Notorious Video Production

Why bother to make documentaries? The question has haunted me for

years. Most of the time I don’t think about it. I just go ahead and make

.lms, but occasionally, in a quiet re(R)ective mood, I return to this basic

question: Why invest so much energy in a pursuit that is not particularly

well paid, that can make you old before your time, that can separate you

from your family, and that more often than not may hang on the screen

for a mere .fty minutes before vanishing unmourned into eternity?

Part of the answer, of course, is that documentary .lmmakers are mad.

If they weren’t, they would use their talents making a bundle in feature

.lms and luxuriate in fame and fortune. And part of the answer can be

found in that old cowboy clicheÅL “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta

do.” In other words, we are compulsive, are driven, somehow believe

in this crazy medium, and wouldn’t swap it for any other kind of work

or play.