now she is the subject of a new documentary by her nephew actor director griffin dunne. here's the trailer. >> my first notebook was given to me by my mother with the suggestion that i amuse myself by writing down my tots. i tinted have any clear picture of how to do it but i had a clear sense that i wanted this to continue. ♪ >> joan didion is quite extraordinary. >> and unexpected. joan's writing would grab the reader. what a fresh voice. ♪ >> she's writing about all sorts of disorder. >> i always found that if i examined something, it's less scary. >> she wanted to go there. she wanted to get in on that. ♪ ♪ >> my husband, my daughter an me, we finally got a house. >> everybody showed up at this house, stephen speilberg, martin scorsese, warren beatty. >> everything seemed to be going so well. >> the interesting part of the story is the failure to plan for misfortune. >> i got a call saying, i have something terrible to tell you. john died. >> john and then quintana. grief. it's the hardest thing to write about. she did it as a reporter. >> it was a coping mechanism,