BBC Four: Was your grandmother at all reluctant to let you delve into her past?
Alex Halpern: Not really at first because I think she thought the film would tell some of the cuter stories and more innocuous aspects of her life. But the more we got into it and I tried to uncover the more unseemly or tawdry aspects she became more reluctant. I then had to get around her and push and trick her into telling me things. So any sort of reluctance became part of a game that we played with each other and enjoyed as part of the process.
BBC Four: Did your relationship with her change a lot while making the film?
AH: Yes, pretty substantially. All of a sudden you get to know someone, not in the traditional role you've known your whole life, but as a young, passionate woman. There are so many different facets to her personality that once you take it out of the context of an existing 30 year relationship, it does change. I think we became much better friends and after a while she became much more accessible. If anything my big fear now is that I'm becoming more like her.
BBC Four: It's amazing how many of the family have been filmed...
AH: My grandfather was born in 1875 - 20 years before the first motion picture. To me it was very powerful to see his life captured in film, and film not even being invented when he was born. Not until I started looking to make the film and asking other members of the family about footage did I realise the wealth of material that was available to me.
BBC Four: Were you particularly aware of the larger historical context that the film would touch on before you began making the film?
AH: As I started laying out the film the historical backdrop of the last 120 odd years became more apparent. In the section on World War II I did a lot of research and was very deliberate about the kind of visuals I wanted to use in the stock footage. I remembered as a small child hearing stories about my uncles going away to fight in the Pacific. Over the years certain images had been conveyed in the stories I heard and I wanted to use footage that gave you a perspective on how my grandmother imagined where young Tommy was. At one point I had footage of Hitler and Hirohito but we took it out because there was no relevance to how my family experienced World War II.
BBC Four: How did you approach editing the film?
AH: I was editing myself for a really long time and I tried to piece it together like a feature film. After about four years of cutting it on and off and doing my day job I got some money together and realised I couldn't edit it. I was too fascinated with looking at my grandmother on screen. That scene where she's making the waffles, when I cut it, it was five minutes long. There was one editor that I wanted to work called Angelo Carrao, who is brilliant. We got to know each other, he is Sicilian-American and we have a very similar family background and he became very passionate about the project. It really freed up my mind, being able to work with a seasoned editor, and he brought so much to it. Even the fact that I could go out and direct and not have to worry about coming back to edit it really helped the film.
BBC Four: Finally, I've got to ask you about Jack Kerouac...
AH: What do you want to know? I didn't sleep with Jack. I can't say if my mother did or not.
BBC Four: How much did you know about the Kerouac connection before making the film?
AH: I knew enough to want to include it in the film but I certainly found out more. Jack was a fascinating guy, at the same time I didn't want to build it up too much because it takes away from the rest of the film. Jack and my uncle were really great friends. I found all these letters where Jack was telling my uncle, "Hey, Tom, why don't you come down to Mexico and hang out?" I asked my mother why my uncle didn't take Jack up on those offers. My uncle was a really unhappy guy, if he'd have taken Jack up on those offers then who knows?
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