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Doc Walks: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Ben Steinbauer & Keith Maitland
Documentary filmmakers, Keith Maitland (TOWER, DEAR MR BRODY) and Ben Steinbauer (WINNEBAGO MAN, CHOP & STEELE), host this lively walk & talk podcast featuring conversations with today's best non-fiction storytellers. DocWalks takes the conversation to the street (or nature trail), offering candid insight into the art & industry of documentary filmmaking for an audience of emerging filmmakers and doc-lovers alike.
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- 3 days ago1h 5m
EP063 - The Edge of Psychosis w/ Hisko Hulsing
When Hisko Hulsing is in town, you grab your camera & mic, and hit the trail, ready to court controversy with the best oil-painting animator this side of the Netherlands. Hisko is the wild artist that doc-maker Brett Morgen trusted to paint the inside of Kurt Cobain's head for MONTAGE OF HECK. He's a director who's marshalled the talents of dozens of artists over multiple years to bring HARRY RENTS A ROOM (1999), SEVENTEEN (2003), and JUNKYARD (2012) to life. He's known for his uniform black shirts, his loose brush strokes, and his penchant to speak his mind… Keith and Hisko are two of the only roto-animation directors working in docs and that's not all they share: they've both collab'd with Austin-animation studio Minnow Mountain, and both have TV projects with BOJACK HORSEMAN producers Tornante. It's through Tornante that Hisko and Keith met, years ago, on the set of Amazon's UNDONE. Back when Hisko was —his words— in a panic. Flying between LA and Amsterdam and back again, directing Rosa Salazar and Bob Odenkirk live on a green screen taped-off like Lars Von Trier's DOGVILLE, then going home to tirelessly train ten painters to work in oil, in his personal style, Hisko's UNDONE was almost his own undoing. Three cities, a 17th-century atelier, and a show built on interdimensionality and ambiguity — he pitched the showrunners the dream sequences from ROSEMARY'S BABY and lived up to the premise. He takes us back to his own relationship to art and psychosis: in Amsterdam, taking-up weed at age twelve, a grow operation at fifteen, skipping every class except philosophy and drawing, and hallucinating the world "in an oil painted manner." A journeyman animator/filmmaker, everything changed when JUNKYARD went viral and a cold email arrived from Brett Morgen. Suddenly he had four months to make what had taken him nearly six years. Sixty oil paintings, a team of collaborators, and a house of cards that crashed around him before finally winning-over Courtney Love and Frances Bean Cobain with his hand-painted efforts to bring an icon into sharp, re-imagined relief. And now, today. In the face of conflict and controversy: DANSE MACABRE (2026), his new short that just premiered at Annecy to… protests, walk-outs and a vocal minority boo-ing. Hisko tells his side of the story—how DANSE MACABRE came to life and how a guild-led protest over his use of a self-trained AI shader sparked an international dialogue about AI tools that is still unfolding. When they announced his name, lost in the cacophony of boos and loud walk-outs, Hisko said, "thank you and fuck you," offering his dissenters his middle finger. This one's complicated. Hisko thinks he's gotten a bum deal from out of touch "purists" who don't know the difference between AI, machine learning, and indie filmmakers making their best work in new ways. He also believes that OpenAI should be forced to fund every artist it scraped. This is new territory… and the conversation is just beginning—Hisko wants your honest review. Plus: why animation is an opportunity to dream, not a way to cover the bald spots in your doc, and shoutouts to animator Craig Staggs (TOWER & UNDONE), Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Peter Bogdanovich, and Pink Floyd. DISCUSSION LINKS: JUNKYARD (2012) | LAST HIJACK (2014) | COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK (2015) | UNDONE (2019) | THE SANDMAN (2022) | DANSE MACABRE (2026) | THE MAKING OF DANSE MACABRE (2026) | THE EYES OF ME (2009) | TOWER (2016) | THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE (2002) | CHICAGO 10 (2008) | WAKING LIFE (2001) | SLACKER (1990) | DOGVILLE (2003) | ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968) | THE TENANT (1976) | REP
