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Check out this article on BBook.com: http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/jessica-yu1 Jessica Yu’s Greek Tragedy By Nick Haramis In 1997, when accepting her Academy Award for Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien, director Jessica Yu chuckled, “You know you’ve entered new territory when your outfit cost more than your film.” Now, ten years later, the Yale Graduate and onetime competitive fencer is laughing again, all the way to the awards podium, with her latest feature documentary Protagonist. The film centers on four men, each of whom recount in uncomfortable detail their struggle with obsessions past. Hans-Joachim Klein was born into a working-class German family, and devoted his youth to leftist activism, until crossing the line into unmitigated terrorism. Mark Pierpont, hoping to escape “eternal hell,” ignored his homosexuality to spread the evangelical word of Jesus. After killing his abusive father, Joe Loya goes on to rob over thirty banks. Mark Salzman, Yu’s husband, rehashes his adolescent experience with bullies, friendship, and the world’s most sadistic kung fu coach. Perched on the edge of a couch in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park Hotel, the Oscar-winning, Emmy-nominated director opens up about patricide, pathos, and why President Bush needs to see this film. www.bbook.com