Sasha Weiss

Thanks for being here.

Thanks for being here.

So I've gotten to know Ezra pretty well over the years of reporting this story, and we've talked a lot. He is extremely dogged and rigorous. He is extremely focused.

So I've gotten to know Ezra pretty well over the years of reporting this story, and we've talked a lot. He is extremely dogged and rigorous. He is extremely focused.

He's just very human, Ezra.

He's just very human, Ezra.

So Ezra started out in TV journalism and sports journalism especially. And eventually he started directing his own documentary films.

So Ezra started out in TV journalism and sports journalism especially. And eventually he started directing his own documentary films.

And he brings a lot of rigor and I would say also a lot of emotion and storytelling chops to these huge canvases that he takes on.

And he brings a lot of rigor and I would say also a lot of emotion and storytelling chops to these huge canvases that he takes on.

But maybe the best way to talk about his work is to talk about his best-known film on O.J. Simpson, O.J. Made in America, which comes out in 2016 to great acclaim on ESPN. It wins the Academy Award for Best Documentary Film that year.

But maybe the best way to talk about his work is to talk about his best-known film on O.J. Simpson, O.J. Made in America, which comes out in 2016 to great acclaim on ESPN. It wins the Academy Award for Best Documentary Film that year.

Big deal. Got a ton of attention, and deservedly so, because... Part of its magic is that it takes an event that we all thought we knew. We had been over it a million times. And it gives it... We watched CNN.

Big deal. Got a ton of attention, and deservedly so, because... Part of its magic is that it takes an event that we all thought we knew. We had been over it a million times. And it gives it... We watched CNN.

We knew that many of us watched it, you know, as kids and watched the car chase and remember it and remember the polarization around it. The way that I would say black America and white America viewed the case very differently. And what Ezra manages to do in the film is to give a familiar recent historical event a much broader context.

We knew that many of us watched it, you know, as kids and watched the car chase and remember it and remember the polarization around it. The way that I would say black America and white America viewed the case very differently. And what Ezra manages to do in the film is to give a familiar recent historical event a much broader context.

And not only do you understand O.J., how huge he was, how beloved he was, how deep his downfall was, you also understand the context of race relations in California from the 1960s into the 90s and even the early 2000s. And you understand how many of the racial pathologies of our country run through this case.

And not only do you understand O.J., how huge he was, how beloved he was, how deep his downfall was, you also understand the context of race relations in California from the 1960s into the 90s and even the early 2000s. And you understand how many of the racial pathologies of our country run through this case.

So it's this incredibly layered document where all of these different energies are drawn together to tell a new story. And Ezra works on an enormous scale. The film is eight hours and I think is widely thought of as one of the greatest American documentaries, one of the greatest American films that has been made in the last decade.

So it's this incredibly layered document where all of these different energies are drawn together to tell a new story. And Ezra works on an enormous scale. The film is eight hours and I think is widely thought of as one of the greatest American documentaries, one of the greatest American films that has been made in the last decade.