Podcast appearances and mentions of Errol Morris

Welcome to Season 4 of The Dangerous Art of  the Documentary! Oscar-winning director Errol Morris seeks to understand why Charles Manson's followers killed 7 people in 1969 through his latest work “Chaos: The Manson Murders”,  a chilling exploration of a conspiracy of mind control, CIA experiments, and murder. Tiller starts the discussion by sharing how Errol inspired him to become a filmmaker (1:30) before Errol unpacks the difference between a conspiracy and a conspiracy theory (6:00), how he knows when to stop making a film (11:00), the meaning of his own term “Errol's razor” (25:00), the stupidity of some of the murderous culprits (34:00), the similarities between “Chaos” and his 1988 masterpiece “The Thin Blue Line” (44:30), and what fascinates him most about true crime (50:00). Produced by: Jacob Miller Executive Producer: Tiller Russell Music by: James Carroll, Graham Tracey & Zydepunk Distributed by: Jake Brennan & Brady Sadler, Double Elvis Productions

For a new retro review, Michael selects one of his favorite docs, Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. by Errol Morris. Joe recommends a recent Criterion Collection release, Michael revisits a Tom Cruise hit, and Jared explores the oeuvre of an overlooked Italian documentarian.

Errol Morris movie about investing.  Dan liked it.  Also A Real Pain.  Saving the Metro Theater (NYC).  Kelvin Sampson.  Remembering William Finn.  Richard Bernstein.  Linda Williams, professor, and how her porno-film theories intersected with Dan's legal career.  Clive Revill. Credits: Talent:  Tamsen Granger and Dan Abuhoff Engineer:  Ellie Suttmeier Art:  Zeke Abuhoff

Episode Two Hundred and Forty: Desert Coffee (2017)Off the Grid (2022)The Pez Outlaw (2022)"What's great about documentary, it seems to me, is that it can be experimental filmmaking. You have a license to do a lot of diverse things under the umbrella of 'documentary.'"-- Errol Morris"You will never know the work that went into this single garbage episode."-- RussLogo design by: https://www.fiverr.com/ideahitsIntro voiceover by: https://www.youtube.com/kevincrockerheyjameswatchthis@gmail.com

EPISODE 134 | Behind the History Mysteries Guest: Neil Laird, Emmy-nominated TV producer (Discovery, BBC, PBS, History, National Geographic), author of the Prime Time novel series TV has so many of these Secrets of..., Mysteries of... shows, you have to wonder how they keep the stories fresh and compelling. Well, wonder no more, as Emmy-nominated producer Neil Laird takes us behind the camera on some of the many shows he's produced to kick off the start of our sixth year. Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on Buy Me a Coffee.  Review us here or on IMDb. And seriously, subscribe, will ya?  SECTIONS 02:18 - How he got into the biz, how it works,  08:37 - You need a hook, the business is dying, In Search of..., don't ignore the woo crowd 19:07 - What on Earth?, structuring the shows, History's Greatest Mysteries, Errol Morris changes documentaries, reenactments in docs, "JFK" uses documentary techniques for fiction, cinéma vérité vs. direct cinema, Blair Witch 26:27 - How can we trust what we see?, the industry is getting democratized but many people lose their jobs, modern hybrid docuseries with fictional techniques in reenactments (Rise of Empires: Ottoman, etc.), after the hook you live or die on the story you tell, no one wants to watch a textbook 32:43 - Blowing Up History (Unearthed) and using computer reconstructions, video games like Assassin's Creed and Mafia as educational tools, get the audience to trust the journey, conspiracy belief is emotional and personal, the audience responds with fact-checking, don't forget Israel on your maps 38:59 - The future of docuseries, streaming needs less content than network, formats are changing, the How to Become a.... trilogy, a specific point of view instead of objective distance, the Prime Time series and Gay Ancient History Music by Fanette Ronjat More Info Neil Laird on IMDb Neil Laird on TikTok Neil Laird website Follow us on social: Facebook Twitter Bluesky Other Podcasts by Derek DeWitt DIGITAL SIGNAGE DONE RIGHT - Winner of a 2022 Gold Quill Award, 2022 Gold MarCom Award, 2021 AVA Digital Award Gold, 2021 Silver Davey Award, 2020 Communicator Award of Excellence, and on numerous top 10 podcast lists.  PRAGUE TIMES - A city is more than just a location - it's a kaleidoscope of history, places, people and trends. This podcast looks at Prague, in the center of Europe, from a number of perspectives, including what it is now, what is has been and where it's going. It's Prague THEN, Prague NOW, Prague LATER 

  Max Arvo joins Aaron to discuss the disastrous Netflix “adaptation” of Tom O'Neill's masterpiece, Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties. Check out these interviews, any of which are better than Errol Morris' passive-aggressive Netflix farce: Audio & Video for CHAOS Music: "Chrome Alligator" by Mock Orange Special thanks to Dana Chavarria for producing the episode!

Ben Hethcoat opens up about his decade-long journey creating the documentary "Coroner To The Stars," which focuses on Dr. Thomas Noguchi, a well-known coroner famous for his work on high-profile celebrity deaths, including those of Marilyn Monroe and Natalie Wood. Ben draws inspiration from documentary legend Errol Morris.He tackles the difficulties of addressing sensitive subjects like death, the personal ties that shaped his filmmaking, and the need to handle public perception and media hype carefully. He also discusses how celebrity death investigations have changed over time and the crucial role of archival research in crafting compelling narratives.The film just took home the Audience Award for Best Documentary at Slamdance, and Ben reflects on the emotional significance of unveiling such a deeply personal project to the audience.What Movies Are You Watching?Like, subscribe and follow us on our socials @pastpresentfeature

The 1969 Manson Family killings gripped the nation for their sheer brutality and madness. But left unanswered is exactly how Charles Manson turned a group of hippies into assassins through mere persuasion. The book Helter Skelter says Manson convinced his followers of an impending race war, one they needed to be at the center of. But journalist Tom O'Neill uncovered loose connections between Manson and the head of the CIA's secret program MK-Ultra. He says the Manson murders read less like a spree killing and more like the LSD-fueled mind control experiments the government had been perfecting.From Oscar-winner Errol Morris and Netflix comes “CHAOS: The Manson Murders.” The director of “The Thin Blue Line” and “Wormwood” returns to the subject of MK-Ultra, exploring whether it can be blamed for the famous crime spree. Was Manson really a failed musician-turned-cult leader, or did he get help from an infamous Cold War program?OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "CHAOS" BEGIN IN THE FINAL TEN MINUTES OF THE EPISODE. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Newly released information in the JFK assassination files, the normalization of scriptwriting by A.I., writers who describe E.U. governance as “communism”, Elon Musk's grandfather's connection to Technocracy and its resemblance to the Trump plan to establish a North American sphere of control, Errol Morris' new documentary about Tom O'Neil's book CHAOS (on the Manson murders and their connection to MK-ULTRA.) BONUS FEATURE at the end of the podcast: John Steppling's interview on Press TV about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, recorded on March 19, 2025 (6 minutes).

Paul and Erin review new films from Bong Joon-ho, Steven Soderbergh and Errol Morris, plus a host of older titles featuring the likes of Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, Gene Tierney, and Jackie Chan.

On August 9th and 10th of 1969, a series of brutal murders took place in Los Angeles. Seven people were killed, including actress Sharon Tate, who was married to director Roman Polanski.Members of the Manson family, a kind of cult, were found guilty for the crimes. Manson and four of his followers were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death.The prosecutor at the time said that Manson wanted to start a race war and trigger the end of the world. For decades, that was how the story went.But a new film by legendary documentary filmmaker Errol Morris asks the audience to reconsider that. It's inspired by a book called "CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties" by journalist Tom O'Neill, which makes the case that Manson might have been connected to the CIA's mind control program, MK-Ultra.Errol Morris talks to host Jayme Poisson about "Chaos: The Manson Murders", unpacking the many theories about Charles Manson, and the culture of paranoia from that era of American history. The film is out on Netflix now.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In 1969, Los Angeles was on edge after a bloody killing spree in the Hollywood Hills - one of the victims, a pregnant movie star. The killers all said they committed their crimes at the direction of their leader, Charles Manson. While the Manson Family murders still fascinate today, one question remains unanswered: how was the mastermind able to convince his followers to kill at his direction? Was his charismatic hold that strong? Or did Manson's powers of persuasion get a boost from the government? In CHAOS: The Manson Murders, Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris explores the connections between the infamous cult leader and the CIA's MK-Ultra mind control experiments. Were the slayings truly motivated by Manson's Helter Skelter plans for a race war? Or had Manson unwittingly become part of the government's secret research into brainwashing? In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Errol Morris. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched CHAOS: The Manson Murders yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at Tudum.com. There you can find out more about CHAOS: The Manson Murders and its connection to Tom O'Neill's book.  Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