- 1 weeks ago1h 12m
EP062: Back To The Root w/ David Alvarado
Spark up a big cigar with Ben and filmmaker David Alvarado in honor of Luis Valdez, the central figure in Alvarado's new film AMERICAN PACHUCO (playing Austin's Cine Las Américas). A Dallas kid turned Brooklyn doc-maker, David found his calling twice: once when LA BAMBA (1987) showed him a Chicano family reaching the American dream, and again when a college cinéma-vérité class screened A TIME FOR BURNING (1966), which blew the medium wide open for him. We trace the whole arc—from a high-school dropout turned straight-A student at the University of North Texas, to the Stanford MFA where David partnered with Jason Sussberg and built Structure Films. Then there's the science trilogy: THE IMMORTALISTS (their $400K-and-ramen first feature), BILL NYE: SCIENCE GUY (a record-smashing Kickstarter, now in the Library of Congress), and WE ARE AS GODS, the Stewart Brand doc that was spun into an eight-hour Audible series. But right now, we're puffing smoke about AMERICAN PACHUCO, a tribute to a personal hero—Luis Valdez, the playwright behind ZOOT SUIT and LA BAMBA. The doc won the U.S. Audience Award at Sundance this year amid ICE-raid headlines, and David makes the case that the Chicano story is the American story—right down to the cigar in our hands, pure American tobacco the Maya smoked before Columbus set foot on these shores. This one goes deep (to the indigenous root) as we hit the trail and take hits on these stogies with Sundance-winner David Alvarado. DISCUSSION LINKS: AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ (2026) | THE IMMORTALISTS (2014) | BILL NYE: SCIENCE GUY (2017) | WE ARE AS GODS (2021) | LA BAMBA (1987) | ZOOT SUIT (1981) | A TIME FOR BURNING (1966) | TRUE CONVICTION (2017) | OFF THE CHARTS: THE SONG-POEM STORY (2003) | THE KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS (2007) | HORRIBLE BOSSES (2011) | FOUR CHRISTMASES (2008) | SALESMAN (1969) | PRIMARY (1960) | PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002) | YOUNG GUNS (1988) | I AM BIG BIRD: THE CAROLL SPINNEY STORY (2015) TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Cigars, sugar-cane tips & "espresso parenting" 03:27 Meet David Alvarado & AMERICAN PACHUCO 04:20 Who is Luis Valdez? (LA BAMBA, ZOOT SUIT) 08:57 Meeting Valdez in college & founding Texas Filmmakers 09:32 Dropping out at 17 11:42 PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE wakes him up 13:10 North Lake to UNT — straight A's 14:15 A TIME FOR BURNING & the vérité awakening 16:51 Ben's own awakening: SALESMAN 18:34 Walking Mabel Davis Park 19:20 THE IMMORTALISTS & the Stanford years 26:20 Aubrey de Grey, Bill Andrews & the longevity gamble 28:49 Hot Docs, Big Bird & "the Big Bird of science" 29:52 Finding Bill Nye 33:29 Seth Gordon, Jamie Meltzer & TRUE CONVICTION 34:22 OFF THE CHARTS: THE SONG-POEM STORY 35:35 "Goddammit, Tony!" — a filmmaker on the trail 38:39 The record-breaking BILL NYE Kickstarter 41:56 WE ARE AS GODS, Stewart Brand & Stripe 46:34 Pandemic pivots: kids, Brooklyn & the Audible series 49:55 Back to AMERICAN PACHUCO & Luis Valdez 51:19 Belonging, the Chicano story & indigenous roots 54:49 Cigars, Che, Castro & pure American tobacco 57:41 Funding the film: PBS, Ford, the grant road 59:47 Sundance, the Audience Award & the ICE-raid moment 01:04:46 Lightning round & advice to young filmmakers 01:11:03 Next time: Hisko Hulsing
- 2 weeks ago1h 1m
EP061 - Log Off and Hang Out w/ Lauren Hough
