PN 52: Playwright Dominique Morisseau on “Detroit ’67,” “Pipeline,” “Shameless” & more
While Detroit is in the headlines for the 50th anniversary of its darkest days, we focus on one of its brightest new storytellers, playwright Dominique Morisseau. Pure Nonfiction host (and Detroit native) Thom Powers talks to Morisseau about her breakthrough play “Detroit ’67,” her new work “Pipeline” at Lincoln Center, writing for Showtime’s “Shameless” and her upcoming musical about The Temptations called “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” coming to Berkeley Repertory Theater. Next episode, we return to our normal concentration on documentary film.
Pure Nonfiction is distributed by the TIFF podcast network.
PN 51: Errol Morris & Elsa Dorfman on “The B-Side”
Portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman has worked for several decades on Polaroid’s rare 20″ x 24” format camera. She had a loyal clientele in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but was hardly known outside. Now she is the subject of Errol Morris’ new film “The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography.” Morris and his wife Julia are longtime friends of Dorfman and her husband Harvey Silverglate (a criminal defense lawyer who comes up in Morris’ book “A Wilderness of Error”).
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS
Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers interviews Morris and Dorfman together. Morris discusses his new film in the context of his past work including “Gates of Heaven,” “Fast, Cheap & Out of Control,” and the Oscar-winner “The Fog of War.”
On Twitter: @errolmorris @thompowers @purenonfiction
Pure Nonfiction is distributed by the TIFF podcast network.
PN 50: D.A. Pennebaker on “Monterey Pop” at 50
Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and The Who are among the classic acts captured by D.A. Pennebaker in “Monterey Pop.” Now for the 50th anniversary of the concert, the film is being released in a new 4k restoration by The Criterion Collection and Janus Films. Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers interviewed Pennebaker along with two of the film’s cameramen Jim Desmond and Nick Proferes on June 14, 2017 at the IFC Center in front of a live audience.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS
For more on Pennebaker, listen to his interview with Chris Hegedus, discussing their films “Town Bloody Hall,” “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,” “The War Room,” and “Unlocking the Cage” on Pure Nonfiction episode 9.
On Twitter: @DAPennebaker @PHFilms @Criterion @thompowers @PureNonfiction
Pure Nonfiction is distributed by the TIFF podcast network.
Our podcast will take a break for the summer and resume with Season 4 in the fall. Stay tuned to @PureNonfiction on Twitter for updates.
PN 49: Steve James From “Hoop Dreams” to “Abacus”
New York’s Chinatown is the backdrop for Steve James’ latest documentary “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail.” He follows a David vs Goliath legal tale about the Chinese-American family behind a small bank defending themselves against an aggressive prosecution.
In Part 1 of this episode, Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers talks to James about his breakthrough film “Hoop Dreams” and the development of his career that included a stint directing fiction films.
In Part 2, Powers interviews three of the key figures in “Abacus” – the sisters Jill, Vera and Chanterelle Sung. They discuss what it was like being filmed by James during this tense period of their lives.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS
James was interviewed before a live audience at the Montclair Film Festival. The Sungs were interviewed as part of the Stranger Than Fiction series at the IFC Center.For more, hear episode 19 when James discussed “Abacus” before its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
On Twitter: @AbacusMovie @ThomPowers @PureNonfiction
Pure Nonfiction is distributed by the TIFF podcast network.
PN 48: HBO’s Sheila Nevins on Seductions, Heartbreaks & Her New Book
Meryl Streep, Audra McDonald and Glenn Close are among many esteemed performers who read stories on the audio version of Sheila Nevins’ new quasi-memoir “You Don’t Look Your Age…And Other Fairy Tales.” Nevins has served for 35 years overseeing HBO Documentary Films. Now she reveals tales from her own life covering childhood, seduction, heartbreak, feminism, motherhood and aging.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS
Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers interviewed Nevins on her 78th birthday (April 6). She speaks candidly about growing up with Communist parents, learning the power and limits of seduction, fighting for equal pay as a woman, being inspired to write by Larry Kramer and facing her seventies.
The conversation includes excerpts of passages read by Lena Dunham and Tovah Feldshuh.
On Twitter: @thesheilanevins @thompowers @PureNonfiction
Pure Nonfiction is distributed by the TIFF podcast network.