Scottish-born composer Paul Leonard-Morgan (Last Breath, Cyberpunk 2077, Tales from the Loop, Limitless) is a master of different mediums — from film/television to video games, concerts and working with recording artists like bands Belle & Sebastian and Snow Patrol, among many others.His latest, survival-thriller Last Breath starring Woody Harrelson, is his second score to this story — he also scored the hit documentary about the real people. Paul details how he evolved his approach for the narrative film, including his own wetsuit dive to record metallic clinks against boats in Malibu, California, in order to create a unique, journalistic feel to the music approach.How his collaborations with legendary composer Philip Glass came about for Tales from the Loop, after they both worked with documentary filmmaker Errol Morris. Plus, how the aggressive and dark sound of Cyberpunk 2077 came together, and why writing tunes — and staying passionate under grueling deadlines — is the magic that unlocks success.Interview by Kenny Holmes and Matt Schrader.For exclusive and 4K footage inside studios of your favorite composers, follow Score on YouTube Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X.Score: The Podcast is presented by Vienna Symphonic Library. Check out Vienna Symphonic Library's collection of innovating libraries and samples at vsl.co.at — including their flagship Synchron Series, recorded at Vienna Synchron Stage, where hit films and shows for HBO, Disney, Star Wars, Marvel, Bear McCreary's score to Rings of Power on Amazon Prime Video, and many more are recorded. Check out Synchron Duality Strings libraries, or check out the free sample player, freebie libraries and demos at http://vsl.co.atTo learn more about recording at Vienna Synchron Stage, visit http://synchronstage.comScore: The Podcast is a presentation of Epicleff Media and is produced by Holmes Productions.Video Timecodes0:00 Intro1:49 Vienna Symphonic Library3:59 Paul Leonard-Morgan Interview6:51 Scoring Drama vs. Documentary9:29 ‘Last Breath' opening12:51 Recording Boats in Malibu17:28 Finding Unique Sounds19:58 Paulstretch Experimenting and ‘Dredd'20:52 Musical beginnings28:31 Punk-rock heart31:37 Finding a style35:54 Finding Inspiration40:22 Philip Glass collaborations42:00 ‘Tales from the Loop'51:21 ‘Cyberpunk 2077' & writing1:00:34 Three Things1:06:56 Charles Manson's music1:12:01 VSL Synchron Series1:13:46 VSL ‘Forrest Gump' Demo

Un nuevo documental, dirigido por Errol Morris, llega a nuestras pantallas para revelarnos los descubrimientos revolucionarios que el periodista Tom O'Neill hizo sobre Charles Manson y recogió en su libro “Manson, la historia real”. Nosotros tuvimos la oportunidad de entrevistarle largo y tendido sobre su trabajo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris turns his lens to an unlikely cast of upstarts who transformed the investment landscape in the documentary Tune Out the Noise.  The film chronicles a group of academics at the University of Chicago in the 1960s whose groundbreaking research challenged Wall Street's status quo and was used by firms like Dimensional Fund Advisors to disrupt traditional methods of investing, ultimately reshaping the way the world views markets. On this episode of Jill on Money we're joined by Dimensional founder David Booth and Errol Morris. You can watch the film HERE.  Have a money question? Email us here Subscribe to Jill on Money LIVE YouTube: @jillonmoney Instagram: @jillonmoney Twitter: @jillonmoney "Jill on Money" theme music is by Joel Goodman, www.joelgoodman.com. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Presenting Nick Newman's Emulsion, a new podcast from The Film Stage. “WHY on EARTH is there another film podcast?” Is the question you, the reasonable listener, are asking while nevertheless hitting play on this pilot-of-sorts for yet another entry in perhaps the seventh art's most undignified progeny. Stop me if you've heard this one before: here is a show that strives to stand outside its peers. This is not a show informing you that the week's big new release is pretty good, actually or a group of guys talking about '80s movies so bad they're riduclawesome or me digging up the ruddiest MKV file I can find and having a friend from the Internet talk about it with me for 46 minutes––but there will be some of that, because it's better than talking about most other things. Rather, I've envisioned this as a multi-headed object: conversations among filmmakers, film programmers, and cinephiles mixed with monologues, reviews, streaming and repertory highlights––a podcast that takes you from the miked-up, pop-filtered confines of a professional-sounding show to the sturm und drang of chats among friends in a packed bar, which is where some of my most fruitful film discussions have been held and which often yields more valuable observations than, speaking hypothetically, someone stressing over saying just the right thing because they have a microphone in front of them and are emphatically aware that they're on a film podcast. On this debut episode I talk with Carson Lund, the co-writer, director, and editor of Eephus, now in limited release; then Hesse Deni of Movie Mindset joins me to discuss Errol Morris' CHAOS: The Manson Murders, which is now on Netflix. Music courtesy of Alex Walton: "Love Theme From an Unreleased Film" from the album Giving It Up.

Erin and Paul wade through a pile of awards-season contenders and also-rans, including Brady Corbet's THE BRUTALIST, RaMell Ross' NICKEL BOYS, Pedro Almodovar's THE ROOM NEXT DOOR and Gia Coppola's THE LAST SHOWGIRL. Plus: a bunch of SNL documentaries, a classic David Fincher exercise in Nordic noir, and the Errol Morris doc FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL.

Bestselling author and NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff compares the immigration enforcement policies of recent presidential administrations and points out that despite many similarities in deportation tactics, President Trump's family separation policy was quite intentionally the cruelest in our country's history. The new Errol Morris-directed documentary based on Jacob's book, “Separated: Inside an American Tragedy,” is available now on demand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump may not be back in the White House yet, and he's already causing ructions overseas. Not just threatening to invade and annex allies, like Greenland, Panama, and Canada, but also allowing his unelected wingman, Elon Musk—using his X platform—to troll world leaders and interfere in democracies abroad. Christiane speaks with tech journalist Kara Swisher and the director of the British Future think tank, Sunder Katwala, about what's driving Musk's freelancing in international politics and how dangerous his influence on Trump is. She also gets into the specifics of the two decades old grooming scandal and why Musk's accusations against Keir Starmer are wrong. With wildfires raging in California, President Biden's outgoing DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas joined Christiane to talk about the extreme weather emergency, Trump's promise of mass deportations, and how the terror attack on New Years Day has been politicized. And, A new film by Oscar-winner Errol Morris, "Separated," based on Jacob Soboroff's bestselling book, examines the lasting trauma of family separation under Trump's “zero tolerance” policy during his first term. Christiane sits down with Morris and Soboroff to talk about about their film, the human cost and the chilling possibility of history repeating itself. And as President Jimmy Carter is laid to rest, Christiane revisits their 2007 interview, which explores the late president's reflections on faith and his complicated history with Israel.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Donald Trump's second term rapidly approaches, one domestic policy seems particularly clear and predictable: mass deportations. Family separation, you'll recall, was a highly controversial policy adopted by Trump in his first term. Forcibly removing children from their families was purportedly intended to act as a deterrent, but it shocked the country and divided even Trump's own cabinet. Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris and journalist Jacob Soboroff join the show to discuss the powerful new documentary "Separated," adapted from Soboroff's book of the same name.   Also on today's show: Omer Bartov, Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Brown University; Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, the former longtime opinion columnist of The New York Times  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s show: Vox’s Dylan Scott reports on the deep roots of Americans’ hatred of their health-care system. Jacob Soboroff and Errol Morris discuss whether Trump could revive his family-separations policy during his second term, in this week’s episode of Apple News In Conversation. The National Labor Relations Board says contestants on Netflix’s ‘Love Is Blind’ are employees. Deadline has more. And the New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum, a recent Apple News In Conversation guest, speaks with us about how the ruling could transform reality TV as we know it. Plus, a DOJ report says the FBI did not incite the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, why the electrification of the U.S. Postal Service’s fleet will take longer than expected, and an incredible breakthrough in the fight against HIV. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.

The separation of migrant families by the Trump administration is one of the most controversial policies in modern American history. It began in mid-2017 but was only acknowledged publicly about a year later. In 2020, NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff came out with a book on the subject called Separated: Inside an American Tragedy. Most recently, Soboroff teamed up with Academy Award–winning filmmaker Errol Morris to make a documentary, also called Separated, based on the book. Morris and Soboroff spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about how this policy was carried out and what it might look like under the new Trump administration.

