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It’s hard to say what’s been the biggest achievement for Daniel over the past few weeks — starting his own studio, Outerboro Films, getting selected as a 2025 Film Independent Documentary Story Lab Fellow, or telling the white supremacist Nick Fuentes that he’s an asshole.

Daniel said it’s the latter, but I’m guessing as we look back, it’ll be the first two, as he releases more of his critically acclaimed docs under his own banner. 

Daniel has made truly extraordinary films, and now he’s put himself in a position to help others make theirs. 

In this episode, Daniel and I discuss:

• how do you make the jump into embed in alt right hate groups? -- Daniel has the most incredible origin story;
• WHITE NOISE, The Atlantic's first feature documentary, directed by Daniel -- "it was journalistically important; a historical document";
• did The Atlantic know they were going into video when they hired him out of college?
• his founding of Outerboro Films; is he building off his work at The Atlantic and The New Yorker with a strategy to monetize his films?
• how he sees those two venerable magazines moving away to more social videos and leaving a space for companies like Outerboro;
• what Outerboro is -- a production studio? a distributor? both?;
• the unreal story of his upcoming documentary feature film, YOU'LL BE HAPPIER;
• his process of starting the project and then bringing on executive producers;
• the role of festivals in releasing documentaries in ways that they stay relevant;
• the advice "we need to destigmatize working at the coffee shop" for documentary filmmakers -- how does he feel about that advice?
• the name Outerboro Films and what it means; what would his company look like if it was based in Los Angeles?;
• what's next for him and Outerboro -- a sequel to NINA AND IRENA (2023)!;

Daniel's Indie Film Highlight: ETERNAL FATHER (2023) dir. by Omer Sami

Links:

Follow Daniel On Instagram

Outerboro Films Website

Follow Outerboro Films On Linkedin

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