 Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us this evening for another edition of Virtual Playhouse. My name is Dan. I'm the Director of Development Programming. And before we start, I want to just a couple of quick things. For those of you who are still sort of new to Zoom, we want to remind you of how you can ask questions during this evening's Q&A. There is a button at the bottom of your screen if you are on a laptop or PC. And I believe if you're on an iPad or phone, it's at the top and there's a little Q&A button and you can post your questions by clicking there. Please do not use the chat feature as it tends to get a little bit confusing with multiple conversations going on at once, but we will try to get to everybody's questions over the course of the evening. Please, if you have the wherewithal, visit our website, which is www.bedforplayhouse.org. There's a lot of great programs we have coming up. This is the first one really this month. We have several more over the next couple of weeks. And we also have Playhouse Game Night scheduled for February 25th. Which more information for that is on our website. That's going to be a lot of fun. It's a virtual fundraiser for the Playhouse. And we're really looking forward to that. So without any further delay, I'd like to introduce Playhouse founder and tonight's moderator, John Farr, who's going to take the show on from here. Here I am. There you are. I did it right. I hit the right button. Hello, everybody. Welcome. I am so excited. I've been looking forward to tonight for a long time because I just love this film. And I'm also extremely admiring of its director, Mary Wharton, who is our guest tonight. And before I go any further, I just want to get her on board. Mary, why don't you come on board now? Because I want to say something to you directly before we start in. There's Mary Wharton, the director. I just wanted to tell you that obviously we've all been through a rather turbulent year. And when I happened upon your film and watched your film, I thought it was such a tonic with everything that's going on in the world right now to see this film. It really meant a lot to me. And as I said to you earlier, there are not a lot of movies out there that are not only of the same quality, but that give you that sort of sense of hope and frankly joy that this movie really did. So thank you for that. I mean, I want to lead by just saying thank you for doing it because it was again, it's an old fashioned term, but the word tonic, it was a tonic for my spirits when I saw it. And I was just so delighted that we were able to make this happen because it's a film that deserves to be seen and to be appreciated widely. Well, thank you so much. It's really wonderful to hear that. And I'm so grateful to be here and to introduce the film to more people, a bigger audience. You know, it's been a tough time for everyone. And that's one of the things that kind of helped me in a lot of ways to get through this dark time was knowing that my work was bringing joy to people, that it was helping people to feel better and reminding people about what is great about America. And, you know, at a time when America had sort of become a bit of a lap and stalk, you know, across the world and a bit of a, you know, it just it was not a good time for anyone all across the world. Everyone was suffering. But, you know, one of the greatest things that America has ever produced is rock and roll and to tell a story about rock and roll and to sort of do it in this unexpected way of tying it to Jimmy Carter, who is about the last thing you probably think of when you think about rock and roll was just such a fun and wonderful experience. So I'm so happy that it touched people. Well, it's great, Mary. Tell us, I always like to lead by asking about how did the, what was the genesis of the project? How did it all come about? Sure. Well, so the producer of the film, Chris Ferrell, is an old friend of mine and he had never made a documentary before, but was very passionate about the idea of doing something. And he and I had started talking about we were throwing ideas around and we hadn't hit on what the thing was going to be that we would do together. And he was also at the same time, he was looking into the idea of doing a documentary about the Almond Brothers. And in the course of doing that, he was meeting with some gentlemen down in Atlanta, Georgia, who were connected to President Carter's administration. Some of the, some of the guys that wound up being in our film, Peter Conlon and Tom Beard and Frank Moore were part of this group of folks down in Atlanta. And I think that Chris had gone to them in the sort of, with the idea that they might help him get President Carter for a film about the Almond Brothers. But then they started telling him all these stories that it wasn't just that Carter was connected to the Almond Brothers, but that he was also connected to Bob Dylan and to Willie Nelson. And, and Chris had never heard of that connection. And he immediately recognized that this was an interesting story. And he called me right away and he's like, I think I found the thing that we should do. But he wouldn't tell me about it on the phone because he was in Atlanta. And he was like, he's super a little paranoid. He was like, I can't talk about it. He's an M and I M and a guy like emerges and acquisitions business guy. And those guys are are all about keeping secrets. And so he was like, I'm on a cell phone. I have to wait until I'm back in New York. And I'll tell you about it. We'll have lunch. And I'll tell you about it. And it was this secret that he was sitting on. And the whole time, as soon as he told me of this, this story, which I didn't know about. And I was shocked that I didn't know this aspect of President Carter's story either. And we both were really like immediately, let's do it. And the whole time we were making the film, we kept it such