Episode Collection: Documentary

Double Feature episodes covering documentaries.

Sometimes covering the documentary form, sometimes covering the content of the documentary itself. Back episodes are available to members

Reverse Order of Release

Citizenfour + Mysterious Skin

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Eric Thirteen

Coping with unbearable weight in both fact and fiction. Crime and awful. A newly discovered use of the great empathy machine. The privacy myth – it’s not what you think it is. Encrypt your business and fuck that Google! Avoiding services that steal your data as the center of their business model. The US government doesn’t realize Edward Snowden is a patriot. President Obama as a total jerk. Mysterious Skin may be the toughest film Double Feature has ever tried to cover. More pedophile jokes than you can shake a prison sentence at. Continue reading →

Tim’s Vermeer + Resurrect Dead

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Eric Thirteen

Uncover two documentary mysteries! Also – the Double Feature Year 8 Kickstarter launches! Tim’s Vermeer makes audiences wonder if Tim Jenison is an artist. What is painting, what is engineering, and what is art? Why Tim-As-An-Artist is an important question. Disruption in the art community, and the emotion that causes some artists to resist a leading theory. The art of engineering. User experience and the consequences of design. Tim Jenison is the greatest engineer ever filmed. Luddites in the art community. Is technology cheating? (No.) It is not invalid to enjoy art digitally! Resurrect Dead and the should be spooky but isn’t mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. Plan Jupiter from outer space. Continue reading →

American Movie + Mean Creek

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Eric Thirteen

The consequences and triumphs of reducing human beings to caricatures. Fears of the midwest. Mark Borchardt’s process in American Movie. How first impressions, language, and appearance impact your impression of someone’s intelligence. Is Mark a skilled filmmaker or a hack? The best take-aways from filming Coven. What prevents Mark and Mike from being more noticed or successful? Mean Creek creates a challenging conversation. Eric would still turn Michael in to the police. Listeners request a reconsideration of the national bullying dialogue. Where is the line crossed in Mean Creek? What’s the morally correct position and why is it so hard to identify? Double Feature agrees to have an uncensored thought experiment that could change the fate of the podcast forever. Continue reading →

The Ward + Darkon

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Eric Thirteen

A day in fantasy to help Eric think he’s not crazy. A modern John Carpenter film in The Ward. A familiar director and a band new writer. Seeing the style and technique again. Immediately identifiable as modern and 70s. The pulsing heartbeat of John Carpenter. One prolific director’s influence on films of today’s. Where’d the Casio keyboard go? Quick, pretend you were already a fan of Rob Zombie’s latest inspiration. Unnerving commentary. Another visual movie watching experiment you can try at home! Michael overcomes a pet peeve. Sweet Amber Heard. The Id, the Artist, the Seductress, the Aggressor, the Infant and the Protector. Another way to approach the twist. Every horror movie should have one good joke. Break your own rules to create scares. The kill room. Modern violence. A professional crew surrounding amateurs. Filming a documentary as a gift to your subject. The wench from Medieval Times. Humanizing the subject you thought was strange enough to film. A universe where your choices effect everything. Is being born in the wrong time nonsense? Being boring (and other qualities of world leaders). The actual skills Darkon sharpens. In character and out of character. Is it ok to check out from the real world? Continue reading →

Exit Through the Gift Shop + The Last Exorcism

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Eric Thirteen

Documentaries of questionable integrity is kind of a stretch. Exit Through the Gift Shop: The Banksy Documentary! First impressions of a new art form. Making out with street artists. Anonymity. Kinkos. TBMChicago and The Birthday Massacre. Implied power and the influence of perception. Don’t fuck with the mouse. When the mood strikes. Monetization. Showing your hand. Proving and transcending street art. Mr. Brainwash. The return of Karl Pilkington. Modern art and those who hate it. Talking about your art. Using skepticism to consider hoaxes. A return to prankumentaries. What is Mr. Brainwash up to now? The exorcist Reverend Cotton Marcus. The power of charisma. Banana bread. Believing in character of truth. Eli Roth. Truth via fiction. Atheism! Curing mentally ill people through fake exorcism. The ends still doesn’t justify the means. The ethical responsibility of representing reality and not leaving an audience with a false impression of the world. First person cat beatings. The power of theatrics. What magic teaches us. The ending of The Last Exorcism. Continue reading →

Ravenous + Jonestown

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Eric Thirteen

Two failed utopias! Bag cat buzzkill. Ravenous’ effect on the human body. Examine Damon Albarn’s score for Ravenous. When what’s fucked up is how not fucked up something is. UNRELIABLE ALBARN. A creepy secret trick, being played on only you. Antonia Bird! Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. Arriving at the tragedy. Jim Jones as…an upstanding human being? Lies and ethics. Where Jones went wrong. Wait, why aren’t we talking to that guy? Knowing what’s to come. One of the all time greatest pieces of audio. The terror. Continue reading →

