“This is what makes documentary so great”

This summer, many of you joined us at South Side Community Art Center, where we reunited documentary subject Michael Johnson with producer Tom Weinberg, 17 years after they first met at the United Center. It was an incredible opportunity to screen and discuss “The Other M.J.” (1999), produced with Skip Blumberg, a sensitive and insightful look at the difficult realities of getting by in America.

Here’s what they had to say about it on WBEZ’s The Morning Shift:

“This is what makes documentary so great, finding those really small stories, those small characters at the edges of big events, through which you can see a whole different reality.”—Alison Cuddy

“For me it was almost a Studs Terkel video, in the way that Studs was able to find ‘regular people,’ average people, and really make them the stars—that there are no small people, there are no small stories.”–Jason Marck

Listen to more from WBEZ and watch video with Michael below.

As always, you can watch the full version of The Other M.J. at Media Burn Archive

We were remiss in providing this information about last week’s video. Please also watch the full version of Ronit Bezalel’s excellent Voices of Cabrini.

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