Doc Talk: A Deadline and Nō Studios Podcast

Deadline partners with the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas to bring you HSDFF's inaugural round table, featuring four of the top documentaries in Academy Awards contention this year: American Doctor, represented by director Poh Si Teng; Closure, represented by director Michał Marczak; To Hold a Mountain, represented by co-director Biljana Tutorov, and Once Upon a Time in Harlem, represented by producer Liani Greaves. The conversation ranges from the biggest challenges the filmmakers faced to get their projects made, to what they like best — and least — about the race for Oscar recognition.

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Once Upon a Time in Harlem, a documentary more than 50 years in the making, has emerged as a strong contender for Oscar recognition. Director David Greaves and producer Liani Greaves join us to discuss their film about an extraordinary 1972 reunion of surviving figures from the Harlem Renaissance. The reunion and the documentary project was conceived by filmmaker William Greaves, David's father and Liani's grandfather.

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Documentary producer and executive producer James Costa of Bird Street Productions has been central to many of the best nonfiction films of recent years. He joins the show to talk about his work as well as an annual endeavor: choosing the films for Deadline's For the Love of Docs fall series. Costa also talks about the Oscar race this year and the controversy over NAZA, and the vilification of directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor by Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Doc Talk hits the road to report from the Toronto International Film Festival and the Camden International Film Festival in Maine. We bring you interviews with two-time Oscar winning director Barbara Kopple (Union Town), the director and protagonists of Black Sunflowers, the filmmaking team behind Edward Said: Between Worlds, and the leaders of the Camden festival — Points North executive director Elise McCave and PNI's artistic director, Sean Flynn.

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Filmmaker Sam Green joins us to discuss his new documentary The Oldest Person in the World, the result of a 10-year exploration into fascination with the person who, at any given time, is deemed to be the oldest living individual on the planet. It's a leaping off point to consider questions of mortality, impermanence and fate, told with generosity and humor.

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Filmmaker Maya Annik Bedward discusses her incisive documentary Black Zombie, an exploration of the popularity of zombie films and television series and how Hollywood appropriated Haitian religious traditions to create the horror subgenre. The film from Kino Lorber enjoys a 100 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

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Award-winning filmmaker Ross McElwee discusses his deeply personal documentary Remake, the story of his relationship with his son, Adrian, who was a presence in many of the director's earlier films. Adrian possessed talent and an original way of thinking, but drug addiction would claim his life. Remake, which McElwee says may be his final film, has emerged as a strong Oscar contender.

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We are joined by the director and protagonists of Oscar-contending documentary American Doctor on a special edition of the Doc Talk podcast recorded live before an American Cinematheque audience in Los Angeles. Physicians Mark Perlmutter, Thaer Ahmad, and Feroze Sidhwa tell us what they saw in the emergency room and operating theaters at Gaza hospitals where they treated Palestinian children severely injured in attacks by Israel's military. Filmmaker Poh Si Teng explores the impact of her film in a rapidly shifting political environment since its premiere in January at Sundance.

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TIFF documentary programmer Thom Powers previews the Toronto Film Festival's nonfiction lineup as the 51st edition of the event approaches. There are films on Palestinian scholar and activist Edward Said, soccer star Megan Rapinoe, the plastic surgery boom in Iran — and Alex Gibney's highly anticipated documentary on Elon Musk. Powers tells us what to key an eye on, including some hidden gems.

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Rebecca Miller calls Martin Scorsese "the maestro," and who would disagree? She explores the life and work of the extraordinary filmmaker in her 5-part Apple TV documentary series Mr. Scorsese, which is nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. Miller joins Doc Talk to share what she learned about Scorsese, from how he course-corrected after making 1972's Boxcar Bertha, the drug problem that nearly killed him, and the origins of his long association with actor Robert De Niro.

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