From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business.

Director Matthew Heineman thought financing a documentary about 11-time Grammy nominee John Batiste would be a breeze.

He quickly learned that the winds were blowing in the wrong direction.

We got interest, but no one committed to anything at that point.

And so we just had to continue to sort of basically self-finance the project on credit cards

and eventually got a financier to come in and help bridge the rest of the budget to allow us to finish

the film, but didn't end up selling it until it premiered at Telly Ride.

Heineman talks about the challenges of making American Symphony now on Netflix.

The film splits its time between Batista the musician,

composing a symphony to be played at Carnegie Hall,

and Batiste the husband,

struggling to cope while supporting his wife through harrowing cancer treatment.

The documentary filmmaker also explains how he managed to sneak into the Grammys

to film Batiste's big night

on an iPhone. And he recalls getting notes on the project from President Obama. But first we banter.

Stick around. It's the business from KCRW. I am joined by my partner in banter. Matt Bellany.

Hello, Matt. Hi there. So, as we have some news this

week, Netflix reported an increase in subscribers. They also announced that Scott Stuber, who has been

running the movie effort for several years now, seven years, I think, will be moving on. So there's a lot

of change at Netflix.

They say they're still making original movies.

Not as many, that's for sure.

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