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Filmmaker Persists to Make William S. Burroughs Doc

Interesting article in the Lawrence Journal-World about Jonathan "Yony" Leyser, who was kicked out of CalArts and ended up in Lawrence, Kansas pursuing an interest in writer William S. Burroughs.

His dedication to the project eventually won over the executor of Burroughs' estate, a man named James Grauerholz:

Grauerholz says, "At some point I realized: 'Hey, this is not some wannabe-filmmaker-fanboy - and he keeps growing his reservoir of filmed interviews. This new Burroughs (documentary) is a project good and real enough to be worth my helping Yony see it through.'"

Persistence is great for all kinds of filmmakers, but for a documentarian, you hit the motherlode when you can win over someone like Grauerholz, who controls rights to all kinds of media and can make introductions to the right people.

[via reader GH]

About J. Ott

John Ott is a writer, filmmaker and futurist. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.