Freida Lee Mock
Season 8 - Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision
1995 Academy Award for Best Documentary
Premiered on POV: November 27, 1996
Season 21 - Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner
Premiered on POV: December 12, 2007
Freida Lee Mock is an Academy and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who won the Oscar for the feature documentary Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, which premiered on POV in 1996. Her next feature documentary, Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner, premiered on POV in 2007. Her new film is Return with Honor, about American fighter pilots surviving as POWs in North Vietnam for almost nine years. The film was presented theatrically by Tom Hanks and Playtone after its Sundance premiere. She has been nominated for an Oscar for the short documentaries Sing!, Rose Kennedy: A Life to Remember, Never Give Up and To Live or Let Die.
Mock graduated with a degree in history from the University of California at Berkeley and attended UC Berkeley's Hastings College of Law. She lives in Santa Monica, California.
In this Behind the Lens episode, Mock talks about her motivations and her process as a filmmaker, what she thinks makes a good character and the evolution of the documentary genre.
RELATED VIDEO
Wrestling with Angels: Tony Kushner
Filmmaker Interview: Freida Lee Mock (2007)
Tony Kushner, whose epochal Angels in America, which won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, is one of the country's leading playwrights -- and one of its fiercest moral critics. Director Freida Lee Mock followed Kushner for three tumultuous years, from September 11, 2001, up to the 2004 presidential election, to delve into the passions that keep him reaching for the great American play. In this interview, Mock talks about why she decided to film Kushner and what she learned from his writing, lectures and life. (11 minutes) Watch now »
Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision
Filmmaker Interview: Freida Lee Mock (1996)
The Vietnam War Memorial was one of the most controversial monuments of its time. Thrust in to the eye of the storm was architect-sculptor Maya Lin, whose design for the memorial was chosen when she was a 21-year-old college student. Withstanding bitter attacks, she held her ground with clarity and grace. In this interview recorded in 1996, Mock talks about her portrait of an artist dealing with war and history, and how she feels art has the power to heal. (12 minutes) Watch now »
For more about Freida Lee Mock, including a list of all of their films, view her filmography.