Producer didn’t foresee plaudits for docu- series
One of the buzziest shows on Netflix this year wasn’t a thriller or a comedy — it was a documentary series.
‘‘Wild Wild Country,’’ recently nominated for five Emmy Awards, including outstanding documentary or nonfiction series, revisits the Rajneeshees, the 1980s religious group known for sexual indulgence, criminal plots and public feuds with local communities near its desert commune in Oregon.
The series was codirected by brothers Maclain and Chapman Way, and its executive producers include two other sets of brothers: Josh and Dan Braun and Mark and Jay Duplass. Speaking recently by phone, Mark Duplass discussed the nominations and the series.
Q: What were you doing when you found out about the nominations?
A: I was dropping off my niece to her acting program and scrolling through the nominations on my phone. And driving unsafely. Like an idiot.
I’ve had a lot of experience in getting excited about potential award nominations that might have come my way — all of which never, ever did — so I was just like, ‘‘Whatever, let’s just see what happens.’’ I got to experience it in the quiet of my car, still in my pajamas, with my first cup of coffee in my hand.
Q: What was it like having multiple brothers involved?
A: There was a familial vibe to this whole thing. We’re all acutely aware of how extremely difficult it is to work together as family members, and we all have a way of doing it that’s very therapy talk-y. Everybody’s very sweet to each other — and aware that, if we’re not, we’ll all be punching each other in the face.
Q: Was there a specific moment when that familial feeling came up?
A: Watching the first cut of episode one, it became very clear to the Brauns and to the Duplasses that the Ways did not really creatively need us anymore. It was that moment you have as a parent where you’re like, “I guess our kids are ready to go to college.”
Q: Did the level of buzz for a documentary series surprise you?
A: I didn’t have any idea of the sort of
explosion that would happen. When does a documentary series that is essentially a sociopolitical study of church and state at its core ever become something that “SNL” is making a skit out of?
Q: Documentaries are having a moment. ... Why?
A: I feel like “The Jinx” and “Making a Murderer” were the gateway drugs into great documentary filmmaking. Murder is like candy for audience members. They just love it. Then they were taking these mild left turns into subject matter that they’re familiar with but isn’t murder-based.
Q: What’s the best response you could hope for from viewers of your series?
A: If someone can deeply identify at times with some of the crazy activities that the members of Rajneeshpuram engaged in, and then, at other times, engage in or at least sympathize with something that could easily be classified as just white xenophobia and fear of the other — if they can put themselves in their shoes and see how they could feel that way even though they might not agree, that’s a really nice thing for our country at this point.