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[0:09] Robert Bannon: Welcome to The Roundtable, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon. You're listening to us on Broadway World over here on the Broadway Podcast Network, iHeartSpotify, wherever you listen to art and artists. It's Tribeca Week. We love Tribeca here. Growing up in New Jersey, there's nothing like the Tribeca Film Festival. There's nothing like Tri-State Politics, and there's a documentary about one of the most famous governors and families and legacies of Tri-State Politics, New York politics, with a brand new documentary called Mario. And we have just so happened to have the people who have put this little baby together. Welcome to the show.

[0:41] George & Teddy Kunhardt: Thank you for having us.

[0:42] Teddy Kunhardt: So Teddy and George, are you guys? I know this is a stupid question. You look like brothers. You have the same last name. Are you brothers?

[0:50] George & Teddy Kunhardt: We're brothers.

[0:50] Teddy Kunhardt: Who's older?

[0:52] Robert Bannon: I don't, I think you're twin brothers. I think I can't say. Are you identical twins?

[0:56] George & Teddy Kunhardt: I'm gonna try to be politically correct.

[0:58] Teddy Kunhardt: I like it. He's got me by two years.

[0:59] George & Teddy Kunhardt: So you okay. I'm the older brother, my over here in my own world. And um, what makes you guys, I don't know if I could work with my brother. He's insane.

[1:06] Teddy Kunhardt: We also work with our father, who's also the director on the film.

[1:11] George & Teddy Kunhardt: That's even—God bless you. You guys are going to be saints.

[1:15] Robert Bannon: So, what made you guys go into this business together as a family? And how's that been?

[1:21] Teddy Kunhardt: It's awesome. Uh, I'll take a quick start at this, which our father started the company after being Barbara Walters' senior producer for 10 years at ABC. He started a company called Kunhardt Films years ago, and then Teddy and I joined almost 20 years ago, and the three of us have actually switched from the for-profit to the nonprofit world, running Life Stories where we operate together along with about 15 to 20 other teammates, and we love it. I mean, we have a great rapport, the three of us. Our father is just a brilliant, thoughtful, humble filmmaker and an amazing person that we've learned so much from. So and Teddy and I worked together beautifully on 99% of the time.

[1:58] Robert Bannon: That I get that. That makes Teddy. Your dad worked with Barbara Walters for 10 years. Look, that means he knows what he's doing because that lady did not play. She's the best of the best.

[2:07] Teddy Kunhardt: Yeah.

[2:09] Robert Bannon: All right. So you guys know you have a legacy of making incredible film and television work. Why this documentary and why now? Why Mario Cuomo?

[2:19] George & Teddy Kunhardt: You know, he is a historical figure. He comes from my grandfather's an Italian immigrant. I'm very moved by his story. He became, it's only an American story, and maybe it's not even a story that can be replicated anymore. It's such a time, it's such an incredible time in history. And his come up, I got to watch the documentary. Why did you feel the need to make this movie now?

[2:43] Teddy Kunhardt: So let me step back and say we did a HBO series on President Obama. And when we were speaking with David Axelrod about the convention speech that President Senator Obama gave then, he said you have to go back to '84 because Senator Obama studied the hell out of Mario Cuomo's '84 speech. George and I are of a younger generation where we didn't even know who Mario Cuomo was. We got the speech, we watched it, and we saw the magic firsthand. And we have a whiteboard in George's office where we write names of possible film ideas, and he was on the board, and he sat on the board for years. And then when we started this nonprofit, and we were at the discretion to do what we want to do, we went back to the board and realized that the 250th anniversary of this country was coming up this July.

And what a better way to celebrate than focusing on Mario Cuomo. To us, he is the embodiment of the American dream. His parents came from Italy. He didn't speak English until he was eight. And he showed that with the help and support of a government, you can rise and not only rise, you can thrive. You can become the governor of New York State.

[4:07] George & Teddy Kunhardt: That's what's so moving to me about this story is I learned so much about him and his history that I did not ever know. You hear a lot about the name now because his children are famous and have carried on traditions, and I know that that's a little bookend of this whole entire process. But there's so much that we don't remember, or because I'm younger too. I was one year old in 1984. So when you look at this film, you learn so much. It's Ronald Reagan's America. He's an immigrant son, he's living in Queens, grew up in Queens, and it's really like a working man's fighting man's journey to the top. So who did you speak to? How did you get this information to put a whole documentary piece together?

[4:46] Teddy Kunhardt: It took almost two years to make this film. So we interviewed all five of the Cuomo children. We interviewed Mario's wife, Matilda, who's a beautiful woman and gave us such an interesting interview. We interviewed the historian Jon Meachum, who really put in perspective how important Mario was to this legacy of this country and how important it is to study not just Mario specifically, but governors. And it's an interesting thing that he says you always remember the presidency, you never really remember all the governors, and we should. And he really brought that back to brought that home for us in a very eloquent way. We also talked to a lot of journalists, a lot of people who worked for and with Mario over the years.

And when you get deeper and deeper into the storytelling and the research process, it's like an onion. You start uncovering different layers. But the main layer that we uncovered about halfway through the production was his personal diaries. And when you get into the personal, what he was writing and thinking at the time that you see him talking to Reagan or going to anything throughout his political career or private public career, to then go back to the diaries and see how did he, as a human being relate to this or talk about it, it kind of grounds you and you kind of can relate on a different level to the interviewee or subject matter.

