Ky Dickens: Chicago's Taxidermist of Truth

“You can’t be a passive participant. You have to be actively trying to make the situation better.” Ky Dickens is talking passionately about the paucity of women on film sets, be they directors, camera operators or grips. She pauses. “But on the plus side, there’s a really short line for the bathroom.” A flash of humour that perfectly illustrates the down-to-earth attitude that makes her such an accomplished documentarian.

Over the course of her 10-year career, Dickens has trained her lens on some deeply emotive subjects – religious opposition to gay marriage (Fish Out of Water); survivor’s guilt (Sole Survivor, above); the lack of paid family leave that drives mothers back to work within two weeks of giving birth in the US (Zero Weeks) – with empathy and emotional intelligence. The result? Hard-hitting films that have not only garnered numerous awards on the indie festival circuit, but shifted policy and public opinion.

Telling tales out of school

The daughter of Swedish immigrants, Dickens grew up just outside Chicago. A natural storyteller (“It started as tall tales when I was little,”) she has been documenting the world around her since picking up a video camera in fifth grade. When a college friend died tragically in a car crash, she was able to construct a memorial from the hours of footage she’d accumulated. “Suddenly it was clear that film can immortalise someone in a way. Something just clicked in my brain and I thought, I will always have a camera with me now, no matter what.”  

After graduating from Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, with a “cobbled-together” film degree, Dickens started making commercials to fund her first documentary, 2009 Netflix hit Fish Out of Water, which challenged the seven biblical verses commonly used to condemn homosexuality. Since then, the commercial and filmmaking strands of Dickens’ career have flourished in tandem: her deft interviewing skills translating particularly well into documentary-style branded content pieces for clients such as Huggies, Wrangler, McDonald’s and Hallmark.

Chicago’s hidden ad history

Since signing to STORY in Chicago last year, she’s directed a Mother’s Day campaign for Tylenol, How We Family, redefining traditional notions of parenthood via interviews with mothers including actress Lucy Liu, whose son was born via a surrogate. “I never want it to feel contrived,” she says of her approach. “Even if it’s a script, I’ll ask the subjects questions, so they’re not just delivering a line. In order to get those really raw performances, I spend a lot of time getting to know these people, researching them, what are their insecurities? The more you can make them feel safe and protected, [the better], so it feels like they’re just having a conversation with a friend.”

Dickens reckons that women have a natural advantage when it comes to unscripted work. “I’m not saying that men aren’t capable of it, but [in] society, women are trained to be emotional listeners. So it’s good that advertising agencies are starting to harness that.”

This autumn, the two facets of her career cross over in The City That Sold America, the untold story of Chicago’s pivotal role in the US advertising industry. While Madison Avenue is commonly seen as adland’s ancient seat, Dickens points out many of the early creative greats hailed from Chicago, along with marketing ploys like product placement and market research.

“When a storyboard lands on my desk, I can’t look at it in the same way now. I see the roots of where it came from.” 

In the feature-length documentary, Dickens spotlights key milestones such as the shift away from long copy in print ads (“You should buy X because Y…”) to large images, pioneered by Leo Burnett; and the introduction of brand mascot “critters” – Tony the Tiger, the Pillsbury Doughboy et al – which were mocked at the time.

She also, excitingly, uncovers local talents that have been whitewashed from the history books, such as the black designer and artist Charles Dawson, who was “making comic books and pop art long before Andy Warhol”.

A sequel to the Emmy Award-winning film Art & Copy, The City… has been three long years in the making. In contrast to the “visceral” experience of making Zero Weeks, the film took “a ton of research”, complicated by many of its subjects – such as the father of modern advertising, Albert Lasker, legendary copywriter Claude Hopkins, and Leo Burnett himself – being long dead. Currently at the final hurdle of rights clearance, it’s set to premiere in early 2018 and has taught Dickens a few lessons about making commercials: “When a storyboard lands on my desk, I can’t look at it in the same way now. I see the roots of where it came from.” 

It’s set to be a busy few months with both The City… and Zero Weeks hitting the indie film festival circuit, and two more films in production: LGBTQ documentary Queer in Trump’s America, and, for fun, a “teeny little project” on the Chicago Mothman, a legendary seven-foot humanoid bat said to terrorise the Windy City.

"It’s easier to have a creative life in Chicago. I'd prefer to be making my work than waiting tables on the side." 

Winged monsters aside, Dickens has a deep affection for Chicago, citing “the awesome community” of documentary makers, editors and filmmakers, the liberal, progressive vibe and the affordable cost of living. While many have upped sticks to NY and LA, in Chicago “it’s easier to have a creative life”, she concludes. “And that’s where my values are: I’d prefer to be making my work than waiting tables on the side.”