Directors: Life Behind The Camera

An interesting but slight survey of filmmaking, Directors: Life Behind the Camera serves up four hours of snippets from interviews of 33 American and British directors—including Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Spike Lee, George Lucas, David Lynch, Nora Ephron, James Cameron, and others—originally conducted for the American Film Institute, mostly in the 1990s. The program is divided into eight short topic-oriented segments on subjects such as directing actors, scripts and scriptwriting, and working with cinematographers. The two lengthier pieces feature all of the interviewees talking about how they broke into the profession and discussing a key work in their careers (this section is the only one supplemented with actor interviews). The interview clips within each category can also be accessed by director, but many are essentially sound bites that are less than 30 seconds long, making several of the choices hardly worth the bother. Entertaining overall, but not essential, this is still a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (S. Axmaker)