spiritual level. In my opinion it’s really like no other state that I’ve lived in or traveled to. It’s also one of the most diverse states in the nation. What I hope to see in the future is that the perception of what people think Texas is continues to broaden and shift to represent its true identity. Too often Texas gets painted with one broad brush, it’s stereotyped. One of the reasons I wanted to make THE PUSHBACK was to show how dynamic the state really is, and how inspiring it can be.
E: I’ve never lived in Texas, but because I grew up in Oklahoma, and my whole family is still there, and so many of my childhood friends ended up in Texas, I have always kind of thought of it as my ‘sister state’ if you will. It’s funny as there is this innate Oklahoma-Texas rivalry (mostly because of football). But I was never an O.U. fan, so I always cheered for Texas until they started to play USC!
Putting that aside — More equitable representation is beginning to happen — and young people are also developing new ideals, engaging, and questioning the status quo. My whole life I’ve heard the “Everything is bigger in Texas” mantra — I’d like to see that apply to people’s hearts there.
KEVIN — The documentary format is one that can be enlightening, but also walks a fine line of exploitation depending on the subject matter covered. What tools did you use for maintaining distance and sensitivity to your subjects in order to avoid exploitation.
K: I was raised to respect people and one of the greatest ways to respect people, in my opinion, is to listen to them. I often say, “I’m not an expert,” and I mean that. When I’m making a documentary, at least while in the field and gathering stories, I try my hardest to erase myself from the equation, and in that sense, I’m able to listen and learn. If I’m listening and learning as a filmmaker, I can hopefully convey something authentic to an audience later. Dealing in this film with immigrants in vulnerable situations I definitely wanted to veer as far away as possible from exploitation. Along the way making THE PUSHBACK I had to constantly just check my intentions, to make sure I was coming from a place of respect to the subject matter.
KEVIN — What did you hope to highlight or bring to the viewers attention?
K: I wanted to show that Texas really has a wide variety of citizens, and to paint it with one really wide brush misses everything. It may be the most diverse state in the Union. I thought if we could just capture different stories of Texans who don’t fit the “stereotype” of what people think of when they think of the state, it would open up people’s minds. If you live outside of Texas you might think “I didn’t know there were so many different people there.” If you live in the state, you might think, “that’s right, we are diverse, I’m glad someone is finally showcasing that!”
EMILY — Could you walk our readers through what your role as a producer looked like day-to-day during the making of this documentary and now after?
E: This film was our passion project, and because I have a full-time job and was in production on other projects for my work, I really had to manage my involvement. So it was a lot of after-hours coordinating. I can’t stress enough what a phenomenon Kevin is as a filmmaker — because he really did wear so many hats. We were a tiny, scrappy production with help here and there from some friends… But he was boots on the ground, in the field making connections, driving across the state alone, capturing stories as he found them. I was back in LA trying to help him coordinate his journeys and make sense of what he was finding.
I then helped him bring all these stories together into a cohesive narrative thread in post… We had to make the tough call to exclude some amazing stories and highlight others. Once the movie was finished, my role evolved into the outreach/marketing — how can we get the movie in front of an audience and work with partners to help amplify their messages of voter registration and participation.
NATASHA — What was your experience like during the filming of this documentary? What did you know from the onset you wanted to make sure you communicated?
Natasha: That’s actually a great question that took me the opportunity of time and distance, (it’s been 2 years!) to truly grasp. At the time I was thinking that I was going to participate in something that would hopefully see the light of day, one day, and that I would get to somehow inspire someone to go for it and do something they believed in- even if they had no idea how! I knew that I wanted to show up as a person who had been given permission by the strong women in my family to be extraordinary- regardless of how some in the world saw me- ya know “bad stock” and all. I wanted to make them all, alive or dead, proud to know that the blood coursing through my veins was theirs and that I use it to kick ass. I also wanted very much to be the antithesis to what people believe a “politician” looks like, I’m a mom, community advocate, entrepreneur, dabbler in garden things and a person who believe to smash the status quo people who aren’t/ weren’t groomed for the job have to show up and do it! I believe I am uniquely equipped to represent my constituents, have from the start, and I wanted that to shine through and inspire others. My primary goal, as is with every breath I take on this strange planet of politics, is to inspire, build capacity and encourage others to smash the “ideal image” of who is best suited to participate in our democracy. I wanted folks to know and SEE that the ubiquitous “they” are WRONG. I planned to prove that by winning my race…guess I showed them.
