It’s more than a song.  As Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller (“Ballet Russes”, “The Galapagos Affair”) point out in their new documentary, Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is a journey.  A journey of artistic and spiritual discovery, a 7-year Odyssey of composition, and, once all but lost, an even longer journey to find its place as one of our most admired songs, admiration which take the form of critical praise and popular renditions that can be found in Dreamworks movies and primetime talent shows.  Join Mike as he travels this decades-long path with Dayna and Dan.  

“Hallelujah:  Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song,” from Sony Pictures Classics, is now playing in select cities.

Hidden Gems:

The Truffle Hunters

The Five Obstructions

Leonard Cohen Covers:

Sharon Robinson’s “Alexandra Leaving” on YouTube or Spotify

Emmylou Harris’ “The Stranger Song” on YouTube or Spotify

Roberta Flack’s “Suzanne” on YouTube or Spotify 

Also discussed:

The Holy and the Broken:  Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah”

Howling at the Moon: The Odyssey of a Monstrous Music Mogul in an Age of Excess

Coined by a Harvard psychologist in the 1980s, the “Martha Mitchell Effect” describes a process in which a person’s beliefs are initially labeled as delusional but later turn out to be true. But who was the real Martha Mitchell? What were her claims about Watergate? And why, until now, has she been largely erased from our collective memory?

Opening up to Ken about their riveting all-archival documentary short “The Martha Mitchell Effect”, filmmakers Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy describe how they set out to widen the lens on Watergate beyond “All the President’s Men” to include the key perspective of Martha Mitchell, wife of former Attorney General and Nixon campaign chief John Mitchell. Dismissed at the time as being crazy and a drunk, Martha was, in fact, the victim of a well-planned gaslighting campaign hatched by Nixon, his top aides and even her own husband. Stunning in its revelations and highly immersive in its creative approach, this powerful film will no doubt leave you with a new perspective on those dark days of American history. Speaking truth to power tends to have that effect on people.

“The Martha Mitchell Effect” is now streaming on Netflix.

Hidden Gems:

Debra: “More Than I Remember” by Amy Bench

Anne: “Deerwoods Deathtrap” by James P. Gannon

Follow on Twitter:

@themarthafilm

@anne_alvergue

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The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.  Listen to our recent conversations with directors whose documentaries are currently on Netflix:

• Rory Kennedy on "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing"

Love and Lava, Magma and Matrimony.  Sara Dosa’s (“The Last Season”, “The Seer and the Unseen”)  “Fire of Love” encourages such puns, and that’s no accident:  The film explores the relationship of Katia and Maurice Krafft, married volcanologists as they chart the world's volcanoes from the late 1960s until their untimely deaths in 1993.  It’s a film that takes science seriously, but, like its subjects, isn’t afraid to have some fun.

Join Mike as he speaks with Sara about how she’s reworking the standard nature documentary:  How her narrator, Miranda July, explores science as inquiry rather than established fact, and how by juxtaposing seemingly whimsical graphics, Dosa complicates the standard narrative.  How does the growing relationship between the Kraffts echo their relationship with volcanoes?  What role do the twin montages at the heart of the film play in developing both those relationships?  How did the Kraffts differ when it came to dealing with the deadly reality of volcanic exploration?  Finally, how did their interests develop toward the ends of their lives as they began to focus more on the effects of volcanoes on humans, and what is their ultimate legacy?

“Fire of Love” from National Geographic Documentary Films can now be seen in select cities and will be rolling out across the U.S. over the summer.

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@saradosa

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Sha’Carri Richardson is fast. Really, really, really fast. At the 2021 U.S. Olympic trials, Sha’Carri, only 21 at the time, ran the 100-meter finals in 10.84 seconds, more than a tenth of a second faster than her closest competitor. In “Sub Eleven Seconds”, his artfully crafted documentary portrait of this superstar athlete at a moment of peak performance, the director Bafic captures Sha’Carri’s split-second athletic brilliance, refreshing honesty and totally original style.

As part of our focus on NextGen filmmakers — up-and-coming talents in the documentary world — “Top Docs” is pleased to be partnering with the 28th Palm Springs International ShortFest  (June 21 – 27) to feature several filmmakers with outstanding documentary shorts in this year’s festival. In this episode, Ken and Bafic explore a wide range of filmmaking topics, from the lessons the filmmaker gleaned from Francis Ford Coppola about identifying the core idea of one’s film (in this case, time itself); to Errol Morris’s famous interviewing device, the Interrotron; and the huge influence of the Texas-based music genre “chopped and screwed” on the film’s most critical sequence. “Sub Eleven Seconds” screened as part of the ShortFest documentary shorts block called “Truth Be Told”.

