Making Media Now

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode are Suzannah Herbert and Darcy McKinnon, the director and producer of the award-winning documentary "Natchez," which will air on PBS on May 11 as part of the Independent Lens Series.   The film is also currently available for VOD streaming on multiple platforms including Apple TV, Prime Video, and YouTube TV.   Winner of the best documentary feature award at the 2025 Tribeca film festival, "Natchez" captures an unsettling clash between history and memory in a small Mississippi town; it’s a layered mosaic of people contending with the weight of the past in a place where it i...

Returning guest Brandon Katz joins host Michael Azevedo on this episode to take a look at some compelling data that’s informing several film and television related stories he’s recently published.   As the Director of Insight & Content Strategy for Greenlight Analytics, Brandon—who’s also a former entertainment journalist and film critic—unpacks data analysis to reveal compelling trends within the film and media industry.   Brandon and Michael discuss how multi-year film development cycles can often result in films whose cultural relevance may fade between the time a project is green lit to the time it hits movie screens. While the fi...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode are Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman, two of the three co-directors on Academy Award-winning filmmaker and activist Fisher Stevens's (The Cove) timely environmental documentary called "We Are Guardians" which he produced alongside Executive Producer and fellow Academy-award winner and activist Leonardo DiCarprio.   The film which follows Indigenous forest defenders protecting the Brazilian Amazon, will expand its global streaming release on Earth Day, April 22, bringing the film to billions of viewers worldwide.
  "We Are Guardians" explores the complex intersections of politics, history, economics, and science, while shedding light on the global implications of defo...

Host Michael Azevedo is joined by Raúl O. Paz Pastrana, the director of a new documentary airing on PBS’ Independent Lens series on April 13. Raul’s film, "Backside: The Unseen Hands of Horseracing," set amidst the pageantry of horseracing’s premier event—The Kentucky Derby—goes behind the glamour to present a portrait of the unseen workers whose tireless efforts are key to the event’s success.   Backside offers an intimate and tender glimpse into the lives of immigrant workers who begin their days at 3 a.m., seven days a week, year-round, caring for some of the world's most prized racehor...

Back in 2023, Making Media Now host Michael Azevedo was joined by filmmaker Bonnie Waltch and writer Sara Schley to talk about a film project for which Filmmakers Collaborative was the fiscal sponsor.   The film was called "Brainstorm" and it’s now complete and will be featured in a global virtual screening on March 30 as part of World Bipolar Day.   Bonnie is the film’s writer, director, and producer. And Sara served as co-writer and co-producer.   BrainStorm follows six compelling people living with bipolar in their journey from devastation to recovery. The film connects their experiences with the latest bipolar brain science...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on episode is writer and director Andrew Goldberg, whose documentary "White with Fear" will premiere on PBS on March 24.    Told by the operatives in the rooms where it happened, "White With Fear" is an explosive deep dive into the decades-long quest by America’s conservative political machine to amass power by exploiting racial fault lines and stoking narratives of White victimization.   The documentary examines how some American conservatives and political operatives have successfully weaponized racism and fear for decades and uncovers the real-world consequences of deploying tactics that seek to demonize immigrants, spread Islamophobia, and devise a str...

On this episode host Michael Azevedo takes a dive into season three of the award-winning podcast series, The Big Dig, produced by GBH News and distributed by PRX. Season three is called "Catching The Codfather."   Joining Michael are series’ host Ian Coss and the GBH Managing Producer of Podcasts, Devin Maverick Robins.   Season Three of The Big Dig™ podcast, “Catching The Codfather,” goes down to the docks. It’s a place  where food, work, nature, money and politics all meet – where dreams are born, fortunes ruined, and where the watchful eye of the government is always present.   The series traces the rise of Carlo...

