Hourlong TV news specials have long provided discussion into pressing issues, but in the streaming and social media age they’ve had to find new ways to get their message heard, which is part of how the Meet the Press Film Festival came to be.
As America’s longest running TV series with 72 years of consecutive programming, Meet the Press has solidified its place in history, but is now turning its eyes to the future. The Meet the Press Film festival, currently in its 5th iteration, aims to get a wide range of viewers to focus on hard-hitting documentary shorts that both address pressing issues of the day and turn a critical eye on events of the past.
The festival will take place on Nov. 11 with in-person screenings at the TCL Chinese Theater and virtual screenings as part of the broader AFI FEST.
“I’m a believer that you can’t just expect everybody to come to you where your one hour is, you’ve got to be everywhere,” said Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd in an interview with The Daily Press. “It’s another way to reach a younger audience, reach a broader audience, and also scratch our own itch to try to delve into topics we don’t feel like we have the time to do on just our one hour of linear television on Sunday.”
The topics covered by the documentary shorts run the gamut from homelessness to homophobia, immigrant detention centers to Israeli soldiers and lynchings to legal injustices. The one thing they have in common is a goal to unsettle the viewer.
From Todd’s perspective, this is a positive thing and one of the benefits of using documentary shorts as a medium.
“Don’t get me wrong, a great feature length documentary is great,” said Todd. “But in some ways with the more heady issues, controversial issues, a 20 to 40 minute range I think is a really good sweet spot for many viewers.”
One of the films that made the strongest impression on Todd was Christine Turners’ “Lynching Postcards: ‘Token of a Great Day’,” which packs a powerful punch while clocking in at just 16 minutes. The documentary examines the horrifying history of African American lynchings through the lens of souvenir postcards that were created to celebrate and commemorate these events.
“People like to look away because they don’t want to deal with the race issue, right? That’s been part of our problem in this country,” said Todd. “This is one of those where you need to see it, have to see it... you need to get uncomfortable and this one gets you uncomfortable, I think in the right kind of way.”
Other documentaries that made a strong impact on Todd were Ryan White’s “Coded: The Hidden Love Of J.C. Leyendecker” and Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk’s “Lead Me Home.”
Coded explores the phenomenon of coded advertising through the life of legendary early-20th century illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, whose works featured hidden messages to the gay community that was forced to live in the closet. Lead Me Home presents the epidemic of American homelessness through unfiltered testimonials from the unhoused.
On Nov. 11 these three documentaries and twelve others will all be screened at the AFI FEST and a special episode of Meet the Press Reports showcasing select festival films will be released on NBC News Now and Peacock.
NBC News correspondents and anchors, including Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell, Jacob Soboroff, Shaq Brewster, Ali Vitali and Morgan Radford, will moderate conversations with filmmakers following each program for both virtual and in-person audiences. Tickets and more information can be found at FEST.AFI.com.
Clara@smdp.com
