Dawn Porter
Sound accompaniment: text message pings, dishes & glasses making noises in the background, teenagers moving through space, a computer automatically telling us the time
Drinks: Margarita
Dawn Porter
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Tribeca Film Festival, Questlove’s Creative Quest, Ford Foundation, Tamar-kali, Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, Searching for Sugarman, How to Dance in Ohio, Berkeley School of Journalism, This American Life: The Show of Delights
Nadia Hallgren
Sound accompaniment: a hissing sound maybe from air in a heating system
Drinks: beer in a glass jar
Nadia Hallgren
*the secret project she couldn’t talk about in our conversation is Michelle Obama’s documentary “Becoming”
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Skywalker Sound, Lauren Cioffi, Laura Poitras, Field of Vision, International Center of Photography, Tia Lessin, Fahrenheit 9/11, Kirsten Johnson, Cameraperson, Portabrace, Motherland, tiger balm, dramamine, Boys State, American Factory, Honeyland, The Overnighters, Bombay Beach, Trouble the Water
David Osit & Lana Wilson
Sound accompaniment: squeaky chairs
Drinks: Rye, Pinot Noir
David Osit
Lana Wilson
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Iraq in Fragments, School of Visual Arts MFA Social Documentary, Aki Kaurismaki, Film Forum, Of Men and War, Isidore Bethel, After Life, Come and See, Collective, The Arabian Nights, John Stahl, King Vidor, Romanian New Wave Cinema, Taiwanese New Wave Cinema, Fates and Furies, The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, American Movie, George Saunders
Alexandria Bombach
Sound accompaniment: a frustrated cat rhythmically pawing at a closed door, a dog barking from outside
Drinks: High West whiskey
Alexandria Bombach
Some things that joined us in the conversation: The Daily podcast, Indigo Girls, Rocky Mountain Women’s Film, Nadia Murad, The Hunting Ground, Invisible War, Fort Lewis College, Ira Glass on storytelling, Erick Stoll, Karee Maxson, América, Michael Bucuzzo, felted bouncy ball for editing (may not be the exact one), standing desk balance board, Tiger King, S-Town podcast, UTA, Island of Hungry Ghosts, The Proposal, Starless Streams, Fire at Sea, Little Women, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Anis Mojgani, Scriptnotes, Pema Chödrön, Crip Camp, Free the Work (previously called Free the Bid)
Luke Lorentzen
Sound accompaniment: unidentified high pitch squeak for a moment, a glass clinking on another glass
Drinks: water
Luke Lorentzen
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Stanford University MFA Documentary Film and Video (unofficially as an undergraduate) , Paloma Lopez Carrillo, Mary Lampson, gorilla tape, Sony FS7 (may not be this exact model), Michael Glawogger’s Workingman’s Death, Megacities, Whore’s Glory, Sensory Ethnography Lab, Foreign Parts, Manakamana, Dardenne brothers, The Florida Project, WTF with Marc Maron, Terry Gross
Jasmin Mara López
Sound accompaniment: an elderly dog coughing and also whining for his friends who are outside the window
Drinks: red wine
Jasmin Mara López
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Bron Moyi, IDA's "what’s in your bag" column, Unrest, Chicken and Egg Pictures, The Tiniest Place, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Cherrie Moraga
Mario Furloni
Sound accompaniment: the wind, wind chimes, an airplane in the sky, a train in the distance
Drinks: Campari & soda
Mario Furloni
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Unrest, Berkeley School of Journalism, Eduardo Coutinho, Easy Rig, Huntsville Station, Devil Never Sleeps, The Great Happiness of Space, Roberto Bolaño, Wolf Hall Trilogy
Rita Baghdadi
Sound accompaniment: a kind of echoey sound that happened sometimes
(guest appearance: Monkey the cat, Portia the dog)
Drinks: Mate
Rita Baghdadi
