6 nonfiction Emmy contenders to watch this season

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Nonfiction films and series are among some of the most-watched (and most-discussed) programming on TV.As Emmy season heats up, the directors of six notable contenders share thoughts about their projects.“It’s just a famous, famous story in Texas, but particularly Austin,” director Margaret Brown says of the bewilderingly complex case of four teenage girls slain at a yogurt shop in the state’s capital in 1991.

“You heard about it all the time at parties.My best friend was like, ‘That story is rabbit hole upon rabbit hole upon rabbit hole — no one knows what really happened.

It’s impossible to figure out.’ I liked the idea of something that was impossible to figure out.But when I started doing the interviews, I was like, ‘This is dark, this is deep trauma.’ I’d never watched or done true crime before.

I didn’t realize what it would be like to sit with people who hadn’t known what happened to their siblings and children for over 30 years.I remember [thinking], ‘I’ve got to get this right.

I can’t mess this up.There’s just too much pain here.’”“Leading up to it, I said I just don’t want us drowning in fife-and-drum treacle,” director Ken Burns says of his expansive treatment of America’s origin story, which draws out the experiences of Native Americans and enslaved people as well as the era’s atmosphere of civic discord.

“Clearly it’s not, because we’re so existentially challenged by the moment.But the revolution gives us a sense of perspective.

Times were more challenging then.More division.

More division in the Civil War.More division in Reconstruction.

Yes, the threats are unprecedented, but they’re not totally unfamiliar.Mark Twain is supposed to have said history doesn’t repeat itself, but he’s [also] supposed to have said it rhymes.

I love that.So like Odysseus, I tie myself to the mast and resist the temptat...