EP040 - Stories Left Behind w/ Julie Goldman & Chris Clements
Doc Walks
When we find Julie Goldman and Chris Clements of Motto Pictures in a Sundance hotel lobby, they’re doing what they do—sharing hugs and encouragement with the Oscar-nominated team from THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR. They’re the kind of producers who root hard for everybody in the field while juggling 8-10 projects of their own. Julie and Chris know everyone—and they champion longtime friends and newcomers to docmaking alike. When we asked Julie to walk with us last year at SXSW, she was a quick and easy “YES,” but it took til Sundance for us all to be in the same place at the same...
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EP039: The Manhole Covers Of Park City W/ Sam Green
Doc Walks
We are excited to catch Sam Green—despite freezing our asses off on Main Street—hours after the world premiere of THE OLDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD. What starts as a conversation about chasing Guinness World Records quickly becomes something bigger: how curiosity transforms into meaning. Sam walks us through ten years of filming, cancer scares, fatherhood, and the realization that 116-year-olds don't give a fuck about pearls of wisdom—like Keith, they just want snacks and naps. Sam is an inspiration, driven by endless curiosity and the urge to overcome his own inner shy-kid, he shares...
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EP038 - Shelly Duval's Putter w/ Joe Pickett
Doc Walks
Ben squeezes into the VHS vault that is the Found Footage Festival (FFF) headquarters in NY with Joe Pickett—half of the FFF comedy duo who quit his job to follow a dirty country singer for four years, turned stolen instructional videos into a 20-year comedy empire, and once declared a half-naked woman painting ceramic clowns "the greatest moment in VHS history." Joe walks us through his filmmaking suicide pact with Nick Prueher, explains why Larry Pierce's "I Like to (BEEP)" changed everything, and reveals the dark truth about JINGLE BABIES. From sleeping on floors for a full year to...
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EP037 - Theoretically Promiscuous w/ Courtney Cook
Doc Walks
What does impact look like? That’s what we’re asking this week’s guest, Courtney Cook—a veteran impact producer who’s helped hundreds of doc-makers answer that question in her 7-years at POV. A high school teacher-turned-PhD-turned-doc-producer and soon-to-be professor of documentary film at Texas State, Courtney has strong opinions about perspective, ethics, and how having a “bad attitude” is the only way to make it in this field. Courtney happily draws inspiration from Black Feminist Thought, HANDS ON A HARDBODY, and the stop-motion masters, the Brothers Quay—explaining...
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EP036 - Think Like A Filmmaker w/ Alan Berliner
Doc Walks
This week, Ben is on a solo mission to a freezing New York City, where legendary filmmaker Alan Berliner guides him through his studio that's equal parts fine art gallery and documentary laboratory. We're talking about a 108 drawer sound sculpture that Alan plays like an instrument, flood-destroyed film reels turned gorgeous works of art, and the kind of collections that make you wonder where archiving ends and genius begins. Alan waxes poetic on the fine art vs. filmmaker debate, breaks down why every film portrait is really about the person behind the camera, and encourages thinking like a...
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EP035 - Dyin’ Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard w/Louis Alvarez & Andy Kolker
Doc Walks
Come along as Ben flies solo—no Keith, just the UT campus and two documentary titans who've been making films together longer than most marriages last: the indomitable Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker have a working partnership runnin’ north of fifty years. They made AMERICAN TONGUES (1988) back when folks across the US said they just spoke like everyone else. They made PEOPLE LIKE US (1999) while Americans were spurring their nose at class conversations. And they're still at it—currently chasing down an obscure architect and sharing a film about a storied Texas State Senator. We get into...
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BONUS RE-RELEASE, EPISODE 002: Look Out for the Ice – Live from Sundance
Doc Walks
Consider this your midnight toast to new beginnings—we're popping the cork on our Sundance episode just in time for the calendar reset. As 2024 turns to 2025, we're grateful for the documentary community that keeps showing up, keeps creating, and keeps walking these festival streets in search of collaborators, inspiration, and maybe a free hot cocoa. So grab a glass of whatever you're having, bundle up (it's 31 degrees in spirit), and ring in the New Year with Ben and Keith's man-on-the-street adventure through Park City… We’re walkin’ and talkin’ through the heart of Sundance,...
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BONUS RE-RELEASE EPISODE 006 - Matt Wolf As Himself
Doc Walks
Consider this a favorite re-wrapped Christmas gift just for you—Matt Wolf's PEE-WEE AS HIMSELF documentary is streaming now on HBO, reminding us all that the best presents are the ones that make us feel like kids again. This holiday season we're celebrating filmmakers who find magic in obsession and who build their own creative communities one passion project at a time. So pour yourself some eggnog, settle in by the fireplace, and unwrap our conversation with Matt—a filmmaker who turned his love of underground artists into a career that spans from cello-playing disco composers to the most...
