Doc Talk Podcast: Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival’s Ken Jacobson On State Of Nonfiction Filmmaking, Competitive Oscar Race And More

Hot Springs, Arkansas is known for many things – as the childhood home of Bill Clinton, as the former site of Major League Baseball’s spring training (in the era of Babe Ruth), for its beautiful national park, and for its mineral springs and the splendid early 20th century bathhouses built to accommodate legions of spa-goers.

It’s also known as the home of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, the longest-running nonfiction cinematic event in North America. HSDFF celebrated its 35th edition last month, hosting a selection of world premieres and leading contenders in the Oscar race including Once Upon a Time in Harlem, NAZA, American Doctor, Closure, To Hold a Mountain and more.

On the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we’re joined by the man in charge of the festival, Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute executive director Ken Jacobson. He tells us how the festival originally began in collaboration with the Motion Picture Academy as a way to showcase Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning films. This year, HSDFF returned to those roots in a sense by partnering with Deadline for its first ever Documentary Roundtable of distinguished filmmakers in the awards race, a panel that included directors Biljana Tutorov, Poh Si Teng and Michał Marczak, and producer Liani Greaves.

Hot Springs once again presented its Forum, but with a twist this year: it took place without the usual support of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, because that important entity was defunded under pressure from the Trump administration.

Jacobson, who has long experience in documentary festival programming, tells us about the biggest challenge he faces putting on a nine-day event and how he makes sure the festival attracts filmmakers from around the world while simultaneously showcasing work from the South and mid-South. He also shares insights on how the Academy Awards competition is shaping up as we near next month’s voting for the documentary shortlists.

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.