Blink (2024 Documentary) / Whiskey Del Bac Sentinel of the Desert

0:00 On today's Film and Whiskey, Bob sits down with the Oscar winning team behind the documentary Navalny to discuss their new film Blink. Then we'll be drinking Sentinel of the Desert Rye from Whiskey to El Bach. That's all ahead on the Film and Whiskey podcast. Welcome into the Film and Whiskey podcast. We have a special bonus episode for you. Bob normally says that, but I'll I'll just go into the traditional bonus. Episode.

0:47 We are gearing up for Tuesday's launch of Season 9. We're now right now Bob is out of town for work, but we are going to throw over to an interview he did a week ago with the directors of the new documentary Blink. This film follows a family's round the world trip just before their children lose vision to a rare genetic disorder, capturing their journey to experience the world's beauty while they can still see it. The movie is out in theaters from Disney and National Geographic on October 4th. Let's go to Bob's interview and then we will come back after the break for our Whiskey review all. Right. I'm joined by Daniel Rohr and Ed Stenson, film makers of the new movie Blink, from National Geographic, out in theaters on October 4th.

1:33 Gentlemen, how are you today? Awesome. Healing. Great. Guys, I I guess the first place to start is to ask about the genesis of this project a little bit. How did you come to find out about the remarkable family in this film? Ed. We, what happened is I think both of us had heard about the family in the news or we'd read about them, but we had a fellow Canadian who worked at MRCA, sales agent that had a documentary division at the time. And they reached out to Daniel and said, look, we've optioned this story of this incredible family. Are you interested in coming on board and making this movie with us? And Daniel at the time was going through a lot of kind of tortuous work on the the Oscar campaign for Navalny. And he'd recently and he just didn't maybe have the headspace to fully work on the film by himself. So given that he and I have been collaborators for, I want to say best part of 10 years now, he reached out to me and said, Ed, do you want to go on a trip around the world and make a documentary with this incredible family? And I didn't really have to hear the end of the sentence to say yes, absolutely.

2:38 You guys really have operated kind of across the spectrum of documentaries now. I mean, we've had political intrigue, we've had musical biopic of sorts. What are the unique challenges of doing this style of film where you're it's it's part travelogue, part human interest story as opposed to what you guys have done in the past? Well, first and foremost, I want to say thank you for saying that because it's kind of my dream to have a career where I can just bop around and and do wildly different things. It's a gear shift, you know, it's, it's just a change of speed, which is why I love this job. One of the things that I'm so afraid of after I finished my last film was like being put in a box or being pigeon holed.

3:19 It's like, oh, this is like the political intrigue guy, like, you know, following up Navalny with with like the film about some other dissident somewhere. And it's like, I, I didn't want to do that. That's not how I am. That's not how my brain works. That's not how I how I frame myself in the world. And I thought that the best sort of palate cleanser for that sort of intense political thriller of a movie was to do something that's just wildly different and unique. And that's more of a reflection of where I am in my life now. And what better way to do that than with, you know, my best buddy? And so it's it was sort of in that spirit that we went off and started making this movie. I'm watching the movie and I obviously you guys are filming in these incredible locations and National Geographic obviously known for the visual look of their movies. But I couldn't help but keep thinking, how much more responsibility do you feel as a filmmaker when the subject matter is, these are some of the lasting images that these children are going to remember throughout their lives? How does that affect the way the lensing of the movie? The visual stylings of the film?

4:22 I think for us, we were very careful at the beginning to to look for visual references of of of worlds and films that spoke to the sensibility we wanted to create. In this case, we looked at Terrence Malick films, we looked at Tree of Life and we were very interested at keeping things at kids eye view whenever we could. And we saw a lot of that and in the work of Malik. And I think that taking that as an inspiration, that that was our kind of starting point of like, if we can get into the kids had in a visual way, because kids are such kind of in some ways, unknowable, irreverent creatures that are kind of doing their own thing and living their own lives that we thought, well, if we can visually represent their experience in whenever we can, that would be a strong entry point to the film.

5:09 And we both thought, we've not seen that much in documentary, right, Daniel? We look for references within the documentary landscape and there are films here and there, but it felt to us that we needed to turn to fiction to find some, to find the right references. And I I would also add the. Yeah, go ahead. I, I was just going to say the, the other thing that that was sort of on our minds and close to our thoughts was just the, the creative challenge of making a documentary for children. So often documentaries pigeon holed as big, serious, intense subjects and it's, and it's almost alienating to younger viewers. And in partnering with Disney and National Geographic, it was like the gauntlet was thrown to us to be like, let's see if we can make a movie for, for the whole family that children can enjoy. That's like meaningful and life affirming, but also like deals with a subject matter that in an unflinching and very real, earnest, honest way.

