Get involved, Internet: Help sponsor a conversational documentary with Richard Linklater and James Benning

By Kevin McFarland | June 3, 2013 | 6:40pm

Aux Features Film

Richard Linklater and James Benning have been friends since the mid-1980s, when Benning attended an event for Linklater’s recently launched Austin Film Society. They became fast friends, and though their careers have diverged significantly—with Benning working in experimental film mostly in obscurity and Linklater going on to direct mainstream studio films like School Of Rock—they apparently remain close. Now Chicago-based film writer and professor Gabe Klinger is nearing completion on a documentary for the French series Cinema, De Notre Temps featuring the two directors in a wide-ranging conversation about their lives, careers, and baseball fandom.

Consisting of a series of staged conversation set pieces—mirroring Linklater’s style in the Before films, Slacker, and Waking Life—over a four-day shoot, the feature-length documentary needs additional funding to get it through post-production. With only five days left to donate, the project is about $2,000 away from meeting its initial goal, so head over to the Kickstarter page, and we can all find out how bad two film directors are at shooting around a basketball while discussing their thoughts on cinema and baseball.