Keith walks Hyde Park—with a detour into & across the Hancock Golf Course—with LA's Gene Gallerano. An East Dallas kid raised on the humanities and Poor David's Pub, Gene's an actor-turned-producer-turned-Emmy-winning director, fresh off multiple wins at the Waco FF for THANK YOU FOR LISTENING, his Texas Monthly short about country singer Joshua Ray Walker. The origin story is a rom-com: Gene boards a flight, spots Joshua Ray, and talks to him for seven hours straight—true love at 30,000 feet. Then… nothing. 3 ½ months later, the text: Joshua Ray was diagnosed with cancer, off the road for eight months—do you still want to make something? No money, no camera, no crew. But Gene is all in. He builds a set in the loft at his mom's house, recruits Austin doc-maker Bob Ray to co-direct, and shoots the doc on his late friend Ross McDonnell's camera gear—"just don't change any of his settings, it'll feel like we have him."
From there we work the whole map: moving to the East Village at 19, studying theater under Austin Pendleton, and turning a rejected-everywhere $13,000 "thin feature" — featuring Meryl Streep & Philip Seymour Hoffman among others—into a 19-minute short that premiered at Tribeca: STARRING AUSTIN PENDLETON. Talking his way into hurricane zones with a camera. Producing AMERICAN SYMPHONY with Matt Heineman. And holding the boom for hours in COVID ICUs on THE FIRST WAVE, steadying himself on the repetition of his daughter's favorite lyrics: "a tale as old as time, Beauty and the Beast.".
Plus: a first-ever DocWalks golf swing on a borrowed club, the broads of the East Village, Reed Birney and the break that came at 57, and the advice that sticks—if you have time to worry, you have time to work.
DISCUSSION LINKS:
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING (2026) | AMERICAN SYMPHONY (2023) | THE FIRST WAVE (2021) | STARRING AUSTIN PENDLETON (2016) | THE EYES OF ME (2009) | HELL ON WHEELS (2007) | COOL HAND LUKE (1967) | DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993) | THE DOORS (1991) | BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991)
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 First Light Books and a Hyde Park morning
01:09 Meet Gene Gallerano — best projects start in an alley
01:40 THE EYES OF ME and the wedding-table origin story
04:49 A man on the move: Dallas, and Waco Film Festival wins
05:36 Love at 30,000 feet: meeting Joshua Ray Walker
06:56 Ghosted — then the text that changed everything
07:18 Fresh off producing AMERICAN SYMPHONY
08:34 Put yourself in the corner: no money, no camera, no crew
10:13 Star-crossed lovers and the circle of confusion
11:42 Stepping behind the director's chair from a distance
12:20 Building a set in the loft above mom's bed
13:58 The pitch begins with your subject and continues with your crew
16:18 Ross McDonnell's camera: "don't change any of his settings"
18:54 A three-string guitar from a pawn shop
19:06 Every crew member had lost someone to cancer
20:27 The material defines the length: thin features
20:50 STARRING AUSTIN PENDLETON — Streep, Hoffman, and $13,000
24:06 The secret iMovie recut that made Tribeca
25:56 Beat away with a baseball bat — "oh, is he still here?"
26:43 Dayton and the wisdom of just showing up
27:41 East Dallas, Poor David's Pub, and a house full of humanities
29:46 New York at 19: landing in the East Village
31:05 The broads of the East Village
33:23 A first-ever golf swing on the Hancock course
35:47 Classic Stage Company: the North Star on 13th Street
36:20 Studying with Austin Pendleton at HB Studio
38:17 Ivanov with Ethan Hawke — standing on the North Star stage
39:07 Acting: the great impossibility
41:50 The Polish restlessness — done asking permission
42:49 Talking his way into disaster zones
44:22 What rebuilding reveals about people
46:01 THE FIRST WAVE: holding the boom in COVID ICUs
48:33 Tale as old as time
50:35 Nuts and bolts: skitter-scatter brains
52:54 Hybrid films and never overstaying your welcome
53:44 Collaboration, Bob Ray, and HELL ON WHEELS
55:43 The Nonfiction Hot List says yes
57:50 Texas Monthly comes aboard
59:06 If you build it, they will come
1:00:00 Lightning round: DAZED AND CONFUSED meets THE DOORS
1:00:20 COOL HAND LUKE, a perfect film
1:01:33 Advice: if you have time to worry, you have time to work
1:02:16 Reed Birney and the break that came at 57
1:03:32 Next time: Margaret Brown
