PRESS: Pop Candy is sweet

Joshua Ligairi » 3.3.11 »

The lovely and amazing Whitney Matheson (Pop Candy) over at USA Today just wrote up her "Top 10 Film Podcasts" and we at The Documentary Blog Podcast somehow slipped in under the radar at the number 10 spot.

It is a huge honor to be listed among the giants of filmmaker interviewers like Creative Screenwriting's Jeff Goldsmith (now hosting The Q&A) and the undisputed master, Elvis Mitchell of The Treatment. These two guys directly inspired the creation of our podcast.

We were also listed with super-popular podcasts like Kevin Smith's Hollywood Babble-On and guys who have the movie podcasting thing down to a science like Filmspotting and The /Filmcast. Stephen Tobolowsky (and his quirky, personal essay of a show, The Tobolowsky Files), while the oddball on this list and maybe more fitting with a list that includes The Moth or This American Life, is a raconteur in the truest sense of the word and his podcast is a great listen.

Anyway, if it wasn't obvious, we're really excited to be mentioned here after only 10 episodes and, buoyed by this achievement (of sorts), I personally vow to make the podcast increasingly better from now on. Check out Whitney Matheson's original article at Pop Candy for some great recommendations and, if you are as big a film geek as me, subscribe to these other great podcasts on iTunes. I subscribe to over half of them myself.

I'd also recommend checking out Mark Maron and RadioWest for awesome interviews, Film Junk and A Damn Movie Podcast for some laid-back but knowledgeable chat, The Business and On the Media for industry insider stories, and Film Week for professional critic reviews. So many more but these and those on the Pop Candy list are a good place to start.

NEWS: Adam(n) podcast appearance

Joshua Ligairi » 09.03.09 »

Two guys named Adam from Salt Lake City run a cool little film podcast where the movies of yesterday and today are jovially discussed in a low-key atmosphere that feels more like hanging out with old friends than a cineaste dissection of cinema. That's not to say that these guys can't drop science. The Adams are true film fans and can speak knowledgeably about anything from the work of Alfred Hitchcock to that of David Cronenberg. I've often enjoyed their rants on everything from Apocolypse Now and Blade Runner to Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Howard the Duck. These guys don't discriminate.

I first heard about A Damn Movie Podcast on Filmspotting (you may remember from a previous post that I am sickeningly addicted to several movie podcasts, Filmspotting ranking high on the junkie list) when one of those Adams, Adam Palcher, dropped in to talk about his favorite films of 2009 so far. Hearing a local on one of my favorite national podcasts, I did a spit take all over my Mac and then jumped on iTunes to look these guys up and see what I was missing out on. And I'm glad I did because it soon paid off in more than just cheap entertainment.

Last night I had the honor of being a guest on the show, recorded at Adam Sherlock's amazing house at a super-secret location in Salt Lake City. How amazingly super-secret? The guy has his own road. But I digress. Sherlock and Palcher invited myself and Andrew James, co-director of the Cleanflix documentary, on the show to discuss our film and the ideas behind it. What ensued was an interesting (to us) if incomprehensible (to everyone but us) conversation about Mormon culture, sanitized movies, the making-of our film, and the upcoming premiere of Cleanflix at the Toronto International Film Festival. I hope that what was said could be considered insightful commentary, but either way I had a great time and it was cool to see that the Adams are actually even more likebale in person than they are on the air.

You can download the podcast on iTunes for free. Just search "A Damn Movie Podcast." Our interview is halfway into Episode 71, the censorship episode, which also features a review of Private Parts and a top five list where the guys discuss movies that they would like to edit just to improve the quality of the film (the Phantom Edit anyone?). It is all worth a listen, but if you have a short attention span, our interview comes in at right about the 30 minute mark.

Another great thing is that the podcast happens to feature music from two of my favorite local bands, arguably two of the best indie/alt country bands in the world right now, Cub Country and Band of Annuals. You can find music from both of these bands online, and I would recommend that you do. I especially like the Cub Country album "High Uinta High" which is largely about singer/songwriter Jeremy Chatelain's (Jets to Brazil, Iceburn) love for the great state of Utah.

I should also probably mention, for those with sensitive ears, that these damn podcasters swear like sailors and the entire interview is riddled with colorful language. If you don't have access to iTunes, you can download the episode directly from their blog. The photos that I've posted of the Adams are by Renee Lee at BellaOra Studios and Francisco Kjolseth at In This Week.