The Documentary Life

If you are like so many of us doc filmmakers, there have been numerous times where you have questioned or doubted whether or not you should or perhaps even could make a documentary film. There are even seasoned filmmakers with multiple docs to their resume who still question whether or not they are the right person to be making a particular doc (myself included).

Well, I am here to tell you that yes, you can in fact, make a documentary, and furthermore that you are, in fact, the perfect person to be making the doc that you’ve been thinking of making or are already in the process of making.

In fact, for today’s episode I’m going to give you 5 Reasons why can and should be making your documentary film, and why you should be doing it today!

• It is Your Calling
• Everyone Loves Docs
• Because You are the Person to Tell the Story
• You Already Have the Equipment
• You ARE a Doc Filmmaker, So Stop Questioning It

And if you should need more inspiration to make your documentary, then look no further than fellow #doclifer, Patrick Suzuki-Mitchell, who, like many of us felt an undeniable pull to venture forth into the wonderful world of documentary. But, also like so many of us, had his moments of trepidation and often found himself looking for reasons why he was the one to be telling the story that he wanted to tell. And after you listen to today’s episode you’re going to hear about 20 million of those reasons why he’ll be making his first documentary film!

Check out the Youtube clip that #doclifer Patrick uploaded seven years ago, and has now provided the impetus for the making of his first doc

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

° ONE MONTH FREE OF GUIDEDOC!

Check out 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!

° Episode #90 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!

Every once in awhile a young filmmaker comes out of nowhere and takes the doc world by storm. And this year that name seems to be Bing Liu.

And his doc Minding the Gap seems to be all over the place these days. Bing’s film won the Sundance 2018 Jury for Breakthrough Filmmaking. He was essentially recruited by Kartemquin to come on as co-producers. Steve James not only came on as executive director of Minding the Gap but asked Bing to story produce and DP on a handful of episodes of Steve’s current docuseries America to Me. Bing was also listed in Variety Magazine as one of ten documentary filmmakers to watch.

And so for today’s programme I am happy to sit down with Bing and have a candid conversation about his experience in the film industry, his life in Rockford, and of course, his exhilarating documentary, Minding the Gap. Enjoy, fellow #doclifer!

• Forming a co-sponsorship with a Kartemquin films
• Bing’s decision to put skin in the game by including himself in his doc
• Ethical decisions involved when subjects discuss abusive relationships
• Navigating the meat market atmosphere of major film festivals

° Watch the trailer for Minding the Gap

° Watch Bing’s full documentary, Nuoc

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!

Last week, #doclifer Josh Davidsburg took advantage of the TDL Hotline and left a message with us asking about advice for a film festival strategy. Not only did we answer his question and offer up some suggestions, but we took it a step further and decided to make a full-blown episode on the topic!

I don’t want you to make the same mistakes that I made when I released my first documentary Journey to Kathmandu. While I certainly learned a bit about the film festival thing from that experience, I probably learned more from my inexperience! And the various docs that I’ve worked on since J2K coupled with my research and connection to Melbourne Documentary Film Festival and their director, Lyndon Stone, I’ve certainly broadened my knowledge on the topic of film festivals. And I’m happy to share that not only with Josh, but all of you #doclifers, who should be forming your strategies from the moment you embark upon your amazing doc idea/project!

In this episode, we discuss 5 tips for your film festival strategy.

• Form Your Strategy Early On
• Build a Festival Database
• Find the Festivals For Your Film
• Get the Word Out
• Be Smart About Your Premiere

Want a great supportive doc filmmaking community to be a part of? Consider the TDL Community facebook Group page! It’s free and it’s a wonderfully connected group of like-minded individuals all working on their passion of doc filmmaking.

° Trailer to #DocLifer Josh Davidsburg’s documentary film, Queen of the Capital

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7G128nlbzA

If you are interested in watching TDL host, Chris G. Parkhurst’s personal documentary, you can check out Journey to Kathmandu, a film that follows the once-in-a-lifetime journey that goats make from their farmland lives of goats in Tibet to their sacrificial deaths in Kathmandu, during the Nepalese holiday, Dashain.

