Indie Beat - Alexander Jorgensen

Fans of Indie Beat, rejoice... we have returned.

On this episode we spoke to filmmaker Alexander Jorgensen.

Jorgensen, originally hailing from Canada, has made a number of films since planting himself in the US of A. He started off focusing most of his time exploring various visual ideas via indie music videos while also paying the bills by picking up random cinematography or post-production gigs here and there. But personal things were brewing. He mounted number of short films -- he worked twice with San Francisco actor Geo Epsilanty, once for an engrossing portrait-doc titled "Self-Diagnosis" and followed that with the somber absent-father narrative "Only Blood" -- and also completed the comedic genre piece "Reasons to Kill" about a hitman interviewing potential clients.

But it was his documentary "Uncomfortable Truths" that really crept in and took hold of Jorgensen's mind. This short film followed a few of the personalities who hang around Ground Zero in New York City, spreading the gospel that the World Trade Center attacks on September 11th were, in fact, an inside job. It's a really charged, energetic film, focusing on people that, let's be honest, most of us tend to walk quickly away from. Jorgensen lets his subjects do the speaking for themselves, often letting the camera linger as they use their best arguments to convince passers-by about the many mysteries surrounding Building 7. The movie climaxes showing the repetitive, cyclical nature of their work -- a masterful stroke with two potential takeaways. Is Jorgensen asking if they are just continually beating the same dead horse to no avail, or is he showing how dedicated people can be when they have such passion for a political project, regardless of what that activist subject is?

This short received a great response and, seeing as the same people were out there nearly every weekend of the year, Jorgensen went back and continued to shoot. He also expanded the idea, incorporating television news footage and also interviewing one of the directors of your stoner college roommate's favorite movie next to "Waking Life," "Loose Change." The resulting feature documentary, "Truther Or: I Am Not A Conspiracy Theorist," is an engaging portrait of the various facets of the truther movement, showcasing the community they've made for one another and even displaying the fractions amongst the movement. Their may be one or two fights or minced words: you'll just have to see for yourself! The film can be streamed now on both Vimeo and Amazon Prime.

We had Jorgensen on the pod to talk about this new film and also his time spent staying up late in haunted houses for work, documentaries in the streaming age, and much more!