Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers

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.

“Stranger at the Gate” charts one man’s delusion:  That his neighbors are not the peace-loving, hard-working people they seem to be, but actually dangerous radicals deeply embedded in America’s heartland.  But it also subtly portrays a more universal phenomenon of dehumanization–and then offers a hopeful example of where respect and love were able to provide a remedy. Director Joshua Seftel sat down with Mike to talk about his Academy Award-nominated short documentary that tells the story of Mack, his family, and the good people of the Muncie Islamic Center as they found themselves on what seemed to be an inevitable collision course.  Joshua and Mike discuss the classic “Middletown”, the changing landscape of central America, and the challenges not only of immigrants but of veterans as well.   “Stranger at the Gate” is available on the New Yorker website as well as YouTube.   Hidden Gem: LBJ   Follow: @strangeratthegate on Instagram @jrseftel on Instagram & @JSeftel on twitter @topdocspod on twitter and Instagram   The Presenting Sponsor of “Top Docs” is Netflix.

It’s an age-old query:  Can humans live in harmony with other creatures on the planet?  On their way to speaking to this question, in  “The Elephant Whisperers” director Kartiki Gonsalves and producer Doug Blush show us the beauty, intelligence, and even danger of the creatures who share our world. Kartiki and Doug joined Mike to talk about their Oscar-nominated short documentary.  They tell Mike how the elephant caretakers, Bomman and Belli, both helped the young elephant Raghu and were helped by him as well.   Why did they choose not to forefront some of the most dire threats to the elephants, including global warming, but instead focus on what they call “a family drama”?  And what hope do they have for the future of India’s wildlife, and for the greater planet as well? The Elephant Whisperers can be seen on Netflix.   Hidden Gems: Writing with Fire (our conversation with directors Rintu Thomas & Sushmit Ghosh) Bad Axe (our conversation with director David Siev) Last Flight Home (our conversation with director Ondi Timor)   Follow: @theelephantwhisperers on Instagram Kartiki: @EarthSpectrum on twitter & @kartikigonsalves on Instagram Doug: @madpixfilm on twitter @topdocspod on twitter and Instagram   The Presenting Sponsor of “Top Docs” is Netflix.

Luke Lorentzen made a brilliant feature debut at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival with his sparkling documentary “Midnight Family”, a fast-paced look at a family-owned private ambulance business in Mexico City. Luke is back at this year’s Sundance, and this time he’s focusing on life inside one hospital in New York City. “A Still Small Voice” is an intimate portrait of the spiritual care department at the Mount Sinai Hospital and of one aspiring chaplain and her mentor.    Luke sat down with Ken at Sundance to discuss how he came to his latest topic, how he approached the role of time and pacing in a much different way than “Midnight Family”, and how he applied the principles of the spiritual care program to his own filmmaking practice. After the festival, Luke was honored with the Sundance U.S. Documentary Competition Directing Award.   Follow: @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter @LorentzenLuke on twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of “Top Docs” is Netflix.  A big thanks to Portrait for hosting this conversation at Sundance.

As a realistic account of the deprivations Alzheimers can bring, “The Eternal Memory” is harrowing.  But it’s also the story of Augusto’s and Paulina’s determined love in the face of this challenge.  And, finally, it’s the tale of Chile’s tragic yet ultimately triumphant democracy. Maite Alberdi (director of the Oscar-nominated “The Mole Agent”) sat down with Mike at Sundance to discuss her film and how it shows memory as not the finished product of individual solitude, but ever-created between people and even within nations. “The Eternal Memory” was recently acquired by MTV Documentaries. Follow: @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter @lamaitealberid on twitter @maitealberdi on instagram Also mentioned in the pod:  No The Presenting Sponsor of “Top Docs” is Netflix. A big thanks to Portrait for hosting this conversation at Sundance.