a tight secret because we were so worried that someone else would take it and and run with it. And, you know, something like that it would, the story would get out. And then somebody like CNN or ABC News would be able to make something quicker than we could because we were we had we were an independent production. We had to go out and find the money to make this movie. And it was not easy, you know, raising, you know, a lot of money for a documentary film is a difficult thing because quite frankly, it's a terrible investment. It's high risk and low upside. It's like the complete opposite of like tech stocks, you know, if you think about investments and they're the the ROI on investments, the documentary film is is like, it's low, it's very low on your returns. But once you once you were able to get the president, former president on board, wouldn't you feel a little more alas, because he's committing to you to do it? Yes. And when exactly did you get him on board? How early and how did that go? I mean, how was that an easy process? Or was that? No, it was not an easy process, but it did happen early. We actually didn't even really seriously try to raise the money until we had him on board. And but we Chris and I put together a proposal and we sent it to the president through these gentlemen that he had met in Atlanta. And I heard, I don't know for sure, but I heard that at least 14 different people vetted our proposal before it even got to President Carter. And but Carter was really into it from the beginning. And we were kind of summoned down to Atlanta to go meet with a gentleman named Phil Wise, who was running the Carter Center. And we were told that his nickname is Dr. Now, because he gets like a documentary proposal at least once a week. And he says no to all of them. So we went in to meet Dr. Now. And we were like, hi, we're Mary Morton and Chris Farrell. You don't know us. Nobody knows us. We're not famous. We're not household names, you know, but we're really passionate about this. And somehow we won him over. You know, I think that Chris and I are both from the South and we're both from North Florida, which is, you know, not that far away from Plains, Georgia. And we kind of understood the story in a different way from that perspective, because I think that one of the things about President Carter is he was constantly underestimated. And constantly, you know, I think he really, you know, as Nile Rogers says in the film, he really did get the shortest end of the stick of any president who's unappreciated, underappreciated for what he was able to accomplish. And his Southern accent, you know, at the time that he was president, you know, you think about like, what was on television at that time was there was a show called He-Ha that basically made fun of people with Southern accents. You know, I mean, that was the general impression of people with Southern accents was that they wore overalls and they teased their hair like Dolly Parton, and they were essentially not that smart, you know. And President Carter was a nuclear physics engineer who worked to develop the first nuclear submarine in the Navy when, you know, he was a naval officer and, you know, really, really smart man who has, you know, since written number, you know, probably 20 books or something like that. And, you know, I think that people don't, people forget just how sort of, just what an intelligent and sort of wide ranging knowledge he had. And, you know, the fact that he was able to broker peace in the Middle East is, you know, really the only person who had ever been able to do that before or since. He's a remarkable man. Well, he's had a, he's had a real renaissance too, since he left Albus with everything that he's done. But I always thought it was analogous to Harry Truman, who was also another Democratic president who was kind of considered, was ridiculed. I mean, I'm old enough to, I'm older than you, Mary. I'm old enough to remember, you know, this peanut farmer, we got this peanut farmer, you know, who wants to run for president. Everyone's sort of laughing. But the peanut farmer got elected. And, you know, you knew I was, I was, it was my first vote, actually, for presidential vote. I was just 18. And he, you know, he was a bright, he was bright. And you knew he was bright. But he's had a real renaissance because of the Carter Center. And I think that there's a reappraisal going on. But, and part of what you did is add to that reappraisal. Because I think that there are a lot of people who have no idea that he had this. I was, I bet you there are so many people, and those of you in the audience, you know, speak up and feel free to start giving us, you know, questions that I can pass on. But I didn't remember that Carter had this connection with all these musicians. Nor did I really know, or remember that he had this deep love for rock music, you know, folk music, American music. Yeah, I didn't know it. How did I not know this? You know, I refer to it a lot as sort of this thing that was hiding in plain sight. Because when I started to look into it, there were lots of newspaper articles that came out at the time, you know, when he would have like, you know, concerts on the White House lawn. It was, it was certainly covered by all of the networks and by the newspapers. And it was there. But, you know, it seems like everything about Carter's presidency just was so completely overshadowed by the Iranian hostage crisis that that is all that anyone remembers about him to this day. You know, I mean, as you say, I think that that people are re-appraising him and, and, you know, starting to, he had this kind of reputation as being the worst president, worst or, you know, worst one-term president or something, you know, like that, that I've heard people refer to him that way. He doesn't need to worry about that anymore. Sorry. Couldn't get too political. But, you know, but it's also, I think