John Pierson hunted down, represented, and, in some cases, financed over twenty first-time independent features by directors including Spike Lee, Michael Moore, Richard Linklater, and Kevin Smith. After writing this chronicle of that era, he created and hosted IFCtv's first original series Split Screen, a globe-trotting, magazine-format show by filmmakers for film aficionados, which eventually took him and his family to Fiji's remote 180 Meridian Cinema. When he returned, Pierson moved to Austin to teach in the University of Texas Department of Radio-Television-Film, where he’s interviewed over seventy notable industry guests in his RTF master class.