John Wilson’s History of Concrete Turns a Stone-Solid Topic Into a Meta-Documentary

Variety’s Ethan Shanfeld interviews John Wilson about his feature The History of Concrete, a film that pairs a history of the material with meta storytelling about making a documentary—from pitch meetings and budget pressures to how the film is produced—while spotlighting intimate human portraits (a gum buster, a grieving musician) and memorable moments like a Kim Kardashian scene filmed at a GQ dinner without a score. Wilson treats the process as part of the story, expanding his HBO How To approach into a feature-length work now in theaters via Magnolia Pictures, and offering a meditation on what audiences value in documentary cinema.