Post production on a documentary is a strange thing. With narrative films you have a written story and you pretty much know what the cuts are going to be when you sit down in front of you editing system of choice. Docs are different. Sure, you know your subject and what you want to cover but inevitably the film will change during production based on what your subject chooses to share. Well, our latest short documentary “A Cheaper Way To Go” is about the wholesale casket industry and one man who runs a store in a strip mall in Nashville. When we prepped for the filming it all seemed easy enough. But, once I sat down to cut the film I couldn’t get happy with it. So, I stepped away from it for almost two months. I had almost given up on it. Then last week I had a night where I just couldn’t sleep. During that night of staring at the ceiling it hit me, the way to cut the movie, the way to get over the hump that I had hit. The next night, and all of last weekend I spent in marathon editing sessions, and now we have a 9 minute short film that Suzie and I both love. In fact as I type this it’s on its way to its first film festival.

Just goes to show you never know how things are gonna go when you step behind that camera or sit down in front of the computer….

So it’s Maverick’s Month here at the Doc Channel and I’m a little extra excited about this month as it appeals to my inner film nerd. We’ve got great docs airing all month featuring three of my favorite filmmaker’s first there is “Sam Peckinpah: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade” and if you’ve seen “The Wild Bunch” or “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” as many times as I have you can’t help but feel a little giddy about watching Sam at work. Secondly you’ll find “Gillo Pontecorvo: Dictatorship of Truth” about the stunning and politically uncompromising films of one of Italy’s most important but least prolific filmmakers. And last but most certainly not least is the Doc Channel Premiere of “24 Realities Per Second” a doc about the brilliant and disturbing work of filmmaker Michael Haneke whose films “Funny Games” and “Cache” seriously made me consider installing a more expensive security system in my home. You can catch these three great docs all month long if you’re a film fan you owe it to yourself.