there's another thing, which is that, you know, you would, you might see, oh, here's Willie Nelson doing a fundraiser for Jimmy Carter and you, and your takeaway as well, you know, he supports Carter and Carter's thrilled and makes money, but you're not making the connection that what comes through in your film is just how deep a love Carter has for the music and for the musicians. I mean, you know, for the, you know, how close he was to them and they were his, you know, they're his dearest, you know, some of his dearest friends. There's a real love there. And that's what, that's what people don't recognize. Oh, well, Willie Nelson did a fundraiser for Carter back in the day that what we didn't expect that, we didn't necessarily know that, that Carter was such a fan, you know, and it's super, it's, it's completely genuine. And that's the, that was the interesting thing that we wanted to get at, because it's not surprising. It shouldn't be surprising to anyone that Carter might be a fan of Willie Nelson or of Bob Dylan, but it's interesting that Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson are fans of Jimmy Carter. That was the interesting part is like, what is it about Jimmy Carter that, you know, makes these, these famous rock stars and, and you know, country and Americana stars want to get, want to be close to Jimmy Carter and stay close to Jimmy Carter for a lifetime as they have, you know, Bob Dylan and Jimmy Carter met in 1975 and they are friends to this day, you know, and, and Bob Dylan doesn't sit down for interviews very often, you know, and rarely has he ever done an interview that wasn't about himself. So to get him to sit down, to talk about Jimmy Carter was a small miracle, you know, really. And, and it was really interesting and the thing that I, you know, kind of just from talking to all these folks and listening to what they had to say about Jimmy Carter, the thing that, that finally made it make sense to me was when I remembered there's a great line from the great country songwriter Harlan Howard, which is the only thing that you need to write a song is three chords in the truth. And, you know, songwriters are always looking for the truth because that's what they need to do their work, right? Is they find a little germ of truth and, and that's what makes a song connect with a broad audience is it's true for everyone, right? And Jimmy Carter was the embodiment of the truth. In his stump speeches when he was running for president, he used to say all the time, I will never tell a lie to the American people if I ever lie to you, don't vote for me. And that was what connected him, what voters connected with. But I think that was a big part of why these songwriters and these musicians connected with him is that he saw that they saw that he was speaking the truth. You know, he wasn't putting on airs. He wasn't just using them to raise money or to get to their fans. You know, he really truthfully believed in the power of their music. And, and he was a sort of the consummate fan where he truly listened to their music, like what, what Dylan talks about being sort of taken aback when he first met Carter, that he was able to quote his songs back to him. And, and that showed him that he had truly listened, that he wasn't just like, oh, here's a celebrity. I'm going to suck up to him, you know, Carter Carter was deep and he was completely authentic, but he was really deep. He's a, I've always thought he's he's a bit of a mystic. And in the best sense of the word, like you meet him and go, whoa, this is not your average, this is not your average person. And I have to just say again, that that moment, I don't remember exactly what Dylan says. But he said something that was an incredibly powerful sort of compliment to Carter. And I, and I remember watching him going, holy shit, Dylan just like praised someone else. I mean, it's not what you age to your point, you don't see Dylan interviewed much B to have him sort of saying this man is someone I really, really revere. Yeah. Highly unusual. Maybe I've never heard it. I mean, I was like, well, it was very, it was a very powerful moment. It was, you know, Dylan was one of those interviews that we didn't, we didn't get a lot of film of him. You know, he sort of had an idea about what he wanted to say about Jimmy. And, and, you know, you sort of whatever, Dylan shows up, you're just grateful for that. And then whatever he wants to say, it's like, you know, bring it. And, and, but I also thought that it was nice to have, he's such a powerful presence on screen. And he, he has this, you know, this kind of interesting charisma that is, is so enigmatic that it's like, it's, you don't want too much of it. You know, it is a film about Jimmy Carter and you don't wouldn't have wanted it to be like all Bob Dylan all the time, because he would have just sucked all the air out of the room, you know. And so the way that he delivers these little zingers at really key moments is, is kind of amazing. It really was. So you had quite a few other, you know, interviewees other than Carter. Talk about some of the ones that, that were the most memorable and, and because there were some amazing people who participated. Well, I have to say that Roseanne Cash was amazing. She was just such a surprise because, you know, she was young. She's, I think she's about the same age as you. She said she voted for Carter the first time was her first vote. And, you know, so I, I wasn't sure that she would have a lot to say about necessarily the politics, but we knew that her father was great friends with Carter and, and we were just sort of like whatever, again, it's like somebody like Roseanne Cash. She's so amazing. Whatever she wants to say is fantastic. And she was so smart and, and cool and funny. And, you know, we, we, the, the, the idea to have some of the people read Carter's poetry actually came from our writer, Bill Flanagan, who's, who's good