Since my aunt, Joan Didion, passed on December 23 of last year, not a day goes by when I don’t think to myself, Thank God I made that doc. Viewership of Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold on Netflix has accomplished what I hoped: that her devoted readership would see her not as the queen of doom, as she was often described, but as the laughing, dry-humored woman I grew up with. I also hoped, even more, that a young audience would be drawn to her character and then read the books we covered in the film. Her sales have surged yet again, so mission accomplished.
Our collaboration on the documentary began with another project; in 2011, Joan suggested to her publisher that I make the promotional video to accompany the release of , her book about the death of her daughter, Quintana. I had directed several feature films but had never taken on a documentary. Both Joan and her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, had always given notes on rough cuts I’d directed and read early drafts of screenplays I’d produced. We’d also worked together when my partner Amy Robinson and I developed John’s book for 20th Century Fox, with him and Joan writing the screenplay. So, Joan must have
