Lynch: A History

An in-depth investigation into the private world of the American writer J. D. Salinger (1919-2010), who lived most of his life behind the impenetrable wall of a self-imposed seclusion: how his dramatic experiences during World War II influenced his life and work, his relationships with very young women, his obsessive writing methods, his many literary secrets.

A horribly failed interview. A meeting of great minds. David Shields, Bret Easton Ellis and some loser.

An author, who made a career by examining her own trauma sits down to interview her nephew for a new book about his history as a gender-nonconforming model and pansexual poster boy. Each of them reveal much more than expected and confront some of their most deeply hidden secrets.

On the first day of shooting, James Franco, David Shields, and Caleb Powell throw out the script when a real-life argument breaks out between the three of them about what can and can't be used in the film. Shields and Franco browbeat Powell to sacrifice everything for the sake of the film; Powell threatens to leave; Shields feels guilty about betraying Powell; and Franco wants Shields and Powell to confess all for the sake of the film. A debate, nearly to the death, about life and art.

Three white male filmmakers meet for a long weekend to make a final attempt to salvage their ambitious, semi-fictional film about “reality.” However, holed up together in an empty room, their creative disagreements only escalate, and the dialogue becomes increasingly defensive and toxic. As the Hollywood film they imagined collapses, the three begin to wrestle each other—desperately, shamelessly—for control over the narrative about what poisoned their collaboration.

Diverse voices trace the history of postmodernism from its roots in art and philosophy all the way to Fox News, Q-Anon, and election denial.

During the holidays in the year of the pandemic, an interviewer pummels author David Shields (who never answers) with increasingly personal, fraught, and scathing questions.