AIVF: And What it Meant to Me
I first became aware of AIVF when Martha Gever was editor of The Independent. I marveled at this national organization…
Scriptwriting
One-Two Punch
I thought that making Monster’s Ball was rough. I vowed upon wrapping that film that I would never make another….
Moving Images
Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me (2004) was an unqualified hit. The documentary, which followed Spurlock as he ate nothing but…
Guys on Girls on Film
From time to time there is a banner year for female characters. A great fuss is made about how movie-land…
Shaking the Tree
Five years ago, when Deepa Mehta was about to start making her film Water in the holy city of Varanasi,…
Witness to Change
System Failure: Violence, Abuse and Neglect in the California Youth Authority has all the elements you’ve come to expect from…
Do I need a business plan?
Dear Doc Doctor: I’ve been asked for a business plan for my documentary. I thought those types of things were…
The Many Shades of Ira Sachs
Ira Sachs won’t let me watch him bum cigarettes. We’ve spoken for hours—about what it was like to grow up…
On the Same Page
Earlier this year, I got a call from a friend of a friend—a former executive producer of a children’s television…