Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers

The quest for a lifelong mentor can be as tough a mountain to climb as, you know, a really big mountain. If you are Oscar®-winning filmmaker and world-class climber Jimmy Chin, not only do mountains and mentors play a huge role in your life, but, in the case of Jimmy and his Oscar-winning creative/life partner Chai Vasarhelyi, they are also at the center of their fascinating and deeply personal new documentary “Wild Life”.   Jimmy and Chai make a return visit to Top Docs (“The Rescue”) to share stories about the making of “Wild Life”, which focuses on a tight knit group of trailblazing mountain climbers and entrepreneurs, including the indomitable Kris Tompkins. When Kris’ husband, the larger-than-life Doug Tompkins (co-founder of North Face and Espirit) dies suddenly in a kayaking accident, Kris (former CEO of Patagonia) overcomes her grief to carry the torch of the couples’ unprecedented efforts to turn the largest private land donation in history into the creation of massive national parks in Chile and Argentina. Join us for this heartfelt conversation in which Chai and Jimmy describe what it took for Kris to make these conservation dreams a reality, as well as the filmmakers’ own formidable challenges in doing justice to their friends’ extraordinary lives.   “Wild Life” is currently streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.   Follow: @jimmychin and @chaivasarhelyi on Instagram and @jimkchin on twitter @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Miami Beach in the early ‘60s was a magnet for dreamers, the idle rich, and the young-and-restless. It was also an irresistible draw for a young, handsome California surfer named Jack “Murf the Surf” Murphy who quickly took Miami Beach by storm… and then just took it. Joining a high-flying crew of brash jewel thieves, Murphy and his accomplices made off with thousands in stolen gems. The crooks later pulled off a daring heist of the Star of India and other priceless jewels from the American Museum of Natural History, which made Murphy a national celebrity (and a convicted criminal). But when Murphy was later tied to a double murder of two young women, the media’s portrayal of Murf as a fun-loving bad boy no longer seemed to fit the real picture.   Bringing his own lens to the story, highly-acclaimed filmmaker R.J. Cutler (“Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry”) crafts a thoroughly engrossing – and extremely thoughtful – four-part series about Murf the Surf that avoids many of the common tropes of the true crime genre. Returning to Top Docs for his second visit, R.J. explores the cautionary approach he took to the media savvy Murphy, why he thought it was important to re-center the narrative to honor Murphy’s victims and his strong belief in letting the audience come to their own conclusions about Murphy’s prison conversion to born-again Christianity.   “Murf the Surf” is available for streaming on MGM+.   Follow: @rjcutler928 on Instagram and @rjcutler on twitter @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   Hidden Gem: Crisis   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

In her feature documentary directorial debut, Sierra Urich follows women of three generations as they search for the meaning of “home”.  Torn between the past in Iran and the present in New England, the women navigate their family’s complicated legacy through art:  Video, painting, and song.  And they maintain and build the relationships between them through freighted words, both direct as well as translated.   Native Vermonters Sierra and Mike sat down to discuss this emotionally powerful film, one packed with stories from the past but playing with narrative form in its own telling.  They spoke of place:  Everything from domestic kitchens to the missing Google Street View of Iran.  And of how Sierra and her editor used hard cuts and other cinematic techniques  to emphasize the connection between and the distance from the world she found herself in and the land she wished to visit.  And yes, they did speak of her father, Gary–quiet, but ever-present.   Joonam is currently playing the festival circuit.   Hidden Gems: I Didn’t See You There Radiograph of a Family   Follow: @joonamfilm on Instagram @topdocs pod on twitter & Instagram   The Presenting Sponsor of Top Docs is Netflix.

Van Jones loves to talk. Or so it would seem to those who have closely followed the progressive CNN commentator’s frequent on-air rebuttals to Donald Trump’s words and deeds in recent years. But Jones is even more keen on the idea of action — specifically, action on the issue of prison reform, his driving passion for decades. Instead of spending the Trump presidency exclusively on the sidelines, Jones chose a different path: going over to “the dark side” to build alliances with Jared Kushner and Republican politicians to help pass long overdue prison reform legislation in the form of The First Step Act.   Joining Ken on Top Docs, director Brandon Kramer and producer Lance Kramer (“City of Trees”), dissect the strategy behind Jones’ approach and discuss the creative process behind the Kramer brothers’ incisive, politically deft and masterfully constructed documentary “The First Step”. How did the Kramers first connect with Van Jones and what led them to track this complex personal and political journey? Why did the filmmakers decide to follow multiple story threads knowing that this would cause their budget — and stress levels — to increase dramatically? And, ultimately, what contributed to Jones’ and his allies’ success? While The First Step Act represents one small victory on the road to true prison reform, it marks a giant leap forward in the careers of two visionary filmmakers.   “The First Step” is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.   Follow: @firststepmovie on Instagram, twitter and Facebook @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   Hidden Gem: Brandon Kramer: Crisis Lance Kramer: To Be Heard   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Like a classic sole meunière that pairs a beautiful filet of sole with a dash of butter and lemon, director Laura Gabbert’s films (“City of Gold”) match glorious portraits of food with a brilliant and uniquely qualified storyteller. In the case of her new documentary “Food and Country”, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Laura partners with food icon Ruth Reichl who embarks on an ambitious quest to talk to a variety of stakeholders throughout the U.S. to find out what can be done to fix what is clearly a food system on the brink of collapse. Sitting down with Ken at Sundance to talk about her new film, Laura discusses the challenges of a creative collaboration that, due to the constraints of the pandemic, often took place via Zoom; the forces of change that are reshaping the food industry; and the innovative chefs, restaurateurs, farmers, and ranchers who, against long odds, are re-inventing themselves in order to continue to do what they love and feed the world in the process. Bon appétit!   Follow: @lauragabbertfilms on Instagram and @LauraGabbert1 on twitter @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of “Top Docs” is Netflix.   A big thanks to Portrait for hosting this conversation at Sundance.

