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Radiotopia Presents: Red for Revolution

Radiotopia Presents: Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative

Radiotopia Presents: Red for Revolution

Radiotopia

Society & Culture, Fiction

4.4989 Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Artist and documentarian Jess Shane posts a Craigslist ad: “Does your story need to be told? Tell it in a documentary! Seeking shocking, heartbreaking, and transformative stories for a new series about the documentary industry. Compensation provided.”

After days of auditions, Shane casts four participants, each with varied relationships to why they want to share their stories, from Ernesto, a recovering addict and fashion model who dreams of making it big, to Judy, an unhoused senior who wants to get off the street and give voice to the homeless. Through the making of documentaries about the participants, the series asks provocative questions about the story creation process, whether “sharing your story” is really as liberating as our culture imagines it can be, and how “being produced” for a show can shift someone’s relationship to their own experience. The series also explores the business side of the equation, such as how the forces underpinning today’s booming documentary marketplace impact whose stories are told or deemed valuable.

Shane also turns her mic to subjects to weigh in on standard documentary protocol, from the concept of “access” and the taboo of paying subjects to the logistics of editorial control. Ultimately, “Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative” asks listeners to consider their own relationship to this popular genre of content.

Learn more about “Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative” at radiotopiapresents.fm and discover more shows from across the Radiotopia network at radiotopia.fm.

Transcript

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0:00.0

We hear a lot about the value of stories, that stories are powerful, therapeutic, that they can change the world.

0:10.0

But is that mostly bullshit?

0:13.0

Documentaries are supposed to be impactful, yes, but they're also entertainment.

0:20.0

They're being sold, right?

0:22.0

As a documentarian, my job is to tell other people's stories.

0:27.0

People trust me, they open their hearts to me.

0:30.0

My life spiraled out of control when we...

0:32.0

Police brutality, I mean,

0:34.0

psychologically I was messed up.

0:36.0

Psychologically, I still in.

0:38.0

The documentary industry is booming.

0:40.0

There's real money on the table here. And the more people open their hearts, the higher

0:46.2

the market value of their stories. But at what cost?

0:51.1

It was like one of the hardest things ever did.

0:53.0

My life was in shambles.

0:56.0

For a long time, I've been questioning

0:59.0

whether the rules of documentary I was taught

1:01.0

are still relevant.

1:02.0

So I'm doing an experiment. I'm throwing out the

1:07.6

rulebook. I'm casting this series on Craigslist. I'm paying my subjects and

1:12.1

handing them the reins to direct the stories they tell on the show.

1:16.0

Maybe I can figure out some better ways of doing things.

...

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