In 2018 alone, three documentaries: Won’t You Be My Neighbor, RBG, and Three Identical Strangers have exceeded $10 million at the domestic box office, a remarkable trend considering only 25 other documentaries has reached this milestone in the past 35 years. To find out what is leading to this sudden increase in the genre’s popularity, Rob and Geoff are joined by TIFF programmer, and host of the documentary themed podcast ‘Pure Nonfiction’, Thom Powers.
Powers discusses how “documentary” went from a dirty word to a financially viable genre, how Netflix helped expand the artform, and the technological innovations that have changed the genre for the better.
He then goes through some of the more anticipated documentary titles coming to TIFF next month including: Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9, Werner Herzog’s Meeting Gorbachev, Alexis Bloom’s Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, John Chester’s The Biggest Little Farm, E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Free Solo, and Errol Morris’ American Dharma.
Ep. 103: Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson on the Life and Legacy of ‘Broad City’
Ep. 102: How is France Keeping its Arthouse Cinemas Packed?
Ep. 101: Bing Liu on the Making of ‘Minding the Gap’
Ep. 100: Can a Film Preserve an Endangered Language?
Ep. 99: How the Oscars Addressed its Diversity Problem
Ep. 98: What We’re Looking Forward to in 2019
Ep. 97: Year in Review (Part 2)
Ep. 96: Year in Review (Part 1)
Ep. 95: How Will Blockchain Transform the Film Industry?
Ep. 94: Why Netflix Set Its Sights on Cinemas
Ep. 93: What is the State of Independent Film in 2018?
Ep. 92: Zoe Kazan on Writing, Westerns, and Working With The Coen Brothers
Ep. 91: How ‘Bodied’ Director Joseph Kahn Made This Year’s Most Subversive Film
Ep. 90: How Sam Esmail Took ‘Homecoming’ From a Hit Podcast to a Hit TV Show
Ep. 89: Why It’s Finally Time to Take Horror Seriously
Ep. 88: How Dee Rees Went From Film School to Oscar Nominee in a Decade
Ep. 87: How David Gelb Revolutionized Food Documentary
Ep. 86: How to Build a Career in an Emerging Film Market
Ep. 85: What are the Biggest Challenges Facing African Cinema?
Ep. 84: Facebook Enters the World of Prestige TV With ‘Sorry For Your Loss’
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The AI Effect
Writers and Company
The Minds of Madness - True Crime Stories
Invisible City
Cloverfeels