Strangers can be so open with each other.
This isn't straight documentary (although I'm trained in it). I don't take notes as I listen, but as soon as the conversation ends, I write down everything as close to verbatim as possible. It's pretty accurate. I also rearrange the narrative for flow (if someone talks about their family, then interupts themself with a dog story, then goes back to their family - I put the family bits together).
Names and certain details are changed.
They're simple sketches, but I love the humanity in them.
Absolutely Untouched - Growing up in the mafia
Food Lion's paying for it - Interior decoration via mortuary, and the owner of 800 birds
Hayduke Virgil just bulls through it - "A cop killed my brother in Sacramento."
Anna Allure - Former Jehovas Witness, current burlesque performer
JR's part of the problem - "After so many years married, some things just…disappear, you know?"
The Caroline J - "Humans have something in them that lets them survive. I hope I have it, too."
Yves Laurent - Voodoo and slavery, from a Haitian's perspective