The Documentary Life

Welcome to the first episode of The Documentary Life‘s new weekly format! Contained within this initial release I’ll start off by detailing how the new format will work from this point forward. Namely, you’ll be happy to know that we’ll be releasing a new episode every Friday! Also, the format will consist of a topic segment hosted entirely by myself, followed by our conversation with a documentary industry guest.

Speaking of, we’re happy to announce that this week’s documentary industry guest is filmmaker, Shaleece Haas. Haas’ latest documentary, Real Boy, has already played over 70 venues, including an extraordinary number of film festivals, as well as a recent coveted run on PBS’ Independent Lens. Haas makes for a great conversation not only because of her documentary expertise, but also because of her background in education, a perfect combo for #DocLifers to learn how to best live and lead their own documentary lives!

Watch the trailer for Shaleece Haas’ award-winning documentary, Real Boy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v9xaA90rhw

If you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the link and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!

Welcome to part two of a very special two-part series that explores the mysterious world of the documentary film festival from the perspective of the filmmaker as well as the director of a film festival.

In part two we examine this topic via conversations with Richard Wyllie, whose film 5 Days on Lesvos not only will play this year’s MDFF, but was nominated for Best Documentary awards at Raindance as well as National Film Awards UK . And it is through MDFF’s festival director, Lyndon Stone, that we get the often overlooked insight of the people that are behind the selection of films for festivals.

In part one we spoke with with well-known New Zealand doc filmmaker, Costa Botes, whose film Act of Kindness was recently selected as inclusion into the 2017 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival (MDFF). You can find that episode here.

Watch the trailer for 5 Days on Lesvos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVss6uvKce4

If you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the link and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!

Welcome to part one of a very special two-part series that explores the mysterious world of the documentary film festival from the perspective of the filmmaker as well as the director of a film festival.

In part one we will examine this topic via conversations with well-known New Zealand doc filmmaker, Costa Botes, whose film Act of Kindness was recently selected as inclusion into the 2017 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival (MDFF). And it is through MDFF’s festival director, Lyndon Stone, that we will get the often overlooked insight of the people that are behind the selection of films for festivals.

In part two of the series – to be released June 23rd – we’ll continue our conversation with MDFF festival director, Lyndon Stone, as well as speak with Richard Wyllie, whose film 5 Days on Lesvos not only will play this year’s MDFF, but was nominated for Best Documentary awards at Raindance as well as National Film Awards UK .

Watch the trailer for Costa Botes’ Act of Kindess:

https://vimeo.com/128333059

Watch the trailer for Richard Wyllie’s 5 Days on Lesvos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVss6uvKce4

If you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the link and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!

We are excited to announce that the new host of TDL is Faith Fuller (formerly of Desktop Documentaries)!

Okay, so maybe it’s only for one week. And while Faith still holds her post as founder/curator of doc filmmaking resource Desktop Docs, at least for this episode, Faith turns the tables on regular host, Chris G. Parkhurst, and puts him on the other side of the interview!

• We delve a bit deeper into Parkhurst’s film/tv background
• How travel affected his decision to get into film production
• The importance of doing the dirty work and selling yourself as an independent filmmaker
• Why and how he decided to do a podcast
• As well as, glimpse into some of the future plans for TDL and the podcast

Watch the teaser for our feature doc Elvis of Cambodia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAqkmUKoEMY

If you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the link and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!

Back in October, documentary filmmakers, Deia Schlosberg and Lindsey Grayzel were arrested while filming separate but linked acts of civil disobedience. In Grayzel’s case it was for her documentary film, The Reluctant Radical, a film that follows climate activist, Ken Ward, as he sets out to make the world aware of impending massive global danger.

This particular episode has been a long time coming since I’ve been in contact with Grayzel ever since her arrest, urging her to come on the show and speak directly to my listeners about her experiences, as well as offer some suggestions for doc filmmakers and journalists alike, so that we may all better arm themselves should we too find ourselves filming in potentially dangerous or law breaking situations.

This show is a must listen, as there is much to glean from Schlosberg and Grayzel’s recent experiences!

Watch the trailer for The Reluctant Radical

https://vimeo.com/211135555

Read The Guardian article that really helped spread the message of the arrests of Schlosberg and Grayzel.

As mentioned in the podcast, you can better educate yourselves on being apprehended/arrested while filming. Simply download the .pdf of Dangerous Documentaries: Reducing Risk When Telling the Truth to Power here.

Consider contributing and sharing The Reluctant Radical Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. Raised monies will go directly to finishing post production on the film.

If you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the link and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!

The interview is the cornerstone of the documentary film. And therefore mastering the conducting of the interview is not something to be taken lightly. It is an art form unto itself. But sadly, many take this age-old journalistic practice for granted. And because of it, risk unusable content for their film or worse, yet, maybe even alienating their interviewee! Conducting a proper interview will give you thoughtful, insightful, and/or provocative sound bytes in which to cut your documentary film.

And so here, in Episode 25, I’d like to provide you with ten hot tips for your interview practice…

Please feel free to leave some comments about some of your own tried and true interviewing techniques. Remember: The Documentary Life is a place for us documentary filmmakers to network and share. We have to spread the knowledge around, #DocLifers!!

If you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the link and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!

Many of you are probably familiar with Robert Hardy‘s work for No Film School, where he wrote film content for the popular website. But it is with his own creation, The Filmmaker’s Process, that Hardy has really come into his own, sharing his own experiences and his creative curation of content – often very well thought-out and lengthy articles – that are specifically directed to the truly independent filmmaker.

The more I became familiar with Hardy’s work – both from his website and his brilliant and thoughtful newsletter – I realised that I needed to have him on the show. Anyone who knows his writing or how he thinks as a filmmaker, would quickly understand why he’d be a natural fit for TDL. So after months of trying to schedule an interview, I was finally able to carve out the proper time to have a heart-to-heart with this filmmaking brother-in-arms.

Along with a host of other topics, we covered his definition of success as a filmmaker (which differs vastly from the Sundance template most of us have been misled by for 20+ years!), how his time working in the film industry and then as a writer for No Film School inspired the birth of TFP, and then for the first time, Hardy makes it public his intentions to produce a The Filmmaker’s Process podcast!

If you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the link and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!

You’ve got to get creative with your income when you’re trying to make it as a documentary filmmaker in this world. Luckily, there are a number of different, actually pretty cool ways in which you can do this. Here on episode #23, I dive into five pretty diverse ways in which a #doclifer can keep him/herself from falling victim to filmmaking financial crisis.

Article about Uberstock founder, Robb Crocker.

Make passive income with BlackBox..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAGp0j57LNE

Go to BlackBox, Create a Free Account, and start selling your footage today!

If you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the link and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!

Brent E. Huffman‘s debut documentary, Saving Mes Aynak, is making a lot of noise these days. This MacArthur Foundation-sponsored film has played dozens of film festivals all over the globe, and its filmmaker, Huffman, has been on media outlets such as CNN, Al Jazeera, NPR, discussing the massive archaeological site, Mes Aynak, Afghanistan, which is in danger of being completely destroyed by Chinese copper mining interests.

I had the pleasure of holding a shared conversation with Huffman for this week’s TDL. We discussed such topics as filming in dangerous conditions in a developing country, the importance of one’s fixer/translation, the DIY approach to doc making, securing the afore-mentioned prestigious MacArthur Foundation grant, and a number of other topics that will appeal to any #DocLifer.

Watch the trailer for Saving Mes Aynak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8_EGRxK3UM

You can watch the film in its entirety through these platforms: Netflix | iTunes | Amazon

If you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the link and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!