Episodes
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Given today’s combative political environment, why would anyone want to watch a film about government? Well, because Brandon and Lance Kramer made it. Brothers and filmmakers, the Kramers have carved out a space in documentary that’s reflective and thoughtful in an era where loud and combative rule the day. In “The First Step,” the Kramers show that government still works when everyday citizens look beyond superficial differences and recognize their shared humanity. The film successfully follows up on their excellent 2015 film, “City of Trees,” a winning observation of how taxpayer programs really look at ground level … and how they change lives.
Intro and outro music by Podington Bear.
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Even as a young boy growing up in Alaska, David Holthouse was fascinated by newspapers, storytelling and life on the margins. His ability to blend into his surroundings led to a career as a self-styled gonzo journalist. Holthouse did his best work on the inside, infiltrating groups as varied as neo-Nazis and crystal meth addicts. But as the media landscape changed, so too did Holthouse. He now applies his unique perspective to the world of documentary film and has produced a number of popular movies and series on major streamers such as Hulu and Netflix, including “Sasquatch” and “Night Stalker.”
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Morgan Elliott is a documentary filmmaker and long-time resident of New York’s “North Country.” Going back to his childhood, Elliott had heard the story of Potsdam’s famous toilet garden, a self-styled protest by a Potsdam resident in response to perceived mistreatment by the village’s government. The toilets are revered by some, and reviled by others. Elliott waded into the dispute during the pandemic’s early years and emerged in 2022 with a feature documentary that captures a story that is at once quirky and profound.
Intro and outro music: Podington Bear
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The Book Keepers tells the story of Phil Wall’s mother, Carol, a gifted writer who dreamed of becoming a published author and who finally achieved her goal … just as her long battle with breast cancer took a turn for the worse. Carol was unable to tour with her new book and passed away shortly thereafter. Her husband, Dick, did what a loyal husband would do: He went on the book tour in her place. Her son, Phil, did what a filmmaker does: He picked up his camera and followed along. Wall processed his own grief by following his dad's journey to understanding his new life as a widower. Wall also captures intimate behind-the-scenes conversations with his dad, who later pursues an unexpected course that leads to delicate and surprising moments.
Intro and outro music: Podington Bear
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Some 20 years ago, New York filmmaker Zachary Levy went looking for a story that would become his first documentary feature film. He wound up finding the personality of a lifetime in Stanley Pleskun, a New Jersey scrap metal hauler with a colorful side hustle. In Levy’s 2009 documentary Strongman, Levy contributes an enduring character to the canon of vérité filmmaking.
Intro music: Arne Bang Huseby
Outro music: Jahzzar
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Ten years ago, Shaleece Haas stumbled upon a musician whose lyrics captured her attention ... and then her imagination. Turns out the musician, Bennett Wallace, had a story to go along with his music. It was a story increasingly playing out in living rooms across the country and one that is forcing American society to rethink old ideas about gender and identity. In "Real Boy," Haas tenderly trains her lens on a young transgender musician, his best friend and mentor, and the mother who struggles to accept the reality of who her son is becoming.
Intro Music by Lobo Loco
Outro Music by Kevin MacLeod
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Robert Greene is an award-winning filmmaker who directed the highly regarded Netflix documentary, "Procession." But at the dawn of the 2010s, Greene was only beginning to refine his voice and vision as a filmmaker. In 2011, Greene parlayed a family connection into access to a handful of small-time pro wrestlers and followed them as they prepared for a show in rural North Carolina. The result is documentary treasure. Greene's film, "Fake It So Real," explores a subculture that alternately generates smiles and winces but ultimately wins your heart. The film also captures a slice of rural America in the years before Donald Trump exploded onto the political scene, straining the already fraught relationship between urban and rural Americans.
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Drew Xanthopolous was a young, unestablished filmmaker when he came across a New York Times photo essay that would launch his career—as well as change the next five years of his life. The essay documented the lives of people who suffer from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, a crippling condition that forces the afflicted to rethink everything about their day-to-day lives (including where they live and how they interact with family). Xanthopolous was intrigued and decided to learn more. He met several MCS sufferers and decided to tell their story. Over the ensuing handful of years, Xanthopolous undertook a nearly continuous milk run across two time zones to capture the lives of those living with MCS. His ensuing film, The Sensitives, documents the unique emotional terrain of those for whom modern life is more curse than blessing.
Music by Wall Matthews
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In the United States, stray dogs are not allowed to live on the street. They are whisked away to live in concrete cells. The approach is very different in some cities in Europe and Asia, where stray dogs are allowed to live freely alongside the human population.
Elizabeth Lo pondered these differences and what it all means. She wanted to create a visual document that captures stray dogs as seen from their perspective, not ours. The result is a stunning visual achievement that also carries a message about what it means to live free.
