On March 17, 2021, just a couple of days before The Faithful world premiere, director Annie Berman, Elvis photographer Ralph Burns, and editor Andre Valentim Almeida hosted a Reddit Ask Me Anything on the r/IAmA page. The following is a condensed version of the posts (edited for grammar):

Hello Reddit!

Annie Berman here:

In 2000, a lollipop officially licensed by the Vatican launched me on a 20-year journey exploring fandom, memorabilia, memory, and legacy within the orbits of three of the biggest cultural icons of our time: Pope John Paul II, Elvis Presley, and Diana, Princess of Wales. This Friday, my feature documentary, The Faithful, has its world premiere. I’m joined today by documentary photographer Ralph Burns, who has been visiting Graceland since 1978 to document Elvis fans on the anniversary of his death, and our film’s editor, Andre Valentim Almeida.

Ask Us Anything!

@dordotson: What most surprised you about or during the filmmaking process?

Annie Berman: That it became so entwined with my life. If you're not careful you can find yourself becoming an archivist, a collector of stories and it can end up taking 20 years. It surprised me when I got press passes to cover the Pope at the Vatican, that I was granted access at 21 or 22 years old. The film had a different name "Our Father, The King" and it was just about Elvis and the Pope. When they pressed me on it, I blushed because I didn't want to talk about the Elvis part. We got a phone call from the media liaison (I took it at a payphone in Rome) that our passes were ready. The press agent, 80 years old at the time and the first woman to hold the role, saw something of herself in me.

@theawfullest: Hi there! I’m very excited to see the film. During the time you’ve spent documenting people who devote themselves in this way, have you seen any major changes in the way fandom is expressed, or is it at its heart pretty constant? I’m wondering how (if at all) new forms of online media change the way people relate to icons like Elvis or Princess Diana.

Ralph Burns: The only thing I saw change was the age of people who were going. The manifestations of fandom, and the rituals of this particular fandom (as Annie so well documented) stayed similar throughout the whole process.

Annie: When I met Ralph we were among a fewer set of people who had cameras. People weren't all photographing themselves doing everything. That's a completely new phenomenon, we have a camera AND a broadcasting device. This changes our relationship with our world, one another, the way we experience things. On the one hand that's allowed us to connect with a greater circle of people. On the other, that presence that people go to seek and find at events like Elvis Week or Easter are harder to arrive at.

@Many_Praline9370: I can't wait to watch the film at your Premiere on Friday night! What were some of your favorite items that you saw fans had in their collections?

Annie: Joni Mabe has the best collection. She's an artist who collects and displays permanently in her museum in Cornelia Georgia.

Ralph: She's her own collection!

Annie: It's hard to know where the line is between Joni the fan, Joni the artist. There's a performative nature to her work. Her museum is called the Panoramic Encyclopedia of Everything Elvis. She has Elvis' wart preserved in formaldehyde, insured with Lloyds of London. Elvis Hair Buttons that she received a cease and desist order for selling (I have one!). And artist books that are among my most valued possessions.

@thischarmingmanchild: 20 years is an incredibly long time for any creative endeavor -- When was the moment you all felt like the film was “done”?

Annie: How many times did I declare it done? I’ve lost track. I recut probably 20 different versions of this film, at least. If you gave me more time with it, I’d remake it again. I suppose a work is never really done. What’s the quote: A work of art is never finished, only abandoned?

I thought of abandoning it . . but at some point, I was able to see it for what it had become, outside of me - it had found itself, and could only be what it was, true to itself.

As you grow and mature you see it differently. Each year I had a different take on things, a different way of seeing it. By incorporating my own story into the film, I was able to bring it all together. Our sound designer and colorist both had moments to keep adapting. I know painters who have taken work off the wall and had work done with it. When is your child is an adult, when is your life done? These things we expect to arrive. My parents named me Ann, because they told me when I was grown I'd want to be called Ann. I don't know when that time will come. Something about 2020 made a lot of people feel like: Oh shit, I better wrap things up to make room for new things

André Valentim Almeida: For me, there were 2 or 3 times that I felt like it was done. I'm finishing my own film, I've declared it done 3 or 4 times. Me and Annie together are not a good team for finishing.

Annie: I would send Andre a cut, he'd see it and have another idea, send me back a new version of the film when we were supposed to change one little thing.

@mankins: What was it about the other cuts that made you say ‘not this one’?

Annie: knowing it could be better, there were stories I wanted in. There was a whole thread that made the film 2hrs long. I'd shown it to groups of colleagues, who understood the dilemma. If that thread was lifted out, the film worked, but it made it different. Letting go of that was a step in the recovery process

Ralph: I remember when there was another thread about copyright, ownership, and public space. That was so fascinating, but I wasn't sure how you were going to put it in the film. It does appear that there will be a second film.

Andre: It's impossible to fit all of these stories into one film. The struggle is that it gets fused with your own life, there is so much here, the legal issues, the emotional stuff.

Annie: That goes back to aging and growing, it always had to be interesting to me. I like having new ideas, having something that was based on what is supposed to be was boring. Adding new ideas wasn't helpful for a project that had a time limit. The film had to be finished, but other formats (installations) can exist in different formats

Ralph: There was a time when I thought the film was going to be 30 years

Annie: It's interesting how the time goes faster as each year passes.

Ralph: It's good! It's finished. To the years passing thing. I did an oral history of my mother, her Cajun/Acadian roots in South Louisiana. I had turned the tape off and said, "So Mother, how does it feel to be 92 years old?” She leaned forward and said: “It moved by so fast!”

I was expecting another answer, about the slowness of time, but that wasn't what I got. It's about holding on and knowing when to let go.

@mankins: So you’re ready for part ii then?

Annie: Hahaha, only if the team is, I'm not doing it alone

Ralph: You've got me

Andre: Me too!

@neckCandid: That's a strange group to make a movie about. Is there a relationship between Elvis and Di/Pope?

Annie: Come and see the movie! I thought there might be a connection but wasn't sure how strong it would be. The years exposed many ways in which they overlap.

Ralph: I went to London on the first anniversary of Princess Diana's death and photographed (thankfully not another 30-year project). I was struck by the similarity of emotions and ritual icons. If, while standing in that crowd in Great Britain, I had changed the iconography of what people were holding, I could have been at Graceland.

Annie: There are similar rituals that take place on the anniversaries of their deaths, that's what Ralph has been documenting, I as well. There's also the experience of how a person becomes a celebrity, and what it means to be in the public eye.

Andre: As an editor, sometimes when I was scrubbing through the footage, it was difficult to tell which events (Graceland, the Vatican and those for Princess DI) were which

Annie: There's also something about being together that we can't take for granted now during COVID. These events had huge crowds which wouldn't be possible this past year.

@mresnik: What makes a great Elvis impersonator?

Ralph: Soul. Elvis soul, that is. And little worry about what other people think.

Annie: The best impersonators don't call themselves impersonators, but tribute artists. There can be only one Elvis. So, the best pay tribute to his legacy, which includes transmitting his generous spirit - giving things away, like scarves and kisses, and even teddy bears.