Doc Talk Podcast Hits Road With Makers Of ‘Union Town’, ‘Black Sunflowers‘, ‘Edward Said: Between Worlds’ & Camden Film Festival Leaders
September brought a rash of film festivals (well, maybe “rash” is the wrong word; that sounds like a skin condition. How about a “slew” instead?). In any case, it was one film festival after another this month, beginning with Venice, continuing with Telluride, then Toronto, and for documentary lovers, the Camden International Film Festival in Maine.
Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast team packed up the recording equipment and headed into the field to report from the North American fests. On the latest edition of the show, we bring you a selection of our interviews, including with two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple, director of Union Town. She premiered that film in Venice, then hopped the pond for Toronto before heading to Camden for her U.S. premiere. Kopple tells us why stories about working-class Americans have fascinated her going back to the landmark Harlan County U.S.A. 50 years ago.
Director James Marcus Haney tells us about his film Black Sunflowers, executive produced by Sean Penn, which premiered at TIFF. We also speak with two of his protagonists, young Ukrainian women whose lives have been dramatically impacted by Russia’s war of aggression on their country. The documentary explores how many young Ukrainians feel compelled, in the absence of a secure future, to seek out adrenaline-fueled experiences like street racing and wild ragers.
Another documentary hosting its world premiere in Toronto is Edward Said: Between Worlds, an examination of the titular Palestinian scholar and activist who became a leading advocate for the Palestinian cause from his base in academia in the U.S. Director Maiken Baird, producer Sarah Mowaswes and consulting producer Najla Said (Said’s daughter) join us to reflect on a man who advocated late in his life for a one-state solution, that is, a model for Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace in a secular democracy.
In Camden, we also got to speak with the leaders of that festival: Points North Institute executive director Elise McCave and PNI’s artistic director Sean Flynn (PNI is the nonprofit that puts on CIFF). They address the challenges facing the documentary field, which have intensified with the loss of funding for public media under the second Trump administration. They also share their reaction to the success of To Hold a Mountain, the Sundance-winning documentary that gained critical support through the Points North Institute’s Dianne Weyermann Fellowship, named for the late Participant Media executive and champion of independent documentaries.
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That’s on the new episode of Doc Talk hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s senior documentary editor. The pod is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.
Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.
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