I don’t believe in common sense these
are the words which come to mind as I
recall the time when I first arrived in
New York this was in the fall of 2014
when I arrived there to study filmmaking
at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts on one
lovely autumn afternoon I decided that I
wanted to see my very first New York
theater show I didn’t have a lot of
money at the time so I didn’t decide to
see an expensive Broadway show but
instead opted for a more cheaper
alternative in one of the off-broadway
venues a performance of Uncle Vanya at
the Pearl Theatre I went inside the
theater sat down and I noticed an empty
seats right next to me just as the show
was about to start just as the curtain
was about to rise the door opened and
this old woman carrying two large bags
and wearing an actor’s equity hat was
coming right through the door of course
she had to sit down right next to me
so everybody in the row had to stand up
to make room for this woman so along
came the intermission and this woman
whose name is Nicki Cochran started
talking to me and started asking me
questions such as why are you here why
do you want to see Uncle Vanya why New
York theater and who are you anyway
after talking to Nicki she sort of felt
that I had a certain passion for theater
that I liked seeing theater performances
so she invited me to see another show
with her in New York
I didn’t of course realize at the time
that I would end up seeing more than 50
different shows with Nicki Cochran that
very theater season in New York let me
explain why Nicki told me that she has a
huge passion for theater in fact she
goes to the Thea
every single day 500 plays a year 11
plays a week it’s quite remarkable isn’t
it as a young filmmaker I saw potential
in this as is in a kind of you know
portraits documentary story something
that might be interesting something that
might shed light upon a subject who is
unfamiliar to the world at large but
very interesting because of her habitual
behavior so the project started as a
sort of 10 minute
portrait documentary for school for film
schools a little student project but
then I found out Nicky’s life story she
was born in India in a very large family
went to Harvard
studied in Oxford with Josiah Berlin and
slept with Ravi Shankar now that was a
whole different project I had on my
hands and I realized that it couldn’t
fit into the regular you know student
film format ten minutes is just not
enough for Mickey Cochrane so I decided
to do a Kickstarter to gather money for
a more substantial film project and I
did make a Kickstarter video which
presented my subject Nicky Cochran as
the ultimate theater-going intellectual
as somebody who goes to the theater
every day to gain some sort of profound
knowledge about the world I posted the
Kickstarter video and after a few days
my inbox my personal email started
getting flooded with messages like this
from several New York theaters this
woman is the bane of every theatre
company I’ve seen her lie and sneak in
as an audience member
I’ve seen her pull tricks to get free
tickets as a theater manager as a fellow
NYU graduate you’re not doing yourself
any favors by making a film of her quite
the hate mail right anyway so I was
caught in this in-between space between
reaching to this choir of different
theater managers who considered Nikki to
be the ultimate sort of theater hustler
somebody who steals other people’s seats
eats at the theater drinks at the
theater sleeps during performances and
other kinds of things that your regular
theater goer just doesn’t do at the
theater on the other hand side I had
Nikki who was trying to direct the film
about her herself and trying to make it
this sort of portrait of a very
intellectual kind of theater goer who
goes there to gain again knowledge about
the world in order to be truthful I was
asking myself
which of these two roads am I going to
take am I going to take any of these two
roads now I was a very inexperienced
filmmaker at the time I didn’t have some
sort of profound knowledge about how to
make a documentary film or anything like
that this was one of my first projects I
had made a few historical documentaries
I had worked on a few historical
documentaries in Latvia beforehand but
nothing that was this personal and that
had such a fascinating subject now I
decided that the most rational way to go
with this was to seek out the truth
behind this figure because there has to
be another side – Niki Cochrane
something deeply personal that she’s
hiding within herself it had to be an
emotional story not just an intellectual
portrait of someone I had to get two
things in the film in order for my
aspirations of how this film should look
like to come true first of all I had to
have some sort of family members
interact with Nikki in the film and I
was lucky enough to get her daughter and
one of her sons to agree to be a part of
the film and I’m thankful to them to
this day for being a part of my project
but that wasn’t it for eight months
Nikki was very very reluctant to let me
inside her most personal space which is
her apartment I had to do my best to
convince her to let her in but I just
couldn’t do it she just said no no it
the movie can do without it it’s you
know it’s impossible you’ll never get in
I’ll never let you in so on one day in
New York me and my Latvian
cinematographer we decided okay we have
to get that in the film we have to see
what her life is really like behind
doors so we were like today is going to
be the day when we get inside that so we
arrived to her apartment building as if
this were a normal day of filming and we
greeted Nikki outside and we said Nikki
listen there has to be some sort of
sense of home in this film the audience
will want to see that you have a place
to live that you’re not you know just
running around New York all the time
going to all these different plays so I
said why don’t we just film you you know
just going up and down the elevators
just to have a sense that you’re coming
out of some building that something’s
happening inside there and she agreed we
went inside the building and filmed her
going up and down the elevator after
that we arrived at the infamous door of
her apartment now Nikki was very
reluctant to let us see in of course but
we asked her to just go inside the
apartment and come out the door so just
we can film her exiting her apartment
and she struggled to get the door of her
apartment open and do the shot but she
