“Documentary Now” is a mockumentary television series on IFC created by “Saturday Night Live” alumni Rhys Thomas, Seth Meyers, Bill Hader and Fred Armisen. Hader and Armisen star and Thomas serves as co-director. The series revolves around parodying documentary films that have achieved major success. They use the same style of documentary but switch the topic and subject of it. Armisen, Hader, Thomas and Meyers are joined by SNL creator Lorne Michael as executive producer and actress Helen Mirren acts as host.
On October 5 The Center for Communications hosted a screening of “Documentary Now” with a discussion and Q&A with director, co-creator and SNL alumni Rhys Thomas. He explained that the series pays “homage to” great documentary films that have been made. The screening include the episode “DRONEZ: The Hunt for El Chingon” — which was filmed in Tijuana. This episode featured a guest appearance by Jack Black and was directed by Rhys Thomas and Alex Buono — creating a parody of VICE News documentaries.
Rhys Thomas is an Emmy and Rose D’Or winning director, producer, actor and writer. Thomas is famous for being a producer for “Saturday Night Live”. He has had notable roles in “Star Stories”, “The Fast Show” and “Sirens”. The England native is also the voice of Gary Bellamy on Radio 4’s “Down The Line”. He has won awards for his documentaries and even worked with the rock band Queen! At the event he explained that it’s important to never feel like you’re so skilled in a certain field, such as filmmaking, because there is always room to improve. He added that it doesn’t matter if you’ve gone to film school, it just matters that you work hard. If you don’t feel a little nervous, then you’re doing something wrong. Similar to the idea that, ‘If your dreams don’t scare you, then you’re not dreaming big enough.’