EP027 – Living The Dream with Mike Blizzard

10.23.2025 -

Welcome to Austin Studios, the airport-turned-soundstages located at the intersection of Austin Film Society and Richard Linklater’s Detour Filmproductions… and who better to catch on the backlot than Mike Blizzard?

A producer known for APOLLO 10½, HIT MAN, and this month’s BLUE MOON, all made with longtime collaborator Richard Linklater, Mike takes us through the old airport hangars where MISS CONGENIALITY stumbled and where WALKER spurred onto screens. Breaking down how true stories become narrative films. We dig into the real Gary Johnson (fake hitman, real person), Lorenz Hart’s final night at Sardi’s (BLUE MOON), and why Linklater keeps returning to stories that actually happened.

Mike produced the Sundance doc NO NO: A DOCKUMENTARY, and as director of the non-fiction ode to local film, ALSO STARRING AUSTIN, he’s the perfect tour guide through Austin film history. And, we’re catching Mike just as CLEMENTE, his baseball-doc about Roberto Clemente, is rounding third on it’s theatrical run and sliding into THE HISTORY CHANNEL — and BLUE MOON releases nationwide. It’s a busy time for Blizzard, and we’re glad he gave some of it to us….

Here.

Alright.

Okay, so Keith, this morning

Ben,

we are at the Austin Film Society Red Building.

The red building is behind

us, right behind both of us.

And what are doing That's right.

What are we doing here?

It's a, it's a, it's a bright and sunny October morning here in Austin,

Texas, and we're right here in the epicenter of the film community.

At Austin Studios.

That's right.

The old Austin airport.

This

used to be a pilot's lounge right here.

That's right.

And now, uh, it's a place where people meet.

It's a place where, uh, I've been here many times for casting with Vicki Boone.

We officed outta here.

The bear did for many, many years before our, uh, uh, we moved to our new office.

So, right.

So it's a

real epicenter of creativity, but it's also the entry point.

Into the mystical world of Austin Studios.

Ooh, uh,

and specifically detour films and the man we are going to talk

to today, who is Mike Blizzard.

That's what we're here to do.

We're here to go for a walk with, uh, Austin Super producer Mike Blizzard.

He is a narrative producer with, uh, Richard Linklater.

Yep.

He's done his last five films.

Yeah.

Yep.

Uh, but he is also a documentary producer and a doc director.

Um, and

I'm really excited to talk to him 'cause his, uh, documentaries are largely about

baseball and we're talking in October.

It's during thes, which for those of you who don't know are the playoffs.

So I'm very excited.

You

gotta have a. A catchy little.

He's an advertising folks, uh, and he is available.

So, uh, open to work right here.

I'm Keith.

That's Ben.

Mike Blizzard is standing right over there, so we're gonna go track him down.

Um, this used to be an airport and it's still pretty close to the airport.

There's planes flying overhead.

See plane.

Right there.

All, and this is Dock Walks.

Here we go.

On your

left,

you're listening to Dock Walks with Ben and Keith.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, meet Mike Blizzard.

Good morning.

How's everyone today?

I have to point out this is.

Amazing what we're walking by here.

So will you just narrate for us here where we are and what we're looking at?

We're at Austin Studios right now, which is run by the Austin Film Society,

and this is one of their stages here.

The trailers over here, including uh, Richard Linklater's trailer

where he offices and a lot of films have been shot here over the years.

Most famously, I guess.

'cause it was the first one Miss Congeniality was shot here.

Yeah.

At the Point Vines.

Yeah.

The big scene where she walks out now all dressed up and everything and then falls

flat on her face, was shot right out here.

Most recently.

I saw this hanger in the Tom s Netflix series.

Uh, bad Thoughts

you call it.

Yeah, I think he was shot here and over at Troublemaker, which is.

Robert Rodriguez's studio, which is just right across the way.

Yeah.

And he has also used this facility space for a lot of spillover work for his movies

Machete and the Grindhouse Lights bie.

Right, right.

And that was a real, uh, busy.

Time for Austin in the two thousands, you know, Idiocracy shot here.

Oh, right.

Office space, the secondhand lions.

Yeah.

You know, a whole bunch of different movies used this facility.

And, and also just like, Parkland was another one that over there, um,

which is now part of Austin Studios was used as the Parkland Hospital.

Okay.

Uh, where they took JFK to when he was assassinated.

I wanna point out that like.

Where Mike has given this history lesson of Austin Studios and all the

movies that have shot here in town, we're talking to Mike primarily as a

producer, but he is also a director.

And he was the director of also starring Austin.

Yes.

The documentary that explores the history of film here in

our sleepy little college town.

That's right.

Or at least that's where it started, way back when Eagle

Pinnell was doing his work.

Yeah.

Tell Cooper.

Tubby Hooper and, and from those guys through Linklater and Rodriguez and now

this, this tremendous facility, Mike is kind of the keeper of, of the timeline.

Austin,

yeah.

History.

That's right.

I, I've watched nearly every movie to Toman filmed it off the head.

Sure.

We thought maybe there was 50 movies at first, you know, know.

And there turned out to be, you know, 250 or something.

Wow.

I think holy's crazy.

We got like 120 like clips from 120 different movies and television shows

that were shot in Austin in that movie.

That's incredible.

Which doesn't really make sense.

It's only 90 some minutes long.

Right.

That's right.

But it moves in a fast clip.

Yeah.

Do you think that it's fair to say that it's basically in terms of production

volume, city-wise, it goes la, New York, Austin, or is it like Atlanta?

Austin.

Yeah.

I mean, is Austin more like fourth or fifth or Vancouver?

Are you just talking domestic?

I'm

talking about us.

Yeah.

I mean, I think the difference is that a lot of those places kind of come and go.

Yeah.

Well, Austin has been pretty steady.

Obviously there's, you know, there's times when it's slower or faster,

whatever, for more than 50 years.

But Austin's definitely up there in one of the top five, you know, places,

especially with like homegrown films.

Mm-hmm.

You know, filmmakers like, we're right here.

On the other side of this building is Richard Link Clay's office.

You know, like a short walk.

It was Robert Rodriguez's facility when those two guys decided to be successful,

but then put the roots down and stay here.

Right.

That made all the difference in the world.

Yeah.

Toby Hooper, he went to Hollywood.

That was what you did back then.

Toby Hooper is of course Chainsaw Massacre, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Helmer.

Yeah, and he made what I consider the first feature film of the modern

era of Austin because there was a silent film era, by the way, but his.

Movie eggshells, which was just this hangout hippie dippy, I forget what

they call it, A freak illumination.

Oh, I've gotta see this.

I've never seen this.

Oh yeah,

I have, I've, we use this short excerpt of it in, um, dear Mr. Brody, right.

They drive in a taxi up to the us uh, to the Texas State Capitol with this

trippy kind of psychedelic effects, like washing over the 60 millimeter screen.

We, we stole that.

They created a vehicle where they had like a little.

Bubble on top, and they would just adjust the speed of the camera as

they were cruising through town.

And it creates all these really cool Oh, awesome effects.

It wasn't something they did in post, it was like in camera.

