REALITY OF REALIT‪Y‬ Taste of Reality

Filmmaker and social justice warrior Billie Mintz has directed and produced many award winning films. I was blown away by his 2018 film The Guardians – now on Amazon Prime – which exposes a criminal enterprise running through family court where the legal kidnapping of elderly people took place in Las Vegas. Because of that film, Billie has became an advocate for vicimts of guardianship fraud around the country and a hero to the #freebritney movement. We talk about that and the NYT/Hulu documentary Framing Britney and the new Netflix film I Care A Lot – and beware of spoilers on that one!

Billie’s film The Guardians:



For more on Billie’s work:

https://www.billiemintz.com

Great article from the New Yorker that is covered in Billie’s doc:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/09/how-the-elderly-lose-their-rights

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Justin Lacob has the dream job of many people in our business. He’s the Head of Development for XTR – a studio that helps filmmakers on their journeys to get their films made.  Justin also co-founded Documentary+, the Netflix of documentaries. Justin’s a veteran producer who got started on old school reality competition shows like America’s Top Model and ended up on the network side at Spike (which became Paramount) overseeing a gazillion episodes of Bar Rescue. At Paramount he was an Executive Producer with Jay-Z on the Emmy nominated documentary series, Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story, as well as on Gone: The Forgotten Women, directed by Academy Award nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger.

https://www.xtr.com

https://www.docplus.com

https://medium.com/@justinlacob/the-entertainment-we-will-talk-about-most-in-2020-nonfiction-why-b3a0551ffe6d

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The Non-Fiction United group is fighting for better conditions for our industry: from fair pay to safe work environments. Today I have on the founder of the NFU, Johanna Vanderspool, who is a showrunner and director who’s worked on shows like the BET Awards and Undressed. She’s joined by Toni-Ann Lagana, a freelance producer who’s worked on shows like Dancing with the Stars and American Idol and Jason Martinez, a longtime director/producer who most recently produced Temptation Island during the pandemic.

We talk about how Covid-19 has shined a light on core issues in our business, how rates have changed (or haven’t changed) over the years and how the whole industry is set up like a “mafia family” (!)

For more on the NFU:

http://www.nonfictionunion.com

Toni Ann’s article in THR:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/reality-tvs-overburdened-and-underrepresented-workforce-guest-column?fbclid=IwAR1ywYu0pRWLBpOMvMd7cGs0b-R3mVYnpGJLhV0Zrd5s5u9z4ssYTUEkyS0

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Today on the podcast – a trio of development executives who go way back. They all sell shows for competing companies – but have strong friendships and rely on each other as sounding boards and support: Matt Shanfield  – EVP of Development at IPC,  Tom Huffman – EVP of original content at Pilgrim Media Group and Michelle Byars – VP of unscripted at ITV.

What are the trends and buzzwords these days in unscripted? What’s the best way to get a show sold straight to series? How do you  pitch in a pandemic and what do you pitch? Who are the best network execs in the biz? And is Real Screen a good place to sell shows? We get into it all and much much more. Enjoy!

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The new six part series Surviving Death on Netflix blew me away so I knew I had to talk to the Director and Executive Producer who also happened to be behind many other stellar films and series. Ricki Stern talks about what attracted her to the subject matter, how she chose the stories to profile and what she believes after immersing herself in the spirit world. We also get into some of Ricki’s other work like the Preppy Murder series on AMC, Surviving Jeffrey Epstein on Lifetime and one of my favorite all time docs, Joan Rivers: a Piece of Work.  

More on Ricki and her work:

http://www.breakthrufilms.org

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The two-part documentary Tiger on HBO/HBO Max requires a deep dive and who better to do it with than golfer extraordinaire and my husband Bryan Clobes. Bryan’s not only a gifted golfer (not biased – he actually is a 3 or 4 handicap – whatever that means) but a documentary fan who has great insight into the themes of Tiger’s life: his relationship with his parents, his rise, fall and rise again, his relationships and whether he’ll ever be the true GOAT of golf.

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