<p>Wading through 600+ hours of footage, cutting off appendages, and finding your story—we’re looking at the realities of first-time filmmaking.</p>

Episode 5 | Cuts

Conversations with the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them, from Ken Burns and PBS American Masters creator Susan Lacy to first-time directors finishing their first film. Documentary First is a weekly podcast for anyone who loves a true story, and for the filmmakers who tell them.

Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom (25+ international awards; distributed by Virgil Films, Swank, and Canal+), has talked with documentary directors, editors, producers, distributors, composers, entertainment lawyers, actors and more across HBO, Netflix, PBS, and the independent documentary world in nearly 300 conversations. Guests have included Emmy and Peabody Award-winning editor Charles Olivier (HBO’s The Jinx) and Emmy-nominated director Nicholas Bruckman (Not Going Quietly, Minted). Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide.

Two formats, one feed. The main show features long-form interviews about the stories behind the films: how they got made, what it took from the people who made them, and what they learned. On alternating weeks, Documentary First: The Deep Dive takes one insight from a recent conversation and follows it wherever it leads.

Topics include documentary films and how they get made: documentary directing, documentary producing, documentary editing, documentary distribution, documentary funding, documentary storytelling, film festival strategy, archival footage and rights clearance, entertainment law for filmmakers, and building a life in nonfiction filmmaking.

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