Fog of Truth

In this bonus episode, cohosts Bart Weiss and Chris Reed talk with Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom), discussing his career and thoughts on the art of filmmaking. In addition, we consider two different approaches to the same topic, comparing Neville's 2018 nonfiction Won't You Be My Neighbor? to Marielle Heller's 2019 fictional A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, each of which take the late, great Fred Rogers as their subject. Listen in for a vibrant conversation on documentaries and more!

Other Films (and One Show) Mentioned:

• Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal (Robert Gordon/Morgan Neville, 2015)
• Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
• California's Goldwith Huell Howser( KCET, 1991 –)
• The Cool School (Morgan Neville, 2008)
• The Devil and Daniel Johnston (Jeff Feuerzeig, 2005)
• Grey Gardens (Ellen Hovde/Albert Maysles/David Maysles/Muffie Meyer, 1975)
• Grey Gardens (Michael Sucsy, 2009)
• Little Dieter Needs to Fly (Werner Herzog, 1997)
• The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble (Morgan Neville, 2015)
• The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles, 2018)
• Rescue Dawn (Werner Herzog, 2006)
• Shotgun Freeway: Drives Through Lost L.A. (Morgan Neville/Harry Pallenberg, 1995)
• Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Joe Berlinger/Bruce Sinofsky, 2004)
• They'll Love Me When I'm Dead (Morgan Neville, 2018)
• Troubadors (Morgan Neville, 2011)

Links to reviews by Christopher Llewellyn Reed:

• Film Festival Today review of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• Hammer to Nail review of They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
• Hammer to Nail review of Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Timestamps:

• 00:35 – Intro
• 04:24 – Morgan Neville interview
• 30:42 – End credits

Website/Email:

www.fogoftruth.com

[email protected]

Credits:

Artwork by Hilary Campbell

Intro music by Jeremiah Moore

Editing and shownotes by Christopher Llewellyn Reed

In this bonus episode, cohosts Bart and Chris revisit their favorite documentaries of 2019, and then invite, each in turn, all the podcast's Season 7 guest hosts to chat about their favorites. Those guests, in order of appearance, are: Sedika Mojadidi, Betsy McLane, Anuradha Rana, Jennifer Proctor, Sonali Gulati and Patricia Aufderheide. Given how many films Chris and Bart always watch, they each listed ten films, while each guest host only listed five. Enjoy, and see you in 2020!

Chris's List (in alphabetical order):

1. American Factory (Steven Bognar/Julia Reichert)
2. Apollo 11 (Todd Douglas Miller)
3. The Brink (Alison Klayman)
4. Cold Case Hammarskjöld (Mads Brügger)
5. Los Reyes (Iván Osnovikoff/Bettina Perut)
6. Maiden (Alex Holmes)
7. Mike Wallace Is Here (Avi Belkin)
8. One Child Nation (Nanfu Wang/Lynn Zhang)
9. Pahokee (Patrick Bresnan/Ivete Lucas)
10. Tell Me Who I Am (Ed Perkins)

Bart's List (in alphabetical order):

1. Amazing Grace (Alan Elliott/Sydney Pollack)
2. American Factory (Steven Bognar/Julia Reichert)
3. Apollo 11 (Todd Douglas Miller)
4. Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops (Jenifer McShane)
5. Flannery (Elizabeth Coffman/Mark Bosco)
6. Hail Satan? (Penny Lane)
7. Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (Midge Costin)
8. Midnight Traveler (Hassan Fazili)
9. Mike Wallace Is Here (Avi Belkin)
10. Pahokee (Patrick Bresnan/Ivete Lucas)

Sedika's List (in alphabetical order):

1. Amazing Grace (Alan Elliott/Sydney Pollack)
2. American Factory (Steven Bognar/Julia Reichert)
3. Honeyland (Tamara Kotevska/Ljubomir Stefanov)
4. Midnight Traveler (Hassan Fazili)
5. One Child Nation (Nanfu Wang/Lynn Zhang)

Betsy's List (in alphabetical order):

1. American Factory (Steven Bognar/Julia Reichert)
2. The Cave (Feras Fayyad)
3. College Behind Bars (Lynn Novick)
4. Fire in Paradise (Zackary Canepari/Drea Cooper)
5. Tell Me Who I Am (Ed Perkins)

Anuradha's List (in alphabetical order):

1. The Biggest Little Farm (John Chester)
2. The Distant Barking of Dogs (Simon Lereng Wilmont)
3. One Child Nation (Nanfu Wang/Lynn Zhang)
4. Our Time Machine (S. Leo Chiang/Yang Sun)
5. Reason (Anand Patwardhan)

