The story didn’t feel real at first. Writer-Director David Anthony Ngo was watching a short interview with co-creator Erin Williams-Weir when they stopped cold. On screen was Barry Cooper, a former Texas narcotics officer who had flipped against the very system he once enforced, exposing police tactics and teaching people how to avoid getting caught.
It sounded like a Hollywood script, the kind of story designed for actors like Matthew McConaughey or Woody Harrelson, centered on a cop who turns renegade and exposes a system from the inside.
Except it wasn’t fiction.
“We just couldn’t believe nobody had made this into a feature film,” Showrunner Anthony Ngo said. “We started digging in, and after a few weeks, we realized there was something really meaty here.”
At first, Anthony Ngo approached it the way many writer-directors would. He began shaping the story as a scripted feature. The arc was there. The transformation was dramatic. It felt larger than life. However, the deeper he went, the more the truth refused to cooperate.
“It was such a wild story that nobody would believe it in a scripted film,” he said. “It had to be a documentary.”
That realization became Never Get Busted!, a gripping, character-driven documentary that has helped introduce wider audiences to Anthony Ngo, an award-winning filmmaker working as a writer-director across both documentary and narrative films.
The film, which took six years to complete, follows Cooper’s evolution from decorated narcotics officer to outspoken critic of the drug war. It premiered at Sundance and later earned the Human Spirit Award at the Nashville Film Festival, an honor presented in partnership with PBS that recognizes films exploring the depth and complexity of what it means to be human.
Backed by executive producers John Battsek, the Academy Award-winning producer of Searching for Sugar Man, and Chris Smith, known for Tiger King and 100 Foot Wave, the project carries significant industry weight.
What makes Never Get Busted! stand out is not just its access or its backing. It is the way Anthony Ngo tells the story. Rather than turning Barry Cooper into a headline or a symbol, Anthony Ngo presents him as a contradiction. Cooper is charismatic, reckless, persuasive, and at times difficult, a character audiences cannot easily categorize.
“He’s this incredible person with the wildest story I’d ever heard,” Anthony Ngo said.
That instinct, to follow the human story rather than force a narrative, gives the film its edge. It does not feel like a lecture. It does not feel like it is trying to tell the audience what to think. It feels lived in.
When Anthony Ngo and his co-creator Erin Williams-Weir first reached out to Cooper, they expected resistance. Instead, they found someone ready.
“When we got on a phone call with him and said, ‘Hey, we’d be interested in doing a story about your life,’ he basically said, ‘I’ve been waiting for this call,’” Anthony Ngo said.
Cooper was living in the Philippines at the time. He eventually traveled to Australia for interviews, bringing with him not just his story, but access to his past. His career had placed him alongside elite agencies including the DEA, FBI, ATF, and U.S. military units. His life had unfolded across multiple countries.
Then there was the footage. There were boxes of personal archives scattered across the world, more than 300 hours documenting everything from drug arrests to police raids, evangelist preaching to incredibly personal moments.
“It was an absolute treasure trove,” Anthony Ngo shared with a smile. However, documentary filmmaking is not just about what is handed to you. It is about what you make of it.
Tracking down key figures took months. In some cases, longer. Some people were eager to speak. Others were hesitant. A few avoided the project entirely.
“Building trust is a huge part of documentary filmmaking,” Anthony Ngo said. “You can’t rush that process.”
Even now, parts of Cooper’s story remain unresolved. “Where is he now? We don’t know where he is,” Anthony Ngo said. “He could be in Mexico, Asia, it’s a mystery.”
David Anthony Ngo’s work may feel immediate, but his path into filmmaking was anything but. He first fell in love with movies as a kid, watching murder mysteries and Alfred Hitchcock films with his grandmother. Later, he spent weekends going through stacks of VHS tapes at a local video store, watching everything he could get his hands on. “Movies weren’t just an escape,” he said. “They were gateways into worlds distant from the small town I grew up in.”
The shift came during his teenage years. Watching The Big Lebowski made filmmaking feel possible. “I realized I could be a filmmaker myself,” he said.
He bought a small DV camera and started making short films on weekends.
“They weren’t great,” he said. “But with each I got a bit better. Learned the craft more and bit by bit started to bridge the taste gap, that enormous divide between your artistic intention and the end result.”
That idea, closing the gap between vision and execution, still shapes how he works today. Anthony Ngo cut his teeth in post-production, first as an editor, then across reality television, children’s programming, and animation. It gave him something many directors never fully develop, a sharp instinct for structure.
From there, his process became both disciplined and deliberate.
“It always starts with a great story,” he said. “A flash of inspiration. Something that fascinates me and I think I can stay fascinated in for the many years it’s going to take to write and direct.”
He begins with a beat sheet, mapping out characters and major moments, then expands it into a full outline. That process alone can take a year or more. Only after refining it does he bring it to collaborators.
“I’ll get feedback from a few people I trust,” he said, “before sending it out to potential production partners and financiers.”
That patience has marked his career.
On the narrative side, he produced and shares a ‘story by’ credit on One Eyed Girl, which won at the Austin Film Festival, produced Rabbit, which premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and is currently writing and directing an adaptation about international drug smugglers.
As a screenwriter, he has been recognized by WeScreenplay’s Diverse Voices competition and the Tracking Board Launch Pad.
Across all of David Anthony Ngo’s work, one theme continues to surface.
“Justice has been a major theme through my work,” he said. “Unfortunately, the system often fails. And when it does, the media can sometimes be the only way the truth can see light.”
That perspective is central to the kinds of stories he chooses to tell. Projects like Never Get Busted! are not just compelling narratives, they are rooted in deeper questions about truth, accountability, and what happens when systems break down.
“I don’t believe films change the world,” Anthony Ngo said. “People change the world. But films can change people.”
That philosophy shapes his approach to filmmaking. Each story begins with a responsibility to the people involved and the truth being explored. “When dealing with true stories, you have an ethical responsibility,” he said. “From my perspective, I’m a third-party observer, and I try to go into each story with an objective mind.”
Anthony Ngo’s work has reached audiences across international film festivals, where independent filmmakers continue to compete for visibility in an increasingly crowded industry. The festival circuit remains a critical part of that journey.
“Film festivals are one of the few avenues independent filmmakers can get exposure,” he said. “As distribution and studios have become more risk adverse, festivals can be a way smaller budget films can gain attention.”
Exposure, he explains, is only part of the experience. Festivals also serve as a meeting point for filmmakers navigating the same challenges.
“They’re a melting pot,” Anthony Ngo said. “You meet like-minded filmmakers, share your experiences, and potentially collaborate on future projects. Making a movie is always a challenge. Making one independently requires an enormous amount of risk, dedication, and hard work. It’s not an easy road.”
Anthony Ngo continues to pursue stories that demand both endurance and curiosity, often returning to the true crime space where the stakes feel immediate and the characters complex. “I love working in true crime,” he said. “It seems well suited to my skills.”
His advice to aspiring filmmakers reflects the reality of the path he has taken.
“Tenacity is the number one characteristic of any good filmmaker,” Anthony Ngo shared. “You’ll hear a million ‘no’s.’ You’ll be told you can’t do it. Yet you still have to get up every morning and persevere where others fear to tread.”
In the end, everything comes back to the foundation of the craft.
“The other big thing is story, story, story,” he said. “The world is always hungry for an engrossing story. Technology changes all the time, but if you’re a great storyteller, everything else can be learned.”
