Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers

”Apolonia, Apolonia” with Lea Glob

 Surrounded by a Bohemian cast of characters, she was conceived and grew up in an avant-garde theater in Paris; she aspired to be a painter. What could be more romantic than that? In “Apolonia, Apolonia”, director Lea Glob’s epic and fascinating portrait of Apolonia Sokol, romantic ideals intermingle with the hard realities of what it takes for a talented young woman without a trust fund or family connections to make it in the art world.
 
Joining Ken on the pod, Lea describes how, as a Danish film student, she became intrigued by Apolonia, so much so that she continued filming with her off-and-on for 13 years. What was it about Apolonia and her life that grabbed Lea’s attention and held her focus for so long? What was the key moment in Los Angeles when Apolonia, facing a personal crisis, called on Lea’s camera to make a bold statement of freedom? And how did a health crisis in Leas’ life widen the film’s lens and help save her own life? It’s a story as captivating and complex as any painting.
 
“Apolonia, Apolonia” is shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.
 
Hidden Gem:
”The World is Family”
 
Follow:
@apolonia_apolonia_film on Instagram
@topdocspod on Instagram and twitter
 
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

”32 Sounds” with Sam Green

Not just a movie about sound, but an interactive feast for the senses, “32 Sounds” is the latest in filmmaker Sam Green’s (“The Weather Underground”, “A Thousand Thoughts”) unique “live” documentaries. Inspired by the great 1993 film “Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould”, the film delivers a heightened sensorial experience through an incredibly wide array of interviews, original footage, archival material and, of course, sounds.
 
Joining Ken on the pod, Sam goes deep inside his own creative process. What exactly is a “live” documentary, and how did Sam come up with this innovative concept? What is the idea behind “ghost voices”, and how did Ken’s random connection to one of the film’s interviews cause him to experience his own ghost voice? Of all his films, why is “32 Sounds” the one that has changed Sam the most? It’s only appropriate that we invite you to listen to our interview with Sam Green. Let’s call that the 33rd sound.
 
“32 Sounds” is shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.
 
Hidden Gem:
“Tongues Untied”
 
Follow:
@sam_b_green on Instagram
@topdocspod on Instagram and twitter
 
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Sundance 2024 Documentary Lineup Review with Basil Tsiokos

The Sundance Film Festival marks its 40th edition on January 18 - 28. To help get us ready for the big event, Basil Tsiokos, Sundance Senior Programmer, Nonfiction, makes his third visit to “Top Docs” to preview this year’s sure-to-be-killer documentary lineup. As the first Sundance under new Festival Director Eugene Hernandez, what are the new wrinkles of this year’s fest? What are some of the doc standouts and special treats? Check out our annual January “Top Docs” Sundance preview special to find out!
 
For more info about the festival and to see which titles will be available to be screened in-person and online, go to festival.sundance.org.
 
Follow:
@sundanceorg on Instagram and @sundancefest on twitter
@topdocspod on Instagram and twitter
 
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

”Stamped from the Beginning” with Roger Ross Williams

In his vivid, pulsating new documentary, Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams (“Music by Prudence”; “Life, Animated”) puts his own creative stamp on Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s best-selling book “Stamped from the Beginning” about the history of racist ideas in America.
 
Joining Ken on the pod, Roger describes how the racial reckoning of 2020 inspired him to make a film version of “Stamped”. What were the keys to unlocking the film’s vibrant visual aesthetic and dynamic editing style? How did seeing a list of potential scholars to interview for the film become a lightbulb moment for Roger? And in what ways did humor, amidst such an intense and serious topic, play a vital role in telling this story.  
 
“Stamped from the Beginning” is shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. The film is currently streaming on Netflix.
 
Follow:
@rogerrosswilliams on Instagram and @RogerRossWill on twitter
@topdocspod on Instagram and twitter
 
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

”Four Daughters” with Kaouther Ben Hania

Mixing the traditional documentary form with elements of Brechtian theatre, director Kaouther Ben Hania’s (“The Man Who Sold His Skin, “Beauty and the Dogs”) Cannes-winning “Four Daughters” creates a highly intense and emotional experience — for both the audience and the principal characters.
 
Joining Ken on the pod, Kaouther discusses the challenges and breakthroughs of her hybrid approach. In the film, actors play various roles and intermingle with the “real” sisters and mother in a Tunisian family ripped apart by family strife and Islamic extremism. How did the four sisters respond to their mother’s controlling grip and violent outbursts? What happened during a particularly intense scene to cause the lone male actor in the film to ask the director to shut off the cameras? How does this troupe navigate a familial and cultural landscape in which women are marginalized but also forge an unbreakable bond of sisterhood?
 
“Four Daughters” is shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film and Best International Feature Film. The film is released by Kino Lorber.
 
Follow:
@kaoutherbenhania on Instagram
@topdocspod on Instagram and twitter
 
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

"Sugarcane" with Julian Brave Noisecat & Emily Kassie

Kicking off our on-the-ground coverage of Sundance 2024, Julian Brave Noisecat and Emily Kassie join Mike to discuss their new film, “Sugarcane”.  
 
In this film, they explore the legacy of the St. Joseph Mission, one of many segregated residential schools promulgated by the Canadian government and run by the Catholic Church.  The stories they tell are deeply personal (Julian’s grandmother attended the school, and his father was born there) as well illustrative of a wider history of abuse within the schools.  As they explain, they deploy and reshape various filmic conventions–the Western, archival, the travel doc–in innovative ways to do justice to the lives and stories of their subject.  The result is a many-layered testament to survival and renewal despite deep, still-ongoing pain.
 