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Great Pyrenees, Easy Rig, Maryland Film Festival, John Waters, The Cure, TLC Waterfalls, Tribeca Labs, Heidi Ewing, Dana Kupper, Steve James, Stevie, Slave to Sirens, Tiger King, Follow your bliss, These Birds Walk, Bombay Beach, Let’s Get Lost, What Happened Miss Simone, Senna, American Movie, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Sculpting in Time, David Mamet’s On Directing Film, Lucy Walker, Film Independent Lab, South by Southwest
Shuling Yong
Sound accompaniment: a brief high pitched noise maybe a baby in another room, a child’s voice from behind a closed door
Drinks: Cold brew coffee (horchata flavored)
Shuling Yong
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern University Radio/Television/Film, Kartemquin Films, Terra Incognita, Refrigerator Mothers, Kartemquin internship, Maria Finitzo, Sennheiser, Lectrosonics, Sandy Stone, Nadia Hallgren, Sony FS7, Singapore International Film Festival, Good Pitch, Nanfu Wang, Panasonic GH5 (may not be this exact model), One Child Nation, Hooligan Sparrow, The Model Health podcast, Smart Passive Income podcast, children’s ibuprofen, Collective of Documentary Women Cinematographers
Kristine Stolakis
Sound accompaniment: a baby hollering in another room, two glasses clinking together unintentionally, a dog barks
Drinks: Turmeric tea (lukewarm)
Kristine Stolakis
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Eyes on the Prize, Stanford University MFA Documentary Film and Video, Attla, ITVS, Hollywood Reporter review, Carla Gutierrez, D.A. Pennebaker, Robert Drew, Don’t Look Back, Lonely Boy, How to Survive a Plague, Fresh Air, Punch Brothers, Jump Little Children, Yo-Yo Ma, Soundtrack to To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Quinn Costello & Jeff Springer
Sound accompaniment: possibly wind chimes, a baby holler, sirens outside, ice crunching, a dog barking outside, shuffling of papers
Drinks: Coffee from a 5lb bag, Folgers coffee repackaged to look like higher tier coffee
*Quinn’s image is, at times, a little delayed from his voice, but it’s all good.
(guest appearance: Monkey the cat)
Quinn Costello
Jeff Springer
(Together, with Chris Metzler, they made Rodents of an Unusual Size)
Some things that joined us in the conversation: tigers with coronavirus, D.L. Anderson, Jeremy Lange, Clare Major, ITVS, USC, Arista Records, Evergreen College, The Goldman Environmental Prize, American Movie, Decline of Western Civilization Part II, Hearts of Darkness, Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control, Adam Curtis, Darwin's Nightmare, Honeyland, Anna Karenina, Crime & Punishment, 99% Invisible, Radiolab, Serial, This American Life, Ram Dass, Utopia for Realists, Rebecca Solnit, Third Coast International Audio Festival, Ira Glass
Rodrigo Reyes
Sound accompaniment: dog barking outside, a baby hollering in another room
Drinks: Doc(MX) Mezcal de la casa
Rodrigo Reyes
Some things that joined us in the conversation: National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico), Eduardo San Juan, Alejandro Mejía, anamorphic lenses, (1619 Project), 150 Years after the Navajo Long Walk, Jaclyn Roessel, Conan the Barbarian (1982), Rashomon, Land without Bread (Buñuel), UC San Diego, Kurosawa, a pen with five colors (may not be this exact one), Terminator 2, Werner Herzog early years 1960s and 1970s, Fata Morgana, Lessons in Darkness, The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On, Tempestad, Mi vida con Carlos, Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett, Fist Full of Dollars, Vamanos con Pancho Villa, Fernando Benitez, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
*Alejandro Mejía won Best Cinematography for 499 at the Tribeca Film Festival 2020
*499 won the Special Jury Prize – International Feature Documentary at Hot Docs 2020
Anna Fitch & Banker White
Sound accompaniment: dog barking, kids talking in the background, a door closing and a door creaking open, something dropped on a wooden floor, someone walking up the stairs behind a closed door, ice clinking in a glass, a cell phone falls on a soft floor
Drinks: Kirkland Sauvignon Blanc ($7.99-$8.99/bottle?)