Catfish + The Girlfriend Experience

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Eric Thirteen

Unorthodox relationship day! Corresponding with children. When society forces incorrect reactions. The facts have not been redacted. Privacy of documentary film subjects. Jumping the gun. The Catfish trailer. Applying skepticism to the claims of hoax and the idea of “too good to be true.” Suspicions. Is Catfish a hoax? Prank-u-documentaries. Camera work. Steven Soderbergh and The Girlfriend Experience. TGE. What does it mean to purchase a girlfriend experience? Steven Soderbergh’s career. Red One. What Red cameras and DSLRs mean for the future of film. Why show the two stories? Fucking gym memberships. Personal anecdotes about the inner works of the call girl industry. Continue reading →

Die Hard + Man on Wire

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Eric Thirteen

Secret heist films that take place in famous buildings (and are based on books!) A tragic missed opportunity. iPads have chapters, Zunes don’t. Important information you miss out on when you don’t listen to Double Sleepy Naptime. Die Hard as a Christmas mood. The Nakatomi Plaza / Los Angeles Fox Plaza. Bruce Willis as John McClane. The other Die Hard films. Cowboys. The role of the men outside. Driving plot. Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber. Ode to Joy. Man on Wire against American art. Eric’s tattoos and piercings. Philippe Petit, the raconteur. A conversation about that probably shouldn’t be talked about or even acknowledged. Danger! Inspirational events. Creativity. Really smart people. Continue reading →

Willard + The McVeigh Tapes

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Eric Thirteen

Domestic terrors…and rats. Not in that order, either. The opening of Willard. No Danny Elfman! Protagonist by comparison. Absurd characters in a mundane world. Uncomfortable camera work. The weirdos. Willard’s Mom. Willard’s boss. Willard’s problems. Crispin Glover. Willard and the rats. Swapping your protagonist. Rachel Maddow and The McVeigh Tapes: Confessions of an American Terrorist. Are today’s protests an early warning sign? A bit on Columbine and Waco. Watering the tree of something with the blood of someone. Continue reading →

Escape from LA + Expelled

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Eric Thirteen

One of these films invokes Hitler, and you’ll never guess which! Where are they now: Snake Pliskin edition. Why people hate Escape from LA. Sequels made a decade later. The difference between New York and LA’s antagonists. Hampster style. 90s and soundtracks. The three most ridiculous things in Escape from Los Angeles. Intelligent Design is as much Creationism as Ben Stein’s film Expelled is full of shit. Atheism – a pretty solid guess! Dispelling the idea of Why Not Teach Both Sides? ExpelledExposed.com. Disagreeing with tactics rather than message. What’s wrong with the interviews. Did the documentary succeed? Eugenics. ONCE YOU HITLER, YOU LOSE. The worst final showdown of all time. Continue reading →

Escape from NY + Religulous

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Eric Thirteen

A return to crazy movies and documentaries about irrationality…sorta. Post-apocalyptic dystopia. Potential connections to watergate. Countdown. Steampunk. Where do all these littered newspapers come from? The components of an anti-action movie. The Escape from New York score. Wide shots. Where the personality appears. Play along. Snake Pliskin doesn’t give a fuck. Why continue the war? Seeing Religulous with a packed theatre of atheists. Larry Charles. The founding fathers were not christian. Returning to: Does satanism really exist? The two atheist hosts of Double Feature have a ton of problems with Religious. Big problems. Trying to get laughs anywhere you can. Bill Maher’s solution to religion. Deception and the thin lines of documentary filmmaking. The enemy of your enemy is not Double Feature’s friend. Continue reading →

Death to Smoochy + The King of Kong

Posted on August 20, 2009 by Eric Thirteen

Zune? Death to Smoochy as a perfect black comedy. The two formulas for dark comedy. The essential ingredients of black humor. Absurdity. So Very wrong. What characters contribute. Film noir influences. Robin Williams. The non-narrative documentary style as seen in The King of Kong. A fist full of quarters and Murderball. Don’t be Billy Mitchell. Sure Mitchell is evil, but is he a cheater? How does a documentary story come together? The sports story blueprint. More than videogames. Holy shit, look what’s finally on the show next week. Continue reading →

