I’m not speaking from a place of privilege, I’m speaking from a place of survival.

Alex McNab has a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University and an MFA in Film Production from the University of Southern California, where we were classmates and friends.

In this conversation, Alex and I talk:

* Is film school worth it? The debate between knowledge, network, and cost…

* “Sloppy Saturdays” as a low-stakes practice to iterate fast and finish something weekly

* Why he sees AI as using available “scraps” to keep making work in a shifting landscape

* How he responds to “this is just AI” comments

* My short doc Homegirls in Outer Space and Alex’s animated documentary proof-of-concept Gullah Binyah: Aisha Been Watts, both playing at the Pan-African Film Festival in Culver City the week of February 16th

* Workflow and where AI tools are heading

* Keeping the human story so the tool doesn’t become the film

You can subscribe to Alex’s Substack here.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benbo.substack.com