10 years ago, filmmakers Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster premiered their epic personal documentary “American Promise” at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize. Now, Michèle and Joe have returned to Sundance with the world premiere of their highly inventive, transcendent documentary portrait “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project”. Once again, the pair find themselves being honored for their dazzling work — this time taking home the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Documentary category. Fresh off the first public screening of the film, Michèle and Joe joined Ken to discuss how each discovered the revolutionary poetry of Nikki Giovanni, the process of finding the film’s visual language that was itself a poem, and the rich sources they were able to draw from, and blend together, to build an entire universe to honor the work of this extraordinary artist.   Follow: @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter @michele_0608 on Instagram and twitter @brewsterjoe on Instagram and @2joedigital on twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of “Top Docs” is Netflix. A big thanks to Portrait for hosting this conversation at Sundance. 

Premiering at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, Academy Award-nominated director Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s ("Heroin(e)", "Recovery Boys") elegiac, stirring, and magical new documentary “King Coal” gives an insider’s unique perspective on the profound impact that coal has had on the people and mythos of Central Appalachia. As the daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of coal miners, Elaine’s narrative comes from a place of personal experience and deep reflection — and stretches the boundaries of traditional documentary. Sitting down with Ken in Park City the night before her film’s world premiere, Elaine discusses the liberating effect of using hybrid storytelling strategies, the challenges of presenting a nuanced approach to a highly politicized issue, and her nervous anticipation of watching the film with her family for the first time. "King Coal" was produced by Diane Becker, Shane Boris, and Peggy Drexler.   Follow: @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter @elainemsheldon on twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of “Top Docs” is Netflix. A big thanks to Portrait for hosting this conversation at Sundance. 

Bride kidnapping. What sounds like a practice from long ago or even a tale out of folklore is actually a Lunar New Year tradition among the Hmong community of the mountains of northern Vietnam. First-time feature filmmaker Diem Ha Le explores this controversial custom through the lens of Di, a young Hmong girl, in the fascinating coming-of-age documentary “Children of the Mist”.   Joining Ken on “Top Docs” to discuss her extraordinary film, Diem describes how she didn’t set out to make a film about bride kidnapping, but, eventually, the story led in that direction. How does the issue of bride kidnapping divide parents, the Vietnamese government, and teachers? What drove Diem to enter the fray and become directly involved in the events unfolding in front of her? And what caused the close relationship between Diem and Di to rupture? With no easy answers at hand, it’s obvious that, as the mist clears, the Di at the end of the film will be very different from the young girl at the beginning.   “Children of the Mist” is one of 15 documentaries named to the Oscar Shortlist in the category of Best Documentary Feature and is released by Film Movement.   Follow: @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter @filmmovement on Instagram and @Film_Movement on twitter   Hidden Gem: Slowly Forgetting Your Faces   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Hundreds of years ago, cut off from the outside world and confined to so-called chamber rooms, rural women in Jiangyong in southern China did something radical and transformative: they invented their own secret language. Speaking and writing “Nushu” to each other, the women found their voice and created a community of sisterhood. In her poetical and powerful documentary “Hidden Letters”, director Violet Du Feng (“Maineland”, “Confucian Dream”) explores the fascinating history of Nushu and follows two contemporary women who are fighting to keep the language alive and true to its original spirit.   Violet joins Ken on “Top Docs” to discuss Nushu, its current context, and her multi-layered creative approach. How did Violet decide that the key to the film was not just focusing on Nushu but on the “modern” Chinese woman and the staggering societal pressures she faces? In the midst of her production, why did she abandon the idea of animation and go in a completely different direction? And, in the face of Nushu’s recent commercialization, how can its practitioners ensure that Nushu continues to exist “in the internal space of who we are”?   “Hidden Letters” is one of 15 documentaries named to the Oscar Shortlist in the category of Best Documentary Feature. Distributed by Cargo Film and Releasing, the film premieres on Independent Lens on March 27th.   Follow: @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter @violetdufeng on Instagram and @HiddenLetters_ on twitter   Hidden Gem: Happiness is £4 Million   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.