Jennifer's List (in alphabetical order):

1. Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (Chris Smith)
2. Fyre Fraud (Jenner Furst/Julia Willoughby Nason)
3. Hail Satan? (Penny Lane)
4. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (Alex Gibney)
5. Maiden (Alex Holmes)

Sonali's List (in alphabetical order):

1. Always in Season (Jacqueline Olive)
2. Apollo 11 (Todd Douglas Miller)
3. The Biggest Little Farm (John Chester)
4. Breaking Their Silence: Women on the Frontline of the Poaching War (Kerry David)
5. One Child Nation (Nanfu Wang/Lynn Zhang)

Patricia's List (in alphabetical order):

1. The Apollo (Roger Ross Williams)
2. For Sama (Waad al-Kateab/Edward Watts)
3. Our Time Machine (S. Leo Chiang/Yang Sun)
4. Smog Town (Meng Han)
5. A Woman's Work: The NFL's Cheerleader Problem (Yu Gu)

Timestamps:

• 00:46 – Intro + Chris and Bart's respective Top 10 lists
• 08:39 – Sedika Mojadidi's top docs of the year
• 16:49 – Betsy McLane's top docs of the year
• 24:33 – Anu Rana's top docs of the year
• 30:08 – Jen Proctor's top docs of the year
• 37:32 – Sonali Gulati's top docs of the year
• 42:46 – Pat Aufderheide's top docs of the year
• 51:03 – End credits

Website/Email:

www.fogoftruth.com

[email protected]

Credits:

Artwork by Hilary Campbell

Intro music by Jeremiah Moore

Editing by Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Transitional music by BELLS (thanks to Christopher Ernst)

For our final episode of Season 7, we invite Patricia Aufderheide, of American University, back on the show (she was Bart's interview subject, discussing her role in developing the modern rules of Fair Use, on our August 28 bonus episode). The theme this time is the role of journalism in today's world (and how we got here), as we review the new documentary Mike Wallace Is Here and Chris interviews director Yung Chang of This Is Not a Movie, about the journalist Robert Fisk. It's been an exciting season, with a different guest host for each episode. Stay tuned for more foggy truths ahead, first with a few more bonuses in the months ahead, and then with a new season early in 2020. Enjoy!

Group Review Documentary:

MIKE WALLACE IS HERE (Avi Belkin, 2019)

Still in select theaters, and out on DVD as of October 29

Film Featured in Interview Portion:

THIS IS NOT A MOVIE (Yung Chang, 2019)

Currently playing in festivals

Other Books, Films, Shows and Sites Mentioned:

• Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment (Peter Wintonick, 1999)
• The Corporation (Jennifer Abbott/Mark Achbar)
• Decade of Fire (Gretchen Hildebran/Vivian Vazquez, 2019)
• Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)
• The Fruit Hunters (Yung Chang)
• From Beirut to Bosnia (Michael Dutfield, 1993)
• Independent Television Service (ITVS)
• Made in Boise (Beth Aala, 2019)
• Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (Mark Achbar/Peter Wintonick, 1992)
• Night Beat
• Owning Mahowny (Richard Kwietniowski, 2003)
• Picture of Light (Peter Mettler, 1994)
• Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (Sam Dunn/Scot McFadyen, 2010)
• Seeing Is Believing: Handicams, Human Rights and the News (Peter Wintonick, 2002)
• 60 Minutes
• 60 Minutes and the News: A Mythology for Middle America (Richard Campbell, 1991)
• Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)
• Tell Me Who I Am (Ed Perkins, 2019)
• The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers
• This Is Not a Film (Mojtaba Mirtahmasb/Jafar Panahi, 2011)
• Zelig (Woody Allen, 1983)

Links to review and interview by Christopher Llewellyn Reed:

• Film Festival Today review of Mike Wallace Is Here
• Film Festival Today interview with Avi Belkin of Mike Wallace Is Here
• Hammer to Nail review of This Is Not a Movie

Timestamps:

• 00:37 – Intro
• 04:39 – Group Discussion of MIKE WALLACE IS HERE
• 18:54 – Chris interviews Yung Chang of THIS IS NOT A MOVIE
• 42:46 – Doc Talk

Website/Email:

www.fogoftruth.com

[email protected]

Credits:

Artwork by Hilary Campbell

Intro music by Jeremiah Moore

Transitional music by BELLS (thanks to Christopher Ernst)

Editing and shownotes by Christopher Llewellyn Reed

As our seventh season enters its final third, Bart and Chris join guest host Sonali Gulati, a filmmaker and faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University, for a review of Jacqueline Olive's searing look back at America's violent history of lynching, Always in Season. Then, Bart interviews Elizabeth Coffman, co-director of Flannery, a documentary about the late, great southern writer Flannery O'Connor, which was just awarded the inaugural Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film. Inspiring artists deserve inspiring discussions, and that's what we bring to the podcast. Enjoy!