Her books have sold tens of millions of copies, and in the 70s and 80s she strode widely across the cultural landscape of everything from talk shows to college tours.  As Nicole Newnham (Oscar-nominated for “Crip Camp”) demonstrates in “The Disappearance of Shere Hite,” Hite’s persona was highly constructed, and nearly cinematic in its vision and specificity.  But Newnham also makes a strong case for Hite as a pioneer in sexual research, one who revolutionized the way  data was gathered and was deeply dedicated to finding the widest range of subjects as possible–racially & ethnically, as well as in terms of gender and sexual identity.  Newnham’s cinematic approach adeptly both mirrors and challenges her complex subject.     Follow: @NicoleNewnham on Instagram and twitter @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of “Top Docs” is Netflix.

In “Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV” director Amanda Kim tells the story of the visual art pioneer.  Kim traces Arnold Schoenberg and John Cage influence not only Paik’s musical art, but his visual work as well.  She shows how the poor reception by German critics to his early experiments with televisions drove him to NYC, where he found himself working with some of the luminaries of downtown Manhattan’s best of the 1960s:  not only Cage, but Merce Cunningham and Allen Ginsberg among many others..  And she traces his ultimate success both in the art world and beyond, notably on public television.  The Paik who emerges seeks to show how the media that seemed bound to lead to corporate control and division could ultimately bring the world’s inhabitants together.   “Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV” is distributed by Greenwich Entertainment and will open at the Film Forum in New York on March 24th.   Hidden Gem:  Town Bloody Hall   Follow: @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of “Top Docs” is Netflix.

“And the Oscar® goes to…” Variety’s Senior Awards Editor Clayton Davis is back on “Top Docs” to break down this year’s Oscar races for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short and to offer his predictions for who will walk away victorious on March 12th. With his encyclopedic knowledge of the Oscars and his finger-on-the-pulse of the overall Awards season, Clayton takes us through each of the five nominees in both categories and gives you his unique insights into the process. Awards pool, anyone? You don’t want to miss Clayton’s picks!   To be even more in-the-know, be sure to catch our “Top Docs” interviews with all of the Oscar-nominated directors in the documentary feature and shorts categories.   Clayton Davis is Variety’s Senior Awards Editor. He is also one of the hosts of the "Variety Awards Circuit Podcast" and the video web series, "The Take." He's been an awards, film and television analyst and critic for more than 15 years and has co-hosted the Oscars Pre-Show on ABC. Clayton is also co-founder and president of the Latino Entertainment Journalists Association and is a board member of the Critics Choice Association.   Follow: Clayton Davis on Instagram @awardscircuit and on twitter @ByClaytonDavis @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of “Top Docs” is Netflix.

A man, alone, on a desolate beach.  Armed and mumbling into a recording device in a soundscape of wind and waves. As director Evgenia Arbugaeva (co-director, her brother Maxim Arbugaev) tells Mike, the initial images of the Oscar-nominated short “Haulout” deliberately create solitude and quiet before the sudden arrival of nearly 100,000 stressed-out walruses:  with Arctic ice no longer ensured, they must pile themselves tusk-to-tusk on the beach between feeding sessions.  The film tracks the interactions-at-a-distance between the scientist Max Chakilev and these enormous mammals. But on a deeper level, it portrays a world undergoing tremendous change, one for which none of us are fully prepared.   "Haulout" can be seen on The New Yorker website.     Follow: @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of “Top Docs” is Netflix.

It says something about filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt that if you go to his website (jayrosenblattfilms.com) and click on “Contact”, the page guides you to “16mm / 35mm rental information”. Jay is that kind of filmmaker — for over 40 years, he’s been making personal, finely crafted documentaries that, regardless of format, have the look and feel of a bespoke 16mm film. Following the success of last year’s touching short “When We Were Bullies”, which was nominated for an Oscar, Jay is back with another nomination in the Best Documentary Short category, this time for the poignant and universally-relatable “How Do You Measure a Year? In this short, Jay films his daughter Ella every year on her birthday, from age two to 18, answering the same set of basic questions that he poses. Joining Ken on the podcast to discuss how the project started out and the challenges, surprises and joys along the way, Jay sheds light on the evolving relationship between a father and daughter as seen through the magical medium of film.   Hidden Gem: Summer Nights   Follow: @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of “Top Docs” is Netflix.