In Eraserhead Stories, a feature length doc on the six-year making of the cult classic, all-American surrealist David Lynch talks directly to the camera, smoking cigarettes and telling charming tales of how his unlikely film came to be. Like Eraserhead itself, the film is B&W and there’s a continuous ominous hum on the soundtrack.

Not quite a monologue, Lynch also calls Eraserhead‘s assistant director Catherine Coulson (she later played the “Log Lady” on Twin Peaks) for her take on things. There was a sort of “family” assembled around the film and without this, Eraserhead would never have been birthed into the world (see what I did there?). At one point Lynch calls the viewers’ attention to a year and a half gap between two edits. He also reveals that he himself lived in the windowless set of Henry’s room for two years while the film was being made.

Amusingly, the film’s lead actor, Jack Nance, never knew, nor did he care, what Eraserhead was all about. He’s quoted as saying “You guys get way too deep over this business. I don’t take it all that seriously. It’s only a movie.”

In 2004, Eraserhead was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress.