indieWIRE invited all of the directors in the U.S. dramatic and documentary competition to participate in an email interview as a way of introducing them to our readers. Greg Whiteley’s documentary, “New York Doll,” focuses on the New York Dolls’ bassist and leader, Arthur “Killer” Kane, while discussing the band’s rise, fall, and eventual rebirth.

Please tell us about yourself and include as much of the following information as you feel comfortable with:

Day job (if you have one) and former jobs. Where you were born. Where you grew up. Where you live.
I was born in Provo, Utah but I grew up in Seattle, Washington. I received an MFA in film from Art Center College of Design. I won 2 Clios for spec spots I directed while getting my Masters. In spite of that, I had to moonlight as a limo driver while I was getting started. I drove Mr. T to a 1-800-collect commercial…sigh. I also drove a guy who owned an empire made up of refrigerated warehouses and he hired me to manage one of his facilities in East L.A. I brought my camera to work one day and made a five-minute film about his freezer. This led to other industrial film work, which was what I was working on when a friend at church mentioned he was going to reunite with his former band the New York Dolls. He had an interesting story so I decided to raise some money and follow him to London for the concert. Writing this reminds me how valuable making those freezer films was. At the time, I remember being kind of embarrassed to explain to friends that I was making industrial movies about frozen fish, but so much of the aesthetic of the Arthur Film can be attributed to things I learned while making those little movies.

Where did the initial idea for your film come from?
Everyone who belongs to a Mormon congregation is asked to share responsibility for the well-being of other church members as part of a program called home teaching. A home teacher makes at least one visit per month to another church member’s home in order to deliver a spiritual message and see if that person has any special needs. Soon after I moved to Los Angeles, I was assigned as Arthur Kane’s home teacher, and that’s how we became friends.

Arthur was quiet and unassuming. He would typically sit in the back of the church. The first time I visited him in his small apartment off of Sunset Boulevard he pointed to a poster of a rock band hanging on the wall behind his couch. There were five men on a stage, dressed in what looked like women's clothing, all holding their musical instruments. "That's me." He pointed to the bass player. The bassist in the poster had enormous hair and was wearing a skin-tight leotard, a feather boa and a large pair of thigh-high platform boots. How did this larger-than-life glam-rocker on the poster become the balding, neatly dressed man standing in front of me?

I continued home-teaching Arthur for three years and during that time most of our conversations revolved around the New York Dolls. He talked about his days as a17 year-old budding rock star. He told stories about trashing motel rooms and abusing drugs. He talked a lot about his hope that one day the band would reunite. This seemed completely impossible to me since they hadn't played in 30 years and three of the band members had died, but we prayed for it to happen anyway.

Arthur was eventually assigned someone else to home-teach him but we remained good friends. When Arthur’s subsequent home teacher told me in the spring of 2004 that Arthur might be reuniting with the New York Dolls for the Meltdown Festival in London, I called Arthur and we decided to make a film.

I followed Arthur around the streets of Los Angeles and filmed him at his job at the Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He talked more about 1970s glam-rock stardom, his battle with drugs and alcohol, his estrangement from his wife Barbara, his conversion to Mormonism, and the years he spent living in LA without a car. At the time, we didn’t know if the Dolls reunion would actually happen but it was exciting to watch him hope and prepare for the possibility.

Our story seemed to gain some momentum when Izzy Stratland of Guns n’ Roses was slated to play lead guitar in place of the deceased Johnny Thunders and the reunion got some press from a number of music publications. Arthur confirmed that the reunion was definitely on when he contacted Morrissey, who was organizing the festival. That’s when we realized we needed better and bigger equipment. We found some investors, rented gear, convinced a couple of friends to skip work, and headed off to New York and London to see if Arthur’s dream—and ours—would materialize.

What are your biggest creative influences (this could include other filmmakers or films)?
-Jerzy Grotowski
-Brenda Uelland
-Anne Bogart
-Bill Murray

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in either developing the project or making the movie?
Money, of course, is always an obstacle but from the onset my wife felt—even more strongly than I—that this was a film worth making. I would not have had the courage to follow Arthur to New York and then to London and then to take the four months off to edit without her sense that this was worth doing.

Tell us about the moment you found out that you were accepted into Sundance, where were you? And we'd love to hear more about how you've spent the last month preparing for the festival.
“The call” seems like it happened a lifetime ago. We have been madly editing our film and even shooting more material in order to finish in time for our premiere on the 21st. I don’t think the “high” of being at Sundance hit me until yesterday when I arrived. Everyone on this planet should get to feel like that at least once. You arrive at Sundance. You tell them your name and you are greeted by people who seem to already know your name and were part of the process of admitting your film. They seem excited to meet you and you are thrilled to meet them and you are up in the mountains. The air is thinner so you walk around all day in this buzz. You go to a premiere and Robert Redford introduces the festival and you turn to your wife and ask, “How did we get here?” It is amazing.

What do you hope to get out of the festival, what are your own goals for the experience?
I’d like to see some other films. I look forward to ten days of interacting with other people who are trying to do what I’m trying to do.

What is your definition of “independent film?”
A film no one at a studio would make.

Who are a few people that you would you most like to meet at Sundance?
My wife is under the impression that everyone who gets into Sundance gets to eat brunch with Robert Redford. I keep telling her, ‘you’re embarrassing me. Why are you wearing that prom dress?’ I hope to meet Werner Herzog and other filmmakers.

If you were given $10 million to be used for moviemaking, how would you spend it?
Finish paying for this film and start another feature.

What are some of your favorite films, and why?
“To Kill a Mockingbird” – Everything from its opening credits to its score, to Gregory Peck leaving the court while people in the balcony stood out of respect – absolutely spot on. The closest thing there is to a perfect film and one of the only movies I can think of that does not diminish the book by watching it.

“Field of Dreams” –I think it is just a completely magical film and I cry every time Kevin Costner plays catch with his Dad. Also, I think people forget what a great, great actor Costner was (Perfect World, Fandango etc.).

“Don Juan Demarco” – If you watch closely in the beginning of the movie in the scene where the two of them are standing on the billboard you can see Marlon Brando pass the baton of “greatest living actor” to Johnny Depp.

“Sweet and Lowdown” – He mixes actual documentary interviews with traditional fiction film. A trick that has been done before (Reds, When Harry Met Sally) but anytime I have seen interviews mixed into a fiction film the interviews feel unnecessary. The way Woody Allen does it they are part of the fiction effort and I hope I am lucky enough to be able to steal the way he does this someday.

“Fast, Cheap, and out of Control” – How do you pitch this film? There is no story. No event the film is leading up to. No singularly compelling character. No recognizable theme. Yet, a completely riveting film. It makes you smarter by just watching it.

If you ask me tomorrow the list will have changed.