Check out the film at NewYorker.com or YouTube and then take the time to listen to our podcast.

Hidden Gem: Lock Off by Akwasi Poku.

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@BAFIC

@topdocspod

The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.  Listen to our recent conversations with directors whose documentaries are currently on Netflix:

• Rory Kennedy on "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing"

In a small town in India, a cow vigilante group seeks to recruit teenage boys to join its ranks. Who are these so-called cow vigilantes and how are they using the welfare of the cow, which is sacred to India’s majority Hindu population, to fan the flames of nationalist extremism? In Varun Chopra’s fascinating, multifaceted and provocative new short documentary “Holy Cowboys”, the filmmaker follows Gopal and his friends as they come under the powerful influence of one such group that, in the name of protecting cows, espouses violence against those, including Muslims, who do not share their beliefs and practices.

As part of our focus on NextGen filmmakers — up-and-coming talents in the documentary world — “Top Docs” is pleased to be partnering with the 28th Palm Springs International ShortFest (June 21 – 27) to feature several filmmakers with outstanding documentary shorts in this year’s festival. In this episode, Ken talks to Varun about his nuanced, inventive portrait of Gopal and the larger cultural, political and economic context surrounding his story.

“Holy Cowboys” is part of the documentary shorts block called “Higher Ground” screening Saturday, June 26th at 10:00 AM at the Camelot Theatres, Palm Springs. For more information about ShortFest and “Holy Cowboys”, please go to: https://psfilmfest.org/2022-shortfest

Short doc recommendation: “A Broken House” by Jimmy Goldblum

The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.  Listen to our recent conversations with directors whose documentaries are currently on Netflix:

• Rory Kennedy on "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing"

Like a freshly sculpted work of clay, director Rebeca Huntt’s stunning documentary debut BEBA captures in real-time her family’s fluid interpersonal dynamics; the complicated legacies of inherited national, ethnic and racial identity; and her own brewing caldron of coming-of-age dramatics. To call it a “personal film” is both a wild understatement and a reductive miscalculation: “BEBA”, for all its personal complexities, is a profound spiritual quest intended to stir existential questions in the audience and provoke a deep dialogue. Shot in vivid and pulsating 16mm film, “BEBA” is also a feast for the senses and a fever dream for the imagination. In short, it is a film to be reckoned with — and not to be missed.

Fresh off the film’s Tribeca Film Festival screening in her hometown of New York City, which plays a starring role in the film, Rebeca shares with Ken her searching personal journey and eight-year creative quest to bring “BEBA” to life. What was the “meta” experience like of making a film about her life, while at the same time living in the day-to-day? How did the probing interviews that she conducted with her family reveal fascinating truths, but also bring simmering tensions to the surface? Why was film the perfect medium to express everything that she was experiencing and wanted to convey? Join us as Rebeca sheds light on “BEBA”, both the film and the person, two powerful creative forces in the universe.

“BEBA” is being released in theaters by NEON starting on June 24th.

Hidden Gem: “Finding Christa”, “Suzanne, Suzanne”; both by Camille Billops

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@filmbeba

The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.  Listen to our recent conversations with directors whose documentaries are currently on Netflix:

• Rory Kennedy on "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing"

A phone call between mother and daughter. A bad dream. Home movies. Seems simple, yet Ash Goh Hua’s short documentary “The Feeling of Being Close to You” expertly navigates physical and emotional space to provide a compelling, affecting story of attempted reconciliation.

“The Feeling of Being Close to You” will play at the The Palm Springs International ShortFest as part of the “In Search of Lost Time” series on Thursday, June 23rd 2PM, at the Camelot Theatres (Palm Springs Cultural Center).  We are delighted to be partnering with Shortfest to promote promising NextGen filmmakers. And if you can’t make it to Palm Springs, on June 25th it will play Brooklyn’s BAM CinemaFest.

