Aspired to be a veterinarian as a teenager in Miami
Made his directorial debut in 1974 with Caged Heat, a tongue-in-cheek women's-prison story
Directed films with a broad range of subject matter, including CB radios (Handle with Care, 1977), the Mafia (Married to the Mob, 1988) and AIDS (Philadelphia, 1993)
Directed concert films featuring artists such as the Talking Heads (Stop Making Sense, 1984) and Neil Young (Neil Young: Heart of Gold, 2006)
Was an avid collector of Haitian art; his private collections have been featured in Manhattan galleries