Keith goes coastal this week, walking the foggy cliffs of Point Lobos, California with Bay Area filmmaker Chris Metzler—co-director of PLAGUES AND PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA, EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE and RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE.
Chris and Keith go back to 2008, when they met at the PBS Producers Academy at WGBH, and their cohort reads like a Sundance roll call: S. Leo Chiang, Su Kim, Christine Turner and more. We dig into how a kid from Independence, Missouri who "hated documentaries" got converted by Errol Morris' FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL, picked up a Canon GL1 with his USC dorm-mate Jeff Springer, and spent four years in Final Cut Pro 1 making a comedy about an ecological disaster. Then the twist: a VHS-tape finds its way into the hands of John Waters, and PLAGUES AND PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA finds its voice. Chris breaks down exactly what that narration changed—tone, trust, discoverability, and a cult afterlife that now includes Joe Rogan and John Mulaney thinking it's a Waters film.
We also get into the birth of RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE, why co-directing is a relay race (& a play on Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's "co-directors take-turns" model), and Chris's honest math on client work: independent films don't pay, but "award-winning independent filmmaker" brings clients to the table.
Along the way there are sea birds & sea lions (and barking filmmakers), a check-in with a plein air oil-painter, spotting a legendary Ansel Adams cypress, and enough rocky, coastal views and 65-degree breezes to cool you down no matter where you're tuning in from.
Plus: insight into Angelo and Norwood from Fishbone, the early days of the Documentary Channel, and not-enough time spent talking about SFIndiefest and SFDocFest, the festivals that Chris helps program and run.
DISCUSSION LINKS:
PLAGUES AND PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA (2006) | RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE (2017) | EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE (2011) | FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL (1997) | BARAKA (1992) | AMERICAN MOVIE (1999) | OKIE NOODLING (2001) | SEVENTEEN (1983) | EYES ON THE PRIZE (1987) | THE EYES OF ME (2009) | A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES (2009) | HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING (2018) | HOMEGOINGS (2013) | AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (2006) | GREMLINS (1984) | FOLKTALES (2025)
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Sea otters, selfie sticks and a high-five slate at Point Lobos
00:43 Treasure Island's real coastline (and the guano)
03:00 Meet Chris Metzler
04:05 How we met: the 2008 CPB Producers Academy at WGBH
05:08 Judith Vecchione, Kathy Lo and the ITVS system
06:35 KQED, Truly California and a DIY festival tour
07:50 Keith on PLAGUES AND PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA
09:15 Jeff Springer and the rock-star cohort
12:09 PBS is an amoeba
13:48 Finding a cohort without film school; the Ansel Adams tree
15:41 "I hated documentaries": FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL, BARAKA, AMERICAN MOVIE
16:40 Tom Neff, USC music videos and America's Treasures
18:00 Sonny Bono, a Canon GL1 and 200 festivals
19:42 An extra VHS for Ann Alexander's neighbor
21:12 Strange moss, and what a John Waters narration changes
23:00 Joe Rogan, John Mulaney and the long tail of a cult doc
25:25 Bombay Beach Biennale: the Salton Sea becomes a destination
26:49 Meeting plein air painter Coraly Hanson on the trail
29:57 Painters, patience and the serendipity of RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE
31:50 Thomas Gonzales checks his mail: day five of seven
33:08 Talking to strangers with a camera (and flying like the Unabomber)
34:14 Sea lion call and response
37:03 Why Pacific Grove; Independence, Missouri; business plus film at USC
39:24 Thirty years with Jeff Springer; the traveling-salesman inventor dad (GREMLINS)
41:44 Funding RODENTS: Kickstarter first, ITVS finishing funds, red-state stories
44:59 Co-directing as a relay race; Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's FOLKTALES
50:04 Client work: nonprofits, motion graphics and charging more as the outsider
53:46 Sagebrush
54:20 EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE (2010, not 2019)
55:59 Lev Anderson, a rainy night at the Independent, "you must be weird guys"
59:17 Doc Walks becomes Doc Drives
1:00:17 Lessons: overconfident but not overconfident; write the treatment, then forget it
1:02:28 The ITVS application as a rough-cut screening
1:03:50 Gateway drugs: FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL and SEVENTEEN
1:04:36 SF DocFest and a live Doc Walk
1:05:35 Next time: Sam Wainwright Douglas and David Hartstein
