SXSW 2016: Taking People Where They Don't Want to Go - Joe Berlinger on 'Tony Robbins'
Joe Berlinger has had a prolific career, making 12 feature docs that tend to cover the darker side of the human experience, like the story of a brother on trial for murdering one of his kin in Brother’s Keeper or following the band Metallica down the turbulent road of group therapy in Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. His new film, Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru, takes a different approach. It's a celebration of the work of motivational speaker Tony Robbins through an inside look at his annual “Date With Destiny" seminar where thousands of people flock in hopes of changing their lives. Liz Nord sat down the day after the film’s premiere at SXSW 2016 to discuss this new turn, plus his approach to filmmaking in general and advice to other doc makers trying to sustain a career.