On this episode, host Michael Azevedo chats with award-winning documentary filmmaker Lisa Olivieri about her film, "Recovery City," a raw exploration of what it means to be in recovery as seen through the eyes of four women whose lives share a common thread: addiction.   Set in the working class city of Worcester MA, the film is a real and honest portrait of resilience, grit and camaraderie presenting women who use their lived experience to lift up those still struggling while refusing to give up hope.   "Recovery City" will screen on March 28 at GBH Studios in Boston as part of the Vinf...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Angela Lynn Tucker, the director of an inspiring and informative new documentary called "The Inquisitor," which tells the story of the life and career of Barbara Jordan.   As a young girl growing up in Houston’s Fifth Ward, Barbara Jordan was taught to defy expectations. She understood that to succeed, she would need to forge her own path.   With relentless determination and unyielding tenacity, Barbara Jordan made history as Texas’s first Black state senator and in 1972 the first Southern Black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.    At a time whe...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Miles Spencer, the co-founder of an innovative AI start-up called Reflekta. A few weeks back, Mile’s team reached out to me to say that they’ve enjoyed the conversations I've had with various types of storytellers…and how they especially liked how our conversations revealed the stories within the stories.  

Miles has helped create over 1,100 jobs while founding, financing, building and exiting three digital media companies. Before doing that he spent time in venture capital, hosted a precursor to Shark Tank called MoneyHunt on PBS , led over 1,500 people across 14 miles of open se...

Host Michael Azevedo is joined on this episode by first-time director Vivien Hillgrove and producer Deann Borshay Liem to discuss a truly engaging and poignant personal documentary called “Vivien’s Wild Ride,” which will premiere on PBS on January 26.    Vivien Hillgrove has been a film and sound editor all her adult life.    She's worked with many filmmaking greats including: Francis Ford Coppola, Phillip Kaufman, Milos Forman, and Walter Murch, along with a who’s who of celebrated documentary filmmakers.    When Vivien’s eyesight starts to deteriorate, the shame and loneliness she felt in 1964, when she was forced to relinquish her baby as a teenag...

Host Michael Azevedo is joined on this episode by Laura Varela and Andrew Gonzales, the producer and producer/director of "American Sons," a new documentary that follows a brotherhood of Marines a decade after their deployment to Afghanistan, as they struggle to overcome the trauma of combat and the loss of many of their comrades.   The film will premiere on PBS on January 12 and will stream simultaneously with broadcast and be available on all station-branded PBS platforms   The story of their time in Afghanistan is told through the video diary of Corporal JV Villarreal, who was killed in action by an...

Host Michael Azevedo is joined on this episode by Ben Loeterman, the writer and director of Bombshell, a new documentary that Explores How The U.S. government manipulated the narrative around the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.   Ben’s film will premiere on PBS as part of the American Experience series on January 6 and will be available on the PBS app and the American Experience website thereafter.    Through propaganda, censorship and the co-opting of the press, the government presented a benevolent picture of atomic power, minimizing the horrific human toll of the bombings.    The U.S. media became pivotal in prom...

On this episode host Michael Azevedo welcomes back Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Joshua Seftel to discuss his latest documentary, "All the Empty Rooms," which is currently available on Netflix and has been short-listed for the 2025 Oscars in the category of best documentary short.   Across America, bedrooms sit untouched — walls still covered in posters, clothes folded neatly in drawers — silent memorials to children lost to gun violence.  

"All the Empty Rooms" is a 33-minute documentary that follows CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman on a seven-year journey visiting families who have lost a child, photographing each child’s room as it was on their...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is first-time filmmaker Nivi Jaswal-Wirtjes, the director & executive producer of a powerful and thought-provoking new documentary called “Third Degree Burnout”  

Narrated by renowned meteorologist John Morales, "Third Degree Burnout" uncovers the hidden connections between personal burnout and the climate crisis, revealing them as symptoms of a larger socio-economic metacrisis.

With world-class animation, engaging interviews with over 20 experts, and playful humor woven into thought-provoking skits, the film breaks down complex ideas into something accessible, relatable, and impactful.

From the history of our food systems to the ripple effects of the C...

