Academy Award-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock returns to POV on December 12th with her new film Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner. In the film, Mock followed the acclaimed playwright from 2001 to 2004, documenting his creative process, his collaborations with actors, composers and directors, and his steadfast commitment to political activism.
In 1995, Freida Lee Mock won the Academy Award for her documentary film: Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, and in her Behind the Lens interview with POV conducted earlier this year, Mock compared Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner to Maya Lin:
I look at this film as a counterpart to the Maya Lin film. Both are about artists whose works are profoundly social and political in their outreach and who have had a very profound impact on the social and political questions of our times through their work. Maya Lin did it through public memorials; Tony does it through drama and theater. They are both extremely articulate characters. Both have a certain outsider’s perspective, but their impact is very much a mainstream impact. And they both have a sense of responsibility and an awareness of how they can make a difference through their work.
Mock also revealed that she approached both Tony Kushner and Maya Lin by writing them letters.
I did write Maya a letter, and I said, “I’d like to do a film about an artist and get a sense of your work.” It was not unlike the letter I wrote Tony. It’s almost like a form letter, I think, and it seems to be working, so you just don’t change it. Tony and Maya both called me and said, “Okay, let’s do it.”
For more from Freida Lee Mock, check out her Behind the Lens video interview for Maya Lin on YouTube. Later this week, POV’s website for Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner will launch with the full Mock interview. The website will also feature extended video clips not seen in the film, a video op-ed piece from Mock and much more.
Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner pemieres on POV next Wednesday, December 12th (check your local listings).