A Jazz Beat Is A Dynamic Changing

I'm A Filmmaker. I'm An Artist. I've Chosen To Work In History The Way Someone Might Choose To Work In Still Lifes Or Landscapes.

No One Was More Important To The Game Of Baseball In The Last Half Of The 20th Century Than Henry Aaron And No One Writes About That Supremely Talented Man, That Tumultuous Time And This Treasure Of A Game Better Than Howard Bryant. Together, They Are An Extraordinary Combination, And The Book Bryant Has Written Gets To The Heart Of The Complicated And Dignified, Patient And Consistent Genuine Hero That Is Henry Aaron.

In A Sense I've Made The Same Film Over And Over Again. In All Of Them I've Asked, 'who Are We As Americans?

I Think We Continually Need To Understand How Important An Event The War Was - How Defining, How Central To Who We Are. Everything That Came Before It Led Up To It, And Everything Of Importance To This Country - At Least Up To 1940 - Was A Consequence Of It. Even Now There's An Echo Of The War, However Faint, In Almost Everyone's Life.

I Can Understand Why Some Of These Drummers And Bass Players Become Cult Figures With All Of Their Equipment And The Incredible Amount Of Technique They Have. But There's Very Little That I Think Satisfies You Intellectually Or Emotionally.