Neighbors, a new series story-produced by Max McGillivray '21, is now streaming on HBO. This docu-series follows the chaotic and complicated disputes of neighbors and the extreme lengths they'll go to defend what's theirs.
This show is the first unscripted series from A24. As described by The New Yorker, Neighbors is, “much like How To with John Wilson, another docuseries on HBO.” The show “has a deep, methodical interest in the mundane, recognizing that such a focus is often the best way to stumble into genuinely revealing portraits of people.” However, the two shows differ in their overall tone. Where, “How To is a quiet, somewhat hopeful ode to the surrealism of the everyday,” this newest show, “is consciously more of a freak show à la Hoarders.”
The series has been met with shocked, intrigued, and thrilled reactions. “Neighbors is not only fascinating but cathartic. In this polarized nation, we are all trying to figure out how to coexist with people with whom we feel diametrically opposed. It may not be with the crazy person on the block, but it can feel just as surreal,” shared The Guardian.
Max McGillivray is a Los Angeles-based, Massachusetts-born writer/director/producer working in both comedy and drama. Max is currently developing a feature action-comedy with Andrew Jay Cohen (Neighbors). He is also producing an animated comedy for Seth McFarlane’s Fuzzy Door Productions and MGM. Before coming to Los Angeles, Max studied history and documentary film at Harvard and earned his MFA in Directing from Columbia University, where he also taught undergraduate filmmaking. Max got his start as an historical researcher for Errol Morris, James Schamus, Caryn Capotosto and Athina Tsangari, becoming engrossed in stories of American history and the American dream. Max’s short films are recipients of awards from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Indian Paintbrush, Panavision, and Columbia University. He is currently a writer-in-residence at the Eastern Oregon Film Festival.
