“You spend all this time and energy and thought on these things that are so ephemeral, right? It’s just like, oh, a film, cool, we loved it, boom. Maybe it’ll change something, maybe it won’t. Maybe you’ll laugh, maybe you’ll cry. Maybe that’s the joy of it, the Buddhist… what’re the things called? The sand paintings? It’s about that.”

Meet Samah and Brandon, two programmers for Doc NYC, New York City’s premier annual documentary film festival. As two of the city’s leading tastemakers in nonfiction cinema, Samah and Brandon have seen it all—and yet, not quite all of it! What’s it like to shoulder the responsibility of picking films to bring to the world? What’s the difference between reality TV and documentary? Does any art we make truly last?

For the 50th episode of Bar Talk, we’re shining a light on the form itself. For the last 18 months, we’ve devoted most of our waking lives to recording and editing the conversations that bring a night in New York to life, only to vanish in the long arc of our lives. Where did all those stories go? We created Bar Talk in the hopes of capturing enough of them to form an archive of our city’s community. As time presses on, and the city changes, and we change, the project is forever unfinished.

Tonight, we're kicking it at the beautiful and historic Off the Wagon bar in Greenwich Village! Just a few blocks south of Washington Square Park, there's no better place to catch your favorite sports team between a few brewskis and whatever shenanigans might ensue.

Samah Ali is a distributor and film programmer based in New York City. She is the Video Programming Manager at Stellar Entertainment, putting movies and television shows on airplanes around the world. She also programs for Academy Award qualifying festivals, San Francisco International Film Festival, DOC NYC, and Hot Docs Film Festival.

Brandon Harrison is a Development Executive at the non-fiction production studio Words + Pictures. He has curated documentary features, shorts, and series at Brooklyn Film Festival, Tribeca Festival, and DOC NYC, as well as served on various documentary juries and award committees.

Instagram & TikTok: @bartalkseries

https://www.patreon.com/bartalkseries/

https://www.offthewagonnyc.com/

Intro Song: "Brooklyn" by Glass Vaults

(00:17) Intro

(00:33) Films You Fight For

(01:52) The Contestant

(03:08) Do I Like Documentaries?

(04:43) The Boy Who Lived

(07:33) The Golden Age of Documentary

(09:45) If I Could Make a Documentary...

(12:12) The Newark Riots

(13:24) Why'd You Get So Existential?

(14:51) The Sands of Time

(15:51) The Difference between Reality TV & Documentary

(17:43) Are You Not Entertained?

“When I was nineteen, fresh in the company, I was doing everything. You know, look at me. I’ve kinda calmed down from that, and I think there’s so much beauty in being a true corps de ballet… I never actually know if I get to come back to something. So I dance…”

Intro Song: "Brooklyn" by Glass Vaults

(00:33) Intro

(00:48) Three Diamonds and a Door

(01:48) Never Get in the Wrong Car

(03:14) Sarah Jessica Parker & Collagen

(06:08) NYC Tour Guide

(07:19) The Bolshoi & Brazil

(11:59) My Immoral Compass

(12:49) Fashion Fashion Fashion

(15:38) Two Kinds of White People

(16:39) The Balanchine Season

(18:07) Learning to be Subtle

(20:35) Shout-Outs

“Honestly, I am not looking for the American dream. I’m looking to solve something in my country, with my family and my children. Because the American dream does not exist for me.”

In NYC, the arrival of over 100,000 migrants seeking asylum in the last 12 months has pushed the city's shelter system to the breaking point. In the midst of this scramble for resources, too often the voices of these refugees are lost.

Meet Juan and Militza, two asylum seekers who fled their native country of Venezuela and began the long harrowing trek to America. The choice to leave was not easy; both have extensive family ties to their homeland, and yet the autocratic Maduro regime made their lives unlivable. Their heartbreaking yet inspiring migration—an exodus shared by over half a million Venezuelans this year alone—took them through the treacherous Colombian and Panamanian jungle, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala, all the way to the infamous train La Bestia en route to the U.S. border at Piedras Negras. In the course of their travels, thousands of refugees suffer theft, kidnapping, sexual assault, torture, murder, and suicide. Many do not survive the journey.