(guest appearance: Dylan and Oscar, frogs and fish and a garden)
Anna Fitch
Banker White
Currently working together on Heaven through the Back Door
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Sara Dosa, Headlands Center for the Arts Artist in Residence, Robin Frohardt, Andy Mitchell, WeOwnTv, Arthur Pratt, Octopus: Making Contact, frogs that carry babies on their backs, Werner Herzog, Hale County This Morning This Evening, RaMell Ross, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of Life (narrated by Leonard Cohen), CBC, Methuselah Tree, Vision Man, Survivors, POV, Extra Action Marching Band, The Burning Wigs of Sedition, a swallowtail butterfly cocoon
Loira Limbal
Sound accompaniment: children’s voices in the background
Drinks: water
*I forgot to ask Loira to turn the phone sideways, so it’s a beautiful vertical view with her.
Loira Limbal
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Through the Night, Tribeca Film Festival, Covid-19 disproportionately affecting black & brown communities, Dani McClain “I Never Felt Like a ‘Single Parent.’ Then the Coronavirus Hit,” The Point Community Development Center, Eyes on the Prize, Vee Bravo, Estilo Hip Hop, (Brown Girls Doc Mafia), Stanley Nelson, The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords, The Murder of Emmett Till, Firelight Media Documentary Lab, Firelight Media Groundwork, Firelight Media William Greaves Fund, William Greaves, El lugar más pequeño, The Waiting Room, Homegoings, The Black Panthers Vanguard of the Revolution, Cameraperson, Bus 174, Kathleen Collins, Kathleen Collins Masterclass at Howard University (1984), Toni Morrison and Motherhood: Politics of the Heart, Beloved, Carrie Mae Weems Kitchen Table Series
Essential Care Fundraiser organized by Loira
Danielle Varga
Sound accompaniment: clinking noise, sounds from a swivel chair, birds chirping
Drinks: Maple sour whiskey soda
(There’s a moment of frozen/delay, but the conversation continues on)
Danielle Varga
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Hot Docs, SXSW, The Hottest August, Cameraperson, Rooftop Films, A Photographic Memory, Tribeca Film Festival, PBS American Experiences, fanny packs!, Erasure poetry, Ocean Vuong, Twin Peaks, Seinfeld, High Maintenance, Lyn Hejinian My Life, Chris Marker, Shirley Clarke, Portrait of Jason, Argentinian Lesson, Tarnation, Why Zoom is Terrible, Documentary Producers Alliance
Bo McGuire
Sound accompaniment: a dog barking, a motorcycle backfiring outside, a beer tab being flicked, perhaps ghost accompaniment but we didn’t hear them
Drinks: a Bloody Mary because vodka is the only liquor left in the house, and a Coors Light
Bo McGuire
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Tribeca Film Festival, Bo being surprised receiving the Best Documentary award with Chris Pine (at 11:05), Beyonce’s Lemonade, S-Town podcast, Kitty Green, Meryl Streep quoting Carrie Fischer “take your broken heart, make it into art,” Real Housewives’ NeNe Leakes, Max Allman, Lady Gaga & Beyonce’s Telephone, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Sherman’s March, Errol Morris’ Vernon Florida, Casting JonBenet, Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace, #heathenbiblestudy, Life is but a Dream (Beyonce documentary), Stranded in Canton, actress screen tests to play Scarlett O’Hara, Frank Stanford & his poetry collection The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You, The Cabal and Other Stories by Ellen Gilchrist, The Coal Miner’s Daughter, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, My Life So Far by Jane Fonda, Mariah Carey docuseries, The Judds, My All, It was all in your mind, Ryan Heffington live dance class, Reba Douglas, (The Queen, Bo wrote after our conversation to ask me to add it)
Bo’s documentary Socks on Fire won Tribeca’s Best Documentary, 2020
Elizabeth Lo
Sound accompaniment: a cell phone vibrates
Drinks: Canada Dry Ginger Ale
Elizabeth Lo
