Film editor and Iowa alum Erin Casper returns to Iowa City on Sunday to participate in the Vino Vérité series at FilmScene. She will be sharing the film Fire of Love, which recently won her the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award at Sundance, and will be doing a Q&A with the audience. 

Woven together from dramatic archive footage and narrated by singer, filmmaker, author and performance artist Miranda July, Fire of Love tells the story of doomed scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who died together in an explosion at one of the volcanoes they spent their lives exploring.

I asked Casper about the early days of her career, past documentaries and editing jobs she’s been a part of, mentors and of course, her recent work on Fire of Love.

First, I thought I’d first ask about your college years and early ambitions at Iowa. You graduated with degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Art. At the time, did you anticipate winding up in the film industry? 

Not exactly. I gravitated toward post-production while I was in school, I was always trying to reconcile my interests in journalism and visual art and figure out where they intersected. I tried out different things as they spoke to me; I joined KRUI and Student Video Productions, worked at UITV, took an animation class in the film program and volunteered at Public Space One. I met some wonderful lifelong friends through those channels who were a part of the film school and many of us eventually made our way to New York. It wasn’t until around graduation that my interests in artistic storytelling started to slowly merge.

I knew I was interested in editing, but not for the news. I loved writing and storytelling, but it mostly felt intuitive to me through visual mediums. It was very important to me to work in a creative field and not just have a job. I was sort of groping around in the dark.

As I was graduating, my friend Greg Eggebeen recommended I take over his summer internship on a documentary film in New York as he was returning for his final year and I was moving there. I got the spot before I arrived and was hired for a permanent position on my first day; the production was building out their team and were curious if I had any post-production skills. Thankfully, I did from working at UITV. I was too young and inexperienced to know that it doesn’t typically work like that, but I felt extremely grateful and of course relieved and excited. I wound up working on that film for almost two years, and that’s when I finally connected the dots, realizing that nonfiction editing was my artistic home. 

How does Fire of Love compare to other documentary works you’ve edited throughout your career? 

Fire of Love is unlike anything I’ve worked on before.

My background is all in the vérité tradition of observational documentary filmmaking: The story unfolds in front of the camera with interviews filmed in the moment and also features sit-down (interviews) weaved throughout. The directors have been there for the entire production, and they can elaborate on what transpired beyond the frame of the image in any given shoot.

Fire of Love is completely different. The footage was something that wasn’t born out of anyone’s experience who was working on the film. It was shot by Maurice and Katia, as well as several of their collaborators, and then eventually stored away for decades. Opening up Maurice and Katia’s archive was like looking for needles in a giant haystack with no context. There were decades worth of 16mm film scans with no sync sound that required deep research into Katia and Maurice’s interviews and writings. And, interviews with their collaborators and friends helped uncover more about them and their motivations behind what they were shooting to make the story come to life.

In 2020, Sara Dosa (Director of Fire of Love), who you’ve worked with several times before, invited you to edit the feature. What initially excited you about this documentary? I’m also wondering if editing this feature during the pandemic was a challenge for you?

Sara is not only a longtime treasured collaborator but also a dear friend. The way it’s shaken out for us is that just as we’re finishing one film, Sara is already thinking of the next one and talking to me about her early ideas. As we were finishing Seer and the Unseen, there was a completely different film about Siberia that Sara began to develop right away. It all, unfortunately, got shelved in early 2020 as the pandemic hit. Sara began to develop Fire of Love instead, which was inspired in part by working with volcanic imagery that we came across and used in the opening scene of Seer. Later, we discovered the imagery was shot by Maurice and Katia. I was excited to work on Fire of Love and stretch my legs a bit creatively.

It was a real team effort with Sara and my co-editor, Jocelyne Chaput, to develop the playful voice of the narrator and editing style. I love fleshing out the sound design on all of my films and using it as an engine for storytelling. This was the perfect opportunity to dive in and create the soundscapes from scratch since none of the footage had any sync sound. Later on, we had an incredible sound designer, Patrice LeBlanc, and sound re-recording mixer, Gavin Fernandes, take everything to the next level artistically.

 I’m grateful to have worked on Fire of Love during the pandemic. The footage was an absolute refuge in a time of great personal and social upheaval. I found myself relating to Katia and Maurice’s wish to leave human pursuits of power behind and seek out the mysteries of our natural world. Sara and I live on opposite sides of the country, so one thing we often do is get together periodically throughout the editing process and have what we call “film camps.” We started editing as the world began to open up in 2021, so we could have film camps, which felt wonderful after more than a year of isolation.

Courtesy of Erin Casper. The ‘Fire of Love’ team at Sundance 2022.

Congratulations on recently being awarded Sundance Film Festival’s Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award! Could you describe your experience working with Oppenheim and how he impacted you as an editor? 

I’m extremely fortunate to have known Jonathan as a mentor and a very dear friend. He was the editor of the first film I worked on straight out of college and is the ultimate reason I found my path as an editor. I essentially stumbled into his edit room on my first day in New York. He was a painter before he came to editing, and his profoundly philosophical, artistic approach to nonfiction editing was what truly made everything click for me. He was not only my film school but an advocate and incisive sounding board as I was feeling my way through life.

In 2009, he gave me my first real break on editing my first feature, Our School, which was directed by Mona Nicoara (who also became a beloved collaborator and friend). There were several other projects that we crossed paths on, and when we weren’t working together in some way, we would watch each other’s rough cuts and give feedback. We spent a lot of time together as friends too, which I think is so essential to real mentorship, and I became very close with his wife Josie Oppenheim as well.

Could you tell us a bit about your work in the film world outside of editing?

Outside of editing, I’ve been lucky to serve as an editing advisor for the Sundance Institute, Gotham Film Lab and True/False Rough Cut Retreat, among others. I also serve on the board of the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship, an organization that pairs emerging editors with mentors for a year. I was the inaugural KSFEF fellow in 2011 and it changed my life. I encourage anyone who is early in their editing path to check it out!

Vino Vérité is a joint project of FilmScene, ‘Little Village‘ and Bread Garden Market, pairing wine tasting and dessert with fresh, fascinating films and the people who create them. The event will be full capacity; enhanced wellness protocols in place.