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I met Brett Morgen and his then co-director Nanette Burstein in December of 1999 when they brought a copy of their documentary "On the Ropes"--which had just been selected for Sundance--to my publicity company, Magic Lantern. I took the copy home that weekend and promised to get back to them on Monday about whether we would take them on as clients. That weekend I had five films to look at and I didn't like the first four at all. I was pretty tired and discouraged when I finally put "On the Ropes" on. Needless to say it woke me up in a hurry. I absolutely loved it. It was one of those moments that made me feel lucky to be a publicist. We quickly made a deal.

That Sundance, I had a reporter (from the now defunct magazine Brill's Content) following me around throughout the entire festival. So the article is a written record of Brett driving me completely out of my gourd. I think it's fair to say he was dissatisfied with my work. It's the kind of experience I would probably have forgotten all about if I didn't have that magazine to remind me. Nanette was always nice and ultimately Brett calmed down a bit at the awards ceremony when the film won the Special Jury Prize for Documentary.

Magic Lantern stayed on the film until release and we were able to get the film a lot of attention. When it got nominated for an Academy Award, the boxer Tyrene Manson, who had been unfairly jailed during the filming, was let out to attend the awards. She got on the front page of the New York Post. A few more publicity breaks like that and Brett decided I wasn't such a bad guy after all (and to be fair, he says this in the Brill's Content piece).

Since then, Brett and I have become good friends and it was really great to see him this year. His opening night film,"Chicago 10," has passionate admirers and detractors. When he sat down for his interview with me he asked me if I liked it. Of course I said yes, which is true, but I do have reservations and he saw them sprinkled on my face. So I said, "let's just have a conversation about it while we're shooting this." As you can see, I managed to get a few licks in now and then. This was my first attempt at an on-camera interview, so it's weird to discover what a bobble-head I am. I have to learn to keep my head straight in the future.

But it was great to see him and I had fun. Brett and I are planning to get together later in the festival and catch up.