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ANDOVER—She went through Andover as a student with a Super-8 in her hand, making little movies with her best friends Rachael Horovitz ’79 and Larry Fessenden ’81, said Maro Chermayeff ’80. It was always what she wanted to do. All three grew up to become filmmakers. And last week Chermayeff realized manifold dreams with the release of a very big television series, CARRIER—a 10-hour documentary on the USS Nimitz and its 2005 deployment to the Middle East.
Reactions across the country have been highly positive, with (mostly) glowing reviews. Chermayeff said clubs of viewers formed to watch the series together had sprung up in a number of locations last week. A sailor featured in the film has even received an on-line marriage proposal. But the biggest impact eventually may be on the U.S. Navy’s recruiting efforts, but that's getting ahead of the story.
Chermayeff created the film project with co-producer Mitchell Block. Together they survived the arduous, year-long process of convincing the U.S. Navy in a time of war that their crew of 17 should be allowed unprecedented and unfettered access onboard the Navy’s leviathan when it shipped out to the Persian Gulf from San Diego with her crew of 5,000 souls. Then they boarded the ship with everyone else and spent six months capturing the inside story of a nuclear carrier at war.
Chermayeff, who already has had a substantial and successful career in film with three Emmy nominations, isn’t coy about her motivations. “I wanted to find a way into the conflict, the war in Iraq, to understand the differences between the political mission and the military,” which is not the “giant gung-ho single entity” she and many others assumed. She wanted to show the diversity of opinion, lifestyle, and backgrounds represented by the crew.
One turned out to be a fellow Andover alum, Lt. Laurie Coffey ’95, an Annapolis graduate and F-18 pilot who is the first woman ever to fly with her particular squadron, nicknamed the Hoboes. Most others on board came from nothing—poverty, family troubles, meager education, and alcoholism, said Chermayeff. She wanted to capture their stories, their sacrifices for country, and yes, for a better life. “The carrier flight deck is one of the most dangerous workplaces in the world,” she said. “The stakes are high, the risk is great.”
The director also was curious about other issues—how the U.S. military changed after September 11 and how it is re-inventing itself to address a new kind of threat and different kind of enemy.
The series is a radical departure in more ways than one. As The Los Angeles Times wrote last week, “The American public can watch what may be one of the riskier and more unconventional public relations strategies in U.S. naval history unfold on CARRIER.” Chermayeff said she was impressed that the U.S. Navy was willing to allow itself to be seen inside out, warts and all. Alongside the duty, honor, country, homesickness, and sacrifice that emerge from the crew were also flashes of scenes the Navy could not have appreciated—racism, sexual misconduct, alcohol abuse. The Navy seems to be gambling that because the film is so honest and humanizing, it actually may help with recruitment in these times when all services are struggling to keep their numbers up.
The Times article went on to quote John Wilson, PBS’s programming executive, as saying “We haven’t seen anything like this on PBS….” This unvarnished look at the Navy is also a leap for Public Broadcasting—a massive 10-hour programming commitment and a style that leans toward reality television and MTV-style production values.
As for the film’s director? The making of CARRIER was an intense experience, with over 1,600 hours of high definition film shot over the six months at sea during which sleep came sporadically. Their bunks were right below the flight deck, from which F-18s thundered into the skies headed to missions over Iraq. (Details and photographs of Chermayeff’s six months aboard the 24-story ship are available on the PBS Website for the film at http://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/the_film_directors_diary.htm.) Then came the long and complex editing process, after which the Navy had to weigh in. Chermayeff said that amazingly, the Navy asked that only about 30 seconds be eliminated—all to assure that no classified material was inadvertently included in the materials.
Chermayeff says she is a true child of Andover. “We’re so Andover,” she laughs as she starts to tick them off… “my dad [Ivan Chermayeff ’50], my uncle [Peter Chermayeff ’53], my sister [Sasha Chermayeff ’78], and four cousins [including a current student, Chris Batchelder ’11]”. So Andover in so many ways—out in the world, doing the unprecedented, bringing passion and insight to her work. But for now, she is happy to be home with her 5-year-old daughter Su-Huai Chermayeff—whom she adopted in China at age 7 months—and more concerned with packing the kindergartener’s lunch than the daily exposure to the perils of “one of the most dangerous workplaces in the world” or the national media spotlight.
If you missed it, CARRIER will be rebroadcast during the summer. Check local listings.
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