In this 30 min Max Joseph animated short, Joseph explores whether you need to be a tyrant in order to be a successful leader. Via Short of the Week:
From most any vantage point, Max Joseph is a wild success. Through pieces like A Brief History of John Baldessari and 12 Years of DFA, Joseph has pioneered a highly influential and oft-imitated style of documentary editing. His frequent collaborations with social media creator extraordinaire Casey Neistat and his role as co-host of the MTV show Catfish have given him huge popular recognition as well. Joseph was able to parlay all this into a feature debut two years ago that starred big names like Zac Efron and Emily Ratajkowski titled We Are Your Friends.
But that movie…well there is no nice way to say it—it bombed. And in the wake of that disappointment, Joseph is doing some soul-searching. The result is this film, Dicks: Do You Need to Be One To Be a Successful Leader? The lengthy title is only matched by its lengthy 30+ minute runtime, but it’s a fascinating back to basics move for Joseph, employing his kinetic and humorous editing style while leveraging the charismatic persona he’s honed on TV to tackle a question that’s haunted him since We Are Your Friends—to what extent does a successful director need to be tyrant? Was his feature hurt by him being too nice of a guy?