Davis Guggenheim comes from a prestigious family in terms of legendary documentary filmmakers. His father was the late great Charles Guggenheim, winner of several Oscars as well as numerous other nominations in the field. Perhaps that is why initially his son ran in another direction in the business, directing episodes of such landmark TV series as ER, NYPD Blue, 24, Deadwood and Melrose Place. Eventually, however, the family business could not escape Davis’ grasp, and he became known for a slew of award-winning docs of his own including the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth in 2007, It Might Be Loud, Waiting For Superman, He Named Me Malala, Inside Bill’s Brain, and many more. He was also responsible for the short films shown at the Democratic National Conventions for Barack Obama and Joe Biden among others.
The last thing Guggenheim thought was that he would be doing a doc on a movie and TV star, but that is exactly why he is now at the forefront of the Emmy race with Apple TV+’s Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, which has been nominated for seven Emmys including two individual noms for Guggenheim.
Guggenheim joins me for today’s edition of my Deadline video series Behind the Lens to talk about his wide-ranging career, those aforementioned achievements, and his father and what all those Oscars meant to him. Of course we also discuss working with Fox to make this extraordinary doc on his life, using innovative techniques including the novel use of film clips from Fox’s career in order to tell the whole remarkable and moving story of a star who never gives up despite the many setbacks life has dealt him.
To watch our conversation, click on the video above.
Join me every Monday and Friday during Emmy season for another edition of Behind the Lens.