If you're watching it at home, yeah, it's a little hard, but

you gotta see it on a big screen.

Right.

And we need to bring it back.

We brought Toby Hooper to town as part of making the movie to interview him, and

we showed eggshells as part of his visit.

Cool.

It was a total trip.

Does it

hold up?

Did he like it?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

And it was fun for him to talk about it.

You know, it's like this thing, I mean, Lewis Black really deserves

a lot of credit for, he paid to have that film remastered.

Oh, wow.

And before that, you know, Lewis Black,

he started The Chronicle in South West?

Yeah.

South West.

And he has been a patron of film art here in Austin for

many, many, many, many years.

Yeah.

So he, um, remastered, um.

Toby Hooper's early films and Eagle Pinal.

So Eagle Pinnell came drawn in part by the chainsaw phenomenon.

He started making movies here too.

That's how Sonny Carl Davis got his start.

Right.

And a lot of these things still have a through line.

I mean, when we do sound on Rick Link, there's movies we go over

to Sound Crafter where Wayne Bell is working, doing dialogue editing

and he worked on chainsaw, he worked on Eagle Pelles movies.

He started like it when he was 19 years olds so, so a lot of

that admired infrastructure.

That started then.

Yeah.

Still exists.

Right?

The fact that Rick stayed here and built the Austin Film Society and

still works with his friends, longtime collaborators, like, I think that's

just as cool as it gets, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

Build up the thing in your hometown rather than move away and try to do a,

a new thing with new people, it's stay here and develop the thing that Yeah.

You, you've done successfully already with the same people.

Let's, let's take a step back.

To get right back to Rick working with his friends and you being one of his friends.

Let's, let's walk.

Yeah.

Mike, for, for fans, uh, of baseball, they know you from two

significant baseball documentaries.

No, no.

The documentary about the acid fueled, no-hitter, uh, you know, created one.

Um, wild 1970s Night by Doc Ellis.

Um, and I want to, we want to get a little in depth on that, but I'm also gonna jump

to your current film, which is Clemente

and the reason you're wearing your Pittsburgh Pirates Exactly.

T-shirt.

Yes.

And so we know, like an advertising opportunity, like I said in our intro,

we know Mike as a, as a fiction.

Producer sometimes based on, based on a true story, but not always,

and working primarily with Richard Linklater over the last 10 years or so.

Yeah.

Um, but this is documentary, uh, focused podcast.

So let's start by talking docs and there are three docs that I know of

that have your major stamp on them.

We just talked about also starring Austin, which is kind of a, not exactly

an essay film, but it's a kind of a film that that looks at the history

of film here in Austin with a ton of.

Clips and examples and then, and then talking to the

filmmakers behind the stories.

Um, yep.

And then these two baseball docs.

Let's start with Clemente, 'cause that's the film that's in theaters

now, and that's the film that Ben and I just saw on Sunday.

Tell us about Clemente.

Yeah.

So you know, Roberto Clemente, there had been a PBS documentary.

I thought it was hour long PBS documentary about him, and

that's all that was out there.

And during the making of, no, no.

Uh, Clemente plays a big role in that because Doc Ellis very much

looked up to him and there's some indication that his drug use after

Clemente died spiraled out of control.

Um, many of the, you know, the teammates so much looked up to him.

He was like an uncle figure, a big brother figure, almost a father figure

to so many of the other players.

And

what

time

period is, is Clemente's, you know, role in the Pittsburgh pirates.

He.

Sort of started to hit his peak in like 1960 when they won the World

Series against the New York Yankees.

And then his career really skyrocketed, but he was a black

Puerto Rican, you know, he doesn't fit in with the black community.

Mm-hmm.

Um, because he's Puerto Rican.

Right.

There's, there's not a big Puerto Rican community there.

And almost in the entire team at that time was white and there was

very few Latinos in major leagues.

Now it's what, 30%, 35% of the league?

Yeah.

Right.

You maybe, I only know that from your film it says that at the end, like

when he started it was 5% I think.

Yeah.

And then now they're 35 or something.

Yeah.

And he was the first Latino superstar.

And, but because of that, he really felt like he needed to set an example.

He had, he needed to live an exemplary life.

Right.

He felt, you know, privileged to have.

Success that he did and he wanted to give back.

And so he very much was a proud Puerto Rican and would go back to

Puerto Rico and work with kids, you know, teaching them baseball,

but also how to live their lives.

Right.

And as the movie shows too, he also had a huge impact on Pittsburgh.

And especially the youth of Pittsburgh.

That is one of my favorite parts by the way, is that story where you find

the, uh, longtime Pittsburgh fan and he tells a story about living next

to the ballpark and mente stopping.

You have Brian catch with him?

Well, on his drag home plays his catch with him, and then his parents invite

him in for Sunday dinner and he sits and he has Sunday dinner with the

family and then they keep in touch.

Well,

and

and it's so amazing.

And then to.

You think death story can't be beat.

And then you meet the young girl, right, who randomly meets

him, uh, to get his autograph.

Or not randomly she meets him to get his autograph, but discovers

that he's missed his ride to the airport and she twists her dad's arm

to give him a ride to the airport.

And they become lifelong friends.

Lifelong friends, 40 years, multi-generational family friends.

Incredible.

Yeah, I was, did the premier there, the Pittsburgh premier there, and then.

The next night we showed it at the ballpark.

Oh, cool.

Oh wow.

You know, on the jumbotron there, that's special.

It was a great experience.

And, and Pittsburgh especially, it's just, it's on the river.

Oh, it's beautiful.

The Roberto Clemente Bridge is right there.

Ah.

You know.

Oh my God.

So,

so wait a minute.

So you make two baseball documentaries.

You work with Richard Linkletter, who is famously a rabid baseball fan.

Yeah.

Who was a baseball player himself.

Are you a huge baseball fan?

You must be.

Here's the funny thing is.

I am more of a basketball guy.

I played basketball.

You're, yeah, I can see that.

And, and to this day, I'm more of a basketball fan than I am a baseball fan.

I love the San Antonio Spurs.

I also like the Houston Rockets.

Interesting.

You

just got pulled into these baseball rockets.

fell into this and sort of one thing leads to another, so.

Nono definitely led to my involvement in Clemente because a

woman I met in Pittsburgh, Laura Berton, she is a Brooklyn based

producer, but from Pittsburgh.

Okay.

She was at the sneak peak we did of Nono right before the film was released.

So she called me, she said, got these guys yet we call 'em Young Guys of 40.

You probably Butler Young says in there, making this Roberto Clemente documentary,

and I think you could be really helpful to them if you'd be willing to talk to them.

And so I did.

Yeah.

And it was only later that they told me that that was sort of a key time for them.

They were sort of stuck.

They didn't tell me this at the time.

Yeah.

We all know that feeling.

Yeah.

And, and they felt like they weren't making any progress

and was this gonna work out?

And so I helped them get with the team, the Pittsburgh Pirates 'cause

I already had those relationships.

Yeah.

Okay.

Richard Sinclair's office right here by the way.

Oh here.

That slip real.

It so fancy slip around.

Very fancy.

This one right here?

Yeah.

Uh, tell us about the director.

David.

David Roge.

