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Street Weekly
ARTICLE FROM “MEET”
Interview by Jessica Sick
Filmmaker Susan Kaplan is into threesomes. The Miami Beach native (and sister of Books & Books owner Mitchell Kaplan) spent eight years filming the unconventional marriage of Sam Cagnina, Steven Margolin, and Samantha Singh. The resulting 95-minute documentary, Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family, will screen as part of the Miami International Film Festival (www.miamifilmfestival.com), to be held February4-13.
Q: You grew up in Miami Beach where you studied theater under Jay Jensen at Miami Beach Senior High School. Why are you a filmmaker now and not an actress?
SK: I actually thought that was what I was going to do, but when I went to the University of Colorado (in Boulder), I became very intrigued by film. At Boulder, it was all experimental film because Stan Brakhage ran that department. Then I transferred to New York University School of Arts and took a few documentary classes. What had attracted me to acting was always political theater – how you get theater to the masses – but never the commercial stuff. I didn’t have the internal drive that I saw in my fellow theater mates.
Q: Did you come from a theatrical family?
SK: Yes. My father was a labor lawyer and he worked for, I don’t want to say “the little person,” but the person who needed looking out for: He represented the United Farm Workers, the custodial workers, hotel workers, the Miami Beach Police, all of that. But he was also a poet. He used to be a bit of an adventurer, too – he was a cop at one point, he used to fly planes; he is a very colorful man. He used to wake us up reciting Shakespeare. [Laughs] And my mother always wanted to be a dancer when she was younger; she’s a very lively, loving, human being. Between the two of them, they enabled four children to explore just about anything we wanted to.
Q: When did you start seriously exploring film?
SK: After college, I got a job working for an educational documentary house, and then I worked at Symphony Space on the Upper West Side of New York, which is sort of this cultural institution – we found good places in the subway system where street musicians could make money. I eventually started working for (director/producer) Allan Miller and did a number of jobs for him. Eventually, he asked if I wanted to produce a film he was working on, Small Wonders, about Roberta Tzavaras’ fight to keep violin programs in the schools in East Harlem. We worked on it for a year-and-a-half. It was nominated for an Academy Award [for Best Documentary] in 1996, then in the late ‘90s, it was picked up by Wes Craven to be made into a [fictional] feature film called Music of the Heart, which starred Meryl Streep. Around the time Small Wonders was hitting the theaters, I met [my husband] David. So in ‘96, I met the man I was going to marry, I started Three of Hearts, and I went to the Academy Awards – it was a great year.
Q: How did you meet the subjects of Three of Hearts?
SK: I had gone to high school with Steven, but I hadn’t been in touch with him since. I didn’t ever think our paths would cross in this way. [Laughs] Steven was just a sweet, funny, guy. I think Sammy, the other man in the story, came to Miami when he was in junior high school and got involved in drama. At the time, I was in elementary school and I would go to auditions [for the children’s theater Jay Jensen ran] and I had such a crush on Sammy – we all did. He was like the Pied Piper. He always got all the leads; he was really talented. Anyway, years later, someone told me about Sam and Steven, how they were together and how they were with this woman, Samantha, in this three-way relationship. I was so intrigued by it. I wasn’t thinking of a film: I just wanted to see it. So I went out to dinner with them and it was so amazing to walk down the street with one of them while the other two were holding hands. It was so natural.
Q: How did you approach them about filming their lives?
SK: They’re very much a unit, and they had been together nine years when I met them. So I said, “When you’re ready to have children, can I tell your story?” And Samantha said no. Later, I found out that they had been approached by a lot of people wanting to tell their story, and they always said no. But I got to know them, and when Samantha had her 30th birthday party, they wanted me to film it. So I said, “Only if you let it be the beginning about a story about all of you guys.” Honestly, I don’t think they understood what I meant, but we became friendly and they were just like, “Fine, tell our story.”
Q: Did you plan on shooting for eight years?
SK: No. What happened was that I shot the film for about a year-and-a-half and then I edited for a year. We were finished with the cut, but there were some issues with it. Basically, because the three of them were such a unit, there was no conflict in the film, so it really wasn’t going anywhere. It was a fun, sweet story, but as I was finishing the film I got a call. I don’t want to give too much away, but something major happened and I knew at that time I couldn’t send the story out into the world without including that. So I shot for another three years and we finished it just in time for the Toronto Film Festival.
Q: Did you ever think almost 10 years ago, when you began filming, that this film would be so timely politically?
SK: The three of them weren’t making a political statement with this film. They were just offering their life story and hoping that, through it, they could help people make difficult decisions in their lives. And that’s what attracted me to their story. Which you begin making a [documentary] film, you have one idea of what you want this story to be, but you can’t control life. So really, [Three of Hearts] has become a coming-of-age story, an exploration of love, a story about choices you make when you’re younger and the consequences of living with those choices.
Q: Did you find yourself forming a personal relationship with your subjects?
SK: Sure. I felt like a fourth partner. When you’re filming someone’s personal story, it’s impossible to remain completely objective. I try to be fair and understand as much as they’ll let me understand, and so I spent a lot of time asking very difficult questions. And I think their honesty with themselves definitely deepened through the course of their lives. When I went back, they had definitely gotten to a different place in their understanding of the choices that they had made, and that they continue to make.
Q: I’m interested in the technical aspects of a three-way marriage – like, who slept with whom?
SK: They all slept together – Samantha in the middle, Sam and Steven on either side.
Q: And did they call each other “husband” and “wife”?
SK: Oh, yeah.
Q: Will screening this film in Miami be particularly meaningful to you?
SK: It has enormous meaning. It’s about coming home, on so many levels. Not only does it have Miami roots, it’s a chance to say a big “thank-you” to just about everybody who’s been in my life, and I think that everyone from Miami who was involved with the film feels that way. I think we’re all excited about showing the film in Miami, no matter how people react to it. People who have a not-so great reaction will often want to spend hours talking to me about it; whether or not you’re conscious of it, it brings you to some other place. I think that it’s perfect that the first two screenings of the film are in Toronto and Miami; Samantha is from Toronto, and Miami, I’m sure, will be emotional for the guys.
Q: What do you think the reaction to the film will be?
SK: I think some people will have a preconceived idea of what they’re about to see no matter how much you talk about it beforehand. Florida is a “red” state now – and has been, I guess – and morality seems to be a big issue. So I think that a lot of communities are going to be very upset by the subject matter. But I think these three people are very moral actually. They’re living their lives, they’re providing a home filled with love. You can’t ask for more from a family. Sam, Steven, and Samantha didn’t go into the relationship wanting to start a revolution, to prove that threesomes should be allowed all over the world. For them, it just seemed to work at the time. And if you talk to them now they’ll have a very different understanding of it. So it’s a film about life.