5:57 And it was sort of in that spirit that that we set out on this journey. That's a great segue into talking about the family dynamic of the film itself. And one of the things I really appreciated is the kind of, for lack of a better term, like the role with it Ness of the parents in the film and the way that yes, they've got this trip planned out, but obviously things happen that are unforeseen, But also just life with small children is a is a very different kind of thing. And Daniel, I've, I've seen some clips of you giving interviews while holding your son and taking him with you on interviews this morning. Where? Are those? I want to see those interviews. Where did you find those? I'll send you the YouTube links for sure. Yes, please. This morning I'm prepping for this interview. My son comes in and he's just like dad. I can't remember how the chicken dance goes. Can you explain it to me again?

6:43 So that's. So cool you have to your son even remembers how the chicken like my son, like he, he, he can't like crawl yet. So the fact that like one day my boy will come in and be like dad, I don't remember how the chicken dance goes and I'm gonna be that I have to be like, well, you shake your hip like this and then you move your leg and I'm like T-shirt like that. That is mind blowing. So I feel like we're at very different stages, but I certainly appreciate the spirit of of the the question. It's it's coming for you is what I'm saying. And I guess what I'm wondering is like, does that spirit extend to the way the movie has to get shot, has to get put together? The the fact that like this, you know, I don't want to not too many spoilers for the movie happening here, but like this horrific event is happening and then all of a sudden the kids are just all farting at each other.

7:26 Like how does that affect the way you have to structure the film? I think you, yeah, you're raising an interesting point. It's one that we noticed early as we were crafting the story in production. It's that kids don't always follow the narrative through line of family events, as you, you know, as I'm sure you know, as a father. And we, as we got into the edit suite and we were looking at all these incredible moments where our kids say something off the wall or strange or irrelevant to the matter at hand. There was something immediately so charming and wonderful that it didn't really matter cinematically. At times we felt whether this had a direct relationship to where a scene was going, because children bring this energy and this joy at times and this this humor that kind of brings you out of yourself.

8:12 And I think we we wanted to capture that in the film. But it was also a very delicate balance because as soon as you overdo it, cinematically speaking, your film can feel a bit random or a bit discombobulated. So it was definitely a very delicate balance of how many times can we have our kids do something very childlike and silly and irreverent and still keep the audience's attention. And again, this this challenge of, of making a documentary, again, a medium that in a mode that is often reserved for sort of the trophy serious, intense, social, justicy political subjects and framing something through the lens of the child to make a film for children was a great creative challenge.

8:55 And, and it's, and it's as simple as like keep the camera lower, keep the camera the, at the height of the, the kids, you know, like we see what they see. We're in their perspective, we're in their POB, you know, experiencing the world literally through their lens. And then the last part of, of, of the answer has to do with, with not the visual language of the movie, but the Sonic language of the movie. Cinema is an art form of, of images and sound. And it's something we took very seriously. And, and, and in the future, as the children's illness progresses, hopefully not for a very long time, and they are not able to experience the film visually in the same way. They'll still be able to hear it. They'll still be able to hear their laughter.

9:36 They'll still be able to hear the sounds of the calls to prayer in Indonesia or the quiet of the white desert or the, the sound of their mom's voice or their dad's voice or my favorite moment when when they're tickling one another in the tent. The sound of the laughter. You know, that is something that is incredibly evocative, that is is almost as important in this film as the visuals, if not more so. You made reference to one of my favorite shots in the movie is we're just following one of the children on the walk to school and it's filmed at waist level of the adults, but at at his eye level. And it reminded me so much of of Spielberg. There's so much ET in that scene and the the trick or treating sequence and ET. And I understand that.

10:16 Bob, thank you so much. I, I, I'm wondering you've already talked a little bit about inspiration in terms of Malik and filming the grandeur of things. But this movie does such a great job of kind of Trojan horsing in this is a movie about parenting and are we doing right by our kids? And I'm wondering thematically, what, where were you guys drawing inspiration from, from those sorts of films? Can I talk first? Ed, please go ahead. The first thing I want to say, this is also just in the spirit of our our, our directorial, our Co directing. We spent a lot of time thinking about what the Co means and how to be effective Cos and to Co effectively with one another And the Terrence Malick's that if you had told me, you know, oh, there's going to be a Terrence Mal tree of life influence of this movie, My knee jerk reaction would have been don't put that art house garbage in my film. Like don't get near it.