Purchase of the Deluxe Director’s & Goat’s Edition comes loaded with behind-the-scenes footage, director’s commentary, shorts, and deleted scenes. Regardless if you’re simply looking for more info on the making of J2K’or you’re a budding independent filmmaker (or just a fan of goats!), this is a must-have for anyone who enjoys gaining insight into what goes into the making of an independent documentary in a developing country.

° Episode #86 is brought to you by BlackBox Global, creators of one of the easiest way to turn your filmmaking skills into passive income!

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!

Alison Wright has been traveling and working in 150 countries and doing documentary photography for 35+ years. She is one of the single most impressive human beings that you may ever meet. She has lived more in her life than most of us will if we lived to 100. Though if not for the kindness of strangers, she would have lost her life in the middle of nowhere Laos, when she was involved in a horrific bus accident.

Of course, she lived to tell the tell her story. And she lived to tell it to many people, since the publication of her memoir, Learning to Breath: One Woman’s Journey of Spirit and Survival. And she lived to create some of the more impactful photographs of some of the most desolate, destitute, staggeringly beautiful, hauntingly breathtaking places and peoples of the world.

And she’s now given us the pleasure of her presence on the podcast. And what an episode it was. We are not worthy, Alison…

• importance of finding hope when one is working in the devastated areas of the world
• discussion on whether one’s work is enough for change or if the artist needs to be doing something more tangible with their work to affect that change
• how to stay connected with both your subject and the audience for your work
• how to decompress & process when coming back from long stretches of working away from home
• how a meditation practice got Alison through challenging situations & environments, including her near-death experience in Laos

I encourage all listeners to check out the amazing work that Alison is doing through her non-profit, Faces of Hope.

I also highly recommend reading her stunning memoir, Learning to Breath: One Woman’s Journey of Spirit and Survival.

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!

As a doc filmmaker, how many times have you been asked what your favorite documentary film is? If you’re anything like me, it’s a nearly impossible and futile question to answer. There are just too many incredibly documentaries that have influenced, inspired, and excited me over the years, to have to name a single favorite one of them.

That being said, it’s not difficult for me to rattle off a number of documentaries that have been of particular influence to me and my work. Which is what today’s episode is all about: docs of influence.

And once you’ve listened to the show, I’d like to encourage you to share with the rest of us #doclifers your list of docs that have influenced you! You can email me, use the TDL Hotline (1-828-419-4845) or maybe even better yet, post your list as a comment on the TDL Community Facebook Group.

• Burden of Dreams
• Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse
• War Photogapher
• Hoop Dreams
• Touching the Void

° Watch the trailer for Burden of Dreams

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

° Watch the trailer for Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxowb5IQRuI

° Watch the trailer for War Photographer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doV8xokcTuo

° Watch the trailer for Hoop Dreams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph2Y-epihlk

° Watch the trailer for Touching the Void

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t65VrYZ2U9s

Be sure and check out #DocLifer Erin McGoff‘s current documentary film project, This Little Land of Mines!

If you are interested in watching TDL host, Chris G. Parkhurst’s personal documentary, you can check out Journey to Kathmandu, a film that follows the once-in-a-lifetime journey that goats make from their farmland lives of goats in Tibet to their sacrificial deaths in Kathmandu, during the Nepalese holiday, Dashain.

Purchase of the Deluxe Director’s & Goat’s Edition comes loaded with behind-the-scenes footage, director’s commentary, shorts, and deleted scenes. Regardless if you’re simply looking for more info on the making of J2K’or you’re a budding independent filmmaker (or just a fan of goats!), this is a must-have for anyone who enjoys gaining insight into what goes into the making of an independent documentary in a developing country.

° Episode #86 is brought to you by BlackBox Global, creators of one of the easiest way to turn your filmmaking skills into passive income!

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!

One of the biggest documentary hits of the summer has been Tim Wardles’ Three Identical Strangers, a film that follows the incredible true story of triplets who learned of one another’s existence only at age 19, their initial joy giving way to increasingly unsettling discoveries. But before becoming the director or a massive documentary hit, Wardle spend many years as head of development for RAW TV in the UK, a position that he believes is vastly underrated and, in fact, is one that documentary filmmakers should more seriously consider.

I loved that revealing conversation for its discussion on the documentary industry and his amazing documentary.

