Episode 269: The Visionary Life of Cecilia Brown, Making Pictures, and This American Life

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By Brendan O’Meara

Cecilia Brown (@cecilbrownn) is on the show to talk about “So Nice to Hear Your Voice,” her This American Life essay about her grandmother. We get into the behind-the-scenes of the piece. Great stuff.

What else do we get into?

Continue reading “Episode 269: The Visionary Life of Cecilia Brown, Making Pictures, and This American Life”

Episode 144—Vlad Yudin and the Independent Mindset

The filmmaker Vlad Yudin, right, stands beside the late Rich Piana.

By Brendan O’Meara

“If I fail, I want to fail because of me. If we succeed, I want to succeed because of us.” —Vlad Yudin (vladar.com)

“You can’t become best friends with the subject of a documentary. You have to make it objective. I like for the audience to make their own decisions.” —Vlad Yudin

Today’s guest is Vlad Yudin, a Russian-born documentary filmmaker best known for the trilogy of Generation Iron bodybuilding films. His Vladar Company makes and producers lots of films in the fitness industry and we unpack a lot of what makes him a particularly free spirit.

In case you’re new to the show, I should mention that this is The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to badass writers, filmmakers, and producers about the art and craft of telling true stories, how they got to where they are, what struggles they deal with, and how they still manage to get the work done.

Be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and keep the conversation going on Twitter @BrendanOMeara and @CNFPod. You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram

Pulling straight from Vlad’s bio on the vladar.com website:

Born and raised in Central Russia, filmmaker Vlad Yudin grew up in Moscow before moving to New York where he would pursue his career in film. In 2008, Yudin formed The Vladar Company to create a platform for production and distribution of various feature and documentary projects. Some of the produced titles include “Last Day Of Summer,” “Big Pun: The Legacy” and most recently the documentary box office hit, “Generation Iron” that went on to become one of the top five documentary’s at the box office for The Vladar Company in 2013.  Vlad will continue to produce under the Vladar banner as well as handle the operations and overlook the expanding catalogue of Vladar’s media content.

Visit vladar.com for a list of all the movies he produces and to find links on where to find them. The first Generation Iron film and the Ronnie Coleman film are my faves, FWIW.

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Episode 129—Lisa D’Apolito Talks ‘Love, Gilda’, Her Connection to Gilda Radner, and Documentary Film as Discovery

Lisa D’Apolito’s first feature documentary was the brilliant film “Love, Gilda.”

By Brendan O’Meara

“You’re whole life adds up to who you are.” —Lisa D’Apolito (@lovegildafilm)

“The most successful people create the best experience for the people on set.” —Lisa D’Apolito

You probably want to know who’s on the show this week. This is of course The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I talk to bad-ass writers, filmmakers, and producers about the art and craft of telling true stories whereby I unpack their artist journey and tap into their routines and habits about doing the work.

Continue reading “Episode 129—Lisa D’Apolito Talks ‘Love, Gilda’, Her Connection to Gilda Radner, and Documentary Film as Discovery”