The Academy Launches New “The Art of Documentary” Podcast Series

While the Oscars only come around once a year, The Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences populate the calendar with plenty of auxiliary content. Recent years have shown much of that auxiliary content to come in podcast form, as The Academy has audio-based shows including And The Oscar Goes To… as well as The Academy Museum Podcast that provide a deeper look into the history and process of the Academy Awards and their place within Hollywood. Now, The Academy is expanding its audio reach with a new podcast tailored towards one particular type of production.

The Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences has launched The Art of Documentary, a new Academy Originals podcast. Art of the Documentary will be hosted by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jim LeBrecht, the co-director of 2020 documentary Crip Camp. The debut season of The Art of Documentary will span six episodes and will feature interviews with “some of the most talented documentary filmmakers of our time.”

Special guests included on this season include Danny Cohen (Anonymous Club), Bing Liu (All These Sons & Minding The Gap), Chase Joynt & Aisling (No Ordinary Man), Kirsten Johnson (Dick Johnston Is Dead & Cameraperson), Garrett Bradley (TIME), Roger Ross Williams (Apollo & Life Animated & more), and more.

“Unlike feature films, there is no set method to making documentaries. How a filmmaker approaches their subject and how they engage with it can be infinitely varied,” The Academy’s press release reads. “The most driven documentarians innovate new ways to tell their stories, finding the unique and special angle to which no one else has access. And some others take extraordinary dangerous risks in order to get the story that others won’t approach.”

The first episode of The Art of Documentary is live now, featuring Danny Cohen as a guest star. New episodes of The Art of Documentary stream every Wednesday and are available on all podcast platforms.