The Documentary Life

It is the week of giving thanks, as we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the U.S. Coincidentally, it is episode #100, our last episode of Season One of the podcast. And I am joined by my better half, the producer for the show, Stephanie Vincenti. And we have a lot of gratitude for what we have achieved with The Documentary Life. We also have so much to be thankful for with you, #doclifers, who have most certainly helped us achieve this fairly monumental moment, and may even have been with us throughout all episodes of this journey!

And so this, our season finale, if you will, is all about and all for you, #doclifer.

• a look back at 2.5 years and 99 episodes of the podcast
• a discussion about our hiatus and what we’ll be doing during that time to serve you
• how in 2019, Cambodia will play a significant part in our and your #doclives
• what’s on the horizon for The Documentary Life, which has become much more than simply a podcast
• a discussion about The Documentary Academy, including a Black Friday offer for enrollment

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!

Peter Mortimer has been climbing and making outdoor adventure films for the past twenty years through his company, Sender Films. His company has put out some of the most recognizable outdoor adventure images on the planet, as well as founded The Reel Rock Tour, the biggest and longest-running festival of outdoor adventure films in the world.

Sender has just released their first feature doc, The Dawn Wall, the story of Tommy Caldwell and his impossible ascent of one of the world’s most difficult rock faces, Yosemite’s Dawn Wall. Tommy’s journey, coupled with Peter’s own journey from a geology student to running one of the most well known outdoor adventure film production companies made for a wonderful story. And it has made for an even better episode. Check it out!

• how he went from a Geology degree to making some of the world’s most recognizable rock climbing films
• how filming what he knew of his own interests propelled his films to a dedicated niche audience
• how creating the Reel Rock Film Festival essentially became the jumping off point for distribution of his films
• how Sender Films went on to produce the documentary about one of the most historic climbs and climbers in history
• the technical aspects involved with filming a climb like The Dawn Wall

° Watch the trailer for The Dawn Wall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRkMaQEVd9c

° Watch the full length doc on November 20th! Sender Films’ The Dawn Wall

° Watch IDFA Interview with directors, Peter Mortimer & Josh Lowell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl1iV2ow5-c

° Tommy Caldwell on Tedx Talks

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

° There are some outstanding examples of how Sender Films has made a living doing outdoor adventure films in this series, A Line Across the Sky. Incredible footage with some behind-the-scenes moments that any #doclifer interested in shooting outdoor sports will appreciate! Below is a trailer. Click HERE to watch the full film.

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

° Episode #90 is proudly brought to you by BlackBox Global, creators of the easiest way to turn your filmmaking skills into passive income!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=BAGp0j57LNE

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

° Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artist’s music by going to Free Music Archive 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!

Maureen Gosling is not only the editor of my favourite documentary film of all time, but quite possibly my favourite film of all time. Period. That film is Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams, starring Werner Herzog.

And as we near our finale episode for Season One of the show, I thought it might be a great time to have someone like Maureen on to the show, not only because I would get the opportunity to hear some Les Blank, Werner Herzog & Klaus Kinski stories, but also because editing is something that we often like to champion here on the show. I believe editing to be one of the most underrated positions in all of film. Plus, I know that we have a lot of #doclifers out there who are currently in post production on their doc film!

• how a chance encounter with Les Blank would start her down the road of documentary
• being sued by Drew Barrymore for the use of the name Flower Films
• stories about her and Les’ experience documenting Werner Herzog with their film Burden of Dreams
• touring in Latin America showing their films and working with Latin American filmmakers
• lessons & tips for working with indigenous cultures

° Watch the trailer for Burden of Dreams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYOYi9WLLVU

° Watch the trailer for A Dangerous Idea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26ZIfvWWqDA

° Watch the trailer for The Long Shadow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RENJTepMW-4

Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artist’s music by going to Free Music Archive 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!

Doc Society (formerly BritDoc) is a non-profit that has been working directly with documentary filmmakers since its inception in 2005, to make the most impact in the world with their art. Whether with their flagship program, Good Pitch, their Impact Award, the Impact Field Guide, or the number of grants that they offer, Doc Society has truly become a critical part of the doc community over the past decade.

