Episode Details

Academy Award nominated filmmaker Amy Berg has built a prolific career elevating the voice of the underdog, investigating systemic abuse, and shining a light in dark places. She began with Deliver Us From Evil - a shocking revelation of child abuse in the Catholic Church - and most recently created Phoenix Rising, the true story of actress and activist Evan Rachel Wood's journey passing domestic violence legislation and naming her own infamous abuser for the first time. In today’s episode, she reflects on how she chooses her film topics (2:05), her approach to addressing hyper-sensitive subjects (8:45), the origin of Phoenix Rising (13:20), contending with the power of “celebrity” (18:50), how Twitter has changed the dialogue (22:00), examining Evan Rachel Wood’s personal archive (27:00), constructing the animation (31:23), collaborating with Evan (34:50), what has driven her to tell these stories (43:30), and how we can stop the cycle of systemic abuse (47:00).