friends with Roseanne. And he's the one that, that brought her to the film. But we kind of sprung that on people. Like they weren't necessarily expecting to, Roseanne wasn't expecting to, to read this poem. She hadn't rehearsed it or anything. It was like, Hey, would you mind, you know, we have this idea. I don't know if it'll work. And, and she delivered it so amazingly. And, and Bill chose this, this great poem that Carter wrote for his father. And as Roseanne is reading it, you can't help but picture her father. And there, there's just all these little interesting connections that like, I don't know, for me, like I like when things connect in this weird, organic, interesting way. And it's not, and it's unexpected. And it just makes all the little pleasure centers in my brain light up and go, Oh, that's so cool. You know, well, I'm going to tell her, you said that you, not everybody knows this, but I happened to know Roseanne Cash, we did actually an event together with a movie you must know called The Winding Stream. I hope you've seen the Winding Stream. Yes. Yes. We did that. And she, she and I did that together. And that was a very emotional thing for her because it was, she hadn't seen it in a long time. It was revisiting her father and, and, but she is one of a kind and a really wonderful lady. So I'm going to tell her because I didn't thank you. The first person you bring up was Roseanne. But because you've got Greg Allman, who obviously you must have gotten him right before he passed. Well, actually, the Greg Allman, he passed in 2017. And that was done before we started this film. We were lucky enough to find that piece of archival footage from the Rockmore Hall of Fame had done an exhibit about the confluence of rock and politics. And so they were kind enough to lend us that interview. But yeah, I mean, but Willie Nelson was amazing and Niall Rogers was incredible. I mean, really everyone Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood were so generous and so lovely. And there are also, you know, very busy people with, with, you know, incredibly busy schedule. So it was very difficult to get them. But, but I mean, Chuck LaVell was, was such a treasure. He's, he's been such an incredible supporter of the film. And, and he was one of the last interviews that we did where we were not really sure like, do we need to keep shooting? There were a few people that we still kind of wanted to get. And then we got Chuck LaVell. And he was kind of like, it's one of those things where you just kind of know when you know that you're done. And it was like, Oh, we're done here. You know, like he just like ticked all the boxes that still needed to be ticked. You know, your, your earlier point, it's so important. It would have been easy to have the other huge musicians that you had, you know, have too many of them or too much of them. And it really needs to be about President Carter. Right. And I think you hit exactly the right balance. There's a lot of him and, and, and as it, as there should be. And I, I, he seems to be having such a good time. Yeah. It was like, you were bringing something to him. It was bringing stuff back for him. Here's this man well into his nineties. It's just reliving this aspect of his life that, you know, with all the pressure that he had on him, right source of joy. Yeah. And the, the, the, the crinkle in his eyes and how he, you know, you can see his face lights up when he's talking about music. And it was interesting because when he first sat down for the first interview, he came in and he, he was a little bit stern in the beginning, not really stern, but just kind of like, you know, at the time that we interviewed him, which was early in 2018, he was still very, very active in work at the Carter center. And, and he was a very busy man. He was very much like scheduled out. Like we got a date, there was a date on his calendar and they're like, you need to either take this date or you won't get them again for another six months. Yeah. And so we're like, we'll take the date, you know, and we go in and we sit down, he starts off and he's very like business like, like, you know, this is okay, let's just do this. And, and then he starts talking about music and his whole demeanor changed, like his body language changed. And, and like I said, his face just lit up and, and he, he really does enjoy talking about it. And, you know, we, we went to an event. We were kind of midway through the production of the film. And the Carter center was having kind of a, I think it was a 95th birthday celebration for President Carter, and they invited us to come and show a little bit of a little, we had a little like teaser reel about the film that, you know, because it was still unfinished at that point. And we showed it to the, to the group. And he was, it, you could just tell he was tickled pink. And, and we, I remember we, we were introduced to his grandson, Jason Carter, who's very involved in the Carter center. Now he's a former Georgia Senator. And we were talking to him and he was like, you guys have no idea how happy this movie is making my grandfather. And he said, there are a few things that that he's really proud of. And the number one on that list is the fact that the Navy named a submarine after him. That is the thing that he is the most proud of. He's, he's like, but right now, number two on that list is Jimmy Carter rock and roll president. And you knocked me over with a feather because I was like, and where does the Nobel Peace Prize fall on that list? I was just like, this doesn't make any sense to me, but wow. Yeah. But again, we go back to this whole thing of the reappraisal of Jimmy Carter, which is happening, good God, 40 years after he left the presidency. Yeah. And it's been happening for, I mean, he's done such amazing work with the Carter center. Many people have said, you know, he's done more as a former president than almost anybody