I’d like to share a moment from an interview I did with Barry Gifford earlier this year that will be used in my upcoming film Roy’s World:

One thing I have to say is that neither my mother nor my father ever exhibited, at least not in my presence, any bit of any kind of racist attitude. Nor were they homophobic. I never heard any kind of racial slur or, you know, homophobic kind of slur from either one of them. Why, I can’t even answer that question. My mother, you know, seemed to always have this attitude … and I think sort of naturally so, about prejudice. And my mother, having a number of homosexual male friends, and stuff like that, that was all very natural. So anyway, I was very fortunate I think. To not have to inherit or really deal personally with, you know, those kinds of prejudices. Why, I really couldn’t tell you, I have no big answer. Except maybe they felt, maybe the Jews in my family felt the prejudice, which I’m sure they did.

These past few weeks have been dispiriting for many of us, to say the least. It’s been tough for me to concentrate on the project and keep moving the documentary forward. But the thing that’s kept me going is that I’m making a film that deals with how people actually lived and treated each other, and the time and place that had some bearing on the kinds of people they were. Maybe those are small things but it’s more important than ever to document them. And I hope in its own small way Roy’s World will make a stand for honesty.