One might not expect any connection between the coarsely hysterical comedy The Hangover — currently No. 1 at the box-office — and documentaries. But in fact Hangover director Todd Phillips began in the doc world, first with the 1994 G.G. Allin film Hated, then with Frat House.

Here he talks with critic Elvis Mitchell on the KCRW show The Treatment about how making documentaries “is like living life on fast-forward,” his love of the Maysles brothers, and how Maysles and Wiseman-style “fly-on-the-wall” filmmaking “went out the window” in the modern era after people were conditioned by reality and entertainment news shows to “fear the camera.”

I also suggest you subscribe to The Treatment podcast, as Mitchell is terrific at getting great interviews from a wide range of people in the arts. And if you wish to contribute to KCRW, go here. (If you want to contribute to me, go here. Thank you.)

Todd Phillips on documentaries (3:29)

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