The Thousand Roads Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

June Cross is a documentary filmmaker who has Emmy, Peabody, and DuPont-Columbia Journalism awards under her belt. She also founded and directs the doc program at the Columbia University Journalism School. So you could say she's helped bring not only documentary films into the world but also a lot of documentary filmmakers. We talk about her own films, which include the autobiographical Secret Daughter, a film with many twists about her upbringing as the daughter of a white mother and a Black father, and Wilhemina’s War, about a grandmother caring for her HIV-positive granddaughter in South Carolina. We also discuss what she teaches her students about the craft and ethics of documentary filmmaking and how her own thoughts about those things have evolved over the years. 

More about June here.

Films mentioned in the episode:
Wilhemina's War (2015), Dir. June Cross
Secret Daughter, June Cross
The Territory (2022), Dir. Alex Pritz
Imitation of Life (1959), Dir. Douglas Sirk
A Kid Kills (1992), Dir. June Cross
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Dir. Michael Moore

Other Mentions:
Bill Moyers
Fredi Washington
Amiri Baraka
Anna Deavere Smith
David Fanning
Frontline
Jigsaw Productions

Follow us on Instagram! @ThousandRoadsPod

Special thanks for helping make this series happen: Sara Archambault, Florence Barrau-Adams, Jon Berman, Ben Cuomo (music), Jax Deluca, Pallavi Deshpande, Nancy Gibbs, Kathleen Hughes, Caroline Kracunas, Laura Manley, Alexis Pancrazi, Liz Schwartz, Jeff Seelbach, Lindsay Underwood (logo/graphics)

This episode was supported by a fellowship at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

Caty Borum heads the Center for Media and Social Impact at the American University School of Communication, and she's the author of Story Movements: How Documentaries Empower People and Inspire Social Change. She studies “creative, independent investigative documentary,” her term for docs that are as thoroughly artistic as they are journalistic. We chat about the techniques and challenges that make these stories and their storytellers unique. More about Caty here.

Films mentioned in this episode:
Newtown (2016), Dir. Kim Snyder
An Insignificant Man (2016), Dir. Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla
Citizenfour (2014), Dir. Laura Poitras
The Feeling Of Being Watched (2018), Dir. Assia Boundaoui
The Murder of Emmett Till (2003), Dir. Stanley Nelson
Attica (2021), Dir. Stanley Nelson

Other mentions:
Tabitha Jackson
Errol Morris
Doc Society
International Documentary Association
World Press Freedom Index
Exposé: America’s Investigative Reports
Peter Nicks
Jon Shenk
Tom Jennings

Follow us on Instagram! @ThousandRoadsPod

Special thanks for helping make this series happen: Sara Archambault, Florence Barrau-Adams, Jon Berman, Ben Cuomo (music), Jax Deluca, Pallavi Deshpande, Nancy Gibbs, Kathleen Hughes, Caroline Kracunas, Laura Manley, Alexis Pancrazi, Liz Schwartz, Jeff Seelbach, Lindsay Underwood (logo/graphics)

This episode was supported by a fellowship at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

What’s it like for independent doc filmmakers, accustomed to making all their own decisions, to work with a top-notch doc series like PBS’s Frontline, with its strict journalistic guidelines? That’s the main topic I discuss with award-winning doc filmmakers Yoruba Richen and Brad Lichtenstein, whose terrific 2022 film American Reckoning began as an indie project but eventually turned into a Frontline project.

Yoruba Richen and Brad Lichtenstein are well-known both separately as a team, Yoruba for films including 2023’s The Cost of Inheritance, which premiered at DOC NYC, Brad for films including 2022’s Emmy Award-winning When Claude Got Shot. More about Yoruba here, and Brad here.

Films mentioned in this episode:

American Reckoning (2022), Dir. Yoruba Richen and Brad Lichtenstein

The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show (2020), Dir. Yoruba Richen

When Claude Got Shot (2021), Dir. Brad Lichtenstein

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (2022), Dir. Yoruba Richen and Johanna Hamilton

Black Natchez (1967), Dir. Ed Pincus and David Neuman

Other mentions:

St. Clair Bourne

Bill Moyers

The Un(re)solved Project

Dawn Porter

Frontline

Hillary Bachelder

Raney Aronson-Rath

The Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act

Follow us on Instagram! @ThousandRoadsPod

Special thanks for helping make this series happen: Sara Archambault, Florence Barrau-Adams, Jon Berman, Ben Cuomo (music), Jax Deluca, Pallavi Deshpande, Nancy Gibbs, Kathleen Hughes, Caroline Kracunas, Laura Manley, Alexis Pancrazi, Liz Schwartz, Jeff Seelbach, Lindsay Underwood (logo/graphics)

This episode was supported by a fellowship at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

Award-winning documentarian Dawn Porter talks about bringing journalistic principles and standards to documentary filmmaking and treating documentary subjects as collaborators and partners rather than “subjects.” We also discuss the need to keep having the difficult conversations needed to keep up with the changing documentary landscape. We also talk about how she got into the business by way of another profession, and discuss one of my favorites of her films, Gideon's Army, which premiered at Sundance and was nominated for both the Independent Spirit Award for Best Doc and an Emmy.