Lo's film, Stray, was released in 2021. It won the jury prize for Best International Feature Film at the Hot Docs International Film Festival!
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Justin Schein is a veteran filmmaker who has worked with scores of documentary subjects, but nothing could prepare him for an aging yippee named Mayer Vishner. Schein thought he was making a documentary about Vishner’s life. Vishner had a different idea, and it shook Schein to his core and tested his mettle as a friend, filmmaker and human being. Schein's 2015 film, "Left On Purpose," follows the colorful, unforgettable Vishner through a minefield of emotional and ethical issues.
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Joe Brandmeier was an average married guy who accepted the ups and downs of being coupled. But then a particularly tough patch in his marriage prompted him to think more deeply about the institution. Brandmeier became deeply curious about why we get married, what it means to be married, and how different kinds of couples make it work. He hit the road and interviewed a variety of married couples throughout the upper midwest. The interviews became the crux of his 2016 film, "I Do?" It's an amiable look at how real couples love, laugh, cope and persist.
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Hollywood photographer Pamela Littky was overtaken by a nagging curiosity ... what happens, she wondered, to the thousands of kids named Most Likely to Succeed in high schools all across America? Littky embarked on her first documentary film to find out. Ten years later, she answered the question in her 2019 film, "Most Likely to Succeed." It's an endearing and honest look into life's most vulnerable period where even high school stars get bumped around along the way.
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Jesse Alk's father, Howard, was a documentarian who died when Jesse was a child. Decades later, Jesse wound up retracing his father's footsteps to Kolkata, India, where Howard had documented West Bengali musicians in the early '70s. Jesse fell in love with the city, its people, and particularly its native street dogs. He filmed the dogs and the people who care for them, capturing the loneliness and suffering of both. His film, Pariah Dog, debuted in 2019 at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and won Best Feature.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.talkingdocumentary.com -
Dani Connor Wild was volunteering for a wildlife photographer in northern Sweden when the Covid pandemic descended and locked her in place. For the next six months she lived alone in a town of 20 mostly elderly residents and found solace and meaning by heading into the dense, rustic woods near her home. What she found there altered the trajectory of her young career and transformed her into a successful multi-platform documentarian. Her first documentary film, The Squirrels & Me, was released on YouTube in February and has already racked up nearly a million views.
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In 1996, Michael Lucid was a senior at the Crossroads school in Santa Monica, California. He noticed a social phenomenon that had the school buzzing and wanted to know more. So he grabbed a camcorder and began documenting a group of impossibly young female idealists whose brash manners and clothes were ruffling feathers on campus. In the process, he created a time capsule that still captivates people 25 years later.
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In 1982, three young men from Allentown, Pa., climbed aboard a billboard in a competition to win an $18,000 mobile home. Times were tough, owning a home was an inaccessible dream, and the three competitors were determined to win. They wound up living on the billboard far longer than anyone imagined and became global celebrities in the process. Nearly four decades later, their story of obsession and determination still resonates. Filmmaker Pat Taggart discusses how this unusual contest came to be and how he overcame an unsettling first interview to make the film.
Learn more about the film at billboardboys.com.
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The internet is awash in what are known as "Bill Murray stories." Murray crashing a bachelor party. Bill Murray joining a random kickball game. Bill Murray washing a stranger's dishes. Tommy Avallone traveled to two continents to find out whether these stories were true, and what they tell us about Bill Murray as well as ourselves. Avallone's 2018 film, "The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man," is a light-hearted exploration of a quirky and beloved celebrity. But it's also a meditation on life and the importance of being present.
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When Jeremy Workman learned his friend, Matt Green, planned to walk every street in New York City, Workman did what any sensible filmmaker would do: he grabbed his camera and followed along. Three years and 600 hours of footage later, Workman had everything he needed to tell the story of Green's unusual quest in Workman's film, The World Before Your Feet.
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Daniel Weinshenker is a poet and creative writer whose literary journey has led him to a new and unexpected artform—helping ordinary people document their lives through digital storytelling. The stories that ensue are tiny documentary films that capture the intimate and symbolic moments in everyday life. Weinshenker is the director of the Denver office of StoryCenter, a non-profit with a mission to promote listening and compassion through the telling of stories.
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Eddie Fischer was a charismatic teacher who ruled the halls of an elite prep school in Charleston, South Carolina. He also harbored a terrifying secret that left shame and heartbreak in his wake. Director Paige Tolmach was a student at that school. Three decades later, Tolmach decided to tell the story of how Fischer shattered so many lives without being detected. Her film, "What Haunts Us," was released in 2018 and earned an Emmy nomination for Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking.
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