Exclusive: Directors Cynthia Wade and Cheryl Miller Houser Talk ‘Generation Startup’

The Knockturnal was lucky enough to get an interview with Cynthia Wade and Cheryl Miller Houser, directors of the new documentary “Generation Startup.”

Generation Startup is a new documentary, following the exploits of six young entrepreneurs. As the startup companies take root in Detroit, the film captures two years of growth for each company and their quickly maturing founders. The film was directed by Academy Award winner Cynthia Wade and award-winning filmmaker Cheryl Miller Houser. The two talked with us about what excited them about the film, what makes it special, and what it’s like following these young creators building a company.

What was the initial draw of this project that made you want to tackle it?

Cynthia Wade: I love making this kind of film. With it, you really don’t know where the story is going, or how it’s going to unfold for your documentary subjects, and you’re really on the journey with them. So when Cheryl approached me and asked if I wanted to collaborate on this film, I was really excited, because it was kind of like going down the rabbit hole, like Alice in Wonderland. You don’t know where you’re going to end up. As a small business owner, as an entrepreneur, as somebody who has never taken a safe path and has always lived on the fringe of taking risks in the independent film world, I saw a lot of my early self in our potential cast, and it resonated with me.

Cheryl Miller Houser: I was drawn to the project because I had always taken the safe path. I had always been second in command in production companies and had just launched my own company. I was really inspired by these young kids, who were taking risks and moving outside their comfort zones at such a young age. The genesis of the project was when my eldest son was a Fellow in Venture for America. I saw the experiences he was having right out of college. He was made head of marketing for a company and really had no idea what he was doing, but he was learning and growing so much. So I approached the founder of Venture for America and said can I follow Fellows in one of your cities, because I knew no matter what happened, if the company succeeded or failed, it would be a really interesting story – following these 22 to 24 year olds, who were taking risks and moving out of their comfort zones during a time of life when you’re not really sure who you are to begin with, and you’re finding your way. I knew that no matter what happened with them as entrepreneurs, it would make for an interesting story.

What was it like to work alongside these college graduates and see them mature over time?

Cheryl: I had many mixed feelings. I was super inspired by them. I’m a mom of three kids, so I was never maternal with them, but I worried about them sometimes, and I know Cynthia did as well. It was also just a matter of what Cynthia said – this adventure from month to month where we would come back and some of them never knew where this story was going. It’s really heartening to see that, for all six of them, they’ve grown up and evolved so much. If something didn’t work out at a company, that isn’t actually what mattered. What mattered was that, for all of them, it was this journey of evolutional and personal growth, which was really tremendous. Although in some cases the companies have really soared.

How has filming this movie been different from previous films you’ve directed?

Cynthia: I guess most of my other documentaries have been more social issue documentaries. Where often there is potentially a huge corporate wrong that people are fighting against, or there is an unfair law that people are living under, and they’re fighting against it. And there are very clear heroes and villains. This film is different because it’s not a traditional social issue film. Part of the film takes place in office spaces, but there’s a lot of the film that doesn’t. It’s the lives of the Fellows at home, and on those off moments when they’re growing or doubting themselves. It caused a different kind of challenge to follow the story and respect the drama as it is, because it wasn’t so clearly laid out the way a traditional, social issue documentary would be.

Cheryl: First of all, it’s the longest shoot I’ve done. Cynthia has done some films where she’s followed people over really long periods of time. We were filming with our characters for 17 months, it was a 2 and a half-year project. So for me, it was the scope and magnitude of following them for so long. But I would focus on the similarities, in the sense that I think any great film is about finding the emotional core of your characters and taking the viewer on a journey that is hopefully relatable and universal. I think we have accomplished that in this film, and that’s what you always look for going into a film; characters that are going to be vulnerable and open up and let you go on an emotional journey with them.

How do you think Detroit played a role in the lives of the college graduates and the businesses they were pursuing?

