Hosted by michaellouismerrill · 🇺🇸 us · EN · 302 episodes
Established thought leaders with verified media credentials.
Mike and Ken interview award-winning documentary filmmakers on their latest projects, their art, and their process
michaellouismerrill hosts Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers, a tv show with 302 episodes published.
As Mike tells our guest, director Margaret Brown, when he heard that she had delivered HBO’s “The Yogurt Shop Murders” in the wake of what he considered one of the 21st-Century’s finest documentaries, “Descendant”, his f
At the beginning of Giselle Bailey and Phil Bertelsen’s illuminating two-part HBO doc series “Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television,” the directors follow actress Tracee Ellis Ross, one of the leads of the succes
Mel Brooks is about to turn 100 years old! When Mel celebrates his upcoming birthday on June 28th, filmmaker Michael Bonfiglio, who has directed (along with Judd Apatow) a joyful and action-packed two-part HBO documentar
For a time, back in the ‘80s, actor Charlie Sheen was the hottest thing in Hollywood. But it didn’t take long for Sheen’s star turns in “Platoon” and “Wall Street” to morph into tabloid cover stories about his hard party
Billy Joel, one of the most beloved and best-selling pop music artists of all-time, has finally achieved something that, up until now, has always eluded him: the opportunity to tell his side of the story. In their author
For her latest film, “Time and Water,” Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sara Dosa (“Fire of Love”, “The Seer & the Unseen”) returns to Iceland, this time to cover the island nation’s other distinctive geologic feature b
Of course, we all know who “Rafa” is — the tennis legend and sports icon Rafael Nadal, winner of 22 Grand Slam titles and an unfathomable 14 French Open trophies. But who is Rafael Nadal when the cameras (or, rather, all
When Warren Jeffs, the “prophet” of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), a Mormon fundamentalist group whose members practice polygamy, stopped communicating regularly from prison where
Late in director Alexandria Stapleton’s 4-part Netflix series “Sean Combs: The Reckoning”, one of her subjects lays out what may be the documentary’s thesis: While it may seem like Combs “went bad” well into middle-age,
In 1967, 3-year-old Mariska Hargitay — now, an Emmy-winning actor known to millions as Captain Olivia Benson on the long-running TV series “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” — was in a terrible car accident. Her mothe
For our 300th episode, we’re bringing you some of our favorite impactful moments from some of our most popular shows of Season 5: "Pee-wee as Himself" with Matt Wolf "Chef's Table: Legends" with David Gelb & Adam Bricker
In the early morning hours of a typical spring day, a van marked “Immigration Enforcement” stops on a quiet street in a residential neighborhood; two men of color are snatched up for alleged immigration violations and hu
You may only know her from those few minutes in a dressing room where she was assaulted by Donald Trump, who has himself relentlessly lied about what happened there and slandered the woman who, after years of telling onl
What started out as a transactional exchange between Janay Boulos, a BBC journalist, and Abd Alkader Habak, a local activist and cameraperson in Aleppo during the Syrian war, later evolved into a mutual curiosity. Over t
Joining us for the 5th year in a row, Variety’s Chief Awards Editor Clayton Davis is back on “Top Docs” to break down this year’s Oscar races for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short and to offer his predi
Protestors silently bearing the pictures of children killed in Gaza: they hold no other signs, chant no slogans. Hilla Medalia ("Leftover Women", "Prisoner X") speaks to Mike about her Oscar-nominated short documentary,
While covering the devastating effects of the Russian bombing of Ukraine, documentary filmmaker/journalist Brent Renaud was shot and killed by Russian forces on March 22, 2022. He was the first foreign-born journalist ki
”Three donkeys are in an unnamed desert and they discover an abandoned astronomical observatory. And the universe.” That’s how Alison McAlpine (“Second Sight”, “Ghostmen of Skye”, "Cielo") describes her Oscar-nominated s
A day in the life of a women’s reproductive healthcare center is unlike any other. In this post-Roe world, potential danger lurks in the dark or right out in the open. In the tense and nuanced Oscar-nominated documentary
In a special, in-person conversation from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, director Judd Ehrlich (“Keepers of the Game”) joins Ken in Park City to discuss his new documentary “Jane Elliott Against the World,” which just
Sean Combs
The Reckoning Recap
1 appearance on this show
Mariska Hargitay
1 appearance on this show
Jane Elliott
1 appearance on this show
Andrew Jarecki
UX Designer · Visa
4 appearances on this show
Elizabeth Lo
2 appearances on this show
Ryan White
assistant professor and director of clinical site development and practice · Native Oklahoma Bigfoot Research Organization
4 appearances on this show
Anne Thompson
veteran entertainment journalist · IndieWire
7 appearances on this show
Julia Loktev
1 appearance on this show
Marshall Curry
1 appearance on this show
Ken Burns
documentary filmmaker · Dream Team
4 appearances on this show
Sarah Botstein
co-director
1 appearance on this show
Rebecca Miller
director, writer and actress · Splash
1 appearance on this show
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Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers is hosted by michaellouismerrill. The show is categorised under tv (film) and has published 302 episodes.
Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers has published 302 episodes.
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