Factual America

When we think of alternative music of the 1990s, bands like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against the Machine or Green Day immediately come to mind – bands who were supported by major labels and commercially viable. 

However, there was a whole sea of other underground bands, spanning a few generations, who were completely fobbed off by the corporate music labels, who didn't sell as many records, and whose careers were overshadowed by their commercially successful counterparts.

Joining us in this episode is Shaun Katz, director and producer of Underground Inc: The Rise and Fall of Alternative Rock (2019). His film dives into the meteoric rise and fall of the hardcore, underground alternative rock scene of the late 80s to mid-90s. 

The film includes interviews with the likes of Joey Castillo from Queens of the Stone Age, Sean Yseult from White Zombie, Steve Albini (the record producer for Nirvana, the Pixies, and PJ Harvey), Todd Huth from Primus, and many more.

Underground Inc. will be available on all major cable and VOD platforms and on DVD on March 23rd. 

"There was a generational shift happening at the underground rock scene, that left the music industry not knowing what to do." - Shaun Katz

Martha Cooper is an iconic American photojournalist and the unlikely hero of street artists across the globe. She documented New York's underground graffiti scene in the 1970s, at a time when street art was looked down upon as being immoral and lacking in artistic merit.

But Martha instead fell in love with the scene and in 1984 published her photos in Subway Art. After a failed launch, the book has gone on to be one of the most sold, and stolen, art books of all time. It also influenced a generation of street artists, including OSGEMEOS.

Selina Miles is the Australian director of the new feature documentary Martha: A Picture Story, which follows the life and work of Martha Cooper. Selina shares what she's learned about Martha's life, her global reputation, and what parts of her life the film documents.

We also talk about how Selina and Martha met, how Selina came up with the idea for the documentary, and what her thoughts are on the value of street art.

“Martha’s now in her 70s, still traveling the world documenting street art in places like Mongolia and Tahiti.” - Selina Miles

Tim O'Brien is one of the most influential living American writers, a National Book Award winner and the author of the groundbreaking book The Things They Carried.

Tim joins us along with award winning director and producer Aaron Matthews to discuss Aaron's film, The War and Peace of Tim O’Brien.

Aaron spent over a year filming Tim as he battled to write one final book – a legacy for his young family about life and fatherhood – even as Tim and his family remain haunted by the ghosts of the Vietnam War. 

Tim talks about the intrusion of allowing a film crew delve deeply into his and his family's personal lives. But by doing so, the film captures the day-to-day intrusions of family life on Tim's creative process.

The discussion naturally leads to the importance of fatherhood, and Tim’s perception of all wars – past, present and future – given his own experiences as an infantryman in the Vietnam War.

“I find it outrageous that we can spend 15 years in Vietnam killing 3 million people, and you can go to a school in America and they know nothing about the Vietnam War.” - Tim O’Brien

In the blink of an eye, Billie Eilish has gone from being an aspiring musician to a five-time Grammy Award winner and global superstar with a multimillion-fan following on social media.

Brilliantly capturing this incredible journey in his new documentary, award-winning director RJ Cutler returns to the podcast to discuss Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry (2021).

Inspired by musicals, concert films and observational cinema, the film takes an intimate look at Billie Eilish’s remarkable rise to superstardom. 

RJ spent a year with Billie Eilish and her family, and what he found was an extraordinary teenage artist creating remarkable music with her brother Finneas. He also found a young woman in full control of her career with the support of those who love and respect her.

Available to stream exclusively on Apple TV+ from February 26th 2021, this film is destined to become an instant classic to be revisited for many years to come.  

“She’s demanding, she’s exacting, she displeases herself. Did we just describe the teenager or the artist? - R.J. Cutler

Rural Appalachia is a part of America that’s vanishing before our eyes. With the loss of the coal industry, the future for the people of eastern Kentucky is uncertain. However, this is what inspires the self-proclaimed "last hillbilly" Brian Ritchie. 

French directors and writers, Diane Sara Bouzgarrou and Thomas Jenkoe, join us to discuss their award-winning documentary The Last Hillbilly (2020). The film won the Best International Doc Award at the Torino Film Festival, and received a special mention at IDFA under the First Appearance Category.

The Last Hillbilly follows Brian Ritchie, who is among other things, a poet, philosopher and not what you would expect from your stereotypical hillbilly. A daunting, yet poetic look at a part of America that will never be the same again, this film dives into Brian's stream of consciousness and explores the gap between his identity and his existence. 

