Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers

Michael Harte had never been a guest on Top Docs, but he’s been called out repeatedly by the likes of Davis Guggenheim (Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie and Deaf President Now!) and Fisher Stevens (Beckham) as one of the best editors working in documentaries today.  Now Michael finally joins Mike to discuss Kylie, his three-part Netflix series about the life, loves and creative growth of pop icon Kyl...

In August of 2022, author Salman Rushdie, speaking onstage about how to protect writers at the venerable Chautauqua Institution in western New York, was attacked by a 24-year-old man with no prior criminal history who stabbed him 15 times, nearly killing him. Salman (“Midnight's Children”, “The Satanic Verses”, “Fury”, and “The Golden House”) and Rachel Eliza Griffiths (“Miracle Arrhythmia”, “Mule...

“American Doctor, the searing new documentary by director Poh Si Teng (“St. Louis Superman”) about three American doctors who travel to Gaza to treat Palestinian victims of Israeli airstrikes, is bracing, in-your-face and graphic. In fact, in an early scene, one of the film’s main participants, Dr. Mark Perlmutter, insists that Poh show even the most gruesome images of Palestinian children killed...

Labor Day weekend is upon us, which means only one thing, well, actually three things: Venice, Telluride and TIFF. Bunched together in the first half of September are three of the biggest film festival highlights of the year. It also means world premieres of dozens of not to be missed documentaries. On the cusp of the 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which runs from...

It's that time of year:  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 D...

Colin Hanks likes John Candy. That much is clear from his Primetime Emmy-nominated documentary “John Candy: I Like Me.” But what drew him to the project was the idea that there had to be something more to the story than the saintly portrait drawn by so many who knew and loved this jovial Canadian comedian, television and movie star who died at age 43, over 30 years ago now.   Colin joins Ken on th...

You will likely, as Mike did, stare on in wonder as directors of “Ocean with David Attenborough”–Toby Nowlan, Colin Butfield, and Keith Scholey, the last of whom joined us on “Top Doc”s–show you the wonders of the deep seas.  And you will as well likely fall into shock and despair when they present you with the never-before seen devastation caused by industrial sea trawling.  But what will assured...

“Beware of your local librarian!” The idea that this could be a concern held by some Americans seemed unthinkable to director Kim A. Snyder (“Death By Numbers”, “Newtown”) back in 2021 when she embarked on the project that would end up being her latest documentary “The Librarians.” But as the latest wave of the culture wars has crested over the last few years, librarians — and books on local publi...

In February 2023, Flaco, a Eurasian eagle-owl, escaped from the Central Park Zoo through a hole cut in the netting of his enclosure and soon found himself alone on a Manhattan sidewalk. But, as director Penny Lane (“Hail Satan?”, “Our Nixon”) shows in her inquisitive, insightful and irresistible documentary “Wild Inside,” Flaco would not be alone for long. Soon, he became the toast of the town, wi...

It’s clear from the opening shot of “Being Eddie,” director Angus Wall’s (Oscar-winning editor of “The Social Network” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”) enchanting Netflix documentary about comedy superstar Eddie Murphy, that being Eddie is a pretty good gig. The film begins with a thrilling drone shot that starts from inside the Moroccan-style courtyard of Eddie’s spectacular Beverly Hills mansi...

As Mike tells our guest, director Margaret Brown, when he heard that she had delivered HBO’s “The Yogurt Shop Murders” in the wake of what he considered one of the 21st-Century’s finest documentaries, “Descendant”,  his first thought was, “Oh, good for Margaret!  She’s doing some true crime, and she’s going to get paid.”   But he knew in his heart that because Margaret was the director, this would...

At the beginning of Giselle Bailey and Phil Bertelsen’s illuminating two-part HBO doc series “Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television,” the directors follow actress Tracee Ellis Ross, one of the leads of the successful sitcom “Black-ish,” to the set of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” where she and co-star Anthony Anderson celebrate the show’s series finale after 8 seasons. The triumphant ending sta...

Mel Brooks is about to turn 100 years old! When Mel celebrates his upcoming birthday on June 28th, filmmaker Michael Bonfiglio, who has directed (along with Judd Apatow) a joyful and action-packed two-part HBO documentary about the legendary comic and filmmaker, might want to talk to the folks at HBO about changing the title of their film: “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!” Otherwise, I’d advise n...

