SYNOPSIS:

Rain chases us indoors, so instead of our usual neighborhood walk we duck into a podcast studio at Austin Public—the public-access building where, lore has it, Alex Jones got his start—to sit with Oscar-nominated producer Alisa Payne, in town mentoring at the Austin Film Society Doc Intensive. Alisa produced THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR, Geeta Gandbhir’s body-cam-only Stand Your Ground doc that premiered at Sundance and landed an Academy Award nomination, and she walks us through a career that took “20 years to be an overnight success.”

We trace it from the start: a biochemistry grad who quit the lab to chase Queen Latifah with 500 petitions, then talked her way onto a Harlem gentrification doc holding the boom. From there—STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING with Roger Ross Williams (and the green-screen dream where the studio ceiling literally caved in); BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME, which she ran in 16 weeks at the terrifying height of COVID, edit drives left in mailboxes at 5 a.m.; and KATRINA: COME HELL AND HIGH WATER with Spike Lee, Samantha Knowles and Sam Pollard.

Alisa makes the case for the producer as “chief emotions officer”—the parent of everyone in the credits—and for documentary as narrative storytelling that’s built to push the form. We get into shielding directors from notes, restoring the historical record when journalism can’t be trusted, and making film more equitable. Plus a rainy-day detour into Brooklyn birding, Penny Lane’s coming FLACO doc, and the Reiser brothers’ LISTERS.

And the single greatest producer story we’ve ever recorded: the day someone stole all the PPE off a Harlem set mid-shoot, and Alisa stared down the ringleader until he handed it back—because, he said, she reminded him of his mother.

DISCUSSION LINKS

TRUE STORIES (1986) | WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE (2006) | THE MANDALORIAN (2019) | BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME (2020) | DEAR MR. BRODY (2022) | STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING (2023) | KATRINA: COME HELL AND HIGH WATER (2025) | LISTERS: A GLIMPSE INTO EXTREME BIRDWATCHING (2025) | THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR (2025) | WHO MOVES AMERICA (2026) | UNTITLED FLACO DOCUMENTARY (TBD)

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 No jumping right in: banter and transactional meetings 02:00 Rainy day, no walk: Brooklyn birds, FLACO, and the Merlin app 03:30 Two dipshits talking about birds (the pilot that wasn’t) 04:30 Meet Alisa Payne + a tour of Austin Public 05:30 Inside the AFS Doc Intensive: four projects, the mentors 07:00 Studio two and the Alex Jones lore 08:00 Shooting DEAR MR. BRODY eight blocks from home 09:00 STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING and the Mandalorian dream 10:30 COVID, a snowstorm, and the ceiling that caved in 11:30 “It wasn’t the Mandalorian” 12:00 THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR: Oscar nod, Sundance, Stand Your Ground 14:00 Pushing the form with body-cam footage 15:00 Biochemistry to film: chasing Queen Latifah 17:30 500 petitions and getting hired 19:00 Wear black on set / “keep wearing your colors” 21:00 First doc: Harlem gentrification and Mart 125 22:30 BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME: showrunning at COVID’s peak 26:00 Edit drives in the mailbox at 5 a.m. 27:00 Brooklyn Tech floor plans for HBO 31:00 Hazmat on a Harlem walk-up — and the PPE heist 33:30 “You remind me of my mother” 35:00 Producing as mothering: the chief emotions officer 37:00 The director–producer partnership 39:00 The notes she never passes along 40:00 Her fingerprints: the PERFECT NEIGHBOR drone shot 41:00 KATRINA: COME HELL AND HIGH WATER and holding the POV 43:00 A seat at the table: restoring the historical record 45:00 Lightning round: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE as the gateway 47:00 Advice for emerging filmmakers: be yourself 48:00 Back in the room: Doc Days, Holly Herrick, and the cohort