On this episode, host Michael Azevedo joined by long-time friend of the podcast Tim O’Donnell of Pixela Films and by first-time guest Mary Dague to discuss the just-completed film, "The Last Yztari."   This innovative and moving film tells the story of how after using her body as a shield to protect her unit from an IED in Iraq, Mary Dague is left medically retired, missing both arms from the elbow down.    Many years after returning home, she finds a new place in online gaming communities as she adapts her controllers to work with her feet.    When her active-military husband readies...

Director Daniel Masciari who joins host Michael Azevedo to discuss "Stationed at Home," his debut feature film.    Set on a clear and frigid Christmas Eve in 1998, in a small, forgotten city, "Stationed at Home" tells the tale of a solitary taxi driver on the graveyard shift breathlessly awaiting the sight of the International Space Station. As the hours count down, a parade of offbeat misfits derail his plans, propelling the story to its exhilarating climax.   Daniel Masciari grew up outside of Boston in a neighborhood of new arrivals to America from all over the world—a community that nurtured his imagi...

Host Michael Azevedo is joined on this episode by Jon Shenk co-director of a powerful documentary now streaming on Netflix called In Waves and War.   Blending observational scenes and animation, "In Waves and War" traces the journey of three Navy SEALs, tormented by trauma, to Mexico where they embark on a mission to rescue one another with powerful psychedelics whose effects shake them to the core and open a path toward healing.   Alongside intimate interviews, captivating animation, and first-of-its-kind research at Stanford’s Brain Stimulation Lab, "In Waves and War," is the emotional, inspiring odyssey of three American heroes as they...

Host Michael Azevedo is joined on this episode by Vicki Hughes and Holly Stadtler, two veterans of the documentary filmmaking world who’ve teamed up to produce The Green Box: At The Heart of War, a film based on a memoir by Jim Kurtz that tells the story of his decades long search to learn more about his father, 2nd Lt. Robert Kurtz, who died when Jim was just 2 years old.   All Jim knew of his father was that he was a bomber pilot in the European theater during WWII.  And because of his mother’s grief, most of the details o...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Ben Flaherty, the director of Shuffle, a film that won the documentary jury award at the 2025 SXSW festival. 

This powerful documentary provides a look into the lives of three Florida residents who struggle to free themselves from a predatory system of for-profit recovery centers that benefit from their reliance on substances.

The film depicts a depressingly familiar pattern of institutions failing the very individuals they exist to help.

A former addict himself, Ben Flaherty uses his own sobriety journey as a starting point to discuss t...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Rick Goldsmith, the director of the documentary “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink.

Rick’s film offers a clear-eyed look at the current state of journalism in the United States with a focus on the insidious threat from a secretive hedge fund that has put America’s free press at risk.  

Alden Global Capital, operating in the shadows, has managed to upend countless local newsrooms in the past 15 years. But their profit-at-all-costs efforts have not gone un-checked.  

This powerful, eye-opening 90-minute documentary tracks the courageo...

Host Michael Azevedo is joined on this episode is Clay Tweel, director of a powerful new documentary called "The Bitter Pill."    Clay’s film—which debuted on PBS on 9/22 and will be available to stream on PBS digital until December 10-- follows the charismatic West Virginian plaintiff attorney Paul Farrell, Jr, as he wages a legal war against some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies in a landmark battle fueled by personal stakes.    A powerful chronicle of justice, accountability, and resilience, the Bitter Pill is set in Farrell’s hometown, Cabell County, West Virginia, a community at the epicenter of America’s...

On May 8, 1970, “the Hard Hat Riot” erupted in lower Manhattan. At midday, construction workers, including those building the World Trade Center, violently clashed with students demonstrating against the Vietnam War.   Workmen saw the protesting students as privileged “draft dodgers” disparaging the country and those who fought for it. On the other side, many student activists saw the workers as pawns, unwilling to see the changes that America needed.    On this episode, host Michael Azevedo speaks with Marc Levin, the director of "Hard Hat Riot," a new documentary that will broadcast on PBS’ American Experience on September 30 and be available online thereafter.  ...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Andy DeMeo, the creator and host of the Granite Goodness podcast and Substack newsletter.  

