From Pitch to Finish: “Local Stories, Global Audiences” with Wondery at the Hot Docs Podcast Festival Showcase

Returning to Toronto for my first post-pandemic visit to Hot Docs for this year’s 30th anniversary celebration (April 27-May 7) was well worth both the (red-eye) trek and (three-hour) time zone change. Besides getting my spring sneak peek at some of the best documentaries likely to land at a US fest/theater/streamer this fall, I was able to experience the added bonus of an inaugural festival within the fest: the Hot Docs Podcast Festival Showcase. In addition to five live events at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema — including buzzy evenings with the Radiolab guys, the Scamfluencers ladies, and the ubiquitous Kara Swisher — the Hot Docs Podcast Festival Showcase dedicated May 3-4 to six podcast-centric panels and masterclasses at the gorgeous TIFF Bell Lightbox (a cinema treasure built on donated land long-owned by hometown hero Ivan Reitman and family). Experts from Jazmín Aguilera, Head of Audio for the LA Times, to Renan Borelli, Deputy Audience Director for Audio at the NY Times, to Arif Noorani, Director of CBC Podcasts, took the stage over two jam-packed days to provide both insight and guidance into navigating a too-often opaque, still-evolving podcasting world. And one of these hour-long discussions, “‘Local Stories, Global Audiences’ with Wondery,” featured a trio of international panelists who certainly knew a thing or two about locating the universal in the niche. Wondery is the (currently) Amazon Music-owned audio storytelling entity behind such true crime juggernauts as Dr. Death, Over My Dead Body, The Shrink Next Door, Scamfluencers, and many more. (No word on whether a podcast about the company’s original founder, former head of Fox International Channels Hernan López — convicted back in March of participating in a FIFA-involved bribery scheme to secure exclusive World Cup broadcasting rights for 21st Century Fox — is in the works.)

To read all about it visit Documentary magazine.

A League of His Own: Sam Pollard on The League

Admittedly, as a white, baseball-phobic critic (I’ve never seen A League of Their Own or anything starring Kevin Costner and a bat), I’m not exactly the target demographic for The League, which takes a deep dive into America’s pastime through the parallel sports universe of the Negro League. Nevertheless, the doc was a must-catch, no pun intended, for me during Tribeca since I also happen to have a baseball-obsessed (Bronx-born/Brooklyn Dodgers-raised) father and (Mets-maniacal) sister who visited the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum several years back, and still speak of that trip as some sort of exotic holy pilgrimage. (For the record, the NLBM is in Kansas City.) In other words, I figured that watching would at least shed some light on a baffling family fixation. And surprisingly enough, it actually did. Or maybe not so surprisingly as The League is the latest from Oscar-nominated (and Peabody and Emmy Award-winning) director Sam Pollard and has the Summer of Soul team (including EP Questlove) onboard. Which means the engaging film not only showcases a treasure trove of newly discovered interviews and archival imagery, introducing us to a slew of cinematic characters both on and off the field, but also offers a vital US history lesson – from the empowerment of African American entrepreneurship to the thorny downside of integration; the final strike for a once-vibrant Negro League.

To read my interview with the doc's veteran director-editor-producer-screenwriter visit Filmmaker magazine.

Subverting the Algorithms

"Returning from CPH:DOX’s INTER:ACTIVE program, Lauren Wissot speaks with four innovators working at the frontiers of gaming and immersive work. This year’s 20th anniversary edition of CPH:DOX (March 15–26) was packed with celebratory gems, especially when it came to the radically assembled INTER:ACTIVE exhibition, curated by Mark Atkin. Here are talks with four of the exhibition’s artists, all workng in XR and games, about the boundary-pushing work they presented."

To read my article subscribe to Filmmaker magazine.