Director / producer Luke Campbell talks to Channel 4 about his experiences making the documentary: how his views towards Nadya changed over the course of filming and how he sees the family coping in the future.
Channel 4: When did you first have the idea to make the documentary and what was it that really drew you?
Luke Campbell: In the beginning I was approached by two different exec producers simultaneously from two competing companies, who were both attempting to nail the initial access deal to document Nadya's story. As soon as I heard the details of her situation I wanted to know more and more. How did she get here, how does she manage, how is it to be one of those 14 kids? So many questions. When I really got going with my Google searches of her and her story and searched out some of the content on YouTube I became really hooked; why do Americans hate her with such a passion? I really wanted to meet her and give her a fair playing field. I also had some stern questions I needed answers to, like if you already have six kids and you are a single parent what exactly possesses you to have more!?
Channel 4: Would Nadya have a very different experience here in terms of social and financial support?
Luke Campbell: I think she would have attracted some negative publicity here too but nothing like the scale of what has been going on in the States. I'm not sure what the regulations are regarding social support for a woman in her situation, certainly I think people would have not condemned her and her every move regarding her finances.
Channel 4: Did your opinion of Nadya change over the course of the filming? If so, how?
Luke Campbell: Yes, it did. In my initial research I found that I was finding her hard to digest or warm to, as I was being exposed to clips of her online from her appearances on US network TV interviews or in the horrendous coverage by Radar Online - I believe some kind of National Enquirer off shoot to whom she naively sold access to the family in the early days.
In fact on my first of three trips to LA just for a recce my biggest fear was that I would dislike her and that might get in the way of remaining objective and realistic in my questioning and approach. However on meeting her everything changed, I found Nadya to be completely approachable and able to discuss issues on many levels, and most reassuringly she had a logical sense of the enormity of her situation and the task of raising this gargantuan brood. I admired her tenacity and amour-skinned demeanor. Although over the course of shooting her guard did come down: it was off-camera during a phone call to my US producer on the ground. She burst in to tears for half an hour mid shoot. This was around the time of the court case that features in the film - she was concerned she might be forced in to a position where she might lose her kids at some point.
Channel 4: How was she treated by wider family and friends, including neighbours?
Luke Campbell: Well, the neighbours we met have never met her. Often they would be staring out of their windows at us, probably thinking 'another damn film crew on the street, pleeease go away'. A couple of them appeared on their porches to film us filming her which was weird. You've got to remember this is a really dull cul de sac in an eastern Los Angeles suburb. NOTHING really ever happens here... so they were kind of bomb-shelled with it all. The neighbour I spoke with said he was sad she had never come and spoken to him just to say sorry for all the commotion. He also wanted to know if I knew when she might be moving out. 'Any time soon?!' he blurted out hopefully!
As for her mum and dad, it's complicated. the dad works abroad and so is pretty much out of the picture at this time. He may reappear and I did meet him once (he wanted six figures for an interview!) however he is very fond of his daughter and she of him, but I think the parents have become somewhat estranged since the birth of the octuplets. There is some insight to her relationship with her mum in the film. Hopefully they can resolve their disagreements and create a more nurturing atmosphere. It would be a shame for all those kids not to have a grandad or granny in their lives.
Channel 4: What was the main incentive for her to agree to participate in the film do you think?
Luke Campbell: It was important to her that she got a fair platform from which to tell her story. She had been stung previously with sensationalist coverage that sought to ridicule her and really destroy every effort she is making towards raising the kids, it seemed to me a kind of witch hunt or character assassination on a mass scale in the American media thus far. I was put forward as someone who has made many films about people in extreme circumstances (The Pregnant Man, and a whole bunch of other films about people who were open to ridicule and denouncement). My ambition in all of these has always been to tell the real human story at the heart, and seek to connect with some thing real from them that lets us all see their struggle for what it really is somehow. If that doesn't sound too pompous.
Channel 4: How do you see the kids faring in 10/15 years time?
Luke Campbell: I really can't say at this time. I fear things may get worse before they even out to something approaching stable. I hope she can find a partner to share the journey with, not to mention sharing the parenting. Can you imagine? Any parent must be thinking what what what what on earth is she doing! But at the end of the day she's done it and she has to move forward.
Channel 4: How do you feel about the way she's been treated in the media?
Luke Campbell: I think thus far it has been a witch hunt. Hopefully that will change over time, I'm concerned there is a kind of conspiracy in the US to not allow her to make a living out of the media access. She seems to be so vilified that people are genuinely afraid to give her a soap box. I think it's pretty disgusting actually. Get over it, is it really such a crime to crave a super large family and go ahead and have it? Hopefully she will make it work out, once those babies start toddling around and saying 'no' things are going to go to a whole new level and I don't believe for a second people aren't going to be curious about how the family is coping. Hopefully one day that curiosity may turn to concern, maybe even to support, you never know.
