Auteur Watch - Jim Brown

Yes, Jim Brown.  Director extraordinaire of scads of documentary films on only the worthiest of subjects: Pete Seeger; Peter, Paul and Mary; Harold Leventhal, the list goes on and on... actually, the list is a little less than finite.  So with such a magnificent body of work, surely it falls to someone else to do the Jim Brown story?  Ken Burns?  Ross McElwee?  Well, not Ross.  He's still working through his own issues.  I mean, Jim would do it himself, but no.  He's no narcissist.  Even he knows his story's not that compelling.  He'd probably tell you it's just a job like any job.  He might as well be working the deep fryer at McDonald's for all he cares.  You turn on a camera, and you put something interesting in front of it.  That's the job.  If it's interesting for you, all the better.  It's a reward in itself... and it'll have to be, since national recognition seems to elude him, even to this day.