Doc Talk Podcast Featuring Three Top Oscar Contenders: 'The Tale Of Silyan', 'Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk', and 'Cover-Up'

As members of the Oscar documentary branch gear up to cast their votes for the shortlist starting Monday, they will face an unprecedented selection of 201 feature documentaries. By the end of the voting process, this extensive collection will be narrowed down to just 15 films eligible for an Oscar nomination.

On todays episode of Deadlines Doc Talk podcast, we spoke with creators behind three leading contenders for shortlist consideration. Among them is the team behind National Geographics The Tale of Silyan. Director Tamara Kotevska, known for her Oscar-nominated 2019 documentary Honeyland (co-directed with Ljubo Stefanov), presents a story that intertwines reality with myth. In her home country of North Macedonia, white storks hold cultural significance and have long nested in the region. The film, shot and produced by Jean Dakar, depicts a farmer caring for an injured storka bond described by Kotevska and Dakar as pure magic.

We also spoke with Sepideh Farsi, director of Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk. Farsi shares how she connected with her documentarys subject, Fatma Hassouna, a Palestinian photographer and poet enduring the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Tragically, Hassouna and her family were killed in a missile strike the day after the film was accepted to premiere at Cannes Film Festival.

Veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, now in his late 80s, continues his rigorous reporting on Gaza and other major stories. His career is explored in Cover-Up, directed by Oscar winner Laura Poitras (Citizenfour) and Mark Obenhaus. Poitras discusses the uproar caused by Hersh joining the New York Times during the Nixon era, his investigation into his own superiors, and moments of tension during the documentarys production. Cover-Up, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival alongside The Tale of Silyan, opens in U.S. theaters on December 19 and will stream on Netflix starting December 26.

All the guests featured on todays podcast were interviewed at SFFILMs Doc Stories festival in San Francisco, a key event for filmmakers seeking Academy recognition. This episode of Doc Talk is co-hosted by Oscar winner Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley) and Matt Carey, Deadlines senior documentary editor. The podcast is a joint production of Deadline and Ridleys N Studios. Episodes are available on Spotify, iHeart, Apple Podcasts, and other major platforms.

Author: Sophia Brooks