For a time, back in the ‘80s, actor Charlie Sheen was the hottest thing in Hollywood. But it didn’t take long for Sheen’s star turns in “Platoon” and “Wall Street” to morph into tabloid cover stories about his hard partying ways and bad boy exploits. In his highly engaging two-part Netflix series ”aka Charlie Sheen,” filmmaker Andrew Renzi (“Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?”, “Ready for War”) follows the mo...

Billy Joel, one of the most beloved and best-selling pop music artists of all-time, has finally achieved something that, up until now, has always eluded him: the opportunity to tell his side of the story. In their authoritative and insightful two-part HBO documentary “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” directors and producers Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin (“Jane Fonda in Five Acts”, “Joni Mitchell: A Wom...

For her latest film, “Time and Water,” Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sara Dosa (“Fire of Love”, “The Seer & the Unseen”) returns to Iceland, this time to cover the island nation’s other distinctive geologic feature besides its volcanoes: its majestic glaciers. Deeply embedded in Icelandic history, culture, and myth, these moving rivers of ice are now facing an existential threat due climat...

Of course, we all know who “Rafa” is — the tennis legend and sports icon Rafael Nadal, winner of 22 Grand Slam titles and an unfathomable 14 French Open trophies. But who is Rafael Nadal when the cameras (or, rather, all but one of the cameras...) are turned off? In director Zach Heinzerling’s (“Cutie and the Boxer”) much anticipated, just released 4-part Netflix docuseries “Rafa,” Zach’s watchful...

When Warren Jeffs, the “prophet” of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), a Mormon fundamentalist group whose members practice polygamy, stopped communicating regularly from prison where he is serving a life sentence for child sexual assault, his followers were at a loss. But, as Rachel Dretzin depicts in her powerful, eye-opening four-part Netflix series “Trust Me...

Late in director Alexandria Stapleton’s 4-part Netflix series “Sean Combs: The Reckoning”, one of her subjects lays out what may be the documentary’s thesis:  While it may seem like Combs “went bad” well into middle-age, the signs were there well before–”it was a slow build.”   Stapleton deftly tracks Comb’s rise:  The son of a murdered father, brought up with music, clothes, and fantasy.  Startin...

In 1967, 3-year-old Mariska Hargitay — now, an Emmy-winning actor known to millions as Captain Olivia Benson on the long-running TV series “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” — was in a terrible car accident. Her mother — the Hollywood icon Jayne Mansfield — and two others were killed instantly. The accident not only took the life of her mother but prevented Mariska from having any lasting memor...

For our 300th episode, we’re bringing you some of our favorite impactful moments from some of our most popular shows of Season 5: "Pee-wee as Himself" with Matt Wolf "Chef's Table: Legends" with David Gelb & Adam Bricker Anatomy of a Scene from "Martha" with R.J. Cutler "CHAOS: The Manson Murders" with Errol Morris "Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary" with Garret Price See you in Season 6!   The Prese...

In the early morning hours of a typical spring day, a van marked “Immigration Enforcement” stops on a quiet street in a residential neighborhood; two men of color are snatched up for alleged immigration violations and hustled into the van. No, the location is not the U.S., and this is not 2026... Felipe Bustos Sierra’s (“Nae Pasaran”) gripping new Sundance documentary “Everybody to Kenmure Street”...

You may only know her from those few minutes in a dressing room where she was assaulted by Donald Trump, who has himself relentlessly lied about what happened there and slandered the woman who, after years of telling only those closest to her of his crime, finally sought justice–and won.  Repeatedly.   But Ivy Meeropol, in her new documentary, “Ask E. Jean” provides a much fuller story:  How E. Je...

What started out as a transactional exchange between Janay Boulos, a BBC journalist, and Abd Alkader Habak, a local activist and cameraperson in Aleppo during the Syrian war, later evolved into a mutual curiosity. Over time, texting, voice memos and phone calls became the currency of a deepening relationship... and eventually the two married and became film partners living in London. In their inte...

Joining us for the 5th year in a row, Variety’s Chief Awards Editor Clayton Davis is back on “Top Docs” to break down this year’s Oscar races for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short and to offer his predictions for who will walk away victorious on March 15th. With another close race on our hands, you don’t want to miss Clayton’s analysis and final picks.   And be sure to catch up o...