Synopsis | Director's Statement

I met Scott Lew around 1999 when he was still a film executive. He expressed a desire to leave his company and start writing screenplays in earnest with a view to one day be directing. He wanted to begin this transition by making a documentary film about a troupe of struggling Burlesque dancers trying to mount a show. I had a production company at the time, and Scott’s idea sounded like great fun, so I immediately agreed.

We spent the following year together, between other commitments, making Welcome Sinners! The Velvet Hammer Story. Scott directed, I produced and a talented editor named Claire Didier cut the film (and LWL) which was well received at a number of festivals around the world. Scott and I had a great time working on that project and we became good friends as a result.

We stayed in touch over the next few years and, over a scotch and a cigar in early 2004, Scott told me he had ALS. He had known for eight months but kept it a secret as he was close to getting Bickford Shmeckler’s Cool Ideas green-lit and didn’t want to jeopardize what he had worked his entire career towards. I was, of course, shocked and profoundly affected by this news but knew that in some way I needed to do something, if only as a means of processing the tragedy for myself.

As a result of the remarkable efforts of Bickford’s producers and financiers, who conceived of a unique way to insure the production despite Scott’s worsening condition, it looked increasingly as though the film might, in fact, get made.

I soon asked Scott if he would allow me to film him, come what may, as his extraordinary situation unfolded. He agreed and we became co-conspirators of a kind in the resulting film. The access that he and his wife Ann gave me to often brutal and deeply personal moments in their lives made this film possible.

Living With Lew has been extraordinary three year odyssey that continues to this day, even though the documentary itself is finished.