About The Filmmaker

Sean Dunne is a director from Brooklyn, NY, USA. He makes documentaries and commercials. He enjoys cold beers and hot tubs, preferably in tandem. Sean is 28 years old and is allergic to cats.

Summary

Paul Mawhinney was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Over the years he has amassed what has become the world's largest record collection. Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection.
This is the story of a man and his records.

Questionaire

How long did it take to make from conception to completion?

It all came together pretty quickly. I heard about Paul’s story and got him to agree to do a short film. Coincidently, about a month later I was sent to Pittsburgh to shoot some commercial stuff. I took that opportunity to shoot this doc. The whole shoot was around 6 hours, most of that being the interview portion. Our edit took a couple weeks, on and off. All said and done the whole process was about a month…cheap too.

Where did the idea for this film come from?

In February of 08 there was a bunch of press about Paul’s collection and how he was attempting to sell it on eBay. Turns out the auction failed and he was scammed. I was fascinated by this story so I called him and surprisingly no one was doing a film about him. I thought I would be making a film about a quirky collector, turned out to be a lot more.

What do you think this film did in terms of helping your career?

I was honestly shocked by the positive reception of the film. When I was making the film I didn’t think I was making something that would have such mass appeal, especially outside the US. But since the films success I am taken more seriously as a director. After Sundance I was able to get commercial representation and a television and film manager. So right now I am developing a number of really cool projects and I can say that this is all a direct effect of the success of The Archive.

What’s been the best thing about having made the film?

First off, I think having the film on the internet and seeing peoples comments and getting emails about it was really important in giving me confidence that people dig my style. Secondly, getting into Sundance was really big for me. That was a life changing experience.