An inside look into the Brothers Warner

By Ashlee Fairey
Sun Staff Writer

“The Brothers Warner,” a special presentation featured in the Aspen FilmFest, is a documentary portraying the four famous Warner brothers who founded the Warner Brothers Studio and transformed the silver screen.

It is about the “close-knit band of brothers (who) proved in their pioneering efforts to use mass media to ‘educate, entertain, and enlighten’ while being commercially successful.” The brothers’ motto echoes that of the Aspen FilmFest and can be seen as the embodiment of the festival’s ideals.

The film comes from a new voice: It is the first film by director Cass Warner, granddaughter of Harry Warner. As a child Cass Warner was very close to her grandfather. “He was a fine, kind human being,” she recalls. “He would come home with tales of behind of scenes.” These fantastic tales would create a lasting impression on the young, eager granddaughter.

When she reached her 20s, Warner realized those family legends were unrecorded and slowly slipping into murky memory. She took it upon herself to become the family archivist, a role that was essentially the first move towards the making of the movie. In 2003 she authored a book entitled “The Brothers Warner,” the namesake for the future film. The book was a rags-to-riches story that compiled the photographs and letters that Warner uncovered in her archival efforts.

Those same family archives were used in the film. The never-before-seen footage includes audio interviews with deceased family members, photographs and old home movies. These reveal, as Warner puts it, “guys who came from nothing, who never quit until they made their dream a reality. They made a fantastic team.” The director wanted the film to highlight their conscience, a rare virtue for filmmakers. Harry Warner once said, “It is not the challenge of dollars, it is the challenge of ideals and ideas. If the producers of pictures see only the dollar, I believe, those productions will fail.” They understood that “film is a powerful tool,” as his granddaughter says, and they used it wisely.

Considering director Cass Warner created a documentary on her own family, objectivity may seem an elusive outcome. But Warner describes herself as a fair person who concentrates on offering different points of view. She certainly basks her characters in a light of praise, but she feels the film also conveys character flaws. “I was raised on character-driven films,” Warner explains. “I want to know what makes them tic and why they do things.” The result: “a thorough, deep look at (the Warner brothers) as people.”

Directing a film about one’s own family can have great benefits as well. The making of “The Brothers Warner” was not only a journey through the lives of four extraordinary men, but became a self-exploration. “It helped me to understand my roots and myself,” she noted. “Through osmosis you get certain traits that you were witness to,” and through the camera lens Cass Warner was able to peer into a mirror. The road to the documentary’s creation was not smooth or speedy. “It has taken a long time to make. I have gambled everything,” the director said. The buzz of positive reviews, however, seems to have made it all worth while.

Cass Warner is also the niece of Lita Warner Heller, the honoree of a celebration dinner benefiting the Emerging Filmmaker Fund, and as Warner calls her, “a true lover of the arts.”

The showing of “The Brothers Warner” will be on Friday, Sept. 26, at 5:30 p.m. For tickets call 920-5770 or visit aspenshowtickets.com.