SYNOPSIS:

You may remember Dana Reilly, New York filmmaker, and UT Radio-TV-Film alum from our walk around Main Street at Sundance this year. Well, she’s back in Austin to present her first feature, OUR BODY ELECTRIC, at the AFS Cinema. 

From nimbus clouds, to a walk around the DAZED AND CONFUSED baseball diamond, Dana shares the stories that got her to this auspicious moment at the Northwest park trail. From her expat childhood in London (Chris Columbus’ kids went to her school) to PROMISES and the classroom AV cart that hooked her on docs, to Brown, the Washington Post Brand Studio and a quarter-life crisis that landed her in Austin for grad school and an impactful stint at Go-Valley. Keith edited her thesis doc, FAVORITE DAUGHTER—a loving portrait of her mom and her grandmother quarantining together in a Tribeca apartment during COVID. It went from a messy, beautiful jumble to Telluride and MTV Documentary Films (thank you Sheila Nevins!) 

Then the walk goes sideways/back in time. Medieval LARPers take over the park, and pull our attention. Meet the Vinland Texas Vikings, sword-fighting under the Texas sun with helmets, shields and their own strict code of conduct… Dana shares the spotlight for a few moments before we re-center on OUR BODY ELECTRIC.

This episode features a trailer for the film, which follows three women bodybuilders vying for the Ms. Olympia title. And we conclude the walk at the AFS Cinema for the post-screening Q&A… 

When it comes to indie doc-making, Dana tells it like it is, “no one’s comin’ to save you.” Not body-builders, not viking LARPers—no one, but you (& your friends at DocWalks).

DISCUSSION LINKS

OUR BODY ELECTRIC (2026) | FAVORITE DAUGHTER (2022) | DEAR MR. BRODY (2022) | DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993) | SLACKER (1990) | EL MARIACHI (1992) | SEVEN UP! (1964) | PROMISES (2001) | PUMPING IRON (1977) | PUMPING IRON II: THE WOMEN (1985)

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Clouds, nimbus puns and a walk in Northwest Park
01:00 Hunting for the DAZED AND CONFUSED baseball field
02:00 Dana Reilly joins us ahead of her AFS Cinema screening
03:00 Born in New York, raised in London
05:00 Ten years at an American school abroad
06:00 SEVEN UP! and Keith’s gateway drug
06:30 Documentaries as classroom: the AV cart and PROMISES
08:00 Brown, media criticism and the idea that video is authored
09:45 Post-college New York and the Washington Post Brand Studio
11:00 The quarter-life crisis that led to UT
11:45 Found it: the DAZED AND CONFUSED field
12:30 Why Wiley Wiggins couldn’t pitch
14:30 Why Austin, and why UT’s hybrid program
17:00 Falling in love with teaching
17:45 FAVORITE DAUGHTER: the thesis about her mom and grandmother
19:00 COVID, Go-Valley and working with Keith
20:30 Editing the beautiful jumble
22:30 Balancing what an audience wants with what Dana wants
24:30 Medieval LARPers: meet the Vinland Texas Vikings
32:30 Back to FAVORITE DAUGHTER and the odd-couple dynamic
33:30 Sheila Nevins, MTV Documentary Films and Telluride
34:45 The hardest part: connecting with an audience
36:00 The long road of OUR BODY ELECTRIC and teaching in New York
37:30 Setting up OUR BODY ELECTRIC and the Olympia
39:00 One bright light, one concern
40:00 Breathe in before you breathe out
41:00 Throwing to the clip