Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers

Ken Jacobson, Executive Director of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, discusses highlights of this year's lineup including Gala Films, Sundance standouts, a World Premier, and Oscar-qualifying shorts. They also delve into personal stories of missing daughters, a community dependent on whale hunting, and the history of racist ideas in America.

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”   Follow: @bethannhardison and @invisiblebeautyfilm on Instagram and @frederictcheng on twitter @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

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.   Follow: @thompwers1 on Instagram and @thompwers on twitter @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Closing out our Emmy coverage, today we feature Ken Burns (“Brooklyn Bridge”, “The Civil War”, “Jazz”) and Lynn Novick (“Frank Lloyd Wright”, “Baseball”, “Hemingway”) discussing their thrice-Emmy nominated “The U.S. and the Holocaust”.  As Ken tells us, this PBS series addresses the “Holocaust, one of the low points of humanity and what Americans knew and what they didn't know, what they did, and more importantly, what they didn't do.”   Ken and Lynn first explain why they start with the story of Anne Frank and her family, and how it reveals how we often don’t fully understand the American context of such stories.  They speak with Mike about the deep anti-immigrationist and antisemitic feelings of America between the world wars.  They explain in particular how Eugenics was used to buttress the laws severely limiting immigration, especially from Southern Europe and Eastern Europe–the latter being where most of the world’s Jews then lived.  They go on to explain how American Eugenics, along with the ideology of Manifest Destiny and even Jim Crow laws influenced the Nazis and gave them a template for their atrocities.  And they discuss some of what Ken calls “the points of light” in this most horrific time:  Some of the Americans–singularly or in organizations–who stepped up to help Jews escape.   Throughout, as the series shows the depths of the Nazi horrors and the failure of the U.S.--with the notable exception of winning the war–to muster a meaningful response, it demonstrates the importance of maintaining what writer Daniel Mendelsohn calls “the particularity” of the stories of those who died and those who survived.   Hidden Gems:  The Better Angels   Follow: @KenBurns on twitter and @kenlburns on Instagram @LynnNovick on twitter and Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

The legacy of slavery and the contributions of Black American are intrinsic to nearly every aspect of what makes America America.  It’s a simple enough thesis, but the makers of the documentary series of  "The 1619 Project"–based on the original essays published in The New York Times–bring it to life with stories from history, of course, but also those of contemporary people whose lives and experiences illustrate this deep truth.   Executive Producer and showrunner Shoshana Guy sat down with Mike to discuss how her team managed to fashion a work of great craft while sticking to their core argument throughout 6 episodes, each of which explores a key aspect of current American life.  Why is Nikole Hannah-Jones such a great guide, and what’s up with that notebook?  What is the deeper cause of elevated child and maternal mortality of Black women, no matter their income?  How did a failed attempt to get into Studio 54 inspire Niles Rodgers to compose the ultimate party song–but one actually deeply imbued with the spirit of social activism?  Throughout, we witness that from pain comes not just survival but a complicated pride of country and even joy.   "The 1619 Project" has been nominated for 3 Emmys, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series and is available on Hulu.   Hidden Gem: The Death of My Two Fathers   Follow: @shoshan_guy on twitter and @shoshanaguy on Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

As Director Davis Guggenheim explains, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is “the story of a short kid from Canada who drops out of high school to become a movie star, and he does. Then a few years later, he wakes up with this crazy diagnosis, in a Florida hotel room, and the movie's about what does he do with that?”    Davis sat down with Ken & Mike to discuss how his team arrived at deploying montages of recreations mixed with contemporaneous footage from Michael’s televisions and movie work to illustrate the events of his life.  They also explore how Davis used a special lens as well as a frank interview approach to provide his documentary a sense of immediacy.  The results are a film that is ultimately, despite the deprivations of Parkinson’s, an optimistic take on a life well-lived.

It’s not easy being an elephant these days. Devastating droughts (exacerbated by climate change), encroaching development, and relentless poachers force elephants across Asia and Africa to go on the run, literally, in the pursuit of food, water and, a place to call home.   Executive Producer Lucinda Axelsson (“Elephant Diaries”, “Elephants of Samburu”, “Meerkat Manor”) of the fascinating National Geographic series “Secrets of the Elephants” joins Ken on the podcast to discuss the almost insurmountable obstacles — largely manmade — facing elephants today and the extraordinary adaptability and intelligence that keeps these remarkable animals one step ahead of extinction. Lucinda takes us behind the scenes with the production team, which managed to capture some extraordinary, never-before-seen moments in the wild, and shares her own “secrets” about what keeps drawing her back to the elephants’ special world.   “Secrets of the Elephants”, which is nominated for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series and Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program, is available for streaming on National Geographic.   Hidden Gem: “Three Salons at the Seaside”   Follow: @oxfordscientificfilms on Instagram and @oxfordsf on twitter @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter

On the pod today, legendary director Allen Hughes (“Menace II Society”, “Dead Presidents”, “The Defiant Ones”) joins Mike to talk about his Emmy-nominated “Dear Mama”.  The series traces the legacy of Afeni Shakur, Tupac’s mother and once a member of the Black Panthers, on her son’s life and music.  Hughes’ series demonstrates how the many modes that Tupac worked in–party music, socially conscious hip hop, and gangsta rap–were informed by the revolutionary ethos of the Panthers.    “Dear Mama” is streaming on Hulu.   Hidden Gems: Portrait of Jason F for Fake   Follow: @Hughes2Society on twitter @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

She could turn the world on with her smile. But, for the “real” Mary Tyler Moore — one of the biggest television stars of the 1970s — what lay beneath that smile? In his engrossing and incisive documentary “Being Mary Tyler Moore”, filmmaker James Adolphus (“Soul of a Nation”, “You Ain’t Got These”) presents a three-dimensional portrait of MTM, placing her in cultural context and illustrating what made her such a singular talent.   Joining Ken on the podcast, James describes his unexpected and thorough approach to the topic and how, eventually, Mary completely won him over. How is it that someone who had never seen a minute of the “Dick Van Dyke Show”, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” or the film “Ordinary People” came to direct this project? In what ways did Mary’s appearance on “The David Susskind Show” and in an interview with Rona Barrett illuminate both how Mary was perceived and how she asserted herself? And how did Mary’s final marriage with Dr. Robert Levine prove to be a truly liberating love story?   “Being Mary Tyler Moore”, which is nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, is available for streaming on Max.   Hidden Gem: Killer of Sheep   Follow: @JamesAdolphus on Instagram and twitter @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Director Lana Wilson says that in “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields” she’s showing how Shields found her way from “object of beauty to becoming a human being.”  It’s a dramatic thesis, but one that Wilson brings to life in this Emmy-nominated documentary series.  After the original “Pretty Baby”, “The Blue Lagoon”, and the Jordache Jeans commercials, Brooke found herself in her 4 years of college–where she developed both intellectually and artistically– and ultimately became the comic actor we see in “Suddenly Susan”.  While the series is grounded in the deep archive of film from Booke’s career, some of the most telling footage is shot at her contemporary dinner table, surrounded by her two teenage daughters and her loving husband as they respectfully but seriously consider the meaning and undercurrents of her youthful work.   “Pretty Baby” is available on Hulu.   Hidden Gem: Of Men and War   Follow: @lanawilson on Instagram and twitter @brookeshields on Instagram and twitter @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.