Questions in bold, answers by director Brandon Vedder via email November 2019

When did you first get into Pedro the Lion/David Bazan?

I believe it was the early 2000’s which was first years of college for me going to school in a small northern ca of Chico, Ca. I had entered the Christian youth group/college group space in late high school and was in a fringy enough crowd that the Whole Ep was bouncing around in. When “It’s Hard to Find a Friend Came out” I remember being excited to hear a bit more range with "Bad Diary Days" and "Of Minor Prophets" feeling like a Beatles-esque turn. I loved everything about “Control” and listened to that record on repeat for years. So after that I because infatuated with a specific underground hip hop scene and lost track of Bazan.

There was a lot of the film where it's close up on David, how much time did you spend with David to get that close with him?

We shot for about 12 weeks scattered over 2 1/2 years, so we would kinda lock in every couple months for a week or so. It was a lot. I didn’t want to predetermine the flow of the film so I just had to faithfully get out there and watch and listen and shoot, trying to find the most helpful version of this story. We became really close as you do in this intense of any collaboration. If you are being honest there is conflict especially when the stakes are so high like this and there was plenty of conflict between us as we went, which sharpened the film and our friendship.

At times, when did you feel you needed to turn the camera at some point or did you have the ability/understanding to keep filming?

There were a handful of times that Dave asked for me to not shoot but we developed a pretty trusted relationship about my intentions and willingness to hear his thoughts about what made it in and what didn’t. This gave me the opportunity to shoot most everything as Dave knew we would respectfully figure it out later.

Did you learn something you didn't know or thought you knew but didn't about David after doing this film?

I honestly didn’t feel like I knew much about Dave going in. I knew his project and his was of living it out could be incredible helpful for other humans. I also intentionally worked to reserve judgement on anything with this film from the directors standpoint as I was desperate to figure out the right way to tell this story so it could transcend being a fan film or have any prerequisite knowledge of Dave.

What should someone not knowing anything about David take away from the film?

My hope is that it works just as well if not better with people who had no prior knowledge of Dave. Dave’s general journey, both work and faith wise, is a fairly common one. Dave just so happens to be one of the best communicators I’ve come across both through his music and in conversation. This creates this wonderful very relatable everyman character that can effortlessly give words and shape to your deepest feelings but still feels like your bud. That said I hope that what people with no context take away is something new about themselves.

What's something that a super fan will learn?

The super fan will understand the context in which all these songs and events they know well happened during. A good example of that is Dave’s drunken night at the Cornerstone Christian Music festival.

What's the moment you knew when you had the final cut done?

It changes every time. To be honest I don’t remember what it was this time. That season is such a blur. My wife and I were having our second little girl and I was up against some very intense deadlines.

Are there more music documentaries you want to make in the future?

Yeah absolutely. I have a Tom Waits idea that would be incredible to make. More recently I have been trying to find a good road in to do something around Rage Against the Machine’s upcoming border tour. I cant imagine a point in my career where I’m not knocking around a music doc idea.

Learn more here: https://strangenegotiationsfilm.com/