else in terms of good works. And this film really is a big piece of it. I mean, it or it's, it adds to it a lot because who knew? Again, sort of thing that you hit it on some magic because I've always been a fan of Jimmy Carter. I'm also a fan of all the music, but I never knew I never made the connection that it was something that was that he was so passionate about. Yeah. And in a way that he couldn't fake it. And to your point, it's how the musicians feel about him. It's not just how he feels about the musicians. For sure. For sure. It's really, I mean, it takes me back to, you know, to hear you say that this this had this movie that we did has some, you know, bear some some relevance in in the sort of, you know, legacy of Jimmy Carter. But I'm just so happy that he we were able to get it done in time for him to see the reaction and to hear, you know, what people are saying about it because he is is really, really digging it actually. And that's amazing. And he's 96 or 95. I mean, he's 96 now, I think his, yeah, his birthdays in October, he'll be he'll, you know, God willing 97. And he's still doing, you know, habitat for humanity and yes, you know, they did a fundraiser for his birthday just this past October and they built. So, you know, they would do every week the Carter family would participate in a build of houses for people and they would alternate. One year they would do something overseas and the next year they would do something in the United States. And this past year because of the pandemic, they did it in Plains, Georgia so that it would be easy for President Carter to get to but like, you know, he's 96 years old and he was still helping build houses for homeless people. It's it's a remarkable thing. And I assume you also met Rosalind, right? Did you meet Rosalind? I did. We were very disappointed that she wasn't able to give us an interview for the film because I wanted her to be, you know, more a part of it but her health was not great at the time that we were filming so she's she's doing okay. And she I did get to meet her a couple of times at the at the party that I mentioned where we met the grant his grandson Jason and then again we were lucky enough at the end of the the film production to go down to Plains, Georgia and show the the finished film to the Carter family and it was Mr. and Mrs. Carter and Amy their daughter and Chip who's in the film and their brother Jeff and the other brother Jack for some reason wasn't able to make it but it was it was so amazing because first of all it's it's a little bit nerve-wracking to to sit in a room with, you know, and screen your film for the person, you know, for Jimmy Carter, let alone a president, you know, and and I typically like to kind of sit off to the side where I can kind of watch the person and and see how they're reacting but but not make them feel like I'm watching them the whole time and right when everyone sat down and we're getting ready to play the film President Carter says Mary come sit next to me in case I have any questions and I was like uh-oh because President Carter is famous for being a stickler for things being correct like I told that he used to correct the grammar on, you know, memos White House memos before they went out, you know, he's the president the leader of the free world and he'd be like there you missed a comma there, you know, and so we were, you know, we we we definitely did our fact-checking we we tried to be sure that we got everything right but you kind of, you know, we're human and yeah I was worried that maybe we got something wrong or whatever and so I go and I sit down next to him and Mrs. Carter was right on the other side of him and all throughout the film I mean it was amazing because he was he was laughing at all the the funny parts he was, you know, crying along with me when when we got to the emotional parts he's a man who really does wear his heart on his sleeve he cried like three times in the movie and and but then also he was just like he would offer these little asides to me like when there's there's a moment in the film when when we showed a clip from the inaugural concert and John Wayne walks out on the stage and Carter turned to me and he was like you know I was the last person to visit John Wayne before he died I had no idea you know but like he just you know he was so into it and and would kept you know offering these little remarks about you know the jazz concert and about Dizzy Gillespie and it was just so wonderful to have that experience if you had told me that you know I would ever meet a president I would have thought you were crazy and and beyond that to be able to sit next to President Carter while he watched the film that I made about him was definitely one of the biggest honors of my life and and such a joy I can't even I can't even now we have to ask what did he at the end when the lights were coming up I mean what did he say to you you know he was so overcome with the motion that he couldn't speak oh my god started to to say something and he just started crying and and I said to him you know I've watched this movie a hundred times and I always cry at the end yeah you know and and I remember I was asking you know my producer Chris was standing there next to me and later I said to him were you able to because he was trying to speak but he was so overcome that it was like I couldn't I couldn't make out what he was saying and I asked Chris like did you get any of that and he was like no but you know what I think the message was was he could he he could tell that we saw him it was that feeling of being seen and being understood and that is ultimately all I'm trying to do I'm trying to you know when I make a film about someone I always fall in love with them a little bit because and it's this weird kind of love affair because they don't fall in love with me you know because they don't really know me that well you know in the beginning it's