• how working years as head of development for RAW TV enabled Tim to stay inspired and connected to documentary
• why you, #doclifer, might consider making a career out of development
• why documentary people are some of the most interesting, inspiring people you can surround yourselves with
• how a filmmaker needs to be willing to walk away from their doc project if it’s not working
• his strategies for approaching and then conducting interviews with the key people of Three Identical Strangers
• the challenges with producing Three Identical Strangers, a US-based film, from a UK-based company

° Watch the trailer for Three Identical Strangers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-OF0OaK3o0

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!

Last week we attended Podcast Movement 2018 in Philadelphia, USA. It was a great refresher for us – even an eye opener on some levels – in terms of what we are doing with the podcast as well as what we’re doing as doc filmmakers. As was the case last year, we left the conference feeling more connected to a community of podcasters. But this year, perhaps more importantly, we are feeling a need to be more connected you, #doclifer, which is what this week’s episode is all about… Connectivity.

We are making a more concerted effort to get back to our core of The Documentary Life, which is to provide a platform whereby we, as doc filmmakers, can all feel a little more connected to one another, to our doc brothers and sisters!

As creatives, it’s easy for us to get overwhelmed by our projects or other aspects of our lives that demand our attention. This can sometimes negatively impact our ability to function in a creative capacity. I have come up with five ways that will help you take some of that creativity back.

• Meetups
• Join TDL Community facebook group page
• Volunteer on Someone Else’s Doc
• Attend Doc Film Fests
• 48 Hour Film Festival

° Want a great supportive doc filmmaking community to be a part of?

Join the TDL Community facebook Group page! It’s free and it’s a wonderfully connected group of like-minded individuals all working on their passion of doc filmmaking.

° In the episode we talk about the importance of using your Meetups! We also mentioned two Meetup groups that are listeners of the podcast head up in Philly and Charlotte. Check’em out if you’re in the area!

If you are interested in watching TDL host, Chris G. Parkhurst’s personal documentary, you can check out Journey to Kathmandu, a film that follows the once-in-a-lifetime journey that goats make from their farmland lives of goats in Tibet to their sacrificial deaths in Kathmandu, during the Nepalese holiday, Dashain.

Purchase of the Deluxe Director’s & Goat’s Edition comes loaded with behind-the-scenes footage, director’s commentary, shorts, and deleted scenes. Regardless if you’re simply looking for more info on the making of J2K’or you’re a budding independent filmmaker (or just a fan of goats!), this is a must-have for anyone who enjoys gaining insight into what goes into the making of an independent documentary in a developing country.

° Episode #84 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!

There is something – many things, really – that can be said about having a conversation with Timothy George Kelly (dir., Brexitannia) on the current state of documentary film (or Brexit, for that matter). But you probably wouldn’t believe me if I tried to explain it here. The best thing to do, of course, would be to simply dive into the episode. But you should do so with some caution.

For this episode may provoke you. It may force you to think of your doc making in a different way. It may make you anxious. It could make you annoyed. Or it could make you jump for joy with happiness and exaltation. Whatever my conversation with Timothy does, if nothing else, you will be moved in some direction. This is not unlike, of course, what the whole Brexit referendum did a couple of years back. Which, by the way, Timothy thankfully covered in brilliant and black and white fashion with his stunning new film, Brexitannia.

• the importance of having conversations about how & when you screwed up as a filmmaker and why the industry is scared of those conversations
• why Timothy makes docs that deal in truth, and not the blurring of lines between fact and fiction
• how intentionally making strong creative decisions on Brexitannia practically ensure that it would not be seen on the tele
• how & why we can and should be making political docs that are interesting to an audience in an effort to engage them in political discourse

° Watch the trailer for Brexitannia

https://vimeo.com/210570776

° A great example of Timothy’s filmmaking where doc meets commercial. Made for Adidas Originals and Boiler Room.

https://vimeo.com/179881825

° The trailer for Timothy’s film that he hates, A City is An Island

https://vimeo.com/167117333

If you are interested in watching TDL host, Chris G. Parkhurst’s personal documentary, you can check out Journey to Kathmandu, a film that follows the once-in-a-lifetime journey that goats make from their farmland lives of goats in Tibet to their sacrificial deaths in Kathmandu, during the Nepalese holiday, Dashain.

