A well-told story can be as absorbing and affecting shared during a live Q&A as it can be delivered on the silver screen. Launched earlier this summer, our new Cinema Stories video series spotlights meaningful moments of film history, artistic influences, and personal anecdotes captured during intimate conversations with filmmakers at Film at Lincoln Center over the years. 

In our third video, the Richard Linklater–who celebrated his 60th birthday last week–shares the life-changing experience of seeing David Lynch’s Eraserhead and how the film taught him that audiences will follow the rules a director sets out, no matter how strange they may be. His story was part of an On Cinema conversation with Kent Jones during the 55th New York Film Festival in 2017, where Linklater’s Last Flag Flying with the Opening Night selection. Watch below.

For more from Linklater, watch his full On Cinema talk from the 55th New York Film Festival and more related videos.