Voices from Issues Past
What happened at AIVF over the last 30 years? Coming up with a coherent and entertaining way to answer that…
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…
What if nobody “gets” my film?
Dear Doc Doctor: Nobody seems to like my film—they say it’s unclear and hard to follow. Why aren’t they getting…
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…