It took 20 years of asking by an Oscar-winning filmmaker, but famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh finally said, “Yes.” The result is "Cover-Up", a revelatory new documentary portrait of Hersh’s fascinating life and career by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras (“Citizenfour”) and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Mark Obenhaus (“Steep”).   Joining Ken on the pod, Mark (who jointly directed the film with Laura) discusses the origins of his professional relationship with Hersh and why the stars finally aligned for Hersh to agree to the project. With a career going back to the 1960’s, Hersh virtually invented the idea of the modern investigative reporter. He sniffed out the facts of the horrific My Lai massacre by U.S. soldiers in Vietnam and exposed the top brass’ scandalous cover-up. Following My Lai, Hersh went on to expose cover-ups in Watergate that became front page news in the “New York Times.” Years later, during the Iraq War, Hersh’s reporting would again expose high-level cover-ups, revealing the graphic details of torture committed by the CIA and the U.S. Army at Abu Ghraib prison. “Cover-Up” also addresses Hersh’s shortcomings as well. Time and again, Hersh’s work and sources have exposed abuses of power at the highest level of the American government. It turns out that the full story was well worth waiting for.   Hidden Gem: “Seeds”   Follow: @mark_obenhaus on Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and X    The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Welcome once again to our Anne-ual Top Docs Holiday Special featuring the one-and-only Anne Thompson, Editor-at-Large at IndieWire! Anne joins Mike and Ken to tackle this year’s Best Feature Documentary Oscar Shortlist, released on December 16th. One day following the release of the list, Anne is already fired up and ready to go. How competitive is this year’s race? Who are the Favorites, Runners Up and Dark Horses? Which film will win it all? Park yourself in front of a roaring fire and pop in those earbuds. It’s Oscar time!   IndieWire Editor-at-Large Anne Thompson has been a contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, The Observer, and Wired. She has served as film columnist at Variety, and deputy editor of Variety.com, where her daily blog, Thompson on Hollywood, launched in March 2007.    Follow: @akstanwyck on Instagram and twitter @topdocspod on Instagram and twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Sometimes, timing is everything. If Julia Loktev’s 5 hour and 24-minute documentary masterpiece “My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow” can be boiled down to its essence, it may be that, often in life, there is a “before” and an “after,” and nothing can possibly prepare you for what comes after. In this case, the event that changes everything for the courageous generation of Russian journalists that came of age under Vladimir Putin’s reign is the Russian leader’s cataclysmic invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.   Julia and journalist / film participant Ksenia Mironova join Ken on “Top Docs” to discuss the vibrant world of independent journalism that existed in Russia in the period prior to the invasion, and the subsequent crackdown that ended it all. Filming Ksenia and a cohort of women journalists in the months leading up the invasion with her iPhone, Julia captures an intimate, inspiring world of hope, youthful ambition and a deep commitment to reporting the truth in a country where government propaganda is one of Putin’s most powerful weapons of control. Bearing witness, first as the government brands news outlets, NGOs and individual journalists as foreign agents, and then through instances of arrest and imprisonment (including Ksenia’s fiancé), Julia finds herself filming as the clock strikes midnight on any semblance of freedom of the press in Russia. By the end of Part 1, all the film’s participants are forced to flee the country. Timing may be everything, but the story never ends. Part 2 on “The Exiles” is already underway.   Hidden Gems: Julia: “Four Daughters”, “July Rain” by Ksenia: “Holocaust: Is That Wallpaper Paste?”   Follow: @juliaofelbow and @my_undesirable_friends on Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and X

When Liat Atzili and her husband Aviv were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, their families were not only devastated by the news but also at a loss of what to do next.  In Brandon and Lance Kramer’s (The First Step”) brilliant, nuanced and stirring documentary “Holding Liat,” each member of the family must decide what he or she can do to help bring Liat and Aviv home not knowing what impact their actions or words will have. At times, passionate and painful disagreements break out within the family.   The Kramer brothers — director Brandon and producer Lance — return to the pod to discuss the harrowing journey of the Atzili/Beinin family and the filmmakers’ own connection to the story. With the fates of Liat and Aviv unknown, father Yehuda, son Netta and sister Tal embark on a byzantine quest through the corridors of power in Washington, DC to tell their story and to persuade lawmakers to do something. As the family’s frustration builds, tensions boil over. After weeks of excruciating uncertainty, suddenly, news brings relief and joy to the family but also tragedy. Keeping us in its tight emotional grip throughout, “Holding Liat,” ultimately, is as much about letting go as it is about holding on.   “Holding Liat” will screen at Film Forum in New York City in January, followed by a planned multi-city U.S. domestic release.   Hidden Gems: Brandon: “Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment” Lance: “Nobody’s Business”   Follow: @brandonkramerfilm and lancekramer on Instagram and @brandon_kramer and @KramerLance on X @topdocspod on Instagram and X    The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

