When it comes to filming documentaries, Boaz Dvir and Rebecca Goldman are fast learners -as fast as 60 mph.
Dvir spent one of his first days as cameraman in February 2007 hanging from the side of a Jeep Cherokee speeding down U.S. Highway 19 while about 5,000 motorcycles whizzed by. The bikers rode for Jessie's Memorial Ride, an event to honor 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford of Homosassa, Fla., who was raped and murdered in 2005 by a sex offender living across the street.
Dvir, a UF graduate student, dangled precariously from the passenger side window at times and stood halfway out the window at others, filming across the car roof.
All the while, co-director and classmate Goldman worked her own magic behind the wheel, careful to avoid not only the bikers but the police patrolling the event. The duo had not asked permission to ride alongside the procession.
"I did some pretty maverick driving, and he did some pretty maverick acrobatics," Goldman said.
Eventually, police stopped the daring cinematographers, but they talked their way out of it, Dvir said.
The ride footage from about a year and half ago was the first of more than 130 hours of video that Dvir, 40, and Goldman, 24, shot documenting the life of Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford.
Dvir, a graduate student of UF's Documentary Institute, and Goldman, a recent institute alumna, showed a 46-minute version of the film at an on-campus screening on May 2. The documentary, called "Jessie's Dad," has already received invitations to two major film festivals.
Dvir, also director of communications for UF's College of Journalism and Communications, will pitch the film to TV producers at the sixth annual Silverdocs Film Festival on June 17 as one of six student documentaries invited nationwide. The panel will include representatives from PBS and the Discovery Channel, among others.
In August, the pair will travel to Colorado Springs to screen the film during the University Film and Video Association's annual conference.
For Dvir and Goldman, the festivals are launching pads for the film's message, one of a man dedicated to intensifying laws and restrictions against sexual predators. In the documentary, Lunsford fights to pass Jessica's Law in all 50 states. At least some part of the act has been passed in 34 states, Goldman said.
"We want as many people as possible to see it," Dvir said. "It can raise awareness, get people talking, get people thinking and maybe save a child."
Dvir, who is also from Homosassa, started following the story when his small hometown, about 75 miles north of Tampa, began appearing in news articles. Over time, Dvir's interest in the case grew to a fascination with the character of Lunsford, a truck driver with a 10th-grade education who was fast becoming an outspoken political activist.
"He transformed in front of our cameras," Dvir said. "We were very lucky to be able to capture that."
Dvir and Goldman followed Lunsford on trips to promote Jessica's Law in Washington, D.C., Utah and several cities in Florida, as well as on a family reunion to Ohio.
They spent their $5,500 budget allotted by the institute. Then they were awarded $2,000 in grant money from two separate prizes never before won by UF students -the Carole Fielding Student Grant and the Direct Cinema Limited Outstanding Documentary Award.
Finally, they started funding out-of-pocket. Neither kept close track, but together they have spent more than $3,000.
After countless hours of filming, traveling and much sacrificed sleep, editing presented a new challenge -letting go of treasured shots.
"It's a painful process," Dvir said. "You throw away a lot of babies. If it didn't fit, it had to go."
Goldman said the process is not over. The two plan to film more scenes before taking their finalized version of the film to festivals.
"You're never done making a film," she said. "People take years to make a documentary. We had a year and a half, and we were battling this learning curve along the way."
Despite any disadvantages, the documentary has already had an impact.
For some, like UF journalism professor Mike Foley, the film changed opinions of Lunsford, who was widely criticized for his motives behind Jessica's Law.
"I wondered before I saw it whether he was a spotlight-seeking phony taking advantage of the situation," Foley said.
Foley, who went to the May 2 screening as a friend of Dvir, left impressed with not only the documentary, but also with Lunsford, he said.
"I think it did everything a documentary's supposed to do," he said. "It really gives you a perspective on the whole thing."
