First Draft Episode #240: Erin Lee Carr
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Erin Lee Carr is a director, producer, and writer whose upcoming four-part docuseries How to Fix a Drug Scandal will be released on Netflix on April 1st. Carr has also directed the documentaries Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop, Mommy Dead and Dearest, I Love You: Now Die, and At the Heart of Gold, all for HBO. Erin also wrote a memoir, All That You Leave Behind, about her struggles wth substance abuse and the sudden loss of her father, New York Times media journalist David Carr. All That You Leave Behind Is out in paperback today.
Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Witches by Roald Dahl
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV show)
Pleasantville (movie)
Moulin Rouge (movie)
David Carr, legendary New York Times journalist and author of memoir Night of the Gun
James Frey is the author of A Million Little Pieces which raised a massive public debate about truth in memoir after it was revealed that portions of the book was fabricated or wildly embellished, and Oprah confronted him. She has since apologized for that confrontation.
David Carr on The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert talking about his memoir
The New York Times Book Review write-up about Carr’s memoir
Page One: Inside the New York Times, a documentary by Andrew Rossi (who is now a mentor to Erin) featured David Carr extensively
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room a documentary by Alex Gibney, was an incredibly influential film that made Erin want to pursue documentary fimmaking
Erin was an office PA for the TV show Girls before she moved on to making videos for VICE
“How true crime documentaries helped Erin Lee Carr move forward after her father’s death,” Erin’s interview with the Los Angeles Times, interviewed by Amy Kaufman
Patricia Bosworth, documentarian and memoirist, author of The Men in My Life: A Memoir of Love and Art in 1950s Manhattan, Diane Arbus: A Biography, Montgomery Clift: The Ultimate Insider's Guide for the Budget Savvy
Sheila Nevins, former president of HBO Documentary Films and currently launching MTV Documentary Films
National geographic photographer Cory Richards’s 2017 SXSW Keynote speech
Cheer on Netflix (which was optioned)
“The Girl from Plainville,” the Esquire piece by Jesse Barron about the Michelle Carter case
Erin’s episode of Dirty Money dealing with the pharmaceutical industry
Cindy Lee, editor on At the Heart of Gold
Sarah Gibson was executive producer on At the Heart of Gold
“Still rendering,” Erin’s Medium piece which she wrote in the wake of her dad’s death
Mary Karr’s books including Lit, The Liar’s Club: A Memoir, and The Art of Memoir
Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp
In an interview with Caryn Ganz for the New York Times, Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino talks about coming to the decision to be sober. I also liked how Jenny Slate spoke about her choice to stop drinking—at least temporarily— in The Cut on Tuesdays.
Erin on Fresh Air with Terry Gross
Erin loves the Fresh Air episodes featuring Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Howard Stern
Erin recommends watching documentaries every night for a month, and diagramming them. Then, she suggests, also go ahead and diagram the careers of some of the greats, including: Liz Garbus (director of There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane, What Happened, Miss Simone? and more); Alex Gibney (director of Going Clear: The HBO Special and The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley); Andrew Jirecki (director of Capturing the Friedmans); Amy Berg (director of The Case Against Adnan Syed and Janis: Little Girl Blue); Erroll Morris (director of The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara)
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