We walk Austin's Boggy Creek Trail with acclaimed memoirist Lauren Hough — from a childhood spent in a cult to Air Force vet to ex-cable technician; and now, she's the writer whose viral essay about fixing people's cable got read 8 million times in a single weekend. Lauren's backstory is so enormous it usually eats a whole interview: she grew up in the Children of God, got run out of the military under Don't Ask Don't Tell (they torched her car), flipped a coin between Atlanta and DC, and told dumb cable-guy stories at the Iron Bear until one of them turned into a book. That book, LEAVING ISN'T THE HARDEST THING, made her a New York Times bestseller and got Cate Blanchett to narrate the audiobook — and, yes, she brought Cate to the Iron Bear. Now book two, MONSTER OF A LAND, is days from release and Lauren is, in her words, throwing up about it. We get into the terror of the follow-up, why she loaded her very cute dog Woody Guthrie into a Dodge van and drove the country like Steinbeck's TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY, and what she actually found out there — not the screaming internet, but hunters in Georgia helping a stranger find a campsite and neighbors defending neighbors when ICE rolled into Minneapolis. Along the way: the cult was boring (too many guitars, bad Bob Dylan rip-offs, one paragraph of hard-won Civil War research), the octagon on the White House lawn is sponsored by Monster Energy, and the cure for all of it might just be to log off and go hang out. Plus: worry monsters in a little free library, why she can't stop muttering about that octagon, and why chasing one good sentence feels like a serial killer chasing a high. DISCUSSION LINKS: MONSTER OF A LAND (2026) | LEAVING ISN'T THE HARDEST THING (2021) | TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY (1962) | CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (2003) | SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) | IDIOCRACY (2006) | THE CIVIL WAR (1990) | KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL (2000) | EDUCATED (2018) | THE SLIP (2025) | CATCH THE DEVIL (2026) TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Becoming the podcast people they used to heckle at the Iron Bear 01:48 Your family's not gonna read your book 04:05 Meet Lauren Hough, and the David Sedaris comparison 05:06 The cult, the military, and Don't Ask Don't Tell 08:33 They torched my car — getting out and landing in DC 15:37 The cable guy essay that 8 million people read 16:31 Bringing Cate Blanchett to the Iron Bear 18:40 Why nonfiction, and modeling the book on Travels with Charley 21:04 Capturing the Friedmans and stories that take a U-turn 24:20 "I remember needing to pee" — the detail that unlocks an essay 29:27 The cult was boring: diapers, Singin' in the Rain, bad Bob Dylan 32:32 Second-book terror (and throwing up) 33:57 Woody Guthrie, the Dodge van, and no Subaru sponsorship 36:00 Texas Highways vs. the conversations she actually wanted 39:17 What she found on the road: kindness, Minneapolis, Georgia hunters 41:38 Log off and go hang out — screens broke our brains 42:05 The AI fight: her brother, ChatGPT, and what actually matters 44:37 Nine months in Durham where nobody pet the dog 46:18 Boggy Creek Trail — stick libraries and worry monsters 49:00 Between therapists, courtesy of the VA 50:44 There's an octagon on the White House lawn (it's Idiocracy) 52:07 The Fox News callback from the cable essay 54:08 Lightning round: Bourdain as the gateway drug 55:42 Advice for writers, and Austin's book crew 59:29 Pop-Tarts, and a great place to end
- 3 weeks ago1h 5m
EP060 - Angels Watching Over Me w/ Ya'Ke Smith