Errol Morris and Jacob Soboroff discuss their new documentary about the family separation policy implemented during Trump's first term.

Gail Slater is Donald Trump’s pick to head the Justice Department's antitrust division. As she gears up to oversee cases against major tech companies like Google and Apple, how will the veteran antitrust lawyer view future mergers in Hollywood? Kim Masters and Matt Belloni dive in.  Plus, Masters speaks to journalist Jacob Soboroff and documentarian Errol Morris about their film Separated, a sobering look at the Trump Administration’s 2017 child separation policy. They have a lot to say about those who were complicit in tearing thousands of children away from their families. Plus, Soboroff weighs in on Comcast’s refusal to release the film before the election.

Nil Köksal talks to the acclaimed director and the NBC News correspondent about their documentary ‘Separated'. It chronicles the Trump administration's migrant family separation policy.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris revisits the Trump administration's family separation policy in his new documentary film, "Separated." Based on NBC News Political and National Correspondent Jacob Soboroff's book, Separated: Inside an American Tragedy, Morris interviews government officials about the true purpose of the policy. Morris and Soboroff join us to discuss the film before it airs on MSNBC this Saturday.

Today our guests are Errol Morris, director of the new MSNBC documentary “Separated”, and Jacob Soboroff, executive producer, upon whose 2020 book, “Separated: Inside an American Tragedy,” the documentary was based.    We had Errol on the show last year to discuss his Oscar-shortlisted portrait of John le Carré, “The Pigeon Tunnel”, which with its implicitly self-reflective focus on the ability of representation to capture reality, can be read as a career-culminating masterpiece. “Separated” is a bit of a departure, one the topic of which has been made ever more urgent by the return of Donald Trump to the white house. In it, Errol draws upon Jacob's reporting–for which he was awarded the Walter Cronkite award for individual achievement by a national journalist as well as the Hillman Prize for broadcast journalism–on the child separation policy at the border in the first half of the first Trump administration. Jacob and Errol, with the help of the hero of this story, Captain John White, demonstrate this policy was not a “byproduct” of a tighter immigration approach, but an abusive tool used to terrify migrants by deliberately harming their children. Cruelty as the saying goes, was the point.    “Separated” will first air on MSNBC on December 7th.     Follow: @jacobsoboroff on Instagram and twitter/X  @errolmorris on twitter/X  @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter/X   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan joins Meet the Press following the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah. Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty (Tenn.) exclusively joins Meet the Press to discuss President-elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) reacts to the bomb threats targeting Connecticut's congressional delegation. Jonathan Allen, Matt Gorman, Sahil Kapur and Kimberly Atkins Stohr join the Meet the Press roundtable. Jacob Soboroff and ​​Errol Morris talk about their film, “SEPARATED.”

Ep. 281: Errol Morris on Separated, his new documentary about the Trump immigration policy of separating children from families Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Separated, the latest documentary from the Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris, is about the people and bureaucracy behind the border immigration policy enforced by the first Trump administration: namely, to separate children from their families at the border as a deterrent. In this new interview, Morris spoke with me about the moral implications of such a policy; about the dangerous moment in American history now, about his own personal history; about his use of dramatization; and about key figures who opposed the policy (Jonathan White, in the Office of Refugee Resettlement) and enforced it (Scott Lloyd, director of the ORS, and Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of Homeland Security, both political appointees). Separated airs on December 7 on MSNBC, and is also screening in select theaters nationwide. It is based on the book Separated: Inside an American Tragedy, by NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff, who also appears in the film. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

The Fog of Truth: An Interview with Filmmakers of 'Separated' In this special episode of The Fog of Truth, Justina and Bart  interview Errol Morris and Jacob Soboroff about their new film 'Separated,' set to air on MSNBC on December 7th. The film, adapted from Jacob Soboroff's book, includes explosive interviews and narrative vignettes that reveal the purpose behind immigration policies causing family separations. The discussion covers the genesis of the project, the emotional impact of the film, and the importance of its message in context to the Trump administration's policies. The filmmakers stress the ongoing relevance of the topic and the power of public opposition to enact change. The episode underscores the urgency of addressing immigration issues and the moral responsibilities that lie ahead. 00:00 Introduction to a Special Episode 00:08 Overview of the New Film 01:11 Interview with the Filmmakers 01:30 The Making of the Documentary 03:34 Themes and Messages 06:39 Current Relevance and Future Implications 08:55 Reflections and Final Thoughts 19:04 Call to Action and Conclusion 21:17 Closing Remarks and Credits  

El resfriado no afectó a su habitual energía. El fiscal general del Estado no solamente aplica la ley: es la ley. De ahí la extrema gravedad de que permanezca en el cargo mientras la Guardia Civil haya tenido que registrar su despacho. Cómo se están desarrollando los hechos es tan insólito como los hechos en sí. Y clamó: ¿No podrían habernos ahorrado este espectáculo, puramente tropical? No dejó de lamentar la muerte y el desastre de la gota fría en Valencia, pero lamentó que siempre, en estos casos, aparezca en España el siniestro animalito de la culpa (¡y el de la literatura!). Siempre hay fallos. Son ellos, precisamente, los que ayudan a que no los haya la próxima vez. Por otra parte, pocas veces se habla de lo que sí funcionó que evitó un mayor número de víctimas. Pero en fin, ya se sabe lo que tanto dicen Pinker y él. De Pinker, precisamente, glosó lo que el canadiense escribió para el Times: un recuento pormenorizado que desmiente taxativamente el principal lema de Trump en campaña: «América se está muriendo». Trump o Harris –¡la alcaidesa dice que no puede llamársele Kamala!–: la próxima semana sabremos quién será presidente de los Estados Unidos. Por el momento, es impecable el artículo del dueño de Amazon y del Post para justificar que el periódico no respalde en estas elecciones, y como era su costumbre desde los años setenta, a ningún candidato. Ahora bien, qué importancia tiene ocultar la preferencia política en el editorial, cuando lo verdaderamente importante es el sesgo que delata la información política del Post. Agradeció a David Trueba su columna contra la cocaína, que solo produce frustración, ruina y muerte, y recomendó el documental John Le Carré: Volar en círculos, de Errol Morris. Y fue así que Espada yiró. Bibliografía: «José Gómez, Brand Manager de Joselito: “Cuidamos el bienestar de nuestros cerdos con bellotas de la dehesa y mejoramos la calidad de nuestros procesos gracias al ‘pig data'”», Forbes «Una investigación en 30 países acerca de las creencias sobre la herencia genética», Public Understanding of Science Banda sonora: Y sin embargo te quiero See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's show, Julia and Stephen are joined by Slate writer and senior editor, Sam Adams. Why do we tell fictional stories about real people?‌ The panel ponders this question as they discuss two biopics: The Apprentice and Saturday Night. The Apprentice is an uncanny portrait of Donald Trump, a young striver under the tutelage – and spell – of his mentor, Roy Cohn. But does the film offer any new information or ideas? Saturday Night, on the other hand, is the often obnoxious tale of the frenetic 90-minute countdown before Saturday Night Live's first broadcast in 1975. Finally, the panel is joined by The Atlantic staff writer Charlie Warzel to discuss his recent and prescient piece, “I'm Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is.” In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel discusses f*cking profanity, a conversation inspired by a listener question from Jonathan.  Email us at culturefest@slate.com.  Endorsements: Sam: Separated, a documentary by Errol Morris. (Read Sam's review here.) Julia: Ten, Nine, Eight, a wonderful children's book by Molly Bang.  Steve: Laura Miller's book review of Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell for Slate.  Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week's show, Julia and Stephen are joined by Slate writer and senior editor, Sam Adams. Why do we tell fictional stories about real people?‌ The panel ponders this question as they discuss two biopics: The Apprentice and Saturday Night. The Apprentice is an uncanny portrait of Donald Trump, a young striver under the tutelage – and spell – of his mentor, Roy Cohn. But does the film offer any new information or ideas? Saturday Night, on the other hand, is the often obnoxious tale of the frenetic 90-minute countdown before Saturday Night Live's first broadcast in 1975. Finally, the panel is joined by The Atlantic staff writer Charlie Warzel to discuss his recent and prescient piece, “I'm Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is.” In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel discusses f*cking profanity, a conversation inspired by a listener question from Jonathan.  Email us at culturefest@slate.com.  Endorsements: Sam: Separated, a documentary by Errol Morris. (Read Sam's review here.) Julia: Ten, Nine, Eight, a wonderful children's book by Molly Bang.  Steve: Laura Miller's book review of Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell for Slate.  Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kim Masters and Matt Belloni examine MSNBC’s decision to hold Errol Morris’ immigration documentary Separated until after the 2024 presidential election. They also unpack the various factors that led Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel to flop. Plus, Masters speaks with writer Gabriel Sherman and Briarcliff Entertainment founder Tom Ortenberg in the first of a two part conversation about The Apprentice. Sherman tells us about the risks he’s undertaken in making a movie about prominent attorney Roy Cohn’s mentorship of a young Donald Trump. And he describes how a cease and desist letter from Trump put the project’s future in jeopardy. Plus, Ortenberg talks about the sprint to get the film to theaters just a month after establishing the distribution deal with his company.

