The Price of Milk: Nick Bruckman on the Got Milk Campaign

Why would an oat milk company pay for a documentary that makes dairy farmers the heroes?

The Price of Milk follows the money behind the 1990s Got Milk campaign, and its heroes are small family dairy farmers like Joe and Brenda Cochran. Directed by Nick Bruckman and Yoni Brook, the four-part investigative series looks at the USDA checkoff programs behind generic ads like Got Milk, and argues that small dairy farmers end up paying for them. What their research found, Nick says, is that these programs are "basically robbing America's small farmers blind and transferring that money to big industrial farms." He is clear about what the series is not: it isn't telling anyone to stop drinking milk. "It's a political problem," he says.

In Episode 265, Christian Taylor welcomes Nick back for his third visit. He starts with how a film gets into festivals like Tribeca: labs and markets such as the Tribeca Creators Market, where The Price of Milk was developed in 2024, Gotham Week in New York and Film Independent's Fast Track, which can connect you with programmers, and above all, feedback. At his rough cut screenings, everyone fills out a form in silence before anyone talks, and when Nick sees people reach for their phones, he cuts or shortens the scene. He was 25 when he made his first film, Valley of Saints, with a crew of three, and it got into Sundance as a cold submission. Then he explains how Minted reached Netflix in about 100 countries after its PBS Independent Lens broadcast, in a deal made by his sales agents at Range Media Partners, and what Netflix's informal mandates to sales agents tend to ask for.

Then the series. Nick explains why The Price of Milk began as a feature and became a four-part series after rough cut screenings showed the story was too sprawling for one film; how the checkoff programs behind Got Milk, "Beef. It's What's for Dinner" and "The Incredible, Edible Egg" work; that the first Got Milk ad was directed by Michael Bay; and the series' look at Mike McCloskey's Fair Oaks Farms and the 2019 animal abuse scandal there. Then the funding. The series was financed by Oatly, and the series discloses it. Rule number one, Nick says, was that it could not promote plant milk or tell anyone what to drink, or it would be advertising; Oatly gave him, co-director Yoni Brook and producers Jen Maylack and James Doolittle the freedom to tell the story they wanted. He shares how other filmmakers can find brand and nonprofit partners.

WATCH THE FILM

The Price of Milk streams on Documentary+: https://docplus.com/show-details/the-price-of-milk

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why film festivals matter, and why they aren't everything
• How labs and markets like the Tribeca Creators Market connect you to programmers
• How Nick runs rough cut screenings with a silent feedback form
• How a cold submission got Nick's first film into Sundance
• How Minted landed on Netflix after its PBS broadcast
• What Netflix's mandates to sales agents tend to ask for
• Why The Price of Milk became a four-part series
• What a USDA checkoff program is, and who it helps
• Why Oatly funded a series that doesn't tell you what to drink
• How filmmakers can find brand and nonprofit partners

CHAPTERS

0:00 Nick Bruckman's Third Visit

4:31 Getting Into Tribeca

12:39 Labs and Markets Explained

18:14 Minted's Road to Netflix

27:35 Why Danes Watch Documentaries

33:06 The Price of Milk

38:49 What's a Checkoff Program?

46:34 Fair Oaks and Fairlife

52:01 Funded by Oatly

55:55 Finding Brand Partners

59:58 Secret Mall Apartment

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is The Price of Milk about?

The Price of Milk is a four-part investigative docuseries directed by Nicholas Bruckman and Yoni Brook. It follows the money behind the 1990s Got Milk campaign, which the series ties to USDA checkoff programs, and looks at how those programs affect small family dairy farmers. The series had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. Oatly financed the series, and the series says so in a title card.

What is a USDA checkoff program?

As Nicholas Bruckman explains on Documentary First, a checkoff is a US government program in which every producer of a product, such as milk, beef or eggs, is required to pay into a fund for generic advertising. Bruckman lists Got Milk, "Beef. It's What's for Dinner" and "The Incredible, Edible Egg" as examples of checkoff-style advertising. The Price of Milk asks whether that advertising works at all, and whether it's worth it for small farmers.

How do you get a documentary into Tribeca?

Nicholas Bruckman says festivals matter but aren't everything. He builds a project's track record through labs and markets, such as the Tribeca Creators Market, Gotham Week and Film Independent's Fast Track, which can connect filmmakers with programmers. Above all, he holds many rough cut screenings with a written feedback form and keeps cutting until friends rate the film a five. His first film, Valley of Saints, got into Sundance as a cold submission.

How did Minted get on Netflix?

Nicholas Bruckman says Minted: The Rise (and Fall?) of the NFT was licensed by Netflix in about 100 countries in April 2025, in a deal done together with PBS after the film's Independent Lens broadcast. Range Media Partners made the deal. He believes Netflix took it because it was the definitive film about a cultural flash point, the kind of documentary that drives water cooler conversation.

DOCUVIEW DÉJÀ VU PICKS

Nick's pick: Secret Mall Apartment, directed by Jeremy Workman, about a group of artists who secretly built and lived in an apartment inside a Providence, Rhode Island mall for years. Workman also edited the trailer for The Price of Milk.

SPONSORED BY VIRGIL FILMS ENTERTAINMENT

https://virgilfilms.com

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ABOUT THE GUEST

Nicholas Bruckman

Director and Founder of People's Television

Nicholas Bruckman is an Emmy-nominated director and the founder and CEO of People's Television (People's TV), a creative studio in New York City and Washington, DC. He co-directed The Price of Milk, which premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, with Yoni Brook. His film Minted: The Rise (and Fall?) of the NFT premiered at Tribeca, aired on PBS Independent Lens and was released on Netflix, and his film Not Going Quietly, about health care activist Ady Barkan, won the Audience Award and a Special Jury Award at SXSW 2021. He produced Valley of Saints, which played Sundance in 2012.

Website: https://nickny.com

People's TV: https://peoples.tv

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicholasbruckman/

X: https://twitter.com/Nick_Bruckman

ABOUT DOCUMENTARY FIRST

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers from Ken Burns to first-time directors. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide.

THE NICK BRUCKMAN SESSIONS

• Episode 211, Nick's first visit, recorded the week after Ady Barkan died, on Not Going Quietly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw-MV2SGJFU
• Episode 223, Nick's second visit, on Minted and the artists of the NFT boom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW9Zra9knk4
• Related: Episode 266, Susan Lacy on Billy Joel: And So It Goes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEXnM_eNkkc

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• The Price of Milk at the 2025 Tribeca Festival: https://tribecafilm.com/films/price-of-milk-2025
• Minted now streaming on Netflix, from