PODCAST · society
Talking Documentary Podcast
by Scott
Do you love documentaries? Join me for a series of conversations with directors who discuss the craft of documentary filmmaking. You'll learn how these talented creators find great stories and how they bring them to life on screens around the world. www.talkingdocumentary.com
Episodes
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Seeing the Whole Field
When Phil Wall last appeared on this podcast, he was the everything guy—director, cinematographer, writer, editor—on The Book Keepers, a film about death and grief made intimate by how few hands touched it. Now Wall returns with a radically different project: a three-episode, 137-minute history…
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The Long Goodbye
Dear Audrey follows veteran documentary filmmaker Martin Duckworth as he cares for his wife Audrey, who is living with Alzheimer’s. What begins as a portrait of daily life gradually expands into a reflection on memory, devotion, and acceptance. Director Jeremiah Hayes allows the narrative to…
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The Last Campfire
Every summer, on the very edge of Chincoteague island, there was a little world called Inlet View. Generations came through: grandparents, parents, kids who grew up barefoot on the sand, all returning to the same sliver of shoreline year after year. It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t curated. It was...
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The Kramer brothers make government cool again
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…
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David Holthouse's wild journey from journalist to filmmaker
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...
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Morgan Elliott finds backyard treasure in "Potty Town"
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…
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Phil Wall processes his grief in the making of "The Book Keepers"
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...
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Zachary Levy unearths gold in "Strongman"
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…
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Shaleece Haas tackles one of America's great social issues in "Real Boy"
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…
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Robert Greene returns to his roots to film pro wrestlers in "Fake It So Real"
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…
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Drew Xanthopolous leans on his humanity to enter the world of "The Sensitives"
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…
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Elizabeth Lo captures the romance of urban dog life in "Stray"
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...
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Justin Schein faces an unthinkable dilemma in "Left on Purpose."
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...
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Joe Brandmeier hits the road to interview married couples in "I Do?"
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...
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Pamela Littky spends 10 years following kids voted "Most Likely to Succeed"
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...
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Jesse Alk explores Kolkata's mysterious native dogs in "Pariah Dog"
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…
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Dani Connor Wild discovers she's a filmmaker while locked down in northern Sweden
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…
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Michael Lucid goes back to school to tell the story of "Dirty Girls"
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…
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Pat Taggart unearths the story of a lifetime in "Billboard Boys"
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…
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Tommy Avallone stalks a legend in "The Bill Murray Stories"
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…
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Jeremy Workman tracks an obsessive pedestrian in "The World Before Your Feet"
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...
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How Daniel Weinshenker became "The Story Whisperer"
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…
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Paige Tolmach reckons with the past in "What Haunts Us"
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...
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Brian Rose's long and winding road to making "When I Last Saw Jesse"
Jesse Ross was a 19-year-old college student who disappeared at a college conference and was never seen or heard from again. Brian Rose sits down to discuss Ross's disappearance and how he approached the mysterious story in his 2019 documentary, "When I Last Saw Jesse." This is a public episode.…
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Welcome to "Talking Documentary"
"Talking Documentary" is a new podcast devoted to documentary films and the people who make them. Join us for a series of conversations with the great creators in the documentary field. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Do you love documentaries? Join me for a series of conversations with directors who discuss the craft of documentary filmmaking. You'll learn how these talented creators find great stories and how they bring them to life on screens around the world.
www.talkingdocumentary.com
HOSTED BY
Scott
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Talking Documentary Podcast have?
Talking Documentary Podcast currently has 25 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Talking Documentary Podcast about?
Do you love documentaries? Join me for a series of conversations with directors who discuss the craft of documentary filmmaking. You'll learn how these talented creators find great stories and how they bring them to life on screens around the world. www.talkingdocumentary.com
How often does Talking Documentary Podcast release new episodes?
Talking Documentary Podcast has 25 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Talking Documentary Podcast?
You can listen to Talking Documentary Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Talking Documentary Podcast?
Talking Documentary Podcast is created and hosted by Scott.
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