did after that she opened the door and
showed us what was inside and she was
like you don’t want to show this on film
right yeah
well this is what is inside Nikki’s
apartment and what we finally managed to
get on tape the other side of her
theater-going addiction dozens of bags
all over the floor and on every possible
surface consisting of food remains trash
and all kinds of other objects from god
knows when this is the apartment of a
typical hoarder initially we were just
going to film a few close-ups but we
ended up me and my crafty
cinematographer of course stealing the
shots after this day of filming and
afterwards in the editing room I began
thinking to myself am I not exploiting
my hero am I not being the kind of
Trojan horse who along with myself and
the camera brings in this whole global
audience who are now going to see how
this person lives she might not even
want you to see this right well this was
something for me to think about
something for me to consider
and I don’t know if I still have the
answer to this question to this day but
I can tell you one thing the whole
exploitation thing was a kind of double
sided coin because not only was i
filming Nikki’s most personal moments
and places but she was also using me in
order to get dozens of student the
editor gets free food and all kinds of
other fun things that were a part of her
sort of craftsy theater-going experience
in new york i also once the film was
finished did my best to bring her to
festivals where the film premiered
including a premiere screening here on
this very stage in the splendid palace
cinema but even even though I did all of
this and even though I even took her to
Mexico to film her vacation even though
I did my best to truly be a neighbor to
my subject not a friend because you know
it’s it’s too much of a familial
relationship but a good but a very good
neighbor who tries to you know do her
good as well I still to this day I’m
thinking about did I not destroy the
mythology surrounding Nicky Cochran in
the New York theater scene because she
could have remained as this mythical
figure who goes to all the theaters and
is banned from some other theaters but
now a global audience is looking at her
and she’s kind of exposed this is
something that we as documentarians have
to keep in mind because sometimes it’s
not just a personal portrait of a single
individual in a particular community
sometimes it deals with very vast global
issues such as the ongoing refugee
crisis and this is something of very
vast importance for us all to consider
as a filmmaker on that day when I
arrived to my first New York theater
play I could have made the decision not
to go to the theater with Nicky Cochran
Knutson heavens not to see 50 plays with
this woman and I could have just
remained there said hi thank you for
talking to me bye I’ll see you some
other time that might have made common
sense to do this certainly many of you
in the audience wouldn’t have gone to
see another play with her I don’t think
any of you would have gone to see 50
but I did I did something that didn’t
make common sense and as a result of
that I made my fill but after all guys
what is common sense if not as Nicky
Cochran says learned behavior thank you
so much [Applause]
are the words which come to mind as I
recall the time when I first arrived in
New York this was in the fall of 2014
when I arrived there to study filmmaking
at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts on one
lovely autumn afternoon I decided that I
wanted to see my very first New York
theater show I didn’t have a lot of
money at the time so I didn’t decide to
see an expensive Broadway show but
instead opted for a more cheaper
alternative in one of the off-broadway
venues a performance of Uncle Vanya at
the Pearl Theatre I went inside the
theater sat down and I noticed an empty
seats right next to me just as the show
was about to start just as the curtain
was about to rise the door opened and
this old woman carrying two large bags
and wearing an actor’s equity hat was
coming right through the door of course
she had to sit down right next to me
so everybody in the row had to stand up
to make room for this woman so along
came the intermission and this woman
whose name is Nicki Cochran started
talking to me and started asking me
questions such as why are you here why
do you want to see Uncle Vanya why New
York theater and who are you anyway
after talking to Nicki she sort of felt
that I had a certain passion for theater
that I liked seeing theater performances
so she invited me to see another show
with her in New York
I didn’t of course realize at the time
that I would end up seeing more than 50
different shows with Nicki Cochran that
very theater season in New York let me
explain why Nicki told me that she has a
huge passion for theater in fact she
goes to the Thea
every single day 500 plays a year 11
plays a week it’s quite remarkable isn’t
it as a young filmmaker I saw potential
in this as is in a kind of you know
portraits documentary story something
that might be interesting something that
might shed light upon a subject who is
unfamiliar to the world at large but
very interesting because of her habitual
behavior so the project started as a
sort of 10 minute
portrait documentary for school for film
schools a little student project but
then I found out Nicky’s life story she
was born in India in a very large family
went to Harvard
studied in Oxford with Josiah Berlin and
slept with Ravi Shankar now that was a
whole different project I had on my
hands and I realized that it couldn’t
fit into the regular you know student
film format ten minutes is just not
enough for Mickey Cochrane so I decided
to do a Kickstarter to gather money for
a more substantial film project and I
did make a Kickstarter video which
presented my subject Nicky Cochran as
the ultimate theater-going intellectual
as somebody who goes to the theater
every day to gain some sort of profound
knowledge about the world I posted the
Kickstarter video and after a few days
my inbox my personal email started
getting flooded with messages like this
from several New York theaters this
woman is the bane of every theatre
company I’ve seen her lie and sneak in
as an audience member
I’ve seen her pull tricks to get free
tickets as a theater manager as a fellow
NYU graduate you’re not doing yourself
any favors by making a film of her quite
the hate mail right anyway so I was
caught in this in-between space between
reaching to this choir of different
