As the son of Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer, director Sean Hepburn Ferrer inherited a rich legacy. So, it's no surprise that he followed his parent's footsteps into "the business." That he has chosen to tell his stories outside of the traditional Hollywood spotlight is surprising and a testament to his thought-provoking work.

Reelwriter.net met Ferrer at The 16th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival where his documentary film, Racehoss, was met by an appreciative audience.

Shot on high definition digital film, Racehoss is based on the true-life experiences of Albert Race Sample. The story is riveting as it explores and sheds light on the brutal plantation-style slave labor that Mr. Sample was subjected to during a 17-year incarceration in a Texas prison. Ferrer filmed Mr. Sample performing his one-man show depicting a violent and tumultuous upbringing in rural Texas. Ferrer's lens captures Sample as his face reflects childhood memories. His voice rises and falls, rages and relents, whispers and cries. He speaks about his mother, Big Emma, about the abuse, about running from gunshots and about being beaten. Ultimately he speaks of forgiveness and love.

In his lifetime, now age 72, Sample has literally pulled himself up by his bootstraps. Ferrer respects the dignity of the man. He allows the performance to gradually build like a great musical score. The story is a simple one. And Ferrer has the right touch behind the camera. He lets the material breathe without external artifice. Occasionally the camera cuts away from the storyteller to show a picture of Sample's boyhood home, and a set of train tracks symbolic of Sample's years spent riding on boxcars as a young runaway. These images lend a thoughtful perspective to the overall performance.

Race Sample, An African-American male who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, left school in the 5th grade after stabbing his teacher. He learned to survive in a cruel world, and ultimately wound up behind bars for 17 years of a 30-year sentence. After leaving prison, and in an amazing twist of fate, Sample was hired as a probation officer. In 1976, he was granted a full pardon. His book Racehoss was widely received selling 100,000 copies and prompting Studs Terkel to call it "One of the most remarkable stories I've come across."

The film's beauty lies in its unfolding, and its commitment to truth. It's as if the audience is invited to sit around a campfire and listen as Mr. Sample slowly reveals his tale of hatred, hope, and redemption. Says Mr. Ferrer about his unconventional approach in directing this film, "Racehoss is a hybrid kind of piece. It's not a typical documentary. It's spiritual. I call it the stand-up of a lifetime."

Reelwriter.net was fortunate to sit down with Ferrer as he discussed his work on the project.

Ferrer on Ferrer:

Kelly McCarthy: Why did you decide to film use high definition film?

Sean Hepburn Ferrer: The time it takes to unload a film camera, get a print through, and air it out would really kill the intimacy of the flow and the intimacy of the production. And you would have down time on each of the cameras that would be considerable. On top of which the kind of lights that you would have to throw at that would again take away from those moments of real intimacy when the lighting just came down a little bit. So my only option really was tape. High definition is expensive, but my decision was to go the extra mile because in time this is something that can be transferred to film if we get limited theatrical, which is a strong possibility right now. It also will make it something that's valuable in years to come because high definition is going to have more and more inlets and inroads through digital cable and broadband.

McCarthy: What was your budget?

Ferrer: The cash budget itself was under one half million. So we really tried to keep it reasonably priced.

McCarthy: What are its chances for theatrical release?

Ferrer: I'm trying to create a limited theatrical release in the US art film houses, trying to tend to 10-15 markets that are meaningful. But it takes time and money to do that. So I need a partner at this point. I can do some of it myself prior to going to video and television and prior to looking to the foreign markets. Obviously the perfect environment for this is HBO or Showtime.

McCarthy: What was it about the book Racehoss that appealed to you?

Ferrer: The arc was a universal story. All of us have had something that has happened in our lives that's brought us from a low to a high and back to a low, back to a high. I think if you've had anything that's put your life and your feelings and your emotions into question and your belief systems and shaken up your foundations, like what this country is going through right now, you can relate to this piece.

McCarthy: When did the idea for this project first come about?

Ferrer: When I first talked to Race it was in 1984 or 1986. It's been a while. We developed a screenplay, which he had written the first draft of and tried to get it together as a feature film. It wasn't something they wanted to do at the time. I just didn't want to lose the performance that you saw last night. There's stuff between the lines. You get the color and richness of a whole period that's gone, and there's not that many people alive left to tell us about that whole era.

McCarthy: Had you had strong feelings about the death penalty or the prison system before you began this project?

Ferrer: You learn a lot when you're involved in something like this. The death penalty is a difficult subject. But I think we are finding out, across the board, that an eye for an eye is not really something that works. If a person is a murderer because he's got some deep rooted psychological psychiatric problems -- chemical imbalance, he needs to be in a place where he can be treated and contained, in some cases there is no possible reprieve. The basic principle of the system is still faulty. You can't take someone who is where they are because of a lack of opportunity, a lack of social fabric, a lack of family structure, and a lack of affection and love -- all of the things that make you grow into a complete human being and beat on him some more and lock him up. You're not going to get results with that. So, I'm not sure exactly how to do it but I think that in time we will find a hot house that instead of growing more weeds is going to actually find a way to re-grow those tendrils that are so important to society. We should have a society where children are safe wherever they go. In a book that Hilary Clinton wrote, that wonderful African indicative, "It takes a village to raise a child," it's true. And I hope it’s a society that we are all striving to achieve. You cannot just give people boundaries in their twenties and thirties, you've got to start earlier.

McCarthy: You're mother was a humanitarian and national spokesperson for UNICEF. Can you talk about how that influenced you?

Ferrer: She had a very successful career as an actress. And this (UNICEF) was her way to give back. After World War II in Holland she remembered that feeling of someone showing up with outstretched hands. It was the first country to be occupied during the war and one of the last to be set free. She remembered (a soldier giving her a chocolate bar) that feeling and she wanted to give back to society. Through her work with she did that. And of course it has affected me greatly. But I loved this project even before she started to work with UNICEF.

McCarthy: What did your mother think of your project?

Ferrer: She liked it. She met Race. It was hard to explain where we were going until it was actually done. But she understood. I think it has helped me to focus, because now we have a foundation in the family that's continuing our mother's work.

McCarthy: What's that foundation called?

Ferrer: The Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund based in Los Angeles (www.audreyhepburn.com). It started off in New York and we built a center for abused children in Hackensack, New Jersey, right outside of New York. We're supporting a program in LA Children's Hospital. We have programs in Central America.

Note: Sean Ferrer was born in Switzerland. He grew up in Europe. In addition to English he speaks Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. He has been living in the U.S. for the last 20 years. He moved to the States when he was 18. Ferrer has worked in the motion picture industry for the past twenty years.

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