11:08 But I I know that that's Ed sensibility and I and I knew that whatever that meant for him was going to be stunning and beautiful and meaningful and thoughtful. And so that in and of itself is a good example of how we Co effectively. And so far as like I know that whatever Ed does, whatever he delivers, whatever he goes out and does with his inspirations will come back and be thoughtful, useful, beautiful, all of all of the things. But I think to your point, whereas Ed's inspiration would lean towards like Terrence Malick and like Tree of Life and like, you know, Lubinski's like wide angle, beautiful low camera work, mine, my inspiration would be more geared towards like Spielberg towards an ET, towards like, you know, that type of film making and exploration of childhood through those movies that I, I grew up with. Yeah, I, I'm struggling.

12:03 Well, thank you for the kind words, Daniel. Even if your initial reaction to certain things is get this dog shit out of my film. But I, for me, I, I don't know if I can speak to specific films, but we were just very keen. I wanted to make a gentle film and I wanted to as much as I can, as you said, but balance the grandeur of things with the absolute intricacy of tiny moments that contain the kernel of something universal. And I think of when Mia is being sent off by her mom for the, you know, her first big party. And there's this, there's these moments like that which speak to so many of us, but are incredibly small details. They're not these grand gestures or these big speeches or these emotionally overwhelming moments between families. They're these single shots or looks that come to standing for so much of how we experience everyday life. And I think I knew that I I wanted to build that into the universe of our film.

13:06 And I, I don't know if this film makers that you think of when I say this, but that was kind of front and Center for me is the minutiae of everyday life and how beautiful that can be. Guys, I just, I can't say enough good things about the film itself. I I also want to say that I think you succeeded in what you've laid out as your own personal challenge here. Like Spielberg, like a a film, like ET, like a Toy Story. This is a movie that's going to work when I show it to my 7 year old. And then when my 7 year old is a 33 year old like me, he's going to be able to watch it from a completely different angle. It's a movie about childhood, but it's a movie about parenting as well. And so it really does speak to the entire family. And guys, thank you so much for joining me today. I can't thank you enough for the movie. And the film is called Blink.

13:49 It's out on October 4th in theaters nationwide. This has been Daniel Rohr and Ed Stenson. Gentlemen, thank you so much. Thank you, Bob. OK, so today we are trying Sentinel of the Desert Straight Rye whiskey. This comes to us from Whiskey Delbach. Finished in Whiskey Delbach mesquited casks, right? I think this is only the second time in the history of this podcast we have mentioned the word Mesquite, the first time being Matthew Mcconaughey's Wild Turkey. What's it called? Long Branch. Long Branch. Long Branch, So it says that this whiskey is aged no less than two years. So that that sounds more like a warning when they say it like that.

14:36 No, no less than two years. I'm OK with the two year rye though, Brad, we've we've said many times before rye seems to take on a more mature character at a younger age, even though we just said that in the presence of some whiskey people recently and they looked at us like we were crazy. I stand by it, man. Yeah, I, I, I'm not thrown off by the two year age statement. I do know that you have to have really high quality juice in order for it to stand up to the low age statement. You know what I mean? Like it. It's going to have to be something really special at four years for it to be drinkable, palatable, tasty at 2:00. Years. That's a fair statement. So this is batch #3 of Sentinel of the Desert. It's a limited release.

15:21 This is 92 proof. I do not have a mash bill on this in front of me, but it comes from MGP. So I'm going to go ahead and just assume it's 95.5 and we'll go from there, Brad. Gasp. All right, what are you picking up on the nose of the Sentinel of the Desert? I mean it comes across similarly, like not in any of the actualities, but like it reminds me of a peated Scotch in the sense that the initial nosing is way different than any other whiskey. Like whatever mesquiting they have done has given it this very specific smoky quality that is nothing like Pete.

16:05 I want to be clear, it is nothing like a Pete Scotch, but it has some really distinct characteristics. The longer I knows it, the more you get into the layers of the rye, and I think that you have what we talked about already, a young rye. But but honestly, that that young character we get from the rye, I think it works really well with whatever they're doing with these casks because you're right, there is a smokiness here. But it reminds me of like when people play around with their smokers and they'll throw things in there that you wouldn't typically think of. Like people do smoked sugar or smoked fruits. This is like if you put a like an apple pie apple like a Macintosh or whatever you want to bake your pies into a smoker for a couple hours.

16:53 It it has that really nice character of like being softened up. It smells like an applesauce honestly, but just with a little bit of smoke to it. I really like this a lot. It smells like it's going to be sweet, which is up my alley for a rye Brad. I think that I would give this an 8 out of 10 on the nose. I think I'm a little cooler than you. It definitely has some cinnamony notes that would make me think of applesauce. I think I'm at a 6 1/2 out of 10 here. All right. When we get to the taste. Where you at on this one man? You know, I think that the smokiness of the Mesquite hits on the finish and on the pallet. You really do just have a really classic two year ride. It's a tiny bit minty.

