[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 25, 6:15 pm — Eccles Theatre] I was surprised at how often life imitated art on The Convincer. Starting with my own behavior, which mimicked that of the main character, who is a salesman who uses any tactic he can to get others to do what he wants them to do. I had to convince people to work on a low-budget movie in the middle of winter. I’m from the Midwest; I know what it’s like. We had actors on a frozen lake at 3 a.m. in street clothes, and doing their own stunt driving on […]

Benazir Bhutto, the two time Pakistani prime minister who in 2007 was assassinated just days after she returned from military imposed exile in Dubai to once again attempt to take control of the country, was the countries’ most significant civilian political figure of her generation. Using the tragic life and times of the Muslim world’s most dynamic and successful female politician as a lens through which to capture the larger political machinations and social upheaval that has led to the sixty-seven year old Pakistani state constantly being handed back and forth between an imperiled civilian government and a conservative military establishment, […]