The Dangerous Art of the Documentary
Double Elvis Productions, Tiller Russell
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Violet Columbus & Ben Klein (The Exiles)
“How would I describe myself? F**k you. You can describe me.” Fair enough. The Oscar-nominated director of 1988’s essential documentary “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” before she became a NYU professor famous for drinking vodka on the rocks during class, Shanghai-born filmmaker Christine Choy is a character so incandescent that she’s every bit as powerful in front of the camera as she is behind it — a fact that “The Exiles” seizes upon from the moment it starts. In their debut feature film, Ben Klein and Violet Columbus follow their former professor Christine as she tracks down three exiled dissidents from the Tiananmen Square massacre to help her find closure on an abandoned film she began shooting in 1989. "The Exiles" premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary. In today's episode, Ben and Violet reflect on being mentored by Christine Choy (3:10), pitching the film premise to Christine (6:21), getting the film off the ground (10:30), replicating Christine’s archival footage with modern cinematography (15:58), building the interview setup in an empty movie theater (18:12), persuading Steven Soderberg to be an Executive Producer (22:12), deciding when to screen the film (28:50), and winning the Grand Jury Prize at a virtual Sundance (32:15).
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