Top Takeaways From Variety and Rolling Stone’s 2022 Truth Seekers Summit

At the Variety and Rolling Stone Truth Seekers Summit presented by Showtime Documentary Films, journalists, filmmakers, comedians and producers took part in extensive conversations about pursuing the truth in different formats like documentaries, news programming and comedy. The summit took place on Thursday in New York, and was additionally streamed to coincide with the launch of the Truth Seekers journal, a special issue collaboration between Variety and Rolling Stone.

With keynote conversations, interviews and roundtables from the likes of Barbara Kopple, Lesley Stahl, W. Kamau Bell, Ramin Bahrani and more, here are our top takeaways from the summit:

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Barbara Kopple: Capturing the human condition through documentaries

Documentary filmmaker Kopple received the Truth Seekers Award for Documentary Filmmaking, and talked at length about her body of work, including films like “Harlan County, USA” and “American Dream.” Kopple discussed with Variety contributor Thelma Adams the danger in capturing the subjects in her documentaries, having to learn how to shoot a rifle for protection during her early filmmaking endeavors. She commended the bravery of her subjects in films like “Harlan County, USA” and the difficult situations they went through that became prominent plotlines in her work.

“I was with them, I lived with them, I was part of them,” Kopple said. “It’s their bravery, I could always go back to New York. They were the ones that were shot up, a minor was killed by a company foreman, women took over the picket lines — it was their bravery, and they let me go along with them. If I could keep anyone from getting hurt by filming, then that was my mission.”

Lesley Stahl: Human interest stories — not those centered on political figures — resonate with audiences more

When speaking to Variety co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton, veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent and Truth Seekers Award recipient Stahl explained that human interest stories resonate with her more than interviews with political figures like Margaret Thatcher and Donald Trump.

“It’s never those heads of state that stick out, really, in my mind. It’s really the human interest stories that stay, particularly the sad ones,” she said. “Parents with desperately ill children who don’t have enough money to get the treatment, those kinds of stories just live in my heart.”

She then recalled an interview she had with a gay teenager and his mother who was sending him to a conversion therapy camp. “My heart was breaking then and I’m telling you, and I can still feel it,” Stahl said. “Sometimes I’m just so angry inside,” she added.

W. Kamau Bell: Objectivity is overrated

In Bell’s Showtime docuseries “We Need to Talk About Cosby,” the director doesn’t try to be an objective source. The series sees Bell discuss the cultural legacy of Bill Cosby, and the allegations of sexual assault against the star. In the series, Bell makes it clear through his narration that he believes Cosby is a rapist.

He explained that choice in a keynote conversation with Rolling Stone news director Jason Newman. “In no work I do, am I trying to both-sides anything … the doc was always going to have an opinion, whether I narrated or not,” Bell said. “It was always going to affirm the belief that he did these crimes.”

Ramin Bahrani: Silence is a key tool for documentarians — unless you’re in Michigan

Bahrani has learned that sometimes the greatest tool for a documentarian is silence. Usually, silence can lead to more interesting revelations from a subject; however, in Bahrani’s newest documentary, “2nd Chance,” silence was often met with more silence.

“One of the short docs I did was in Texas, so everyone I turned the camera on was amazing and charming and weird and funny. But this was shot in Michigan,” Bahrani joked. “So there were a lot of people who, when you didn’t say anything, they didn’t either. When you ask them questions like, ‘Tell me about your biggest regret in life.’ They answer, ‘Nothing.’ I was like, ‘Why didn’t this story take place in North Carolina, where I’m from!’ They would talk about heaven and all kinds of things! So Michigan sometimes was hard.”

Audiences are desperate for authenticity

The talk trendsetters roundtable, which included guest speakers Jordan Klepper, Chris Redd, Samantha Bee and Soledad O’Brien, centered on a conversation about pursuing the truth in media and how the press has handled politics — particularly focusing on how comedians like Klepper, Redd and Bee have interacted with the concept in their comedy work.

O’Brien noted that audiences will always latch onto good reporting above talking-head shouting matches: “I have found that what people are really interested in a lot of the time is just good reporting. I think the model of screaming politicos is a bad model — I don’t think it inspires anybody.”

News programming has diversified immensely in a streaming, social media-dominant era

At the newsmakers roundtable featuring MSNBC president Rashida Jones, CBS News president Neeraj Khemlani and senior executive producer of PBS NewsHour Productions Sara Just, the trio discussed with Variety senior TV editor Brian Steinberg the importance of bringing their storied networks and productions into the streaming era. The networks have worked to prioritize new endeavors like 24/7 news coverage and adapting their programming to innovative media. Examples include PBS NewsHour recently launching a TikTok account in an effort to reach younger audiences.

“No matter what age, audiences are interested in strong journalism,” Jones said about the amplified variation in content and programming in the streaming-first and social media-dominant era. “They’re interested in news and information, and they just access it on a different platform. It’s ‘How do we bring the strength of our journalism to these platforms?’ versus tweaking it and not being authentic to who we are.”

True crime has “perfect dramatic structure”

In Rolling Stone’s true crime visionaries panel, which featured Rebecca Jarvis of “The Dropout” podcast, filmmaker Joe Berlinger, NBC News Studios president Elizabeth Cole, “Mind Over Murder” executive producer Marc Smerling and Vice News executive producer Subrata De, the panelists talked with Rolling Stone editor Brenna Ehrlich about the true crime medium and the inherent narrative structure of it. Some true stories are often considered stranger than fiction, and many are often centered around a search for justice.

“It has a clear beginning, middle and end. It has rising and falling action, it has a perfect three-act structure: an inciting incident, a search for the truth and resolution,” Berlinger, whose works include “Paradise Lost” and “Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes,” said of the true crime format. “This genre can really be a tool for social change. It’s not just an aesthetic thing, it’s a medium that can actually affect social change.”

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