Juan and Militza met by chance at the Migrant Resource Center at 7000 San Pedro Avenue in San Antonio, Texas. They were each then redirected to New York, where they were happily surprised to reunite. Tragically, they had their documents stolen by another migrant upon arrival, which initially left them on the streets of Manhattan. They have since managed to recover their official papers and are now being housed at an abandoned school in College Point, Brooklyn. Although both are happy to have a roof over their heads, the living conditions at New York’s shelters are abysmal—often without beds, hot water, or hot food.

Sadly, personal records of the voyage are scarce, as most migrants have their possessions and phones stolen in transit. In some ways, this history of the refugee crisis remains an oral one. In Episode 48 of Bar Talk, Juan and Militza share their stories.

If you would like to support refugees located in New York, we encourage you to donate to Make The Road, an organization that provides cell phones and financial assistance to migrants, among other services. You can also donate to Asylum-Seeker Relief through the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City. This episode was shot at the historic Pershing Square café across from Grand Central terminal.

https://donate.maketheroadny.org/give/423350/#!/donation/checkout

https://www.nyc.gov/site/fund/donate/donate.page

Instagram & TikTok: @bartalkseries

https://www.patreon.com/bartalkseries/

https://pershingsquare.com/

(00:00) Teaser

(00:30) Intro

(01:05) The American Dream

(02:30) Why Did You Leave Venezuela?

(04:36) Into the Panamanian Jungle

(05:55) So Many Dead

(08:04) Militza is Kidnapped

(15:24) Left for Dead

(20:19) El Basurero & La Bestia

(22:00) Ciudad Juárez

(23:27) To Veracruz & Back Again

(24:22) Crossing the U.S. Border

(27:23) Credible Fear

(28:14) Shout-outs

#migrants #refugees #documentary #venezuela #border #immigration #bartalk

“There’s this psychic geography of the city. Any time you’re walking, you take notes of the things you see, the spots you can hit. And you build this psychological map in your head of everywhere you’ve been, places you’ve painted… Your senses get heightened. I can tell a cop car from three blocks down just based on the temperature of the light.”

(00:57) Intro

(01:14) A Walk with Modus

(04:10) The Boone Avenue Saga

(05:47) F*** Private Property

(07:09) I Ain't Got No Money // Midnight's

(08:07) Scrap Yard & The Youth

(11:03) I Feel So Alive

(12:42) The Thirties Rollercoaster

(14:36) Roadtrip to New York

(16:47) Bartending with Cally

(17:46) You Can't Let That Rock

(19:39) Shout-Outs

"There's a moment when you're creating a dish, where you can just feel it, It's coming. It's almost perfect.' That excitement..."

"It's what I live for."

Meet Neal and Dalia, two big-time chefs who live at the cutting edge of the cooking world. Whether it's private chefing, pioneering plant-based cuisine at some of the best restaurants in NYC, or coaching New Yorkers on how to build a healthy relationship with food, these longtime friends are each striving toward a unique vision of what it means to come together and consume. Tonight, they're kicking it at glorious 66 Greenpoint in Brooklyn, to the tune of a live show commemorating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and featuring some of NYC's best up-and-coming rappers.

Neal Harden is the Chef of Plant Based Development for Jean-Georges International and Executive Chef of abcV, a restaurant co-created by chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Paulette Cole. His interest in natural foods began while playing bass in punk bands as teenager. After years of cooking vegetarian meals for band mates on tour and line-cooking gigs, he decided to pursue his passion full time and moved to New York City to attend the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food & Health.

Dalia David is a Social Impact Chef and Food Network Chopped Finalist. From cooking thoughtfully for her family at a young age, to becoming one of New York’s most prominent wellness chefs, she's combined her innate skills of cooking with helping people understand their relationship with food so that they feel confident to design their own gratifying eating habits.