Dawn’s 2023 film, The Lady Bird Diaries was called “mesmerizing” and “elegant” by The Guardian. She is also known for the HBO film Trapped, about the last abortion providers in Mississippi, as well as films about Civil Rights icon John Lewis and the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. More about Dawn here.

Films mentioned in this episode:

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022), Dir. Laura Poitras

Hoop Dreams (1994), Dir. Steve James 

The Territory (2022), Dir. Alex Pritz

Gideon’s Army (2013), Dir. Dawn Porter

The Interrupters (2011), Dir. Steve James

Jesus Camp (2006), Dir. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Five Broken Cameras (2011), Dir. Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi

Other Mentions:

Nan Goldin

Follow us on Instagram! @ThousandRoadsPod

Special thanks for helping make this series happen: Sara Archambault, Florence Barrau-Adams, Jon Berman, Ben Cuomo (music), Jax Deluca, Pallavi Deshpande, Nancy Gibbs, Kathleen Hughes, Caroline Kracunas, Laura Manley, Alexis Pancrazi, Liz Schwartz, Jeff Seelbach, Lindsay Underwood (logo/graphics)

This episode was supported by a fellowship at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

Julie Cohen and Betsy West are best known as a team for their Oscar-nominated documentary RBG about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They’re also both former network news journalists. We talk about the differences and similarities between those two worlds (hint: one of them sounds more fun), the films that helped shape their sensibilities, and their films RBG, Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down, about the former Congresswoman’s recovery from an assassination attempt, and My Name Is Pauli Murray, about the non-binary lawyer who played a key role in the civil rights movement.

Julie Cohen’s 2023 film, Every Body, premiered at Tribeca and was released theatrically by Focus Features. Called “a master class in how a documentary should be done” by The Boston Globe, it tells of three courageous intersex people who've overcome shame and secrecy to become their true selves.

Betsy West is a filmmaker, journalist, and professor emerita at the Columbia Journalism School. A 21-time Emmy Award winner, she served as executive producer of the ABC News documentary series Turning Point and as VP of News at CBS, where she oversaw 60 Minutes and 48 Hours.

More about Julie & Betsy here.

Films mentioned in this episode:

RBG (2018), Dir. Julie Cohen and Betsy West

Hoop Dreams (1994), Dir. Steve James 

Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down (2022), Dir. Julie Cohen and Betsy West

Flee (2021), Dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen

Haulout (2022), Dir. Maxim Arbugaev and Evgenia Arbugaeva

The Endless Summer (1966), Dir. Bruce Brown

The World At War series (1973-74), Dir. David Elstein

Roger And Me (1989), Dir. Michael Moore

Buena Vista Social Club (1999), Dir. Wim Wenders

My Name is Pauli Murray (2021), Dir. Julie Cohen and Betsy West

Other Mentions:

Senator Mark Kelly 

Turning Point (ABC News)

Cinque Northern

Follow us on Instagram! @ThousandRoadsPod

Special thanks for helping make this series happen: Sara Archambault, Florence Barrau-Adams, Jon Berman, Ben Cuomo (music), Jax Deluca, Pallavi Deshpande, Nancy Gibbs, Kathleen Hughes, Caroline Kracunas, Laura Manley, Alexis Pancrazi, Liz Schwartz, Jeff Seelbach, Lindsay Underwood (logo/graphics)

This episode was supported by a fellowship at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

A new podcast about the intersection of documentary film and journalism, hosted by filmmaker Tom Casciato.

Follow us on Instagram! @ThousandRoadsPod

Special thanks for helping make this series happen: Sara Archambault, Florence Barrau-Adams, Jon Berman, Ben Cuomo (music), Jax Deluca, Pallavi Deshpande, Nancy Gibbs, Kathleen Hughes, Caroline Kracunas, Laura Manley, Alexis Pancrazi, Liz Schwartz, Jeff Seelbach, Lindsay Underwood (logo/graphics)

This episode was supported by a fellowship at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

Brian Newman is one of the more trenchant observers on the documentary scene. He’s worn many hats in the industry: as an indie film producer, as the CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute, as a programmer for the Atlanta Film Festival, and much more. He currently leads a consultancy called Sub-Genre, doing content, strategy, development, distribution and marketing, for which he writes the Sub-Genre newsletter that a lot of media folks read. He has, as you'll hear in this conversation, some hope for the independent documentary world, even in the face of recent media consolidation, as we talk about how an ecosystem friendly to independent documentary once sprung up, and also how it might be sustained in the world of commercial media. More about Brian here.

Note: In this episode, we mention that one of my favorite films of 2022, Reid Davenport’s “I Didn’t See You There,” is not streaming. Reid says he hopes to have it available on iTunes and Amazon on 1/10/24. Highly recommended!