oftentimes it's like hi nice to meet you now let me show the camera in your face and let's talk you know bear your soul to me you know it's it's a weird relationship that you and sometimes you get to develop a little bit of a of a relationship with people but with famous people you don't always get that much time with them so you're I'm always more concerned with what am I getting on film than trying to become their pal because you know that that as much as I would like to be pals with these people it's more important that I get them to show me on film who they are and and and I think that there there is a little bit of with with this film in particular there's a lot of love for President Carter in this film and and I think that he felt that and I think that he I think that he was he was recognizing that he had been seen in a way that he had never been seen before you know that is true I think that is true that is true and I think he probably liked that but it's also going back to your point earlier about the truth about capturing the truth because if there'd been anything that wasn't true or or that right oh he would have let us know and the fact is you captured it and you captured the truth and you captured it in such a way that it moved him deeply and is there a part of him that might be saying I'm glad that this document this visual document is out there in the world because how many more years have I got it's nice that that it's out there and it's another side of me right people didn't necessarily know yeah and I want them to know I'm glad that they would know this about me and about my legacy and I certainly know I felt that way so that's why I was curious because the fact that he was so emotional yeah and that you you you'd captured it and and and for him at his state the stage of his life how meaningful is that I mean you know so it's wonderful now I want to talk about you for a minute um my favorite subject yeah there's this because uh you've done obviously you've made some films before they tend to be music films you are the daughter of a musician your father was involved in the making of this film yeah um talk talk to us about all that and the role in your life yeah I mean so growing up my dad it's been a musician his whole life and so obviously you know growing up uh our house was full of a of a vast record collection and and my dad is a real music historian in a way and I learned so much about music from him and he's also you know he's a songwriter he's a storyteller and I learned a lot about storytelling from him um but uh you know we had never really worked together before um and um my father's music he plays blues and and it's very americana uh you know traditional kind of slide guitar blues and he's super super talented um but I didn't think immediately that his music was perfect for this film um because uh one thing that we wanted to be really careful about is we didn't want to put uh too much of a of an americana you know country leaning soundtrack um and the reason that we chose the the title rock and roll president as opposed you know even though it's not just about rock and roll it's as much about jazz and it's as much about country music as it is about rock and roll but we chose rock and roll be more for like the spirit of rock and roll and and to to to give you that kind of like like a bit of a like like maybe like huh wait do rock and roll and jimmy carter does that even make sense you know just to sort of turn people's head a little bit um and um we had another uh famous uh musician assigned on who really wanted to be the the composer for the score and it didn't quite work out schedule wise she was going on a big tour and um so we had to sort of figures we were like we have to figure something else out but I had asked my dad to send me some of his pre-existing music whatever he had that didn't have vocals on it you know just send me some some stuff and let's try to work with it and and it was the first music that we placed in the film was was my dad's uh music and it had to you know it was a it was a tall order because we're talking about putting it next to the music of of Bob Dylan and Dizzy Gillespie and Willie Nelson and the Almond Brothers band and you know these are like you know icons of American music and if we had tried to use like stock music from a music library you you know it just would have never it would have sounded canned and yeah you know we just knew that was never gonna work but my dad's music it it it held up you know because it wasn't canned it wasn't written to be you know a a jingle for a commercial you know it was it was real music that that you know he had already recorded and then I asked him to there were a couple of scenes that we needed a piece of score for that needed you know we we didn't have anything particularly right and I was like he needs to have this kind of vibe and I would describe it to him and I would show him the scene and he would send me back these tracks and it was just like every time he was nailing exactly what I was looking for and and in a in a sort of different variety of of moods and genres and styles and tempos and everything else so it it was just such a joy to be able to work with my father that way and he loved the opportunity to do something different you know he hadn't he hadn't done anything like this before either so it was it was really an amazing amazing thing and I remember it was father's day we were we were wrapping up the movie in in the summer of 2019 and it was father's day and I I was so busy with finishing the movie that I just like I blew it and I called my dad and I was like happy father's day I got nothing for you except the phone call you know and he was just like you know you've given me the greatest gift by letting me work with you on this project and that just you know it was just such a special moment and I'll always be grateful for that opportunity um but yeah it's