”The Bee Gees” with Mark Monroe

Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers

“Disco sucks!” Be honest. Did you ever utter that phrase in a weak moment brought on by hard rock/punk music-induced peer pressure? Legendary filmmaker Frank Marshall, who has produced some of Hollywood’s biggest films, makes his documentary directing debut with “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” a thoroughly satisfying corrective that finally gives just due to one of rock music’s greatest bands. Archival gems and transcendent performance footage are seamlessly interwoven with a deeply personal interview with Barry Gibb and refreshing insights from contemporary musicians and massive Bee Gees fans including Justin Timberlake, Noel Gallagher, and Chris Martin.

“Bee Gees” writer and producer Mark Monroe joins us on Top Docs to share many insights from the making of the film and to break down how he, as the writer on the film (and on many top docs, including Oscar® winners, “The Cove” and “Icarus”), helped develop the story’s creative arc. What’s Mark’s process for applying classic three-act structure to the documentary form in order to land a film’s emotional highs and lows? What went down on the recording of the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack and what really was behind the infamous “disco sucks” movement of the late ‘70s, anyway? Mark also shares his own story about how, at one point, peer pressure turned him away from the Bee Gees. How can you mend a broken heart? Dust off your old Bee Gees LPs (or 8-track or cassette player…) and tune in to this week’s Top Docs episode to find out. And that’s no jive talkin’!

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