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Episodes
Thursday Aug 31, 2023
Thursday Aug 31, 2023
The Toronto International Film Festival (September 7 – 17, 2023) is one of the world’s top showcases for documentary film. No doubt, numerous films from this year’s lineup will be among the most acclaimed and talked about of the Fall awards season and beyond. DOC NYC co-founder Thom Powers, who has been TIFF’s Documentary Programmer since 2006, joins Top Docs to discuss this year’s selections, trends and standouts. The 2023 lineup includes new films from such renowned filmmakers as Frederick Wiseman, Raoul Peck and Lucy Walker, as well as works by some remarkably talented new voices on the documentary scene. Our Sundance roundup is one of our most popular pods, so we’re thrilled to be able to take you on an insider’s tour of the TIFF doc lineup with the perfect guide leading the way.
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The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.
Tuesday Sep 19, 2023
Tuesday Sep 19, 2023
There’s nothing invisible about the beauty, strength and savvy of pathbreaking model and fashion industry icon Bethann Hardison, whose story is at the heart of the eye-opening and captivating new documentary “Invisible Beauty”. Hardison, who directs the film with Frédéric Tcheng (“Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel”, “Dior and I”, “Halston”), became a top model at a time when black was deemed not so beautiful by the fashion industry. She then went on to a highly successful career as the owner of a modeling agency and consultant to leading fashion brands. But what sets Bethann apart is her commitment to making change in the fashion industry, to force it to confront its own shortcomings when it comes to inclusiveness and diversity.
Bethann and Frédéric joined Ken on the pod to discuss Bethann’s remarkable journey, both on the runway and off, and how the two of them formed such a fruitful and mutually supportive creative partnership.
“Invisible Beauty” opens theatrically in New York City on September 15 and in LA and other cities on September 22.
Hidden Gems:
Frédéric Tcheng: “Un Film Dramatique”, “The Secret Life of Plants”
Bethann Hardison: “Fire of Love”, “Amy”
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The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
Mike is joined by Ken who, when he’s not Co-Creator and Co-Host of “Tod Docs”, serves as the Executive Director of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. Mike and Ken discuss some of the highlights of this year’s lineup including the Gala Films, a number of other features that include standouts from Sundance, a World Premier, and some of the Oscar-qualifying shorts.
The 32nd Annual Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival runs from October 6-14th in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Check out https://hsdfi.org/ for more details.
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The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.
Tuesday Oct 10, 2023
Tuesday Oct 10, 2023
From the opening moments when David Beckham strolls through a country field wearing a beekeeper’s outfit, you know you’ll be witnessing another side to one of the world’s most famous people. In “Beckham”, a 4-part series on Netflix, director Fisher Stevens (producer of “The Cove” and “Tiger King”, and an actor on stage and screen for 40 years, most recently playing Hugo Baker on “Succession”) reveals the life and career of a man whom he says has a unique disposition: Craving love, but determinedly individualistic.
Fisher speaks with Mike about some of Beckham’s most important relationships: his father; his manager, Sir Alex Ferguson; and his wife, Victoria, aka Posh Spice. They discuss what control means for David, from his father’s early invocations of its importance, to Beckham’s midnight ramblings through his London home scrubbing surfaces and trimming the wicks of candles. And they share stories of what it means to be an American fan of soccer… er, um… football.
Hidden Gems:
Burden of Dreams
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The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix
Tuesday Oct 17, 2023
Tuesday Oct 17, 2023
Inspired by the adventures stories of his youth as well as a “radical” interpretation of Jesus’ “Great Commision” , 26-year-old American John Chau set off to the distant North Sentinel Island to tell the people there–supposedly completely isolated and putatively unfriendly to visitors–of his Savior.
Directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Boys State) join Mike to discuss not only what drove John, but who enabled him like “Pastor Bobby” and the evangelizing group All Nations. And they also explore those who either cautioned him in the moment, like John’s own father, who warned him away from colonial and imperialist thinking. As well as those who, through hard-won insight gained through experience, can provide a critical perspective now, like historian Adam Goodheart and missionary and linguist Dan Everett.
In the end, McBain’s and Moss’s film suggests, in imagining our encounter with the “untouched” other, we are telling a story about ourselves, and a lost world that never existed but that we persist in pursuing.
"The Mission" is now showing in New York in Los Angeles. It will be opening more widely in the US and Canada over the month of October.
