Legendary documentary filmmaker David Hoffman, . We had a very fun mutual interview.
This gent started directing documentaries with a handheld video, about the time that I was one year old.
He’s done many PBS documentaries, etc. now he’s a hit on YouTube, I called him for a phone interview for my radio show because he interested me, and he said let’s zoom, have a mutual interview and post it on my YouTube! I think he’s got 800,000 followers, and 5000 people have viewed this since it was posted 45 hours ago!
From David Hoffman:
"I Started my career in 1963 when I made my first documentary when I was 21 years old. Came from Levittown Long Island. Father was an unsuccessful but very talented artist who taught at Cooper Union. Mom was a housewife and public speaker who came from Ukraine when she was a girl of 13 years old.
Picked up a 16mm camera in the early days of hand held and began to film and ask people the questions I had in my mind. I had never traveled anywhere other than Long Island and southern New England. So it gave me the chance to find out about life and how are the people lived.
Have made almost 200 programs for television, mostly PBS and Discovery channel, and several television series and six documentary feature films. My television series – circa 1990 – Making Sense of the Sixties is considered a classic these days.
After making my way to Silicon Valley in the early 1990s one of my several careers, folks wouldn't hire me by the time I got to be 75 and they saw me as "old" so I went to YouTube where I am now something of a star with over 800,000 subscribers growing at about 50,000 a month. People like to hear my philosophies and my sense of the old days. General feeling about the old days? They were good, but so is the present.
Very selective about who I interview and I selected you and you selected me. It's just two old boys having a conversation. I am 80 years old and pumping along as my wife and I have two sons, 16 years old and 21 years old we're still at home and going to college and high school locally."
Please join Java John On The FlipSide every wednesday night 7-10pm est, wfit.org
