Interview: Talking ‘The Man Who Saves the World?’ with Filmmaker Gabe Polsky

It takes guts to start a documentary you can’t know the ending of. For Gabe Polsky, he just knew that Patrick McCollum was someone worth documenting, with the rest more or less figuring itself out. The end result is the documentary The Man Who Saves the World?, which has been amassing fans pretty much wherever it has screened. Last week, I sat down on Zoom with him to chat about the doc. Today, that discussion comes your way.

In my review of the film here, I said the following about Polsky:

Gabe Polsky knows that Patrick McCollum is an enigma, if a pure-hearted one, so his reactions to the zaniness that he sometimes witnesses is a feature, not a bug. Lesser documentaries wold be poorly served by the director showing up within it as a character, but this one benefits from his audience surrogacy. The doc could stand to be a bit tighter, but then again, just sort of going with the flow is a part of understanding McCollum’s uniqueness, even as he gets into the nitty gritty of organizing for his causes. Polsky has made feature films like The Motel Life, as well as documentaries like Red Army, but this is something new from him.

Below, you can hear my conversation with Polsky. We talk a lot about how you go about making a film like this, what he was thinking while doing it, and McCollum himself, including his reaction to it screening. The experience of finishing the movie has clearly been emotional for them both, as any worthwhile project should be. It’s an interesting chat, for sure, and should make you even more interested in The Man Who Saves the World?, as well as the men behind it.

Here now is my interview with The Man Who Saves the World? filmmaker Gabe Polsky. Enjoy:

The Man Who Saves the World? is in theaters now!