Doc Talk: A Deadline and Nō Studios Podcast

Nuisance Bear, set in Churchill, Manitoba where polar bears regularly cross paths with locals and eco-tourists, has emerged as one of the most lauded films of the year. We speak with directors Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman about how they upended nature film tropes, telling the story from the bears' POV. They also share how they got engaged at Sundance and married on the spot, shortly before winning the festival's Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary.

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Deadline partners with the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas to bring you HSDFF's inaugural round table, featuring four of the top documentaries in Academy Awards contention this year: American Doctor, represented by director Poh Si Teng; Closure, represented by director Michał Marczak; To Hold a Mountain, represented by co-director Biljana Tutorov, and Once Upon a Time in Harlem, represented by producer Liani Greaves. The conversation ranges from the biggest challenges the filmmakers faced to get their projects made, to what they like best — and least — about the race for Oscar recognition.

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Once Upon a Time in Harlem, a documentary more than 50 years in the making, has emerged as a strong contender for Oscar recognition. Director David Greaves and producer Liani Greaves join us to discuss their film about an extraordinary 1972 reunion of surviving figures from the Harlem Renaissance. The reunion and the documentary project was conceived by filmmaker William Greaves, David's father and Liani's grandfather.

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Documentary producer and executive producer James Costa of Bird Street Productions has been central to many of the best nonfiction films of recent years. He joins the show to talk about his work as well as an annual endeavor: choosing the films for Deadline's For the Love of Docs fall series. Costa also talks about the Oscar race this year and the controversy over NAZA, and the vilification of directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor by Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Doc Talk hits the road to report from the Toronto International Film Festival and the Camden International Film Festival in Maine. We bring you interviews with two-time Oscar winning director Barbara Kopple (Union Town), the director and protagonists of Black Sunflowers, the filmmaking team behind Edward Said: Between Worlds, and the leaders of the Camden festival — Points North executive director Elise McCave and PNI's artistic director, Sean Flynn.

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Filmmaker Sam Green joins us to discuss his new documentary The Oldest Person in the World, the result of a 10-year exploration into fascination with the person who, at any given time, is deemed to be the oldest living individual on the planet. It's a leaping off point to consider questions of mortality, impermanence and fate, told with generosity and humor.

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Filmmaker Maya Annik Bedward discusses her incisive documentary Black Zombie, an exploration of the popularity of zombie films and television series and how Hollywood appropriated Haitian religious traditions to create the horror subgenre. The film from Kino Lorber enjoys a 100 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

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Award-winning filmmaker Ross McElwee discusses his deeply personal documentary Remake, the story of his relationship with his son, Adrian, who was a presence in many of the director's earlier films. Adrian possessed talent and an original way of thinking, but drug addiction would claim his life. Remake, which McElwee says may be his final film, has emerged as a strong Oscar contender.

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We are joined by the director and protagonists of Oscar-contending documentary American Doctor on a special edition of the Doc Talk podcast recorded live before an American Cinematheque audience in Los Angeles. Physicians Mark Perlmutter, Thaer Ahmad, and Feroze Sidhwa tell us what they saw in the emergency room and operating theaters at Gaza hospitals where they treated Palestinian children severely injured in attacks by Israel's military. Filmmaker Poh Si Teng explores the impact of her film in a rapidly shifting political environment since its premiere in January at Sundance.

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TIFF documentary programmer Thom Powers previews the Toronto Film Festival's nonfiction lineup as the 51st edition of the event approaches. There are films on Palestinian scholar and activist Edward Said, soccer star Megan Rapinoe, the plastic surgery boom in Iran — and Alex Gibney's highly anticipated documentary on Elon Musk. Powers tells us what to key an eye on, including some hidden gems.

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Rebecca Miller calls Martin Scorsese "the maestro," and who would disagree? She explores the life and work of the extraordinary filmmaker in her 5-part Apple TV documentary series Mr. Scorsese, which is nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. Miller joins Doc Talk to share what she learned about Scorsese, from how he course-corrected after making 1972's Boxcar Bertha, the drug problem that nearly killed him, and the origins of his long association with actor Robert De Niro.

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The documentary Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! is up for six Primetime Emmy nominations — tied for the most of any nonfiction project this year. Filmmakers Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio tell us how they crafted their two-part doc on the legendary actor-director-writer-songwriter, who turned 100 years old in June. They got Mel to open up in ways he's never done before.

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The National Geographic documentary Ocean with David Attenborough has earned six Primetime Emmy nominations, tied for the most of any nonfiction project this year. One of them is for Outstanding Narrator for David Attenborough, the naturalist and author who turned 100 years old in May. We speak with one of the directors of the film, Keith Scholey, about working with Sir David, and about the revelations in the Ocean documentary — some to do with hopeful indications of the ocean's capacity to recover from environmental damage.

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Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sara Dosa joins the show to discuss her new documentary, Time and Water, an exploration of the dramatic shift in Iceland’s landscape, where melting glaciers threaten to wash away not only the ice but family and cultural history. Dosa enters the terrain through the work of Icelandic poet and science fiction writer Andri Snær Magnason, who wrote an obituary for the first glacier in his country that was declared moribund.

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We speak with filmmaker Gordon Quinn, cofounder of Kartemquin Films, on the 60th anniversary of the institution known for producing Hoops Dreams, Minding the Gap and countless other vital documentaries. We are also joined by Prof. Patricia Aufderheide, author of Kartemquin Films: Documentaries on the Frontlines of Democracy. Together, we explore the origins of Kartemquin, its role in a democratic society, and the evolution of nonfiction filmmaking in the last six decades.

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Filmmaker Sasha Waters discusses her new documentary Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, about the prize-winning poet who became a lecture circuit sensation late in life. Waters reveals how she got Stephen Colbert, Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi, as well as Hairspray director John Waters (no relation to Sasha) to take part in the film.

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As we move deeper into the second half of the year, cohosts John Ridley and Matt Carey examine the documentaries that have emerged as early contenders for Oscar recognition. American Doctor, Closure, Nuisance Bear, Everybody to Kenmure Street, To Hold a Mountain — they're in the running. So are two dozen more, many of them having premiered at Sundance. We dig into what's gaining traction as Oscar season inches closer.

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Nudity, comedy, cutting edge music, precocious kids, wannabe stars: public access in New York in the 1970s and '80s had everything -- a freewheeling outgrowth of cable TV that allowed freedom of expression to flourish. Director David Shadrack Smith dials back to that time in his documentary Public Access, which premiered in competition in Sundance. He joins the show to discuss one of the most fascinating nonfiction films of the year.

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Leaders of two thriving documentary film festivals join us: Sky Sitney and Jamie Shor of DC/DOX in the nation's capital, and Karol Piekarczyk, artistic director of Millennium Docs Against Gravity in Poland. They explore their successes and challenges and why festivals are enjoying a resurgence in the age of streaming.

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A documentary observing the work of the Martha Graham Dance Company is contending for Emmy recognition, even as the company founded by the legelndary choreographer celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding. We're joined by filmmakers Cyndee Readdean and Peter Schnall to discuss all things Graham, and the dancers and choreographers of today who are carrying on her legacy.

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