Films mentioned:
Shored Up (2013), Ben Kalina
I Didn’t See You There (2022), Reid Davenport

Other mentions:
Atlanta Film Festival
Tribeca Film Institute
Ted Sarandos
Cara Mertes
Frontline
POV
Independent Lens
Camden International Film Festival
The D-Word
International Documentary Association (IDA)
Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers (AIVF)
Sundance Film Fe

Follow us on Instagram! @ThousandRoadsPod

Special thanks for helping make this series happen: Sara Archambault, Florence Barrau-Adams, Jon Berman, Ben Cuomo (music), Jax Deluca, Pallavi Deshpande, Nancy Gibbs, Kathleen Hughes, Caroline Kracunas, Laura Manley, Alexis Pancrazi, Liz Schwartz, Jeff Seelbach, Lindsay Underwood (logo/graphics)

This episode was supported by a fellowship at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

Carrie Lozano has played a lot of important roles in the documentary field. Until not long ago she headed the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film and Artist Programs. Before that, she designed and directed the International Documentary Association’s Enterprise Fund. Her gig right now is heading up ITVS, the Independent Television Service, which, among other things, funds and distributes public TV docs, and brings us the long-running, much-decorated PBS series Independent Lens. All her experience puts her smack in the middle of a lot of the conversations going on in the documentary world about cinema, journalism, and about the role of both in a democracy, and we talk about all that and more. More about Carrie here. 

Note: In this episode, we mention the fact that one of my favorite films of 2022, Reid Davenport’s “I Didn’t See You There,” is not streaming. Reid tells me he hopes to have it available on iTunes and Amazon on 1/10/24. Highly recommended!

Films mentioned in this episode:

I Didn’t See You There (2022), Dir. Reid Davenport

The Day After Trinity (1981), Dir. Jon Else

The Devil Never Sleeps (1994), Dir. Lourdes Portillo

Oppenheimer (2023), Dir. Christopher Nolan

Other mentions:

Independent Lens

Fault Lines

Independent Television  Service (ITVS)

Frontline

POV

America Reframed

Firelight Media

Follow us on Instagram! @ThousandRoadsPod

Special thanks for helping make this series happen: Sara Archambault, Florence Barrau-Adams, Jon Berman, Ben Cuomo (music), Jax Deluca, Pallavi Deshpande, Nancy Gibbs, Kathleen Hughes, Caroline Kracunas, Laura Manley, Alexis Pancrazi, Liz Schwartz, Jeff Seelbach, Lindsay Underwood (logo/graphics)

This episode was supported by a fellowship at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

Tia Lessin and Carl Deal are filmmaking partners whose careers have run the gamut from directing their Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning Trouble The Water about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, to producing several of Michael Moore’s films, and more. Tia also directed, with Emma Pildes, 2022’s Emmy Award-winning The Janes, about women providing abortion care in pre-Roe v. Wade Chicago. Tia started out as a labor organizer and an activist. And while Carl has an activist background as well, he also attended Columbia University Journalism School. We talk about how journalism and activism play out in their filmmaking, the creative use of stock footage, and documentary ethics.

More about Tia and Carl here.

Films mentioned in the episode:

Trouble the Water (2008), Dir. Tia Lessin and Carl Deal 

 The Janes (2022), Dir. Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes 

Where To Invade Next (2015), Dir. Michael Moore

The UnRedacted (originally Jihad Rehab) (2022), Dir. Meg Smaker

Follow us on Instagram! @ThousandRoadsPod

Special thanks for helping make this series happen: Sara Archambault, Florence Barrau-Adams, Jon Berman, Ben Cuomo (music), Jax Deluca, Pallavi Deshpande, Nancy Gibbs, Kathleen Hughes, Caroline Kracunas, Laura Manley, Alexis Pancrazi, Liz Schwartz, Jeff Seelbach, Lindsay Underwood (logo/graphics)

This episode was supported by a fellowship at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

David Siev, a first-time feature filmmaker, made a splash in 2022 with his film Bad Axe, which began with his documenting the mundane proceedings of his family’s restaurant in the small town of Bad Axe, Michigan, and wound up a stunning, personal portrait of America in the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020. The film was shortlisted for an Academy Award for its portrayal of the events of 2020. We talk about what it was like to come out of seemingly nowhere to earn that honor, what it meant to him, as well as what it cost him. He also shares his thoughts about the intersection of documentary film and journalism, as well as what kinds of doc films he'd like to see made and honored by the industry. 

David is a first-generation Cambodian-Mexican-American. His first film was an award-winning narrative short, Year Zero, based on his father’s escape from the killing fields of Cambodia. More about David here.

Follow us on Instagram! @ThousandRoadsPod

Special thanks for helping make this series happen: Sara Archambault, Florence Barrau-Adams, Jon Berman, Ben Cuomo (music), Jax Deluca, Pallavi Deshpande, Nancy Gibbs, Kathleen Hughes, Caroline Kracunas, Laura Manley, Alexis Pancrazi, Liz Schwartz, Jeff Seelbach, Lindsay Underwood (logo/graphics)

This episode was supported by a fellowship at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.