The story of Tony Kaye and American History X is Hollywood folklore: a fiercely original debut filmmaker, a studio battle over final cut and a director who famously asked for the credit "Humpty Dumpty" rather than compromise his vision. What few people knew was that Kaye kept a camera running throughout. Twenty-three years later, he has finally assembled that footage into Humpty Dumpty X, a documentary built from phone calls with executives, candid conversations with friends, and the rantings, paintings, photographs, and notebooks that filled his life during that singular period.

The result is a fascinating self-portrait of one of cinema's true originals, a filmmaker who has always insisted on doing things his own way and has the scars to prove it. Kaye understands his footage as a meditation on art and Hollywood, and the film offers something rare: unmediated access to a major director in the middle of making a major film. For anyone interested in the realities of creative life inside the studio system, this long-promised work is essential viewing.—Jarod Neece