Being Heumann was an unusually hard film to edit, and editor Geraud Brisson felt an especially deep responsibility to get it right.
Almost all of the actors in Siân Heder’s follow-up to her Best Picture winner CODA — which Brisson also edited — have disabilities. Brisson was conscious of the fact that every second they appeared on screen was a small victory for visibility.
“This was an ensemble of actors who sometimes don’t get a lot of chances to be in front of the camera,” he notes. “There was the pressure of giving them the right space, and doing justice to their work, and not imposing an outsider’s point of view on their community.”
Being Heumann is the story of Judith Heumann (Ruth Madeley), who led the 1977 takeover of a San Francisco federal building by demonstrators demanding equal access for people with disabilities. It is a story of many people — both with and without disabilities — coming together for justice.
Like CODA, Being Heumann features many Deaf actors, whose dialogue created an unusual challenge for Brisson — assembling conversations that unfold partly or completely in American Sign Language.
Anne Tomasetti, who also worked as an ASL master on CODA, would create timestamped logs of the ASL lines in the film so Brisson could properly link and pace the footage, often shot across three cameras. Additionally, the Being Heumann cast improvised often, including in ASL, which meant Brisson occasionally had to flag a clip so Tomasetti could explain what the actors were communicating.
Brisson also had a lot of story to tell: Being Heumann focuses not just on Judy, but on a vast array of characters with intriguing and often-funny subplots. You could make a whole movie out of the dynamic between TV reporter Evan White (Dylan O’Brien) and activist Hale Zukas (Andrew Pilkington), who had a speech disability and communicated using a pointer on a helmet to spell out words on a letter board.
It’s a slow process, which at first challenges White’s patience. But when Zukas finishes spelling, his statements are always worth the wait. Brisson notes that co-screenwriters Heder and Rebekah Taussig infused the film with humor from the opening scenes, which helped him with pacing.
“The first time you see him communicating with his pointer on his tablet, it’s actually a funny moment,” Brisson says. “It sets him up to be this charming character very early on, and that opens the door to be more patient.”
Geraud Brisson on the Stunning Final Image of Being Heumann
Being Heumann has one of the most powerful final images you’ll ever see in a film. We won’t spoil it, except to say that it’s archival. Brisson is quick to credit his assistants, Daniel Martens and Jane Tones, with locating it, and Linda Litowsky, who shot the image.
When Brisson first saw it, he knew it needed to be in the film. “I actually had it in my first assembly,” he recalls.
One of the film’s toughest sequences to edit appears early, when the activists first enter the federal building.
“We worked from Day One to the very last minute to craft it,” Brisson shares.
“It starts with individual stories at first, and you meet all these people. Some of them you’ve met before. But you also meet new characters that have mini scenes, and you kind of catch glimpses of other characters who may or may not become protagonists in the story. This scene shows you how all these individuals come together, and how this group became a movement.”
Being Heumann is now in theaters and on Apple TV.
Main image: Michael Patrick Thornton, Andrew Pilkington, Rein Barcel, Ruth Madeley, Rio Finnegan, Antwan Tolliver, Roberta Colindrez, Ray Fisher and D’Arcee Charington Neal in Being Heuman. Courtesy of Apple