Follow Neal @chefnealh

Follow Dalia @dalia.david

Instagram & TikTok: @bartalkseries

https://www.patreon.com/bartalkseries/

https://66greenpoint.com/

#realitytv #nightlife #documentary #chef #restaurant #michelin #goodfood #bartalk

Intro Song: "Brooklyn" by Glass Vaults

Whatever happened to the transatlantic accent? How do you stay sane as a comedian on social media? How exactly do studios exploit the writers who keep them running?

https://www.diamondlilbar.com/

Intro Song: "Brooklyn" by Glass Vaults

(00:00) Teaser

(00:36) Intro

(00:52) Art Nouveau Vibes

(01:13) Your Boss is Gonna Love This One

(02:39) You're Like a Newsie

(04:21) Three Weeks in a Cold Garage

(06:50) Home of Manchester By The Sea

(07:49) The Writer's Strike

(11:48) I Bought an Orphanage in Uganda

(12:46) Climbing Cringe Mountain

(15:03) Do You Know What a Dark Pattern Is?

(15:36) A New Golden Age of Comedy

(17:25) Sort of a Net Neutral

(18:24) You Have to, Like, Go Outside

(21:14) Shout-Outs

"The young people in Mumbai, they're basically the same as us. They do the same things."

https://www.patreon.com/bartalkseries/

https://www.stmazie.com/

https://www.charlieromanjazz.com/

(00:00) Teaser

(00:32) Intro

(00:48) The Charlie Roman Hot Club

(01:58) The Real Ones Stick Around

(05:16) Eavesdrop 1

(06:05) Eavesdrop 2

(07:06) A Modern Shakespeare

(10:26) Ian

(12:09) Spielberg & The Glass of Water

(13:31) The Dark Answer

(15:12) Bollywood Party

(16:18) Indians and Indian-Americans

(19:29) I'm Not Trying to Live for these Algorithms

"If aliens came and they're like, what's a specimen of a human being that we should study to make sure that our next planet, after we obliterate all of you, ends up good? It'd be like, yeah yeah, take that one."

https://www.theesters.com/

(00:00) Teaser

(00:43) Welcome to the Esters

(01:27) Do you always have to be betting on something?

(04:08) It's the other voices you have to worry about

(04:31) A fly on the wall

(07:18) Mom guilt & modeling

(11:32) Meet Jenny

(13:07) You've got too many gifts

(14:44) Long Covid Boys

(17:23) I never wanted to be a model

(19:37) I'm like four red flags in a trench coat

In 1962, a 19-year-old New Yorker by the name of Howard Lotsof was addicted to heroin and on the market for his next fix when he tasted an exotic alkaloid in the freezer of a chemist friend. On the other side of a very profound trip, he woke up to realize the state of fear and catatonia which had marked the edges of his world had vanished. So had his desire for heroin, it turns out, without any signs of withdrawal. What had just happened to him?Meet Dali and David, two researchers who, over 60 years later, are on the cutting edge of the next revolution in medicine. Whether in the lab designing synthetic psychedelics or with patients, both have achieved pioneering breakthroughs in the development of new treatments for the defining illnesses of our time. From 1970s San Francisco to Velvet Revolution Prague to young Howard Lotsof’s encounter with the mysterious African substance, ibogaine, the 45 minutes of this episode will raise the hairs on your neck. Mental illness—depression, addiction, PTSD—is perhaps the greatest public health failure of our generation. In 2020, over 40% of American adults reported mental health issues or substance abuse. As David describes in his latest book, The Couch, the Clinic, and the Scanner, the field of psychiatry has been stuck for decades. To get un-stuck, however, means ending the half-century of purgatory since Nixon’s War on Drugs ended nearly all medical research into psychedelic drugs. These two men are here to help. Are you ready to go on a journey, friends? Tonight we're kicking it at Interboro Spirits & Ales, Brooklyn's first distillery, co-founded by Episode 31 extraordinaire Jesse Ferguson. Dr. Dalibor Sames is a professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, where his lab studies psychedelic compounds in order to aid development of novel treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders. He is also the co-founder of Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals and Kures, Inc., two start-up pharmaceutical companies that bring the inventions of his lab to clinical research and drug development. Dr. David Hellerstein, MD, is a professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Columbia University Medical Center and Director of the Depression Evaluation Service (DES). He specializes in research and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, and is perhaps best known for his groundbreaking 2022 study of psilocybin as a potential cure for treatment-resistant depression. He is also an acclaimed literary writer; his latest book, The Couch, the Clinic, and the Scanner, explores the turbulent history of psychiatry over the past several decades, culminating in the recent resurgence of psychedelic research. Instagram & TikTok: @bartalkserieshttps://www.patreon.com/bartalkseries/https://interboro.nyc/(00:00) Teaser(00:50) Intro(01:06) San Francisco in the Day(03:52) Starting a Revolution(05:25) Esalen & The Hells Angels(08:09) Psilocybin as Medicine(09:51) The Next Big Step for Psychedelics(12:15) What's the Ibogaine Story?(19:13) How Does That Work?(21:13) Drugs & the Mind(24:30) Navy SEALS and P.T.S.D.(28:58) Ibogaine & 5-MeO-DMT(30:41) The Cat is Out of the Bag(35:15) Time Travel & Second Consciousness(40:26) The Highest Experience(43:00) Science & Spirituality(46:25) Psychedelics vs. Non-Psychedelics(48:45) The Story of Ariadne: A Possible Cure for Parkinson's?