NATASHA — In the documentary you commented on something I took note of immediately while watching for the first time. You said you knew what your “why” was, (to transcend cycles of poverty), but you had to figure out your “how”. Could you speak more about your approach to this type of critical thinking and civil engagement and how it has impacted how you move through the world?
N: It’s certainly no secret at this point that I can be a bit long in the explanation, so I’ll attempt to be succinct. My mother, my most powerful reflection of inspiration, is a very now what person. Life kicked you in the teeth, ok, now what? Oh, so you lost at that or didn’t accomplish the thing you wanted, ok, now what? I didn’t know it during my formative years, but this approach to life has made me resourceful and resilient. I appreciate that you recognize the degree of critical thinking skills that are at play with my approach to moving through the world. Truthfully it’s the alchemy of my mama’s grit and my daddy’s sensitivity that make me who I am. The civic engagement for most of my life has been a matter of necessity- seeing my goals at the end of the path but not knowing how to tie my shoes to get there. That has evolved, now I see civic engagement as a necessary part of the equation. Nobody, and I mean nobody can get “there” alone. The circumstances that surround us at every turn have implications, I fully understand this reality and give it the proper respect it requires. It may seem counter intuitive to thank adversity, but I do often. I can feel it sharpening the side of the blade I use to slice through bull***t and softening the dull side I use to smooth out the lumps and bumps I acquire on the journey to authentic wholeness. Finding your how is not an exercise for the faint of heart!
KEVIN- Did you hope to tell a certain story when you started this film project and then found a new story? Tell us a little about this journey.
K: I set out to try to tell a story about changes happening in Texas, documenting the emergence of new progressive voices that would possibly redefine how people view the state as it marched forward into the future. What ended up happening was something slightly different. I did find an ensemble of voices, but in the editing room, two of the women we had captured — Veronica Escobar and Natasha Harper-Madison — really seemed to showcase so clearly an amazing parallel of two strong women standing up for social justice. Focusing on their stories really helped illustrate that bigger theme I originally set out to explore. I credit my creative collaborators for helping me to realize that. What’s cool is that many of the other voices from my original ensemble idea did remain in the film, but in a way that supported Veronica and Natasha’s natural story arcs.
Lastly, I’d like to leave our readers and anyone watching the documentary with final thoughts.
N: Final thoughts…hmmmmm. Anyone in a position of power who actively attempts to make you feel small is projecting — don’t believe the hype.
K: Before THE PUSHBACK was set to premiere at SXSW 2020 we made some posters, and we needed a tag line. This was in early February of 2020. We settled on “The Fight for the Heart of Texas… And the Soul of America.” The idea was that even though this film is about Texas, and Texans, it’s equally about America, and Americans. I love my country, and I do believe that this film showcases that. It’s an incredibly patriotic film that celebrates the fierce independence of Texas by showing Texans who are standing up, fighting, and pushing back against cruelty — and in most cases the folks in our film are doing this peacefully, with great love and intelligence. The fact that we have a chance to show that at this time, before this pivotal election, means everything to me.
Want to explore more about the border, women in politics, or voting rights in Texas history? Discover select stories in the Bullock Museum’s online artifact gallery:
Harry Warren’s Porvenir Notebook
A cinematic exploration of the Texas narrative, the Museum’s Texas Focus Film Series highlights stories by, for, and about Texans.
This post is contributed by Rachel Manning, Film Programs Manager at the Bullock Texas State History Museum.
Support for the Bullock Museum’s exhibitions and education programs is provided by the Texas State History Museum Foundation.
