This episode of On Story, actor and filmmaker James Franco describes his experiences working with Judd Apatow and Danny Boyle and Academy Award® winner Chris Cooper discusses his work in film and on television.

Actor and filmmaker James Franco first rose to prominence on the cult sensation Freaks and Geeks and has since followed with unforgettable roles in films both large and small. He won a Golden Globe early in his career for his portrayal of film icon James Dean and was nominated for an Academy award in the best actor category for his role in 127 hours. James Franco is currently starring in the Hulu original mini-series 11.22.63 along with today’s other guest, Chris Cooper. The series is adapted from a Stephen King novel of the same name and centers around a time traveler who attempts to prevent the assassination of John F Kennedy.

Chris Cooper is known for his broad range of work in supporting roles from July Johnson in TV’s Lonesome Dove to Robert Hanson in Breach, Colonel Fitts in American Beauty to Al Templeton in this year’s Hulu original miniseries 11.22.63. Chris Cooper won both an Academy Award® and a Golden Globe in 2003 for his portrayal of John Laroche in the film Adaptation and his other film credits include August Osage County, Syriana, Jarhead and Capote.

This week’s On Story, we feature three documentary storytellers and their new films. Keith Maitland discusses Tower, about the 1966 mass shooting at the University of Texas. Later, Steve Mims on Starving the Beast, which examines the philosophical shift in public higher education and Andrew Shea talks Wrestling Alligators, his film on James Billie and Seminole Indian life before and after the rise of casino gambling.

The new documentary, Tower, examines the mass shooting at the University of Texas on August 1st 1966 from the perspective of the victims, survivors and first responders. The film combines archival footage with rotoscopic animation, interviews, and scripted performances and is based on a Texas Monthly article by Pamela Colloff titled 96 minutes

Starving the Beast is the new documentary from director Steve Mims and producer Bill Banowsky. The film examines the philosophical shift in public higher education through market-based reform, and whether such measures are a solution to the problem of skyrocketing tuition costs, or the systematic elimination of federally mandated public research universities, which have provided affordable education for decades.

Wrestling Alligators, examines the rise of Native American held casinos through the lens of controversial Seminole Indian leader James Billie, who is often called the father of Indian Gaming. James Billie is a one-time alligator wrestler and Grammy-nominated recording artist who opened a first-of-its-kind high-stakes bingo hall in Hollywood Florida in 1972. The success of the gambling operation has spread the practice beyond the Seminole Tribe, forever changing the lives of Native Americans throughout North America.

This week’s On Story, we’ll hear from the writer-director behind the new film, Loving, Jeff Nichols followed by Kelly Fremon Craig and James L. Brooks on their new film, The Edge of Seventeen.

Loving depicts the real-life story of interracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving who married in 1958 and were then sentenced to one year in prison for violating Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. Their civil rights case, Loving vs. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 determined that all race-based restrictions on marriage were unconstitutional. Loving is written and directed by Jeff Nichols, and stars Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga and Michael Shannon. Jeff Nichols is the writer-director behind the films Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, last year’s Midnight Special and the critically acclaimed 2012 film, Mud starring Matthew McConaughey, Ray McKinnon and Michael Shannon.

The Edge of Seventeen is written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig and produced by veteran TV and film icon James L. Brooks. This coming of age comedy drama stars Hailee Steinfeld as the film’s acerbic yet endearing protagonist and co-stars Haley Lu Richardson, Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick.

The Edge of Seventeen hits theatres November 18th and has already received praise from critics both for the contribution of the film’s writer-director, and for the performances by the cast of relative newcomers and familiar faces.

Kelly Fremon Craig wrote the screenplay for the 2009 film Post Grad. James L Brooks career spans over fifty years and his credits include The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Lou Grant, Taxi, Terms of Endearment, Say Anything, and of course, The Simpsons.

On today’s episode, the character actor turned show-runner behind the Sundance TV legal drama, Rectify, Ray McKinnon followed by the writing team behind FX’s Justified and the actor who portrays the show’s enigmatic antagonist, Walton Goggins.

Ray McKinnon's filmography as a character actor reads like an encyclopedia of great film and TV over the past thirty years from appearances on In the Heat of the Night, Driving Miss Daisy and Designing Women to Apollo 13, NYPD Blue and O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? to Justified, Sons of Anarchy and Mud and of course Deadwood. He won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short for his 2001 film The Accountant, and created the soon-to-be-concluded legal drama, Rectify.

Walton Goggins's acting credits include appearances on The Shield, Lincoln, Django Unchained, Sons of Anarchy and of course Justified. He co-produced the Academy Award-winning short, The Accountant, with today’s other guest, Ray McKinnon and appeared most recently in The Hateful Eight and the HBO series Vice Principals.