Cheryl: They’re all clear on that they are in Detroit to build lives and build companies. None of them are there to save the city. I think that, in many ways, if you’re in Silicon Valley or New York launching a company it’s very easy to get distracted. It’s also really easy to compare yourself to everyone else around you and feel really discouraged and inferior. In Detroit, there’s so much going on. There are slogans everywhere saying “Detroit hustles harder” and “it’s just built on grit and resilience” and that’s what you need to launch a company. Our Fellows said that if you have a dream in Detroit, you will find someone to help you make that happen. So I think that hunkering down without a ton of distractions, and not comparing themselves to all of the other startups getting big venture funding, was really helpful for them. Just to stay focused and build their companies. And there really is a sense of determination in that city; it permeates that whole city in a way that I think is really fitting for starting a company.

What do you consider the main theme of Generation Startup to be?

Cynthia: That an entrepreneur is made, not born. If you just get up every time you’re knocked down, then you really do become the person, and the entrepreneur, and the visionary, that you really want to be. Sometimes you have to fake it until you make it but just in the doing, and that grit, you become somebody else. With that focus, you become the person that you really want to be. My hope is that it’s uplifting, and inspires college age AND older than college age viewers to be taking more risks in their life. To be thinking about building things, and making things, and making the world a better place.

Startup-focused shows, like Startup U and Dragons’ Den, have really taken the entertainment industry by storm. What is it about entrepreneurs embarking on startups that draw in such a large fan base?

Cheryl: I think most of us are held back by the fear of failing, and most people do not move outside their comfort zone. So when you have people who have a dream, or a north star, and they’re willing to take the risks and go for it, it’s something really inspirational. Whether they succeed or not, kudos to people who go after something. It’s all about stakes. If you have people who are risking things and putting things at stake, then that’s compelling. And people who want to build something, do something, create something that’s bigger than themselves – that‘s what our country was built on. That’s how we grow and evolve as people as well.

What do you think sets this documentary apart from those other shows?

Cheryl: I’m not going to speak to them, but I think the key attributes of Generation Startup are that we follow these characters, these kids, for a year and a half, and I think that make our film very real. I think that a lot of people think being an entrepreneur is a glamorous, life and it’s so much fun. We showed the true story. It’s really hard work and it can be really discouraging. Our characters talked about how they don’t like 95% of what they do day to day, but they love building their companies. I just think that our film is emotional more than anything else. It’s not a primer, it’s not a how to, it’s the emotional journey of what it feels like inside the experience of launching a startup. What does it feel like to be Dextina, who’s among the 2% of engineers in the nation that are African American females? She said, “I’m always the different one.” What does it feel like to be Kate Catlin, who’s a coder in a world where there are so few females? I think that we bring the viewer inside that visceral, emotional journey.

Do you have any other projects coming up that you’re working on?

Cynthia: Sure! Yeah I am in year four and a half, almost five years of directing a film called Mudflow, which a MacArthur granted, Ford granted, Sundance granted film. It’s about one of the world’s largest man-made environmental disasters. It’s an unstoppable giant toxic mud volcano that has swallowed 17 villages and displaced more than 100,000 people and continues to explode 10 years later at vicious violent speed and there seems to be no stopping it. It’s in East Java, Indonesia, so I’ve been going on and off to Indonesia for the last four years. I’ve been there twice already this year. That film is a feature length documentary that will be coming out in 2017.

Cheryl: Well since we’ve spent two and a half years making this film, I’ve been focused on getting it out to the world as widely as possible. I’m really looking forward to embarking on telling new stories of inspiration and uplift, whatever they may be.

Are there any you have in mind?

Cheryl: I have been so 24/7 on this film that I have not been developing anything yet, but I have such vast interests that I’m sure there will be many stories I will be really excited to dive into and tell. I love telling stories that touch people and move people and inspire people.

Lauren Hanson and Sarah Cohen contributed reporting.