Wonder and Kent discuss the experimental documentary Realm of Satan which is a shifting kaleidoscope of satanic imagery featuring satanists set against rich backdrops curated by ritual and imagination. Emerging themes center around taboo worship, the gravitas of ritual and giving over to it, centering materiality in a religion vs repudiating it, delighting in and […]

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Kent and Wonder discuss the documentary Better Angels: The Gospel According to Tammy Faye using evangelist Tammy Faye’s timed birth chart. Striking themes that emerged were faith and sacrifice and the search for meaning in the wake of loss and difficulty. Astrologically these themes can be linked to the sign of Pisces, which is where […]

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Wonder and Kent discuss the documentary Agent of Happiness, which is about an agent of the (Buddhist) Bhutanese government tasked with going door to door to take the measure of people’s happiness. Themes that arise are the worth of reflecting on what makes us happy, questions around whether one would be happier in a lowly […]

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Kent and Wonder discuss the documentary Every Little Thing about a sanctuary for wounded hummingbirds in the city of Los Angeles founded and run by a woman named Terry Masear. Themes that emerged were dedicating oneself to a life of service, what it takes to confront mortality, when does telling the truth serve no one, […]

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Wonder and Kent discuss the documentary Porcelain War about three incredibly brave Ukrainian artists, two of whom are also soldiers fighting on the frontlines in service to their country. Themes that emerge are using art as a strategy of resilience, the way time slows when you create art and also when you go to war, […]

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Kent and Wonder discuss the documentary Sugarcane about the reckoning on the Sugarcane reserve following an investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school. Emerging themes include intergenerational trauma visited upon the vulnerable by figures in charge, including those who claimed to be godly, how the harm these egregious acts caused were […]

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Last December, Wonder was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer, and facing an uncertain future we decided to collaborate on another Story All the Way Down season breaking down the archetypal dynamics of 36 Sundance documentaries. Bearing witness to the “creative treatment of actuality” as John Grierson has described documentaries was a healing balm that allowed […]

The post #31: Season 2 Kickoff: Sundance 2024 Documentary Archetypal Themes appeared first on Story All The Way Down.

After all other International journalists leave, this director stays behind so that the world can bear witness to Russia's war crimes in Ukraine. A remarkable story of bravery that deeply influenced the framing of this entire podcast series around what it means to bear witness to each other's stories. It won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Documentary category, and we break down how 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL by Mstyslav Chernov influenced my journey at Sundance 2023 and bookended Wonder's journey.

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Four black, transgender sex workers frankly talk about the intimate and taboo details of their work while providing pithy cultural critiques. It explores themes of gender, desire, and violence as it fully lives into the descriptions of "unfiltered, unabashed, and unapologetic" with an authentic tone of "refreshing rawness and vulnerability unconcerned with purity and politeness." In this episode, we unpack KOKOMO CITY by D. Smith, which took home both the NEXT Innovator Award and Audience Award for NEXT.

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A unique, hybrid doc on the identity of Central Appalachia being inexorably connected to coal mining. It's a poetic exploration around the tensions between pride and remorse as it reckons the past, present, and future of this region. We break down KING COAL by Elaine McMillion Sheldon in this episode.

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