Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers

Filmmaker Cullen Hoback (Q: Into the Storm) leads Mike and Ken on a fascinating — and frightening —  trip down the QAnon rabbit hole as he attempts to unmask the identity of the conspiracy movement’s mysterious and mischievous leader, Q.  Focusing on 8chan, the internet site that Q calls home, Cullen locks in on founder Fredrick Brennan and former partners turned archrivals, Jim and Ron Watkins. Cullen’s mission goes from lark (or LARP, as the case may be) to full blown nightmare when Q’s followers descend on the Capitol and join in the Jan. 6th insurrection.  How did Cullen go from bootstrapping this series himself to pitching to Adam McKay (The Big Short) and landing the project at HBO? What’s it like to find neutral ground between your film’s main subjects who will stop at nothing to tear each other down? What do you do when one of your subjects calls in a panic from thousands of miles away and puts his life in your hands? Join us for all that and more, including an answer to the question, “What does the song White Rabbit have to do with all this, anyway?" You can follow Cullen on twitter @cullenhoback You can follow us @topdocspod Other Films by Cullen:  Terms and Conditions May Apply What Lies Upstream Monster Camp   Hidden Gem:  Strad Style   Also Mentioned: King of Kong American Movie Q: Into the Storm The Big Short The Jinx Robert Durst LARPing Edge Lord Qanon Anonymous Podcast Streisand effect Dig! Tiger King

In his chilling Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, Sundance award-winning filmmaker Jeff Orlowski (Chasing Ice and Chasing Coral) sounds the alarm about the insidious effects of social media and its potentially devastating consequences for society. Using a range of documentary and fiction techniques, Jeff argues that  tech’s attention extraction model is the “Frankenstein’s Monster” of our time. How did Jeff crack the code of telling this story in a compelling way that would make visible social media companies’ use of A.I. to prey upon all of us? And what was it like to direct actor  Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men) playing three versions of himself? Things get personal when Mike confronts his own “dilemma” as someone who has used “growth hacking” in his work, and we ask Jeff, “What apps are still on your phone?” Jeff’s activist site supporting the move:  thesocialdilemma.com You can follow us @topdocspod Other Films by Jeff: Chasing Ice Chasing Coral   Hidden Gem: Baraka   Also Mentioned in the Pod: Center for Humane Technology The Big Short Vincent Kartheiser and Mad Men Citizen Kane Sundance Film Festival Yesterbox Frankenstein Sophocles' Antigone Growth Hacking Mirror Neurons A/B Testing Hippocratic Oath Section 230 Woz and Jobs  

Mike and Ken talk to Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss about their Emmy Award-nominated Boys State.  They discuss Robert, Ben, Steven, and René, the four boys at the heart of the film, as they navigate their way, at a formative stage of life, through the Texas Boys State program.  It's a film that shows winning, losing, and the lessons learned during a weeklong immersion in the cutthroat world of Boys State politics.     In this intimate and illuminating conversation, Amanda and Jesse reflect on their own filmmaking journey and the unpredictability and power of documentary storytelling. Be sure to stay tuned to the end to learn which of their films made the biggest impression on 17-year-old Texas boys!    You can follow us @topdocspod   Other Films by Amanda & Jesse: Speedo:  A Demolition Derby Love Story The Overnighters The Bandit   Hidden Gems: Acasa, My Home Seventeen   Also discussed: Performative masculinity The Maysle Brothers (here interviewed by David Letterman)