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Other Great Episodes
Episode 45: Consultants
It's critically important to get professional help or consulting throughout the entire process of producing a film. How else would a first time filmmaker know what to look out for when trial and error are so costly in both time ...
Episode 44: Picture Lock
Thanks to the many focus groups in 2019 Christian Taylor has accumulated a long list of things to fix and improve in The Girl Who Wore Freedom. The goal is to be "picture locked" by February 6th so that we ...
Episode 43: Rights & Clearances
When you're making a film, remember to take notes about the archival footage, usage rights, and sources for everything added to the film. Learn from our first time filmmaker, Christian Taylor as she talks to co-hosts Josh Lindsay and Jason ...
Episode 42: Birthday in TN
Christian Taylor visits her family in Tennessee and (surprise, surprise), she screens the film. While she was there she hears new stories that make her start thinking about her next film. (Is there some sort of filmmakers Stockholm syndrome?) She ...
Episode 41: Coast to Coast
In this episode, co-host and Director Christian Taylor recap focus groups events from one coast to the other: The Villages, Florida to Phelan, California. These two focus groups were on different ends of the spectrum but both very special for ...
Episode 40: Branson
In this episode, co-host and Director Christian Taylor recaps her experience running two of the most impactful focus groups so far at the Branson Military Film Festival. Hear how the original girl who wore freedom, Dani Patrix, visited from Normandy ...
Episode 39: Collaborators
Collaboration on a project as large as a film like The Girl Who Wore Freedom is difficult. Films take years to produce and it's natural for our priorities or goals to shift along the way. In this episode Director Christian Taylor ...
Episode 38: Blessings
In this special Thanksgiving episode, first-time filmmaker Christian Taylor looks back over the last year and shares the many things for which she's thankful. Want to help us make the film? We need volunteers and donations to help finish work ...
Episode 37: Networking
In the heat of the moment, you can feel very low when you feel like a meeting or focus group goes poorly. But it's impossible to know how a single conversation will lead to more opportunities and ultimately influence the ...
Episode 36: Drowning
Everything is possible, but what's best? In this episode, our hosts discuss what it feels like to make a documentary film and the multitude of options and opinions out there about what should happen next. Film festivals? The Oscars? Distribution ...
In this episode of Documentary First, Christian sits down with filmmaker Jessica Levin, co-director and producer of the Critics Choice Documentary Awards in the Best Music Documentary-nominated HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes. Jessica shares what it was like to tell the story of Billy Joel—not just as a legendary musician, but as a human being full of depth, contradiction, humor, and heart.
Together, they explore the craft of music documentary filmmaking: how to build trust during intimate interviews, how to follow emotional truth rather than timeline, and how music itself can become the spine of a narrative. Jessica opens up about the collaborative process behind shaping the film’s nonlinear structure, as well as the responsibility that comes with telling a story about someone the world already feels like they know.
Whether you are a filmmaker, a musician, or someone whose life has ever been held by a song — this conversation is creative, heartfelt, and filled with insights about storytelling, memory, and what it means to truly listen.
Links:
American Masters: American Masters (TV Series 1985– ) – Reference view – IMDb
Billy Joel: And So It Goes: Billy Joel: And So It Goes (TV Mini Series 2025) – Reference view – IMDb
Inventing David Geffen: “American Masters” Inventing David Geffen (TV Episode 2012) – Reference view – IMDb
Joni Mitchell: A Women of Heart and Mind: “American Masters” Joni Mitchell: A Woman of Heart and Mind (TV Episode 2003) – Reference view – IMDb
The Janes: The Janes (2022) – Reference view – IMDb
DocuView Déjà Vu
The Andy Warhol Diaries, 2022, Limited Series with 6 episodes, watch on Netflix, IMDB Link: The Andy Warhol Diaries (TV Mini Series 2022) – Reference view – IMDb
Time Codes
00:00 — Opening Reflections
02:54 — Early Relationships and Artistic Roots
05:31 — Balancing Myth and Humanity
08:19 — Creating Space for Vulnerability in Interviews
11:06 — Collaboration as Creative Strength
13:50 — Following Emotional Truth, Not Just Timeline
16:38 — How Personal Relationships Shape Art
19:15 — Challenges of Documenting a Cultural Icon
22:03 — Crafting a Nonlinear Story Structure
24:55 — The Reality of Producing a Major Music Documentary
27:42 — Audience Reaction and Cultural Memory
30:14 — Tracking Billy Joel’s Musical Influences
33:02 — What Makes His Music Resonant
36:46 — Lyrics as Self-Understanding
40:06 — Love, Loss, and the Songs Between
42:49 — Building Trust On and Off Camera
47:34 — Leadership in Storytelling
51:26 — Scoring the Emotional Arc
56:01 — Why Structure Matters
58:59 — Personal Growth Through Filmmaking
1:02:01 — Final Thoughts & Recommendations