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I have worked as a journalist and a documentarian, and I can attest the worst thing either can do is to approach a story with an agendum*. I can also attest that this is exactly what the majority of journalists and documentarians do. Agenda have worked well for Barbara Kopple and Michael Moore, but journalists […]

“Comparison is the thief of joy” – attributed to Theodore Roosevelt I’m writing a book. It started as a screenplay, but on draft three, I realized it bore a fundamental flaw that wrecked the entire story. So I started writing in prose form the thoughts and observations of the various characters in order to get […]

For the first five films, click here. The Son and The Child (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne) The Belgian Daredenne brothers, who made Kid with a Bike, also crafted these two movies with similar titles. The Son (Le Fils) is about a man (Olivier Gourmet in a masterful performance) who ends up tutoring the youth who murdered his young child years ago. Who […]

I have written that many elements of The Judgment of Parrish derive from my own experience as a dad. I love my two sons, and I populated the character of Parrish with some of their quirks, sensitivities, and challenges. I also found it easy to “method-write” the father character of Paul, with all his impatience, self-importance, and, eventually, […]

This is a film site, not a politics site. I have no intention of making it such. Nevertheless, I did not know where else to post this. I found myself gripped by anger while listening to news of the Paris attacks — more even than on 9/11, when shock and numbness ruled. But now, I […]

I returned from vacation to find my hard drive has crashed. After a quick spin through the Kübler-Ross roundabout, I realized this wasn’t such a bad thing. In fact, I was surprised how quickly I moved from denial to acceptance, despite losing several years worth of notes and drafts. (Finished drafts reside comfortably on a cloud […]

I wrote this entry by hand and edited it as I typed. I don’t know the science behind it, but apparently handwriting energizes neural pathways in the brain that typing does not. So I am stuck, stymied on my current opus. Why not try handwriting? Handwriting is so enjoyable. There is an esoteric pleasure in […]

Art is pain. Art is misery. Art is the exposing oneself to the slings and arrows of outrageous critics. Give me a break. Art is joy. Art should be joy. If art is pain (and it is), then baring the soul should bring catharsis, and catharsis clears the way for joy. Art is also the […]