Moment of Truth: Director Daniel Kraus Shows America its Work Face

How did you meet and approach Jay Holstein?

I was a student of his as an undergrad at the University of Iowa. Approaching him was hard; he was very intimidating to an undergraduate such as myself. But he was always in the back of my head as a potential subject. But you know: When you have an experience with someone like Holstein in your first class of your very first semester of your college experience, his figure looms larger as the years pass on. I was a little intimidated -- actually a lot intimidated -- to contact him again. More than any other subject, he impacted me so greatly. So I had to just man up. I started with an e-mail, which is less confrontational. It's getting easier and easier with subjects because I have a body of work. I just showed him Sheriff and Musician, and that was really all I needed to do.

In the last few years, from Ace of Cakes to Deadliest Catch, we've seen a boom in workplace "reality" as entertainment. Do you watch those shows at all? How do they impact you, if at all?

I have seen an episode of one of the cake shows -- I can't remember which one. I haven't seen Deadliest Catch. They don't impact me much. Really, nothing impacts me, which is kind of a weird feeling.

Do you ever compare or attempt to reconcile those shows with what you're doing? I mean, it's all workplace-based entertainment in the end.

One of the things that I think sets my work apart is that I'm really interested in the "off" moments. If I were making a movie about someone who was an administrative assistant, I'd be less interested in the "on" moments -- when you're doing the job. It would be more like, "OK, I've got five minutes; I'm going to surf the net." That's the "off" moment. In Musician, it was the loading of equipment that was the "off" moment. To me, it took up way more of Ken Vandermark's life than playing music. What Ace of Cakes or Deadliest Catch would leave on the cutting-room floor are exactly the things I'd put in my movie.

What can you tell me about the Chicago series?

It's a retrospective of the three films in the Work Series so far, and then the Chicago premiere of Professor. Holstein and I will be in person on the first night. We played Musician at the Siskel Center back whenever that came out, and we got a good response. Now that it's three films, I think it feels more like a "series." It makes sense that people see the films as a group now. Hopefully there'll be more of that. And it's logical to do it in Chicago since... Well, I'm here.

Do people ever pitch themselves to you as subjects?

I get tons of pitches. I have an Excel spreadsheet that would blow your mind. I don't know how many there are; it's a lot -- 90 percent of which I have no interest in whatsoever. I think I probably have gotten a few self-pitches, and I guess categorically I wouldn't say I'm against them. But it's a little at odds with the people I've profiled so far. None of them would ever have pitched themselves. But it's an interesting question. I think I have gotten a few.

Like who? Or what?

I can't really remember, actually. But it was nothing I was interested in doing.

So Preacher is next, but what's down the line? Are you thinking three or four or more films ahead at this point?

There's two ways to think about that: At some point when I was doing Sheriff, I thought about the series, and I came up with categories. I know you'd love to hear those categories, but I have no idea where that list went to. But I came up with roughly 10 categories and how various jobs could kind of be shoveled into these 10 categories. And so that was sort of a device that helped me think about what jobs I wanted to have for my first 10 -- or maybe my only 10. That way I didn't do Professor and Teacher in the first 10. I didn't want to do Musician and Actor. There's too much overlap; they've been done. I wanted to have disparate categories. So I've sort of been mentally committed to doing 10. Anything is possible. Who knows? I could do less, I could do more. But I'd really like to do 10.

The biggest thing about the Work Series that anybody can see -- and it's what bothers me the most -- is that I have four men in it right now. That was not the intent; it was supposed to be much more demographically diverse than it is by now. I had a couple subjects drop out on me at the last second. And I had a couple of films I had to move on, because both the subjects are kind of old and could retire any time. So these four came together not really in the order I preferred. All I can say is rest assured: The demographic breakdown will even out. It will just kind of feel uneven at first.

Wait a second. Ten films, two weeks to shoot... Why the hell do we have to wait three years for a new Dan Kraus movie?

Ha! I love that question. Um, because I'm doing other things? There's two things to blame here, and neither are my laziness, because that doesn't exist. The main thing to blame is that I'm writing novels now, and they're eating up my life. I edited Professor between drafts of my second novel, and it almost like vacation. I did that for pleasure. My documentaries are so radically different from the books I'm writing that to move back and forth is really pleasurable. And I also have a job. I just don't have time. If this were all I was doing, then yeah. I could bust out a couple a year. But that just ain't gonna happen.

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