SYNOPSIS:

We sneak out of the AFS Cinema mid-screening for our first-ever four-way walk with Patrick Bresnan and Ivete Lucas, the married filmmakers behind PAHOKEE and NAKED GARDENS, in town with their new film FIRST THEY CAME FOR MY COLLEGE. It’s about the political takeover of New College of Florida, and Patrick tells us how producer Holly Herrick roped him in, why he filmed for two and a half years, and how wine and long dinners with students got him through it.

Then we rewind. Patrick was a prankster in Philadelphia and San Francisco, jumping into hippo tanks and winning a David Hasselhoff contest to visit the BAYWATCH set (hello, THE CONTESTANT). After Hurricane Katrina he volunteered with Mennonite disaster crews, and something clicked: be of service first, film second. Ivete’s path runs from Sao Paulo to Monterrey, where she made art shows and pranks of her own, and where the two of them met in 2008 after Patrick prayed in church for a little luck. It worked. They’ve been together ever since.

We dig into how they earn trust in communities for a year at a time: printing a thousand photos in Pahokee, becoming “Patrick the photo guy,” and putting the kids in front of the Q&A mic. Plus the pitch for NAKED GARDENS (“Grey Gardens at a nudist resort”), shooting it while Ivete was pregnant, and why some French decision-makers couldn’t watch it. We also talk AI anxiety, the garden club that steals the film, and the gateway doc that changed Patrick’s life: HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT.

Plus: exploding shoes, chafing, and why Ivete says they’re “the antithesis of AI.”

DISCUSSION LINKS

HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT (1986) | SLACKER (1990) | PAHOKEE (2019) | BOYS STATE (2020) | NAKED GARDENS (2022) | THE CONTESTANT (2025) | THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR (2025) | THE AI DOC: OR HOW I BECAME AN APOCALOPTIMIST (2026) | FIRST THEY CAME FOR MY COLLEGE (2026)

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro: the shoes that exploded
01:45 Meet Patrick Bresnan and Ivete Lucas
02:30 AI anxiety and why plumbers go first
05:53 FIRST THEY CAME FOR MY COLLEGE and New College
07:09 How Holly Herrick pulled Patrick in
10:30 Making a film inside a community’s trauma
11:46 Who’s who: Patrick, Ivete and BOYS STATE
15:15 How Austin’s queer community took them in
19:05 Pranks, hippo tanks and the Baywatch contest
24:38 THE CONTESTANT and Singled Out
25:57 Katrina, Mennonites and a turn toward real stories
30:11 Ivete: Sao Paulo, Monterrey and Arte Sonico
32:51 How they met in Monterrey
38:04 NAKED GARDENS: Grey Gardens at a nudist resort
42:20 Filming naked, six months, and pregnant
46:00 The French reaction
50:08 Characters, safe houses and the Pahokee shorts
54:39 Patrick the photo guy: being of service
58:36 Giving vs. taking, and filmmaking as a couple
1:02:10 Josh, the garden club and two and a half years of shooting
1:08:10 Taking the film to campuses like KU and UT
1:11:30 Advice for artists first
1:13:30 The gateway film: HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT
1:15:24 Four-way walk wrap