Purchase of the Deluxe Director’s & Goat’s Edition comes loaded with behind-the-scenes footage, director’s commentary, shorts, and deleted scenes. Regardless if you’re simply looking for more info on the making of J2K’or you’re a budding independent filmmaker (or just a fan of goats!), this is a must-have for anyone who enjoys gaining insight into what goes into the making of an independent documentary in a developing country.

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!

Pedram Shojai has been embodying the doc life now for years. In fact, one might argue that he was doing so even before he was making documentaries, building his life to his passions of Taoism, Kung Fu, Tai Chi, and practicing Oriental medicine. A few years ago, Pedram combined these passions and formed Well.org. Not long after this, he made his first documentary film, Vitality. A number of documentary films have since followed.

I think that you will find this conversation to be one of the most frank and open conversations about living one’s doc life that we’ve had in a long time.

• how/why you might consider using your doc films as freemium
• how Pedram believes that filmmakers need to get over their issues with making money from their projects
• how there is a need for docos to be making films that bring more light instead of darkness into the world
• how electing not to distribute with the Netflixs and Amazons allows you to be more intimately connected with your audiences, which increases the success of your next films

As creatives, it’s easy for us to get overwhelmed by our projects or other aspects of our lives that demand our attention. This can sometimes negatively impact our ability to function in a creative capacity. I have come up with five ways that will help you take some of that creativity back.

• Get Outside
• Find Something Good
• Engage with Some Like-minded People
• Ask for Feedback
• Exercise

° Watch the trailer for Pedram Shojai’s first documentary film, Vitality

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

° Watch the trailer for Pedram Shojai’s documentary film, Prosperity

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

If you are interested in watching TDL host, Chris G. Parkhurst’s personal documentary, you can check out Journey to Kathmandu, a film that follows the once-in-a-lifetime journey that goats make from their farmland lives of goats in Tibet to their sacrificial deaths in Kathmandu, during the Nepalese holiday, Dashain.

Purchase of the Deluxe Director’s & Goat’s Edition comes loaded with behind-the-scenes footage, director’s commentary, shorts, and deleted scenes. Regardless if you’re simply looking for more info on the making of J2K’ or you’re a budding independent filmmaker (or just a fan of goats!), this is a must-have for anyone who enjoys gaining insight into what goes into the making of an independent documentary in a developing country.

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!

It’s that time again to turn our attention to breaking down the barriers of that ever-elusive filmmaking animal that we’ve all come to respect and love, but few of us truly understand… the film festival.

Last year, we ran a two-part special on the subject of the film festival for the documentary festival. Lyndon Stone, festival director of Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, invited us into his world of curating and producing a documentary film festival and he helped us better understand what all goes on behind-the-scenes of such an endeavour, as well as how we, the doc filmmaker, can best apply to these festivals and use them to leverage our film’s success afterwards. We also spoke with two filmmakers who were playing MDFF, in order to gain their perspective on what the documentary film festival experience was like for them, and how we might best be able to learn from their experiences.

Due to the popularity of that two-part special, we’ve decided to do it again in anticipation of this year’s MDFF! Lyndon will again tee-up each episode for us and we will also have two doc filmmakers who have had their film’s selected as inclusion to this year’s festival. And for part two of the special, we’ll talk with Dawn Mikkelson, whose film Risking Light marks Dawn’s fifth documentary film in which she has applied to the film festival circuit. This is her first to play MDFF, which had reached out to her a couple of years prior when they were made aware of a crowdfunding campaign for the film.

• how the MDFF film selection process goes through a very specific panel process
• why it’s important for festivals to be hosting more filmmaker visits
• how Dawn Mikkelson’s first festival experience changed her entire perception of the film festival circuit
• why it’s exciting & important for doc filmmakers to have their subjects present at some festival screenings
• how festivals are a critical way for a doc filmmaker who isn’t from LA or NYC to casually network with other doc filmmakers or industry people who might help you get your next doc funded

Watch the trailer for Dawn Mikkelson’s Risking Light

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1qx_v7gCvI&vl=en

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!