Documentary First: Conversations on Documentary Filmmaking

Nixon Knew Better. So Why Did He Do It?

What can Richard Nixon's farewell speech to his staff teach us about the quiet voice we stop listening to? On August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon said goodbye to his White Hou

What All the President's Men Didn't Show You About Watergate

Do you think you know the Watergate story? Most people know Watergate from All the President's Men: two reporters at The Washington Post and a president brought down. Fa

Doc First Podcast Trailer: The Making of Films You'll Love

How do documentaries actually get made, paid for and seen? Hear it from the people who make them. In this trailer: Jonathan de Jong (Human Forever), Ken Burns, James L.

Even Scorsese Had a Mentor. How Do You Find Yours?

How do you find a film mentor when you don't know anyone in the business? Finding a film mentor with no connections can feel impossible, especially in documentary filmma

Charles Grodin Documentary: Comedy Star, Prison Crusader

Who was Charles Grodin when the cameras weren't rolling? Most people know Charles Grodin from Midnight Run, The Heartbreak Kid or Beethoven. Far fewer know that he spent

The Velveteen Rabbit and Old Home Movies: What Is Real?

What does The Velveteen Rabbit, a 1922 children's book about a stuffed toy, have to do with old home movies and AI? In Margery Williams' classic story, an old toy called

Archival Footage: Why Use Home Movies?

What happens to a family's home movies when no one knows what to do with them? Phil Maher was a software engineer looking for a sense of purpose when he started watching

How Do You Get a Documentary Made? Ask the Woman Who Co-Runs RKO

Do you have a documentary, or do you have a Wikipedia entry? Somebody decides whether your documentary gets made. Sophia Dilley is one of those people. She runs Concord

Beyond Banners: How to Make a Documentary With No Film School

Who finishes your film if you can't? Andre N. Jackson had never made a film. He had twenty years in technology and security, an idea that arrived while he was sitting in

What Dementia Taught Me About Building an Audience

When did your audience stop being people and become a number? Most independent films and podcasts do not fail because the work is bad. They fail because no one ever felt

How to Fund a Documentary Without the Industry

How do you fund a documentary when the whole industry says no? How do you fund a documentary without film funds, grants, or a commissioning broadcaster, and still reach

Why You Need Someone to Believe in You First

Who saw something in you before you could see it yourself? Sometimes you need someone to believe in you before you can believe in yourself. Joe Amodei spent 45 years hel

Cold War in Philly: Joe Amodei Directs His First Documentary

What happens when a film distributor with more than 40 years in the business finally makes his own documentary? Joe Amodei grew up in Philadelphia watching the Flyers wi

What a 6-Year-Old Saw During the Battle of Carentan

How do you make people care about your documentary? Facts alone rarely make an audience care. The emotional core of a documentary lives somewhere else. In this episode o

Why the Battle Wasn't the Story in My WWII Documentary

Can thirteen letters from an 88-year-old stranger bring a dead film back to life? For two years, Heroes of Carentan, Christian Taylor's documentary about the 101st Airbo

When a Dream Ends, What Comes Next?

What if the disappointment you didn't choose was the only door to the life you were meant to live? Three generations of one family chased professional baseball, and all

Danny Gans: The Man of Many Voices Who Lost His Own

How do you tell the truth about your own father when the whole world knew him as the Man of Many Voices? Danny Gans could become almost anyone on stage. He was the first

When Is Silence Wisdom and When Is It Complicity?

When does refusing to repeat a lie become complicity in it? The hardest question in documentary filmmaking is not how to find the truth. It is how to handle a lie. When

Heather O'Rourke Documentary: The Film Her Family Trusted

Was the Poltergeist curse real, or did the world get Heather O'Rourke's story wrong for 38 Years? On February 1, 1988, Heather O'Rourke died at twelve years old. For nea

Solitude or Loneliness? Why Creative People Burn Out

What is the difference between solitude and loneliness, and why does every creative person need to understand it? There are two kinds of being alone in creative work, an