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Tribeca Film Festival, Dogwoof, Michael Glowager, Rooftop Films, Easy Rig, DGI Ronin gimbal, bi-directional mic, Hotel 22, NYU Tisch, This is Life with Lisa Ling, Stanford MFA Documentary Film & Video, UnionDocs, Stray trailer, fanny pack (not necessarily this one), Frederick Wiseman, Mike Leigh, Kelly Reichardt, Béla Tarr, Sensory Ethnography Lab, Leviathan, Sweetgrass, Abbas Kiarostami, 24 Frames, E.M. Forster, Orhan Pamouk’s Snow, Haruki Murakami
*Elizabeth’s film Stray won Best International Feature Documentary Award at Hot Docs 2020
Aaron Wickenden & Arthur Jones
Sound accompaniment: glass clinking, squeaky chair, car alarm somewhere outside, strange pop sound, a door closing
Drinks: Tequila + soda & Pacifica, Yogi Tea Egyptian Licorice
Aaron Wickenden
Arthur Jones
Together they made Feels Good Man
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Boys Club, Matt Furie, Community Thrift Store (SF), Giorgio Angelini, Owned: Tale of Two Americas, Katrina Taylor, Terence McKenna, Night Riders, Caryn Capotosto (Won’t You Be My Neighbor), Wavelength Productions, Chicago Media Project, Ross Brothers, Kristin Feeley, Starlee Kine, Becoming, DXD Productions (LA), Spongebob SquarePants, Jenna Caravello, Almost There, California Institute of the Arts, Khylin Woodrow, Nicole Stafford, Steve James (The Interrupters, Hoop Dreams), Drew Blatman, Lawrence Everson, True/False Film Festival, Socks on Fire, The Mayor, Television Event, #becomingnetflix, Bill Siegel “the audience completes the picture,” Tremolo Productions, Moana, When Scar kills Mufasa (Lion King), The Clash Combat Rock, Richard Avedon, The Last Dance, Nick Broomfield, Biggie and Tupac, Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam, The Leader, His Driver, and the Driver’s Wife, Les Blank, Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers) by Guy Maddin, Mr. Know-It-All by John Waters, Cobra Man, The Worble, Daniel Johnston, Toxic Planet, New Driveway, Moana saves the baby turtle and Shiny, Sundance U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker 2020, Matt Wolf Spaceship Earth
Smriti Mundhra
Sound accompaniment: a child making noises, a cellphone text pings, paper rustling, birds singing outside
Drinks: Iced coffee
Some things that joined us in the conversation: St. Louis Superman MTV premiere, Witness Al Jazeera, Tribeca Film Festival, Hot Docs, Sheila Nevins, Oscar nomination, Sami Khan best dressed, Taika Waititi, Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla, Poh Si Teng, Black Lives Matter, Jay Z autobiography, Spike Jonze, Coen brothers, Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director, A Suitable Girl, Three Identical Strangers, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, A-Doc, Film Fatales, Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program, collective trauma of this time, Hoop Dreams, Paul Thomas Anderson Junun, Jonny Greenwood, Barbara Kopple, Harlan County, USA, Mira Nair, Salaam Bombay!, Ava DuVernay “did not pick up a camera until 32”, Susan Seidelman, Smithereens, Kelly Reichardt, Daughters of the Dust, Meshell Ndegeocello, Flannery O’Connor, Zakir Hussain
Smriti interviewed in the article RACISM, VIOLENCE AND BAD COPS: BLACK LIVES MATTER FILMMAKERS DEBATE HOW WE CAN FIX OUR BROKEN POLICE DEPARTMENTS
Her project for Netflix, that was unmentionable during our conversation, is now watchable!
Indian Matchmaking
Tamara Kotevska
Sound accompaniment: music playing in background, a blender turning on downstairs, a cellphone rings, someone else talks on a phone, bluejays calling outside
Drinks: coffee in a tin mug
Together with Ljubomir Stefanov she made Honeyland
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Neon, MoMA, film she made with Ljubomir before Honeyland, Nadia Hallgren, Dust, Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Best Balkan Film Award at the Tirana International Documentary Film Festival, For Sama, Exit Through The Gift Shop, Michael Moore, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders’ Pina, The Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Midnight Family, Advocate
*In our conversation, when Tamara mentioned being part of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, I misunderstood and thought she meant faculty as in “teacher,” not faculty as in “department of.” To explain my mistake & confusion.
