TAEM- The Arts and Entertainment Magazine loves to explore all the facets of movie making. One of the most prevalent, and often unsung, is the art of creating a video documentary. These are important films and deal with the every day life around us. One such documentary filmmaker is someone from Long Island, New York where I grew up. His name is Justin Samuels. Justin, what interested you in movie making, and especially documentaries.
JS- I’ve always enjoyed storytelling and sharing information with people in various forms. I’ve written 8 screenplays, and during the fall of 2011, as occupy formed, I began blogging about it. I eventually began taking pictures of it, and started to video interview occupiers as well as take random footage. As a filmmaker, I’m not specifically a documentary filmmaker, I do both documentaries and fiction film.
TAEM- As many students of the arts follow our publication for tips on how to succeed in their craft, tell us about the training and education that you undertook to perfect your trade.
JS-I have a bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University in History. I also took a number of English and writing courses at Cornell. Outside of Cornell, I participated in various screenwriting workshops and read books on the matter. (more…)