South Park + The Aristocrats

Posted on July 23, 2009 by Eric Thirteen

Skeptical comedy double feature! Saddam Hussein and capital punishment. To bleep or not to bleep. Replacing obscenity with silly phrases. South Park’s relationship with Hollywood. Censorship then and now. Is South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut still relevant? Yes…Yes it is. Censorship in the modern digital age. Musical numbers. Trey’s Band DVDA. When meta works and why. Real life clashes with canonical events. Evolution of characters. Mr. Garrison. Where are Ned and Jimbo? Pip! The Isaac Hayes Chef Scientology incident. The Aristocrats movie theater experience. George Carlin. More on joke format. The thought process as you’re telling the joke. The Aristocrats as a trap. The origins of “Too Soon!” and why Double Feature loves Gilbert Gottfried. Don’t sue us, Joe Franklin. Continue reading →

Murderball + Monster Man

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Eric Thirteen

INTERVIEW w/ Dana Adam Shapiro. CRUSH Double Feature SMASH. Hidden secondary theme? Fast action against intentionally slow drama. Making an audience excited about something foreign to them. The forbidden questions. Grounding your audience. Tugging at the heart strings – the easy way and the hard way. How Murderball was made. Journalism. Shooting low budget. Technical specifics on cameras, mics, lights, etc. Planning vs luck. Managing an unexpected ending. Highway survival horror. Crafting a set. The truck. The man behind the truck. The official “show the monster” movement. Death curse. When content outside a movie makes you feel a different way about it. Hamster style. Campy Dialogue. Exploitation. Continue reading →

The Libertine + The Root of All Evil?

Posted on May 7, 2009 by Eric Thirteen

The enemy: sex or god? The trouble with period pieces. Dialogue from an age long ago. The typical components of a period piece. What separates The Libertine from the rest. Long tracking shots. Shifting focus. Arthouse fighting immersion. Acting games. Bookends revisited. Why no one saw this. Sex making people uncomfortable. The title “The Root of All Evil?” The Dawkins visual style. The one camera interview. The Dawkins approach to atheism. Confrontational, hateful, or just fed up? Why religion is not just oppressive but dangerous. Not knowing. Giving up on the quest for answers. Sex Ed. Ted Haggard. Missing footage. Using the Bible as a source of morality. Continue reading →

Hard Rock Zombies + Loose Change

Posted on April 23, 2009 by Eric Thirteen

INTERVIEW w/ Rebecca Watson. Conspiracy day! Walmart’s bargin bin. 80s hair metal exploitation. Accidental bad film making. The fear of accidental bad film making. What we take for granted. How to watch exploitation films. Not realizing where your real plot is. Dylan Avery background. The various Loose Change editions. Retroactively fitting evidence. Anomaly hunting. Argument from ignorance. No unified theory of 9/11 conspiracy. Loose Change as a magic trick. Fire melting steel. Evidence denial. Eye witness testimony. Eric’s conspiracy voiceover. Why deceive? Sylvia Brown. What’s the harm? Are conspiracies ever possible? Continue reading →

De-Lovely + The God Who Wasn’t There

Posted on April 2, 2009 by Eric Thirteen

INTERVIEW W/ Brian Flemming. Why we don’t do a whole lot of musicals. Musical self examination. The mechanics of setting your musical apart. Defining a life by occupation. If you call out your gimmick, does that make using it ok? Hidden meanings of pop songs. Literal interpretation. The funniest parts of the bible! The bible vs the constitution. Nothing is written in the bible that wasn’t knowable by man at the time it was written. Where’s the divine knowledge? God is infallible, so why are there mistakes and contradictions in the bible? Extreme christian literalists – the more honest approach! Jesus and the underpants gnomes. How you know 40% of Americans don’t actually believe the rapture is coming. Brian Flemming disputes our definition of a snuff film. Copyright, fair use, and creative commons. Continue reading →

Big Trouble in Little China + The Enemies of Reason

Posted on March 19, 2009 by Eric Thirteen

Eric does Michael a favor. WTF is Big Trouble in Little China? The exploitation formula. Why Kurt Russell wasn’t high on the set. Brilliant or an accident? The creatures on display. John Carpenter’s effects over the years. The lost dimension of packed theater reactions in the 70s and 80s. Dawkins playing Russell. The look of a Dawkins documentary. Astrology. The Barnum Effect. Cold reading. James Randi. Darren Brown. Sylvia Brown (not related). Michael gives Eric a live psychic reading. Deepak Chopra. How Spiritual leaders beat scientists. It’s hard to hate the gleefully ignorant. Debunking Homeopathy simply by explanation. THE SAND BEETLE. The mystery of therapeutic touch, solved! Continue reading →

House of 1000 Corpses + Waco

Posted on February 26, 2009 by Eric Thirteen

A word on Roadracers and Mean Girls. DVD menus. Enthusiastic directors. The first Rob Zombie! The work of Sid Haig and Bill Mosley. Working with and moving on from camp. Rainn Wilson. Good slow zoom? That bizarre sci fi TV style. Comfortable antagonism. No sense of danger. Enthusiastic film making. Who this film is actually for. What people think went wrong. Smaller roles. Music. The infamous scare shot. Rob Zombie’s impending legacy. Assuming prior knowledge. Non narrative, fact based style. Horrifying images. Double Feature gets to the bottom of Waco. An experiment in skepticism. When the severity of crime distracts from the question of guilt. Continue reading →

