We spoke with SantaCamp director iamnicksweeney & producer stacey_reiss about how their new hbomax documentary, which has its world premiere tonight at DOCNYC, went from Santas kayaking at camp to the Christmas industry learning to embrace diversity:
Regardless of religious affiliation, Santa Claus is nearly synonymous with the winter holiday season, which is why it may be humorous to see Santas in Santa Camp enjoying their summer while decked out in full North Pole gear. The new HBO Max documentary, which premieres on the streaming platform on November 17, follows a professional Santa society in New Hampshire that gives its members a full outdoor camp experience in addition to teaching them valuable lessons to help their careers.
As soon as I found out that there was an actual summer camp for Santa Clauses, where they sleep in bunk beds and sit around a campfire and go swimming in a lake, my head started spinning. As a documentary maker, I was just like, "This cannot be real. How has nobody done something on this?" I made contact with them, got some photos and videos, and we were like, "Oh, my God.
Nick Sweeney: Dan, the organizer of the camp, had been getting more requests for Santas from different backgrounds. This was just after 2020, and there was a lot that America was thinking about. They had been thinking about bringing in Santas from more diverse backgrounds, so we were there as those ideas were generating for them. I think that's when we knew that the film was about more than just Santas kayaking.
Stacey Reiss: It was surprising to me that there are really serious things that happen when you're Santa. You get asked questions by children, and you need to have answers. When we were at camp, they had a lot of different workshop sessions where serious things are discussed. And we can laugh about it and think, "Oh, how funny. They're asking how you shape your beard, or what's the perfect red suit to wear," but it's not just superficial. There are some real things.
Did you find that anyone had reservations about appearing in the documentary, or that you had to have conversations about how to approach topics onscreen?
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