Los Angeles-based director Doug Pray is best known for his feature-length documentary films about American subcultures. His previous work includes "Scratch", a film about hip-hop DJs, "HYPE!", a doc exploring the explosion of the Seattle music scene, and the recent, award-winning "BIG RIG", a movie which followed long-haul truck drivers. He recently won an Emmy for his advocacy campaigns on HIV-AIDS awareness.
If we made a movie out of your life so far, what would the title be?
"The Chameleon"
Because whether it's surfers, truck drivers, graffiti writers, Wall Street bankers, or Seattle rock bands, I always find myself in the midst of, and portraying subcultures which I have almost nothing to do with. I don't have to be like them and they definitely know I'm an outsider, but I still have to kind of blend in to get the good stuff...
You wake up tomorrow and movies no longer exist. What would we find you doing professionally?
I'd do graphic arts. I love studying fonts, logos, graphic design and layout. I almost went into that line of work, but missed the audio soundtrack. Filmmaking combines all.
If you could have a drink with any character from a movie who would it be and why?
HAL from 2001 a space odyssey. That 1968 character single-handedly brought us into the modern age. But I'd really like to try to get that guy to warm up a bit, you know? A few well-placed drinks would do the trick, then maybe I could interview him for a film about humans and what the other side thinks.
What happened to advance your film from an idea on the page into a reality?
In the case of SURFWISE, the idea to make a documentary film about the Paskowitz family was not new. There were many heroic efforts made by my producers over the course of two or three years to get it made. But what got it from viable proposal to fully-funded project was a simple, yet powerful connection: it just so happened that Jonathan Paskowitz had given Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter a surfing lesson a few years back. With knowledge of the family and their incredible story, Graydon took an interest in the project and was able to get it funded by Mark Cuban's HDnet Films in 2005. After years of meetings, test-shoots, proposals and conference calls, one 35-minute breakfast with Graydon Carter sealed the deal. That kind of connection had certainly never happened on my other projects... I thought it only happened in the movies! I remain grateful.
