Activate The Hot Tub Time Machine! Doc Talk Podcast Soaks In TIFF Nonfiction Lineup With Festival’s Chief Documentary Programmer

Take one conservative anti-Trumper, add a liberal Hollywood filmmaker, toss them in a Hot Tub Time Machine, and what comes out? One of the most talked-about documentaries set to premiere at next month’s Toronto Film Festival.

In the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, TIFF’s chief documentary programmer Thom Powers joins the show to discuss the festival’s 2024 nonfiction lineup, including The Last Republican. That film “stars” former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an ex-member of the January 6th Congressional investigating committee who turned on President Donald Trump after the insurrection and hasn’t let up since (unlike, say, Sen. Mitch McConnell, or former House Speak Kevin McCarthy). Powers explains how Kinzinger ended up telling his story to filmmaker Steve Pink, a self-described leftie best known for 2010’s time-traveling hot tub comedy.

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The revelations don’t stop there. Powers shares how he and his programming team narrowed over 900 submissions to a very lean 21 final selections. He previews more buzzworthy titles like Mistress Dispeller, a documentary about women in China who are hired to break up extramarital affairs; Space Cowboy, about a skydiving cinematographer who shot a car tumbling out of a plane; and Men of War, a documentary Powers describes as Rambo meets Fyre Fest that centers on a freebooting mercenary who tried to overthrow Venezuela’s government.

Powers also shares his thoughts on whether the gloom is lifting from a documentary field in the dumps over the slow pace of acquisitions and tightening budgets.

That’s on the latest edition of Doc Talk, hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley and Matt Carey, Deadline’s documentary editor. The pod, a 2024 Webby Awards honoree, 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.

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