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EP034 - High, Low, Buffalo, Mitzvah w/ Sally O’Grady
Doc Walks
As we close-out of our first year of doc’in & walkin’ it’s time to take stock in what this podcast is all about. We’re excited to welcome self-proclaimed number one fan and Australian-born doc-maker, Sally O'Grady for a year-end, Year in Review episode. This nature-walk snakes through the wilderness behind Sally's North Austin home as Ben intros us to a game of “High, Low, Buffalo, Mitzvah” (a Steinbauer family dinner game) and a chance to reflect on the ups, downs, weird little moments and the true mitzvahs of our first 33 episodes. We’ll catch up with some favorite Doc...
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EP033 - The Stone Peacock w/ David Modigliani
Doc Walks
What is it with all the doc-filmmakers turning to podcasting?!? No, not us… we’re talkin’ about David Modigliani—a playwright turned poet turned documentary filmmaker turned podcaster (and Stanley Tucci voice director). This is a fun walk with an old friend at a park rumored to be populated by peacocks! The director of 2008’s CRAWFORD (about a small town invaded by George W. Bush) and 2019’s RUNNING WITH BETO (a quixotic look at Beto O’Rouke’s life on the campaign trail), David is back in Austin for 36-hours to emcee the Home Slice Pizza Carnival and crash his old improv...
info_outlineWe’ve been trying to book this walk with director Chelsea Hernandez for weeks, but she’s just too-busy city-hopping for the PBS music doc-series to hit the trail with us—until now. Chelsea is an Emmy-nominated director, a part of the Brown Girls Doc Mafia, and a great friend!
On a return from a recent shoot in Puerto Rico for CITY OF SONGS, Chelsea found that her living room ceiling had collapsed, turning her life upside down… rather than get down about it, she took it as a sign from the universe. Time to move!
And time, finally, to get moving with us—thru the Boggy Creek Greenbelt in East Austin—on a winding walk & talk through her career. Starting with her early days (at age 9) hosting her own Martha Stewart-style kids show (99 episodes!)—then assistant editing for Ellen Siro and editing for Mario Troncoso—all the way to making her own feature doc. We get the scoop, with a focus on casting BUILDING THE AMERICAN DREAM, her feature debut about undocumented construction workers that's still painfully relevant today. And she breaks down the approach to co-directing (with Heather Courtney and Princess A. Hairston) for 2023’s BREAKING THE NEWS—a doc that Keith EP’d and Episode 3 guest Diane Quon produced. She makes a compelling case for why three directors may be better than one.
Like many, Chelsea is caught-up in today’s anti-PBS culture war, outlining how the Trump administration just killed her ITVS-funded film ("the movie Trump doesn't want you to see"). But she’s happy to make the case for why PBS matters. It's not just art—it's jobs, community, and the lifeblood of democracy. Plus: why spending time in people's kitchens beats journalism, that time she worked for the Beto campaign, and how many baseballs are in Ben’s minivan.
Discussion Links: BUILDING THE AMERICAN DREAM (2019) | BREAKING THE NEWS (2023) | AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE (2017) | ARTS IN CONTEXT (2013-2016) | THAT ANIMAL RESCUE SHOW (2020) | THE EYES OF ME (2009) | ( CITY OF SONGS (2025) | TO BE AND TO HAVE (2002) | TOWER (2016) | BEFORE MIDNIGHT (2013)
Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction and Guest Announcement 01:00 Chelsea's Roof Collapse Story 02:00 Walking the St. David's Community Garden 03:30 Child Star Origins - Kids Ideas TV Show 06:00 Transition from Broadcasting to Documentary 08:00 City of Songs and Traveling for PBS 10:00 CPB Funding Cuts and Trump's Impact 13:00 Building the American Dream Origins 16:00 Casting Real People - Finding Your Protagonists 20:00 Workers Defense Project and Building Trust 24:00 The Fat Mouse Encounter 26:00 Journalism vs. Documentary - Learning to Take Sides 30:00 Breaking the News - Three Directors, Three Perspectives 36:00 Co-Directing Challenges and Triumphs 40:00 Gateway Drug Film - To Be and To Have 42:00 Dream Collaborator Ethan Hawke 43:00 Immigration Raids and Current Work 45:00 Future Projects - Asylum Seekers School and Ruben Ramos 47:00 Baseball Count and Episode Title