Factual America

Richard Melville Hall, better known to most of us as Moby, is an electronic music pioneer. In the 1990s he scored numerous top ten hits on the Billboard Dance Club chart and his album Play (1999) has sold over 12 million copies.

Even with all that success, Moby still found himself hitting rock bottom, contemplating suicide and wondering why he wasn't happy despite achieving everything he wanted.

Joining us is the director and writer of the Moby Doc, Rob Gordon Bralver. Rob teamed up with Moby to make a documentary about the musician’s life, activism and his struggles along the way in the quest for happiness.

Rob tells us how he got the opportunity to make this film and what it was like closely collaborating with Moby.

Moby Doc will be released online at the same time as Moby’s new album Reprise on May 28th.  

“There’s an element that’s meant to be a cautionary tale for not just aspiring artists, but aspiring anything. It’s seldom the road that you believed that it would be when you started.” - Rob Gordon Bralver

The Villages is a self-contained retirement community located in central Florida. Often referred to as a “Disneyland for Retirees,” it is home to over 130,000 seniors. The Villages offers residents a utopian version of a bygone America: wide, safe streets, perfectly manicured lawns, and countless activities all in the service of enjoying the golden years. 

Directed by filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, Some Kind of Heaven (2020) reveals cracks in The Villages' facade and explores life inside its palm-tree-lined streets, while challenging stereotypes around ageing.  

The film follows four residents for whom The Villages is not living up to its reputation. By aiming the camera lens at this usually closed-off community, Lance captures what The Villages is really like. What type of people live in these retirement villages? How did residents respond to Lance filming there? And why did Lance choose to delve into this bizarre world? 

Some Kind of Heaven is available on demand in the UK from May 14th 2021. 

“There’s something beautiful to the idea that no matter how old you get, you are still becoming.” - Lance Oppenheim

The opioid crisis in the US has killed half a million people and created millions of addicts, all because the pharmaceutical companies pushed opioid medicines as not being prone to abuse or addictive.

In his latest HBO doc-series The Crime of the Century (2021), Oscar- and Emmy-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney provides the most comprehensive look to date at the opioid crisis in the US.

Alex joins us to discuss the making of the film, arguing that the opioid crisis has deeply criminal roots. The film finds fresh evidence that shows just how deep that criminality runs.

The Crime of the Century premiered on HBO and HBO Max on May 10th and May 11th. It comes to Sky Documentaries and streaming service NOW on Sunday, May 16th at 9pm.

It’s the little acts of corruption that get bigger and bigger, and over time you get a fully corrupted system. – Alex Gibney

Premiering to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Pacific War's end, the documentary Apocalypse '45 combines pristine raw, colour footage of the last months of World War II in the Asia-Pacific theatre with the voices of the two dozen men who lived through the nightmare.

Critically acclaimed director, producer and writer, Erik Nelson, joins us to discuss the making of Apocalypse ‘45. Erik shares how he found this never-before-seen footage of the war and made contact with the veterans who had lived through these gruesome events.

He talks about how, as director, he created the narrative of the film and what the creative process looked like. We also learn what it was like for Erik, as producer of Grizzly Man (2005), to work with the legendary director Werner Herzog.

“A good deal of that footage was filmed by a cameraman who was killed on Iwo Jima. He was sealed up in a cave alive. The man literally died to make this footage.” - Erik Nelson

Hollywood icons Woody Allen and Mia Farrow had a 13-year relationship that ended in flames in 1992 in front of the nation's eyes.

At the centre of the breakup were allegations that Woody Allen sexually abused Dylan Farrow, the daughter he had adopted with Mia Farrow. The case and the resulting fallout still resonate nearly 30 years later. The scandal has been resurrected this year with the release of the HBO docuseries Allen v. Farrow.

Joining us to discuss the social and cultural consequences of this story, the film and the reaction are the Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering.

“Dylan Farrow stood strong, and provided an example to Hollywood, to the country, and maybe in some ways to the rest of the world, about the courage of coming forward and standing by your truth.” - Kirby Dick

Today, we’re talking about Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls or The Notorious B.I.G., the acclaimed rapper who was tragically murdered at the age of just 24 in a drive-by shooting.

Talking to us about Biggie Smalls' life and his legacy on hip-hop is Grammy-award-winning director Emmett Malloy, who directed and produced the original Netflix documentary Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell. 

We talk about who Christopher Wallace really was, as well as how Emmett got access to never-before-seen footage used in the film. With this documentary, Emmett succeeds in shining a different light on Biggie’s life, onto his artistic side and childhood influences that other filmmakers may have overlooked.

