Doc Talk Podcast Records From Berlin’s EFM DocSalon With Filmmakers Anna Fitch, Banker White And Mark Cousins

Filmmakers Anna Fitch and Banker White spent 16 years working on their documentary Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird), a portrait of Fitch’s unforgettable friend Yolando Shea – the “Yo” of the title.

The directors’ patience, not to mention their skill and creativity, has been rewarded with a Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the just-concluded Berlin Film Festival. Fitch and White join the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their Berlinale world premiere, an interview recorded live at the EFM DocSalon.

A nearly 50-year age difference separated Fitch from Shea, and yet they could hardly have been closer. After Yo’s passing, Fitch couldn’t quite say goodbye, to the point she felt compelled to create a one-third scale model of Yo’s home in Pacific Grove, CA, and to populate the mini-dwelling with a doll likeness of her friend.

In the Doc Talk interview, the directors explain how bug wrangling became part of the project, and they disclose the one scene Shea asked them to film before she died.

On the podcast, we also share an interview from the EFM DocSalon with Mark Cousins, director of the 16-chapter opus The Story of Documentary Film. In his encyclopedic tour of the artform, Cousins invokes the likes of the Lumière Brothers, Leni Riefenstahl, John Grierson and lesser-known figures like Ella Bergmann-Michel. At the DocSalon talk, the director also shares his unvarnished opinion of Melania – the documentary about the U.S. first lady – telling us the film directed by Brett Ratner left him “incandescent with rage.”

Cousins, who possesses an unparalleled knowledge of nonfiction film and of cinema as a whole, tells us why he thinks “documentary kills fascism,” a particularly important assertion at the present moment.
On the episode, hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey also mark the passing of a legend in documentary filmmaking, Frederick Wiseman. And we discuss a rule change at the Academy Awards that could have a big impact on what films ends up winning the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short.

That’s on the new episode of Doc Talk hosted by Oscar winner Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley) and 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.