Barlow Jacobs says: Walk to the Next Block.. easy to say when you're sitting there, not-walking on DocWalks. It's day three of the AFS Doc Intensive, and we close out our run in the room for a sit-down with actor-turned-documentarian Barlow Jacobs—a guy we've been hearing about for 20 years ever since he burst out of Sundance with LOW AND BEHOLD in 2007. Barlow brings his doc-debut, THE VOYAGE OUT to Austin for Doc Days. Shot on 16mm, fully off-grid, on a nine-day elk hunt deep in the mountains—the gear hauled in on pack goats, lenses wrapped in towels inside Igloo coolers because the Pelican cases wouldn't fit, this is a unique production setup for a unique doc, and all that extra work really pays off—every frame looks like an oil painting.

Keith's on the hunt for answers, but Barlow's quick to point out that THE VOYAGE OUT isn't a hunting film. It's a reckoning with mortality, kicked off by a 2009 brain tumor and later, a head-on collision with a dump truck, two life changing events that had Barlow questioning his own relationship to life & death. Barlow finds answers thanks to his film's three leads: hunting guide Marc Warnke (Bruce Willis meets John Wayne with a philosophy degree), off-grid survivalist Callie Russell (you might've seen her on ALONE), and fellow seeker Mansal Denton. We dig into the technical insanity—film canisters kept warm in a teepee, a rain-soaked tent, a lab calling in a panic about celluloid that smelled like smoke—and then there's the executive producers who showed up with support, including Chris & Eleanor Columbus's Maiden Voyage Pictures, Ley Line, and Sons of Rigor Films. All indie filmmaking is a roll of the dice, but Barlow owes a special thanks to the pro gambler whose $2-million poker win came through just in time to float the shoot.

He may be a first-time doc director, but Barlow's a festival and indie vet, and he's flipping the script on distribution. And this is where we can all take notes: how he's self-releasing to 75 theaters next year, building an audience of hunters (and bespoke butcher-shops) and why he wishes he'd planned for all of this before shooting a single frame. Plus, Keith namedrops Jeff Nichols and Toby Halbrooks; Barlow shares a gateway-doc run through Adam Curtis, GREY GARDENS, GIMME SHELTER, and Frederick Wiseman—and a reminder that filmmaking is completed one step at a time. So, when it all starts to fall apart, just walk to the next block.

DISCUSSION LINKS:

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Day three of the AFS Doc Intensive 01:00 Barlow Jacobs: 20 years of near-misses and LOW AND BEHOLD at Sundance 02:00 THE VOYAGE OUT premieres tomorrow, shot on 16mm 02:30 The origin: a brain tumor, a dump truck, and mortality 05:00 Finding the hunt: Mansal Denton, Marc Warnke, and the pack goats 06:30 Callie Russell joins; everyone has a relationship with death 07:30 The goats, the fire, and the film's real subject 09:00 Six months of prep and the tech scout 11:00 Why shoot a documentary on film 11:30 Hauling gear on goats: Igloo coolers and Old Fast Glass 13:00 A linear hunt, formalistic language, planning every scenario 15:00 Working with the subjects without impeding the hunt 16:30 Gems pulled from the field audio 17:00 The only-way-to-do-it setup; feels like a million bucks 18:30 Film canisters, 12-degree nights, the rained-on tent 19:30 The Polish AC and "it's gonna have to take a bath" 20:30 Colorlab panics: everything smells like smoke 21:00 The executive producers: Columbus, Ley Line, Sons of Rigor 22:00 The $2-million poker win that funded the shoot 23:00 COVID delay and finding the film in the footage 24:00 Nature as a character; the sound-design second unit 25:00 Bringing fiction technique to nonfiction 26:30 The hunt as a built-in three-act structure 27:00 '70s docs, Altman, and McCABE & MRS. MILLER's grain 28:30 An instructional film: Marc as teacher 29:00 Did Barlow grow up hunting? Sustainability and connection 30:00 COVID, mortality, and the questions the film asks 31:00 Distribution: the indie landscape is constricting 32:00 The plan: 50–75 theaters, self-release, March 2027 34:00 Know your audience: 15 million hunters, butcher shops 36:00 Mailing lists, Callie and Marc's followings, Kinema 38:00 Why the real work begins after the premiere 40:00 Holding the audience for the next film 41:00 Marshaling the forces; a paradigm shift 42:00 Gateway docs: Adam Curtis, GREY GARDENS, GIMME SHELTER 43:00 Frederick Wiseman, TITICUT FOLLIES, VERNON FLORIDA, BUCKS HARBOR 44:30 Advice to emerging filmmakers: walk to the next block 47:00 A question worth dying for 47:30 Next week: Luke Korem and DEALT

YOUTUBE TAGS:

Barlow Jacobs, The Voyage Out, Doc Walks, documentary filmmaking, Austin Film Society, AFS Doc Intensive, 16mm film, elk hunting documentary, Marc Warnke, Callie Russell, Mansal Denton, Chris Columbus, Ley Line Entertainment, Adam Curtis, Frederick Wiseman, independent film distribution, shooting on film, Ben Steinbauer, Keith Maitland, mortality documentary