A ‘dream edit’ for Donegal man Michael Harte has scooped seven Emmy Award nominations.
STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie tells the life story of Hollywood actor Michael J. Fox.
Fox has spent almost 40 years in the public spotlight. For 30 of those years, he was also dealing with young-onset Parkinson’s disease.
Fox tells his extraordinary story in his own words for STILL. The magic of the documentary is a blend of interview footage with Fox himself and archive clips from his wide-ranging career, diligently edited by Michael Harte.
Letterkenny man Michael, son of Jimmy and Mary Harte, jokes that he had been editing this film since 1985.
Speaking about the creative process, he told Variety: “I was obsessed with Back to the Future and Michael’s films so I knew all the material inside out.”
Harte’s art of splicing and merging so many films and TV shows of Fox’s created a whirlwind mix of adventure, romance, comedy and drama so that watching the film feels like a true Michael J. Fox movie.
“It was tough but it was so rewarding when it paid off,” Harte said.
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie • Apple TV+ • An Apple Original Film in association with Concordia Studio
Speaking to Variety, Harte said that the project was originally supposed to be solely based on archive footage, but he’ll never forget the day he got the interview footage from director Davis Guggenheim in the edit suite.
“This is the best interview I’ve ever had the pleasure of editing with, to that point, because it was so funny,” he said.
“I’ve always wanted to work on a documentary comedy. I love them.
“Halfway through this progress I was like ‘this is it, this is the comedy film I’ve always wanted to work on’.
“He (Michael) is just a master in comic timing. It was a dream in the edit.”
STILL, the Apple Original documentary, leads this year’s documentary films and docuseries with a total of seven Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program and Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program.
Michael J Fox said the editing was so powerful that it moved him to tears. One stand-out moment was when the documentary revisits Fox falling in love with his now-wife Tracy Pollan by reviving a scene from ‘Bright Lights, Big City’.
Fox said: “The way Michael Harte did that still makes me cry when I watch it. When I saw the use of that footage in that context, I went, “This guy is in love with her big-time.” And that was what was happening in real life.”
Director Davis Guggenheim commended Harte’s techniques and said: “Michael Harte, the film’s editor and my creative partner on it, brought a brilliant and form-breaking idea to this, which was to use scenes from Michael’s work to portray his actual life. Luckily, we had a lot of great Michael J. Fox clips to work with. “
Harte has previously enjoyed success at the BAFTAs for his editing work on Don’t F–k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer. Another critically acclaimed project, ‘Three Identical Strangers’ earned Harte an Emmy nomination in 2019 for Outstanding Picture Editing. Harte’s other credits include the Emmy nominated “On The President’s Orders,” and “Torn” which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival.