Take a spirited walk though East Austin, Black History, and the Texas State Cemetery with filmmaker, educator, and self-described activist-artist Ya'Ke Smith—on Juneteenth week, no less. We kick off our walk under a Moonlight Tower and basically never stop moving: past Franklin Barbecue (pour one out for the old Ben's Barbecue), over to the Victory Grill, and into a cash-deal for some Bass Reeves-inspired street art. Ya'Ke walks Keith through CYCLES OF RESILIENCE, his new doc chasing a Juneteenth bike ride across Austin's erased and revitalized Black landmarks. We get into JUNETEENTH: FAITH AND FREEDOM, his PBS doc, and the role of an activist and an artist in search of community. Ya'Ke explains why he refuses the "documentary filmmaker" label, because "film is film" of course—thank you, Agnes Varda. And it's only fitting that our wander into the Texas State Cemetery (a DocWalks first) becomes the backdrop for a discussion on the spiritual side of filmmaking and how Ya'Ke's new hybrid short ANGELS WATCHING OVER ME grew out of Paula White's "African angels" prayer for Trump and the gutting of DEI on his own campus. Angels, maybe ghosts… and graveside visits with Stephen F. Austin (father of Texas), Sarah Weddington (Roe v. Wade), Bill Witliff (Lonesome Dove screenwriter), Barbara Jordan (legislative pioneer), and Cedric Benson (Longhorns legend) serve to remind us what matters as artists, and storytellers revealing untold histories and creating opportunities for empathy. Ya'Ke and Keith cover a lot of territory landing with the former's origin story: as an 11-year-old in San Antonio watching BOYZ N THE HOOD and knowing, right then, that movie-making was the way. Plus: 4000 Black Juneteenth liberators, ideas that "impregnate" you until you birth them, the spiritual battle Ya'Ke thinks we're all fighting, inspiration via Ernest Dickerson's 10-minute storyboards on THE DEUCE, and why—even in despair—you've got to find the joy. His advice for filmmakers? In the words of Nike: just do it. DISCUSSION LINKS: CYCLES OF RESILIENCE (2026) | JUNETEENTH: FAITH AND FREEDOM (2022) | WOLF (2012) | ANGELS WATCHING OVER ME (2026) | THE OHIO, TEXAS REMIX (2025) | BOYZ N THE HOOD (1991) | WHEN THEY SEE US (2019) | THE DEUCE (2017) | TOWER (2016) | THE MS. PAT SHOW (2021) | LONESOME DOVE (1989) | BARBAROSA (1982) | RED HEADED STRANGER (1986) | THE PERFECT STORM (2000) | HONEYSUCKLE ROSE (1980) | THE BLACK STALLION (1979) | THE THIRD MAN (1949) | THE LONG GOODBYE (1973) TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Walking into Rosewood, East Austin 02:33 Meet Ya'Ke Smith 02:45 Cycles of Resilience and the East 11th mural 04:52 I-35, redlining and the 1928 master plan 08:07 Shooting a bike ride: three cameras, a drone and GoPros 14:30 The Victory Grill 16:45 Meeting artist Marshall Fabella and his Bass Reeves painting 19:52 Agnes Varda and "film is film" 20:39 Refusing the label, and directing The Ms. Pat Show 22:58 Into the Texas State Cemetery 28:05 Bill Wittliff, Sarah Weddington and Barbara Jordan 31:08 Rewriting history, book bans and the university 33:34 Angels Watching Over Me and Paula White's "African angels" 40:10 Wolf and the power of the room (thank you, Barbara Kopple) 44:21 Juneteenth: Faith and Freedom 47:40 Finding joy in the despair 48:45 Ideas that impregnate you 50:08 The gateway drug: Boyz n the Hood 52:58 Buying the Bass Reeves painting 54:09 Advice for filmmakers: just do it 55:40 Creighton Gerst, Super 8 and self-editing 58:09 Dream collaborators: Max Richter, Bradford Young, Ernest Dickerson 01:00:25 The mural, the Masons and community 01:04:39 Next time on Doc Walks
- Jun 25, 202641 min
EP059 - Don't Listen to Me About Anything w/ Isaac Gale
We hit the streets of South by Southwest with Isaac Gale—director, artist, and one-half of the Minneapolis noise outfit Marijuana Deathsquads, in town to play the fest with his band. Isaac's the kind of guy who'd rather break a piece of software than master it, and that restless, try-anything energy runs through everything he makes. We wind through Ben's old neighborhood and retrace how the two first met—around WINNEBAGO MAN, which Isaac's partner JoLynn Garnes cut an early version of—then dig into SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED, the gloriously weird doc Isaac co-directed