This year’s Emmy-directed documentary is full of celebrities. Not only have four of the seven directors nominated public figures, but the five featured focus include Marquee names.
Judd Apatow and “The American Dream of George Carlin” by Michael Bonfiglio, “Lucy and Daisy” by Amy Poehler, and “Andy Warhol’s Memoirs” by Andrew Rossi explore the lives of the iconic characters.
W. Kamau Bell “We Need to Talk About Cosby” examines Bill Cosby’s thorny cultural legacy, while Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Return” is a portrait of the band’s final chapter. Finally, Ian Denyer’s Venice episode of “Stanley Tucci: The Search for Italy” follows the actor as he visits the coastal city.
Denyer’s is the only director nominated with a film that is not based on archive footage. Instead, he spent two and a half weeks preparing in Venice before Tucci’s arrival for one week, meticulously planned.
“The show is the TV equivalent of joining the Navy SEALS,” Denyer quipped. “It’s a huge three-camera shot that includes travel and food, two things you don’t want to put together because of constant anxiety. Of course, there’s also Hollywood talent, but since Stanley is a dream to work with, I’m coming back for more.”
The veteran document manager says the increase in celebrity-led documents is due to the recent recognition of the value of unseen footage. “The grandchildren of deceased celebrities realized they’d make money in the attic if they had home movies and unseen footage.”
“The absence of political and environmental documentaries in this category is not surprising given the current political and cultural climate,” says Sheila Nevins, president of MTV Documentary Films. “The world is so dark now. There is so little hope. We desperately need lightness. So, it’s fitting that people who make you laugh like Judd and Amy tell stories about famous people. It gives you a reason to wake up.”
Amy Poehler directed by “Lucy & Desi”.
Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video
Although “Lucy and Desi” is Bowler’s first documentary, she has directed several episodes of “Parks and Recreation” and two feature films. Bowler says that while the cinematic forms are “very different,” the key to both novels and documents is to give audiences a reason to care.
“I wanted to make sure I found a special way in ‘Lucy and Desi’ because documentaries about famous people can often feel like a well-produced homage,” she says. “So I thought, what is the content with these two so famous we know nothing about?”
That’s when I found out that the relationship would be the backbone of the docu: “Lucy and Daisy had a romance that kept us interested.”
“George Carlin’s American Dream” is Apatow’s fourth documentary and third reality film he co-directed with Bonfiglio.
“I’m always looking for the emotional journey,” Apatow says. “So with the documentary, it’s the same narration, except that I didn’t invent it. I also love that documentaries can go deeper if the material is there. George Carlin had a lot of notes and he loved recording things. We found a huge amount of very intimate love letters. Between him and his wife Brenda, it lights up everything we were discussing (in the movie). So, a lot of the work is also a search for the truth.”
Three-time Academy Award-winning director Jackson spent four years sifting through 150 hours of audio and 60 hours of vintage footage produced by Michael Lindsay-Hogg in 1969 for his documentary “Let It Be.” The result was “The Beatles: Get Back.”
According to Jackson, the The nearly eight-hour series requires the same dedication to the story that A fantasy movie.
“Directing a documentary using archival footage intersects writing and directing because even though you’re not guiding in the sense of standing on a movie set saying, ‘I want this lens,’ you’re trying to look at the footage and try to figure out, where is the movie? What is the movie? How are we going to tell the story? “
The streaming services’ growing appetite for A-list-driven content has given way to celebrities entering the non-fiction space.
“Live streaming devices have provided a wonderful opportunity to tell stories on a large board,” says Rossi, director of Andy Warhol’s Diary. But it also made the market for traditional documentaries somewhat challenging. It makes sense that those who go into the field have a lot of resources and also a great ability to get people to show up.”
Andy Warhol’s Diaries.
Andy Warhol Foundation / Netflix
He continues, “Making people trust you and really show up in their interviews and challenging what they’ve been through in a new way and not just providing talking points is a manager’s job. So, who has the relationships to make that happen? Who has deep subject knowledge to make people feel comfortable going places they haven’t been.” It varies for each topic and story.”
Apatow agrees: “I can’t imagine anything more frightening than asking someone to try to boil down your father’s personal and artistic journey into a documentary. It makes sense that you’d hope to find someone who you feel will understand all the dynamics.”
Bonfiglio notes that the process of making a documentary about Carlin was much easier “with Judd’s track record, reputation and standing in the world of comedy”.
And let’s be honest, he adds, “there’s a very useful marketing factor as well.”
Andy Warhol by Rossi is a six-hour exploration of Warhol’s journey as an artist, director, publisher, and producer. Based on the 1989 memoir, Rossi says it’s not about a celebrity.
“It’s a profound investigation into the meaning of homosexuality in one of the homosexual texts that has never been viewed in this way with an artist rarely considered a gay man and a gay artist,” he says. “I’m trying to do this at a time when LGBTQ rights are being rolled back, especially at the state level, in the United States. So it’s a story that we hope is fun, immersive, entertaining and can resonate with our turbulent moment and feelings of living in a world cracking at the seams.”
“We need to talk about Cosby” is layers, too; It is not only about the downfall of Cosby, but also explores the culture of rape, accountability and Bill himself.
“I felt drawn to her because I’m black, I’m a guy and a comedian. I also grew up worshiping Bill Cosby.” I couldn’t speak for myself about it. It just felt so big and so necessary.”
Ultimately, Bonfiglio believes that all nominated films use celebrities as a means to achieve something greater: “The interesting thing about the nominated films is that they are about the theme of celebrities, but they all go beyond that and find things that we all relate to more deeply than just showing business.”
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