Writing with Fire (2021) is an inspiring story about India's only newspaper run by Dalit, low-caste women. Armed with smartphones and tenacity, chief reporter Meera Devi and her journalists break traditions as they break stories and tackle India's biggest issues. In the process, they are redefining what it means to be powerful socially. Writing with Fire is one of this year's Academy Award nominees for The Best Feature Documentary. The film has already won the Audience Award and Special Jury Awa...
Feb 09, 2022•51 min
Neymar: The Perfect Chaos, currently streaming on Netflix, tells the story of the beloved but often criticised footballer Neymar, the highs and lows of his personal life, and his brilliant football career. Award-winning filmmaker David Charles Rodrigues joins us to discuss the film and reveals how he gained almost full access to Neymar’s life. During filming of this documentary, David found sides to Neymar that he found surprising. In the process, he managed to build a strong relationship with t...
Feb 02, 2022•42 min
HBO's original documentary Dear Rider tells the inspirational story of Jake Burton Carpenter, who pioneered the sport of snowboarding. Fernando Villena, award-winning filmmaker and the director of Dear Rider, discusses Jake’s life as a snowboarding legend. The film shows how Jake took his favourite childhood toy and turned it into a global cultural phenomenon. Fernando not only talks about Jake's vision and passion for the sport he invented, but also how multiple diseases tragically ended his li...
Jan 18, 2022•43 min
Hell or High Seas (2021) follows U.S. Navy veteran Taylor Grieger and writer Stephen O’Shea on their two-year adventure sailing around Cape Horn, in some of the world’s most treacherous waters. The purpose of this extreme journey was to raise awareness about PTSD and the challenges facing veterans as they return to civilian life. Taylor Grieger, director Glenn Holsten and producer Chayne Gregg join us to share the incredible story of how two high school buddies embarked on a journey to help vete...
Jan 12, 2022•46 min
Joining us is Vicky Ward, a New York Times bestselling author, investigative journalist and the host and co-producer of Chasing Ghislaine . In 2002 Vicky conducted one of the few interviews ever given by Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. Vicky has now turned her sights on Epstein's former confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell. The British socialite is currently on trial for allegedly helping Epstein to prey on young girls. Subsequently, Vicky has turned her investigati...
Dec 20, 2021•1 hr 6 min
The National Geographic documentary The First Wave captures the harrowing first four months of the Covid-19 pandemic as it played out in one of New York City’s hardest-hit hospital systems. Joining us is Matthew Heineman, an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker who directed and produced this film. The incredible footage he obtained and shaped into The First Wave represents a testimony to the strength of the human spirit and how people come together in the face of crisis. He shares ...
Dec 15, 2021•37 min
Kenny G is the best-selling instrumentalist of all time, but why does he elicit such heartfelt, negative criticism from some listeners? Penny Lane’s new HBO documentary Listening to Kenny G shows the world-famous saxophonist speaking candidly about his musical background, his stringent work ethic, and his controversial standing in the jazz world. Penny joins us to discuss the making of the film and how she gained access to such a high-profile music star. She also reveals her original impressions...
Dec 07, 2021•32 min
On September 5th 1981 a group of women came together to change the world. These women marched from Wales to Berkshire to protest nuclear weapons being kept at RAF Greenham Common, a British airbase. Feature-length documentary Mothers of the Revolution (2021) tells the true story of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp and how it helped to bring the Cold War to an end. Between 1981 and 2000, in one of the longest protests in history, thousands of women from around the world came together at Gre...
Dec 01, 2021•51 min
The National Geographic documentary Becoming Cousteau explores the life of legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, a man well ahead of his time in bringing climate change and environmental devastation to the world’s attention. Mridu Chandra, award-winning filmmaker and one of the producers of Becoming Cousteau, joins us to discuss Cousteau's remarkable life and passion for the environment. A scuba diving pioneer, Cousteau also was an accomplished filmmaker and three-time Oscar winner. Mridu t...
Nov 23, 2021•30 min
The Discovery+ docuseries Curse of the Chippendales chronicles the dark side of the 1980s all-male striptease dance troupe. The muscular men of the Chippendales captured the hearts, minds, and dollars of the 1980s in their iconic cuffs and collars, but what started out as a first in women’s entertainment soon turned into a story of greed, jealousy and murder for hire. Executive producer Suzanne Lavery and writer and director Jesse Vile discuss what drew them to the Chippendales, how they created...
