Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be huge regardless of what any critic says about it, and for good reason. It’s freaking Indiana Jones! Why is Indy so compelling? And why have attempts to repeat him (Romancing the Stone?) failed every time?
And a movie we think everyone should be compelled to see. We interview one of the greatest documentary filmmakers alive, Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie), and Reverend Carrol Pickett, a prison chaplain and activist who presided over 95 death row executions in Texas. Their documentary, At the Death House Door, sets a new gold standard in “issue” docs. (At the Death House Door airs on IFC Thursday night at 9:00.)
(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)
Filmcouch #71 - Indiana Jones and the Death Penalty
Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) is one of the best documentary filmmakers alive. (Listen to his interview here.) He may be drawn to an issue to start a project but, unlike Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock, he doesn’t investigate issues. He takes on the much greater challenge of showing us a fully rounded human being for whom the issue is a backdrop, one of many. It’s the difference between meeting the poster-child for an issue–say AIDS in Africa–and being that poster-child’s best friend. For At the Death House Door, the issue is the Death Penalty. But the accomplishment is how Steve James and co-director, Peter Gilbert, make us intimate with the complicated life of Reverend Carroll Pickett.
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The Reverend Carroll Pickett (whose interview I’ll post later) either fell in or was called to a ministry wherein he walked 95 death row inmates through their final hours and, ultimately, to the gurney where they were executed by lethal injection. He’s a stoic Texan and fascinating man explored in Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) and Peter Gilbert’s new documentary, At the Death House Door.
We talk about unwrapping this complicated minister and whether or not they planted a bottle of wine at the family dinner where Rev. Pickett’s children interrogate him about his job.
SXSW 2008 interview: Steve James, Peter Gilbert [9:49m]:
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SXSW 2008 interview: Steve James and Peter Gilbert
(Written transcript available after the jump)
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