Hello and welcome to The Rob Burgess Show. I am, of course, your host, Rob Burgess. On this, our 262nd episode, our returning guest is Brian VanDeMark. You first heard Brian VanDeMark on Episode 134 of the podcast. Brian VanDeMark grew up and attended college in Texas, went to graduate school in California, and now lives in Maryland. He teaches history at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, where he has been a member of its History Department since 1990. The author of several books on American history, he co-authored Robert McNamara's #1 best-selling Vietnam memoir, “In Retrospect,” which became the basis of Errol Morris's Academy Award-winning documentary film, "The Fog of War." His book, “Road to Disaster: A New History of America's Descent into Vietnam” was published by HarperCollins in 2018. His latest book, “Kent State: An American Tragedy” was published by W. W. Norton & Company in August 2024. Subscribe to my Substack: therobburgessshow.substack.com/ Follow me on Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/robaburg.bsky.social Follow me on Mastodon: newsie.social/@therobburgessshow Check out my Linktree: linktr.ee/therobburgessshow

Nicolle Wallace is joined by Yamiche Alcindor, Rev. Al Sharpton, David Jolly, Caroline Giuliani, April Ryan, Basil Smikle, Donny Deutsch, Amy McGrath, Jacob Soboroff, and Errol Morris. 

Liz Cheney joined Kamala Harris on the campaign trail in Ripon, WI - the place that is considered the birth of the Republican party. Plus, Stacey Abrams joins to share her insights and strategies to victory in the 2024 election. Plus, a new documentary on the controversial family separation policy under the Trump administration. Peter Baker, Amna Nawaz, Dave Weigel, Conor Lamb, Reed Galen, Jacob Soboroff, Errol Morris

