Classic: "Dick Johnson is Dead" with Kirsten ("KJ") Johnson (from October 2021)

Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers

While we gear up for Season 4 of "Top Doc", we're sharing some of our favorite episodes of the past few years. Today, we re-present a pod from October of 2021.

Ken and Mike welcome Kirsten (KJ) Johnson, who recently won Best Director for her groundbreaking film, "Dick Johnson is Dead." This film is like no other film you’ll find in your Netflix queue. KJ’s boundary-pushing documentary uses the art of cinema to keep the ravages of time and the onset of dementia from taking her beloved father Dick away from her. The solution? Keep killing her father over-and-over again on camera, all with Dick’s active participation and encouragement.

Once you survive the film, you’ll definitely want to join Mike and Ken for this refreshingly candid conversation with KJ who constantly questions everything (including our questions!) and proves herself to be every bit as provocative, playful and engaging as the film itself. Covering everything from Seventh-day Adventism and the best way to stage your father’s funeral while he’s still alive to Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera and, of course, chocolate cake, this week’s podcast is one you’ll be dying to listen to. And look out for that falling air conditioner!

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Other films directed by Kirsten Johnson:

Cameraperson

Deadline

People who worked on the film:

Judy Karp

Michael Hilow

Nels Bangerter

Peter Horner

Nadia Hallgren

John Foster

Simon Mendes

Marilyn Ness

Hidden Gem: Marjoe

Also mentioned in the pod:

Ousmane Sembène

Djibril Diop Mambéty

Wellington Bowler

Young Frankenstein

Monty Python’s Flying Circus

Charles Addams

Lacan on social death

Derrida (the documentary)

Quantum Entanglement

The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill