Explore every episode of the podcast Doc Talk: A Deadline and Nō Studios Podcast

Thom Powers, chief documentary programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival, joins the show to talk about the nonfiction lineup of this year's festival. How do you cut more than 900 submissions down to a final list of 21? Powers explains, and he shares his thoughts on the most buzzworthy titles soon to bow in Toronto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doc Talk travels to Europe to speak with the creative director of Sheffield DocFest, the U.K.'s top all-documentary film festival, and the leaders of Sunny Side of the Doc, the biggest documentary marketplace that unfolds in La Rochelle, France. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest is Oscar-nominated filmmaker Yance Ford, director of Power. The documentary, premiering on Netflix this week, tackles policing in America – the origins of the institution and how police today preserve the existing order of society. Ford argues police power in this country is vast and largely unregulated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doc Talk goes live from the Milwaukee Film Festival with Debra McClutchy, archival producer of Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted and Oscar-nominated co-director of The Martha Mitchell Effect. And we discuss redemption and the power of music with JJ'88, protagonist of Songs From the Hole, and producer Richie Reseda. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doc Talk goes live from the Milwaukee Film Festival with Sav Rodgers, director of Chasing Chasing Amy, and Mary Louise Schumacher, director of Out of the Picture. Schumacher's film trains a sharp eye on the state of art criticism, while Rodgers explores how Kevin Smith's 1997 film Chasing Amy saved his life but continues to stir controversy today.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The announcement that Participant is shutting down has sent shock waves through the documentary community. Joining us to discuss the unsettling news are Oscar-nominated filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen, who have made two documentaries with Particpant - 'RBG,' and 'My Name Is Pauli Murray.' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emmy-winning filmmaker Kirsten Johnson discusses the impact of AI on filmmaking and society. And she talks about her two new documentaries and a scripted films she's directing about Susan Sontag that will feature actress Kristen Stewart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss discuss Girls State, a documentary they describe as a “sibling” – not a sequel – to their Emmy-winning 2020 film Boys State. The filmmaking couple reflect on documenting young women engaged in an exercise in mock government just as the Supreme Court appeared set to reverse Roe v. Wade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talk with the directors of two films at the True/False film festival: Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó of 'Agent of Happiness' and Rachel Elizabeth Seed of 'A Photographic Memory.' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doc Talk reports from the field at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen. We sit down with Artistic Director Niklas Engstrøm and filmmakers premiering work at one of the most prestigious documentary festivals in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director Simon Chambers' hilarious story of becoming a caretaker to his ailing octogenarian uncle won the directing award at IDFA where it premiered in 2022. Despite winning that award and others, for over a year the film languished without distribution. Happily, that has changed with a theatrical release secured through First Run Features. The British filmmaker joins Doc Talk to discuss his odyssey to cinemas, and his relationship with his endearing but exasperating uncle David. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey discuss Sunday night's Oscar wins for 20 Days in Mariupol and The Last Repair Shop. And Ridley shares an in-depth report from the True/False documentary festival in Columbia, MO, where he spoke with filmmakers Sylvain Cruiziat, Sumira Roy, and True/False Artistic Director Chloe Trayner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey react to the Emmy nominations in the documentary categories, and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lucy Walker discusses her towering new film Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin discuss Photographer, their new documentary series that zooms in on National Geographic's greatest image makers. And Emmy nominee Carla Gutiérrez goes inside her new film Frida, about the extraordinary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaker Amber Fares discusses her documentary Speed Sisters, about Palestinian women who formed the "first all-women race car driving team in the Middle East." Several years after the film premiered, the story is more timely than ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Oscar nominations for documentary feature have sparked dissension in the nonfiction film community. By rewarding five international films, did the Academy's doc branch hurt American filmmakers, and unfairly punish documentaries with broad appeal? Three distinguished panelists join us for a vigorous debate: Lois Vossen, executive producer of Independent Lens, filmmaker Marjan Safinia, and former Documentary magazine editor Tom White. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doc filmmakers Maite Alberdi of 'The Eternal Memory' and Kaouther Ben Hania of 'Four Daughters' discuss earning the second Oscar nominations of their careers. Plus, we revisit our conversation from last fall with fellow Oscar nominees Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, directors of 'Bobi Wine: The People's President.'  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