This week on the blog, a podcast interview with Director/Editor Roger Nygard on his new book, “The Documentarian.”LINKSA Free Film Book for You: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cq23xyyt12Another Free Film Book: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x3jn3emga6Fast, Cheap Film Website: https://www.fastcheapfilm.com/Buy “The Documentarian” Here: http://applausebooks.com/books/9781493086221Roger Nygard Website: http://rogernygard.com/Eli Marks Website: https://www.elimarksmysteries.com/Albert's Bridge Books Website: https://www.albertsbridgebooks.com/YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BehindthePageTheEliMarksPodcastTRANSCRIPTWhere did you first get the documentary bug?Roger Nygard: It was a big mistake. I didn't plan for it. It is sort of like, “Oh, I'll try one bump of heroin. What could hurt, right? Just once.” I made a documentary called Trekkies because an actress I met named Denise Crosby (who was in my first feature film), we had lunch a few years later and she pitched the idea to me. “Hey, someone should make a documentary about these Star Trek fans.” Because she'd been going to conventions as an actor and said these people are entertaining and we couldn't believe no one had done it yet. It seems so obvious and “Yes, of course.” So, we brainstormed a little bit. We'd never done this before. How do you, uh, we have no idea how to make a documentary. But, you know, as the naive often say, how hard can it be? And then you dive in and it's really hard, especially if you don't know what you're doing.And we just stumbled into it, watched a bunch of documentaries, absorbed what we could, made a lot of mistakes, which I learned from, and then put in a book about how to make documentaries, I made the mistakes, so you don't have to. So, I just kind of stumbled into it. What was the biggest challenge you faced on that one, looking back on it? Roger Nygard: It's always, the biggest challenge is always finding the money to pay for it. Every time. Even for Ken Burns, he said it was a challenge raising money. You'd think a guy like, in, in his career at this point, with dozens of films, they'd be writing him checks, but he says he still has to go searching for the finishing funds on every project. One of the things when I saw Trekkies for the first time I was really impressed with--well, first the humanity that you treated every subject in it with. But also, your balance of the humorous and the serious elements within it. I imagine you found that in the editing, am I right? Roger Nygard: I guess so. I mean, it's something innate. I don't really consciously set out to be, “I'm going to be balanced,” or “I'm going to be funny.” It's what I look for in my own viewing. I look for films where the filmmaker is not lying to me. I want a genuine take on something. They can take a position. In fact, it's better when you take a position with a documentary. You should have a point of view. If you are just presenting both sides equally, you're much less likely to have an audience than if you take a stand, make a position and lay out the evidence and let the audience decide.But I look for that in a film, and so my films, I guess, are an embodiment of me. I'm the filmmaker. You're getting my perspective on the world. Any piece of art is the artist's perspective on the world. They're saying, “here's how I see the world.” And my documentary is me looking at people. I'm amused and I'm obsessed and I'm interested in human behavior.I find it fascinating and really funny. And so that's what happens when I process what I'm making. And then, of course, then in the editing, that's where I'm refining that point of view. So, when you sit down with someone, what techniques do you use to make your interview subjects comfortable and willing to open up to get the sort of responses you need?Roger Nygard: First, you want to start off with some flattery. Obviously. “Thank you for being here. I loved your book. It's such a good book. I loved your movie. I loved your acting. I loved whatever. I love that broach.” You, find something to compliment.And people love it. You bond with someone who likes you. We like people who like us. And so that interview is going to be a connection between two people and it's nice when it's like a friendly connection where they're not hiding their true selves. So, you want someone to feel comfortable enough so that they'll open up and give you the real stuff and not try to present, to pre edit their image. Those interviews don't work so well when someone's trying to make sure that they're going to come off a certain way. They need to be open and you're gonna take what they give you and edit it and make them look good, ideally, or at least give them a genuine, honest portrayal. But you want them to feel comfortable.Another way to do that is to share something about yourself, before you start. Maybe a tragedy you experienced, if you're talking about their tragedy. Or a funny event that happened to you. But keep it short, because they are there to talk, you're there to listen.So, mainly, you ask a question and then just shut up and let them fill the space. How long did it take you to learn to shut up? Because I'm not sure I've learned that yet. Roger Nygard: It's so hard. Especially for men. Men are the worst. I mean, I made a documentary about relationships, and that's almost the number one thing I learned from marriage therapists is that your partner needs to be heard. And men typically try to fix things, because that's what we do, right? But your partner doesn't need you to fix them usually when they're telling you something. Let's say you've got a wife, she's complaining about her boss, she doesn't want you to, to say, “Oh, why don't you quit? Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that?” That's going to make her feel worse. She wants you to just, just show empathy. And so in an interview, you want to do the same thing—show empathy—but don't intrude, just nod, “hmm, hmm, yeah, oh that's, that must have been awful, tell me more about how that felt.”Instead of interrupting and trying to guide them, just ask the question, leave the space, provide silent empathy, because you don't want your voice all over their soundtrack. How much pre-interviewing do you do and do you like that or not? Roger Nygard: I used to do a lot of pre interviewing. On Trekkies, we did a lot because it was expensive to shoot film. We made that in 16mm film. Oftentimes, we would rehearse what they're going to say and get the soundbite we needed kind of ready. And then say “action,” have them say it, and then cut, and then move on. Or maybe say it in a couple different ways. But now, it's much more typical to just let the camera roll, because we're shooting video, with maybe multiple cameras.And I think that's a better way generally, because you might get things you didn't expect. I'd rather have a lot of extra footage that I can't use and yet get that moment that I wouldn't have had otherwise, than if I'm trying to save video. But that said, you want to know what you're going there to get. You don't want to shoot a bunch of things that are useless, because you've got to sit in the editing room, or your poor editor has to go through all of this stuff. So, you do need to plan it out, and there's nothing wrong with preparing the person, pre interviewing them. You know, early in my career, I was a PA on a documentary that HBO was doing here in the Twin Cities. It was about hockey goalies, I think, and suicide. And I'd never been on a documentary set like that. And the director of it literally would say, “when we talked on the phone, you said the following sentence, would you say that again?” Which appalled me at the time, because I thought, “let him really talk.” But then like you say, he was shooting 16 and he had to get what he had to get. But now, a million years later, having done hundreds of corporate interviews, while I'm absolutely on your side of let the camera run, you also need to know what it is you want to get. But also, I remember, we were wrapping up an interview with a father of someone who, I think she had become ill, but she was fine now. And I said, “OK, well, that's just been great, Dave. Thank you for talking to me.” And the sound man—I was about to say cut—and the sound man said, “John, um, I just feel like Dave wants to say something else.” And I said, “well, yeah, we're still rolling. Go ahead, Dave.” And then he said the sentence that we needed for the whole video. And the sound man had seen that because he was paying attention to the person that I was interviewing. I had not seen it. And I got better later on at seeing that, but it's finding that balance between we're done and we're almost done, but you're about to do something brilliant that I guess you can only get from having done it.Roger Nygard: I agree. Yes, I've oftentimes said to someone, “That was a great story or a great thing you just said. Could you say it again? Because it's so important, I want to have you try again. And maybe we'll get it a little more concise this time?” Or if in your mind, you're thinking they didn't quite deliver it the way you wanted.I might even suggest, “Why don't you start by saying ‘That time I was riding my bike …' and finished the sentence.” I'll guide them, because I'm editing, I'm pre editing in my head. How am I going to use this soundbite? Can I use it? Is it usable? Or should we try again? That's very common and they like that, because they want to come off well and they want a second chance to say the thing better. So, everybody wins. And by the way, did you meet Gump Worsley? I did not. This was a high school hockey thing, it wasn't a professional hockey video. But I was surprised that at the end of the day they gave me all the film to take over to the lab. I'm just a PA. You're giving me everything to take to the place? It seemed like they were giving an awful lot of trust to this kid who didn't know what he was doing. But you raise an interesting point, because as you're interviewing, you are both directing and editing at the same time. I think if you're good at it, you're figuring out, yes, no, yeah, I can use, no, I can't. And that's a weird dichotomy. How do you balance both those things? Be in the moment, but also be in the editing suite at the same time in your head?Roger Nygard: That's the hardest thing, especially if you're a one-man band, or a one-person band, or maybe it's you and a sound person. But often, it's been just me with the person that I'm interviewing. And so I've got to make sure it's in focus, I have to remember to turn off the autofocus, I've got to ride the levels, ride the volume, I've got to remember to ask the question, and I have to listen to what they're saying, in case I want to go with a follow up. Doing all these things at once. I've got to remember that—if the lighting changes during the shot—I've got to fix the lighting because the sun moved. So many things are happening. And so, you just practice. You get better every time you do another one, and it starts to become second nature. But the most important thing, after making sure it's in focus and the sound is good quality, is to listen to what they say, exactly like your sound person. What a great advantage to have someone who is paying attention like that and a good team member to remind you.Every interview should end with, “Is there anything else you'd like to add? Is there anything that we missed or is there anything else you'd like to say?” Many of the best soundbites I've collected came in those moments when it was unprompted by me. They gave me what they needed to give me. I remember being on one shoot for an NCAA athlete. She was a basketball point guard, I think. And we're about halfway through the interview and I asked a question and her response was this. She said, “Well as I said before, oh wait, I shouldn't say ‘as I said before,' because I bet you're going to cut this up. Let me redo that and I won't say ‘as I said before.'” And then she said the statement. She finished the statement, and I turned to the crew and said, “You guys do this much more than I do. Has a subject ever said that? And they said, “No, no subject has ever been that aware of the process that they were in that they fixed on the fly what they're saying, because they knew you couldn't use it.”Roger Nygard: Those interview subjects are rare. One technique you talk about in the book is something that started with Errol Morris and ended up being used in corporate America, corporate videos quite a bit. We called it The Interrogator, but that's not quite the word that he used. What did he call it? Roger Nygard: Oh, the Interitron. We call it just the Interrogator, and it's where you've set up a system wherein they're not looking at the camera, they're looking basically at a screen, which is in front of the camera, and they see your face, and so it is a conversation. And with many subjects, I found that that really helped break down any sort of barrier, because it's really hard to talk to a camera, it's much easier to talk to someone sitting next to the camera, and the closer they are to the camera, the better your shot's going to be. But having them look right at your face was hugely helpful. Roger Nygard: There is a connection that happens, according to Errol Morris, that brings unexpected, well, I don't know, what do you want to call it, electricity between you and your subject. Maybe that you might not have when the camera's intruding on the relationship. Have you ever run into situations where there wasn't a pre-interview and it becomes very apparent very quickly that this isn't going to go anywhere? If you have, what's your response to that and how do you handle that? Roger Nygard: Oh, yeah, there are many times. Especially when I was shooting The Nature of Existence. I had 450 hours of footage. I interviewed 170 people. Something like that. Because I was fishing, I don't know what I'm going to get. And everyone is qualified to have an opinion on why do we exist. So, it's worth casting my lure into that part of the lake, even though I'm not sure that there's fish there, I didn't pre fish it. And when that happens, I just do the interview, and then I thank them and tell them it was great. And then I just don't use it, because there's nothing usable in there and it's part of fishing, right? Not every cast brings in a fish. Your Minnesota viewers are going to understand this metaphor. Well, I think fishing's internationally understood. I've never seen anyone do it outside of Minnesota, but I've seen pictures. So, you mentioned, The Nature of Existence. We've talked about Trekkies, you've talked about the relationship documentary. Where do you get your ideas for what to follow? What's going to be your next project? Where does that come from? And how do you know when you, when you have a good fish on the line? Roger Nygard: When you become obsessed with an idea, you have a message that is bursting to get out of you, and so you are compelled to see this through to the bitter end. Because it might take two years, or four years, or seven years.The Truth About Marriage took seven years. Trekkies took one year. Trekkies 2 took 18 months. The Nature of Existence took four years. The idea has to captivate me enough, and obsess me enough, get me there. And then I'm hoping the audience will be just as interested in what I'm obsessed with as I present it to them. That's probably the most important ingredient to the success of a documentary, is your choice of subject matter. What do you mean? Roger Nygard: Because otherwise you might be making a whole movie that's something no one else is gonna be interested in. Or you're doing it for some reason other than you are captivated by it. Because you're the filmmaker, you're the artist. It's your enthusiasm, your excitement that's going to come through and be felt by the audience. But while you're doing that, in your case, you are producing, directing, and editing your projects. When do you know that it's done? I mean, on The Nature of Existence, you said you interviewed, what, 170? How do you know, “Well, that's it, I've got all the pieces?” How do you make that decision? Roger Nygard: Yeah, it's hard sometimes because I had no idea where I was going to end up in with some of these films. I'm sort of like an investigator setting out to solve a crime, and so once I solved the crime, then I know where my ending is and I know how to get there, where to get to. I just have to answer the question. For example, The Truth About Marriage. My question was, Why are relationships so hard for people? That's the mystery I solved. And once I had solved it for myself, by talking to enough marriage therapists, and couples, and married people, and divorced people, a divorce attorney, etc. I had settled in on an answer. And so that's what I present at the end of the film, is what I learned while seeking out that question. That's a concept documentary. With a narrative documentary, it is easier to know your ending because it's a story of someone's life, probably, or a slice of someone's life. Or a trial with a verdict. Okay, the verdict is the ending. Or, maybe it's basketball. And so, do they win or do they lose at the end? That's your ending, and you're working backward from that. If it's a biography, if they've lived a good three act structure in their lives, you've probably got a good documentary there.If they haven't, you either have to manufacture it or find a way to present it. And many documentaries have succeeded despite a lack of a story structure and despite a lack of a solid core question. It's better to have the insurance of a solid story structure, but if you don't have it, you might yet still succeed.Like, I think Trekkies is an example of this. It's a flawed documentary, which does not have a narrative structure. And there's no solid core question asked at the beginning. But it was a grand slam as a documentary because it was so funny. And it had a core group of people that were going to automatically be interested in the film. So, we had those two high cards despite the fact that we didn't have what typically a great documentary has, which is a narrative structure just the same as a screenplay has.It feels like sometimes you're just rolling the dice, not you, but a documentary filmmaker, that you're gonna go into something and something's gonna happen and you're gonna end up with either The Jinx, where he confesses on tape at the end of your documentary, which you certainly could not have put in your pitch if you're that director. Or the folks who were working on the Alec Baldwin documentary about his trial, where the judge threw it out on the first or second day. At that point, you