Thanks to Amos Cochran of Edit/Score for hosting our 2024 Sundance interviews.  Edit/Score is a new music library with an innovative approach to finding music for your film. Listen to the library and learn more at editscoremusic.com 
The Presenting Sponsor of Top Docs is Netflix.
 
Follow:
@emilykassie on Instagram & twitter
@jnosiecat on Instagram & twitter
@topdocspod on Instagram and twitter

"Union" with Brett Story, Stephen Maing & Chris Smalls

In the second of our live, in-person interviews at Sundance 2024, award-winning directors Brett Story (“The Prison Landscape in Twelve Landscapes”) and Stephen Maing (“Crime + Punishment”), along with Amazon Labor Union (ALU) president Chris Smalls, the film’s main protagonist, join Ken to discuss the world premiere of “Union”.
 
In this riveting, verité documentary, we meet Chris and other current and former employees inside a tent (ALU’s makeshift HQ), as they form an independent, grassroots labor movement to unionize Amazon’s largest fulfillment center in New York City. What begins as a longshot fight against one of the world’s largest companies, eventually becomes the most watched labor election in decades. Brett, Stephen and Chris discuss the immense challenges faced by the union, its highly effective efforts to galvanize Amazon workers, and the creative spark set off by this union of two acclaimed filmmakers.
 
Thanks to Amos Cochran of Edit/Score for hosting our 2024 Sundance interviews.  Edit/Score is a new music library with an innovative approach to finding music for your film.
Listen to the library and learn more at editscoremusic.com 
 
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.
 
Follow:
@unionthefilm on Instagram and twitter
@topdocspod on Instagram and twitter

"Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza" with Michael John Warren

Siouxsie and the Banshees. Ice-T.  Nine Inch Nails.  All were on the slated for the first Lollapalooza lineup in 1991.  But as Michael John Warren, director of the new 3-part Paramount+ series “Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza,” tells us in our live interview at Sundance, his account of the history of the festival–first intended as a goodbye tour for Jane’s Addiction–is more than a trip down memory lane for Gen X.  
 
The festival, he explains, pulled together a number of threads from the LA Alternative scene and beyond:  Not just tattoos and piercings, but politics as well.  As Michael describes it, the results of his nostalgia trip revealed that the themes over 30 years ago still are “heartbreakingly” relevant today:  LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, and censorship amongst others.
 
The result is a series that like much of Michael’s work is both incredibly fun as well as attuned to the issues that still matter today.
 
Thanks to Amos Cochran of Edit/Score for hosting our 2024 Sundance interviews.  Edit/Score is a new music library with an innovative approach to finding music for your film. Listen to the library and learn more at editscoremusic.com 
 
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.
 
Follow:
@MJWfilms on twitter and @mjwfilms on Instagram
@topdocspod on twitter and Instagram

"Porcelain War" with Slava Leontyev & Brendan Bellomo

Toward the end of this year’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary “Porcelain War”, one of the directors and main subjects of the film, Slava Leontyev, says, “Ukraine is like porcelain. Easy to break but impossible to destroy.” Slava, along with his wife, Anya, create beautifully crafted “porcelain beasts” that used to be their main professional focus. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Slava has served with the Ukrainian Special Forces and Anya dodges landmines in the fields near their home.
 
Joining Ken for a live, in-person interview at Sundance 2024, directors Slava Leontyev and Brendan Bellomo describe the unlikely circumstances that brought them together and the unique creative process that resulted in this remarkable film. Amidst the constant battle against the Russian invaders, Slava, Anya, and their friend Andrey Stevanov (the film’s DP) see a world around them that is broken, but, through the courage of their resistance, cannot be destroyed.
 
Thanks to Amos Cochran of Edit/Score for hosting our 2024 Sundance interviews.  Edit/Score is a new music library with an innovative approach to finding music for your film.
 
Listen to the library and learn more at editscoremusic.com 
 
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.
 
Follow:
@brendanbellomo and @anyaslavaporcelain on Instagram
@topdocspod on Instagram and twitter

"The ABCs of Book Banning" with Trish Adlesic

A children’s book about Rosa Parks. A graphic adaptation of “The Diary of Anne Frank”. A Pulitzer Prize-winning book by a Nobel Laureate. These are but a few of the books that have been restricted, challenged, and banned in dozens of states across the U.S. In the new documentary “The ABCs of Book Banning” (directed by Sheila Nevins, produced and co-directed by Trish Adlesic, and co-directed by Nazenet Habtezghi), the filmmakers go to the source: a fourth grade class in Jacksonville, FL to hear what the students themselves have to say about this latest wave of book banning in America.
 
Producer and co-director Trish Adlesic joins Ken to discuss what’s at stake in school and public libraries and why it is so critical that we listen to young people about what is being denied to them when books are taken off the shelves.
 
“The ABCs of Book Banning” has been nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary Short. It can be streamed on Paramount +.
 
Hidden Gems:
Trish Adlesic: “Camp Courage”, “American Symphony”
Sheila Nevins: “Last Song from Kabul”, “American Symphony”
 
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.
 
Follow:
@thesheilanevins on Instagram and twitter and @trishadlesic on Instagram
@topdocspod on Instagram and twitter