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The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix
Thursday Oct 19, 2023
Thursday Oct 19, 2023
Two young, idealistic, talented design students from Stanford set out to create a replacement for smoking tobacco, a vaporizing device that will save millions of lives. Instead, they end up building the perfect addiction machine, and, with their wildly effective marketing campaign, they hook a plethora of non-smokers, including teenagers.
RJ Cutler (“The War Room”, “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry”) speaks with Mike about his new 4-part documentary series on Netflix, “Big Vape”. In it, he traces the tragic arc of the vaping company Juul. Cutler’s vision allows him both to understand the humanistic goal of the company’s founders and employees, while showing how the incentives of a venture-backed company ultimately led them astray. And he makes a strong case that the story of Juul, of tech solutions leading to unintended consequences, is the story of our era, one especially relevant in a time when we are seeing what results from the powerfully addictive effects of social media.
Hidden Gem:
Turn Every Page
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Tuesday Oct 24, 2023
Tuesday Oct 24, 2023
In “The Pigeon Tunnel”, Errol Morris has crafted a career-culminating work. Morris skillfully deploys and redeploys: the revelatory recreations that he has been known for since “The Thin Blue Line”; an interview with a slippery subject that surpasses that even of “The Fog of War” subject Robert McNamara; and the intellectual curiosity on display in “Fast, Cheap, & Out of Control.” He sharpens them all, reflects back on them, and yet throws it all into the pale of “productive ontological uncertainty”.
Errol joins Mike to discuss the life and career of David Cornwell, better known by his pen name, John LeCarré. In Cornwell Morris finds his ultimate subject: an avowed, unrepentant fabulist . At its core, much like the memoir that Cornwell wrote with which the film shares a title, is the insight that his spy novels are maybe even more influenced by his childhood–his con man father, his missing mother–then the few years he spent in the intelligence game. And always, behind both his work as well as Morris’ is the worry–fear? belief? assurance?–that the final room, the ultimate safe, the culminating tunnel that haunts his work is quite bereft of any clarifying meaning.
“The Pigeon Tunnel” can now be viewed on Apple+
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The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix
Tuesday Oct 31, 2023
Tuesday Oct 31, 2023
There’s nothing “sly” about Sylvester Stallone. His iconic screen characters, most notably, Rocky Balboa (“Rocky” and four others) and John Rambo (“Rambo: First Blood” + four others), are about as direct as they come — and, seemingly, so, too, is their creator. But, Emmy award-winning director Thom Zimny (“Bruce Springsteen: Wings for Wheels: The Making of ‘Born to Run’”) reveals that, even as Stallone was becoming famous for making some of the most successful films of all time, as a filmmaker, he has somehow never managed to receive the in-depth treatment that he deserves.
Thom joined Ken on the pod to discuss his insightful new documentary “Sly”, a revealing look into Stallone’s legacy and creative process. Delving into Stallone’s remarkable career, Thom discusses the recurring themes of Stallone’s work, his painful relationship with his father, and the deeply personal impact that his films have had on audiences.
“Sly” releases on Netflix on November 3.
Hidden Gem:
The YouTube Effect
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@tzimnyc on Instagram and @ThomZimny on X
@topdocspod on Instagram and X
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
As the first of our series of conversations from the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Mike spoke with Li Lu about her new 3-part series, “A Town Called Victoria”. The film explores the aftermath of a mosque burning in this small Texas town. Lu provides a nuanced portrait of the town itself, one torn between support for and fear of the victims, a divide that builds upon and reveals the racial, religious, and economic fissures that had long laid beneath the town’s placid surface. And while Lu focuses on one town, the resonances for the rest of America are not hard to discern.
“A Town Called Victoria” will premiere November 13th on PBS’s Independent Lens.
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@atowncalledvictoria on Instagram
@topdocspod on Instagram and X
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.
Tuesday Nov 21, 2023
Tuesday Nov 21, 2023
The second season of Netflix’s “High on the Hog” is almost here, and Executive Producers Karis Jagger and Fabienne Toback joined Mike to discuss their celebrated series. The subtitle of the series is “How African-American Cuisine Transformed America” and much like the strong first season, the show explores the impact of Black Cuisine on American culture, economics, politics, and more.
Mike asks Karis and Fabienne how it’s possible that this season is even more chock-full of ideas, and even more profoundly forefronts activism. And does so while allowing host Stephen Satterfield to share more of his personal and family history, as well as showing a panoply of culinary styles in all their glory, revealing the depth of richness of Black culture and culinary expression.
The Second Season of High on the Hog will stream on Netflix starting November 22nd.
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@fabiennetoback on X
@karisjagger on Instagram
@topdocspod on Instagram and X
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.