My goal was to present him as the artist he was, so people understand that greatness doesn’t come from nowhere, people work at it and this kid was a curious kid with a tremendous artistic gift. - Emmett Malloy

Richard Wershe, Jr, aka White Boy Rick, is the subject of a true-crime documentary that recently landed on Netflix. Shawn Rech, the award-winning director and producer of White Boy (2017), joins us to talk about the tragic circumstances surrounding White Boy Rick's over-30-year incarceration for a nonviolent offence.

Shawn is well-known for creating documentaries that help to overturn wrongful convictions or over-sentencing. White Boy tells the story of Richard, who was an FBI informant as a child and an alleged cocaine kingpin in Detroit in the 1980s.

Richard received a life sentence despite being just 17 years old. The film looks at his case, shining a stark light onto 1980s Detroit and the American justice system.

We talk about the White Boy Rick's reputation, who he really was, and the racism and unjust laws that allowed a child to be groomed by the FBI. 

“Don’t always trust the government, and don’t always trust the media. Do your own investigating and vet your sources.” - Shawn Rech

Murder Among the Mormons (2021) is the new Netflix true-crime docuseries about Mark Hofmann, who is one of the most notable forgers in history. Hofmann created forgeries related to the Latter Day Saint movement, which led to fame and fortune. But the truth caught up with Hofmann one fateful day in 1985, as two innocent people lost their lives. 

We are joined by award-winning co-director and producer of Murder Among the Mormons, Tyler Measom. His previous work includes Leaving the Cult: Sons of Perdition (2010), An Honest Liar (2014) and Biography: I Want My MTV (2019). 

Tyler directed this docuseries with Jared Hess, who is best known for his films Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Nacho Libre (2006) and Gentlemen Broncos (2009).

Tyler talks about how he and Jared came to turn this story into a docuseries, as well as what they discovered about Mark Hoffman and the nature of belief. In the process we also learn about getting a film idea to the big screen.

 “The power he must have felt to create and change history, to alter what millions of people believe, and know and pray to every day – to have the power to change that in your basement is a remarkable feeling I suspect.” – Tyler Measom

James Jordan, the father of basketball legend Michael Jordan, was found tragically murdered in the middle of swamp just days after his 57th birthday in 1993. There were many mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, but the investigation and trial were deemed a success, resulting in the conviction of two teenage boys.

But why does one of the convicted still proclaim his innocence almost 30 years later?

We are joined by award-winning director and producer of the soon to be released docu-series Moment of Truth, Matthew Perniciaro. The five-part series uses never-before-seen archive footage to tell the story behind the murder of James Jordan. It also tackles police corruption in Robeson County, North Carolina, and how that may have influenced the murder investigation.

Matthew aims to give us insights into how Michael dealt with his father's death, and what made this crime so hard to solve. He explains what motivated him to make Moment of Truth, and the challenges he faced along the way.

Moment of Truth premieres on IMDb TV, Amazon’s premium free streaming service, on April 2nd.

“Despite the fact that we think we’ve made so much progress as a society and as a culture, this just shows how far we still have to go.” - Matthew Perniciaro

On paper, Tina Turner probably should never have become a rock-and-roll superstar. But there she is anyway, one of the greatest survivors in modern music, who has overcome extreme adversity to define her career, her identity and her legacy on her own terms. 

TINA (2021) offers a fresh perspective on the life and career of Tina Turner, the Queen of Rock and Roll. Through never-before-seen footage and previously unreleased recordings, the film draws back the curtain on Tina's life, introducing us to a private side of Tina too often hidden from the cameras. 

We are honoured to be joined by the Oscar- and Emmy-winning producers of TINA, cousins Simon and Jonathan Chinn, the co-founders of Lightbox. Between them they have worked on such acclaimed documentaries as Searching for Sugarman (2012), Man on Wire (2008), LA 92 (2017), and Whitney (2018).

Simon and Jonathan talk about how they discovered new ways of telling Tina's story, the revelations that they uncovered about Tina while making the film and what it takes to make a great documentary.   

Directed by Academy Award-winners Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin, TINA is being released on March 27th on HBO and streaming on HBO Max in the US, and in the UK on 28th March at 9:00PM on Sky Documentaries and NOW and via altitude.film.  

“What an incredible trailblazer of a performer Tina was, even before her solo success. Seeing the full trajectory of her career as a performer is, in some sense, a revelation.” - Jonathan Chinn