Yeah.

Great guy.

Just, and Michael Hartnett, who's the DP and producer.

Just the nicest guys you could, you could ever imagine.

In fact, maybe even too nice at times.

You know, I could be, I think I helped them through the process to navigating

the festival path and distribution path and all that kind of stuff with them.

And so as time went on and I started spending more time, they said, well, we'd.

I'd really like you to be a producer on the film.

That's how that happened.

And I told Richard Linklater about it, and they, and I told them

his childhood Roberto's story.

Right, which is sitting the

film.

Yeah.

They're like, we have to interview him.

And so I called him to tell him, Hey, they, when I interview he, he was a little

shy about it, you know, it's like, why would I be in a Roberto Quinte movie?

And I said, well, you know, they've, they've got this.

The thing that they're doing about his impact on kids.

And there's these Pittsburgh kids, and they thought it was interesting.

Here's this kid growing up in Houston and how he was affected by Yeah, Clementi.

And so the story for those listening who haven't seen the movie is that

Linkletter growing up wanted to be a professional baseball player.

He writes letters to his baseball heroes and basically nobody responds Really?

Except for Clemente.

Yeah.

Clemente.

He sends a picture that he cuts outta the newspaper.

To him in the mail and ask for his autograph and clementy sends it back

autographed with a little note that says, you're on the right track.

Keep going.

Yeah.

Something like that.

Yeah.

And so, and Rick still has it?

Oh yeah.

He calls it his most prized possession.

Wow.

So I told, I could tell he was a little on the fence about it.

So I told David, I said, do what he does.

Write him a letter, write him a persuasive letter.

Send it to me, I'll forward it to him.

This is good producing about why.

He should be in the movie and why, how his story fits and

why you wanna do an interview.

And he did that.

And then next thing I know, it's already set up.

Like I didn't have to do another thing.

That's, that's the best kind of producing right there.

Exactly.

Talk to us about that, your role as a producer and kind of what you love about

it, what you bring to it, and, and kind of how it changes project to project.

Yeah, that's a big question.

Yeah.

It's like three questions.

Yeah.

Uh, ready to go.

So it really does depend on the project, what your role is like, you know, a no-no.

I was there at every interview, you know, helping set those up and schedule

them and, and all that kind of stuff.

Very much on the ground for Clementi.

I wasn't at any interview, you know, that that was all done by them.

Yeah, it helped.

Once Rick and I sort of came on board.

To get certain people they believe like that Michael Keaton did it right?

That Rita Moreno did it.

Sure.

They gave them like some sort of legitimacy.

Yeah.

That this was gonna happen, that it was a big deal or whatever.

But I was a political consultant before I was a film producer.

And the two things actually are kind of similar.

Ooh, this is, is Juicy 'cause I wanted to ask you about that.

So tell us how, how

well, you know, possibly alike.

It's kinda like strategic thinking, I guess, and persuasion.

You know, you have to get people to do things.

You're in a documentary, you're not paying those people to participate.

You have to convince them that this is something they should be

participating in, want to participate in.

And so there's a lot of similar things, just like when you're building a campaign.

And the other thing is like typically though, documentaries can

take a very long time sometimes.

You also have to sort of start up from nothing to something over

some period of time, six months, a year, two years, whatever it is.

Yeah.

And I assume it's similar in that people really believe in the cause, right?

Yeah.

Well, and if they don't, you have to convince them how it affects

them and why it's why it matters.

Yeah.

When I started wanting to transition to being more involved in film, I thought

I wanted to be a screenwriter and.

I feel like that my brain got rewired from so many years of juggling a lot

of different things and stuff, that I became a more effective multitasker

than someone who's singularly focused.

Right.

You have to be to write, you know?

Yeah.

So that's a good way to

say multitasking is a great skill to have as a producer.

Yeah.

And so I'm usually working on more than one thing at a time.

I'm.

Both within a project and multiple projects.

Sorry

to interrupt.

Is this, can we see troublemaker from right here or is that on the other side?

It's on the other side.

I see.

Can

we take a look over here?

Is this one of Linklater's famous muscle cars behind

me know?

I don't know.

I've never seen this car back here before.

You know Robert definitely.

Look, has a bunch of his old cars still sitting over there

in the troublemaker lot?

Oh yeah.

Um, but I don't know where this car came from.

Uh, so you come from political consulting and it's interesting

for frequent listeners.

You might remember back in episode 19 when we interviewed Dr. Paul Steckler.

Yeah.

Who also has a background in in politics.

What do you think are the overlaps between politics and and film?

That's

an interesting question.

I do, you know, at times, especially as the world has gotten crazier

and crazier over the last.

However many years it's been mm-hmm.

In the last 10 years in particular, maybe.

Right.

I, I do sometimes feel like, what am I doing?

Like why am I making entertainment?

You know, like mm-hmm.

I should go back into the trenches and be involved in some way.

Yeah.

And, but that's not, you know, but it's like, that's not my path now.

Yeah.

It's really for someone 20 years younger than me.

Right.

Really than me.

Well, you could make an argument

that like entertainment could be more persuasive than how Right.

And it

can be true.

Do you make that argument?

I, well, I do think that there are certain, uh, documentaries

certainly that have in other films, if you look at the thin blue line.

Yeah.

Got a man off a death row.

Right?

Yeah.

You know, what was the documentary about?

Um, the Whales.

Oh, what blackfish?

Yes.

Yeah.

That completely changed that industry.

Totally.

The Cove.

Do you remember that one?

Oh, yes.

They came out and won like every award.

Oh yeah.

That came out the year Winnebago Man did.

And they just, every festival, it was like the cove's gonna win.

Whatever award there is to win.

And it was because it was about people eating dolphin.

Yeah.

And so, yeah.

So missing you.

That came out and everybody was like, we're not gonna eat dolphin anymore.

Well Ben of Ben of course, famously made Winnebago, man.

It was about people eating Winnebagos and it's far less appetizing than

dolphins, which are delicious.

But, but I'll just say too Winnebago, man.

I mean, it's one of the funniest documentaries ever made.

I mean, I was actually just, I felt like I was gonna fall outta my seat at

the Paramount Theater into the aisle just rolling on the floor laughing.

Oh,

thank you.

It was

so funny.

And that's a benefit to society, you know?

Hugely it.

And so, and then, you know, a movie like Clemente, they, it's like

that has a, an impact on people.

When we showed it at South by Southwest last year.

The first question, it wasn't even a question.

A guy stands up and he says, I don't have a question.

I just wanna say after watching this movie, I'm gonna be a better father.

I'm gonna be a better husband, and I'm gonna be a better person.

And that's what he said.

He couldn't have set it up more.

Oh my gosh.

Did.

And we're gonna check in with that guy and find out if it bore fruit.

Wow.

That like, almost tears me up.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

Like I can't ask for a better reception to

than that.

To your work.

And, and I think that it makes us.

All feel that way.

Right.

I've watched it however many times now.

Sure.

And I feel that way same time.

And, and I cry every time I watch it.

Yeah.

It makes, um, Nono makes me cry.

Sam Douglas who edited Yeah.

