Tanja
David, you produced and co-directed THE COCKETTES, a feature length documentary about San Francisco's legendary theatrical troupe of hippies and drag queens, that premiered at Sundance and has won various awards, how did you come up with the idea?

David
THE COCKETTES had been in my peripheral vision since I was in High School in 1972. They were the first combination of "hippie" and gay that I'd ever seen, and their outrageous 1971 film TRICIA'S WEDDING, about Nixon's daughter's wedding, was a huge inspiration. Making a film about THE COCKETTES allowed me to tell a story of the San Francisco counterculture that had never been told before, and which addressed so many themes that have been important in my life.

Tanja
When did you decide to put together a workshop on how to produce a documentary?

David
That was a couple years ago when I moved to Portland from SF, and I realized that there was no comparable class. There are "how-to" classes - technical classes - but nothing that really looked at documentaries from a producer's perspective - and certainly nothing focused specifically on feature-length docs.

Tanja
What kind of people have taken the class in Portland?

David
Quite a variety - from experienced filmmakers, to a TV news anchor, to beginning students, as well as people without a film background who were interested in an overview of the doc world. Though the class uses my film THE COCKETTES as a case study (and there are LOTS of fun stories, believe me...) I make sure that the class addresses a broad range of topics that are applicable to all kinds of production - not only docs.

Caroline
What's the most important thing aspiring docmakers can take from your class?

David
I cover a lot of territory. But a lot of first-time feature filmmakers improvise on their first project, and wind up making major unnecessary mistakes that can cause huge complications that could have been avoided if they'd asked the right questions early on. If I can't answer every student's question, I make sure that at least they know what questions need to be asked.