Pure Nonfiction: Inside Documentary Film
If you love documentary films, hear from the top storytellers on Pure Nonfiction. Host Thom Powers is well-connected in this world as a documentary curator for the Toronto International Film Festival, DOC NYC, and SundanceNow Doc Club. He leads conversations that are frank, funny and revealing. Listen to interviews with Oscar-winning filmmakers Barbara Kopple, Alex Gibney, and Roger Ross Williams; as well as the directors of “Making a Murderer,” “Weiner” and “OJ: Made in America.” Often the stories behind the scenes are as dramatic as what’s on the screen. On Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @purenonfiction. Subscribe now.
- Update frequency
- every 11 days
- Average duration
- 38 minutes
- Episodes
- 230
- Years Active
- 2016 - 2025
PN 28: Gianfranco Rosi on “Fire at Sea”
Winner of the Berlin Film Festival’s top jury prize in 2016, “Fire at Sea” takes place on the Italian island of Lampedusa. Located near the African coast, Lampedusa is a prime destination for refugee…
00:33:09 |
Thu 27 Oct 2016
PN 27: Morgan Spurlock & Jeremy Chilnick on “Rats”
After “Super Size Me,” director Morgan Spurlock teamed with producer Jeremy Chilnick to form the production company Warrior Poets. Their latest film is “Rats,” based on the book by Robert Sullivan, c…
00:38:18 |
Thu 20 Oct 2016
PN 26: Ava DuVernay on 13th
Selma director Ava DuVernay has a new documentary on Netflix called 13th. The title comes from the Constitution’s 13th amendment that abolished slavery with the loophole clause “except as a punishmen…
00:36:42 |
Thu 13 Oct 2016
PN 25: Directing "Amanda Knox”
Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn, the directors of “Amanda Knox,” discuss their five-year effort to bring the story to Netflix.
Knox was a Seattle college student studying for a year abroad in Perugi…
00:40:31 |
Thu 06 Oct 2016
PN 24: Kirsten Johnson on “Cameraperson”
Laura Poitras and Michael Moore are only two of many filmmakers who have turned to the skills of cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. Now Johnson has directed her own film “Cameraperson.” It's a kind of …
00:49:53 |
Thu 29 Sep 2016
PN 23: Demme on Talking Heads, Neil Young & Justin Timberlake
Jonathan Demme is receiving a retrospective this fall at the Stranger Than Fiction screening series at New York’s IFC Center. Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers leads this conversation with Demme about…
00:26:43 |
Fri 23 Sep 2016
PN 22: Nanette Burstein Investigates John McAfee
“Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee” explores the murky history of the anti-virus software pioneer who moved to the jungle of Belize and lived out a modern Heart of Darkness. After his neighbo…
00:30:15 |
Thu 22 Sep 2016
PN 21: Raoul Peck on James Baldwin
“I Am Not Your Negro,” directed by Raoul Peck and based on the writings of James Baldwin, made the list of Rolling Stone's “25 Movies We Can’t Wait to See” at the Toronto International Film Festival …
00:27:29 |
Thu 15 Sep 2016
PN 20: Women Directors at #TIFF16
“Girl Unbound” and “Karl Marx City” are among the documentaries directed by women making their world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Pure Nonfiction host and TIFF documen…
00:33:49 |
Fri 09 Sep 2016
PN 19: New Docs on True Crime
"The Skyjacker’s Tale” and “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” are two new docs on crime and justice making their world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Pure Nonfiction host an…
00:34:48 |
Thu 08 Sep 2016
PN 18: Jazz Legends on Screen
Trumpet player Lee Morgan was murdered at age 33. Saxophonist John Coltrane died of cancer at age 40. Now both these jazz greats are the subjects of ambitious new documentaries. Thom Powers interview…
00:39:55 |
Thu 01 Sep 2016
Season Two Preview
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is just two weeks away. Pure Nonfiction will have extensive coverage of documentaries premiering at the festival. In this preview of the podcast’s Seaso…
00:05:45 |
Thu 25 Aug 2016
PN 17: Barbara Kopple - From Harlan County to Sharon Jones
Two-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple is back with a new film about soul singer Sharon Jones in a year when she battles cancer and prepares for her comeback with The Dap Kings. In this wide-ranging in…
00:39:12 |
Thu 28 Jul 2016
PN 16: Alex Gibney on Revealing Secrets
Cyber warfare and the Stuxnet virus are the focus of Alex Gibney’s new film “Zero Days.” Once again, Gibney proves himself a master in getting people to talk. In the film, he speaks with high-ranking…
00:47:38 |
Thu 21 Jul 2016
PN 15: Muhammad Ali on Film
Bill Siegel, director of “The Trials of Muhammad Ali,” spent over two decades nurturing the idea to make his film about Ali's religious beliefs and his opposition to the Vietnam War. On Pure Nonficti…
00:44:31 |
Thu 14 Jul 2016
PN 14: TV’s King of Comedy
"Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You" explores the life of the television maverick behind hit shows such as “All in the Family,” “Maude,” and “The Jeffersons.” On Pure Nonfiction, filmmakers Hei…
00:40:19 |
Thu 07 Jul 2016
PN 13: “Life, Animated” director Roger Ross Williams
Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams talks about his career and his new film “Life, Animated” about an autistic boy who learns to communicate through Disney cartoons. Williams was the first Afr…
00:45:54 |
Thu 30 Jun 2016
PN 12: Talking “Tickled" with David Farrier & Dylan Reeve
Fetish or sport? That’s what New Zealand TV journalist David Farrier wondered when he came across online videos of athletic young men in sports uniforms being tickled. The videos were billed as “Comp…
00:28:32 |
Thu 23 Jun 2016
PN 11: Yo-Yo Ma & Morgan Neville on "The Music of Strangers"
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma talks to Pure Nonfiction about “The Music of Strangers” and lessons he's learned since a mid-life crisis led him to create the Silk Road Ensemble. Host Thom Powers also speaks to dir…
00:44:44 |
Thu 16 Jun 2016
PN 10: Why Revisit O.J. Simpson?
Ezra Edelman explores the life of O.J. Simpson against the backdrop of race relations in Los Angeles in the five-part ESPN series "O.J.: Made in America.” On Pure Nonfiction, Edelman talks about re-o…
00:34:57 |
Thu 09 Jun 2016
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