Nick Sweeney, director of the new Noah Kahan documentary

About this episode

The episode features Nick Sweeney discussing the new Noah Kahan documentary and JLee MacKenzie talking about his animated film.

Strafford’s Noah Kahan is arguably the most famous musician to come out of Vermont in recent years. A new Netflix documentary, "Noah Kahan: Out of Body," follows the Upper Valley singer-songwriter as he grapples with fame, his mental health and complex family dynamics. Following the meteoric success of "Stick Season" in 2022, Kahan spent the next few years touring, playing increasingly larger venues. This culminated in stops at Madison Square Garden in New York City and Fenway Park in Boston. The "Out of Body" filmmakers joined him for those concerts, but also for many quieter moments at home in Nashville and Strafford. The cameras capture Kahan struggling with body dysmorphia and disordered eating, and trying to write new songs that could survive in the shadow of "Stick Season." The documentary premiered at SXSW last month, where it won an audience award. Its director, Nick Sweeney , made repeated trips to Strafford and the surrounding area during filming in order to better understand his subject. Then; JLee MacKenzie is an animator who grew up in Chittenden County. He was in film school in California when the pandemic hit, so he turned to animation to find a new way to tell…

People in this episode

Guests: Nick Sweeney, JLee MacKenzie

Topics covered

• music
• documentary
• mental health
• family dynamics
• animation
• storytelling

Keywords

• Noah Kahan
• documentary
• mental health
• animation
• SXSW
• Definitely Gangster
• JLee MacKenzie

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Netflix

Books & works: Noah Kahan: Out of Body, Definitely Gangster

Places: Strafford, Nashville, New York City, Boston, Chittenden County

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