The Doc Talk Podcast Travels to Milwaukee to Meet with the Filmmaker Who Followed “Chasing Amy” and the Director Who Grapples with the Crisis in Art Criticism

Apologies to Thomas Wolfe, but it looks like you can go home again.

Oscar winner John Ridley, co-host of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, returns to his hometown of Milwaukee for the latest edition of the pod, recorded live during the 16th^Th Milwaukee Film Festival. He and co-host Matt Carey, documentary editor at Deadline, speak with two filmmakers who are bringing new work to the festival: Sav Rodgers, director of On the hunt for Amyand Mary Louise Schumacher, director of Out of the picture.

Rodgers makes his feature film debut On the hunt for Amya film that examines how Kevin Smith’s film fared in 1997 Chasing Amy became a lifeline for Rodgers as a queer, trans kid growing up in conservative Kansas, and how the indie drama impacted the culture at large. Smith’s film told the story of a straight man (played by Ben Affleck) who falls in love with a gay woman (played by Joey Lauren Adams); But 27 years after its debut, many in the LGBTQ+ community are seeing Chasing Amy equally problematic because of the implicit implication that all it takes to “make a lesbian heterosexual” is to “meet the right man.”

Rodgers explains what it was like to interview both Smith and Adams for his documentary and how Smith responds to criticism of one of his most iconic films.

Schumacher, meanwhile, takes a compelling look at the state of art criticism in America. The implosion of the newspaper business has led to a catastrophic loss of local coverage of arts and artists across most of the country, leaving behind a half-dozen arbitrators New York Times and other national publications to provide insight into the significance of a particular painting, exhibition or artist.

Schumacher, former art critic Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, says Doc Talk: “My journalistic gut kicked in and I thought, ‘There’s a story behind this.’ ”

The filmmaker explains to us why the “judgmental” part of the review – the thumbs up or down – is often the least interesting part of a comment.

The latest Doc Talk episode was recorded live at Ridley’s Nō Studios headquarters in Milwaukee in the city’s historic Pabst Brewery District. Doc Talk is a Deadline and Nō Studios production, presented with support from National Geographic Documentary Films.

Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.