That movie he talked about sitting there at the editing, you know, just

blubbering every time there's certain sections and so, you know, if you

can move people, that's what matters.

Right.

You know, if you can make them laugh, if you can make them cry Yeah.

Or whatever, then you're touching them personally in some way

and you don't really know.

What the impact of that is.

Absolutely.

It feels like our industry is so in flux.

You know, people going to a theater, sitting in a dark room together,

watching a 90 minute story that that makes them a moat, feels like that's

on the chopping block and getting, you know, less and less relevant by the day.

So as a producer, somebody who's going out and like putting

it along the line to make.

Films, like how, how are you thinking about the landscape?

And, you know, is it changing for you?

Is the, is the goalpost moving?

Totally.

I mean, the 10 years difference between No-no.

And Clemente, the, the, the market for sports documentaries with some sort

of social edge or whatever you wanna call it, has dried up tremendously.

Yeah.

I mean, you know nothing against the History channel, but

we're on the history channel.

Yeah.

We're not on Netflix.

Right.

We're not on Showtime.

Right.

You know, we're not on Apple tv.

Showtime doesn't even exist hardly anymore, right?

Yeah.

That's where we put no-no first.

And then it went over to Netflix after that.

And so we thought we had a shot with Apple tv.

Yeah.

You know, and they just decided it's too historic is what it was.

And it's like, to me that means it has a decent amount of black and white footage.

Because if you make a movie about Michael Jordan that's historic.

But it's all in color.

Right.

You know, I just think, I really think people think about it differently.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, because it, like,

it needs to have a present day element

to it.

Yes.

It needs to feel very present and we, we, you know, got

current players because of that.

Right.

We talked to people on the street during Clemente Day and stuff to give

it like, what does he mean today?

What is his legacy like in the end, you know, like we talked about before, like

the amount of Latino players today.

Right.

Shout out to Yadi Molina.

Yeah, my, my Cardinals superstar.

Yeah.

Oh wait, do we wanna look at this car?

We came over here to look at this.

Amazing,

I know Nova.

It's a Chevy Nova.

You know, my favorite thing about the Nova, it doesn't, is that they

did not sell well in Mexico or Latin America because of the name.

Really?

Well, maybe neither of you are are Spanish speakers.

What does Nova mean in Spanish?

Don't have,

don't go.

Don't go.

Oh, don't go.

This car.

Don't go, oh no.

Wait a minute.

We got closer to the Chevy Nova and it just.

Really smells like weed all of a sudden.

Is it the car I think.

Mike, what do you got in your pocket?

Yeah,

so Clemente is in theaters right now here in Austin.

We, Ben and I just saw it last Sunday.

Just briefly, what was the, what was the festival rollout and, and kind

of what's the distribution, uh, plan?

How can people out there see this film?

Yeah.

Clemente premiered it South by Southwest in 2024, won the

audience award in the dot category.

Nice.

And, um, went on to the.

New York Latino Festival, which was one of the greatest screenings I've ever been at.

As far as like audience participation and yelling out at

the screen and cheering and things.

It was, it was an incredible experience.

Played several other festivals, but it's a hard time for docs right now.

LeBron James's company, uninterrupted, had done something with the History

Channel, so they recommended, Hey, the history channel's, looking for cooler

content, new things or whatever, and we think this might be a good spot for it.

And ended up going there.

So it had a theatrical release that started September 12th, mostly on the

east coast, you know, Pennsylvania, New York, and Jersey, Florida.

Did they time it specifically with the end of baseball season

going into the playoffs?

Well, yeah.

And also it released on September 12th and September 15th is

MLBs Roberto Clemente Day.

Whoa.

So we were able to get a lot of coverage.

Yeah.

Because.

They need to talk about him.

Yeah.

And on that day in every city.

Yeah.

And so we tried to get the documentary in front of as many of those people as

possible so that they would mention it.

Smart got mentioned on the View on Clemente Day and a whole bunch

of, I mean like That's right.

And everybody wears his number on cle.

They do.

Right.

Every team.

Every team gives a Roberto Clemente award to the player

that does the most cheerful Yeah.

Work for the community.

Right.

Every team nominates.

Yeah.

One of their players for the Clemente Award.

Right.

And then that person is then chosen and there's a, there's an award winner

who's doing those like strategic partnership with MLB and that

like promo push tied to that date.

Is that you as a producer?

Is that the distributor?

Is that,

that was really LeBron James' company.

Uninterrupted.

Great.

And because they have all those media and sports relationships Yeah, sure.

And they're, they're sort of like at the nexus of sports entertainment.

Media.

And so they, and they brought in a company, I think it's

42 West Publicity company.

Oh sure.

And they were great.

And so that's how we were able to line up, you know, the, the screening at the

stadium and a lot of the media around it.

It was in 70 theaters, you know, but most of them, you know, that's

already, you know, kind of happened.

A FS did it a little later.

Mm-hmm.

It's sort of once you get that initial jump, then other

people start picking it up.

Right.

Yeah.

And then honestly got off to a little bit of a slow start ticket

sales y wise in Austin and, but now it's been extended for another week.

'cause we're starting to get out there.

I love hearing that so

many guests that we've had on this podcast tell us that a FS is one of their biggest

grossing theaters that like, oh yeah.

People in Austin still go to the movie theater and support independent films and

that always makes me really proud of Yeah.

Living here and

you see these guys like you went, you know, on Sunday and so you go there and

there's a whole bunch of other filmmakers.

Right.

You know, the conversations in the lobby are always amazing.

Yeah.

When people move to Austin, they ask me, well, how can I

get involved in the film scene?

I'm like.

Start going to a FS cinema.

That's

when I tell 'em too, go there West to people.

Sunday afternoon, QA go there.

Yeah.

Sunday afternoon at the cinema is absolutely my favorite place to be

on a Sunday afternoon in this town.

Yeah.

And the thing is, it's not like Austin is a, a good example, right?

I think one of the reasons we a FS does so well is that there's really

only one art house cinema left.

In our town.

Totally.

Right, right.

There was a time when there was the regal arbor was, was putting up art house.

We used to have the dobie violet crown, which is found very mainstream.

Also

book a couple art house films.

That's right.

Regularly.

Yeah.

And so on the one hand it's like.

We've talked a lot to filmmakers who've said there's an art house revolution

going on, and that there's real support for Art House, but I sadly think

it's actually a winnowing down of opportunities, which is concentrated.

Yeah, that's, that's probably true.

But in that

concentration comes community,

right?

Yeah.

And so, you know, ups and downs with all of it.

You're on History Channel.

Yes, yes.

I'm great.

And, and that'll live in their streaming portal for Yes.

For a while.

For, and it's

also like if you have Roku, you can like rent it right off of Roku

and you know, there's, or watch it right off of Roku and then it's for

rent on all the typical platforms.

There's a multitude of ways.

Yeah.

Multitude of ways to, to see it.

Yeah.

Cool.

Be before we move on from Clemente.

Totally.

What did you learn in the process as like, as a producer and as somebody

who kind of joined a moving train?

Ben often likes to, to talk about, nobody likes to, nobody likes to start

a project or be, you know, be the person who pushes the train down the tracks.

