Santa Barbara

RECLAIM IDAHO @ Santa Barbara Film Festival 2021 interview with directors: Jim Kamoosi and Laura Wing-Kamoosi

Interview by Emmanuel Itier for filmfestivals.com

Q: How did it come together and what was the idea behind this documentary?

Laura: Jim and I had done, mainly, lots of work in commercials and digital contents. We wanted to do something a little more serious. We knew Tim Faust, who is in the film, and we had been talking with him about finding some type of health care subject to focus on. He is an active healthcare advocate. And one day he called us to let us know about this campaign happening in Idaho: “You have to see this!”. This is an amazing couple with a broken-down RV and a little baby and they are so passionate about their cause. They are trying to get Medicaid extension passed. 2 weeks later we were in Idaho! It came together so fast. It took only 1 phone call with this couple, Emily and Garrett Strizich, to seal the deal. They just wanted us not to get in their way.

Jim: We were lucky to have Tim as our contact. He had already done the trust building with the Strizich family. It was pretty great.

Q: What was the biggest challenge to put this doc together?

Jim: It was getting passed the fear we couldn’t communicate what it was like to be with this amazing group of people. We immediately fell in love with them. It was a life changing experience for us in terms of our perception of politics to what grass roots organizing means. What it takes to change something you see if wrong and how passionate you must be to keep going with the hope you succeed.

Laura: It was amazing to observe how this group was able to channel their anger and keep their challenging work going. They were able to turn around their frustrations, at times, into positive action. They would always find the inner strength and passion to stay committed with their fight for justice and to get successful with their campaign. We wanted to make sure their passion and efforts were truly well exposed in a good light with this documentary.

Q: How did making this documentary transform you and educate you?

Laura: Idaho is beautiful! Haha! The thing that was transformative for me was, if you pay attention to American politics and how the medias paints some people in red and other in blue, you think you’re going to get on the ground in the red state like Idaho and you’re going to face lots of hostility, the type of anger you see on Fox news, but it’s not what there and what we experienced. There is, for sure, an element of that, but I think the conventional wisdom about American politics high heal is wrong. I came away with the feeling that, of course there are differences of opinions, but there are these consensus issues about things like healthcare. On those we can come together on and have a healthy conversation. What the medias tell us about this division is getting in the way to reconcile the people who can appear divided but not on all the issues. With this division we are pushing away people from polls, from voting. It was life changing to me to realize that on one hand we are in a bad place politically but there is hope if we start listening to each other. I’m very energized by that.

Tim: The politicians on either side aren’t listening to voter. Immediately after this ballot initiative was voted on and approved the Republican establishment tried to get rid of it. They sued to overturn it! And it went on for years. There is even an initiative right now to make sure there can’t be another ballot on this subject. These politicians are not listening to their own people. It’s so sad. It’s jaw dropping to me.

Q: What are your hopes for this film and the impact it can creates?

Laura: I hope people feel inspired by this team of incredible people in “Reclaim Idaho”. And to understand they did it with nothing. And they had people on both sides telling them to stop. Even Democrats told them to stop and told them they were going to get mobbed. But this couple did it anyway and they trusted their guts. I hope people see issues in their community and get involved to solve them.

Tim: I hope this film, indeed, sparks Action! I hope it sparks positive actions everywhere else there is a need to fix things. It’s a tremendous victory for us as filmmakers if we can inspire people to get involved, to be part of the change they want to see in their world.