Andy has a belief that most news thrives on outrage, fear, and conflict. And he created "Granite Goodness" in order to take a different approach.

The podcast and newsletter highlights what Andy calls real progress happening across New England in science, tech, sustainability, business, economics, infrastructure, and more.

It’s Andy’s contention that when people see a better world is possible, they are more likely to build it. At the core of "Grani...

Host Michael Azevedo is joined by veteran film and television director Rob Spera.   Rob’s been on the faculty at the American Film Institute for over 20 years. His feature films include The Sweet Life, Fathers and Sons, and the cult classic Leprechaun in the Hood.    His numerous television credits include Criminal Minds, Supernatural, Suspect Behavior, and Army Wives. During four seasons as Resident Director at the Tony award-winning Actors Theatre of Louisville, he directed over 75 productions. And he is currently the Head of Directing at Rideback Rise, a Fellowship Program for mid-career screenwriters who are making the move to directing.    Rob disc...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode are Jen Bradwell and Todd Boekelheide, the married co-directors of "Make A Circle," a new documentary that offers a rare, inside look at the lives of child care providers and early educators — the backbone of a child care system on the brink.   The film premieres Monday, September 1 streaming nationally on PBS.org, the PBS app and on PBS TV stations (check local listings) across the country.    As Jen Bradwell says: “Make A Circle is a love letter to early educators and a portrait of a child care system in crisis. The film delves into one...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Jonathan Berman, director of the newly restored documentary "Commune." Originally released in 2005, the film has been newly restored with vibrant sound and picture quality and is currently making the rounds at movie houses across the US.    Commune chronicles the story of Black Bear Ranch, launched in 1968 with help from luminaries like The Doors, Frank Zappa, and The Monkees. This abandoned goldmine transformed into a hub for radical living, fueled by the motto "Free Land for Free People."   The film is packed with rare interviews—including with well-know actor and frequent documentary narrator Peter Coyot...

Here's a brief update on the current status of public media.   In short: it ain’t good.   If you’re a regular listener to MMN, you probably know that over the more than 150 episodes that we’ve produced a sizable chunk of them involved conversations with documentary filmmakers whose work was broadcast on public media outlets like PBS and NPR.    Much of the reason that these documentaries have found a home at places like PBS is because they deal with important issues—issues that impact the health of our democracy, our natural environment, the rights of marginalized groups, and often compelling h...

Documentary filmmakers Ellen Martinez and Steph Ching join host Michael Azevedo to discuss Slumlord Millionaire, winner of the Audience Award at the 2024 DOC NYC Film Festival. The film explores the rapid gentrification of New York City neighborhoods and the housing crisis sweeping not only New York but the nation.

Told through the stories of a group of fearless residents, activists and nonprofit attorneys who fight corrupt landlords and developers for the basic human right to a home, the film premieres on the PBS series VOCES on Monday, July 28. It will also be available on all PBS digital...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Troy Farkas, the creator, producer, and host of "Seacoast Stories," a podcast featuring compelling stories about the unique people, businesses, and newsmakers of New Hampshire and southern Maine.   This weekly podcast takes on sometimes controversial issues, highlights local businesses, tells entertaining stories, and seeks to uncover what makes the northern NE Seacoast such a hidden gem.   Prior to creating the "Seacoast Stories" podcast, Troy spent 7 years producing top-performing podcasts at ESPN and The Ringer podcast network on Spotify which were hosted by some of the most high-profile sports media personalities in the wo...

Host Michael Azevedo is joined by members of the team behind a compelling and eye-opening short documentary called “Gone Guys.”  Chad Ervin  is the film’s director & producer. Also joining the conversation is the film's executive producer, Lauren Curry, of the Richard E and Deborah L Tarrant Foundation.   The documentary draws on the influential work of writer & social scientist Richard Reeves. Reeves is the author of the 2022 best seller “Of Boys and Men”, which illuminates these challenges through powerful data and compelling personal stories.    NOTE: In the interest of accuracy, we note that a slight misstatement was made at the 54min, 24sec mark...

