Latest in Doc Talk Podcast

As Georgia O'Keeffe was to the landscape of New Mexico, artist Chiura Obata was to the grandeur of Yosemite. The national park in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains inspired the Japanese-born painter, who found in Yosemite a perfect embodiment of what he called "great nature" (dai shizen in…

Alex Gibney has Frank Sinatra to thank for his most recent documentary  – the two-part Emmy-contending film In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon. Simon, one of America's greatest singer-songwriters, saw Gibney's 2015 documentary Sinatra: All or Nothing at All, and liked it so much he…

Elon Musk's positions on race and racism can be viewed as problematic, to say the least — much like his ownership of Twitter/X, one of the foremost means of modern communication. He has used the social media platform he bought in October 2022 to attack diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. And…

For a guy who admits he doesn't enjoy the hassle of going through airport security and the inevitable inconveniences of international travel, Eugene Levy has been getting around quite a bit lately. The actor, writer and Schitt's Creek Emmy winner hopscotches throughout Europe – Italy, Germany…

Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is just back from the Cannes Film Festival, where he premiered his latest film, Jim Henson Idea Man. Ahead of the documentary's launch Friday on Disney+, the director stops by Deadline's Doc Talk podcast to share insights into his exploration of the Muppets creator…

Film festivals in North America have launched some of the greatest movies ever – whether nonfiction or fiction. Telluride premiered Free Solo, Slumdog Millionaire, and Argo; Sundance debuted sex, lies and videotape, Napoleon Dynamite, An Inconvenient Truth, and this year's Oscar winning documentary 20 Da…

What is the purpose of police in the U.S.? To ensure public safety, many people might answer. But that's a thoroughly misleading definition in the view of Oscar-nominated filmmaker Yance Ford. In his new documentary Power, premiering on Netflix this Friday, the filmmaker argues policing in America is…

Archival producers spend their days immersed in history – cultural, political, or personal, depending on the project. Yet, historically, their specialized work has often been overlooked, even though it's key to the Ken Burns canon and other great documentaries like Man on Wire, 13th, The Fog of War, Apol…

Apologies to Thomas Wolfe, but it appears you can go home again.  Oscar winner John Ridley, co-host of Deadline's Doc Talk podcast, returns to his native Milwaukee for the latest edition of the pod, recorded live during the 16th Milwaukee Film Festival. He and co-host Matt Carey, documentary editor…

The news last week that Participant Media would be shutting down shocked the entertainment industry, but it hit the documentary community with particular force.  Going back 20 years, the production and distribution company has supported premium nonfiction content on a major scale, backing…

We are becoming part machine. That is the startling observation of Emmy-winning filmmaker Kirsten Johnson, who has been thinking deeply about the ramifications of artificial intelligence for human culture. The director of Cameraperson and Dick Johnson Is Dead will deliver a keynote at the IDA's…

As award-winning directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss prepared to shoot their new documentary Girls State, they had no way of knowing real-world events would intrude upon the production in a major way. Nor, of course, did their protagonists. Just as hundreds of young women in Missouri were…