In Marshall Curry’s (“Street Fight,” “A Night at the Garden”) new Netflix documentary, “The New Yorker at 100”, the magazine’s editor, David Remnick, calls its very existence “a miracle”: in a typical issue you might find  a long profile of a museum, and then a report from Southern Lebanon, all interspersed with gag cartoons   Curry’s documentary reflects the variegated nature of its subject, revealing the process by which the magazine’s 100th anniversary edition is created while tracking the history of the magazine as it morphed from: a chiefly humor offering putatively aimed at the city’s upper crust; then embracing ground-breaking journalism first led by Jon Hersey, and later Rachel Carson and Truman Capote; to the celebrity-laden reign of Tina Brown; to Remnick’s politically-imbued editorial approach.  And throughout, as he notes both continuity and change, Curry pays homage to the people who make it all happen at such an elevated level:  the editors and writers, sure, but also the fact-checkers, cartoonists, designers, and even the employee who maintains the building and hides away the priceless archival material.   You can watch “The New Yorker at 100” on Netflix.   Hidden Gems: “Spellbound” “How to Die in Oregon”   Follow: @marshallcurry_ on Instagram and @marshallcurry on X @topdocspod on Instagram and X    The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

When Suuna Hassan and Madinah Babirah founded Masaka Kids Africana in the Masaka District of Uganda, they hoped to help a handful of orphaned children and other young people living on the streets. They had no way of knowing where their efforts would lead or that one day the whole world would be watching.   Directors David Vieira Lopez and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Moses Bwayo (“Bobi Wine: The People’s President”) join Ken on the pod to discuss this extraordinary organization, as well as the viral dance videos performed by the children of Masaka that caught the world’s attention during the pandemic. David, who was a volunteer at the organization at the time, and Moses, who is himself Ugandan, teamed up to tell the powerful story behind this Internet sensation. To their credit, the filmmakers are just as impressed with what Nabirah and Ian, and other children of Masaka, have to say, as with the dance steps that made these kids famous. In a place where HIV/AIDS has afflicted many thousands of people over the years and left many young people orphaned, Masaka Kids Africana is not just a symbol of hope but a vibrant community that is actively changing young people’s lives.   “Masaka Kids: A Rhythm Within” will be released on Netflix on December 9th.   Follow: @bwayomoses on Instagram and X  @masakakidsafricana on Instagram and @masakakids on X @topdocspod on Instagram and X    The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Who really took the photo widely known as “Napalm Girl”?  And does it really matter over a half-century later?   In his new Netflix documentary “The Stringer”, Bao Nguyen (“The Greatest Night in Pop”) follows a journalistic team lead by Anglo-American Gary Knight as they seek to show that the real photographer on that day in 1972 in Trang Bang was not the renowned and fêted Pulitzer Prize-winning Nick Ut, of the Saigon AP Bureau, but a “stringer”, Nguyen Thanh Nghe, paid $20 flat and subsequently denied all credit.  And Nguyen argues as well that it does matter not only to Nghe and his family, but also to: the Vietnamese people; the Vietnamese diaspora (who had long lionized Ut); to an America that has still not fully dealt with the war; and to the very nature of truth in an era when technology can both clarify and complicate provenance.   You can stream “The Stringer” on Netflix.   Follow: @baomnguyen on Instagram and X @topdocspod on Instagram and X    The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