with the famously camera-shy Ryan Olson. It premiered at South by in 2024 and got scooped up by Magnolia Pictures for a theatrical run. We trace the whole origin story: a cold call to Ryan's label (Totally Gross National Product), a 2017 trip to shoot one sad music video, and a house so perfect—Swamp Dogg, Moogstar, and Guitar Shorty living together like a psychedelic Brady Bunch—that they never wanted to leave. The pool getting painted becomes the anchor, so everything else (Mike Judge, Johnny Knoxville, Tom Kenny, a blink-and-you-miss-it Yo La Tengo cameo) gets to be as chaotic as it wants. Isaac walks us through the hand-built AI intro—a Swamp Dogg model trained on a PC in his bedroom and iterated for a year and a half—and why he's fine getting his hands dirty with tools everyone loves to hate. Then the good stuff for emerging filmmakers: make it like a band, keep your crew close, and if you can't find money, make it without money. Plus CRUMB and AMERICAN MOVIE as gateway drugs, a dog named Ricky, the first time in 50+ episodes we've run out of card space, and why Minneapolis—community and all—is the thing Isaac can't stop thinking about. DISCUSSION LINKS: SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED (2024) | THE FEARLESS FREAKS (2005) | WINNEBAGO MAN (2009) | CRUMB (1994) | AMERICAN MOVIE (1999) TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Markers, selfie sticks, and SXSW sunburn 01:00 Ben's old neighborhood and how he and Isaac met 03:00 Artist vs. musician: Marijuana Deathsquads 04:00 Ryan Olson, the co-director who won't be photographed 05:00 SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED premieres at South by 07:00 A Doc Walks first: the SD card fills up 08:00 Take two: the Magnolia acquisition and theatrical run 10:00 Origin story: a cold call to Total Gross National Product 11:00 Showing up to shoot a music video in 2017 12:00 Who is Swamp Dogg? Ben the music head 14:00 Crooner to country: "She's All I Got" and John Prine's "Sam Stone" 16:00 Auto-tune, Justin Vernon, and Love, Loss & Auto-Tune 17:30 The "I'll Pretend" video; meeting Moogstar and Guitar Shorty 20:00 Naming the film: the pool as the anchor 22:00 Card-table cameos: Mike Judge, Johnny Knoxville, Tom Kenny, Yo La Tengo 24:00 Ricky the dog crashes the walk 25:00 100+ music videos and art school 26:00 MCAD, flatbeds, and editing like painting 28:00 Directing in any medium: Unreal Engine and breaking the tools 30:00 The AI intro: building a Swamp Dogg model in his bedroom 33:00 Being in a band at 40; "you should try making a podcast" 34:00 Lightning round: the gateway docs (CRUMB, AMERICAN MOVIE) 36:00 Advice: make it like a band, make it no matter what 37:00 Keeping your crew close: WINNEBAGO MAN lessons 38:00 Not film: Minneapolis, community, and standing together 39:00 Where to find Isaac and the Swamp Dogg Blu-ray
- Jun 18, 20261h 11m
EP058 - The Jellyfish Died w/ Juli Berwald
Meet Juli Berwald—a marine biologist turned science writer and the author of an invertebrate page-turner—she's the founder of a coral-reef nonprofit in Honduras, aaaaand she's producing her first doc. Throughout our waterfront walk at Ladybird Lake Juli opens up about her adventures in science writing—how getting fired off a book project (& replaced by Elizabeth Kolbert) inspired Juli to create her own destiny and finally write her own book. What follows is a masterclass in turning science into memoir called SPINELESS—a jellyfish book secretly structured like a jellyfish lifecycle, complete with a fever dream that sent her to Japan to find the world's biggest jellyfish (spoiler: it died right in front of her). We dig into "hiding behind the facts," the boldness it takes to put yourself on the page, and the best creative-accountability advice we've heard yet: combine a tight writing group with Elizabeth Gilbert's "take your project on a date," add in some John August-style sprints while following a roommate's admonition to "write the worst