And I was fortunate enough to sit down with co-founder, Maxyne Franklin, to have an open & frank discussion about the general state of documentary as well as how Doc Society fits into the whole doc landscape, as well as how you, #doclifer, can best take advantage of their programs & services.

• how a group of Channel 4 editors broke away to form BritDoc, which would eventually become Doc Society
• how its flagship program, Good Pitch, has brought together organizations & individuals who can directly impact doc filmmaker's projects
• what Doc Society is doing to become more accessible to filmmakers globally
• the Impact Field Guide & Toolkit and why every doc filmmaker should have this free resource
• other grants & funds that Doc Society is producing to directly help the doc filmmaker

Launched in 2014, the Impact Field Guide & Toolkit is a free online resource designed to help anyone working with film make an even greater impact. Go to the download HERE.

Good Pitch brings together documentary filmmakers with foundations, NGOs, campaigners, philanthropists, policymakers, brands and media around leading social and environmental issues — to forge coalitions and campaigns that are good for all these partners, good for the films and good for society.

Want to be part of a doc filmmaking community? Consider the TDL Community facebook Group page! It's free and a wonderful group of like-minded individuals working on their passion of doc filmmaking.

° Episode #97 is brought to you by BlackBox Global, creators of one of the easiest way to turn your filmmaking skills into passive income!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/BAGp0j57LNE

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

° Free Music Archive - Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week's episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artist's music by going to Free Music Archive 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!

Jon Kasbe may not be a name that you are familiar with… yet. Unless you are intricately connected to film festivals or an avid follower of short documentary films, you may not know of this filmmaker’s work.

But he’s most certainly someone that you will soon know, quite possibly with his first feature doc, When Lambs Become Lions, a film about two Kenyan men on opposing sides of the ivory trade. To say it is a thoughtful, engaging, complex look at an issue that you may think that you already know about, would be a vast understatement.

Jon got his beginning by doing one short film after another. And that is not to say that he simply churned these films out. Jon clearly took great care with each and every one of his films. With each short, he cut his teeth, took risks, learning what worked and what didn’t with each short film that he did. All of this, unintentionally, leading to the first feature doc.

This is a conversation with a filmmaker whom we may all come to know and appreciate over the next few years. When Lambs Become Lions is one of the most impressive feats I’ve seen in a long time. And his library of short films are equally impressive. There is much to be learned from this doc filmmaker.

• had his first doc experience shooting his grandfather helping a leper colony in India
• how working in short form – making mistakes & letting some projects go – allowed him the confidence to one day make his feature, When Lambs Become Lions
• spent a year getting to know his subjects before a camera ever came out
• the responsibilities & perils in trying to give Westerners a deeper understanding on subjects they make thing that they already know about
• how Jon used narrative cinema as inspiration, as opposed to documentaries

° A Conversation with Doc Filmmaker, Jon Kasbe

Topics include how to start your documentary, the evolution of a story, camera decisions, post production and more.

https://vimeo.com/276058656

° Clip from When Lambs Become Lions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwO-UZaV9ak

° View more of Jon’s work by going to his Vimeo page.

Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artist’s music by going to Free Music Archive 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!

Steve James is one of the most recognizable names in documentary. Many of us #doclifers have been inspired by his films and the way in which he makes them. He was on TDL back on the eve of the Academy Awards for his doc, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail. Not surprisingly, Steve had some great insight into the industry and into doc filmmaking, as a whole. And he related much of this with candor and clarity that was appreciated by all of us doc filmmakers.

And so, on the weekend before the finale of his magnificent documentary series, America to Me, we thought it an appropriate time to reconnect with our brother-in-doc.

• why & how Steve maintains relationships with his subjects
• his choice to recruit younger, diverse filmmakers to help him with the series
• why he shows scenes to his film subject, believing that they have agency in how they are represented
• how weekly meetings with school admin was necessary for filming the series
• how & why America to Me was the most difficult undertaking of his film career

Watch the trailer for America to Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avT1e_iZ8yw

° Episode #90 is proudly brought to you by BlackBox Global, creators of the easiest way to turn your filmmaking skills into passive income!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=BAGp0j57LNE

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

° Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artist’s music by going to Free Music Archive 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!

No one knows documentary film distribution in quite the way that film distro wizard, Jon Reiss does. The founder of Hybrid Cinema and author of film distribution Bible, Think Outside the Box Office joined us for this week’s episode of TDL. And it was one of the most engaging, honest looks at film distribution out there!