The main protagonist of Tamara Kotevska’s (“Honeyland”) enchanting new documentary “The Tale of Silyan” is a lovable farmer named Nikola. But as compelling a screen presence as he is, Nikola can’t hold a candle to the film’s real stars, the gorgeous, majestic — and even more lovable — white storks who steal the show.   Producer/Director Tamara Kotevska and Cinematographer/Producer Jean Dakar join Ken on the pod to discuss these incredible birds, the legend of Silyan (a boy who was turned into a stork), and the North Macedonian rural community that the storks, Nikola, and his family call home. Having lived side-by-side in harmony for centuries, both storks and humans are now facing dire economic forces that make farming unsustainable and lead to landfills, rather than fertile fields, becoming the storks’ feeding grounds. As she did with her magical, multiple Oscar-nominated “Honeylands,” also set in her native Macedonia, Tamara manages to spin a tale of her own that seamlessly combines elements of narrative storytelling and observational documentary. Jean’s gorgeous and multifaceted cinematography elevates the film even further. “The Tale of Silyan” is a beautiful love story, too. It turns out that storks are just as lovable to Nikola as to the rest of us.   “The Tale of Silyan” is North Macedonia’s official submission for Best International Feature and is being released by National Geographic Documentary Films in select theaters.   Hidden Gems: Tamara: “Midnight Family” Jean: “Riders of the Storm”   Follow: @tamarakotevska and @jeandakar on Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and X     The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Elvis. The Beatles. Madonna… Selena. Selena Quintanilla was a huge star on the cusp of becoming an international superstar when she was tragically killed in 1995 at just 23 years old. Filmmaker Isabel Castro (“Mija”) explores the life, music and legacy of this incredibly talented and beloved musician in her exceptional Netflix documentary portrait “Selena y Los Dinos.” As the film’s title implies, Selena’s story goes deeper than that of a singular star to include the central role played by her tightknit musical family who made up the band Los Dinos.   Isabel joins Ken on the pod to discuss the profound impact that Selena, as a symbol of bicultural identity and possibility, had on her own life growing up Mexican American in the U.S. When the Quintanilla family approached her to make a documentary about Selena, Isabel was immensely honored. But along with that privilege came the immense weight of doing justice to the “Queen of Tejano Music.” Taking her cue from the family’s treasure trove of archival material, Isabel reveals a young woman with extraordinary talent, a supportive but disciplined father determined to see his family achieve musical success, and a fan base that went from indifferent to rapturous in just a few short years. Watching Selena and the band find hard-earned success in Mexico and the U.S. and seeing her in the studio recording an all-English language crossover album, the tragedy of what could have been is all too apparent. But the enduring appeal of the music and the symbolism of this strong woman who became equally revered on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border lives on, now more than ever.   “Selena y Los Dinos” is released by and available for streaming on Netflix.   Follow: @ isabelcastropics on Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and X    Hidden Gem: “The Bend in the River”   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Whether you are a fan of motorcycles or not, it’s hard to dispute that riding one down an open stretch of road delivers an intoxicating sense of freedom. As filmmakers Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni make clear in their extraordinary documentary “Cutting Through Rocks,” the motorcycle can also be a powerful — and threatening — symbol of female empowerment and independence.   Sara and Mohammadreza join Ken on the pod to discuss the remarkable woman at the center of their film, Sara Shahverdi, whose motorcycle rides through the countryside of rural northwest Iran have drawn the ire of the patriarchal defenders of traditional gender roles and the curiosity of a group of young women inspired by Sara’s free spirit and unwavering determination. Over the course of the film, we see Sara take the unprecedented step of running for the local council. To the amazement of all, Sara wins, becoming the first woman elected to council throughout the entire region. It’s an inspiring victory that comes with a huge sense of responsibility — and an all-too-expected backlash. What transpires is a tale that, through various twists and turns, ultimately leads back to that open road and to the boundless sense of possibility and joy that is just a motorcycle ride away.   Follow: @sarakhakifilms and @mohammadrezaeynifilms on Instagram and X @topdocspod on Instagram and X    Hidden Gem: Sara: ”The Salesman” Mohammadreza: the documentary films of Krzysztof Kieslowski   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

For filmmaker Petra Costa, democracy in her native country of Brazil is personal. Two years after Petra was born, the country returned to democratic rule after more than twenty years of military dictatorship. As Petra grew up, so, too, did the country’s democracy. But, in more recent years, as she has meticulously documented in two densely layered and highly personal documentaries — first, in her Academy Award-nominated “The Edge of Democracy,” and now, with her riveting new Netflix documentary “Apocalypse in the Tropics” — Brazil has seen its democratic institutions undermined by a potent mix of right-wing politics and evangelical Christianity.   Petra joins Ken on the pod to discuss the close ties between the right-wing former military officer Jair Bolsonaro, who was elected Brazil’s president in 2018, and the highly influential evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia. Witnessing the dissolution of the line between church and state, Petra describes her own deep dive into the Bible to try to explain where the country’s apocalyptic turn may have come from — and where it may be headed. Told with a poetical and penetrating narration, this chilling tale of Brazil’s teetering democracy has clear resonances with events taking place in the U.S.   Follow: @petracostal on Instagram and X @topdocspod on Instagram and X    Hidden Gem: “El Campeón del Mundo (The Champion of the World)”   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