book you can—"and you're on your way. Theres's a whole lot of science, a bunch of laughs, and some doc-stuff in this one too. THE REBEL REEF: SEEDS OF HOPE is Juli's hopeful short doc about a reef to remember and divemaster Christian Carias, whose own healing becomes the heart of the film. Plus composer Chad Cannon (AMERICAN FACTORY, JOIN OR DIE), a $100K biobank dream, and perhaps an answer to the question of "how do you get to Symphony Space?" Also: An entire taxonomy of recumbent coots; shoutout to a Charles and Ray Eames numerically inspired mid-century film; and the official-yet-disputed name of a celebrated Austin footbridge. And yes—Juli already has another book on the way… DISCUSSION LINKS: THE REBEL REEF: SEEDS OF HOPE (2026) | POWERS OF TEN (1977) | AMERICAN FACTORY (2019) | JOIN OR DIE (2023) | WINNEBAGO MAN (2009) | SPINELESS (2017) | LIFE ON THE ROCKS (2022) | THE SHELL SEEKER (2026) TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 High fives and meeting Juli 01:00 Marine biologist to author 02:00 A miserable Texas postdoc (subsidence vs. sinking) 04:30 Becoming a writer: Think Well's CD-ROM textbooks 06:00 Laid off, then freelancing for National Geographic 11:00 The ONE CUBIC FOOT gig—and getting fired off it 14:30 The Pfluger footbridge and Lady Bird Lake history 18:00 THE REBEL REEF preview: a hopeful documentary 19:00 "I can't write a book like that"—finding her voice 21:00 SPINELESS: jellyfish and growing a spine 23:00 Willing to get lost 25:00 "Write the worst book you can—but write it" 27:00 A fever dream sends her to Japan 28:30 Finding the giant jellyfish (it dies) 31:00 Building a book around the jellyfish lifecycle 36:00 Our hideout: duckweed, Barton Springs, cyanobacteria 38:00 The Puum Temple and possums vs. opossums 39:30 Creative accountability and the writing group 47:00 BIG MAGIC: take your project on a date 50:00 The 20-minute timer and John August's sprints 52:00 Recumbent coots and the title hunt 53:00 THE REBEL REEF: the Honduras coral story 55:00 Christian Carias and the heart of the film 58:00 Cinematography, score, and the crew 61:00 Lightning round: the gateway book (Henrietta Lacks) 63:00 Advice for emerging storytellers: practice 64:00 Carnegie Hall, Yo-Yo Ma, and a floating cello 68:00 Crediting Dayton and where to find Juli's work
- Jun 11, 20261h 7m
EP057 - Don't Make a Documentary (It'll Ruin Your Career) w/ Luke Korem
We hit the boardwalk with Luke Korem—the Emmy-winning documentary director behind DEALT, MILLI VANILLI, and ACTION—and somewhere between a guy blasting EDM off a portable speaker and the bats under the bridge, Luke hands us a filmmaking philosophy worth bottling: it's all the same muscle. Doc, series, scripted—storytelling is storytelling, and the trick is knowing a series is a sprint and a feature is a marathon. Luke walks us through the whole arc: his accidental first feature LORD MONTAGU (a chairman, a castle, fifty grand, and four guys who'd never made a film), the SXSW-winning DEALT about blind card magician Richard Turner, and how the real story is never the hook—when it comes to DEALT, it's a man learning to embrace his weakness. We get the gospel of "no control" (the studio that passed on MILLI VANILLI, then came begging six months later), why he prays his way through the gambles, and why AI makes real human stories more valuable, not less. Then Ben hijacks his own podcast with the greatest one-that-got-away in doc history: the time he tried to con conman Frédéric Bourdin—subject of THE IMPOSTER — into a movie, got double-crossed, taunted by a Photoshopped postcard from the French Riviera… and learned years later the postcard was forged by his own friend in Paris. Luke's verdict: cut that out and make it its own episode. Plus: Luke's mom's catering empire, his magician dad, the gateway drug of renting EDTV, and plenty of advice from a man with zero social media. DISCUSSION LINKS: LORD MONTAGU (2013) | DEALT (2017) | ACTION (2019) | THE