Professional Sweetheart: 2/9/14
Sweatin' to the Oldies
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Earlier this week I hosted a discussion and Q&A with Thomas von Steinaecker, the director of the documentary Werner Herzog - Radical Dreamer (2022). It was hosted and sponsored by Kanopy, one of my very favorite streaming sites and a totally free service you can usually get access to through your public library or university. To me, Kanopy feels a little like what the old FilmStruck (R.I.P.) was like, even though I think they were around before it. They have a very interesting collection of indie, arthouse, foreign, and classic films, but unlike most of the niche streaming services, they also have A LOT of documentaries, filmed lectures, and instructional videos, often times wonderfully specific and weird. For example, they have the original Richard Simmons’ Sweatin’ to the Oldies workout video sitting next to a bunch of business how-to clips on building performance goals at your company and how to effectively terminate people. The other night I ended up watching a bunch of university-produced Stuart Hall lectures for a few hours. You can really fall into some fascinating holes on there if you wanted. So, when they reached out to me a few months ago to see if I would be interested in talking to Thomas about Werner, of course I had to do it.