• a hybrid approach to film distribution
• importance of creating an event for your film’s theatrical showing
• was building an audience through a blog, social media, and email lists before it was a thing
• how the Bible of film distribution, Thinking Outside the Box Office came to be
• valuable first lessons learned from his distribution strategy with the film Bomb It
• tips for distributing your documentary film

As heard on the episode, fellow #DocLifer, Kevin Svenkeson joined us on the programme to discuss his journey with his first documentary film, Floating Giants: The Barry Prentice Story. Watch the trailer for his film

https://vimeo.com/257799936

Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artist’s music by going to Free Music Archive 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!

Mat Hames is one of the few, fortunate ones in our doc world that makes his entire living doing his passion of documentary film. Whether it is through he and his wife’s company, Alpheus Media, or through Rooster Teeth’s RT Docs, Hames has been making documentary films non-stop for well over a decade now. Of course, along with persistence and hard work came such fortuitous moments along the way – not the least of which was his association with PBS’ program, Independent Lens, which showcased two of his first three documentary films.

And Mat was gracious enough to come onto TDL to discuss, among a host of other things, his collaboration with Independent Lens and why and how Public Broadcasting plays such a critical role in fostering the doc life of a filmmaker, like Mat.

• being knighted with his first documentary film
• the importance of a PBS programme, like Independent Lens to the doc filmmaker
• how writing is one of the most overlooked, but critical elements of the doc filmmaker
• who Rooster Teeth is and how they are making waves in the doc community

° View a clip of Mat Hames’ When We Rise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjM0p99fsco

° Watch the trailer for What Was Ours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN_yDENKtX0

° Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artist’s music by going to Free Music Archive 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!

An often overlooked aspect of film funding is the individual donor. Which is kind of surprising, given that statistics tend to show that 50 percent (and sometimes more) make up the overall funding for doc filmmakers. Amidst, all of the dialogue and concentration on other, sometimes more obvious, avenues of fundraising like crowdfunding, grant funding, and corporate sponsorships, we tend to forget that sometimes it’s that single big individual donation that can often be the difference between getting a film made or having it remain a cool idea that the filmmaker once had.

And so we have dedicated today’s episode to you, #doclifer, and to the almighty Individual Donor!

• How individual donations often make up the bulk of a doc filmmakers funding
• Where & how to find individual donor
• Contacting a potential donor
• Making the ask
• Nurturing the relationship of the major gift donor

° Episode #92 is brought to you by BlackBox Global, creators of one of the easiest way to turn your filmmaking skills into passive income!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=BAGp0j57LNE

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

° Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artist’s music by going to Free Music Archive 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!

Getting Real is a biennial conference put on by International Documentary Association (IDA) to foster three days of documentary media discussion, with documentary filmmaker’s sustainability at the core of its discussion. Along with the theme of sustainability, the 2018 conference will see the themes of transparency and creativity being added to the discussion.

At the time of this episode, we are days away from the event (Sep 25-27) and we thought it might be a great time to check in with our friends over to IDA to see what was happening this year. We are were elated when Claire Aguilar, Director of Programming & Policy agreed to sit down this and tell us of all the special events happening at this year’s Getting Real.

• the continuing need to better understand sustainability and how it pertains to the doc filmmaker
• how & why IDA continues to be at the forefront of fostering networking & discussion to and with the doc community
• the addition of transparency and creativity to the Getting Real discussion
• a breakdown of all that is offered at this premiere three-day event for doc filmmakers
• while tix are sold-out for the event, you can still volunteer for Getting Real

Two episodes were mentioned in today’s programme. They were Episode #58 with IDA Exec Dir, Simon Kilmurry and Episode #51 with 2018 IDA Career Achievement Award recipient, Lourdes Portillo. Check out one or both!

° ONE MONTH FREE OF GUIDEDOC!

Episode #89 is proudly brought to you GuideDoc, an online platform where you can not only watch the world’s best award-winning docs from around the globe, but you get to directly support the people who make these docs! 50 percent of proceeds goes directly to the filmmaker!

To take advantage of one month FREE, simply use the promo code MYDOCLIFE upon checkout!

° Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artist’s music by going to Free Music Archive 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!