Interaction Cowboy is a feature documentary that looks at the failing education system in the US and the potential for better models of learning than the current, test-taking one. It’s told through the lens of my dad’s life and work and how he arrived at this problem (and potential solution) through the study of interaction.

 

This project began in 2017 around the time that my dad retired from his role as a professor. It was meant to be a short film for family and friends in order to explain the work he's done (because none of us understood it!). But it has continued to grow, and it's clear now that it will be a feature-length documentary.

 

As I've come to understand his work better, I've also come to feel the urgency of that work, of seeing how the education system is failing in the US, how that happened, and why it should be of concern to all of us. In other words, it's grown from a project of "What does my dad do?" to "Holy s**t! Why isn't everybody talking about this all of the time??"

 

As someone who has been editing documentaries for a number of years, I've been able to keep the costs down by both filming—including on a work trip to Germany and with family in Canada—and editing it myself.

 

But as I come closer to finishing it, it's clear that there are some expenses that can't be avoided. There are legal costs, audio mixing, color correction, submission fees to festivals, and so on. And there will be one, final car trip across the US in late summer/early fall in order to film various locations and last interviews (from appropriate social distances, of course).

 

Your donation is incredibly helpful in getting this film over this last hump. This is a challenging year in many ways, and I fully understand if you're not in a position to spare money for this project.