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His feature film, SOMEWHERE WITH NO BRIDGES (2020)? Too short, he was told. His award winning short film, SHANTI RIDES SHOTGUN (2025)? Also -- too short! What the world is telling my guest, filmmaker Charles Frank, is that we need to see more of his lyrical vision of the world in the documentary space. His awards and credits in the indie space -- an incredible 10 Vimeo Staff picks, New York Times and New Yorker films, he runs his own production company called Voyager -- only serve to cement this point of view.
I'm hoping he will be able to balance fatherhood with the challenges of deeply original filmmaking. As you'll see in this conversation, he's one of the best out there in the new generation of documentary filmmaking.
In this episode, Charles and I talk about:
- the importance of family in his filmmaking and how it has evolved now that he is a father;how he got started in filmmaking (if you have the stapler video, lmk);his decision NOT to attend NYU after being admitted -- and still being successful;how film school graduates pay their student loans;10 Vimeo Staff picks, NYT, New Yorker -- what was the most important honor for his career?Richard Linklater's advice during the SXSW's filmmakers' brunch;his doc feature debut, SOMEWHERE WITH NO BRIDGES (2020);his reaction to the New York Times' review of the film and how I feel that critics too often can pile on indie filmmakers;life as a director married to an editor willing to kill his darlings;his SXSW film, SHANTI RIDES SHOTGUN (2025) and his upcoming Oscar campaign for the film;how he shot a film about a driving instructor in New York City(!) -- it's a crazy story;what his companies, Voyager and Leap Year, do;how he judges a project when a director comes to him -- socials? film school?;how you should never send Charles a templated email (not saying this would work, but if you sent an original email saying you listened to him here and personalized it just a bit, I'm guessing you'd get a response);does he worry about AI?;what Portland is like for indie filmmakers;his upcoming documentary, FATHERHOOD;how brandwork is different versus a general audience in terms of what they like.
Charles Indie Film/Filmmaker Highlight: Sam Davis; DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD (2020) dir. by Kirsten Johnson
Memorable Quotes:
"This is what like life is about. When we share that all together and it's captured on the camera, it's like the most majestic, magical stars aligning feeling."
"When we get positive reviews about the film, it's almost always about the pace of the film."
"I forget who said it, but AI shows us what art without soul looks like."
Links:
Follow Charles Frank On Instagram
Voyager's Website
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