Filmworker

Because, until recently, cinema has been as expensive an endeavour as yachting, the history of its artists, stars, and patrons tends to be a tale of the rich. Growing up in suburban Los Angeles and living in a middle-class neighbourhood full of households whose (exclusively) male breadwinners worked in the so-called “Industry,” I was aware of the workers who made the Hollywood machinery whir: the third assistant directors, the second gaffers, the assistant hairdressers, the transport haul drivers, the location scouts, the lab techs, etc. Their children attended schools with me, some of them dreaming of getting into the business; those who saw the awful 15-hour workdays endured by their dads, the endless deadline stresses, would’ve rather dug ditches than work in Hollywood. I knew both kinds