Ep274 - Bao Nguyen, Director Bruce Lee Documentary ‘Be Water’

Originally, to honor his immigrant parents, Bao Nguyen thought he was going to become a lawyer. As a small child, he worked in his father’s shop behind the register, where he spent his time between customers sketching and drawing what he now sees as storyboards. Working as a Director and Cinematographer since 2009, Nguyen worked on projects like ‘We Gon’ Be Alright’ and ‘Live from New York!’ before tackling his largest project to date, a documentary about the personal life of icon Bruce Lee. The official description reads, “Rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to Hong Kong to complete four films. Charting his struggles in two worlds, ‘Be Water’ explores questions of identity and representation through rare archive, intimate interviews, and his writings.” In this interview, Nguyen talks about his father’s secret dream to become an architect, why he avoided “talking heads” for the film, why documentarians should seek humility, how to account for every frame in a doc, and how we went about humanizing Bruce Lee. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Join the email list here: www.brockswinson.com Follow us on Instagram for updates: @brockswinson If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!