When Orson Welles gave his acceptance speech when he received the third AFI Lifetime Achievment Award, he made a plea for the filmmaker who was a maverick. This documentary uses current and archival interviews and film footage of seventeen notable directors who went against the grain to place their unique vision on the screen. Beginning with D. W. Griffith, this documentary uses film clips to demonstrate how some of the mavericks, like John Ford, were able to work inside the system while others, like John Cassavetes, worked out of it. Among the classic directors profiled are Josef von Sternberg, Erich Von Stroheim, and Preston Sturges up until more current filmmakers like David Lynch, Robert Altman, and Martin Scorsese.