no longer have a documentary.What would you recommend someone do when they're going out to pitch a documentary to investors or the network or whatever on the idea of something? How do you sell something that doesn't exist yet, even in anything more than like a one page document? Roger Nygard: The best way to sell it is to make them feel the story in the room. You act it out and you bring the excitement because you're excited by it. And maybe you've done one interview already as a test. That's often where I get the feel when I'm interviewing that person. I feel it. I feel like I've got something here or I feel like it's not going anywhere. I started a documentary about Scott Hanson, local Minneapolis comedian, and we did one interview, and I just didn't feel it, because I think he was trying to present an image of himself. He wasn't willing to be open. And so I didn't get excited, and we didn't really keep going. The first interview, the first footage we shot of Trekkies, we felt it. We knew we had something. The first interview I did about this existentialist question, Why do we exist? I loved talking to people about this the way you do in a dorm room in college when you're talking about the big questions Why are we here? And what's our purpose? And what am I supposed to do with my life? That gets me excited. It gets people excited in life and death talking about death. What happens when you die? Does the soul exist? If so, where is it lodged inside your brain? Is there a compartment? You know, just fun, fun questions So, I knew, I had a sense that that was going to turn out okay, even though I didn't know my ending when I started because the idea was so gripping.I mean, it's gripped people, existentialist philosophers, for centuries. I'm not the first person to ask this question or try to figure it. I'm just one of thousands or millions, who knows? So, I was tapping into something I thought, it felt like to me. I felt it. But when you're in a pitch meeting, as you're asking, you have to make them feel the excitement either through your core question or the character description. If it's a character piece, then you are going to tell a story about this person. Who is this documentary about? I asked Ken Burns about that. How do you make a documentary about things like a bridge? His first film was about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. And he said, “You can't. You cannot make documentaries about things. It has to be about people.” And so that documentary is about the family, the Roebling family, that built that bridge and their struggle to complete the job through difficulties and challenges and near death experiences. That makes it interesting and exciting.If you love the film— like a film about an octopus, right? It's not as exciting unless you learn about the person who gets infatuated with a particular octopus, and it's his life. Or a documentary about a TV show. It's going to have a limited interest to fans of the TV show. But if you want a wider audience, you do a film about the fans themselves, about the people.The stories are about the people involved. Someone who collects owl figurines like my aunt did. She would have been a great subject. The owl figurines, who cares? You know, it's a five-minute short. Look, a bunch of owl figurines. But the person, the mindset behind someone who thinks they have to fill their house with owls. That's interesting.And it gives you lots of cutaway shots, too, which is nice. Roger Nygard: Always get your cutaways. Yes. For your documentaries, you're directing and editing, but in the case of the Comedy Store series, you were just, I don't mean to say just an editor on it, but you weren't directing it. What is that process like? I dealt with in corporate all the time. I would go out and interview the subjects and I'd bring it back to my editor and say, “Hey, here's my notes, here's the best stuff, have at it.” And he would create something great that wasn't what I had necessarily intended, but he found the best stuff in the footage and turned it into a five minute story.In the case of The Comedy Store, you're probably handed hundreds of hours of interviews with very interesting people and very funny people. What was your process for creating all those segments and deciding, this goes this stays? Because I'm guessing you could probably have done a couple more hours of just stuff that's funny. Roger Nygard: Sure, we could have done more episodes. There was plenty of footage. I was hired by Mike Binder, who I had worked with before. I had edited his feature films in the past. And he had never made a documentary.So, when he first asked me, I was busy. I was cutting Curb Your Enthusiasm. And I said, “I can't do it. But if, you know, if you can wait 11 months, I'll be free.” So, he hired another editor and started on the footage. And when that eleven months was over, they had crap. They had nothing. They had the beginnings of an episode, but he was flailing around trying to figure out what to do.So, I said, “I'm available now, let's do it.” So, I jumped in, and the first thing I showed Mike was my rules for doing interviews. I said, “Mike, you gotta just shut up. Ask the question and shut up. Let them fill the space. Especially when it's awkward. That's great. They'll come up with things they wouldn't have said if you had just been quiet.” That's number one. Number two, each episode needs a theme. And this is the biggest problem that I've seen, the biggest mistake that documentary filmmakers will make, is they don't know what their theme is. What is a theme? It's the idea or the premise behind the moral of the story. It's the idea you're trying to express.And each of the five episodes has a different theme. One is called The Wild Bunch. And it was about the wildest comedians who ever performed at The Comedy Store. And we used some footage from the movie The Wild Bunch. Once it had a theme, then I knew what to cut, and how to link things together.And once Mike started revising his outlines with that in mind, they started to take shape. And cutting the episodes made sense. You need to know your theme. I would write it down on a piece of paper, put it on the wall, because that's your roadmap. That's where you're going, and every scene should be connected to that theme in some way. Or if it doesn't, it probably doesn't belong in that episode or in the movie.And it actually probably made it a whole lot easier to edit, because you could just immediately go, nope, nope, yep, nope, nope, nope, nope, yep. Roger Nygard: It's your road map. Otherwise, you're just surrounded by a forest of footage and what do you do? I mean, there are tricks, like you start putting like with like and grouping them in your bins. And eventually you might start connecting like segments with like segments as you're building scenes. But when there's a narrative, it's easiest. There's an episode that's about the comedy strike, which happened. And so that gave us a very specific timeline of what's happening and who caused the strike and what they were asking for. Now we've got protagonists and antagonists. The antagonist is the owner of the store, Mitzi Shore, who doesn't want to pay them what they want as comedians. And that makes it easier from a narrative perspective, because what is a narrative, right? You have a protagonist, or a small group of protagonists, and an antagonist, or a small group, and a goal.The protagonists have a goal, and there's obstacles to that goal. Now we watch to see how they succeed or fail. That made that episode much clearer. One part of the book that I found just fascinating and I'm wondering if the publisher gave you any pushback on it, because it is sort of its own mini book right in the book. Which is the whole process of coming up with a distribution deal for Trekkies. It's a long segment, but it disabuses you of any glamour of Hollywood of, “Oh, we went to Sundance and they loved the film, and we signed it, and two months later it was in theaters. This is pages and pages and pages of the process of taking what you know to be a valuable asset and getting it to the right people and getting it out. So, first question is, did the publisher push back on that at all? Roger Nygard: No, they were remarkably compliant, helpful. Because I'd done one book with them already, and they felt pretty happy about me doing a second one in a similar vein, and I had case studies in that book also.But not like this, this is four chapters.Roger Nygard: You're right, the four chapters after, I say at one point, at the end of chapter 10 or whatever it was, “Okay, the how to make a documentary part of the book is over. The next four chapters are, once you have finished, here's a case study in trying to sell your documentary.” Because it took us nine months. From our first distributor screening to sign a contract. There is no immediate, you know. I mean, Sundance turned us down. And so, you have to persevere despite these problems toward a sale. The Sundance mega sale is like winning the lottery. And you're not likely to win the lottery. So you need backup strategies and backup plans. And we had tried lots of things, and it took us a long time and a lot of difficulties in fighting amongst ourselves to finally get to a point where we succeeded and got such a successful sale. Those chapters—I mean, the whole book is great for anyone who wants to make a documentary—but it's also really good for anyone who wants to make a thing. Particularly a film or a TV show or something.You're trying to make a pilot, you're trying to do something. It's unvarnished as to what it takes to do these things, and then you get to those four chapters, you realize this is for anybody who's got a film under their arm, whether it's a short or a feature, here's what you need to be prepared to face.I've always said that the problem with independent filmmaking is that we only see the successes. It's like having a cancer study where they don't tell you about the ones who died. We only tell you about the ones who lived. And this is a great, because look at this: this is what they did and they all lived, but there's so many that died because people don't understand the process. And that's what I love about that section of the book: it really just says this is not easy and you need good people on your side.Roger Nygard: And persistence. It's a marathon. You need to make sure your film sells. No one else is going to have the motivation to push your film over the finish line more than you. You gotta be in training to be that strong. You gotta make your short films, you gotta suffer a little bit, and that just makes you stronger.We were motivated to succeed. Despite being turned down by Sundance and Telluride and Toronto and the New York Film Festival—all the big ones at the beginning of the season turned us down. We finally got some success with the Hamptons Film Festival and the AFI Los Angeles Film Festival, and we were able to use those to help us get where we wanted to go. But boy, it would have been so much nicer if we got into Sundance, and it was the rave of Sundance, and it was easy.But here's a plan for those where that doesn't happen: There's a film agent I interview in the book, Glenn Reynolds, who said, “I don't need film festivals to sell your movie. Filmmakers like to go to film festivals, but there's just buyers, and it comes down to the product.Is it good? Who's in it? What's their social media reach now? And, oh, okay, you did a film festival. That's great. That doesn't hurt necessarily, but these first three, and the poster. What's the hook? What's the marketing going to do? Those are more important than how many film festivals.” We did 50 film festivals. The buyers don't really care. But if you picked up some rave reviews, and won some awards, that shows that someone else has validated your work. And so that's what you're hoping for. And you're not doing that in a vacuum. If I remember the timeline, you're working on your feature Suckers in there somewhere as well, that's happening at the same time.You once said to me something like, “It's good to have a lot of irons in the fire, you just don't want to have too many because you'll put the fire out.” You don't remember saying that? Roger Nygard: I do, yes. That sounds like me. Yeah, it is you. It was you. And I've remembered that ever since. And have tried to have a number of irons in the fire, but not too many. I think you sort of just say it in passing, in that section, that you're also working on Suckers, and that's happening. But you've always had sort of multi paths happening at the same time. How has that helped your career as both a documentary filmmaker, and a TV director, and a TV editor, and now an author?Roger Nygard: Yeah, you need to continually reinvent yourself and be trying new things and have multiple projects and have the stamina to, to work on them all and push them forward. Because that's who you're competing with. You're competing with people who are like that. They're working just as hard as you are.I mean, a workaholic is just someone who works harder than you do, right? If you accuse someone of being a workaholic, that means you're probably a little lazier than they are. Okay, that's fine. Maybe you can make what you need out of life, not working as hard, and my hat goes off to you. But that doesn't work for me. What works for me is—maybe it's that Scandinavian work ethic I picked up growing up in Minnesota—I feel like a complete loser if I haven't put in my work during the day. By the end of the day, I better have pushed that ball down the field some more, or I'll feel, you know, guilty. And so that helps motivate me. So, I work every day on something. Whether it's writing the book, or making a documentary, or editing a feature, or editing—right now I'm editing a Netflix series. Doing all those things. And my delayed gratification carrot is hanging there for me: Once I finish, I'm gonna go to Bali. So, I go to Bali every year once I've earned it.And now you might say, “Oh, you're crazy! No one should work that hard. I'm tired.” Well, it's a very competitive world, and so you need to work just a little bit harder than the one you're competing against. Yes. I believe it was William Goldman who quoted a basketball coach saying to their player, “Anytime you're not practicing, the guy you're going to go up against is, so you need to get out there and practice.”Roger Nygard: It's no different in the film business. Film business is the same, if not even more cutthroat. Okay, two last questions on this, and then I'm going to let you go. So, what's the biggest mistake that you think someone starting out as a documentary filmmaker is likely to make?Roger Nygard: One of them is to give up your ownership. You should always keep, if you can, own your projects. Own your product. Because it's a property. And if you own it, then you can continually relicense it over your lifetime. I know a filmmaker who made the biggest mistake you can make, which is he sold his movie in perpetuity to a distributor. Now it's gone. He'll never get it back again. So you want to license whatever you've made to a distributor for two years, four years, five years, seven years. With Trekkies, we had a 20 year license, 25 if unrecouped. But that's because they paid us so much money, they bought that many years, but it was still a license.And so Trekies came back to us a few years ago and so we restored it to HD. It had never been released in HD yet, and we've licensed it to a new company for another period of time. You did the same thing with Suckers, didn't you? Roger Nygard: I did it, I bought it, yes. The company, the same company that I made Trekkies with made Suckers with me. And they set up a corporation to own the film, which is typically what they do, every film has a corporation that owns that film. And that's where the money from the investor goes. And that's where the profits, if any, come out of. And in that case, Sucker's never reached profit while they owned it. It cost about a half a million to make, and it probably made back $250,000 from an HBO sale and an IFC sale and home video. And we had a distributor that went bankrupt who, so we had to chase them.But at the end, probably like 15 years after we made the film, the company that I worked with, Neomotion Pictures, they were going to close their doors. They were retiring or going off to do different things, and they were shutting down the company they had made that owned the film. So, if they just shut down the company, then suddenly it goes into the public domain, because there's no ownership. The entity that owned it no longer exists. Nothing owns it. Meaning everybody, anyone can own it. So, I said, Wait, guys, sell it to me,” which they did, “And I will restore the film,” which I did. I paid for the restoration. I collected what elements remained, some had been thrown away, but enough of the key elements still existed, so I was able to re-scan it and remix it and marry it together and find a distributor. And actually I put it on, it's on Amazon Prime. I put it there myself. So, I collect the money directly now, after putting my money into it. So, be an owner. Own your films. And if you can't, be a co owner. So at least you're part of where the money goes first. I mean, ideally you want the money to go to you and have all your profit participants chase you for the money, instead of you chasing them for the royalties. Okay, one last question. Someone has read your book, they've properly packed all their gear, they're going off to begin shooting. What's the one last piece of advice you'd give them before the door on the airplane shuts?Roger Nygard: Buy a copy of The Documentarian for everyone on your crew. That's the first part of the advice. And have them all read it. Be prepared for your interview, practice at home before you get there, set up your camera and your audio and do a practice interview so that it's second nature by the time you get there. Maybe do a test interview on, on someone who's not your main interviewee so that you have done a dry run and you've tested all the equipment, you've tested your questions, you've refined your approach. And so you're ready for the big day. Well, this has been great. Roger, is there anything I've forgotten to ask you? Roger Nygard: Yes, the names of all my projects. The last book was Cut to the Monkey, about editing and comedy. And this book is called The Documentarian. And I am working on another book, and I will probably, until the day I keel over. Hopefully I'll die fishing up in Canada. And they won't find you for days and days and days.Roger Nygard: It would be only fair if I fell in the water and the fish ate me after I've been eating them for years.