The Thing + Michael Moore Hates America

Posted on January 22, 2009 by Eric Thirteen

INTERVIEW w/ Mike Wilson. A bit about A Scanner Darkly. Book adaptations. Michael’s John Carpenter crash course. The Thing as a milestone. Space horror. Influence. Keith David. Psychological horror. Desolation. Weapons. How to butcher a family. The greatest scare shot. The bold title. The six degrees of conspiracy. Eric gets nostalgic about Canada. Approaching an interview. An argument for bias. Business owners. Moore’s popularity. Mike Wilson and Mallrats. Ethical boundaries. Eric and Michael get to the bottom of the title! Coverage: old media vs new. Isn’t MSNBC cute? Everything you ever wanted to know about MMHA. Solving the age old producer question. Continue reading →

Freddy vs Jason + Steal This Film 2

Posted on November 27, 2008 by Eric Thirteen

Freddy actually versus Jason! Missing the point. Different approaches in the same universe. Equal time. Making the collaboration work. The new Freddy and Jason. The callbacks. The staples. This story is awesome! More Robert Englund talk. How to trap Jason. Abandoning canon. What does this ending mean? The Pirate Bay. Independent film. Digital format. A series of experiments regarding the ethicacy of film watching / buying / stealing / downloading. Law is a fucking decade behind technology. Winamp. What about borrowing? Creative commons. Stealing other types of art. The used market. Sharing a DVD. Why piracy exists. Tivo. Stop making excuses! Continue reading →

The People vs Larry Flynt + Jesus Camp

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Eric Thirteen

A Double Feature secret is revealed! CENSORSHIP. JESUS. What is Larry Flynt? How to win Eric’s heart…and body. Jerry Falwell is a douchebag. Using editing to get around bad deliverance. Love for America. Nothing is sacred. Niggy Tardust. Experimental scenes. Time lapse. Handling aids in film. Biopic of political drama? Post film summaries. Uh…censorship! Eric flips out and delivers a super patriotic 1st amendment speech out of nowhere. Michael throws an orange. Save the children! Jerry Falwell is still a douchebag. A perfect explanation of widescreen aspect ration using tits. Substitutes for narration. A religious debate without an atheist voice. Group think. Richard Dawkins. There is no such thing as a christian child. Or a muslim child. Or an atheist child. Children as weapons. Ted Haggard. Is the Rapture a threat? Continue reading →

2001 Maniacs + Flock of Dodos

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Eric Thirteen

How to pronounce the year. Proper crossover. Scareshot bar raised. New’s new favorite word. More than candy. Taking the high road. Blaxploitation. Racism. Growing up without racism. Using fiction to create hypothetical scenarios and thought experiments. The south isn’t as backwards as people say it is. Being afraid of a racial slur gives it power. No one complained when Eric said cuntpickle! Robert Englund. One liners. Complimentary gimmick scene. Subtlety. Religion and Politics. Skepticality. Titular line. Night vision rabbit. Tangents in documentaries. Muffy Moose. Voting on beer-ability. Evolution’s PR problem. Why creationism wins hearts. The role of art in combating creationism. The free exchange of ideas. Continue reading →

Dummy + Walmart

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Eric Thirteen

A few minutes on films before this show accidentally gets super political. Having fun with Dummy. Milla Jovovich: actress and musician. “American Pie Moments.” Eric makes Michael give you the freedom. Awkward does not translate into funny. Another look at dark comedy. Double Feature takes a controversial position on Walmart. Dissecting misinformation. Business in Chicago. Socialism. Minimum wage. Small business. Incase every last listener isn’t already pissed off . . . a rant about greenpeace. Eric teaches you about subsidies. Sweatshops. Safety and Responsibility. Ending this out of place political rant. Continue reading →

Hostel + This Film Is Not Yet Rated

Posted on September 4, 2008 by Eric Thirteen

Exploitation. Eric doesn’t have dental insurance. Misleading packaging. The internet has made Saw irrelevant. Karma doesn’t exist. Hostel’s reception in popular culture. “Meatcart.” Betraying the viewer using time and perspective. Slow motion death. Eric is actually in Hostel. Producer? Presenter? Making your destination clear. Documentary gimmicks. Do children really need saving? The ratings board. Legislating taste. Rate real life violence. Double Feature gets really political really fast. Realistic portrayals of violence. Old media is more of a joke than karma. Unrated film. What’s the answer? Continue reading →