Gabriel Rhodes, Penelope Falk, & Amy Foote
Sound accompaniment: a dog barks, ice crackling in a glass, paper rustles, an email pings, a cooking timer
Drinks: Red wine, pomegranate juice
Gabriel Rhodes
Penelope Falk
Amy Foote
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Amanda Lipitz, Matthew Heineman, Penny Lane, Hail Satan, Jonathan Oppenheim, Jennifer Fox, Newtown, Kim Snyder, The Work, Stanford University MFA Documentary Film and Video, An American Love Story, Toby Shimin, Jay Freund, Ann Collins, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Robert Dalva, The Black Stallion, Jan Krawitz, 1971 (documentary), Johanna Hamilton, Plutonium Circus, Theremin, Promises, Niels Pagh Andersen, The Act of Killing, The Edit Center, Park Slope Coop, Election Day, ITVS, Kitty Genovese documentary, Marwencol, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, Hoop Dreams, Honeyland, Cameraperson, The Monastery, Special Flight, 45365 (Ross Brothers), Force Majeure, Let the Right One In, Midnight Family, Bringing Down the Colonel, My Brilliant Friend, Schitt's Creek, Cormac McCarthy, Jawline, Alex OFlinn, Minding the Gap, Parasite
Jameka Autry
Sound accompaniment: exercise ball squeaks, a cell phone drops onto soft floor, paper rustling
Drinks: Ice water
Some things that joined us in the conversation: University of Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program, Through the Night, Center for Documentary Studies, Elisabeth Haviland James, Break Thru Films, Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, In My Father’s House, The Fashion Fund, Marathon: The Patriot’s Day Bombing, Field of Vision, Finding Vivian Maier, Charlotte Cook, UnionDocs: Center for Documentary Art, Elan Bogarín, Lee Daniels, OJ: Made in America, I Am Not Your Negro, War Photographer, What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann, Marie Antoinette (2006), The Departed, Thelma Schoonmaker, Splendor in the Grass, Barefoot in the Park, The Way We Were, Imitation of Life, Dawn Porter
Erick Stoll
Sound accompaniment: a truck beeping in reverse outside, a metal straw on ice, eating a cherry from a drink, a push pen clicking, a cat trying to get in through a closed door
Drinks: Corona beer
Together, with Chase Whiteside, he made América
Some things that joined us in the conversation: Astra Taylor, Julia Reichert, Jim Klein, Wright State University, Harlan County, USA, Seventeen, Full Frame Film Festival, 45365, Ross Brothers, New Left Media, Laura Poitras, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Michael Brown, Class of Struggle by Chris Marker, Far From Poland, Seeing Red, The Prison in 12 Landscapes, The Edge of Democracy, What is Democracy?, Solange A Seat at the Table, Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, Asad Haider, the murder of Sam DuBose, Jim Cohen, Images Festival, The Case for the Green New Deal, Jill Godmilow, Alexandria Bombach, Maryland Film Festival
Mila Turajlic
Sound accompaniment: a text message ping, coughing (from tea going down the wrong way), a baby hollers, very high pitched tone (unknown), a computer chime noise
Drinks: Tea
Some things that joined us in the conversation: her first film, her current film in progress, Algerian Liberation War, NATO bombing of Serbia, The Secret Garden (the book), The Non-Aligned Movement, Agnes Varda, Varda's short doc about tourists on the Riveria, Gleaners & I, Magnificent 7 Film Festival, DOKSerbia (Association of Documentary Filmmakers), Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History by Shoshana Felman & Dori Laub (particularly Chapter 2: Bearing Witness or the Vicissitudes of Listening and Chapter 3: Truth Testimony), John Grierson, Elizabeth Price Woolworths Choir, Mad Men, Scottish Documentary Institute, Robert Coles' Doing Documentary Work, Claude Lanzmann's Shoah, The D Word, Jennifer Fox's Beirut: The Last Home Movie, Orson Welles' F for Fake. Gary Tarn's Black Sun, Dreaming by Numbers by Anna Bucchetti, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, the scene in Bob Fosse's Cabaret that blew her mind as a child on the power of editing, Joan Didion, Hemingway sentences (she didn’t reference this article, but when searching for “Hemingway sentences” this one arrived), Joan Didion on Hemingway sentences