Indian filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh were pleasantly surprised when their  independent feature doc Writing with Fire swept up awards, including at Sundance, and became the first Indian feature doc to ever be nominated for an Oscar.

But they were shocked when the film's subjects, after traveling with and celebrating the film for 14-months, suddenly pulled back from the project, releasing a statement saying that the film oversimplifies their work.

In this episode, Rintu and Sushmit talk about how they maintain the delicate balance between filmmaker and participant, as well as the stakes and challenges of storytelling in a dynamically evolving and complex democracy.

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Producer Amy DiGiacomo on Instagram and Twitter
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Editor Audrey Horowitz on Instagram

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What Do Filmmakers Owe Their Subjects? 

Souki Mehdaoui is a documentary filmmaker, DP, and subject coordinator. Her cinematography can be seen on Netflix, HBO, New York Times, and the Sundance-premiering documentaries The Great Hack and Mucho Mucho Amor.

Souki was a subject in the HBO doc series The Vow, and she brought her experiences as a documentary participant into her work as a subject coordinator for the Showtime documentary Cusp.

In this episode, Souki talks about what she’s learned from being on both sides of the camera and how filmmakers can create a transparent and ethical relationship with their film’s participants.

Follow Souki on instagram and check out her work here.

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Host Jennie Butler on Instagram
Executive Producer Sky Dylan-Robbins
Producer Amy DiGiacomo on Instagram and Twitter
Producer Caley Fox Shannon on Instagram
Producer Abhishyant Kidangoor
Editor Audrey Horowitz on Instagram

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It's a scenario most documentary filmmakers dread: someone else is covering the same story. Dueling documentaries are becoming more common, but is competition always bad for filmmakers?

Director Jenner Furst came on the pod to talk about this phenomenon, which he's experienced several times throughout his career. Jenner and his filmmaking partner Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro directed Hulu's Fyre Fraud, which came out days before Netflix's FYRE, as well as LulaRich, released just prior to another film on the same subject, The Rise and Fall of LuLaRoe.

Jenner talks about how he approached these stories knowing there was a competing doc in progress, how he was able to gain access to some of the films' more controversial participants, and his advice for pitching to streamers.

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Host Jennie Butler on Instagram
Executive Producer Sky Dylan-Robbins
Producer Amy DiGiacomo on Instagram and Twitter
Producer Caley Fox Shannon on Instagram
Producer Abhishyant Kidangoor
Editor Audrey Horowitz on Instagram

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A documentary filmmaker's relationship with their film's participants, or "subjects", is one of the most important but challenging parts of making a film. The director might have to consider: What are the boundaries of my relationship with the subject? Should the subjects be paid? What effects will my film have on the subjects' lives?

These questions are at the heart of the new documentary, SUBJECT, from directors Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall. The film examines the ethics of documentary filmmaking through interviews with industry gatekeepers, as well as subjects of some of the most notable documentaries like Hoop Dreams, Capturing the Friedmans, The Square, and The Staircase.

On this episode, Jennifer and Camilla talk about the experiences that inspired them to make SUBJECT, and how filmmakers can apply the film's themes to their own work.

To learn more about SUBJECT visit https://www.subject.film/

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Host Jennie Butler on Instagram
Executive Producer Sky Dylan-Robbins
Producer Amy DiGiacomo on Instagram and Twitter
Producer Caley Fox Shannon
Producer Abhishyant Kidangoor
Editor Audrey Horowitz on Instagram

Got an idea for an episode? Email [email protected]

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This episode is all about music in film—choosing the right tracks, licensing music, music supervision, and more.

We sat down with all star Music Supervisor Justin Feldman, whose credits include The Last Dance, Silicon Valley, Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell, and Untrapped: The Story of Lil Baby. Justin rose through the ranks at Hit The Ground Running, an LA-based, full-service music supervision company, and shares his deep knowledge on music in film.

To learn more about Hit The Ground Running, visit htgr.net
Get in touch with Justin Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @JT_Feldman

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Host Jennie Butler on Instagram
Executive Producer Sky Dylan-Robbins
Producer Amy DiGiacomo on Instagram and Twitter
Producer Caley Fox Shannon
Producer Abhishyant Kidangoor
Editor Audrey Horowitz on Instagram

Got an idea for an episode? Email [email protected]

Click here to support the Video Consortium

You've finished a film. Now how do you get it programmed at your preferred festival?

Samah Ali is a film festival strategist, meaning she works with documentary directors and producers to achieve their film festival goals. Samah is also a distributor and film programmer at Academy Award-qualifying festivals like Hot Docs, DOC NYC, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

In this episode, Samah discusses how to think about premiere status, submission vs solicitation-based film festivals, and what a strategist like herself can bring to the table.

Check out Samah's blog: https://stratali.net/

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*Special thanks to Amy DiGiacomo for helping us produce this episode*

Jon Gerberg is an award-winning video journalist on the national and investigative beats. He joined The Washington Post in 2017 and was previously a foreign affairs producer at the “PBS NewsHour.” He has reported overseas for the New York Times, TIME, Associated Press and others. Countries he’s covered include Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, as well as across Europe and throughout the United States.

In this episode, Jon and Jennie talk about how to stay focused on the craft in a chaotic environment, how Jon choses what stories to pursue, and how to get into a workflow while on the go.

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*Republishing an old favorite*

Chloe Gbai is the director of If/Then, a Tribeca Film Institute initiative that gives grants and provides mentorship to filmmakers creating short documentaries. She was previously a programmer at PBS POV Shorts. 

In this episode, Chloe gives advice on how to put together a strong grant application, and shares her insight on what makes a good shot doc. She is based in NYC.

Mentioned in the episode:

The Balloonfest That Went Horribly Wrong

For more info visit https://www.roughcutpodcast.com/

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Poh Si Teng is a documentary filmmaker and the Funds and Enterprise Program Director at IDA, one of the largest documentary grant funders. Before IDA, Poh worked as an independent filmmaker in India, a staff reporter at the New York Times, and as the documentary commissioner and senior producer for Al Jazeera English’s flagship strand Witness.  She also commissioned and produced the Academy Award-nominated St. Louis Superman.

In this episode, Poh gives advice on what makes a strong grant application, what documentary filmmakers should think about when they're starting a new project, and how her experiences as a filmmaker and journalist inform her work at IDA.

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Since it launched in 2014, Vox Video has amassed nearly 10 million subscribers on YouTube, and has expanded to platforms like Netflix, HBO, and Quibi. Its new docu-series Level Playing Field, about the intersection between sports and politics, is now streaming on HBO.

Joe Posner is the Co-founder and VP of Creative Development at Vox Video. In this episode, we discuss how Vox built its unique brand of explanatory journalism, and it kept this distinctness while scaling to other platforms.

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