Every filmmaker carries with them the ghosts of films that never came to be — the abandoned scripts, impossible casting dreams, projects that collapsed in financing, or stories that proved simply too strange, ambitious, or ahead of their time to make.
In this special live recording of the podcast FILMS NOT MADE, hosts Amy Hobby and Avi Zev Weider invite filmmakers into a candid excavation of the projects they couldn’t quite bring to life. Through conversation, archival development materials, and speculative reimaginings, the series revisits the unrealized films that continue to haunt their creators and asks what those unfinished works can still reveal about artistic ambition, industry gatekeeping, and the creative process itself.
For this live DC/DOX edition, filmmakers Paul Lovelace and Jessica Wolfson revisit DID IT!, their long-gestating, ultimately unrealized documentary about Jerry Rubin, tracing Rubin’s extraordinary evolution from Yippie provocateur and Chicago Eight radical to media-savvy Wall Street insider. Drawing from years of development materials and pitches that passed through IFP, Sheffield, and Tribeca/A&E StoryLab, Lovelace and Wolfson unpack why the film never found its way to the screen, and what remains compelling about its portrait of political theater, media spectacle, resistance to authority, and reinvention.
Part confessional, part creative autopsy, and part speculative resurrection, FILMS NOT MADE offers a rare glimpse into the hidden archive of cinema: the stories that almost were — and the unfinished ideas that continue to shape the ones that get made.
Amy Hobby is an Academy Award-nominated film producer and co-founder of the collective Distribution Advocates. She co-hosts the podcast FILMS NOT MADE and produces music films under the label Record Breaker Films+. She is a former nonprofit executive who loves designing new programs and tools to grow a thriving art and cinema culture in the U.S. and beyond.
Paul Lovelace is an Austin, Texas-based filmmaker who has produced, edited, and directed a wide range of documentaries, including IRIS (edited and co-produced with Albert Maysles), AFTER SPRING (editor; executive produced by Jon Stewart), and RADIO UNNAMEABLE (co-director and producer).
In 2019, Paul edited DIANA KENNEDY: NOTHING FANCY, which won the Audience Award at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival. In 2021, Paul co-produced and edited THE REVEREND, which won the Audience Award at DOC NYC. In 2024, Paul produced and co-edited SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED, which premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival and was released theatrically by Magnolia Pictures. Most recently, Paul produced and edited the feature-length documentary THE LAST CRITIC, about legendary music writer Robert Christgau, which won a Special Jury Award at the 2026 SXSW Film Festival.
Avi Weider is the co-creator of FILMS NOT MADE, a show about the movies that almost happened — and what their absence reveals about the industry, the era, and the people who tried to make them. He is also a filmmaker whose work includes I REMEMBER, which premiered at Sundance; AMERICAN SANTA, featured in the Los Angeles Times; and WELCOME TO THE MACHINE, which premiered at SXSW.
A Sundance Lab alum, Weider also explores AI-assisted creative work and often builds many of the tools he uses in the process. At DC/DOX, he will appear live onstage for a special edition of FILMS NOT MADE.
Jessica Wolfson is an award-winning filmmaker and producer whose work spans documentary, narrative, and branded content. Her films and series have appeared on Paramount+, Discovery, PBS, and ESPN, with projects screening at Sundance, Tribeca Festival, SXSW, and DOC NYC. She began her career at IFCtv Originals, where she developed and produced nonfiction and comedy programming.
As a director, her work includes HOT GREASE (Discovery Channel), RADIO UNNAMEABLE (Kino Lorber), and PLAY AROUND WITH ME (ESPN). Her producing credits include LIFE & LIFE, SACRED, RADICAL LANDSCAPES, REVENGE OF THE MEKONS, and THE PAINT WIZZARD (The New Yorker).
Named one of DOC NYC’s “20 Under 40,” Wolfson participated in the 2020 Realscreen Pathways Mentorship Program and has supported emerging filmmakers through The Gotham, SXSW, and international arts programs in Central Africa and Yemen. She previously taught documentary production at the New York Film Academy and Austin Community College, and serves on the advisory board of the Austin Film Society’s Creative Careers program.
Beyond filmmaking, Wolfson has led creative campaigns and branded storytelling initiatives for media companies and cultural organizations. As Executive Producer of Indeed Creative, she oversaw branded content and social campaigns across platforms and helped lead initiatives including Rising Voices, supporting emerging storytellers.
She is currently the Executive Director of the WAVE Grant at Wavelength Productions.