“If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. And the people that no longer believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act, but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people, you can then do what you please.”

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Chad Freidrichs, the director and editor of a fascinating and intriguing film called "The Cinema Within."

"The Cinema Within," which is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video and on Vimeo, is a feature-length documentary that delves into the psychology of film editing – the mystery of how and why an edited movie feels so natural and so effortlessly makes sense.

Drawing on the insights of famed movie editor Walter Murch, scholar David Bordwell, and a varied group of perceptual scientists, "The Cinema Within" explores the idea that in fil...

Host Michael Azevedo welcomes back Mickela Mallozzi, the four-time Emmy Award-winning host and executive producer of “Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi,” a PBS series that highlights the diversity of dance with episodes filmed around the world. A dancer since early childhood, Mickela has parlayed her lifelong passion into a popular PBS series that travels the world to celebrate the joy of movement.  

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creative...

Host Michael Azevedo is joined by two guests to discuss recent funding cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the NEH, and the National Endowment for the Arts, the NEA. To provide insight into the topic, Michael is  joined by documentary filmmaker and television producer Marisa Fox, who in a recent article in the Hollywood Reporter described what she and many of her peers have been going through as the Trump administration makes drastic cuts to the NEH and the NEA.

Also joining the conversation is Laura Azevedo, executive director of Filmmakers Collaborative, which sponsors this po...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is writer/director Gene Tempest. Gene’s latest documentary is “Mr. Polaroid” and it will debut on PBS as part of the American Experience series on May 19. Following its broadcast premiere, the film will be available via the PBS app and on the American Experience YouTube channel. The film profiles Edwin Land, a pioneering tech disruptor and Inventor of the mid-century icon that transformed photography.   Long before the iPhone, another inventive device allowed everyone to instantly chronicle their lives — the Polaroid camera. The product, and the company’s unique culture, would launch not only instan...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode are Will Parrinello and Rick Tejada-Flores, the director and co-producers of a documentary that premiered on PBS in April called "Water for Life."    The film, which is available to stream via the PBS app and on PBS.org, tells the story of three extraordinary individuals: in Honduras; Francisco Pineda, in El Salvador; and in Chile, who refused to let government supported industry and transnational corporations take their water and redirect it to mining, hydroelectric projects or large scale agriculture. Despite reassurances from companies and the authorities, they knew what lay ahead: contaminated water, envi...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is independent filmmaker Joseph Mathew, director of "The Long Walk of Carlos Guerrero," a feature film that was Inspired by real immigrant journeys and stories of survival set in the desert wilderness of the Arizona borderlands.   In the film, we meet Carlos Guerrero, a New York City chef, who decides to visit his sick mother in Mexico, knowing full well  he is taking the ultimate risk as an undocumented immigrant.The film follows his epic journey back to New York when he and a young girl from El Salvador, get stranded in the de...

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Signe Taylor, the director of a documentary called It’s Criminal. "It's Criminal" highlights the economic and social inequities that divide the United States and offers a vision of how separated communities can learn to speak to each other.

Poignant and personal, the 80-minute feature documentary shares the life-changing journeys of incarcerated women and Dartmouth College students working together to write and perform an original play that explores the often painful and troubled paths that landed the women behind bars and also shares some of their fragile visions for th...

Host Michael Azevedo welcomes back journalist and media analyst Brandon Katz. Brandon’s recent article in The Observer, titled "The Decline of Originality in Hollywood: A Look at the Numbers" explores how original content, in TV shows and movies, have, over the past 15 years, lost out in a landslide to existing IP, meaning Intellectual Property.   Existing IP is defined as anything based on pre-existing material such as comic books, novels, video games, podcasts and musicals and including remakes, reboots, revivals, prequels, sequels and spinoffs.    If you look at the numbers—viewership and ticket sales—it’s undeniable that IP-driven content is a powerh...