Group Review Documentary:

ALWAYS IN SEASON (Jacqueline Olive, 2019)

In theaters and film festivals now

Film Featured in Interview Portion:

FLANNERY (Elizabeth Coffman/Mark Bosco, 2019)

Currently playing in festivals

Other Films and Sites Mentioned:

• Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché (Pamela B. Green, 2019)
• Diary of a Harlem Family (Gordon Parks, 1968)
• Equal Justice Initiative
• Gordon Parks exhibit at the Amon Carter Museum
• I Am (Sonali Gulati, 2011)
• Just Mercy (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2019)
• National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
• Shaft (Gordon Parks, 1971)
• True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality (George Kunhardt/Peter W. Kunhardt/Teddy Kunhardt, 2019)
• The World of Piri Thomas (Gordon Parks, 1968)

Link to review by Christopher Llewellyn Reed:

• Film Festival Today review of Always in Season

Timestamps:

• 00:38 – Intro
• 05:02 – Group Discussion of ALWAYS IN SEASON
• 20:14 – Bart interviews Elizabeth Coffman of FLANNERY
• 38:01 – Doc Talk

Website/Email:

www.fogoftruth.com

[email protected]

Credits:

Artwork by Hilary Campbell

Intro music by Jeremiah Moore

Transitional music by BELLS (thanks to Christopher Ernst)

Editing and shownotes by Christopher Llewellyn Reed

This week, we welcome guest host Jennifer Proctor, filmmaker and Associate Professor of Journalism and Screen Studies at University of Michigan-Dearborn, for a robust discussion of the new documentary#FemalePleasure and its examination of female agency in the modern world. Following that group review, we play Chris's interview with director Pia Hellenthal and writer Giorgia Malatrasi, co-creators of Searching Eva, a highly stylized portrait of feminist intellectual and sex worker Eva Collé. Join us as we follow women forging their own paths, patriarchy be damned.

Group Review Documentary:

#FEMALEPLEASURE (Barbara Miller, 2019)

Begins releasing in U.S. theaters on October 18

Film Featured in Interview Portion:

SEARCHING EVA (Pia Hellenthal, 2019)

Currently playing in festivals

Other Films and Sites Mentioned:

• Born into Brothels (Zana Briski/Ross Kauffman, 2005)
• CinemAbility (Jenni Gold, 2012)
• Detrás de la Realidad (SMU Meadows School of the Arts' Ignite/Arts Dallas Initiative/The Community Action Network, a program of Bachman Lake Together/ The Meadows School's Division of Film and Media Arts, 2019)
• EDIT Media
• Eva Collé's Instagram
• Eva Collé's Tumblr
• JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)
• Lincoln (Steven Spielberg, 2012)
• One of Us (Heidi Ewing/Rachel Grady, 2017)

Links to review and interview by Christopher Llewellyn Reed:

• Film Festival Today review of #FemalePleasure
• Film Festival Today interview with director Pia Hellenthal and writer Giorgia Malatrasi of Searching Eva

Timestamps:

• 00:37 – Intro
• 05:53 – Group Discussion of #FEMALE PLEASURE
• 21:53 – Chris interviews Pia Hellenthal and Giorgia Malatrasi of SEARCHING EVA
• 37:40 – Doc Talk

Website/Email:

www.fogoftruth.com

[email protected]

Credits:

Artwork by Hilary Campbell

Intro music by Jeremiah Moore

Transitional music by BELLS (thanks to Christopher Ernst)

Editing and shownotes by Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Joining us this week is documentarian Anuradha Rana – Associate Professor, School of Cinematic Arts, DePaul University – as we discuss Alexandre O. Philippe's Memory: The Origins of Alien and interview director Alyssa Bolsey and cinematographer Camilo Lara of Beyond the Bolex. Both films deal, albeit in very different ways, with behind-the-scenes looks at the art of filmmaking. From blood-curdling chest-bursting scenes to the perfect windup, rotating-lens-turret camera, we've got you covered.