The version of the American Revolution many of us were taught was focussed on the ideals and principles of the revolution:  Independence, democracy, liberty guaranteed by enumerated rights.  And if we were taught about the actual conflict, we maybe heard of a few battles in New England and the mid-Atlantic– maybe there was a setback here and there.  But the whole thing was presented as basically inevitable:  Because of those ideals and principles, and maybe a dose of Providence (as some then thought as well.)     By focusing on the actual conflicts of the era, and the consequences thereof for the greatly divided populace of the Eastern Seaboard of North America in their new 6-part series for PBS, The American Revolution, Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein (Jazz, The Vietnam War, The US and the Holocaust) complicate all of this.  While paying proper attention to the motivating ideals, they delineate the role the desire for the lands of Native Americans played in the war, and they show how the conflicts moved–often via waterways, and usually internecine–from New England, to the Mid-Atlantic, to the South.  And throughout, victory was not just not preordained, but in fact very contingent on the actions both of some outstanding individuals such as Washington (and yes, Arnold), as well as the strategies and agendas of nations as diverse as the Cayuga and Oneida (and yes, The French).   You can watch The American Revolution on PBS starting November 16th.   Follow: @kenlburns on Instagram & @KenBurns on X @sarahbotstein on Instagram & @sbotstein on X @topdocspod on Instagram and X    The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Today we feature a live event that Top Docs held a few weeks ago at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival (where our co-host Ken Jacobson serves as Executive Director).  After Ken and Mike talk about the origins of Top Docs and some of the memorable moments over the years, Joshua, who has previously appeared on the pod for his Oscar-nominated “Stranger at the Gate,”  joins them to discuss his new short for Netflix, “All the Empty Rooms.”  Joshua followed CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they spent 7 years documenting the bedrooms of children killed in school shootings, rooms their parents have preserved over as many as 17 years as they were on the day of the tragedy.  The film reveals that rather than just memorials to the past, the rooms provide solace mingled with ongoing pain in the present, and intimate the possible lost futures of the victims.   You can watch “All the Empty Rooms” on Netflix starting December 2nd.   Follow: @jrseftel on Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and X/twitter     The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

Mr. Scorsese is “Marty” to his friends and “Legend” to admirers and imitators.  But he’s also still that kid, the "minuscule asthmatic”--as lovingly described by his ex-wife, Isabella Rossellini--who fervently loved both the movies he watched in Times Square as well as the characters that populated the Little Italy of his youth.  The results were "Mean Streets", "Taxi Driver", "Raging Bull", and "Goodfellas".     But as Rebecca Miller (“Personal Velocity”, “Maggie’s Plan”, “Arthur Miller: Writer”) compellingly shows, Scorsese’s triumph was not inevitable, nor is it simply the inevitable result of personal history yoked to directorial will. For while Scorsese has an anthropologist’s eye, his films are not documentaries (except for the documentaries, of course!)  Rather, they are the product of his own prodigious preparation combined with a willingness to trust his actors (notably, DiNero and DiCaprio) to improvise–and, in the end, phenomenal editing shaped by deep learning from the French New Wave as well as his decades-long professional relationship with Thelma Schoonmaker.  While his films are often grounded in fully formed literary works, he makes of them what director Ari Aster calls “total cinema”.  And while the visuals putatively reign, the music often seems to take the lead, almost directing the camera’s movements.  And in the end, in complicating the work of what may seem to be one of our most personal filmmakers, Miller suggests that Scorsese's wider purpose is to chronicle “the American project.”    You can watch the 5-part series “Mr. Scorcese” on Apple+   Follow: @rebeccamillerstoryteller on Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and X/twitter     The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

It’s easy to glibly identify what’s happening as “Orwellian”:  that we live in an era of “newspeak,” that we have reached the point at which the depths of the surveillance state of 1984 seems all too possible, maybe even already here. But in his new “Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5”, Raoul Peck (“I am Not Your Negro”, “Exterminate All the Brutes”, “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found”) digs much deeper into these possibilities, demonstrating how Orwell’s words resonated throughout the first half of the 20th century, only to become all that much relevant in our own day.   Drawing widely from Orwell’s corpus--not just the later novels, 1984 and Animal Farm but from earlier work and Orwell’s essays as well--Peck gives us a sense of a mind at work, seeking to bring together art and politics to reveal his world’s contradictions.  And by fashioning as a spine to the film Orwell’s final months on the remote island of Jura as well as in sanitariums and hospitals and tuberculosis destroyed his lungs, all while striving to finish his final novel, 1984, Peck creates a sense of the mortal urgency facing Orwell then and us now.   “Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5” is now playing in theaters.   Follow: @topdocspod on Instagram and X/twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

