BPS 414: Billie Eilish and Truth to Filmmaking with RJ Cutler

Our guest today, RJ Cutler opened up 2021 with his raw, emotional,
and remarkable new documentary Billie Eilish: The World's a Little
Blurry. He’s a phenomenal documentary and TV director and producer
with nearly thirty years of experience in the business.

The $2 million dollars documentary film which was directed,
written, and produced by Cutler centered around singer-songwriter
teen sensation and Grammy Award artist, Billie Eilish --- Revealing
the creation process of Eilish's debut studio album ‘When We All
Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’

The very intimate telling of Eillish’s solid support system and
family, navigating the ropes of the music fame as a young artist
depicted unconventionally and astoundingly.

From college, Cutler started off as a theater director in New York
for nine years until he transitioned to filmmaking in 1993 with his
debut film, The War Room. The film follows James Carville and
George Stephanopoulos, at first during the New Hampshire primary,
and then mostly in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the Clinton campaign
headquarters. Producing the film, he was able to combine his
journalism and theater directing backgrounds. The film went on to
win an Oscar.

He’s taken on great subject matters and big presences in his
documentaries; the likes of legendary John Belushi, Anna Wintour,
and Dick Cheney.

Belushi, released in 2020, examines the too-short life of
comedian, actor and musician, John Belushi, original SNL cast
member, using previously unheard audiotapes recorded shortly after
John Belushi's death. Cutler credits his storytelling to
the ability to connect the subject to the processes. People’s
desire to have their stories told, especially in documentaries,
transcends the technicalities of making a documentary.

Other well-known films or shows from Cutler are The September Issue
(2009), Thin (2006), and Dear… (2020)

Dear... profiles game-changing icons and the people whose lives
they’ve inspired.

Inspired by Apple’s groundbreaking “Dear Apple” ad for the Apple
Watch, Dear... is an inventive approach to biographies of the
influential people who are shaping culture and society today using
letters that fans have written to them. Dear... focuses on key
moments from subjects’ lives and their work that has profoundly
impacted not only the individuals who have written letters but the
world at large. All episodes are available to watch now on the
Apple TV app with an Apple TV+ subscription.We talked a lot about
Cutler's journey in the industry and how he landed the project to
direct the first TELL ALL of the coolest 19-year-old in the US
right now.

Enjoy my enlightening conversation with RJ Cutler.

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