it's been great am I dead actually just put out an album where he um basically it's like music from the soundtrack of the rock and roll president um you can go check it out at sawspots.com that is it's so so cute I mean uh this one production for you has been I mean you know uh what's next I mean what how are you ever going to match this and but in asking you that it's it's are you really committed to documentaries about music or do you want to do is your filmmaking going to expand beyond that or well I would like to expand beyond music because I'm just I want to I'm eternally curious about all things and and I just love telling great stories so I don't really care if it's about music or not about music but I am super passionate about music and I'm really grateful to have an opportunity to tell stories about music I'm a huge music geek and um so I'm I'm actually really excited that we just announced yesterday um I put together another film super quickly um over the course of the pandemic my what what how I spent the pandemic was editing another documentary that was mostly archival footage based but it's about uh Tom Petty of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and I heard of him yeah he's he's pretty well known and um he uh there was a sort of collection of film footage that was shot in the mid 90s when he was at work on a record called Wildflowers which was kind of his most personal and and and heartfelt album that he that he ever made it to the day that he died he called it the best record he ever made and there was all this incredible film of him in the studio making this record and um his daughter is an old friend of mine and she called me up and was like you know we're making it we're gonna we're gonna give all this footage to someone to make a documentary about are you available and it was right when I was finishing up all of the festival circuit on on President Carter's film and so um we same editor that I worked with on President Carter who is just such a rock star editor we cranked it out because neither one of us had anything else to do so we just sat I sat in this room and worked on this Tom Petty film 24-7 basically and it's gonna be the um centerpiece film of the South by Southwest Film Festival next month fantastic yeah so super exciting oh my god well we are I'm I'm I'm so impressed and and I cannot believe I've never had an interview where the time has gone by so quickly we're now we're now about we've got about 10 minutes left um if there's anybody in the audience that has a question now is the time to submit it um last chance but I mean um you know Mary I mean you can tell you can you can pick up my enthusiasm but I appreciate it so much I mean when you first called me about you know doing something I was so excited by your enthusiasm for the film because you know um this this project really was a labor of love and it felt at times like pushing a big rock up a hill you know and and that's that's you know documentary filmmaking is like that a lot it's not necessarily a good career choice if you're if you're trying to get rich quick because it's never gonna happen making documentary films you know um but it's it's something that you know I feel blessed to have an opportunity to be a storyteller you know it's it's a it's a privilege when you touch people um Mary before I do have there's a question coming through but I just have to ask you for people who want to get the film stream the film in the future how they're going to be able to do it well so you can go to jimmycartermovie.com and that has links to where you can there's there's virtual cinema links there's but you can get it on amazon on iTunes uh Fandango now like wherever you rent movies normally it's widely available yeah so from uh we have uh oh well this is just a nice comment uh from a from my friend Christine Biddle this is what a magnificent man and congratulations and thank you for such a wonderful and inspirational film well thank you that's sort of nice I'm so happy that it's touching people and and and that it's inspiring people that's that's such an honor to to to be able to inspire people and um I certainly was inspired by by President Carter um you know you don't you don't run across people like him very often I think Bob Dylan puts it better than anyone ever could he says you know he's a kind of man you don't meet often and you're lucky if you ever do no there's no doubt about it and I've never met him but I I can your film makes you almost makes you feel like you have met him because it's because it's a very personal side of him he's not talking about you know the peace talks he's talking about his love of of American music and you know to me again that whole notion of all the music that we were talking about it wasn't just country it was rock it was country it was folk it was elder but it was American music yeah it was American music it's the music we all love because it's American music and that was what was so great for me about making this film is that you know I'll I'll fess up to being a liberal and um I the the the Trump years were hard for me because I I had gotten to a point where I wasn't proud of America anymore and you know when when our government was throwing babies into cages that was not okay for me you know and Jimmy Carter reminded me about something that I could be proud about as an American I could be proud about our contribution to culture around the world I could be proud about what Jimmy Carter has done to foster democracy and wage peace as as he likes to say and you know that is something to be proud of no matter where your political beliefs lie on the spectrum I think that we we can all agree that you know that peace is a good thing and and that people should have homes and and that's what Jimmy Carter stands for democracy freedom and the American way and rock and roll and working together and civility and corny ideas like that we don't know