Fifth in a series about the Alexandria Film Festival, Nov. 7-10. See https://alexfilmfest.com/

The Alexandria Film Festival takes place Nov. 7-10 at the Beatley Library, Lyceum, and Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) Alexandria campus with a special screening on Nov. 3 at Patagonia. 

This interview is with filmmakers Claudia Myers and Laura Waters Hinson who co-produced “The Test” which will be shown on Nov. 9 at NOVA Alexandria campus. 

The Test

“The Test” has been shown at a number of previous film festivals in the last two years including the Austin Film Festival, Annapolis Film Festival, Women’s Film Festival, Atlanta Docufest and Winner at the Santa Fe International Film Fest in 2023.

Both Myers and Hinson are full-time faculty members in media and arts at American University.  Myers is a screenwriter and director of fiction having directed four features and written an equal number. Previous to that she attended film school. Hinson is a director of documentaries having directed 7 previous to this most recent collaboration with Myers on “The Test.” She started her career in 2008. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. Describe the film.

Myers: This is the story of a Ghanaian maintenance worker, Eric Frimpong, who works at Goodwin House, a retirement community in Alexandria. He enlists two residents, Jill and Carl Miller, to help him study for his citizenship test. He had been in America for 8 years, and his youngest daughter was 2-years-old when he left Ghana.

Hinson: This is the brief narrative, primarily of the friendship that developed between Frimpong and the Millers. We hear about his life in Ghana, his goals. He is isolated and alone here. We followed the Millers studying with him, the day he got his citizenship. We knew we couldn’t film him taking the test but we got what was going on in his mind, the emotional stakes of that moment of citizenship. It builds a sense of tension. Our approach is how these two marginalized communities, the aging and the immigrants underrepresented in the media, came together.

Q. Take me back to your childhood—when did you know you were headed for your current career.

Myers: I thought I would be a lawyer. I worked in a law firm for a year and then course corrected. I had no connection to the film industry but it seemed exciting, daunting and mysterious. I got a job at a small N.Y. firm and got to understand how films are made. I always wanted to be a writer but didn’t think it would be possible to earn a living.

Hinson: As a kid I made movies with the VHS recorder, threw dead bodies out of second story windows, blood collected down the drain when I was making psycho. But I didn’t think it was a viable career, especially fiction. I’ve done documentaries; they seemed more manageable. I knew I didn’t want to work in an office, and I knew I was interested in people, in writing and in photos so it all came together, and I went to film school.

Q. What were your challenges in making the film?

Myers: Funding! This was  completely independent; we financed it ourselves. We used an advanced student crew, and the cinematographer was a recent graduate of our program. It was a very small crew but we were moved to tell the story. It was poignant, uplifting at the end of the pandemic when people needed something positive. We were driven by our passion for the story. It was also a challenge finding the time. Laura and I each work full time and do other projects. We had to be resourceful and efficient. But we had engaged participants and no restrictions on where we could film (except the test) and complete creative freedom.

Q. What’s Next?

Hinson:  We do have an outreach campaign. We have been working with community, university and civic groups. We have developed a toolkit to go with the film to get people dialoguing about the issue of citizenship for immigrants. We have had 25 community screenings and hope to expand our outreach. This program, which Goodwin House has created, can be replicated—the costs are low, and the rewards great.

Myers: When we both read the article in the Washington Post that inspired “The Test,” we teared up. It was beautiful from folks at the end of life giving back to those at the first of life. It was two marginalized communities coming together and the transformational relationship for all of them. They became a family together. It was what it is about to be human.

Hinson: We may partner again. Claudia does primarily fiction and I do documentaries but they are very complimentary. What each of us got from it made the experience richer. Given the divisive trends it’s really important to see people coming together as they did in our film. It’s a simple story but so profound.

Myers:  We had so much fun. It was really great for us.