I sit down with Emmy-nominated editor Roger Nygard, ACE to explore his new book The Documentarian: The Way to a Successful and Creative Professional Life in the Documentary Business. We dive into the essential steps for making and selling documentaries, from concept development to securing deals with major studios. Roger shares his own journey in the film industry, including the story behind his hit documentary Trekkies, and offers advice from top filmmakers like Ken Burns, Davis Guggenheim and Errol Morris. This episode is packed with insights to help you succeed in the documentary world!SHOW LINKSClick here to purchase The Documentarian: The Way to a Successful and Creative Professional Life in the Documentary Business (affiliate link) Click here to purchase Roger's first book, Cut to the Monkey: A Hollywood Editor's Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Making Hit Comedies (affiliate link)Level up your editing career with the All Access Pass to the Hollywood Editing Mentor Community: https://hollywoodeditingmentor.com/community/Watch the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/F9tRrJ0jR-UCheck out our free content and other resources! >>> SUBSCRIBE and leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts! >>>Original Music: "Apollo's Haze" and "Do You Want" by JesusdapnkFacebook: www.fb.com/jesusdapnkSoundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/jesusdapnkInstagram: @jesusdapnk

Amy Nicholson is a New York-based filmmaker and commercial director whose projects often explore the essence of Americana with a humorous eye and a warm respect for her subjects. Nicholson's most recent documentary, a short titled Pickle, won multiple audience awards, was selected for The New York Times' Op-Docs, and was featured on the Criterion Collection alongside Errol Morris' Gates of Heaven. Pickle was also nominated for an IDA Award and Cinema Eye Honors. Nicholson has produced and directed several features. Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride won the Special Jury Prize at DOCNYC and was held over twice at the IFC Center. Muskrat Lovely premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival and was broadcast on Independent Lens. Nicholson's films have screened at Hot Docs, Sheffield, Full Frame, DOK Leipzig, BFI London, Camden, Traverse City, Rooftop Films, and the MoMA. They have been reviewed by Variety, Indiewire, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.   HAPPY CAMPERS chronicles the final days of a working-class summer colony in a scrappy trailer park that just happens to hold the secret to a rich life. In a waterfront campground off the coast of Virginia, residents spend their summers living spitting distance apart in rust-bitten RVs. They chuckle about the modest rent they pay for a million-dollar location, but what makes them the luckiest people in the world is more than just stunning sunsets, it's the community they've created. Beneath cliched trailer park stereotypes lies an unlikely utopia where all are welcome. Neighbors help each other out, and share everything from power tools to simple pleasures. Loneliness and isolation are inconceivable.  When their affordable paradise is sold to developers, the residents brace for eviction and the loss of friendships that span generations. They hold tight to their final days in the sun. The well-heeled crowd that takes their place will never be as wealthy. HAPPY CAMPERS: NEW TRAILER: Embed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJevuuNAxfU   Connect more with me and join my newsletter: https://www.chonacas.com/links/

