The Filmmakers behind Hoop Dreams and Prefontaine discuss their compelling investigation of the death penalty.

Over the past two decades, filmmakers Steve James and Peter Gilbert have been responsible for some of the most compelling entries into the documentary pantheon. Their breakout hit, Hoop Dreams, remains one of the most recognized and highly regarded documentaries ever made. Their subjects, both doc and narrative-based, have remained widely varied, from the traumatic story of Stevie to the politically and racially charged rivalry of boxers Joe Louis and Max Schmeling.

The latest effort from James and Gilbert investigates the death penalty in Texas on a very personal level. Pastor Carol Pickett served for 15 years as the death row Chaplain at Huntsville, Texas's infamous "Walls" penitentiary. During each of the 95 executions over which he presided, Pickett recorded an audiotape of his experience.

Pickett's story intersects with the story of Carlos De Luna, an inmate whose execution Pickett oversaw and who was later the subject of a Chicago Tribune article that brought doubt to much of the evidence that resulted in De Luna's execution. Pickett himself went through his tapes and found that he also had had doubts of De Luna's guilt.

As these executions took their toll on Pickett, he found his own view of the death penalty changing and now advocates life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

ReelzChannel.com recently sat down with filmmakers Steve James and Peter Gilbert for an exclusive interview at AFI in Dallas, TX, some 170 miles from the prison that is the subject of At Death House Door. The film premiered shortly before at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, TX.

The filmmakers admit the fact that Death House Door is premiering first in two Texas locations is no coincidence. "We really felt like, this being a Texas story, it needed to premiere in Texas," Steve James told ReelzChannel.com. "That's why it was perfect for it to premiere at South by Southwest and then have the very next screening be here in Dallas... Not to say that this is not a story that the rest of the country needs to see, because clearly the issue of the death penalty is a national issue."

"The Supreme Court is reviewing lethal injection right now," he added. We feel like this is a story that has huge implications for the whole country."

Gilbert adds, "[Texas] is the state where more people have been put to death than any other."

Gilbert and James weren't initially looking to make a movie about the death penalty. When they heard about Pickett's most unusual journey, the initial idea was sparked. "For me it was Reverend Pickett," James said. "I'm not a death penalty activist and I've never had a burning desire to do a film about the death penalty. I was against it, I hadn't really thought about it very much... It was really hearing from the Tribune guys initially about Pastor Pickett. The idea of telling the story through a man who, number one, spent 15 years doing this job and was with 95 men who were put to death and, number two, the fact that he would come home at night and, in order to cope with that experience, he would record what had happened that day... When we saw his memoir and what he struggled with and the transformation that he underwent, that's a great story to tell that also is about something important."

"It wasn't that overnight transformation [for  Pickett]. It took him a long time to deal with it and I think you see him waver in his faith and all different aspects of his life. For instance, ministering someone who'd actually murdered one of his parishioners. That's as close as you could get to being a person's family member."

"I think because [Pickett's] transformation is so slow and, in that way, sort of real in a sense..." Gilbert adds. "It isn't that overnight thing. And it's heightened by the fact that his story intersects with Carlos De Luna, who I think stands for a lot of people who are wrongfully convicted in our legal system... And also, one of the things that was so interesting about De Luna and Reverend Pickett was that their lives intersected and De Luna affected people. How many people are victimized by our society actually putting someone to death? Their families, the state employees, the doctors who come in, the Chaplains."

Although James and Gilbertdidn't necessarily set out to make a movie that would change people's opinion's about the death penalty; they were surprised to find that many audience members were moved to that degree. "When IFC did a marketing test screening in New York, four people who attended that screening reported on their survey cards that they came into the film pro-death penalty and left against the death penalty... I never would have imagined that."

"There's this incredible ripple affect that I never thought about until we made this movie... It's an incredible personal story that also obviously has ramifications in a much larger [capacity]."

At Death House Door Premieres on IFC tonight at pm E/P.