An Interview with Debra Granik

Courtesy of Still Rolling Productions

AN INTERVIEW WITH DEBRA GRANIK

By Joshua Handler

Debra Granik is best known for her 2010 Best Picture-nominee and Sundance-winner, Winter's Bone, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Winter's Bone launched Jennifer Lawrence's career, but unfortunately not Granik's, despite the film's success. Granik's previous feature, Down to the Bone, also received major critical acclaim and launched now-Oscar-nominee Vera Farmiga's career and won Granik the Sundance Directing Prize. Granik's latest film is Stray Dog, a loving and moving documentary about Ron "Stray Dog" Hall, a PTSD-affected motorcyclist in rural Missouri. A stereotype-smasher and an intimate portrait of a fascinating figure, Stray Dog deserves to be seen (it opens today, July 3, in theaters). Below you can listen to an interview I conducted with Ms. Granik about the film.