HAPPY CAMPERS chronicles the final days of a working-class summer colony in a scrappy trailer park that just happens to hold the secret to a rich life. In a waterfront campground off the coast of Virginia, residents spend their summers living spitting distance apart in rust-bitten RVs. They chuckle about the modest rent they pay for a million-dollar location, but what makes them the luckiest people in the world is more than just stunning sunsets, it's the community they've created. Beneath cliched trailer park stereotypes lies an unlikely utopia where all are welcome. Neighbors help each other out, and share everything from power tools to simple pleasures. Loneliness and isolation are inconceivable. When their affordable paradise is sold to developers, the residents brace for eviction and the loss of friendships that span generations. They hold tight to their final days in the sun. The well-heeled crowd that takes their place will never be as wealthy. Amy Nicholson is a New York-based filmmaker and commercial director whose projects often explore the essence of Americana with a humorous eye and a warm respect for her subjects. Nicholson's most recent documentary, a short titled Pickle, won multiple audience awards, was selected for The New York Times' Op Docs, and was featured on the Criterion Collection alongside Errol Morris' Gates of Heaven. Pickle was also nominated for an IDA Award and Cinema Eye Honors. Nicholson has produced and directed several features. Zipper: Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. HAPPY CAMPERS: NEW TRAILER: Embed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJevuuNAxfU

Layman's Report by Eugene Marten https://amzn.to/46KhV4B A disturbing, darkly funny fictionalization of the life of Fred A. Leuchter, the garage tinkerer turned execution authority who became a darling of the neo-Nazi movement, and subject of the Errol Morris documentary, Mr. Death. He comes to fix your photocopier, but really, Fred's an inventor. At night, he goes to work. He has goals, ambitions, and when offered the task of building a better electric chair, he jumps at the chance. People have to die—he believes in the occasional necessity of evil—but what if we could kill them more humanely? A death specialist, first in his field but forever under-appreciated, he's charmed when a new generation of fascists come calling for his expertise. A Holocaust denier is on trial in Toronto—could Fred prove the gas chambers never existed? Newspapers descend. Talking heads have their say. A documentarist makes a film. Everyone will know his name, though some things society will simply not abide. Dishonoured, discredited, disgraced. But Fred's work does not stop, and the world may yet be reminded of the dangerous truth that some men are driven by forces far more powerful than shame. First published in 2013, this is the updated and definitive edition of Eugene Marten's chilling masterwork of transformational historical fiction.

OA1057 We're giving ourselves a break this week from Trump, the Supreme Court, and all things 2024 to indulge in one of Matt's all-time favorite subjects: CIA mind control experiments! In this extra-carefully-researched episode, Matt breaks down the history of the federal government's MKULTRA  program to fund research in brainwashing, mind control, and LSD on unsuspecting U.S. and (for some reason) Canadian citizens, as well as the inherent legal issues in trying to sue the CIA for something you can't remember and for which most evidence has been destroyed. Why was the CIA funding a sadistic mad scientist in Montreal, and is there any hope of justice for the families of his victims today?  BOOKS Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control , Stephen Kinzer (2019) The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: the CIA and Mind Control, John Marks (1979)(link goes to full text on CIA website) The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government: David Talbot (2016) CHAOS: The Truth Behind the Manson Murders, Tom O'Neill (2020) LEGAL PROCEEDINGS Orlikow v. United States, 682 F. Supp. 77 (D.D.C. 1988) CIA v. Sims :: 471 U.S. 159 (1985) “PROJECT MKULTRA, the CIA's Program of Research in Behavioral Modification,” (transcript of joint Senate hearing)(8/3/1977) Judgment dismissing former Deputy U.S. Marshall Wayne Ritchie's claims against the CIA in Ritchie v. U.S. (N.D. CA 2005) ARTICLES ANATOMY OF A PUBLIC INTEREST CASE AGAINST THE CIA, Joseph Rauh and Jim Turner, Hamline Journal of Law and Public Policy (Fall 1990) MK-ULTRA: Quebec high court says U.S. has immunity in Canada | Montreal Gazette (10/3/23)  CIA Denies Conspiracy Theory That It Used MKUltra on Trump Shooter, Gizmodo.com (7/28/24) “After Learning of Whitey Bulger LSD Tests, Juror Has Regrets,” PBS  (2/18/2020) “Before He Was the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski was a CIA Mind Control Test Subject,” Washington Post (6/11/2023) PODCASTS & DOCUMENTARIES Brainwashed, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (2024) Madness, WBUR (2020) The Sleep Room: CIA-funded experiments on patients in Montreal hospital (1998) - The Fifth Estate (CBC) Wormwood, Errol Morris, Netflix (2017)

The impact David Booth has had on your financial life is profound, whether you realize it or not. David is the co-founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors, a firm that fundamentally changed the way we make everyday decisions about practical investing and money. David knew the future of investing would depend on data, so in 1981 he moved a noisy, hot, refrigerator-sized computer into his two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. The machine spit out stock prices for brokers and investment managers around the world, and as a result, Dimensional was one of the first investment firms to apply academic research to practical investing. In this episode of 50 Fires, David talks about those early days of Dimensional, and goes back even further to reflect on his earliest memories of money as a boy in Kansas selling newspapers door-to-door. He shares stories of the growth of Dimensional Fund Advisors, and talks about two of his favorite topics when it comes to investing: randomness and uncertainty. He also talks with host Carl Richards about a new documentary film chronicling the history of Dimensional, directed by acclaimed documentarian Errol Morris called Tune Out The Noise. EXCLUSIVE FOR LISTENERS OF 50 FIRES: Use access code MARKETSWORK to watch Tune Out The Noise for free! Tune Out The Noise is a new documentary by Academy Award-winning director Errol Morris on the birth of modern finance and takeaways for investors.  Click the following link and use access code MARKETSWORK to watch the film! https://film.dimensional.com/watch/login?redirect=%2Fwatch&utm_source=50fires&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=totn%20 ### Carl Instagram: @behaviorgap Blind Nil Instagram: @blindnilaudio Please direct business inquires to: blindnilaudio@magnolia.com Cover Art: Josh Passler - TheFinArtist.com Music Credits:  Alexandra Woodward / Rabbit Reggae / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com Cody Francis / Wherever You're Going / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to DocuJune! In 1988 Errol Morris released The Thin Blue Line, which tells the story of Randall Adams, a man convicted of the crime of murder. With eyewitness testimony the case was closed, but Morris's investigation proved there was much, much more to the story than what was laid out in court. To start our series on documentaries we go to the film that changed how documentaries were made, and changed one man's life forever. We discuss anti-verite, the evolution of true crime media, hiring a hypnotist, lower thirds and how Seth is susceptible to whatever a documentary tells him.  Discussion on The Thin Blue Line begins at 13:48 Todays promo is for Contra Zoom Pod. Check it out everyhwere you listen to podcasts! For all of our bonus episodes check out our Patreon   Patreon supporters help pick episodes, monthly themes and get access to all of our additional shows and our Patron exclusive Discord. It's only the price of a single cup of coffee ($5 a month!) Visit our website and send us an email! Follow Movie Friends on Twitter and Instagram Follow us on Letterboxd: Michelle and Seth 

The great documentary filmmaker Errol Morris is best known for films such as “The Thin Blue Line” and “The Fog of War.” His latest film, “The Pigeon Tunnel,” is about the great espionage novelist John le Carré, whose real name is David Cornwell. Jack Goldsmith recently sat down with Morris to talk about “The Pigeon Tunnel.” They discussed le Carré's complex and contradictory attitudes towards the Cold War, the influence of the traitorous British intelligence officer Kim Philby on le Carré's work, what Morris and le Carré have in common as documentarians, and how le Carré compares with Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad. Morris also reflected on his craft, including the difference between an interview and an interrogation and how he learned to interview a subject without saying anything.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Ridley Scott's ‘Napoleon' hitting theaters, Sean and Amanda are joined by Chris Ryan to build the Ridley Hall of Fame, selecting his 10 films most worthy of preservation (1:00). Then, Sean is joined by filmmaker Errol Morris to talk about his new John le Carré documentary, ‘The Pigeon Tunnel,' Morris's interviewing style, how he chooses subjects, the overlap between documentary and drama filmmaking, and more (1:27:00). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guests: Chris Ryan and Errol Morris Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The author of such spy novels as The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Night Manager is the subject of a new documentary by Errol Morris called The Pigeon Tunnel. It features the final interviews with le Carré who died in 2020. It details his life as a writer and his earlier work as a spy for Britain's domestic and foreign intelligence services. We'll listen back to the interviews Terry Gross recorded with him in 1989 and 2017.Also, Justin Chang reviews Alexander Payne's new comedy film The Holdovers.