Ep. 49 Independence is a Myth with Reid Davenport
In this episode, filmmaker Reid Davenport talks with Edward Frumkin (he/him) about his love of baseball, how his interest in filmmaking isn't necessarily related to telling stories, and how the personal is political. Finally in today's concluding thought, Edward talks about Q&As.
Guest Bio:
Reid Davenport (he/him) makes documentaries about disability from an overtly political perspective. His first feature film, I Didn't See You There, will be aired on PBS's POV on January 16, 2023, is nominated for Best Documentary at the Gotham Awards and won several awards at festivals such as Sundance, Full Frame, and SFFILM. Life After, produced by Multitude Films, will be released in early 2024. In 2020, Davenport was named to DOC NYC’s “40 Filmmakers Under 40.” His short film A Cerebral Game won the Artistic Vision Award at the 2016 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. It is distributed by New Day Films, along with his short documentaries Wheelchair Diaries and Ramped Up. Davenport’s work has been supported by Field of Vision, Catapult Film Fund, Ford Foundation, Sundance Institute, XTR, ITVS, NBCUniversal, CNN, and Points North Institute, among others.
Davenport was a 2017 TED fellow and his work has been featured by outlets like NPR, PBS, The Washington Post, MSNBC, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. He holds an MFA in Documentary Film & Video from Stanford University and a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication from The George Washington University. Currently, Reid is a visiting professor in the film department at Pratt Institute and a member of Documentary Filmmakers with Disabilities (FWD-DOC).
Time Codes:
0:45 - Reid's path to being a filmmaker
5:50 - Demystifying Independence and first-time filmmaking experience in Wheelchair Diaries
16:30 - Sharing his love of baseball in A Cerebral Game
25:00 - Presenting Unconventionality and Congruent Aesthtics in I Didn't See You There
42:25 - Exploring Autonomy and Medically-Assisted Suicide in Life After
49:20 - Reid's recommendation: Koyaanisqatsi
50:05 - Concluding Thought: Q&As
Show Notes:
Trailers for Wheelchair Diaries, A Cerebral Game, I Didn't See You There (IDSYT) without Audio Description and IDSYT with Audio Description