But people love to move on a moving train and, and that's what you did here.

Yes, definitely.

And I do think too, it's like you, you know, you want to see that

people are doing for themselves.

You know, and that, you know, once you get legs in a project, that's

when people will be drawn to it.

If you're waiting to be anointed, like, Hey, I've got this great idea.

Yeah, I want you to be a producer.

I want so and so to be an executive producer, whatever, that's a bigger sell.

Go out there and start doing things, making stuff happen, doing your

interviews, being able to put stuff together, and then you can see,

okay, these people are serious.

You know, they want to do this, they wanna do it for the right reasons, or whatever,

and then you're much more comfortable.

Hopping onto that train.

Right.

You know, and it sort of, it builds from there.

Yeah.

But you have to have that.

Spark mm-hmm.

To get it going and to bring people onto the train.

And you've been on both sides of that, it sounds like.

And Clemente was more like, it was our, the train was moving.

Totally.

And on the film you made yourself and directed.

And then on Nono, those were more like projects you were with from the ground up.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

From idea to execution.

Yeah.

But is there anything you take, is there anything you, you took away from

producing Clemente that that's something you added to your producer's repertoire?

Something you learned?

You know, I, I think that every single one of these things is so

unique that you just learn each time.

You, you certainly, every time that a film's going out into the market, you

learn new tricks and new opportunities.

And I would've never thought of the History Channel, you know, it

wasn't on my radar at all until someone brought it onto my radar.

Mine, either and now.

Yeah.

And now people are like, Hey, maybe I should be talking to the History Channel.

Right.

So that's all kind of, you know.

You have to cobble these things together, whether it's financing

a film or distributing a film.

I have not had one experience that's the same.

Isn't that the truth?

We have a commercial production company too, as you know, and

we always try to standardize the process and you laugh 'cause it's

like there is no standard process.

Like every job.

Even.

Even when it's basically

the same client.

Same, yeah, same

client.

It's everyone is so radically.

Different.

Yeah.

You know, the needs are different, the audience is different.

The way you go about it is totally different.

So yeah, it changes all the time.

Look at these tiny little cameras are you think?

Yeah, exactly.

You know, Barrett, my business partner, has this great phrase about it where

he's like, they call it a production because it's always a production.

Yeah.

It's never easy.

One thing I thought was really cool in Clemente that I will say that

I learned was that the animation, a lot of times in documentaries,

animation can be a distraction.

Uh, if it's not mixed well with the style of the rest of the film mm-hmm.

You know, so you're showing this archival stuff from the sixties

and seventies and suddenly you go to this very, very sparkling,

modern animation can be jarring.

And so what they did with that was they.

Did the animation and they printed it on 16 millimeter film.

Oh, interesting.

To give it that grainy feel so that it's relatively seamless when you go

from these old archival scenes to,

sorry to interrupt us here, but I can't help but point out.

There is another amazing muscle car.

Okay.

I here

at the A FS lot, something is going on.

Oh, a scam.

Yeah.

A valiant, huge.

Look at the, seen this car before.

Uh, you know, Mike, you'll know this better than, than than me.

Is it true they shoot like Walker, Texas Ranger here?

They did, but it, um, it

recently it got canceled, unfortunately, even though it's one of the most

successful shows on that network.

Wow.

And so right now it's not busy here.

Like it normally would be because both Rooster Teeth, who occupied

probably half the space here.

Yeah.

And the Walker Show both shut down at the same time.

Oh wow.

Wow.

So there's been, it looks like maybe there's a commercial going on in here at

this point with all these few trucks out here and stuff, but just been picking up.

Various, you know, things until a new TV show or something comes in,

man.

And then this is, and we're also talking at a time when the incentives have passed.

Yeah, I know.

You know, so like, it's never been more

attractive to shoot in Austin right now.

Yeah.

But the whole industry's kind of like TV shows and, and things.

I think people are still, there's a lot of waiting and seeing right

now.

Yeah.

So going back to we, uh, I'm sorry, I just took us radically

off topic from the animation.

I wanted to comment on the animation because, you know, uh.

Right when we walked outta there, Ben said to me, he said, what

do you think of the animation?

And the very first thing I thought of.

Was, I really love the composite on that animation.

There was something, you know, animation is, is, is created in

layers and foregrounds in background.

Composite is something I'm particularly critical of.

Oftentimes uhhuh and there was something special about the composite that I

couldn couldn't quite put my finger on.

And hearing you say they printed on 60 millimeter, that's what it is, right?

The layers were baked together with the, with the grain in an actual, organic

way and not digital grain applied.

To, to cover seams, but, and there's something that softened that entire

look, and it's something that, I don't know, it was my, I was impressed,

particularly with the composite.

I know it's like a nerdy, uh, and, and very particular thing to pay

attention to and, and animation.

I think the much bigger and more important question is, does the

animation serve the storytelling?

Right?

Yes.

And, and, and does it deserve to, like, does it win the audience over

and does it, does it earn its runtime and does it honestly earn its.

It's line item in the budget.

'cause we all know animation expensive, expensive, and, and the short

answer is yes to all those things.

But you unlocked a question I wasn't going to ask because it was a little

wonky and a little nerdy, but, uh, but I'm glad to know, and I think I'm gonna,

I think I'm gonna steal one of those that,

that's great coming from you, especially make one of.

Greatest animated documentaries ever made.

One of my favorite documentaries of All Time Tower, you're very cut words.

That animation absolutely served a purpose.

You know, it took you there.

You were able to feel like you were there, you were able

to, to relate to those people.

When the kid is riding the bike and it gets shot, every time I've seen that

movie, I've probably seen it five times.

I feel it like, I feel like I'm gonna, if someone was just relating

that story to you, it would be a completely different experience.

Well.

I have to tell you, like I appreciate, it's great to hear you say.

Of course.

It's great to hear you say that.

Thank you, Mike.

But speaking of taking you there, we were walking right through here when

you were talking about all the movies that have been shot in this location

and Tower only shot two days at Austin Studios, but we shot right here, literally

right there in this empty parking lot.

Spot is the place where the, the redheaded.

Student comes and runs out and lays down next to Claire, the pregnant woman.

It became the poster image of the movie and it was shot exactly right there.

We needed, we needed a big enough parking lot for her to

kind of emerge into the scene.

Yeah.

And we shot a little bit inside of this building right here.

I had no idea.

Yeah.

Making anything like our friend Bart says.

It's called a production because it's, it's a production, right, but

that production, the two most like legitimate, like production days

happened here in Austin Studios.

It's the only time I've ever worked in like a real.

You know, Hollywood esque, you know, production world.

And so they really stand out in high relief.

Um, awesome.

Should have been nominated for an Oscar.

That's for damn sure.

Absolutely.

Well,

that's the, you know, we, we had a run.

It's easy to look at at things like that and think of all the things that

didn't happen, but especially, like you said, it's been 10 years since

Nono, it's been nine years since Tower.

And what I'm left with is all the things that did happen.

And what's amazing is like you build a career in steps, right?

Like every project while you're making it feels like the most important

thing and maybe the only thing you can focus on and the only thing that

you might ever get a chance to do.

