Talking Documentary Podcast

Drew Xanthopolous was a young, unestablished filmmaker when he came across a New York Times photo essay that would launch his career—as well as change the next five years of his life. The essay documented the lives of people who suffer from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, a crippling condition that forces the afflicted to rethink everything about their day-to-day lives (including where they live and how they interact with family). Xanthopolous was intrigued and decided to learn more. He met several MCS sufferers and decided to tell their story. Over the ensuing handful of years, Xanthopolous undertook a nearly continuous milk run across two time zones to capture the lives of those living with MCS. His ensuing film, The Sensitives, documents the unique emotional terrain of those for whom modern life is more curse than blessing.



Music by Wall Matthews

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In the United States, stray dogs are not allowed to live on the street. They are whisked away to live in concrete cells. The approach is very different in some cities in Europe and Asia, where stray dogs are allowed to live freely alongside the human population.



Elizabeth Lo pondered these differences and what it all means. She wanted to create a visual document that captures stray dogs as seen from their perspective, not ours. The result is a stunning visual achievement that also carries a message about what it means to live free.



Lo's film, Stray, was released in 2021. It won the jury prize for Best International Feature Film at the Hot Docs International Film Festival!

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Justin Schein is a veteran filmmaker who has worked with scores of documentary subjects, but nothing could prepare him for an aging yippee named Mayer Vishner. Schein thought he was making a documentary about Vishner’s life. Vishner had a different idea, and it shook Schein to his core and tested his mettle as a friend, filmmaker and human being. Schein's 2015 film, "Left On Purpose," follows the colorful, unforgettable Vishner through a minefield of emotional and ethical issues.

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Joe Brandmeier was an average married guy who accepted the ups and downs of being coupled. But then a particularly tough patch in his marriage prompted him to think more deeply about the institution. Brandmeier became deeply curious about why we get married, what it means to be married, and how different kinds of couples make it work. He hit the road and interviewed a variety of married couples throughout the upper midwest. The interviews became the crux of his 2016 film, "I Do?" It's an amiable look at how real couples love, laugh, cope and persist.

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Hollywood photographer Pamela Littky was overtaken by a nagging curiosity ... what happens, she wondered, to the thousands of kids named Most Likely to Succeed in high schools all across America? Littky embarked on her first documentary film to find out. Ten years later, she answered the question in her 2019 film, "Most Likely to Succeed." It's an endearing and honest look into life's most vulnerable period where even high school stars get bumped around along the way.

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Jesse Alk's father, Howard, was a documentarian who died when Jesse was a child. Decades later, Jesse wound up retracing his father's footsteps to Kolkata, India, where Howard had documented West Bengali musicians in the early '70s. Jesse fell in love with the city, its people, and particularly its native street dogs. He filmed the dogs and the people who care for them, capturing the loneliness and suffering of both. His film, Pariah Dog, debuted in 2019 at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and won Best Feature.

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Dani Connor Wild was volunteering for a wildlife photographer in northern Sweden when the Covid pandemic descended and locked her in place. For the next six months she lived alone in a town of 20 mostly elderly residents and found solace and meaning by heading into the dense, rustic woods near her home. What she found there altered the trajectory of her young career and transformed her into a successful multi-platform documentarian. Her first documentary film, The Squirrels & Me, was released on YouTube in February and has already racked up nearly a million views.

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In 1996, Michael Lucid was a senior at the Crossroads school in Santa Monica, California. He noticed a social phenomenon that had the school buzzing and wanted to know more. So he grabbed a camcorder and began documenting a group of impossibly young female idealists whose brash manners and clothes were ruffling feathers on campus. In the process, he created a time capsule that still captivates people 25 years later.

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In 1982, three young men from Allentown, Pa., climbed aboard a billboard in a competition to win an $18,000 mobile home. Times were tough, owning a home was an inaccessible dream, and the three competitors were determined to win. They wound up living on the billboard far longer than anyone imagined and became global celebrities in the process. Nearly four decades later, their story of obsession and determination still resonates. Filmmaker Pat Taggart discusses how this unusual contest came to be and how he overcame an unsettling first interview to make the film.

Learn more about the film at billboardboys.com.

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The internet is awash in what are known as "Bill Murray stories." Murray crashing a bachelor party. Bill Murray joining a random kickball game. Bill Murray washing a stranger's dishes. Tommy Avallone traveled to two continents to find out whether these stories were true, and what they tell us about Bill Murray as well as ourselves. Avallone's 2018 film, "The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man," is a light-hearted exploration of a quirky and beloved celebrity. But it's also a meditation on life and the importance of being present.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.talkingdocumentary.com