Director Susan Sandler reflects on the 2010 documentary directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern

I discovered Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work when it first came out. It’s a brilliantly-made film by RickiStern and Anne Sundberg that looks at this comedian of a certain age, at a time in her life when she’s trying to stay relevant. Generationally, Rivers represented a kind of strength, a gutsiness in her storytelling and stand-up. The film goes behind the scenes to understand her public and private life. It became, in my work on Julia Scotti: Funny That Way, a real touchstone creatively. I studied the film to understand about the kind of storytelling that would go into a behind-the-scenes look at a performer at a critical moment in her life.

*L-R: Julia Scotti: Funny That Way artwork; Susan Sandler*

My film on Julia Scotti – [the first Sanders directed and produced, having already adapted her play Crossing Delancey for the big screen in 1988] – is not intentionally a story with a political agenda. Julia transitioned [from Rick Scotti] 20 years ago, so she’s very comfortable in her skin, within her identity and in telling her story. This is a portrait of a person who found her voice and, along the journey, tells wonderful stories to people that give them great joy. That’s the gift she gave me that I’d love to give audiences.

I don’t want to give the story away to your readers, but it has quite a lot of drama. This is five years of following a person – in A Piece of Work, it’s one year. Things happen. Julia’s children come back into her life, she appears on America’s Got Talent, but she doesn’t change. She is the same honest, beautiful, vulnerable person throughout. And stand-up is a very tough world. Can you imagine a job where every day you have to face an audience, solo, with the challenge of “entertain me, make me laugh”? It’s a terrifying notion. But for Rivers and for Scotti it’s where they live, it’s their lifeblood, to be on a stage telling their stories.

I teach at New York University, in the film school, and I run a film festival there called Fusion that celebrates women behind the camera. I organised a screening of A Piece of Work for the festival and the directors were there. So, I’ve had a lot of contact with this film, in terms of both celebrating it and being inspired by it. The brilliant editor, Penelope Falk, became a friend as I was working on my film. She looked at my cuts and gave me notes, which was extremely valuable.

A Piece of Work was a very important film for me to learn from as a filmmaker. It changed my life in the sense that I was nurtured by it.

By Danielle Goldstein

Julia Scotti: Funny That Way is available on digital streaming platforms now. Visit juliascottifilm.com for further info.

This article appears in the Spring 2023 issue of JR.