Group Review Documentary:

MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN (Alexandre O. Philippe, 2019)

Now playing in theaters and on demand

Film Featured in Interview Portion:

BEYOND THE BOLEX (Alyssa Bolsey, 2019)

Currently playing in festivals

Other Films and Sites Mentioned:

• Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
• American Dharma (Errol Morris, 2018)
• The Brink (Alison Klayman, 2019)
• Doc of the Dead (Alexandre O. Philippe, 2014)
• The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (Errol Morris, 2003)
• Jodorowsky's Dune (Frank Pavich, 2013)
• Kartemquin Films
• The Language of Opportunity (Anuradha Rana, in progress)
• Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (Rob Epstein/Jeffrey Friedman, 2019)
• The People vs. George Lucas (Alexandre O. Philippe, 2010)
• Reason (Anand Patwardhan, 2018)
• 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene (Alexandre O. Philippe, 2017)
• The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988)
• Twelve O'Clock High (Henry King, 1949)
• What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (Rob Garver, 2018)

Links to review and interview by Christopher Llewellyn Reed:

• Hammer to Nail review of Memory: The Origins of Alien
• Hammer to Nail review of Beyond the Bolex
• Film Festival Today interview with Alyssa Bolsey and Camilo Lara of Beyond the Bolex

Timestamps:

• 00:37 – Intro
• 05:58 – Group Discussion of MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN
• 19:43 – Chris interviews Alyssa Bolsey and Camilo Lara of BEYOND THE BOLEX
• 39:21 – Doc Talk

Website/Email:

www.fogoftruth.com

[email protected]

Credits:

Artwork by Hilary Campbell

Intro music by Jeremiah Moore

Transitional music by BELLS (thanks to Christopher Ernst)

Editing and shownotes by Christopher Llewellyn Reed

For this second episode of our current season we try something new with a look back at an important film from the past, Barbara Kopple's 1976 Harlan County U.S.A., which won the 1977 Best Documentary Oscar. Why this trip down docu-memory lane? Two reasons: 1) our guest host this week is actually a guest historian, Betsy McLane, who not only knows just about everything there is to know about documentary history, but also knows quite a lot about Kopple; and 2) the coal miners of Harlan County, Kentucky, are once again on strike, gaining national and international attention over the summer. Plus ça change …

And while we're on the topic of great films about unions, we thought we'd also play a recent interview Chris did with directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert of American Factory, just recently released on Netflix, which tells the story of what happens when a Chinese glass company takes over an abandoned GM plant. It starts out so well, but then, well … you'll just have to listen to our podcast and then watch the movie. Enjoy!

Group Review Documentary:

HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A. (Barbara Kopple, 1976)

Available on disc and online

Film Featured in Interview Portion:

AMERICAN FACTORY (Steven Bognar/Julia Reichert, 2019)

Now on Netflix

Other Books and Documentaries Mentioned:

• American Dream (Barbara Kopple, 1990)
• Hillbilly (Sally Rubin/Ashley York, 2018)
• The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (Steven Bognar/Julia Reichert, 2009)
• Monterey Pop (D.A. Pennebaker, 1968)
• Murder on a Sunday Morning (Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, 2001)
• My Generation (Thomas Haneke/Barbara Kopple, 2000)
• A New History of Documentary Film, 2nd Edition (BOOK), by Betsy McLane (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013)
• One Child Nation (Nanfu Wang/Jialing Zhang, 2019)
• ReFocus: The Films of Barbara Kopple (BOOK), edited by Jeff Jaeckle and Susan Ryan (Edinburgh University Press, 2019)
• The Staircase (Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, 2004-2018)
• Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh, 1970)
• Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation (Barak Goodman, 2019)

Links to review and interview by Christopher Llewellyn Reed:

• Hammer to Nailreview of American Factory
• Film Festival Todayinterview with Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert of American Factory

Timestamps:

• 00:40 – Intro
• 04:27 – Group Discussion of HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A.
• 25:58 – Chris interviews Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert of AMERICAN FACTORY
• 43:38 – Doc Talk

Website/Email:

www.fogoftruth.com

[email protected]

Credits:

Artwork by Hilary Campbell

Intro music by Jeremiah Moore

Transitional music by BELLS (thanks to Christopher Ernst)

Editing and shownotes by Christopher Llewellyn Reed

We are back for a new season, and this time with a series of guest hosts – a new one each episode – to accompany Bart and Chris on their journey through documentary cinema. Our guest for this episode is filmmaker Sedika Mojadidi, whose Facing the DragonI mentioned on our April 17 bonus episode. We review Danish director Mads Brügger's Cold Case Hammarskjöld, a wild romp of an investigative movie, just recently released in theaters, and interview director Stephen Maing about last year's Crime + Punishment. Curious about the connection? Listen on … Finally, at the end, in "Doc Talk," since Sedika has just taken up a teaching position at Savannah College of Art and Design, we discuss her planned strategies to train the next generation of documentarians. And all that in just over 50 minutes. Enjoy!

