Doc Talk Podcast: Deep Dive With ‘A Life Illuminated’s Tasha Van Zandt And Leaders Of SFFILM’s Doc Stories Festival

Dive, dive, dive! That’s the mantra of marine biologist Dr. Edith “Edie” Widder, who has been exploring the ocean depths for decades now in submersibles than can plunge a thousand meters below the surface. In that ostensibly pitch-black space, Widder has discovered wondrous sources of light – emitted from sea creatures in a phenomenon known as bioluminescence. 

Widder’s pioneering research and remarkable career are explored in the documentary A Life Illuminated, directed by Tasha Van Zandt. It served as the closing-night film of SFFILM’s Doc Stories festival which wrapped Sunday in San Francisco. Doc Talk spoke with Van Zandt there, a conversation that ranged from “e-jellies” (electronic jellyfish), which Widder created, to giant squid – which Dr. Widder definitely did not create but which she documented alive and on camera for the first time. And when we say giant, we’re talking about 2 to 4 stories in dimension, at least.

At Doc Stories, we also spoke with SFFILM’s Executive Director Anne Lai and Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks, who shared highlights from the 11th edition of the prestigious festival. Once again, Doc Stories attracted many of the brightest (bioluminescent?) stars of the documentary world including two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot (The Eyes of Ghana), Oscar winner Laura Poitras (Cover-Up), Oscar nominee Tamara Kotevska (The Tale of Silyan), Oscar nominee Moses Bwayo (Bobi Wine: The People’s President), Oscar nominee Petra Costa (Apocalypse in the Tropics), Emmy winner Andrew Jarecki (The Alabama Solution, The Jinx), Oscar nominee Laura Nix (Walk Run Cha-Cha), award-winning filmmaker Sepideh Farsi (Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk) and many others. Those filmmakers joined The Perfect Neighbor’s Geeta Gandbhir, Crip Camp’s Jim LeBrecht, and key executives from Netflix and National Geographic at Doc Stories’ glittering brunch on Sunday morning – one of the most anticipated events of the year on the doc calendar.

The brunch was a moment for the documentary community to celebrate and raise a glass, but we also talked with Lai and Fairbanks about deep challenges facing nonfiction filmmakers, like the Trump administration’s successful effort to hack away at funding for PBS, home to more documentary programming than any other broadcast or streaming entity.

That’s on the new episode of Doc Talk, co-hosted by Oscar winner Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s senior documentary editor. The pod is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.

Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.