Top Three Subjects Vie for DirecTV’s ‘Next Great American Documentary’

READ MORE: Attention, Filmmakers: Tongal and DirecTV Team Are Looking for ‘The Next Great American Documentary’

“The Next Great American Documentary,” the competition project by DirecTV and filmmaking community Tongal, has chosen its top three documentary subjects. The competition, which began in March, crowdsourced ideas for a new documentary film by asking talented individuals to submit their ideas for a documentary film, with the winner given the potential to turn their concept into an actual film to be aired on DirecTV’s Audience Network.

“We’re really impressed by the diversity and quality of the final three subjects for this film project,” said Tongal founder James De Julio. “Tongal received nearly 300 potential film subject submissions, and the public voting helped to narrow down the finalists. In the next phase, directors will pitch to bring these subjects to life, which is exciting because it’s the first time we get to visually experience the films.”

Here are the top three subjects:

The New England seafood industry has long been accused of operating in a cartel-like format. With the higher-ups controlling the catch limit and permitting of the working class fishermen. A few writers have tried to tackle this topic but for the the most part people don’t want to hear about it. Fisherman stay tightlipped presumably because they don’t want to affect their families or livelihoods.

Mostly young, but not limited to age, train hoppers have been a culture since the inception of Manifest Destiny. Every train hopper has a story and an outlook on life that has driven them to illegally ride trains, risk the dangers and how their character grows compared to those who have never thought of living such an unorthodox life.

There’s a small group of people out there who are trying to achieve total self-sufficiency–foodwise, energywise, housingwise, and more. There have even been cases of local governments penalizing people for producing their own electricity, growing their own organic food, or having no official postal address. A documentary about one or more of these “go-it-aloners” would be fascinating.