anymore hold on now we have other questions um so here's a question did you know the willy story of smoking weed in the white house was not with a servant but Carter's son that whole story did you know that before president Carter told it in the interview Carter we so we interviewed Chip his son who smoked weed with with willy yeah right before we interviewed president Carter and we we suspected um and we asked because I asked willy about it and willy would not he would not uh he would not rat out chip but and we asked chip about it and chip would not fess up to it he would not confirm or deny and and it wasn't until president Carter actually he knew it all along um okay I've got another um was there an anecdotal moment that really stuck with you and didn't make it into the film uh amazing piece of work thank you uh well thank you for that uh something that didn't make I mean well yes okay president Carter's love of classical music is something that I regret that you know there's always sometimes in making it a film and it gets to be too long you have to you have to make Sophie's choice you know you have to kill one of your babies and and it's always difficult and and the the baby that we had to kill was the classical music story which he loved um the great pianist Vladimir Horowitz and when Horowitz um the first concert at the White House when they sort of initiated this like live from the White House concert series it was it was Horowitz that had been in retirement and president Carter basically pleaded with him to come out of retirement and play and um the afternoon that uh Horowitz was going to play at the White House Carter was at work in the Oval Office and he knew that Horowitz was going to be rehearsing downstairs in the room where they do the the concerts and and he basically was like I gotta go and he went down to where Horowitz to see Horowitz rehearsing and he said uh he noticed that Horowitz had missed a note and he went over to him afterwards and he said you know master Horowitz you sounded amazing uh you know I couldn't help but notice that like in the third measure of this one piece did you miss a note and and Horowitz was like taken aback you know and like how how did you how did you even know that and Carter was like I I I know your records I've memorized your he had heard his records his so many times that he knew those pieces of music by heart and he recognized that he had missed a note and Horowitz said president Carter you and I are the only people in this room that know that but like and that to me is such an amazing sign of what an astute listener president Carter was you know no doubt and it's it's a funny story and it's it's just an amazing like little anecdote that we ended up not having time for well I bet Horowitz was on his toes when he actually had to perform knowing yeah listening well and the the footage of his performance which you can find it on YouTube about Vladimir Horowitz live from the White House I don't care I'm not an expert I'm classical music by any stretch but I don't care if you know anything about classical music at or not you watch that it is an amazing performance that you know that it's it's just one of those like a master at work unbelievable Horowitz was a brilliant genius I mean he was the master no there was nobody like him I would have loved to have his fingers he had amazing fingers hold on and we have one one more we have a couple more things here this is the open-ended question but but it's did telling the story change you well it did absolutely and and I have to say that you know it it's hard to say this without sounding egotistical because it's it it it it so here's here's here's what what I I I've used this sort of idea before and talking about you know I don't ever in making a film about somebody I don't ever put myself at the same level you know I made a film about Joan Baez and and I said once about this film that like she's a storyteller of a caliber that I would never in a million years put myself at her level of storytelling but what I can say is like I'm not at her and I'm not at President Carter's level of being on the world stage but I'm in the room I'm in the back of the room but but just to even think of myself as being in the room with President Carter absolutely changed me because you know who am I you know nobody knows me you know but but I'm in the room you know you made this great film so you're very much in this in the room and I have one more it is not a question but it's a statement which is the film opened my perception of President Carter in many positive ways and makes me feel even more hopeful about President Biden both are men of truth um and I I think that's sort of a nice way to a nice summation for yeah our evening um you know uh young senator then senator Biden was the first uh senator to endorse Jimmy Carter when he was running for president wow so it's amazing well we we are we have a new day now but Mary I want to thank you so much for doing this with us and on the behalf of the audience and the the folks out there you made a wonderful film you and I we knew and I are going to stay in touch because we're both New Yorkers and we both I guess you didn't you didn't pick up on it I love I'm a music geek myself so um let's go geek out some music when the world opens up and and blues by the way tell you you're I want to hear more of your dad's music because I'm a huge blues uh I'll get a blues sound um so John Lee Hooker I'm going to put him on right now but you made a wonderful film thank you you brought a lot of people a lot of joy and thank you so much for being with us tonight thank you for having me and thank you everyone for watching the film and um you know three cheers for President Carter indeed three cheers for President Carter and three cheers for rock and roll music right on man thank you so much everybody for coming and thank you Mary thank you all okay bye bye good night