I Can Hear Music
For someone who studied music and plays music, I have a difficult time knowing what music to use with these moving images I capture. So much so that in my first film I didn’t use music at all, but used … Continued
A Dream about Paolo Soleri
I’d like to apologize in advance, because if you’re like me, you don’t really enjoy hearing about other people’s dreams. But I thought this was relevant to A Life’s Work. I’m at Arcosanti and Paolo Soleri asks me if I … Continued
Ask the Filmmaker: Turning the Tables
Dear Filmmaker, Actually, this question didn’t start that way. When I first sit down to interview someone for A Life’s Work, I have a few things I mention before I ask the first question. One of those things is, “If … Continued
Bigger, Longer, Better
“The trajectory is right,” my friend H. said to me years ago about my filmmaking career. At a recent dinner with my friend S. we discussed what we wanted for our artistic lives in 2011: “I just want the trajectory … Continued
What Makes Me Happy? Positive Interaction
I recently went to my doctor and we got to talking about A Life’s Work. He asked me if I knew Cicero’s treatise, On Old Age. I didn’t. He paraphrased a passage about trees. “Oh, that’s good,” I said. “I’m … Continued
The First Cut Is the Hardest – A Clip & Process
First there is a lot of procrastination. I’m not a procrastinator by nature, but something about editing really brings it out in me. Like now, as I’m writing this, I have Final Cut Pro open and I should be working … Continued
From the Other Francis Bacon
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but the sea. Francis Bacon. (The one at left, not the painter.)
Gimme Shelter and A Life’s Work
I was watching Gimme Shelter for the billionth time the other night and I wondered what it was about that film that is so enduring. I came up with several reasons: The Maysles’ masterful cameras capture The Rolling Stones at … Continued
Ask the Filmmaker: Magic Number Four
Last weekend I was at a dinner party and one of the guests posed a frequently asked question: Why are there four subjects in A Life’s Work? Why not three? Why not five? (To be clear, there ARE five people, … Continued
Why Is This Pinned to My Corkboard? Part 2
This clipping is from The New York Times Magazine, July 9, 1995. It was in the “Questions For” section, which was newish then and given significantly less ink than it gets today. In this column the questions were for choreographer … Continued