Documentary Subjects Wanted

In 2014, I put an ad on Craigslist that simply said, “Documentary subjects wanted. Call this number and convince me to make a documentary about you.” And, I got a lot of calls. One from a guy who taught his horse how to paint. A woman had opened up a frozen banana stand like the one in Arrested Development. And, I got an unsettling amount of calls from male models wanting to bear it all for the camera. I guess, also wanting to show off their bananas.
But it was a call from a guy named James, his message and what happened as a result, that led me to fall back in love with making documentaries and living here in Austin.
So, let’s rewind to July of 2012 when I had just moved from Austin to Los Angeles to become a big shot. I had made an Indie comedy documentary called Winnebago Man that had landed me and the star, Jack Rebney, on The Tonight Show.
And suddenly I had managers and agents, and I was being wined and dined by Hollywood industry types. I signed on to direct a movie for the guy who wrote the Denzel Washington film Flight. I had lunch with Gary Shandling, and we talked about him playing Jack Rebney in the fictional remake of Winnebago Man. And I even pitched to direct a $20 million kids movie that was being billed as the new Goonies.
And I was totally unprepared for all of this, having only ever made documentaries. But, that didn’t stop me. I was being told I could do it. And frankly, I believed my own hype. I was the Winnebago Man man.
But what I learned about myself, that I didn’t know prior, is that I am really good at taking Hollywood meetings. I can sit in a fancy office and choose between room temperature or chilled bottled water and pitch movie ideas.
But, what I didn’t know is that what felt like making it resulted in a Titanic dry spell. And I’d heard about the sophomore slump, but I think like most people affected by it, I had no reason to think that it would happen to me. And, I got it in my head that Winnebago Man was the best documentary that I can make.
And after showing it around the world for a year and a half, I was hooked on the feeling of making theaters full of people laugh.
So, I switched to scripted comedies after only ever making documentaries. And, I started writing a script about a stand-up comic who moves to Los Angeles to make it in show business. And, I even started doing stand-up as research and I, like the script I was writing, was not good.
And, I should tell you guys that eight months earlier I had gotten married. And, my wife was being very supportive in suggesting that we give LA try. But she did not like to drive, and she extra did not like our apartment. And, I needed to make LA work in order to justify her discomfort and our growing marital discord.
So, I returned to this idea of mine from graduate school where I would put an ad in the Chronicle that simply said, “Documentary subjects wanted. Call this number and convince me to make a film about you.” And I would collect these messages, but I didn’t really know what they were.
I figured maybe they were an art installation or just a funny collection of stories that I could tell at dinner parties, or best case scenario, that might lead me to my next film project.
So being out in LA and trying to make it in scripted comedy, I developed this idea into a web series with Funny or Die. And in it, there is a high school AV teacher who is putting out these ads, but he is more interested in being the star and telling the story that he thinks is happening rather than the one that is right in front of him.
And, what I realized is that I was becoming that bumbling documentarian who was wrestling with my story of being a young director in Hollywood. And if I wasn’t careful, I might wind up looking just as foolish.
And so around this time, my wife got a job offer back here in Austin. And so, we moved back from LA in November. She moved out before the holidays, and we filed for divorce in January. And, it all happened really quickly. So, I’m back here in Austin. I’m alone. I’m heartbroken, without a movie in the works, when I start putting out these ads again.
And, this is when I get the call from James. And, there was just something about his message. He said that he had been a piano player at Esther’s Follies and that he’d been in Austin a long time. And, he really just wanted to talk to somebody.
So I went over to film with him, and it was clear that he was very sick. But he lit up during our interview, and he played beautifully. And as I was packing up to leave, his partner, Linda pulled me aside. And, she said that she had not heard him play like that in many years, and that the experience had clearly meant a lot to him.
And so, I took the footage back to my office. And about six weeks later, Linda called and she said, “You’re not going to believe this, but James died. And, what you filmed was his last concert.” And, she asked if we could play some of the footage at his funeral.
So, I cut together this portrait of James Wagner that they showed at his memorial service. And I spent so long out in Los Angeles trying to get people to pay attention to me, that to move back here to Austin and have James want to play his final concert for me was in its own way the validation that I had been looking for.
He made me feel like a big shot, and I’m so grateful that I could return the favor. So, I want to show you a little bit of James’ last concert. And then, there’s a QR code on the last slide that will take you to the documentary Subjects One, a portrait I made of James. Thank you, guys.