PN 47: Jonathan Demme & Renée Shafransky on Spalding Gray
“Swimming to Cambodia,” the 1987 film directed by Jonathan Demme, had a rippling influence. It laid the path for a kind of first person storytelling that today is widespread from “This American Life” to “The Moth.” The film is deceptively simple: monologuist Spalding Gray sits behind a desk and tells a stream of consciousness story about working as an actor on “The Killing Fields,” set against the back drop of America’s secret war in Cambodia. Gray had originated the project as a four-hour theater piece presented in two nights. His partner Renée Shafransky recruited Demme to adapt into a film, shortening it to feature length. The crew included cinematographer John Bailey, editor Carol Littleton and composer Laurie Anderson.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS
On this episode, Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers interviews Demme and Shafransky to discuss the film in October 2016 at New York’s IFC Center. Demme died on April 26, 2017.
For more on Demme, listen to him discuss his documentary portrait films on episode 6 and his music documentaries on episode 23.
On Twitter: @PureNonfiction @thompowers
“Swimming to Cambodia” is now available on DVD. This episode also touches upon the IFC TV series “Documentary Now” that has a parody episode of the film titled “Parker Gail’s Location is Everything” (season 2, episode 3).
Pure Nonfiction is distributed by the TIFF podcast network.
PN 46: Rashida Jones, Jill Bauer & Ronna Gradus on “Hot Girls Wanted”
Sex and technology are the focus of the new Netflix series “Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On.” Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers interviews the series’ creators Rashida Jones, Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus. They previously made the similarly titled feature documentary “Hot Girls Wanted” about young women entering the world of amateur porn. Bauer and Gradus also directed “Sexybaby” about changing sexual mores in the digital age.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS
On Twitter: @iamrashidajones @hotgirlswanted @thompowers @PureNonfiction
This episode was recorded at the Miami Film Festival.
Pure Nonfiction is distributed by the TIFF podcast network.
PN 45: Matt Tyrnauer on “Citizen Jane”
Jane Jacobs, author of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” changed the way we think of urban planning. Matt Tyrnauer’s new documentary “Citizen Jane” tells the story of her epic battles with New York power broker Robert Moses.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS
On this episode, Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers interviews Tyrnauer about the film and his previous documentary “Valentino: The Last Emperor,” about the Italian fashion designer.
On Twitter: mtyrnauer @janejacobsdoc @thompowers @purenonfiction
This interview was recorded at SVA’s MFA Social Documentary program.
Pure Nonfiction is distributed by the TIFF Podcast Network.
PN 44: From Indiana Jones to Guatemala’s Civil War – Frank Marshall & Ryan Suffern
“Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Jurassic World” and “Sully” are among Frank Marshall’s stellar producing credits. Now his company Kennedy/Marshall has a documentary division. Their latest film is “Finding Oscar” about the search for a boy who survived an infamous 1982 massacre in Guatemala’s civil war in the jungle hamlet of Dos Erres. The film’s director Ryan Suffern started his career as Steven Spielberg’s assistant and rose up to run the documentary division at Kennedy/Marshall.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS
On this episode, Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers interviews Marshall and Suffern about the making of “Finding Oscar” (opening in theaters on April 14). The film played last fall at the Telluride and DOC NYC festivals.
On Twitter: @LeDoctor @suckatash23 @FindingOscarDoc @thompowers @PureNonfiction
This interview was recorded at SVA’s MFA Social Documentary program.
Pure Nonfiction is distributed by the TIFF Podcast Network.
PN 43: Laurent Bouzereau & Mark Harris on “Five Came Back”
Steven Spielberg is the executive producer for the new 3-part Netflix series “Five Came Back” about the Hollywood directors who put their fiction careers on hold during World War II as they went to make propaganda documentaries for the U.S. government. The five were Frank Capra, John Ford, William Wyler, George Stevens and John Huston.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS
On this episode, Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers speaks with the key creators of the series, writer Mark Harris and director Laurent Bouzereau. The series is based on Harris’ book “Five Came Back.” Bouzereau has a long career directing documentaries about the making of Hollywood films, including several of Spielberg’s.
For the Netflix series, they enlisted contemporary Hollywood directors to talk on camera about their predecessors: Spielberg on Wyler; Guillermo Del Toro on Capra; Paul Greengrass on Ford; Lawrence Kasdan on Stevens; and Francis Ford Coppola on Huston.
Among the films discussed are Capra’s “Why We Fight”; Ford’s “The Battle of Midway”; Wyler’s “The Memphis Belle”; Huston’s “San Pietro” and “Let Their Be Light”; and also the lesser known contributions of African-American writer Carlton Moss to the film “The Negro Soldier.” All these films are streaming on Netflix for a limited time.
On Twitter: @MarkHarrisNYC @nedlandmedia @thompowers @PureNonfiction
Pure Nonfiction is distributed by the TIFF podcast network. This interview was recorded at the School of Visual Arts’ MFA Social Documentary program.