Group Review Documentary:

COLD CASE HAMMARSKJÖLD (Mads Brügger, 2019)

Now in theaters and on demand

Film Featured in Interview Portion:

CRIME + PUNISHMENT (Stephen Maing, 2018)

Now on Hulu

Other Documentaries, Sites and Topics Mentioned:

• BORAT
• Danes for Bush (Mads Brügger, 2004)
• Don't Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967)
• Facing the Dragon (Sedika Mojadidi, 2018)
• Field of Vision
• High Tech, Low Life (Stephen Maing, 2012)
• The Intercept
• The Surrender (Stephen Maing, 2016)
• The Yes Men

Links to reviews/interview by Christopher Llewellyn Reed:

• Film Festival Todayreview of Cold Case Hammarskjöld
• Hammer to Nailreview of Crime + Punishment
• Hammer to Nailinterview with Stephen Maing of Crime + Punishment

Timestamps:

• 00:37 – Intro
• 06:02 – Group Review of COLD CASE HAMMARSKJÖLD
• 24:47 – Bart and Chris interview Stephen Maing of CRIME + PUNISHMENT
• 43:34 – Doc Talk

Website/Email:

www.fogoftruth.com

[email protected]

Credits:

Artwork by Hilary Campbell

Intro music by Jeremiah Moore

Transitional music by BELLS (thanks to Christopher Ernst)

Editing and Shownotes by Christopher Llewellyn Reed

In this bonus episode, Bart interviews Patricia Aufderheide, of American University's Center for Media & Social Impact, about how she first developed the guidelines for "fair use," those rules whereby documentary filmmakers place footage from other sources in their films without fear of lawsuits. It's one of the most important developments in the nonfiction filmmaking worldof the last 20 years, and Aufderheide made it happen. This is her story.

Films and Texts Mentioned:

• Best Practices in Fair Use manual (American University, School of Communication, Center for Social Media)
• Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction, by Patricia Aufderheide (Oxford University Press, 2007)
• Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes / 2006 (Director: Byron Hurt)
• Rat Film / 2016 (Director: Theo Anthony)

Timestamps:

00:40 - Intro

06:58 - Interview with Patricia Aufderheide

30:40 - Closing

Website/Email:

www.fogoftruth.com

[email protected]

Credits:

Artwork by Hilary Campbell

Intro music by Jeremiah Moore

Editing by Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Transitional music by BELLS (thanks to Christopher Ernst)

Release date – 7/24/19

Bonus Episode – "The Great Hack"

This bonus episode features a review of the new Netflix documentary The Great Hack – which opens today on the site – and an interview with its directors, Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim, from this year's AFI DOCS film festival. The film discusses both the 2016 Brexit and 2016 U.S. presidential elections and how the public's personal data was misused by the now-defunct political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. It's a visually exciting and dramatically gripping look at how social-media activity leads to the hacking of our brains.

Sadly, this is also the first Fog of Truth episode done without our erstwhile colleague Summre Garber, who has left the podcast to pursue other opportunities. We miss her. Stay tuned for more information about the guest hosts that Chris Reed and Bart Weiss will invite onto the show for Season 7, which we plan to launch some time in September, after first recording one more bonus episode between now and then.

Group Review + Interview Documentary:

THE GREAT HACK / 2019 (Directors: Karim Amer & Jehane Noujaim)

Now playing on Netflix

Other Films Mentioned:

The Interview / 2014 (Directors: Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogen)

The Square / 2013 (Director: Jehane Noujaim)

Startup.com / 2001 (Directors: Chris Hegedus & Jehane Noujaim)

Links to review/interview by Christopher Llewellyn Reed:

• Film Festival Today review of The Great Hack
• Film Festival Today interview with The Great Hack's Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim

Timestamps:

00:40 - Intro and Farewell to Summre

04:10 - Group Review of THE GREAT HACK

13:20 - Chris interviews Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim of THE GREAT HACK

31:25 - Closing

Website/Email:

www.fogoftruth.com

[email protected]

Credits:

Artwork by Hilary Campbell

Intro music by Jeremiah Moore

Editing by Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Transitional music by BELLS (thanks to Christopher Ernst)