Hidden Gem:  Learning Tagalog with Kayla

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The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.  Listen to our recent conversations with directors whose documentaries are currently on Netflix:

• Rory Kennedy on "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing"

Hollyn and Colie are range riders. Every day during the summer, these highly skilled hired hands ride their horses across the remote, rugged Idaho mountains, pushing cows across sky-high ridges to their final destination. It’s hard work for low pay, but the rewards are plentiful: the thrill of the open range, the symbiotic relationship with their animals, and, not least of all, the close bond of friendship with each other. In her magical new documentary “Bitterbrush”, Emmy®, Peabody and Sundance Award-winning filmmaker Emelie Mahdavian (producer/writer/editor, “Midnight Traveler”) poetically and precisely captures the sights, sounds and timeless rhythms of this fiercely beautiful landscape. She also shows us, as few have before, the mutual love and support (and humor) that can happen between two women who care for each other as much as the land that will always be home.

Joining Ken for a wide-ranging conversation, Emelie describes how, living in this part of Idaho herself, she came to meet Hollyn and Colie and embark on this unique cinematic journey. In what ways did she avoid the clichés and tropes of the Western genre to forge her own narrative path? How did she and her cinematographers develop the right camera rigs to shoot images both awe-inspiring and intimate in such a challenging environment? And how did a magnetic 12-minute scene reveal as much to Colie about herself as it did to those watching? Saddle up and come along for this fascinating conversational ride.

“Bitterbrush” is being released in theaters by Magnolia Pictures starting on June 17th.

Hidden Gem: 

Listening to Kenny G

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@bitterbrushdoc

@topdocspod

The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.  Listen to our recent conversations with directors whose documentaries are currently on Netflix.

Rory Kennedy on "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing"

Andrew Rossi on "The Andy Warhol Diaries"

Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah on "jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy"

As part of our focus on NextGen filmmakers — up-and-coming talents in the documentary world — “Top Docs” is pleased to be partnering with the 28th Palm Springs International ShortFest (June 21 – 27) to feature several filmmakers with outstanding documentary shorts in this year’s festival.

In this episode, Ken talks to Pavel Mozhar, director of the IDFA-award-winning short documentary “Handbook”, a chilling exposé of the mass arrest and torture of protestors in the filmmaker’s native country of Belarus. Pavel, who now lives and goes to film school in Berlin, takes a unique, genre-bending approach to documenting the Lukashenko regime’s brutal and highly systematized tactics used against its own citizens following the presidential election in August 2020.

“Handbook”, which has its North American premiere at ShortFest, is part of the documentary shorts block called “A Dose of Reality” screening Saturday, June 25th at 10:00 AM at the Camelot Theatres, Palm Springs. For more information about ShortFest and “Handbook”, please go to: https://psfilmfest.org/2022-shortfest

Short doc recommendation from Pavel:

“89MM from Europe” by Marcel Łoziński

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What more can be said about Andy Warhol? Campbell’s Soup. Marilyn Monroe. Pop Art. The Factory. Fright wig. 15 minutes. Connect the dots and you feel pretty confident in your short-hand knowledge of who Warhol was and his place in modern art and contemporary culture. But, as much as Andy Warhol is a household name when it comes to 1960’s celebrity icons, not a lot is known about Warhol’s interior life or his intimate relationships. Using Warhol’s diaries (published just two years after his death) as a springboard, Emmy Award®-nominated filmmaker Andrew Rossi (“Page One: Inside the New York Times”, “Ivory Tower”) takes aim at those parts of Warhol’s life and career that are far less familiar to us. The result, Rossi’s sprawling new, must-see six-part Netflix series “The Andy Warhol Diaries”, is a fascinating portrait of the man who stated his desire to be “like a machine,” but, in reality, was a deeply emotional person whose intimate relationships and vulnerabilities reveal much about who he was and offer valuable insights into the enduring brilliance of his art.

How did Rossi use new A.I. technology, and the skills of actor Bill Irwin, to create a chillingly lifelike version of Warhol’s voice? Who were Jed Johnson and Jon Gould, and in what ways do these men unlock the key to understanding Warhol’s emotional life? Why was it so important to Rossi to explicate Warhol’s diaries as a seminal queer text? How did Warhol’s complicated relationship with the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat lead to one of the most creatively fruitful collaborations in the history of modern art? The truth is Andy Warhol was famous for a lot longer than 15 minutes. But now — thanks to Andrew Rossi’s masterful, exhaustively researched and richly-layered series — we have a window into the off-screen Warhol. It turns out that all the things that he was not famous for give us a whole new perspective on the artist and the man.

Now on Netflix

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@a_rossi

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