Hello, everyone who has subscribed to receive my sporadic updates!

Here’s what’s been going on for me recently:

I was fortunate to spend much of 2021 working on this delightful ensemble comedy with Sarah Adina Smith, who wore many hats during its making: she wrote, directed, produced, and even edited alongside me. In May of last year, I got my second dose of the vaccine and, just a week later, boarded a flight to Mexico for The Drop’s whirlwind shoot at a seaside wellness resort. It’s a place people ordinarily go to find enlightenment, but instead the crew spent their days carrying heavy gear up and down dirt paths and drinking their weight in Electrolit and jamaica. Meanwhile, I was a short and bumpy golf cart ride away, reviewing footage in an air conditioned office. Since the film was improvised around an outline, my first task was to begin assembling scenes to anticipate story problems while there was still time to adjust.

A few weeks after wrap, we had a rough cut of the film ready to watch. We took some time off while Sarah had a baby (who acquired a top notch in utero film education during the preceding months) and ultimately finished the film in the fall. At last, just over a year since we wrapped, I’m thrilled to say that the film—my second narrative feature as editor—is premiering in the US Narrative Competition at Tribeca Film Festival. I’ll spare you much more about the film itself, since Jose Rodriguez’s programming notes do a better job than I would. And if you’re in NYC June 11, 12, or 17, I hope you’ll consider buying a ticket!

“The Twins” arrive June 23

During Sarah’s maternity leave, I turned my attention to twins. A lot of twins. But mostly one specific pair: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Director Zara Meerza was obsessed with them when she was a child in London, and this fun, short essay documentary is her attempt to make sense of those twins’ enduring appeal. As a boy whose parents seldom let him watch TV, my own awareness of the Olsen empire was virtually nil before this project, and yet I am now a reluctant expert in the MKACU (I’d take it over the Marvel Cinematic Universe any day). The film primarily uses images from the Mary-Kate and Ashley’s prodigious output of movies, TV shows, magazines, and merch, laced with personal reflections and clever cultural commentary by Zara. Jack Staffen and Eliza Callahan of the band Purr composed the original score. Producer Tabs Breese found the film some eager supporters at WePresent, which seems like a creative playground from file transferring service WeTransfer, and that’s where the film will live when it goes live later this month.

“Sirens” are in Venice

The summer of 2020 brought me an unexpected chance to work with legendary photographer (and lovely human) Nan Goldin, updating an experimental collage film she had made called “Sirens.” It’s a sort of ode to supermodel Donyale Luna and to getting high, with an entrancing, lush score by Mica Levi, one of my favorite living film composers. Nan frequently re-edits and updates her work even after completion; “Sirens” follows that tradition, and we made still more changes in 2021. The third (?) iteration of that piece is at La Biennale di Venezia this year, an unexpected type of career-high-by-association for me.

I can hardly claim credit for these two films, both of which premiered at Sundance this past winter, but I share this news to say that I’m very proud of my friends and collaborators for their successes.

Mija, directed by Isabel Castro and produced by Tabs Breese, was bought by Disney. The documentary follows Doris Muñoz, a music manager working to launch the careers of young Latinx artists, while navigating the demands of being born to undocumented parents. I served as a consulting editor on the project, which basically means that I watched cuts of the film and provided feedback and process advice, while other people did the true, hard work of making the thing work.

Riotsville, USA, directed by my frequent collaborator Sierra Pettengill, has distribution with Magnolia Pictures. This all-archival documentary traces the origins of our militarized police forces to a pivotal moment in the 1960s, when the US government began funding elaborate training programs in riot suppression. I have an additional editing credit on the film, for which I’m very grateful, but the finished film is Nels Bangerter’s masterful cutting.

This is Daniel Goldhaber’s second feature film, so different from his first (CAM, on Netflix) that it might as well be made by a different filmmaker. We’re supposed to finish editing this week, and soon we’ll start submitting to festivals. Wish us luck...

My longtime friend and collaborator Alex Morelli has been making a beautiful, personal documentary about his unusual relationship with Scott Dozier, an artist on Nevada’s death row, who sought to force the state to execute him. Alex is basically a one-man band, so I’m mostly providing and trying to find support for his generally solitary process. The challenges of fundraising have filled me with great respect for producers who make this job look easy!

I don’t consider myself particularly good at describing why certain stories appeal to me and why others don’t, so it’s a gift to come across writers whose words about the ethics and aesthetics of storytelling resonate with me. These are pieces that have stood out to me in recent months:

Thanks for reading!

DG