“If ever you’re in conversation or someone asks you, what is it that you do? You’re kinda like, I don’t know, my job description is look hot, don’t fall.”

“You paid $80 for a ticket at the door to come have the best night of your life.”

Meet BB and Peter, two dazzling performers at Bushwick nightclub House of Yes, the world-famous creative collective and circus theatre. These two do it all—acting, dance, acrobatics, drag, striptease, and cabaret—and they do it all over the world, from Vegas to Bonnaroo to Thailand and back. Whether it’s dancing the night away on the bartop, twerking for the Earth on Jefferson Street, or swimming out into the open Indian Ocean after you’ve been marooned in a cave at sea, BB and Peter are always on the move, and always leading with joy.

They’re also keenly aware of the political context in which they often perform. When the House of Yes team traveled to Tennessee in 2019 to take part in Bonnaroo’s first Pride Parade, director Kae Burke huddled the group up for a reminder: “This is not for us. We do this every day. We dress in rainbows and high heels and strut around the world every day of the week… We love it, but we’re able to take it for granted in a very privileged way. This is not for us, this is for them.” Four years later, after the Tennessee legislature inexplicably banned public drag shows in the state earlier this year, they’re going down to perform again.

Hats off for Episode 41, everyone! Tonight we’re kicking it at Rooftop Reds in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a sweeping wine-country wonderland right smack in the middle of the big city.

Peter Mercury is a dancer, aerialist, director, and magick-maker based out of NYC who has been featured in The New York Times, Glamour Magazine (Germany), and i-D Magazine. A resident performer of Brooklyn’s famous nightclub House of YES, Peter has been raising spirits in the New York nightlife scene since 2018, and at festivals around the US and internationally like Bonnaroo (TN), Life is Beautiful (NV), Electric Forest (MI), Firefly (PA), and Colours of Love (Thailand).

Beatriz BB is a New York based dance artist and performer. She grew up studying classical ballet, musical theater and competitive dance in Kentucky. She is currently a contemporary and commercial dancer, model, resident choreographer at House of Yes, and internationally touring performing artist. She enjoys cooking, yoga, drag, and dismantling the Imperialist White Supremacist Heteropatriarchy.

Instagram & TikTok: @bartalkseries

https://www.patreon.com/bartalkseries/

https://www.rooftopreds.com/

(00:00) Teaser

(00:37) Intro

(00:53) Big Top, No Pants

(02:44) Running It Back at Bonnaroo

(05:06) This is not for Us, This is for Them

(09:54) Chaos Clowns

(12:16) Cody

(15:16) Knots Contain A Lot of magic

(17:01) Earth Love Fest

(19:27) Climate Paralysis

(24:20) Mystics and Court Jesters

(28:37) Look Hot, Don't Fall

(31:01) Pink or Blue?

(33:41) Getting Marooned

(38:46) Jinkx Monsoon

(42:39) Shout-Outs