NEW YORK TIMES PRESENTS (2020) | MILLI VANILLI (2023) | WINNEBAGO MAN (2009) | THE IMPOSTER (2012) | CHOP & STEELE (2022) | HIGH HOPES (2023) | CHEER (2020) | LAST CHANCE U (2016) | EDTV (1999) | FIELD OF DREAMS (1989) | THE KARATE KID (1984) | ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD (1994) | JURASSIC PARK (1993) | WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN (1941) TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Two reluctant "documentary influencers" 01:00 Meet Luke — DEALT, the SXSW win & Richard Turner 01:40 LORD MONTAGU — the castle, the chairman, the first feature 03:00 ACTION, MILLI VANILLI & the NYT Presents Emmy 04:30 Texas A&M, no film school & the high-school broadcast suspensions 07:00 Doing anything for money → the uncle in the castle 08:00 Delegating your way to "all I do is direct" 09:20 On the bridge — the dancing guy with the speaker 10:30 Curiosity as the filmmaker's engine 12:00 Being authentic vs. taking the wrong job 14:30 Starting Keep On Running & selling a vision 15:30 Mom's catering empire, dad the author & magician 18:00 Every film is its own little startup 19:40 "It's the same muscle" — doc, series, scripted 22:00 Greg Whiteley's cold-call advice; sprint vs. marathon 26:00 Keeping gas in the tank; rich people making docs 29:00 Prayer, the spiritual side & character-driven stories 31:00 The hook is not the story — embracing weakness 34:00 Are your docs about you? MILLI VANILLI's real subject 36:00 The MILLI VANILLI origin & chasing Fab Morvan 40:00 Pitching & the brutal greenlight ratios 42:30 "No control" — the studio that passed, then begged 46:00 AI vs. the value of real human stories 48:00 Ben's THE IMPOSTER saga — buying Bourdin's life rights 51:30 The double-cross & the cease-and-desists 53:00 The postcard from the French Riviera 56:00 The one that got away 57:30 The twist — the postcard was forged by a friend 1:01:30 Stolen ideas & trusting no one in Hollywood 1:02:00 WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN 1:03:30 Lightning round — EDTV, FIELD OF DREAMS, Spielberg 1:06:30 The thing he can't stop thinking about — will the show sell? 1:07:00 Where to find his work; no socials, just the Aggies
- Jun 4, 202648 min
EP056 - Walk to the Next Block w/ Barlow Jacobs
Barlow Jacobs says: Walk to the Next Block.. easy to say when you're sitting there, not-walking on DocWalks. It's day three of the AFS Doc Intensive, and we close out our run in the room for a sit-down with actor-turned-documentarian Barlow Jacobs—a guy we've been hearing about for 20 years ever since he burst out of Sundance with LOW AND BEHOLD in 2007. Barlow brings his doc-debut, THE VOYAGE OUT to Austin for Doc Days. Shot on 16mm, fully off-grid, on a nine-day elk hunt deep in the mountains—the gear hauled in on pack goats, lenses wrapped in towels inside Igloo coolers because the Pelican cases wouldn't fit, this is a unique production setup for a unique doc, and all that extra work really pays off—every frame looks like an oil painting. Keith's on the hunt for answers, but Barlow's quick to point out that THE VOYAGE OUT isn't a hunting film. It's a reckoning with mortality, kicked off by a 2009 brain tumor and later, a head-on collision with a dump truck, two life changing events that had Barlow questioning his own relationship to life & death. Barlow finds answers thanks to his film's three leads: hunting guide Marc Warnke (Bruce Willis meets John Wayne with a philosophy degree), off-grid survivalist Callie Russell (you might've seen her on ALONE), and fellow seeker Mansal Denton. We dig into the technical insanity—film canisters kept warm in a teepee, a rain-soaked tent, a lab calling in a panic about celluloid that smelled like smoke—and then there's the executive producers who showed up with support, including Chris & Eleanor Columbus's Maiden Voyage Pictures, Ley Line, and Sons of Rigor Films. All indie filmmaking is a roll of the dice, but Barlow owes a special thanks