\n\tVariety\u2019s Doc Dreams NYC event returned for its second year on Nov. 10 and featured two panels with some of this year\u2019s buzziest documentary feature contenders.<\/p>\n
\n\tSpeakers on the first panel included Dan Farah, director and producer of \u201cThe Age of Disclosure\u201d; Petra Costa, writer, director and producer of \u201cApocalypse In The Tropics\u201d; Mark Obenhaus, director and producer of \u201cCover Up\u201d; and Eugene Jarecki, director of \u201cThe Six Billion Dollar Man.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe Age of Disclosure\u201d seeks to establish a strong case for the existence of non-human intelligent life by including the accounts of 34 high-level officials in the government with direct knowledge of the matter, in which Farah admitted it took a while for his subjects to willingly and lawfully disclose sensitive information about the taboo topic for fear of imprisonment, career setbacks, and tarnishing their reputations. <\/p>\n
\n\tOpting to make the film independently allowed him to keep creative control and minimize sensationalization of the shared information.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cPeople started getting on this plan of this being the way real information would come out and be shared with the public,\u201d he explained. \u201cEach person I met felt a weight on their shoulders with what they knew that the public didn\u2019t. A lot of these people articulated to me how it eats them up that they\u2019re aware of this information that impacts all of us, and the average person is completely clueless.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFarah continued, \u201cThey felt it was an obligation to find a way to bring it out in a safe, comfortable way. They also found comfort in being arm in arm with senior officials from the military, government and intelligence committee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCosta\u2019s documentary, \u201cApocalypse in the Tropics,\u201d exposes the rise of and impact of Christian nationalism in Brazil, where she follows the country\u2019s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, and pastor Silas Malafaia.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe filmmaker recalled the backlash she received from Bolsonaro after the release of her previous documentary, \u201cThe Edge of Democracy,\u201d which explored the unraveling of two Brazilian presidencies in 2019.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen [\u201cThe Edge of Democracy\u201d] was nominated, the far right started to attack me a lot, Costa said. \u201cBolsonaro gave a public speech saying that the film was crap that vultures should eat. Then he used his official Twitter to attack me. He\u2019s calling me a traitor of the Brazilian state, and I became a trending topic. It was very disconcerting. That lasted a few months, where I would constantly be attacked by his digital militias, and one of his evangelical congressmen asked for my imprisonment by the law of national security.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tObenhaus discussed how his friendship with Seymour Hersh played a big part in making \u201cCover Up,\u201d which explores Hersh\u2019s career as an investigative reporter. Despite having a friendship, Obenhaus explained how that didn\u2019t stop them from having conflicts at certain points during filming.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u200b\u201cAt one point, he quits, but he comes back,\u201d he said. \u201cI was used to that kind of behavior. It was not unfamiliar to me, and I couldn\u2019t doubt that he was committed to the film and was going to stick with it. One of the things I\u2019m proud of is that it comes through in the film, and in no way does it whitewash or somehow brush over his foibles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tJarecki touched on how he didn\u2019t expect his film \u201cThe Six Billion Dollar Man,\u201d a story that traces the life of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, to be reflective of current issues involving the threat against the right of access to public information.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe had no idea that while we were making it, the world would plummet into fascism and especially into information fascism, making Assange suddenly like a real soothsayer and canary in the coal mine,\u201d Jarecki said.<\/p>\n
\n\tSpeakers on Doc Dreams NYC\u2019s second panel included Allison McGourty, writer and producer and Bernard McMahon, director, writer and producer of \u201cBecoming Led Zeppelin\u201d; Ryan White, director and producer of \u201cCome See Me in the Good Light\u201d; Sam Mirpoorian, co-director, editor and producer of \u201cSaving Superman\u201d; and Ben Stiller of \u201cStiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBecoming Led Zeppelin\u201d explores the journey of and early formation of the band rock \u201cLed Zeppelin.\u201d McGourty and McMahon opened up about the challenges they faced trying to find distribution for their film, revealing that the film was a hard project to sell before Sony Pictures Classics signed on.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMaking the film was incredibly difficult,\u201d McGourty said. \u201cThere were a few fragments of footage about this group because they never filmed.\u00a0If you met somebody trying to film them in a concert, their manager would pull the film from the camera, smash the camera and eject that person from the venue. Every fragment you see in our film is all that exists. It was hard to make. Then, we had to persevere through the pandemic. We had to go on hiatus for a year. When nobody wanted to buy the film, we didn\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhite discussed how the filming and editing process changed while making \u201cCome See Me in the Good Light,\u201d which followed spoken word poet Andrea Gibson and their partner, Megan Falley, navigating Gibson\u2019s diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Coming into the project with the assumption they would be with Gibson until her death, White explained how premiering at the Sundance Film Festival changed the entire ending of their film.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAt the end of my film, you don\u2019t know if they\u2019re alive or dead,\u201d White said. \u201cNo one at Sundance, especially in an industry screening of 600 people, knew. When the film ended and Andrea walked up to do their Q&A with the audience, it was electric. But it was one of those things where you have to be at the mercy of the story. You have to let the story tell you what it\u2019s about and what your ending is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMirpoorian discussed how he gained the trust of his subjects while co-directing \u201cSaving Superman\u201d with Adam Oppenheim, which chronicles the true story of Jonathan, a 57-year-old man with autism spectrum disorder and known for his Superman persona. When his home was threatened by a new property owner, the community and his best friend Julie launched a grassroots program to save him.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThere was a very sentimental element to it because Adam is Julie\u2019s nephew,\u201d Mirporrian said. \u201cKnowing that, he could trust her and know that he\u2019s not going to be exploitative in any capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u200bBen Stiller opened up about his mother\u2019s battle with alcoholism in his documentary \u201cStiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost,\u201d which tells the story of his parents\u2019 60-year relationship. While Stiller was comfortable including his mother\u2019s sobriety journey in his film, he admitted he worried about his father\u2019s reaction to adding that detail.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe other part of it was trying to tell the story of their whole relationship over 60 years,\u201d Stiller said. \u201cShowing something that\u2019s very personal in her life and getting the right balance of that in the movie, I hoped would give people a sense of what the overall feeling of their relationship was.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAlthough a personal story for Stiller to debut, he said he\u2019s open to making more documentaries in the future.<\/p>\n
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