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Pure Nonfiction: Inside Documentary Film

Hear the world's top storytellers talk all things documentary film. Host Thom Powers is as well-connected as it gets in this world as a documentary curator for TIFF and other renowned festivals. He wrote the book "Mondo Documentary" that is “required reading for fans of nonfiction cinema,” says Judd Apatow. Our podcast guests range from documentary legends to emerging talent. Follow us on Instagram and Substack at @purenonfiction.

135: In Praise of Lewis Erskine @editorsavant

32 mins; June 09, 2021

134: Astra Taylor on “You Are Not a Loan"

49 mins; May 20, 2021

133: Remembering Leon Gast & “When We Were Kings”

42 mins; March 18, 2021

132: Telling the Story of Fred Hampton

34 mins; March 04, 2021

131: Alex Vitale on Rethinking True Crime

30 mins; February 26, 2021

130: Jean Tsien Goes Outside Her Comfort Zone

33 mins; February 18, 2021

129: Breaking Rules with Victor Kossakovsky, Kirsten Johnson & Garrett Bradley

52 mins; February 11, 2021

128: Bao Nguyen on Bruce Lee in “Be Water”

32 mins; January 21, 2021

127: Remembering Robert Fisk

38 mins; December 29, 2020

126: Loira Limbal on “Through the Night”

36 mins; December 21, 2020

125: Garrett Bradley on “Time”

30 mins; October 14, 2020

124: Jeff Orlowski on “The Social Dilemma”

45 mins; October 07, 2020

123: Yoruba Richen on Breonna Taylor & Harry Belafonte

31 mins; September 30, 2020

122: Free hajooj kuka

24 mins; September 21, 2020

121: Mark Cousins’ Cinematic Road Trips

41 mins; September 16, 2020

120: Cameron Bailey on #TIFF20 and Planet Africa

27 mins; September 07, 2020

119: Going Undercover with “The Mole Agent”

32 mins; September 02, 2020

118: Meet Ja’Tovia Gary

37 mins; August 26, 2020

117: The Making of McMillion$

37 mins; August 20, 2020

116: Iyabo Boyd of Brown Girls Doc Mafia

38 mins; August 14, 2020

115: Uncovering China's "One Child Nation"

25 mins; February 14, 2020

114: "For Sama" Inside Syria

28 mins; February 07, 2020

113: Inside "American Factory"

38 mins; January 30, 2020

112: Sundance 2020 Preview

19 mins; January 19, 2020

111: Profiling Toni Morrison

17 mins; August 26, 2019

110: Joshua Wong on Hong Kong

22 mins; July 21, 2019

109: Running with Beto

29 mins; May 30, 2019

108: Asif Kapadia on Ayrton Senna, Amy Winehouse & Diego Maradona

39 mins; May 16, 2019

107: Rachel Lears on filming Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

27 mins; May 02, 2019

106: Werner Herzog on “Meeting Gorbachev”

47 mins; April 25, 2019

105: Sam Green & David Harrington on Kronos Quartet

49 mins; April 18, 2019

104: Penny Lane on "Hail Satan?"

27 mins; April 11, 2019

103: Alison Klayman on Steve Bannon in “The Brink”

34 mins; April 04, 2019

102: Baseball on Drugs in “Screwball”

39 mins; March 28, 2019

101: Alex Gibney on how Theranos fooled Silicon Valley

37 mins; March 21, 2019

100: Inside “The Case Against Adnan Syed” on HBO

29 mins; March 08, 2019

99: D.A. Pennebaker, Seth Meyers, John Mulaney & more on Stephen Sondheim’s “Company"

38 mins; February 28, 2019

98: Tim Wardle, Sandi Tan & RaMell Ross on "Pushing Boundaries"

57 mins; February 21, 2019

97: "United Skates" with Tina Brown & Reggie Brown

26 mins; February 14, 2019

96: Talal Derki on filming in Syria

43 mins; February 07, 2019

95: Free Solo, Minding The Gap & Getting Personal

45 mins; January 31, 2019

94: Sundance 2019 Preview

37 mins; January 22, 2019

93: Astra Taylor on “What is Democracy?”

40 mins; January 17, 2019

92: Aretha Franklin in “Amazing Grace,” Lost and Found

42 mins; December 06, 2018

91: Mr. Rogers, Quincy Jones, Jane Fonda & Pope Francis Walk Into a Bar

57 mins; November 29, 2018

90: Michael Moore, Julie Cohen, Annie Sundberg & Stephen Maing on “Getting Political”

46 mins; November 15, 2018

89: Opal H. Bennett on Short Documentaries

34 mins; November 08, 2018

88: DOC NYC Preview 2018

61 hours 41 mins; November 01, 2018

87: Sandi Tan on “Shirkers"

30 mins; October 25, 2018

86: Alex Gibney & Trevor Birney, Wanted in Belfast

37 mins; October 18, 2018

85: Maxim Pozdorovkin on Trump, Putin & Pussy Riot

47 mins; August 02, 2018

84: Matt Tyrnauer on “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood”

44 mins; July 26, 2018

83: Jason Kohn on "Love Means Zero"

