Documenteers: The Documentary Podcast

We've made it to a dozen free-range episodes and it's time to go full nerd. We watch a few hopeful nerds, with different troubled backgrounds, go out into the woods so a circle of other nerds can determine if they will be Jedi Knights. We watched 2017's "American Jedi" by Bronies director Laurent Malaquais. Pop culture blurs with spirituality as Bob Sham and Jonni take a critical eye (and a critical thigh) to what may or may not just be LARPing. Will these cloak-hooded enthusiasts convince Jonni to set his Star Trek bias aside and allow him to accept Jediism as the one true religion? How many golf shirts does your neighborhood Sith-Lord own? Is Bob just one of those jerky "Han Solo" guys? Listen on, young padawan. May the force be up in you.

Episode 11 brings us our fourth 30 for 30 documentary. Drew steps back into the curtains and we discuss one of the more notorious in the ESPN documentary series. Mike Tollin's "Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?" The sordid, fun, and ridiculous story of the birth and death of a spring-time pro football league. It features a major, well-known, personality that evicts an emotional response from people whenever his name and image appear. That's right. I'm talking about Burt Reynolds. BANDIT BALL, BABY!

Can you believe it's been 10 episodes already? Angela returns, and that means TRUE CRIME DOC TIME! We do our first serial killer doc and Aileen Wuornos starts us down this dark road with Nick Broomfield's 1993 film "Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer". Now streamable on Netflix. Join us in this illicit Floridian maze of murder, money, betrayal, human bombs, and wolf slavers. It was one of the earliest portrayals of the Aileen Wuornos case and it helped set a precedent of how Aileen is seen in the public eye today. Won't you join the Documenteers (in association with the Center for the Documentation of Documentaries) down this lonely Florida highway? Our car has run out of gas a few miles down the road and we sure would be grateful if you gave the Documenteers a ride. We'd make it worth your while (wink wink).

Episode 9 so divine. Have ya heard, bruh? Judas Priest is in town! Also we're traveling back in time to 1986. Hope you're not attached to those shirt sleeves, because Stuart Von and Bob Sham are tackling the inimitable cult classic "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" by producer/directors John Heyn and Jeff Krulik. It was a moment in time where not liking Judas Priest would probably get you called something inappropriate. Something special was captured in the parking lot of a Maryland suburb in 1986. A document of joy and inebriation. Priest rules man. Priest is baaaaaaad.

Episode 8 kicks off our fourth Documenteers series on religious themed Dox®. Our freshest Documenteer, Jonni Greth, has more than a little bit of experience regarding the brand of Christianity that is featured in the notorious 2006 documentary "Jesus Camp" directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing. Each co-host represents a different doc topic. Each show reflects a different personality in discussing some hot Dox®. Jonni eps, not unlike this one, might get deep and they might get personal. But don't worry. They have fun, and Bob Sham says plenty of stupid shit to keep it light. This episode is one of the few left in our soon-to-be-vintage "basement tape" audio quality. Fart.

What a super day for a super bowl! It's an episode seven Super Bowl Sunday edition as Bob Sham and Drew jump waaaaaaay ahead of their 30 for 30 count and review last Thursday's "The Two Bills" by Ken Rodgers. Hear the tumultuous tale of Doom and Darth Vader, and maybe even a few fashion tips. Will Belicheck get a 6th win for Super Bowl 52? What stunning secret did Drew discover about Bill Parcells? Will Ken Rodgers get the hate/love that he's looking for? Will Philadelphia survive whatever happens tonight? Much like Bill Belicheck, we ain't here to make friends. Actually that's not true. Please love us.

Episode 6 has just been taken into custody and it's probably Angela and Bob Sham's favorite (for lack of a better word) true crime tale. Yes folks, in this episode we review the HBO Doc "Mommy Dead and Dearest" by director Erin Lee Carr. Wake up the kids (actually, don't do that) and gather up the grandfolk as we parse through a sordid tale that just might make you understand and even sympathize with a brutal and violent act. Put on your party wigs, lay out your licking knives, and get your Herzogs ready. We're goin' to Springfield, Missouri. A town for lovers.

Episode 5. Still alive. Drew returneth and we discuss the second ever 30 for 30 Documentary "The Band That Wouldn't Die" by "Toys" director Barry Levinson. This is the story of the ups and then brutal down and then gradual re-up of Baltimore Pro Football. MARVEL at how dressing up like band dorks can make you beloved! WRETCH at Bob's high school romance recollections! GASP at our opinions of Baltimore sports fans! CHEER for the best documentary film podcast in the universe! FILM-HOLE!

It's episode 4! We go a bit dour and co-host Stuart has some opinions on the matter. We watch "A Gray State" by director Erik Nelson and struggle through the bleak antics of David Crowley and family. This Netlfix original gets rough, but Bob Sham vows to trudge through for the sake of Documenteers, the sake of podcasting, and the sake of the very planet itself. Stay sweaty.

Episode 3 in your face! Angela joins Bob Sham to discuss the Netflix original, soft true-crime, film "The Voyeur" by Myles Kane and Josh Koury. A documentary about the relationship between a reporter and a pervert and the trials and tribulations and masturbations that follow.

Will Angela and Bob's marriage survive? Enter into the room labeled "Film-Hole" and let us stare at you through a vent.