But when a thing is done, you move on to the next one.

Mm-hmm.

And that one becomes your child and that one becomes your focus and that one.

And, and you, you never know how the world is gonna take any of them.

Right.

So you have to appreciate the process as you go.

I wanna get back to what you were talking about earlier where, you

know, you were a political consultant.

You're thinking the world is crazy, especially the last 10 years or so,

you're making, you know, the biggest films of your career producing last,

you know, five link letter movies.

Mm-hmm.

You know, you are from where I think most people said like an unbelievable

success story in terms of being a filmmaker, producer, and director.

And yet you're still like, guys, this moving the needle.

Like what do you just, yeah, talk to me more about that.

Like what do you, are you, are you thinking maybe there's like a new

way of making movies or presenting them or doing something else?

Or what, how are you thinking about the state of the industry right now?

You know, I, it's, I'm in a little bit of a bubble because I'm in

the Richard Linklater bubble.

Right.

You know, and so when I'm, when I'm trying to help younger filmmakers and whatever.

Uh, you know, we don't necessarily play by the same rules because you've

got a person that's got this body of work, who's got decades relationships

with actors, got, you know, best buddies with Ethan Hawk, right?

You know, things like this that you can put together a movie

and get the financing for it.

Not enough financing, by the way, um, ever, that you at

least can make the movie.

You know, but I don't, I think what people don't realize too is that we're

always struggling to make the movie.

Yeah.

We're always given far less money than is necessary to make.

The movie Hitman was a huge struggle to make.

I mean, it looks like a $25 million movie, but we made it

for significantly less than that.

Wow.

You know, blue Moon that's about to come out right now.

You know, we, we had to really work to make that work in the way that.

A Richard Linklater film should be

right.

You know, it's shocking probably for people to hear.

'cause it's on Netflix, you see billboards for it.

I mean hit and was huge.

Yeah.

And you would think like, oh, he's probably just getting a blank check.

Yeah.

We got a set

check that said, this is how much you get to make this movie.

And we said, that is not enough to make the movie.

And they said, well then find a place that has incentives if you want to add to it.

But this is what you get.

Wow.

And that's a movie That's, it was a huge struggle to make.

And we did it in New Orleans.

I was gonna say set in Texas, set in shoes shape, shot in shot in New Orleans.

And that was because at that time the film incentive was

completely zeroed out, right?

Like all the money had been spent.

Yeah.

If we had even gotten like a million dollars.

From Texas.

We would've made the movie in Texas.

But, but the heartbreak that like, you know, Texas is sort of, I know like,

you know, best known filmmaker Yes.

Has to go to Louisiana Yeah.

To make it make, when he first

called me about hitman, we had just done Apollo 10 and a half.

Yeah.

And he was like, Hey.

Here's the next Houston movie for us.

You know, Glennon and I, Houston, this script, Houston, right?

Yeah.

So that was part of the appeal.

Yeah.

It was like, okay, yeah, this is gonna be great.

And then, you know, we just,

were not unable to make it happen.

Right.

Just for a shorthand here, could you just like bullet point the films that

you've made with link later, just so that we, we have that reference?

Yeah.

So Apollo 10 and a half hit man.

Blue Moon, we're shooting this thing merely, we roll along over 20 years.

That's nine segments and we've shot three of those segments.

Nice.

And then I'm much less involved in the French movie Vevo.

Um, I basically held down the fort in the United States, kept all the

different balls rolling, which gave him the freedom to go make the movie.

That's incredible.

So we were able to, so that year, because of the strike.

Everything got pushed into last year.

And so during that calendar year, we shot two segments of Melee roll

along, uh, nouv, Vevo, and Blue Moon.

I wouldn't recommend it to others.

And you've got Clemente, so you've got, yeah.

And Clemente.

So you've got three films in theaters this fall, right?

Yes.

And that would Mary, we Roll along is gonna, we'll all see that 2040.

Okay.

Wow.

We'll, we'll be here for, for that one.

I can't wait to do that episode.

I think going back to what we were talking about before.

We shot the third segment of MaryLee here, just right in

one of these hangers over here.

Okay?

And so we're watching at the, you know, it's late, we're going overtime.

We're all watching the screens and crying at this scene.

And then we walk out and, and you're in this, you know, it's nighttime, you're

in this empty lot, and you realize.

No one's gonna see what we just worked on for 15 years.

And actually that's a great feeling because you feel like, wow,

this is like art for art's sake.

People are gonna see it eventually.

Right.

But you don't, you can't guarantee that.

Yeah.

You know, it's like

a time capsule you guys are creating.

Yeah.

Like hopefully somebody will see this in 15 years.

Yes,

exactly.

You know?

And so you have to have that hope and you have to have like that belief in the art.

Right.

You know, and, and a patience.

I mean, if Rick Linkler brings anything to this world, it's

the biggest sense of patience.

That's amazing.

You know, when I first got involved with him, we were trying to make

what became Apollo and a half, it was called the Space Age.

And it was this story where we, you know, we were with a studio

for a while and then we got dropped and it was devastating to me.

It's like the first narrative film.

It's this great opportunity, and I was just.

Really emotionally crushed, you know, just like, oh my God.

He sent this email to like the six or seven people who were, you know,

trying to make it happen where I was saying, this film is gonna happen.

You know, wow, I've been through this before.

You know, we know we're on the right track, blah, blah.

And that was when he had the idea, why aren't we animating this movie?

Wouldn't it work so much better if it was animated?

Why didn't I think of this before?

We're able to take that path, go to Netflix.

They love the idea they had this.

This growing animation, you know, part of their platform at

that time and made that happen.

But it was because you had that patience and still put one foot

in front of the other, right?

No matter what.

That belief that like this is gonna happen, like we talk a lot about you have

to be a force of will to do this work.

Yeah.

You literally have to create something out of nothing and be the one that

believes in it because nobody cares.

The end of the day, nobody's asking you to do it.

So it's all like self-imposed and you have to be, you have to like really have the

drive and the energy and the vision to do

that.

People, and I will tell you that, you know, when you're making a documentary

especially and you're talking about it and then it's not happening.

It's not coming out.

Yeah.

Family members, friends, they all start to.

So is

this happening?

Right?

Is are you still working on that?

Well, the timelines that we, no, the timelines that we work on and the

timelines of like the public consciousness are two such different tracks.

Yeah,

totally.

Yeah.

With melee we go along or boyhood, you know, which, yeah, I think, you know,

is of that same DNA, this is something that like you guys are breaking.

The mold.

Right.

You're breaking the idea that a movie's a three year process, or

when people say, oh, it took 10 years to, to get this movie made.

Usually what they mean is they wrote a draft 10 years ago, right?

Yeah.

They had a meeting, you know, every three months for two years.

They put it aside for six years, they did two other things.

Then they dusted it off and picked it back up.

But merely we go along.

Just to, just to be clear on, on what this is.

'cause you said you've shot it in.

It's gonna be shot in nine segments over 20 years.

Yes.

Can you just give us a, a, a picture of what that means?

Yeah.

So it goes in reverse from 1976 to 1957.

So we've already shot the end of the film Wow.

