The Dangerous Art of the Documentary

Bonus Series! This is Episode One of the companion podcast series for Tiller's new Netflix series, Waco: American Apocalypse.    Waco: American Apocalypse is a deep dive into the Netflix documentary series, exploring topics and interviews that didn’t make the final cut. In Episode One, director Tiller Russell and reporter Lee Hancock paint a complex portrait of cult leader David Koresh – the contr...

“How would I describe myself? Fuck you. You can describe me.” Fair enough. The Oscar-nominated director of 1988’s essential documentary “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” before she became a NYU professor famous for drinking vodka on the rocks during class, Shanghai-born filmmaker Christine Choy is a character so incandescent that she’s every bit as powerful in front of the camera as she is behind it — a...

The Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary in 2010, Inside Job, shows that the 2008 global financial Armageddon was no accident; it was predicted and could have been prevented. Director Charles Ferguson, with narration by Matt Damon, created a compelling, wonderfully illuminating film that provides a detailed examination of the rogue industry that led to the collapse and identifies key corrupt...

In Alexander Nanau's 2019 Oscar nominated documentary "Collective", a fire at Bucharest’s Colectiv nightclub leaves 27 dead and 180 injured. Soon, more burn victims begin dying in hospitals from wounds that were not life-threatening. One revelation leads to another as the journalists start to uncover vast health care fraud. When a new health minister is appointed, he offers unprecedented access to...

Midwest-born and raised, David is a first-generation Cambodian-Mexican-American filmmaker. His SXSW award-winning feature debut BAD AXE captures his closely-knit Asian American family living in rural Michigan during the pandemic as they fight to keep their local restaurant and American dream alive. With rising racial tensions, the family uses their voice and must unite as they reckon with backlash...

Narrative director Ramin Bahrani – best known for The White Tiger, Fahrenheit 451, and 99 Homes – speaks to Tiller today about his debut documentary feature entitled “2nd Chance”, a brilliantly inquisitive film about the inventor of the bullet proof vest, who shot himself in the chest 196 times. A self-made mythical figure with an allergy to accountability, Richard Davis’s hilarious yet heartbreak...

Bing Liu exploded onto the scene in 2018 with his Academy-award nominated documentary “Minding the Gap”, an extraordinary portrait of three young men (himself included) as they bond through skateboarding to escape their volatile family life in their Rust Belt home town. As they face adult responsibilities, unexpected revelations threaten their decade-long friendship. In today’s episode, Bing chats...

Academy Award nominated filmmaker Amy Berg has built a prolific career elevating the voice of the underdog, investigating systemic abuse, and shining a light in dark places. She began with Deliver Us From Evil - a shocking revelation of child abuse in the Catholic Church - and most recently created Phoenix Rising, the true story of actress and activist Evan Rachel Wood's journey passing domestic v...

“Popcorn Doc” auteur and king of Miami Billy Corben, best known for his mainstream hit Cocaine Cowboys, joins Tiller to discuss his latest explosive film God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty, which profiles former pool attendant Giancarlo Granada’s 7-year relationship with charming older woman, Becki Falwell, and her husband, the Evangelical Trump stalwart Jerry Falwell Jr., as...

Matthew Heineman is an Oscar-nominated director whose films plunge viewers deep into some of the most tumultuous conflicts in the world. His new film, "Retrograde", tells the story of the last months of the 20-year war in Afghanistan through the intimate relationship between American Green Berets and the Afghan officers they trained, resulting in the heart-wrenching fall of Kabul. In this conversa...

Director James Marsh (The Theory of Everything) joins Tiller to revisit his Academy-Award winning film “Man on Wire”, a joyous and masterful documentary about high-wire daredevil Philippe Petit’s 1974 stunt: performing acrobatics on a thin wire strung between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Their thoughtful discussion touches on sanctifying the Twin Towers in a post 9/11 era (2:25), Jam...

Director and Conversation Journalist Pippa Ehrlich joins Tiller to discuss her first – and Oscar winning – film “My Octopus Teacher”, which documents a year spent by filmmaker Craig Foster forging a relationship with a wild octopus in the South African kelp forest. Pippa reflects on meeting Craig for the first time (2:27), learning underwater tracking (5:50), being gripped by “The Terrible Feeling...

Disclaimer: This episode is not about a documentary. But when an idol comes calling, you answer. Legendary Hollywood film director William Friedkin sits down with Tiller for a rare interview to share stories about his Oscar-winning film “The French Connection”, including developing the script (2:30), directing Gene Hackman (16:30), never rehearsing (20:06), filming all over New York (22:45), hirin...

Iconic music documentary director Emmett Malloy joins Tiller to share stories and secrets from the making of his latest film “Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell” about the rapper Notorious B.I.G., including how he initially got the job (3:00), earning the trust of Ms. Wallace, Biggie's Mom (15:20), connecting with Biggie's best friend D. Roc (27:45), working with over 100 hours of rare footage (34:10),...

Tiller chats with director Mark Lewis about his hit Netflix documentary "Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer", the hilarious yet harrowing tale of a widespread Internet group of animal lovers who came together to capture a murderer. Their conversation touches on Mark's fascination with true crime and the power of Internet sleuths (3:30), then goes deeper into how Mark and Tiller earn...

Tiller sits with Oscar nominated and Emmy winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger, whose iconic career includes landmark films such as the "Paradise Lost" series, "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster", "Crime Scene", and "Conversations With a Killer." In this conversation, Berlinger describes his unconventional journey to filmmaking (4:00), then discusses the making of his 1992 masterpiece "Brother's Keeper"...

Tiller talks to the multi-talented producer/director Jaimie D’Cruz about his journey from founding a hip-hop magazine to being nominated for an Oscar for the documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” a brilliant collaboration with the legendary and elusive street artist Banksy.

Fresh off their popular sports anthology series "Untold", Emmy-winning filmmakers Maclain and Chapman Way sit with Tiller to revisit their their groundbreaking series, "Wild Wild Country", where they discuss everything from humanizing cult figures and breaking out in stress hives while editing, to the bright future of documentaries.

Oscar-winning producer James Gay-Rees shares the monumental challenges he faced while crafting the archival-only masterpieces "Amy" (on the life and tragic death of Amy Winehouse) and "Senna” (about the Brazilian racing champion Ayrton Senna), as well as what it really means to be a producer.

Grammy-winning filmmaker Allen Hughes rose to fame as the co-director—with his twin brother Albert—of Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, before moving on to direct blockbuster hit The Book of Eli. His latest is The Defiant Ones, a documentary series on the relationship between two very different hip-hop heavyweights. Tiller sits down with Allen to talk about the voodoo art of documentary filmm...

Hosted by acclaimed filmmaker Tiller Russell (Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer, Operation Odessa, The Last Narc, The Seven-Five), THE DANGEROUS ART OF THE DOCUMENTARY is a new series that reveals the wild stories behind some of the world’s most successful and iconic documentaries. Exchanging his camera for a microphone, Russell sits down with a who's-who of documentary filmmakers for ri...