to the pro gambler whose $2-million poker win came through just in time to float the shoot. He may be a first-time doc director, but Barlow's a festival and indie vet, and he's flipping the script on distribution. And this is where we can all take notes: how he's self-releasing to 75 theaters next year, building an audience of hunters (and bespoke butcher-shops) and why he wishes he'd planned for all of this before shooting a single frame. Plus, Keith namedrops Jeff Nichols and Toby Halbrooks; Barlow shares a gateway-doc run through Adam Curtis, GREY GARDENS, GIMME SHELTER, and Frederick Wiseman—and a reminder that filmmaking is completed one step at a time. So, when it all starts to fall apart, just walk to the next block. DISCUSSION LINKS: THE VOYAGE OUT (2025) | LOW AND BEHOLD (2007) | THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019) | EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022) | THE BIG SHORT (2015) | McCABE & MRS. MILLER (1971) | HOME ALONE (1990) | HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE (2001) | BUCKS HARBOR (2026) | GREY GARDENS (1975) | GIMME SHELTER (1970) | TITICUT FOLLIES (1967) | EX LIBRIS: THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY (2017) | VERNON, FLORIDA (1981) | HYPERNORMALISATION (2016) | CAN'T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD (2021) | RUSSIA 1985–1999: TRAUMAZONE (2022) | ALONE (2015) TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Day three of the AFS Doc Intensive 01:00 Barlow Jacobs: 20 years of near-misses and LOW AND BEHOLD at Sundance 02:00 THE VOYAGE OUT premieres tomorrow, shot on 16mm 02:30 The origin: a brain tumor, a dump truck, and mortality 05:00 Finding the hunt: Mansal Denton, Marc Warnke, and the pack goats 06:30 Callie Russell joins; everyone has a relationship with death 07:30 The goats, the fire, and the film's real subject 09:00 Six months of prep and the tech scout 11:00 Why shoot a documentary on film 11:30 Hauling gear on goats: Igloo coolers and Old Fast Glass 13:00 A linear hunt, formalistic language, planning every scenario 15:00 Working with the subjects without impeding the hunt 16:30 Gems pulled from the field audio 17:00 The only-way-to-do-it setup; feels like a million bucks 18:30 Film canisters
About Doc Walks
Documentary filmmakers, Keith Maitland (TOWER, DEAR MR BRODY) and Ben Steinbauer (WINNEBAGO MAN, CHOP & STEELE), host this lively walk & talk podcast featuring conversations with today's best non-fiction storytellers. DocWalks takes the conversation to the street (or nature trail), offering candid insight into the art & industry of documentary filmmaking for an audience of emerging filmmakers and doc-lovers alike.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Podzilla's Doc Walks daily summary?
It's a free AI-powered email that summarizes new episodes of Doc Walks as soon as they're published. You get the key takeaways, notable quotes, and links & mentions — all in a quick read.
How does the Doc Walks podcast summary work?
When a new episode drops, our AI transcribes and analyzes it, then generates a personalized summary tailored to your interests and profession. It's delivered to your inbox every morning.
Is this an official Doc Walks product?
No. Podzilla is an independent service that summarizes publicly available podcast content. We're not affiliated with or endorsed by Ben Steinbauer & Keith Maitland.
Can I get summaries of other podcasts too?
Absolutely! The free plan covers up to 3 podcasts. Upgrade to Pro for 15, or Premium for 50. Browse our full catalog at /podcasts.
How often does Doc Walks release new episodes?
Doc Walks publishes weekly. Our AI generates a summary within hours of each new episode.
What topics does Doc Walks cover?
Doc Walks covers topics including Film, TV & Film, Comedy Interviews. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
Start getting Doc Walks summaries tomorrow morning.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.