theater managers who considered Nikki to
be the ultimate sort of theater hustler
somebody who steals other people’s seats
eats at the theater drinks at the
theater sleeps during performances and
other kinds of things that your regular
theater goer just doesn’t do at the
theater on the other hand side I had
Nikki who was trying to direct the film
about her herself and trying to make it
this sort of portrait of a very
intellectual kind of theater goer who
goes there to gain again knowledge about
the world in order to be truthful I was
asking myself
which of these two roads am I going to
take am I going to take any of these two
roads now I was a very inexperienced
filmmaker at the time I didn’t have some
sort of profound knowledge about how to
make a documentary film or anything like
that this was one of my first projects I
had made a few historical documentaries
I had worked on a few historical
documentaries in Latvia beforehand but
nothing that was this personal and that
had such a fascinating subject now I
decided that the most rational way to go
with this was to seek out the truth
behind this figure because there has to
be another side – Niki Cochrane
something deeply personal that she’s
hiding within herself it had to be an
emotional story not just an intellectual
portrait of someone I had to get two
things in the film in order for my
aspirations of how this film should look
like to come true first of all I had to
have some sort of family members
interact with Nikki in the film and I
was lucky enough to get her daughter and
one of her sons to agree to be a part of
the film and I’m thankful to them to
this day for being a part of my project
but that wasn’t it for eight months
Nikki was very very reluctant to let me
inside her most personal space which is
her apartment I had to do my best to
convince her to let her in but I just
couldn’t do it she just said no no it
the movie can do without it it’s you
know it’s impossible you’ll never get in
I’ll never let you in so on one day in
New York me and my Latvian
cinematographer we decided okay we have
to get that in the film we have to see
what her life is really like behind
doors so we were like today is going to
be the day when we get inside that so we
arrived to her apartment building as if
this were a normal day of filming and we
greeted Nikki outside and we said Nikki
listen there has to be some sort of
sense of home in this film the audience
will want to see that you have a place
to live that you’re not you know just
running around New York all the time
going to all these different plays so I
said why don’t we just film you you know
just going up and down the elevators
just to have a sense that you’re coming
out of some building that something’s
happening inside there and she agreed we
went inside the building and filmed her
going up and down the elevator after
that we arrived at the infamous door of
her apartment now Nikki was very
reluctant to let us see in of course but
we asked her to just go inside the
apartment and come out the door so just
we can film her exiting her apartment
and she struggled to get the door of her
apartment open and do the shot but she
did after that she opened the door and
showed us what was inside and she was
like you don’t want to show this on film
right yeah
well this is what is inside Nikki’s
apartment and what we finally managed to
get on tape the other side of her
theater-going addiction dozens of bags
all over the floor and on every possible
surface consisting of food remains trash
and all kinds of other objects from god
knows when this is the apartment of a
typical hoarder initially we were just
going to film a few close-ups but we
ended up me and my crafty
cinematographer of course stealing the
shots after this day of filming and
afterwards in the editing room I began
thinking to myself am I not exploiting
my hero am I not being the kind of
Trojan horse who along with myself and
the camera brings in this whole global
audience who are now going to see how
this person lives she might not even
want you to see this right well this was
something for me to think about
something for me to consider
and I don’t know if I still have the
answer to this question to this day but
I can tell you one thing the whole
exploitation thing was a kind of double
sided coin because not only was i
filming Nikki’s most personal moments
and places but she was also using me in
order to get dozens of student the
editor gets free food and all kinds of
other fun things that were a part of her
sort of craftsy theater-going experience
in new york i also once the film was
finished did my best to bring her to
festivals where the film premiered
including a premiere screening here on
this very stage in the splendid palace
cinema but even even though I did all of
this and even though I even took her to
Mexico to film her vacation even though
I did my best to truly be a neighbor to
my subject not a friend because you know
it’s it’s too much of a familial
relationship but a good but a very good
neighbor who tries to you know do her
good as well I still to this day I’m
thinking about did I not destroy the
mythology surrounding Nicky Cochran in
the New York theater scene because she
could have remained as this mythical
figure who goes to all the theaters and
is banned from some other theaters but
now a global audience is looking at her
and she’s kind of exposed this is
something that we as documentarians have
to keep in mind because sometimes it’s
not just a personal portrait of a single
individual in a particular community
sometimes it deals with very vast global
issues such as the ongoing refugee
crisis and this is something of very
vast importance for us all to consider
as a filmmaker on that day when I
arrived to my first New York theater
play I could have made the decision not
to go to the theater with Nicky Cochran
Knutson heavens not to see 50 plays with
this woman and I could have just
remained there said hi thank you for
talking to me bye I’ll see you some
other time that might have made common
sense to do this certainly many of you
in the audience wouldn’t have gone to
see another play with her I don’t think
any of you would have gone to see 50
but I did I did something that didn’t
make common sense and as a result of
that I made my fill but after all guys
what is common sense if not as Nicky
Cochran says learned behavior thank you
so much [Applause]
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