17:45 There's a little bit of like a sweet dill going on and it almost jumps into a vanilla territory for me. But overall the palate is a very normal average rye whiskey that I I'd probably I'd give a 7 out of 10 to. I feel like it's always constantly flirting with like, oh, this is too young. Like it's almost tipping into oh, it's a little too harsh. It's a little too like sickly sweet, but it never quite gets over that line. And I have to at least give it credit for that, You know what I mean? Like, it's definitely a young rye, but I think they've done kind of everything in their power to maximize the good qualities that you can find in a younger rye and to minimize the stuff.

18:31 Brad, we've had some truly shitty young whiskey on this podcast. Oh, 100%. This is not that, you know what I mean? Like it's, it's pretty good. I would have much preferred it at four years old, but even here it's that Mesquite and the oak influence makes it really prickly upfront and you, you notice it right away. There's that like heavy, heavy smoke upfront to the point where I think it kind of drowns out a lot behind it. It's pretty thin on the mouthfeel. There's a lot of green apple for me still and it's good, but it doesn't quite live up to that like sweet, bold, bright fruit I got on the nose. I'm just going to give this a six out of 10 on the palate. Yeah, and Bob, I think that the finish is the best part of this experience. The Mesquite finally comes through and makes itself really known and it gives you a nice tobacco Y leather a a really enjoyable finish.

19:26 Like I just took a nice puff on a cigar and I I actually like it a decent amount. I'll come up a little bit here. I've been stepping my way up. I'll I'll give it a 7 1/2 on the finish. Yeah, I think leather is kind of the keynote on the finish here. It's really nice. I just, I wish that there was a little more rye character, whether it would be dill or mint or like anything in that kind of rye grain realm. It's almost just like straight leather, which again, I don't mind on a whiskey, but like 4 years old, this would be freaking stellar at two years old. I'm impressed for other reasons. I'm impressed that they got this out of a two year whiskey. But I like it's still not a full throated support of what's in the glass. I'm going to give it a 6 1/2 on the finish and then on in terms of balance, I'm going to give it a seven. I think this is where I really want to reward their efforts here.

20:22 I have to imagine it took a significant amount of effort to pull this much out of a two year product and they've done a really good job with it. Yeah, I I would agree. I think that they have done some interesting things here. I'll give it a 6 1/2 on balance. At the end of the day, the this whiskey needs to be aged two more years, one more year at least. And I think that if you do that, every score is going to come up a half to one full point. And this is going to be a really enjoyable whiskey. I'm just struggling with it at this age. So yeah, 6 1/2 on balance. All right. And then in terms of value, I think that this is averaging about $50 online, which like they've done a secondary finish process on it. It's a smaller operation, but it's also MGP juice and like it's two year MGP juice.

21:17 So part of me thinks it's slightly justified price, part of me doesn't. I don't know anything about the cost of Mesquite wood, but Brad, what do you think? They had $50? It's like a 5 1/2. I'll give it a 6 1/2 like I I don't think it's a bad value and it's especially because it's unique. What I will say, Whiskey Dalbach release a four year version of this and I will be on board like forever. Yeah, 100%. Brad, I'm coming out to a 34.5 out of 50. Where are you at on this one? Just a little lower. I'm at a 33 out of 50. I will say I think I'm going to recommend like this is pretty much hitting the ceiling of what a two year rye can do, and if you'd like to experience what a younger whiskey tastes like and how that can be maximized, I don't really think there's many places I would recommend you go other than this one.

22:17 Yeah, I, I think I'm going to stay away from recommending until they give it a little bit longer to age, give it a little bit more flavor from the casks. It just needs a little bit more depth of quality to really give it the experience that like I could put my stamp of approval on. All right, so we came out to a 67.5 out of 100 or a 33.75 out of 50. I recommended. Brad does not. I want to say thank you to Whiskey Del Bach for sending us this bottle. It's really cool looking bottle. And folks, what a day at film and whiskey. We've interviewed an Academy Award winner. We've tried a new whiskey like it does not get any better than this Brad.

22:59 Absolutely not, Bob. Thank you so much for your help on the interview by the way. Really, really pulled your weight, man. Yeah, it it's no problem, dude. I, I know when you just need to have that affirmative experience. So I I wanted you to have that today. Well, thank you so much. Hey, we'll be back on Tuesday with another regularly scheduled episode. But until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time, music.