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
88: DOC NYC Preview 2018
Wim Wenders, Rashida Jones, and Michael Moore are among the hundreds of documentary filmmakers coming to New York City for the DOC NYC festival from November 8 to 15. DOC NYC artistic director and Pu…
01:01:41 |
Thu 01 Nov 2018
87: Sandi Tan on “Shirkers"
Winner of the 2018 Sundance Directing Award for World Documentary, Sandi Tan makes her debut with “Shirkers,” now on Netflix. She grew up in Singapore. As a teenager in the 1980s, she had an outsider…
00:30:01 |
Thu 25 Oct 2018
86: Alex Gibney & Trevor Birney, Wanted in Belfast
Alex Gibney’s “No Stone Unturned” uses leaked police documents to investigate an unsolved mass murder in Northern Ireland. Now the police are pushing back. On August 31, police raided the Belfast hom…
00:37:04 |
Thu 18 Oct 2018
85: Maxim Pozdorovkin on Trump, Putin & Pussy Riot
During the 2016 US election, Russia Today offered a steady stream of English-language reports that disseminated to American audiences via YouTube and Facebook. Filmmaker Maxim Pozdorovkin digs into t…
00:47:41 |
Thu 02 Aug 2018
84: Matt Tyrnauer on “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood”
Gore Vidal played a key role behind the scenes in helping Scotty Bowers tell his secret history of Hollywood. Starting in the 1940s, Scotty operated an infamous gas station in Hollywood where he woul…
00:44:53 |
Thu 26 Jul 2018
83: Jason Kohn on "Love Means Zero"
Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Jim Courier and Kathleen Horvath are only a few of the champions who came out of Nick Bollettieri’s tennis academy. Bollettieri ran a controversial program taking kids at …
00:53:27 |
Thu 19 Jul 2018
82: Kevin MacDonald on Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston had an angelic voice, but fought demons in her personal life. The new documentary “Whitney” explores her talents and tribulations. Filmmaker Kevin MacDonald previously directed the do…
00:34:23 |
Thu 12 Jul 2018
81: Tim Wardle on “Three Identical Strangers”
Separated at birth, the triplets Bobby, Eddy and David discovered each other by accident at age 19 in 1980. They became media sensations. Madonna cast them in a movie and they opened a Manhattan rest…
00:31:37 |
Thu 05 Jul 2018
80: Jonathan Safran Foer & Christopher Quinn on “Eating Animals”
Relax, “Eating Animals” isn’t proselytizing for vegetarianism. But author Jonathan Safran Foer and filmmaker Christopher Quinn are asking you to think more seriously about factory farming. Pure Nonfi…
00:41:58 |
Thu 28 Jun 2018
79: Judd Apatow on Garry Shandling
Comedian Garry Shandling is remembered for creating two ground-breaking TV shows: “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” and “The Larry Sanders Show.” He was also a key mentor to Hollywood writer and director…
00:38:04 |
Thu 14 Jun 2018
78: Liz Garbus on The New York Times in "The Fourth Estate"
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus (“What Happened Miss Simone?”) follows The New York Times team of reporters and editors covering the first year of the Trump administration in the four-part Showt…
00:19:49 |
Thu 31 May 2018
77: Wim Wenders on Pope Francis
Buena Vista Social Club, Pina Bausch and Sebastiao Selgado are among Wim Wenders past documentary subjects. Now he profiles the head of the Catholic Church in “Pope Francis: A Man of His Word,” relea…
00:33:58 |
Thu 24 May 2018
76: Filming Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is profiled in the new documentary "RBG." Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers interviews the directing duo of Betsy West and Julie Cohen on Ginsburg's career fi…
00:45:57 |
Thu 10 May 2018
75: Dawn Porter on “Bobby Kennedy for President”
“Bobby Kennedy for President” is a four-part Netflix series that traces the politician’s career with an emphasis on issues of racial justice. The final episode reexamines his 1968 assassination and t…
00:30:58 |
Thu 03 May 2018
74: Joe Berlinger from "Brother's Keeper" to "Intent to Destroy"
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…
00:43:30 |
Thu 26 Apr 2018
73: Sophie Fiennes on Grace Jones
Grace Jones has been commanding attention for decades as a singer, actress and icon. Now filmmaker Sophie Fiennes crafts a documentary as unconventional as its subject in “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and…
00:36:01 |
Thu 19 Apr 2018
72: Jed Rothstein on “The China Hustle”
Could China be responsible for the next Wall Street crash? Filmmaker Jed Rothstein explores that question in “The China Hustle.” After the 2008 market crash, American investors started paying close a…
00:25:01 |
Thu 05 Apr 2018
71: Amanda Micheli on “Vegas Baby” & IVF Treatment
In “Vegas Baby,” filmmaker Amanda Micheli follows several wannabe parents who enter a contest for free IVF treatment at a Las Vegas fertility clinic - ranging from a Midwestern couple to a Lady Gaga …
00:21:20 |
Thu 22 Mar 2018
70: Mark Duplass, Chapman & Maclain Way on “Wild Wild Country”
Netflix’s new true crime series “Wild Wild Country” explores the 1980s case of the so-called sex guru Bhagwan Rajneesh whose followers established a city near the small town of Antelope, Oregon and r…
00:33:47 |
Thu 15 Mar 2018
PN 69: Remembering Chris Hondros
The documentary “Hondros” tells the story of war photographer Chris Hondros who was killed alongside Tim Hetherington in Libya in 2011. Hondros is known for iconic photos that were published all over…
00:33:06 |
Thu 08 Mar 2018
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are the property of Thom Powers. This content is not affiliated with or endorsed by eachpod.com.