Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers michaellouismerrill

Already famous as an actor, Rob Reiner made his directorial debut in 1984 with the landmark mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap”, which kicked off a new subgenre and inspired countless references to turning the knob “up to 11.” But, it has taken 40 years for the legendary creative hyphenate (director of “Stand by Me”, “When Harry Met Sally”, “A Few Good Men” and many more) to direct his first “real” documentary, “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life”, a loving embrace of his lifelong friend, the comedic genius Albert Brooks.
Joining Ken on the pod, Rob shares insights into what makes Albert tick, why it took his friend so long to agree to the film, and how he was inspired by “My Dinner with Andre” to sit down over cheesecake with his former Beverly Hills classmate. With his first documentary, Rob proves to be equally adept as an interviewer as he is chronicler of Albert’s career through a selection of Albert’s’ brilliant stand-up appearances, clips from his movies, and testimonials from a who’s who of comedy heavyweights. The result is a thoroughly charming and, ultimately, inspiring portrait of friendship itself. What took you so long, Rob?
 
“Albert Brooks: Defending My Life” is available now on Max.
 
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The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix. 

Yance Ford’s voice is key to his new documentary on Netflix, so here’s how he describes “Power”:  “Driven to contain threats to social order, American policing has exploded in scope and scale over hundreds of years. Now it can be described by one word: ‘Power’”.
 
Yance’s narrative is deeply rooted in a historical analysis of the roots of American policing–Indian removal, slave patrol, the anti-Labor municipal police of the 18th and 19th centuries; in his analysis, all driven by the protection of property.  But his focus ultimately resolves on the deeply personal effects that policing has on individuals and communities. 
 
“Power” can now be streamed on Netflix. 
 
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The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.
 

In 2015, a young California couple, Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins, was awakened by a home invasion, drugged, and blindfolded; Denise was kidnapped. But that isn’t the only disturbing horror at the heart of the harrowing Netflix docuseries “American Nightmare”. Sensitively and imaginatively directed by Felicity Morris and Bernadette Higgins (“The Tinder Swindler”), this true crime drama focuses as much on the local police department’s disturbing disregard for the couple, and for the facts of the case, as it does on the original crimes.
 
Joining Ken on the pod, Felicity and Bernadette describe how their approach to “The Tinder Swindler” and “American Nightmare” avoids the tropes and traps of the standard true crime formula, resulting in documentaries that feature the victims as the primary storytellers. From their choice of lighting and interview staging, to how the series is structured, every element of the production supports the directors’ vision and gives power back to Aaron and Denise — one more step in the couple’s journey to awaken from their American nightmare.
 
“American Nightmare” is streaming on Netflix. 
 
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Hidden Gem:
“Pamela, a love story”
 
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix. 

Sir David Attenborough’s still got it. As he proves in Netflix’s extraordinary nature series “Our Planet II”, the 98-year-old legendary British biologist, natural historian, narrator, and writer remains one of the documentary world’s great talents.
 
Joining Mike and Ken on the pod, “Our Planet II" Series Producer Huw Cordey discusses the ins-and-outs of collaborating with narrator Sir David and the tremendous challenges of this mind-blowing nature series. Picking up where Our Planet left off, the sequel explores how and why a vast array of species embark on their annual migratory journeys. Along the way, Huw describes how all the key creative elements, from the extraordinary cinematography to the finely-honed scripts, come together to make stars of these remarkable creatures, great and small. They are the real legends of this story.
 
“Our Planet II” is streaming on Netflix. 
 
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Hidden Gem:
“Big Oil v the World”

 
In the early 1990s, a serial killer stalked his victims not by slipping into houses under cover of darkness or by abducting victims from isolated highway rest stops, but rather by haunting crowded, lively gay bars in Manhattan–he even interacted with others in these bars, sometimes the very friends of his victims.  
 
What makes “Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York” so compelling is the way director Anthony Caronna and executive producer Howard Gertler bring to bear a chronicling of gay life in the city at that time–with both its joys and its terrors during an era of widespread crime against queer New Yorkers–to explain how the killer managed to get away with his crimes for so long.  And on the way they pay both great respect to the full, complicated lives of those who were lost, as well as those they left behind.
 
You can watch “Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York” on Max.
 
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Hidden Gems:
Licensed to Kill
Split Screen

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Memphis sound was everywhere: Sam and Dave, Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes — the list goes on. Not only did the Memphis sound (a.k.a. Memphis soul) bring an amazing range of musical talent to the world, it also shined a light on the unsung city of Memphis, Tennessee and on a remarkable record company called Stax Records. In her expansive HBO docuseries “STAX: Soulsville, U.S.A.”, director Jamila Wignot (“Ailey”) goes inside the recording studio and widens her lens to look at the deep cultural impact that the musicians and executives of Stax had on American culture.
 
Joining Ken on the pod, Jamila discusses what drew her into this epic, constantly surprising story of a small record label that grew to be one of the centers of the music world — only to see the entire enterprise come to a tragic end. How did Stax records become a magnet for Black musicians and producers and a beacon for experimentation and improvisation in popular music? In what ways did Stax, with its interracial musical acts, break down racial barriers, while, at the same time, fall short in confronting the issue of race in the South? And what made the 1972 Wattstax concert in Los Angeles, with over 100,000 mostly Black fans, the “most badass thing” you can imagine? This docuseries is stacked with one fascinating, enlightening story after another.
 
“STAX: Soulsville, U.S.A.” is streaming on max. 
 
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Hidden Gem:
“Pumping Iron”
 
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.