Nov 16, 2021•46 min
Hawking: Can You Hear Me? is a Sky Original documentary that explores the remarkable human story of Stephen Hawking, through candid interviews with his family, friends, and colleagues. The film brings to life the man behind the persona of legendary theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking and in the process shows the impact fame and disability had on those closest to him. Joining Factual America to discuss the making of the film and the challenges they faced are director Oliver Twin...
Nov 10, 2021•50 min
The Rescue explores the story of the dramatic Tham Luang cave rescue in 2018, when twelve boys and their soccer coach were saved from deep inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand. But like all great documentaries, it is about so much more – bravery, cave diving, the human spirit and ultimately, generosity. The Rescue is the latest masterpiece by the Oscar-winning director Chai Vasrahelyi, which she co-directed and co-produced with her partner in film and life, Jimmy Chin. Chai joins us to dis...
Nov 02, 2021•25 min
A young man from the San Francisco suburbs journeys to the Middle East and soon finds himself as the face of Islamist extremism in post-9/11 America. This is the story of John Walker Lindh, as explored in the recent Showtime hit documentary Detainee 001 . Emmy-winning director Greg Barker joins us to discuss this unlikeliest of stories. The film shows how America grapples with justice in the fog of war, and how narratives were built and destroyed in the aftermath of 9/11. We discuss the misconce...
Oct 26, 2021•53 min
International Space Station and international co-operation in space has outlived presidents, regimes, current events, 9/11, and it has been carrying on for several decades now. It is fascinating how many people it takes to get someone into space. This is what inspired director and producer Clare Lewins in her new documentary The Wonderful: Stories From the Space Station. The Wonderful is a story about humanity, played out against the vast backdrop of the universe. It shows what it’s like to live...
Oct 12, 2021•45 min
Factual America meets The Lone Star Plate for the second time. We are wrapping up Season 2 of Factual America, and our sister podcast The Lone Star Plate, which features interviews with famous Texans and explores compelling Texas stories, has just closed Season 3. Two fellow Texans, hosts Matthew Sherwood and Patrick Scott Armstrong, discuss the highlights of the last season, celebrating the most challenging year of our lives, and what episodes, guests and topics left a particular impression on ...
Aug 09, 2021•1 hr 44 min
In 1979 The Beatles producer Sir George Martin turned a Caribbean paradise into a 1980s hit making crucible for the likes of Paul McCartney, Elton John, and such acts as the Rolling Stones, The Police, and Dire Straits. His vision was to create a studio where artists could come and be free to express their creativity and record albums. After a decade of hits, and at the peak of its popularity, AIR Studios Montserrat was destroyed when hurricane Hugo hit the island in 1989, followed by the erupti...
Aug 04, 2021•47 min
Award-winning documentary Echoes of the Invisible (2020) looks at timelessness, the origins of the universe, and what it means to be one of the almost 8 billion inhabitants of Planet Earth. The film follows the explorers who are pushing the human body and technology beyond known limits in the most extreme environments on Earth. One of them is Paul Salopek, a journalist walking across the world in the footsteps of the earliest human migrations. Others include scientists like Joe Incandela, buildi...
Jul 19, 2021•1 hr 9 min
After covering The State of Texas vs. Melissa (2021), once again we are talking on Factual America about the death penalty in the state of Texas. The recently released documentary The Phantom (2021) shines a light on a capital murder case, but probably in ways that most of us have never experienced before. The film follows Carlos DeLuna, who was arrested in 1983 for the murder of a woman service station attendant, but protested his innocence until he was executed, stating another Carlos had comm...
Jul 15, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Acclaimed producer Fernando Sulichin has built his career by working with film giants such as Spike Lee, David Lynch, Sean Penn, and Oliver Stone. Now Fernando has two films debuting at the Cannes Film Festival. Flag Day is directed by and stars Sean Penn, while JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass is the latest documentary from director Oliver Stone. JFK Revisited is the follow-up to Stone's political thriller JFK (1991) about the John F Kennedy assassination. Using recently declassified ar...
Jul 06, 2021•57 min
Melissa Lucio is the only Hispanic woman to ever be sentenced to death in the state of Texas. She is currently facing her last appeal, having spent 13 years on death row. Her case, as well as the problems with the American justice system and the death penalty, are captured in the documentary The State of Texas vs. Melissa (2020). Having made its festival debut, the film has received great reviews and won multiple audience choice awards. Joining us is French-American journalist and filmmaker Sabr...
Jun 29, 2021•1 hr 25 min
Mary J Blige is a multi-platinum R&B and Hip Hop recording artist, a 9-time Grammy award-winner, and celebrated actress. She is also the subject of a new Amazon Studios documentary that releases on June 25th, Mary J Blige’s My Life, that marked the 25th anniversary of the artist's acclaimed 1994 album, propelling her to international stardom. Joining us to talk about Mary J Blige and the making of this documentary is the Academy Award-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth, best known for her short ...
Jun 20, 2021•51 min
The Tony and Pulitzer-Prize winning musical Rent celebrates the 25th anniversary of its Broadway premiere on June 15th. The musical's message still resonates today, as captured by the HBO documentary Revolution Rent about the first commercial American production staged in Havana, Cuba in over 50 years. Stage director and filmmaker Andy Señor, Jr played Angel in the Broadway play, directed the Havana production, and co-directed Revolution Rent with Victor Patrick Alvarez. Both join us to recall t...
Jun 15, 2021•43 min
Five years after the legendary Texas singer and songwriter Guy Clark passed away, his life and legacy is celebrated in a new documentary. Without Getting Killed or Caught brings Guy's colourful life and career to the big screen. The film is the brainchild of Grammy award-winning music producer, award-winning author, and documentary filmmaker Tamara Saviano. She and her partner in life Paul Whitfield are the co-directors and co-producers. The film looks at Guy Clark’s life as he struggles to writ...
Jun 08, 2021•55 min
Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight champion, is considered one of the greatest boxers of all time. Unfortunately, he is just as famous for his exploits outside of the ring as he is for his many knockouts. The new docuseries Mike Tyson: The Knockout is currently streaming on ABC and Hulu. Senior Executive Producer for original non-fiction content at ABC News, Roxanna Sherwood, joins us to discuss the film. Roxanna shares how she collaborated with the Oscar-winning screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher a...
Jun 01, 2021•59 min
Richard Melville Hall, better known to most of us as Moby, is an electronic music pioneer. In the 1990s he scored numerous top ten hits on the Billboard Dance Club chart and his album Play (1999) has sold over 12 million copies. Even with all that success, Moby still found himself hitting rock bottom, contemplating suicide and wondering why he wasn't happy despite achieving everything he wanted. Joining us is the director and writer of the Moby Doc, Rob Gordon Bralver. Rob teamed up with Moby to...
May 25, 2021•49 min
The Villages is a self-contained retirement community located in central Florida. Often referred to as a “Disneyland for Retirees,” it is home to over 130,000 seniors. The Villages offers residents a utopian version of a bygone America: wide, safe streets, perfectly manicured lawns, and countless activities all in the service of enjoying the golden years. Directed by filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, Some Kind of Heaven (2020) reveals cracks in The Villages' facade and explores life inside its palm-tre...
May 18, 2021•1 hr
The opioid crisis in the US has killed half a million people and created millions of addicts, all because the pharmaceutical companies pushed opioid medicines as not being prone to abuse or addictive. In his latest HBO doc-series The Crime of the Century (2021) , Oscar- and Emmy-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney provides the most comprehensive look to date at the opioid crisis in the US. Alex joins us to discuss the making of the film, arguing that the opioid crisis has deeply criminal roots. The fi...
May 12, 2021•44 min
Premiering to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Pacific War's end, the documentary Apocalypse '45 combines pristine raw, colour footage of the last months of World War II in the Asia-Pacific theatre with the voices of the two dozen men who lived through the nightmare. Critically acclaimed director, producer and writer, Erik Nelson, joins us to discuss the making of Apocalypse ‘45 . Erik shares how he found this never-before-seen footage of the war and made contact with the veterans who h...
May 04, 2021•53 min
Hollywood icons Woody Allen and Mia Farrow had a 13-year relationship that ended in flames in 1992 in front of the nation's eyes. At the centre of the breakup were allegations that Woody Allen sexually abused Dylan Farrow, the daughter he had adopted with Mia Farrow. The case and the resulting fallout still resonate nearly 30 years later. The scandal has been resurrected this year with the release of the HBO docuseries Allen v. Farrow . Joining us to discuss the social and cultural consequences ...
Apr 27, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Today, we’re talking about Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls or The Notorious B.I.G., the acclaimed rapper who was tragically murdered at the age of just 24 in a drive-by shooting. Talking to us about Biggie Smalls' life and his legacy on hip-hop is Grammy-award-winning director Emmett Malloy, who directed and produced the original Netflix documentary Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell . We talk about who Christopher Wallace really was, as well as how Emmett got access to never-before-seen foota...
Apr 20, 2021•56 min
