Black Box Diaries, Queendom and Instruments of a Beating Heart are among the films that got good news Tuesday, earning places on the coveted Oscar shortlists – Diaries and Queendom for Documentary Feature and Instruments for Documentary Short.
At the 40th IDA Documentary Awards in Los Angeles a few days ago, those films also came up winners. Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast went live at the event at the historic Orpheum Theater, speaking with victorious filmmakers and executives right after they accepted their honors. (We would have spoken with the directors of No Other Land, which won Best Documentary Feature at the IDA Awards, but as you heard on a recent Doc Talk podcast, the collective of four Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers couldn’t leave the Middle East to attend the ceremony.)
Black Box Diaries’ Shiori Ito tells us what she packs in her luggage to keep balanced during the insanely rigorous travel schedule required of an Oscar contender. Queendom director Agniia Galdanova and producer Igor Myakotin give us insight into how the heroine of their film — the extraordinary drag performance artist Jenna Marvin – is doing after being essentially hounded out of her native Russia. Ema Ryan Yamazaki, director of Instruments of a Beating Heart, tells us about the background to her film and the origins of its title, which owes something to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”
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We also talk with Career Achievement Award winner Dawn Porter, who explains how the example of the late civil rights movement leader John Lewis is sustaining her as she absorbs the results of the presidential election. And Lois Vossen of ITVS and Independent Lens, winner of Best Curated Series, shares why she thinks public institutions are about to come under serious threat.
Dominic Asmall Willsdon, who took over as executive director of the IDA about a year ago, joins us at the Orpheum to talk about what’s next for the organization, and why IDA is planning to file suit against the U.S. State Department.
That’s on the new edition of Doc Talk, hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s documentary editor. The pod, a 2024 Webby Awards honoree, is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.
Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.