Where they first meet, and they're all on the rooftop watching for Sputnik.

Oh.

And so that's how the group of three people come together.

And, and so at the beginning of the movie, which we will be shooting many, many

years from now, you see them as older and jaded, cynical, alcoholic, various things.

And then the whole story is peeling back the onion of who they were.

Wow.

And what, what drove them in the first place.

And so on the stage until very recently had never been a success.

It was one of Sondheim's biggest flops, the Stephen Sondheim musical.

So it's a musical people sing.

We record them in the studio.

Beforehand.

So that's been a learning process for me.

And then they have a little earwig in their ear where they can listen to

themselves or the others sing along.

But it's not like people start dancing.

They're just singing a lot of what they're thinking and their dialogue with each

other, and so it's a very grounded kind of musical, and I think it'll feel even

more grounded because it's being filmed.

Yeah.

Rather than on the stage where you just have like sort of minimal props and stuff.

Right, right, right.

It started when Sondheim was still alive.

I never got to meet him, unfortunately, but Rick did.

And we feel a real responsibility, um, to do it the right way, the way

he would've supported, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a really cool,

fun, crazy thing to be involved in.

That's awesome.

Okay, Mike, so we're at the end of our walk here.

One of the things that we're trying to get better at doing is doing like a lightning

round with our guests at the end.

Okay.

So one of the first questions that we like to ask all of our guests.

Is, what was the gateway drug film for you?

What was the film that you saw where all of a sudden you

were like, I could do that.

I wanna make movies.

This is my new path.

That's a really good question.

I am, you know, slacker is certainly one of them.

The type of movie that you feel like you watch.

And you think, oh, that's doable.

Right?

You know, I can see I, so I also love, like And you

were in Slacker, right?

Is that how you No, no, no,

no, no.

I was not.

That's Tommy Palata was in it.

Uh, who's produced with me a ton and a half.

This is right here is a hot take ai.

Told us that you were in Slacker and that's, oh my

gosh, how you met Link Letter.

Ben's reliance on AI has bit us in the ass again.

Yep.

You see, you heard it here first.

It's unreliable folks,

but movies like Do The Right Thing, Hollywood Shuffle.

You know these movies a lot of times first time filmmakers, scrappy

using their credit card or whatever.

All that stuff was like, what I. Really loved and, and

thought, okay, that's doable.

Right.

Something like that.

Where were

you in your life in so do the right things.

86, slackers 91.

Where were you, uh, professionally or personally when those movies came out?

was in graduate school.

Yeah.

I, I think I was still in graduate school when Hollywood Shuffle came out.

I was in grad school when Slacker came out.

I remember going to see it at the theater.

I remember going back with friends.

I remember going to see Hands on A Hard Body was also our

big friends so many times go

back and back and back.

We're gonna get, we're gonna get L LER on the show.

Oh, awesome.

Yeah.

And I still think of those movies like Sean Baker.

You watch a movie like Tangerine, right?

Yeah.

And it's like those movies just make you excited about like,

okay, that's a doable thing.

Right?

I can see how people are like influenced by that and to

watch him like sort of build.

His career from that, even though he is making bigger movies now,

they still have that kind of edge.

Right.

You know?

Yeah.

A red rocket, for instance.

Right.

You know, the way he used like that Texas city.

Yeah.

You know, backdrop is almost a character, you know?

I love that kind of stuff.

And then how about your advice to a filmmaker just starting out now?

Gotta get your friends together and you just gotta start doing it.

You have to show momentum.

You have to.

You don't wait around to be anointed.

No one's gonna anoint you, right?

They got their own things going on, and so, and there's no magic bullet.

You know, people think, oh, well you've been involved in all these films.

You must know people with money that.

Give mine to films.

I don't, you know, it's a huge misconception.

I mean, that was gonna be the, the next question in the

lightning round is, uh, great.

Cut this interview's over.

What does that mean to you?

Just get going.

I mean, in a documentary sense and in a scripted sense, what, what does just

get going mean to you as a producer?

Uh, you wanna do it right as you're getting going, right?

You don't want to.

You don't wanna have to redo things.

So you, you do have to know what you're doing and what

you're trying to accomplish.

But in a documentary, it really does mean start collecting all the archive,

start, you know, interviewing maybe some key people so that you can put

together a teaser to show people.

I'm looking at one right now about a musician and I'm thinking this could be

great, because they went out and they hung out with him and they filmed him.

They filmed another prominent musician who he played on his album, you know,

and then you mix that with some archive and they've got this great six minute.

Teaser they're sending around.

And I'm like, this is, this is awesome.

You know?

And so that, especially with documentary, I think it's a little harder with

narrative except that, you know, make a short, you know, like get in some

festivals, show that you've got some legs.

I always call

that the West Anderson model, like you did a bottle rocket where totally

took like the scene of the robbery of the bookstore, which it isn't

actually in the finished movie Uhhuh, but he made it as a standalone.

Short goes to Sundance, he gets a producer as a result.

And, and

that's the thing is like.

A great storyteller is going to reveal themselves.

Uh, be

there from the beginning.

Yes.

From

the beginning.

Somebody who's, who's a, who's a natural gift like that.

Yeah.

And Linklater, you know, announces himself.

I know it's not his very first film, slacker, but he announces

himself and he announces himself.

By saying, oh, the way you're used to seeing a movie, let

me, lemme scramble that up.

Let me break that into 35 different pieces.

Yeah.

And weirdly we just talked about merely we roll along the way that

you're used to seeing a movie.

Let me, let me scramble that.

Let me break that up into nine pieces over 30 years backwards.

Who we are as storytellers, you know, is who we are in a lot of ways.

So that gets to my question is for our lightning round is like.

How can an emerging filmmaker, whether it's somebody who's fresh out of school

or even on their way into school, or it's someone like you who had a full

career and a, and, and, and a lot of success doing something else, and now

wants to switch in to storytelling, how can they discover who they are?

Like, did you discover who you were in the process as you became

a producer and as you, you embraced storytelling from the film side?

Totally.

I mean, I think that, you know, it.

It's all a learning process.

I've always been a big documentary fan or whatever, but I didn't decide I wanted

to go into film to make documentaries.

You know, it's just a different form of storytelling.

As an aside, the greatest compliment you can get from someone who watches

your documentary and say is to say, that didn't feel like a documentary.

It felt like a movie.

Right?

And that means that it moved them, it, it had story, it, you know, it sort of,

there's some structure to it or whatever.

Even if you're messing with the structure, you have to understand.

How structure works in, in people's minds.

Yeah.

Like how stories work in people's minds.

And so, what

was the question again?

Uh, like discovering yourself.

Yeah.

Discover, like was there a moment where you realized like,

oh, this is who I am and your

storytelling voice.

There's storytelling voice and, and, and I, I think like for, for a lot of

us, you, you figure out who you are by first realizing who you're not.

Right, right.

Yes.

And so I'm just curious, like your process, because you did, you know, how,

how old were you when you, when you made the switch from political consulting?

I was

in my forties.

Yeah.

I, I decided to do that when I was 40.

Yeah.

And I started sort of working my way towards that.

I started going to the Austin Film Festival, south by Southwest.