20 Days in Mariupol director Mstyslav Chernov and To Kill a Tiger director Nisha Pahuja join us to talk about earning Academy Award nominations for their urgent documentaries. Chernov’s film provides a harrowing look inside the siege of Mariupol in the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while Pahuja documents an Indian family’s fight for justice after their daughter becomes the victim of a brutal crime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doc Talk co-hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey react to the Oscar nominations for documentary feature, drilling down on major snubs of American Symphony and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. Plus, Matt reports from the field at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, interviewing Best Director winners Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie of Sugarcane, Kerry Washington, EP of Audience Award winner Daughters, and Will & Harper's Will Ferrell and Harper Steele, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director Scott Cummings discusses his highly cinematic documentary 'Realm of Satan,' which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The film, made in collaboration with the Church of Satan, immerses viewers in a world of people who manifestly do not worship the Devil (or believe Satan is real) but do embrace the carnal, the temporal, and the indulgent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Programmers Basil Tsiokos and Sudeep Sharma discuss the documentary lineup for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, including films about Frida Kahlo, Christopher Reeve, and a road trip movie with Will Ferrell and his friend Harper Steele, who came out as trans. And they talk about whether Sundance will see a resurgence of doc sales after last year’s sluggish acquisition market.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Directors Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers explore a hidden corner of Los Angeles in their Oscar-shortlisted short documentary ‘The Last Repair Shop,’ a place where dedicated professionals keep tens of thousands of musical instruments in perfect working order for the city’s public-school students. They share stories of these unsung technicians, and the kids whose lives are transformed by gaining access to free -- and freely-repaired -- instruments from sousaphones to saxes.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Co-hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey react to the announcement of the Oscar documentary feature shortlist, parsing the snubs, surprises, and biggest takeaways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are the top Oscar-contending documentaries so far this year? Co-hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey look at the state of the race seven months into 2024. Films from Netflix, MTV Documentary Films, National Geographic, and Warner Bros. Discovery are in the mix, along with several docs that, so far, lack U.S. distribution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director Amy Schatz and executive producers John Legend and Mike Jackson discuss their inspiring documentary 'Stand Up & Shout: Songs From a Philly High School,' about an innovative public school program where kids learn to write and record their own music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sheila Nevins, who has earned more than 30 Emmys in her incredible career, joins us to talk about making her directorial debut at age 84 with ‘The ABCs of Book Banning.’ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaking teams behind 'Bad Press,' 'King Coal,' and 'Joonam' join Doc Talk to discuss their unusual alliance. They have banded together to launch a joint DIY For Your Consideration Oscar campaign. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon joins us to talk about her award-winning documentary ‘King Coal,’ a film that reframes our understanding of Central Appalachia where every aspect of life is permeated by coal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Five filmmakers, including Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams and Oscar nominee Nicole Newnham, join us from Amsterdam to talk about their documentaries playing at IDFA, the world's biggest doc film festival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director Michael Kirk joins Doc Talk to discuss his Frontline investigative documentary on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni Thomas. The Washington power couple has been making headlines repeatedly -- he for a failure to report lavish vacations paid for by wealthy Republican friends, and she for her efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaker Dawn Porter joins Doc Talk to discuss ‘Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court,” her Showtime docuseries that explores how the High Court has gone from an institution perceived as rising above politics to one mired in left-right battles, with record-low approval ratings.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaker Madeleine Gavin discusses her award-winning documentary ‘Beyond Utopia,’ a gripping account of North Koreans who risk everything to flee their brutal country, and the South Korean pastor helping them reach safety and a new life abroad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Film subject Bobi Wine and directors Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp join us to talk about Bobi Wine: The People's President, about the Ugandan pop star-turned-politician who risked everything to take on his country's brutal dictator. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get to know co-hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey as they discuss their goals surrounding Doc Talk, the changing landscape of documentary films and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Extraordinary artist Chiura Obata is the focus of the new documentary Obata's Yosemite, which explores his depiction of the national park through landscape paintings. Director Adam Prieto joins Doc Talk along with Kimi Hill, Obata's granddaughter. Hill tells us how Obata survived internment in a U.S. concentration camp for Japanese Americans during World War II, founding an art school for fellow detainees. As a bonus, we also speak with Milwaukee Film's artistic director, Cara Ogburn, about the challenges and opportunities facing film festivals in the U.S., including the Milwaukee Film Festival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director Errol Morris joins us to talk about his latest documentary, 'The Pigeon Tunnel,' about spy novelist David Cornwell, better known by his pen name, John le Carré. The Oscar winner explains why he found one moment in his film especially "disturbing and dark" and why Cornwell's father, Ronnie, reminds him of Donald Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss join us to talk about their National Geographic documentary ‘The Mission,’ the story of young Christian missionary John Chau who set off to convert an uncontacted Indigenous group living on a remote island. His death, in a hail of arrows, made news around the world and raised questions about the morality of trying to spread the Gospel to Indigenous peoples who made it clear they wanted nothing to do with outsiders.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sean Penn talks about his pulse-pounding documentary ‘Superpower,’ a ground-level view of Ukraine under devastating attack from Russia. He explains why he’s “repelled” by people on the left who call for peace at all costs. And Penn gets personal exploring a question he asked himself: “Why was I, so much of my life, uncomfortable in my own skin?”   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actress-turned-filmmaker Kasia Smutniak joins us to talk about her debut documentary "Walls," which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the premiere episode of Doc Talk, a new podcast hosted by Oscar-winning writer-director John Ridley and Deadline’s documentary editor, Matt Carey. We’re kicking off with a deep dive into documentary’s power to right a grave wrong in the criminal justice system by helping free a wrongfully convicted prisoner. Only a handful of nonfiction filmmakers has achieved this extraordinary feat, and we are speaking with four of them: Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line), Joe Berlinger (the Paradise Lost trilogy), Amy Berg (The Case Against Adnan Syed and West of Memphis), and Deborah Esquenazi (Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four).  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosted by Oscar-winning filmmaker John Ridley and Deadline’s Documentary Editor, Matt Carey, Doc Talk features weekly interviews with filmmakers, storytellers, and industry leaders about creating critical content with the power to move the genre forward – and possibly change the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney discusses his Emmy-contending two-part documentary In Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon. And he talks about his upcoming film on Elon Musk, including the nasty name Musk called him after the business tycoon heard about the project.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director Prentice Penny breaks down his Hulu documentary series Black Twitter, a three-part examination of how Black users of Twitter transformed the platform into a forum for humor, community, and a rallying point for social justice. And he ponders the fate of the social media site under chaotic ownership of Elon Musk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Schitt's Creek star and beloved comedic actor Eugene Levy stops by Doc Talk to discuss his Emmy-contending nonfiction series The Reluctant Traveler, which finds him circumnavigating the globe despite being an admittedly adventure-averse individual. Executive producer-director David Brindley joins the conversation, revealing what travel activities Levy could not be convinced to do, and a few he surprisingly agreed to, including performing an examination of an elephant – and not from the front end. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard discusses his new Disney+ documentary Jim Henson Idea Man, about the late Muppets creator and filmmaker's extraordinary life and career. And Howard shares his thoughts about working with John Candy, subject of an upcoming documentary, and he pays tribute to the man who got him his start in directing -- Roger Corman.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sundance, Hot Docs and other film festivals in North America are facing significant challenges post-pandemic. Sundance is even considering a move out of its long-time home in Park City, Utah. Joining us to talk about what's going on with festivals are Ken Jacobson, executive director of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas, and Anne Lai, executive director of SFFilm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Seeking Mavis Beacon, director Jazmin Jones and her filmic collaborator Olivia McKayla Ross try to solve a cyber mystery: What became of the elegant Black woman featured on the cover of a groundbreaking learn-to-type software program? The young sleuths discuss the complex cultural truths exposed by their quixotic quest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doc Talk goes inside the 20th Camden International Film Festival in Maine, speaking with Artistic Director Sean Flynn and filmmakers Petra Costa ('Apocalypse in the Tropics') and Elizabeth Lo ('Mistress Dispeller'). Camden has emerged as one of the most important all-documentary festivals in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re in the field at the Toronto International Film Festival, interviewing makers of some of the biggest documentaries to play at TIFF, including The Last Republican, The Last of the Sea Women, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, and music-themed docs on Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Paul Anka, and Pharrell Williams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices