Ilko Davidov and Denis Mueller's new film!

Help Ilko and I Finish My Documentary on One of America’s Greatest Living Writers

Russell Banks: I Write in Order to Be a Better Person is a 90-minute documentary film, shot in vivid HD accompanied by stills, archival footage and theatrical films that brings audiences face to face with the celebrated author Russell Banks. Russell Banks is a testament to that resilience. He is someone who has built a life around his art and how that art has transformed him from his troubled and humble beginnings.

He grew up in relative poverty in a very dysfunctional household. His work has been translated into twenty languages and has received numerous international prizes and awards including the John Dos Passos Prize for fiction. Both Continental Drift in 1986 and Cloudsplitter in 1999 were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

We have produced several critically acclaimed documentaries over the last 30 years, including Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Nelson Algren: The End Is Nothing, The Road is All. This new film will be the first in-depth look at one of the major voices of our time, a writer whose sharp intelligence and historical awareness can help us better understand these turbulent times, and whose deep empathy and compassion can help bridge the divisions in our society.

Russell Banks is a novelist you should know about, one who deserves greater exposure. I have worked on this project for six years and we are on the cusp of finishing. This film will help him get that attention, and your contributions can make it possible. Thank you.