It’s that time of the year! The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 2025 runs from October 10-18th.  Ken, who, in addition to his Top Docs duties serves as the Executive Director of the Festival, joins Mike to talk about some of his picks for the Festival including: “Lost Wolves of Yellowstone” “The Cowboy” “Move Ya Body:  The Birth of House” “Armed Only With a Camera:  The Life and Death of Brent Renaud” “The Perfect Neighbor” “Welded Together” “The Baloonists”   And… On October 12th at 2:30, Join Ken and Mike and director Joshua Seftel for a very special live Top Docs featuring Johua’s short, “All the Empty Rooms.”   For more info:  https://hsdfi.org/   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

As director David Osit describes his new film, “ ’Predators’ peels back the story of the TV show ‘To Catch a Predator’, which ensnared potential sex predators in a television hidden-camera sting operation and explores the fallout from the show and the legacy of journalism as entertainment that it helped create.”     “Predators” (MTV Documentary Films) is now playing in select theaters, with more added every week.   Hidden Gem:  Look into My Eyes.   Follow: @dosit on Instagram and @davidosit on X/twitter @predatorsfilm on Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and X/twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

In honor of Matt Wolf's big wins at the Emmys this year--not only for "Pee-wee as Himself" as Best Documentary Feature, but for his own win as director of that documentary as well as picture editing for Damian Rodriguez--we are re-releasing our interview with him at Sundance earlier this year.   As Director Matt Wolf shows in his  insightful and fun 2-part HBO series “Pee-wee as Himself”, in Pee-wee, Paul Rubens found a persona that allowed him to both reveal and yet hide some core truths about who he was.     Fascinated with television and show business since he was a boy, Rubens combined elements of his childhood’s pop culture with the art world of Southern California in the 70s and early 80s to craft a character that would both conquer the then punkish milieu of Melrose Avenue as well as create a nationally televised children’s TV show.  To achieve this, Wolfe delineates how Rubens deliberately foreclosed both his potential love life as well as cast aside long-held friendships.  Wolfe’s series demonstrates both the costs as well as the benefits of outsized talent and ambition.   You can watch “Pee-wee as Himself” on HBO and HBO Max starting Friday, May 23rd.   Follow: @mattpwolf on Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and X    The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.  

It’s Primetime. Yes, the Primetime Emmys are here, and we’ve got you covered. Culminating our “Top Docs” podcasts featuring the leading contenders for in the documentary categories, we talk to The Hollywood Reporter’s Executive Editor of Awards Scott Feinberg who breaks down the 2025 Emmy nominees in all the major documentary categories, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special; Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series; Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking; and Outstanding Directing.   The 77th Creative Arts Emmy Awards, including all the major doc categories, will be held on September 6 - 7.   An award-winning columnist and podcast host (“Awards Chatter”), Executive Editor of Awards Scott Feinberg has led The Hollywood Reporter’s awards coverage since 2011. He is best known for his “Feinberg Forecast,” through which he assesses the standings of various showbiz awards races, and for Awards Chatter, the interview-centric podcast that he started in 2015.   Follow: @scott_feinberg on Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and X/twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.  

Welcome to the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (September 4 – 14), home of the big anniversary! This year’s edition of one of the world’s great film festivals marks TIFF’s landmark 50th anniversary. In addition, renowned curator and all-around documentary powerhouse Thom Powers (host of the Pure Nonfiction podcast) celebrates 20 years as the festival’s lead documentary programmer.   Thom returns to “Top Docs” to spotlight TIFF’s extraordinary documentary lineup that will no doubt set the table for the rest of the year in international nonfiction cinema. Running the gamut from established directors to breakthrough newcomers; serious topics to lighthearted fare; cinematically challenging work to crowd pleasers, TIFF’s got ‘em all. In addition, in a special treat, Thom tantalizes us with his terrific new book, “Mondo Documentary” — hot off the press — which shares his perspectives on more than 350 films that he has presented to audiences over the course of his 20 years at TIFF. We also dive into the book’s revelatory introductory essay, “How Did I Get Here.” If life is a journey, sometimes it’s fitting to break out the champagne and celebrate those milestone anniversaries.   Thom’s new book “Mondo Documentary” is available directly through Pure Nonfiction Books: https://purenonfiction.stck.me/book/1166355/Mondo-Documentary   Follow: @thompowers1 on Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and X/twitter   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.