I started reading books on screenwriting.

Sort of like educating myself.

I started watching movies with a different eye that I really love and taking notes

like when did certain things happen?

Yeah, whatever.

I mean, as much as people hate, like to talk about the three act structure

and stuff that, you know, movies have to have a beginning and middle and end.

Right.

You know, they, they need to have a certain pace that makes sense in the mind.

You can't slow down at the end, you know?

And so I guess I started to realize I was good at that.

I don't know how to edit.

You know, but I know what works and what doesn't.

You know, so I'm good in an editing room.

Mm-hmm.

I'm good at a rough cut screening.

You guys are great at rough cut screenings.

I mean, that's one of the great things about Austin is you can

show your films to people, right.

And get great feedback.

'cause you get so close to it that you can't see it.

I just went to a rough cut screening last night, so I do think I

started to, and to realize that I had a, a personality for it too.

You know that I could motivate people, that I could get along with people.

A lot of filmmakers aren't good at getting along with people,

and that really hurts you.

You have to motivate a group of people around a vision, right?

Yeah.

Like in the way you said Rick Roth had email to everybody, like you have

to have that ability as a leader.

Yeah.

And is kind of like, um, somebody who can just be un unflappable, I guess.

Yeah.

Little like a coach.

Everybody

can do that.

Like a coach, you know, like a coach a little bit.

Yeah.

You know, there's a lot of step moving stuff.

You have to deal with a whole lot of different people.

A lot of personality made.

Yeah.

You gotta deal with festivals.

You gotta deal with distributors.

You gotta deal with people who you want to give money to the

project, to work on the project.

Right.

And I, what I really love is like if, if someone's enthusiastic.

They're gonna get the job.

Yeah.

Nine times out, 10.

I know.

Enthusiasm always with

us.

Yeah.

I mean, the person who really gets it, who really cares who wants to work.

Yeah.

Is typically the person I'm gonna pick.

That's awesome.

Dream collaborator.

If you could collaborate with anybody,

one person who would pick, gosh, you know.

Hmm.

Richard Linklater.

Hey.

I mean, that's a great answer.

I think it's a good, you're living the dream, Mike.

It's

a good one.

Living the dream was Mike Lizard.

That's the title right there.

We just found our episode title.

Okay, last question.

What is the thing you didn't get to have the

last question.

Wow, that's a really good one.

Um, well, I'm buying a house right now.

It's the first time in over 20 years.

Congrats.

Remember.

Thank you.

That's huge.

And honestly, I keep thinking.

Is this a terrible mistake?

Should I be moving to Ireland in this trip?

Well, I'm kind of a stay and fight type of person.

Yeah.

But the state of the world certainly wears on me.

The state of the country.

Yeah.

Wears on I think many of our minds all the time.

It's, it's hard to be productive.

It's hard to collaborate and to, and to be encouraging and whatever.

When you're worried about, you know, where the world is moving

and what sort of society we're becoming and all that kind of thing.

Yeah.

So it, it does make everything, you know, more difficult.

Totally.

How do you, how do you, Ben said the last question, but I'm gonna ask one, how

do you overcome, how do you, or how do you, how do you, how do you withstand?

I think you have to just, you know, I, I'm a big believer in continuing to put

one foot in front of the other and just things to kind of naturally happen.

Mm-hmm.

And so if I'm stuck on one thing, I like to try to be juggling a lot

of things, I can just move to that.

Yeah.

And I can think, you know what, rather than sitting here and worrying

about what's gonna happen with this.

I'm gonna go back to that idea.

And you know what someone was telling me recently, they love that idea.

Maybe I could make that curling movie I wanted to make, you know, or whatever.

What's the status of that?

Please make

the curling movie, Mike.

I would love to see that.

You know what the, we always say we're gonna be less all over the

place, but when you talk to somebody who has made, you know, 10 films

and you talk to somebody who has interest all over the place and, and.

We are interested in the things you're interested in.

They're gonna, we're gonna go all over the place.

Yeah.

So if you guys are complaining about the fact that Mike is all

over the place, you can blame Ben.

Mike, thanks for doing this, man.

Thank you.

You, this is great guys.

This is awesome.

Yes.

Appreciate you all.

Okay.

All right, man.

That was Mike Blizzard living the dream.

Mike Blizzard.

Uh, you know, I've known Mike Blizzard casually for, for many years, but

I didn't know his whole story.

Same.

And now I feel like.

But I still feel like there's plenty of pockets we couldn't get into.

That's a guy you could talk to for hours

and we forgot so many things, including probably the most relevant, which

is goes to show our, uh, podcasting,

uh, hosting skills.

Oh, yes, that's right.

Our, our publicists do not love us.

But the deep divers, hopefully do.

Mike Blizzard has news that we can share Breaking news, right.

Which we didn't ask him about, but his new movie that he produced, uh, for

Richard Linkletter is called Blue Moon.

Blue Moon.

And it opens here in Austin and worldwide, nationally and worldwide on the 24th

of October.

That's right.

So if you were catching this in 2040 because you just watched

Melee, we roll along and you wanted to do it the deep dive.

Blue Moon is available via hologram, uh, on the inside of your eyeball.

That's, um, but if you were watching in 2025, it's October 24th,

24th nationally.

I can't wait to see this movie.

It looks great.

This is one of the three that Mike is gonna have in theaters this

year, so please go support, um, Richard Linkletter, Mike Blizzard,

the Austin Filmmaking community.

And thank you guys for, uh, listening to this episode.

Thank you.

And, and when it comes time to talk about next time.

On Dock Walks.

I wanna reference probably the best moment of this podcast is when Mike said he saw

the movie Tower five times and it was one of the best movies he he ever saw.

These are his words, not mine.

Um, but we are taking it to the streets with tower producer Megan

Gilbride, walking in her hometown turf, her current hometown turf anyway,

of Atwater Village in Los Angeles.

So that's next time on dog walks.

Ben not there.

He was invited, boo.

That's right.

But you, you walked without me.

I did.

I feel cheated on, but I'm so glad I can't wait to see it.

You and Megan are longtime collaborators and great friends,

and I'm sure it's gonna be a blast.

We know each other so well that um, we are, we kind of dance all

over a lot of different topics.

Oh.

So, um, my guess is it won't be the only time we invite Megan onto the show.

Yep.

Um, I hope not anyway, but, um, but I had a lot of fun doing it.

I hope you guys will tune in.

Next time on Doc Walks.

Doc Walks is produced, directed, edited by me, Keith Maitland, and him.

Ben Steinhower and we have a new member of the team and, uh, and he's been doing

an incredible job behind these incredible

job.

We are so thankful.

Happy to Dayton Thompson, who work happy to welcome

co-producer Dayton Thompson,

that's right to the pod.

And, uh, he's bringing a whole level of sophistication that

hopefully, uh, will come across in episodes, uh, in the future.

And, uh, we're excited to have you.

So welcome Dayton.

Welcome Dayton.

We'll, we'll rope him into walking with us one of these days.

Hey, there you go.

Um, okay.

We'll catch you, uh, on the trail.

Next time on Doc Walks one foot in front of the other.

Stop talking.