53 mins; July 19, 2018

82: Kevin MacDonald on Whitney Houston

34 mins; July 12, 2018

81: Tim Wardle on “Three Identical Strangers”

31 mins; July 05, 2018

80: Jonathan Safran Foer & Christopher Quinn on “Eating Animals”

41 mins; June 28, 2018

79: Judd Apatow on Garry Shandling

38 mins; June 14, 2018

78: Liz Garbus on The New York Times in "The Fourth Estate"

19 mins; May 31, 2018

77: Wim Wenders on Pope Francis

33 mins; May 24, 2018

76: Filming Ruth Bader Ginsburg

45 mins; May 10, 2018

75: Dawn Porter on “Bobby Kennedy for President”

30 mins; May 03, 2018

Joe Berlinger has been making documentaries for over 25 years. He started out at Maysles Films where he met Bruce Sinofsky. In 1992, they made “Brother’s Keeper”, a story of a murder trial in upstate New York, that revitalized observational documentary. They went on to make the “Paradise Lost” trilo

43 mins; April 26, 2018

73: Sophie Fiennes on Grace Jones

36 mins; April 19, 2018

72: Jed Rothstein on “The China Hustle”

25 mins; April 05, 2018

71: Amanda Micheli on “Vegas Baby” & IVF Treatment

21 mins; March 22, 2018

70: Mark Duplass, Chapman & Maclain Way on “Wild Wild Country”

33 mins; March 15, 2018

PN 69: Remembering Chris Hondros

33 mins; March 08, 2018

PN 68: Policing in “Flint Town”

37 mins; March 01, 2018

PN 67: “Control Room” Revisited with Josh Rushing

30 mins; February 22, 2018

PN 66: Attorney Gloria Allred on “Seeing Allred”

29 mins; February 15, 2018

PN 65: Sam Pollard on Sammy Davis Jr, Spike Lee & St. Clair Bourne

30 mins; February 08, 2018

PN 64: First Person Documentary with Yance Ford, Bryan Fogel & Jeff Orlowski

35 mins; February 01, 2018

PN 63: Tabitha Jackson + 2018 Sundance Preview

52 mins; January 16, 2018

PN 62: Errol Morris, Brett Morgen & Ceyda Torun on Documentary Style

40 mins; January 11, 2018

PN 61: Jennifer Brea on “Unrest”

28 mins; December 21, 2017

PN 60: Alex Gibney & Blair Foster on "Rolling Stone”

42 mins; December 15, 2017

PN 59: Yance Ford on "Strong Island"

33 mins; November 30, 2017

PN 58: Brett Morgen on Jane Goodall

45 mins; November 06, 2017

PN 57: DOC NYC Preview

40 mins; October 26, 2017

PN 56: Agnès Varda & JR on “Faces Places”

42 mins; October 19, 2017

PN 55: Frederick Wiseman - From "Titicut Follies" to "Ex Libris”

48 mins; September 06, 2017

PN 54: TIFF 2017 Documentary Preview Part 2 of 2

31 mins; September 01, 2017

PN 53: TIFF 2017 Documentary Preview Part 1 of 2

37 mins; August 30, 2017

PN 52: Playwright Dominique Morisseau on “Detroit '67," “Pipeline," “Shameless" & more

31 mins; July 27, 2017

PN 51: Errol Morris & Elsa Dorfman on “The B-Side”

36 mins; July 13, 2017

PN 50: D.A. Pennebaker on "Monterey Pop" at 50

36 mins; June 22, 2017

PN 49: Steve James From "Hoop Dreams" to "Abacus"

44 mins; May 18, 2017

PN 48: HBO’s Sheila Nevins on Seductions, Heartbreaks & Her New Book

44 mins; May 11, 2017

PN 47: Jonathan Demme & Renée Shafransky on Spalding Gray

29 mins; May 04, 2017

PN 46: Rashida Jones, Jill Bauer & Ronna Gradus on "Hot Girls Wanted"

26 mins; April 27, 2017

PN 45: Matt Tyrnauer on "Citizen Jane"

44 mins; April 20, 2017

PN 44: From Indiana Jones to Guatemala’s Civil War - Frank Marshall & Ryan Suffern

26 mins; April 13, 2017

PN 43: Laurent Bouzereau & Mark Harris on “Five Came Back"

41 mins; April 06, 2017

PN 42: Made in Miami - Billy Corben & Alfred Spellman on “Cocaine Cowboys”

31 mins; March 30, 2017

PN 41: Danae Elon on “P.S. Jerusalem”

34 mins; March 23, 2017

PN 40: “True South” - Jon Else on Henry Hampton & "Eyes on the Prize"

35 mins; March 16, 2017

PN 39: Marina Zenovich on Roman Polanski & California’s water crisis

39 mins; March 02, 2017

PN 38: Clay Tweel on “Gleason"

34 mins; February 23, 2017

PN 37: Oscar Nominees for Documentary Feature

51 mins; February 16, 2017

PN 36: John Heilemann on “Trumped"

42 mins; February 09, 2017

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Pure Nonfiction: Inside Documentary Film

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