Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1097515
52 DGA QUARTERLY PHOTO: ALTIMETER FILMS In the case of both the Armstrong and Spitzer films, Gibney will counter dishonesty with facts, either from law enforcement offi- cials, other reliable sources, or in the case of Armstrong, drug test results. "Sometimes I will point out what other people have said, but I rarely stamp my feet and say, 'That's a lie.'" Knowing when to back off N 2 0 1 0 , L I Z G A R B U S began filming There's Something Wrong With Aunt Diane for HBO. One year had passed since Diane Schuler, a Long Island mother of two, drove the wrong way on New York's Taconic State Parkway, killing herself and seven others, including her 2-year- old daughter and three nieces. Chronicling one of the worse mo- tor-vehicle accidents in the state's history, Garbus set out to explain what the country was desperate to know: What drove Schuler—on paper a perfect mother—to drive while both drunk and high with five children in her car? With Schuler dead, Garbus relied on obtaining answers from liv- ing family members and friends. She made cold calls, emailed and wrote handwritten letters of request. When that didn't work, she re- peated the process again and again. Eventually, Garbus secured in- terviews with Diane's husband, Daniel Schuler, as well as a handful of other key relatives. But the director could not convince Jackie Hance —Schuler's sister-in-law and the mother of three children who died in the accident—to speak to her. As one of the last people to talk to Schuler, Hance could have potentially provided the film with critical insights. Despite her many attempts to connect with Hance, Garbus, not someone who gives up easily, finally threw in the towel. "At a certain point, I knew that the right thing to do was to leave her alone and respect her peace," ex- plains Garbus. "In a situation where there's trauma like that, I'm not going to show up at their door with a camera. It's different if you're making a political documentary and you have a political figure who is responsible to answer for some- thing. Then maybe don't take no for an answer. But in the case of the Diane Schuler documentary, that's a place where humanity is more important than any one particular interview." For Zenovich's Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, Williams' second and third wives refused to participate. "In a perfect world, I would have got both wives, but neither of them wanted to talk to me for various reasons," Zenovich explains. "I knew that I couldn't push them because it was a very sensitive topic that involved suicide and illness." As for her 2016 film Fantastic Lies, about falsely accused Duke lacrosse players, Zenovich had to completely rethink the 30 for 30 documentary when the three athletes declined to be part of the project. Ultimately, the director decided to rely on the parents of the players to tell their side of the story. "I'm a parent so I was interested in what the parents of these Jason Epstein, above center, reflects on his relationship with Roy Cohn to director Matt Tyrnauer, sitting opposite, for Where's My Roy Cohn? Opposite top, a still from Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, directed by Marina Zenovich, below right. I