[6:02] George & Teddy Kunhardt: But one of the things that we have that's different from most filmmakers is time. I mean, the list goes on and on of the collaborators that we work with, and the detailed ways that we're able to kind of find the story in unique ways is just it by having the time that we had for this film, we wouldn't have gotten the story that we wanted to tell the way that we produced it without time and the team that we have.

[7:10] Robert Bannon: I love that. You know, your team is Emmy Award winning, Peabody winning, all of these films you've made. I love the political. I was a poly sci major. I love political science documentaries because they humanize people who are not human-like to us. You know, they go home and the weight of the world is on their shoulders, and they have a family and they have responsibilities outside of their office and their job. And through your work, we get to see a different side to that, and that's pretty amazing. So, how can we support the film? What can we do? And is there a chance that we're all gonna get to be able to see it?

[7:40] Teddy Kunhardt: So, as George mentioned, our nonprofit is lifestories.org. Everything we do, everything we create is free to the public. There's no paywall, there's no subscription. You don't have to do anything. Just go to the website and watch our content, share it. We have educational curriculum that we create. We've just started a partnership, or not just, but about a year now. We're in a partnership with another nonprofit called Adovo, which gets all of our material onto the tablets for incarcerated men and women throughout the country. And it's got over a million incarcerated learners using our material. But as they point out, this film will be on our site this fall. We don't need the exact date, it'll be sometime September, October, TBD exactly.

We're working with some other ancillary distribution outside of that as well. But we truly believe that everyone should have access to everything. We want this thoughtful, well-produced material out there, and students, educators, general public, anyone should be able to experience this without having to pay. And that we're proud of that. So that's something that's gonna come out later this year.

[8:51] George & Teddy Kunhardt: And I don't want to be negative because this is a positive story and a positive moment, and we're excited to be Tribeca right now, but our industry is very difficult right now. A film like this on Mario Cuomo would not get greenlit. A film on Catherine Graham that we just did would not get greenlit. We took that film, Catherine Graham, offered it for free everywhere, nobody wanted to touch it. This film, nobody wants historical documentary. They want the stuff that's gonna get the clicks. And to us, our father has taught us we're gonna stay in our lane, we're gonna do what we do, and we're gonna do it really well. And one day the pendulum will swing back. This is what always happens. So until that day swings back, you know, we're gonna be ready and we're gonna keep doing these things, and we're pumped. That's why we got to support works like this.

[8:51] Robert Bannon: So we can go—I'll click the link will be below so that you can see where you're talking about where you can listen to and watch their work and get their work for free. I hope you guys get paid. Look, you got families. You can't give it all away for free.

[9:54] Teddy Kunhardt: No, no, we get paid, but we are just truly thankful for everything.

[9:54] Robert Bannon: Yes, incredible, incredible work. I what, you're gonna have your opening at Tribeca, the red carpet. I'm sure some of the Cuomo family will be there. Will be a big event. Tell me how you're feeling about it. What's in store for it?

[10:36] George & Teddy Kunhardt: We're excited. We had the red carpet at a little after 4 p.m. today, and then the screen's at five o'clock at the SVA theater. It's gonna be—it sold out before it even went on sale, and so did our second screening, which is tomorrow. And then we have a back by popular demand screening because there's such interest in this story. So we're pumped. We're gonna got some butterflies getting ready to premiere it, but we're excited.

[10:43] Teddy Kunhardt: That proves to the industry that there's a market out here for beloved figures, political figures, and historical figures in this country, and there are people that are dying to see their stories, and we need to see their stories.

[10:52] Robert Bannon: Is there a reason something from 20—oh my God, I was gonna say 20 years ago, 1980, the '80s or 40 years, 40 years ago? Is there something that in the political landscape has changed so much in 40 years?

[11:06] George & Teddy Kunhardt: It's much different than it was in the 1980s in a certain type of way. When you watch the story personally, is there something that you wish we could go back to? Something that in his legacy or the way that he operated that resonated with you as a person in the way that the times were at that time?

[11:20] Teddy Kunhardt: I just—we just interviewed Secretary Clinton two days ago. We told her we were doing this film, and she said, you know, Mario was of a time of good politics that we could work together, that we could trust their word, you know, their word meaning Republican versus Democrat. You know, we try not to bring our own beliefs into these filmmaking, but I think for what is so refreshing to me and to George and to our father and everyone watching this is, you know, Mario did not agree with President Reagan, but he did not hate him. There was no vicious attacks, there was no venom. Sure, they had completely different philosophies of how to govern, but at the end of the day, there was not hate. And there was love. And I don't call it love between those two, but love in general. And maybe we'll get back there one day.

[12:25] Robert Bannon: Maybe we will. I hope so. So you both, congratulations. I can't wait to see what's next. If you're going to Tribeca, make sure you can try to grab a ticket if you can find one. Stand, there's a standby line. There's a standby line at screenings. Try to get a ticket and then look for the fall winnings will be screening and you'll be able to see it from home for free. Congratulations to you both. I can't wait to talk to you again and see what else you got up your sleeve for the next one.

[12:46] Teddy Kunhardt: Thank you so much.

[12:46] George & Teddy Kunhardt: Very nice to meet you, Robert.

[12:48] Robert Bannon: Nice to meet you guys. Congratulations, break legs today.

[12:50] Teddy Kunhardt: Thank you.

[12:51] George & Teddy Kunhardt: Appreciate it.