“There are no more mines, there are no more jobs, and their identity is kind of stuck in the past. There is no future ahead of them.” - Diane Sara Bouzgarrou

The HBO documentary miniseries McMillion$ tells the gripping tale behind the McDonald's Monopoly promotion scam. Between 1989 and 2001 a criminal ring defrauded more than $24 million in prizes from McDonald's.

If not for a tipoff to a backwater FBI office, McDonald's never would have found out about the fraud. The ensuing investigation resulted in the arrests of over 50 people. 

Directors and executive producers James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte bring this incredible story to life. They share how they developed the project. James and Brian also discuss the series' entertaining cast of characters, including the FBI investigators who broke the scandal.

McMillion$ has earned five primetime Emmy nominations and scores of rave reviews. It is a refreshingly funny docuseries that captures the activities of a criminal syndicate, and it also has something to say about our willingness to believe the unbelievable.

“Some people knew what they were doing, but some people were legitimately duped into participating and claiming prizes, without ever knowing that this was a federal crime they were participating in.” - Brian Lazarte

Steve McQueen, the Hollywood icon, had a passion for car racing. However, his long lost Formula 1 film project never saw the light of day – until now.

Joining us to talk about this incredible story are the filmmakers behind Steve McQueen: The Lost Movie (2021), director, writer and producer Alex Rodger, and archivist Richard Wiseman.

The film elegantly captures Steve McQueen's stardom and passion for car racing. It is set against the backdrop of the 1960s – glory days for both Formula 1 and Hollywood.

Narrated by David Letterman, the documentary chronicles a race between two identical films. As we watch iconic directors and film studios battle it out, we learn the story behind the story of Day of the Champion – McQueen's lost Formula 1 film.

Just as strikingly, the film brings to the big screen incredible, never-before-seen racing footage that captures the glamour, and the danger, of Formula 1 racing in the 1960s.

Steve McQueen: The Lost Movie is available on SKY Documentaries and NOW TV.

“Car racing in 1960s was unbelievably dangerous, and Steve McQueen saw this as a way into the drama of Formula 1." - Alex Rodger

Miles Davis was among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.

An iconic trumpeter and composer, Miles changed the genre of jazz more times than anyone before him or anyone since. He invented what we today call cool jazz, hard bop, and jazz fusion. His album Kind of Blue is one of the greatest pieces of art of the 20th century. 

Award-winning director and producer, Stanley Nelson, joins us to discuss his documentary Miles Davis: Birth of The Cool. We learn about the music innovator's life journey, and the challenges that Stanley faced bringing Miles's story to the big screen. 

Available to watch on PBS, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, the film tells the story of Miles’s genius. His career encapsulated everything from playing with Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie to influencing generations of musicians. Miles was also a trend-setter and fashion icon, who way too often succumbed to his destructive drug addictions.

“Miles was an icon to the African-American community; he became a black man that demanded excellence in his music and his life.” - Stanley Nelson

Saturday Night Live, The Blues Brothers, and the National Lampoon — John Belushi was an iconic figure of the 1970s comedy scene. But he was more than just a comic genius. 

At one moment, Belushi had the number one show on television, the number one film at the box office, and the number one record on the charts. Just three years later he died from a heroin overdose aged just 33. How did such a talented figure come to such a tragic end?

The award-winning director, producer, and writer, R.J. Cutler, helps us find out as we talk about his new film Belushi (2020). He uses previously-recorded phone interviews combined with archival footage to help us relive the extraordinary life of the beloved actor and comedian. 

R.J. explains how he obtained access to the interviews, love letters and home movies needed to make the film, and why it has been so hard to accurately depict Belushi’s life until now.

Belushi is available to watch now on Sky On Demand and NOW TV.

“We talk about the joy, and the brilliance, and the magic, but we also talk about darker things.” - R.J. Cutler

For years Martin Luther King Jr, the leader and hero of the civil rights movement, faced constant surveillance and harassment by the US government.

Helping us to learn more about this dark chapter in America's history is award-winning director, editor and producer, Sam Pollard, whose latest film MLK/FBI premieres on January 15th 2021, ahead of Martin Luther King Jr Day on January 18th.

As a filmmaker with a career spanning more than three decades, Sam Pollard has won three Emmys and along with Spike Lee received an Oscar nomination for Four Little Girls (1997) . He is a teacher at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York, and a member at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

MLK/FBI is not a biopic. It is a complex and nuanced story with a clear protagonist, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and the antagonist, J Edgar Hoover, who served as the Director of the FBI for almost four decades. Each man had his fatal flaws and each man had his own view of what America should be.

"I’m someone who would do a survey film about anything and anybody. I want to be able to dig in as an anthropologist and archaeologist, to look at the pros and cons, and nuances of human beings and different institutions." – Sam Pollard