That my guest this week is a multi-award winning director from the illustrious NYU film school should come as no surprise. Executive produced by Spike Lee, he just World Premiered at SXSW his first feature length documentary, ‘Evolution of a Criminal’, to wide critical acclaim; it follows the journey of a bright young honours student going back to his hometown of Missouri City, Texas to interview his family and friends about something he did 10 years before. Feeling the financial pressure his parents were under, and being a very bright kid, he brilliantly plotted and successfully executed an armed bank robbery at the tender age of 16; but with his sidekicks unable to resist playground bravado, the word got out and he was sentenced to 5 years in jail, such was the severity of the crime. Without spoiling it, this powerful and highly emotional film finishes with him knocking on doors to apologise to the people who were in the bank that fateful day, and you see first hand their very different reactions. What might surprise you though, is the man knocking on those doors is also the NYU graduate that directed it, and he joins me in the studio today.
My 6th guest on the show is the gifted and exciting filmmaker, Darius Clark Monroe.