INTERVIEW: Princess Diana TV special focuses on her own words

Filmmaker Tom Jennings, the maestro behind many Lost Tapes specials, is set to premiere his new documentary on National Geographic. Diana: In Her Own Words includes commentary from Diana, princess of Wales, from a secret 1991 interview she gave to a close friend on behalf of journalist Andrew Morton. The revealing film explains Diana’s story, devoid of talking heads and conspiracy theories, at a deeply personal time in her life.

The special, which will air Monday, Aug. 14 at 9 p.m. on Nat Geo, coincides with the release of the new book, Remembering Diana: A Life in Photographs with a foreword by Tina Brown. This August also marks the 20th anniversary of Diana’s unfortunate death in a car accident in Paris.

Recently, Jennings, a Peabody Award winner, exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox. In the interview, he discusses the continued influence of Diana, who was known as the “People’s Princess.” Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.

What can audience members expect from Diana: In Her Own Words?

Audience members can expect to see and hear the story of Princess Diana in a way like never before. There is no narration in this film. There are no interviews, other than ones from the media reporting the Diana story at the time it occurred. For the first time, the narrator of a film about Princess Diana is Diana herself. This film for National Geographic is like a time machine. It allows viewers to experience her story as it happened, allowing them to get a glimpse of what it was like to witness the story of Diana in real time.

Why did you decide to only have Princess Diana’s words in the film? Did you consider adding other people?

Once we had the tapes of Princess Diana narrating her own story, we decided hers would be the only voice in the film — other than the media reports from the time. We wanted to set our film apart from anything else that had ever been done. There has never been a film about Diana with her as the sole narrator. Her words are so mesmerizing to listen to that it was an easy decision to let her tell her story and no one else.

Why do you think Princess Diana and her story continue to inspire and influence the world?

For many people, Princess Diana represented the fairytale dreams we have from childhood. When she married Prince Charles, she was only 19. She went from being unknown to becoming … the most famous person of her generation. For many, she represented someone willing to step outside the usual boundaries of the royal family and chart her own course. She embraced what were at the time unpopular causes, like embracing people afflicted with HIV/AIDS, along with a push [to] rid the world of landmines. Her willingness to find her own way appealed to people all over the world. Even though people didn’t know her personally, they felt like they did. Her legacy lives on in how her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, are being much more public about their own lives and how they continue to champion the causes their mother so passionately believed in. In some ways, her legacy is stronger now than ever, because of William and Harry.

What do you say to the criticism that the Princess Diana projects after her death have become too numerous and perhaps exploitative?

The public’s fascination with Princess Diana makes for good storytelling. Broadcasters and publishers are always looking for ways to make stories from the past feel relevant. In my opinion, some of the criticism is valid, in terms of programs and books looking for ways to sensationalize the story of Diana. And in the retelling of her story, some programs and books add little to the discussion. In our film for National Geographic, we bring the story of Diana the person to light in a way viewers have never seen. Instead of biographers or friends of Diana telling us what it was like when she was alive, we hear the story from Diana herself. For that reason, I believe viewers will see that this film is not exploitive, but is the definitive documentary about Diana, told from her point of view. It is part of the historical record and is a story that deserves to be told.

You have executive produced a number of journalism-based films, many with a “lost tapes” element. What is it about the “lost tapes” element that interests you?

When I was a kid, CBS News created a Saturday morning kids show called You Are There. The idea was, what if the resources of CBS News had been around during news events when there was no electronic news gathering — like the sinking of the Titanic or the siege of the Alamo. The show featured Walter Cronkite at the news desk, just like he did for the Evening News, but he would introduce a story like the Titanic and then throw to a reporter on the deck of the ship. Everything about it was done with actors — other than the real news people — but it felt so alive, like it was happening right now.

After discovering so much archival material for major events in history — material that had never been seen — I realized I could do the true version of You Are There, that we could take viewers back in time and live through these events as they happened, in real time. When it worked the first time, with a film about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, I knew I was onto something. It’s as if all the media I may have missed growing up or studying events from the past, I can experience through the eyes of a filmmaker whose goal is to make these stories come to life with the real people and real images.

Do you like the research aspect of your projects? Are you a fan of digging around archives?

Doing research for these journalism-based tapes projects is one of my favorite things to do. We all have certain images connected to major events and people that are seared into our collective memories. Our job is to find what else exists beyond those images that breathes new life into these stories. The goal is to allow viewers to see what else was recorded at the time — to give a broader picture of what life was like at the time, and to show that just because viewers think they’ve seen or heard everything connected to a story, they really haven’t. There’s always some unfound photo, piece of footage or recorded sound that can add to what we already know.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Diana: In Her Own Words, a new film by Tom Jennings, will premiere Monday, Aug. 14 at 9 p.m. on National Geographic. Click here for more information.