For the final episode of our first season, we’re turning the mic around and interviewing co-producer and editor, Ali Cotterill. A filmmaker and editor, Ali has cultivated and participated in a number of networks of peers in order to get a better sense of what gigs to take, how to get them, and what they should pay—information that can feel impossible to access in many areas of the arts. She also helped give Alexis a fair amount of perspective when they were both work on their first feature-length films around the same time.
In this episode we’ll dig into Ali’s path into film, which started in no small part because of her early start as a drag king, and we’ll also get into the realities of documentary film budgets, beyond the smoke and mirrors so many independent filmmakers are presented with when trying to enter a field that can feel completely financially inaccessible.
Our interview was recorded in September 2020.
Show Notes
Below you can find links to Ali’s work and some of the people, ideas, and organizations referenced in our conversation:
Ali Cotterill is a filmmaker and editor based in Brooklyn, New York (formerly Canarsie and Lenape land). As a filmmaker, her films have screened at 100+ festivals around the world, won several awards, and been broadcast on Logo TV and Current TV. Her feature directorial debut, North Pole, NY, premiered at IFF Boston 2018 and picked up the Audience Award for Best Feature at the Indie Street Film Festival. As an editor, she’s edited 250+ short doc films for Fortune 500 companies and non-profits alike. She also edited and co-wrote the documentary feature United in Anger: A History of ACT UP, which premiered at MOMA’s Documentary Fortnight (World Premiere) and Hot Docs (Canadian Premiere) and won Best Documentary at the Milan and Pittsburgh LGBT film festivals. She was recently selected as an IFP/Gotham Podcasting Fellow for Winter/Spring 2021.