With fears our winter travel will need a, let’s say, reconsideration, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming could hardly come at a better moment. High on list of highlights is Louis Feuillade’s delightful Les Vampires, which I suggest soundtracking to Coil, instrumental Nine Inch Nails, and Jóhann Jóhannson’s Mandy score. Notable too is a Sundance ’92 retrospective running the gamut from Paul Schrader to Derek Jarman to Jean-Pierre Gorin, and I’m especially excited for their look at one of America’s greatest actors, Sterling Hayden.
Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.
See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020
5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952
After Migration: Calabria,...
Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.
See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020
5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952
After Migration: Calabria,...
- 12/20/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Closing out a year in which we’ve needed The Criterion Channel more than ever, they’ve now announced their impressive December lineup. Topping the highlights is a trio of Terrence Malick films––Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The New World––along with interviews featuring actors Richard Gere, Sissy Spacek, and Martin Sheen; production designer Jack Fisk; costume designer Jacqueline West; cinematographers Haskell Wexler and John Bailey; and more.
Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.
Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.
Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.
Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.
- 11/24/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The Jewish Film Institute has selected six projects for its inaugural Completion Grants Program, including “The Wild One,” a documentary by French filmmaker Tessa Louise-Salomé about Holocaust survivor, Hollywood filmmaker and Method Acting pioneer Jack Garfein, who worked with George Peppard, Steve McQueen and James Dean.
The funding program supports both emerging and established filmmakers developing “original, contemporary stories that promote thoughtful consideration of Jewish history, life, culture, and identity,” according to a statement.
The programs seeks to fill the gap left when the National Foundation for Jewish Culture closed in 2015. This gap, along with “a growing need for work that builds empathy and understanding within and beyond Jewish culture,” has helped shape the fund and how it is administered. The program, which was formally announced at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in January, aims to “expand opportunities for filmmakers making Jewish content and help inspire and secure the future of Jewish storytelling.
The funding program supports both emerging and established filmmakers developing “original, contemporary stories that promote thoughtful consideration of Jewish history, life, culture, and identity,” according to a statement.
The programs seeks to fill the gap left when the National Foundation for Jewish Culture closed in 2015. This gap, along with “a growing need for work that builds empathy and understanding within and beyond Jewish culture,” has helped shape the fund and how it is administered. The program, which was formally announced at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in January, aims to “expand opportunities for filmmakers making Jewish content and help inspire and secure the future of Jewish storytelling.
- 7/13/2020
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The new programme aims to provide year-round support for Idfa alumni as well as offering creative and professional development. Last week, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa), the world's largest event celebrating non-fiction filmmaking, announced the launch of a new development programme called Idfa Project Space, which is set to kick off online on 29 June. The initiative aims to provide year-round support for Idfa alumni as well as creative and professional development opportunities for selected filmmakers from the Idfa Competition for First Appearance, the Idfa Bertha Fund and IDFAcademy, among other Idfa talents. On this occasion, ten international teams will join the first phase of the programme (29 June-10 July) and will receive valuable mentorship from acclaimed filmmakers such as Karim Aïnouz, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Alan Berliner, Emma Davie, Maite Alberdi, Gladys Joujou, Ollie Huddleston and Jesper Osmund. During the first phase, the teams will work on developing their...
Competition line-up includes new films by Jerzy Sladkowski, Bryan Fogel, Moara Passoni and Hubert Sauper.
Copenhagen-based documentary festival Cph:dox (March 18-29) has revealed its 2020 competition line-up, with 52% of the 65 titles directed by one or more female directors.
Notable world premieres include Ecstasy, the new project from Brazil’s Moara Passoni, who co-wrote the Oscar-nominated The Edge Of Democracy. Ecstasy is an autobiographical hybrid following Passoni’s alter ego Clara as she battles anorexia
Also in the main competition is the world premiere of Bitter Love from Polish filmmaker Jerzy Sladkowski, who won the main award at Idfa with Don Juan...
Copenhagen-based documentary festival Cph:dox (March 18-29) has revealed its 2020 competition line-up, with 52% of the 65 titles directed by one or more female directors.
Notable world premieres include Ecstasy, the new project from Brazil’s Moara Passoni, who co-wrote the Oscar-nominated The Edge Of Democracy. Ecstasy is an autobiographical hybrid following Passoni’s alter ego Clara as she battles anorexia
Also in the main competition is the world premiere of Bitter Love from Polish filmmaker Jerzy Sladkowski, who won the main award at Idfa with Don Juan...
- 2/21/2020
- by 1101184¦Orlando Parfitt¦38¦
- ScreenDaily
Thom Powers with Anne-Katrin Titze on Doc NYC Lifetime Achievement Visionary Tribute honourees Michael Apted and Martin Scorsese: “We feel very blessed in our tenth year to have two filmmakers who are working at the peak of their craft and the peak of this industry.” Photo: Doc NYC
2019 marks the tenth anniversary of Doc NYC and it is dedicated to the memory of the great Da Pennebaker. Barbara Kopple: “On August 1st 2019 I lost someone irreplaceable in my life, my friend and inspiration Da Pennebaker.” Andrew Rossi: “Da Pennebaker was such a monumental influence on so many filmmakers. It's not just because his films were so poetic and historically important, putting him on the Mt. Rushmore of documentarians like Maysles, Wiseman and Varda.”
Andrew Rossi puts Da Pennebaker, Albert Maysles, Frederick Wiseman and Agnès Varda on the Mt. Rushmore of documentarians Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Chris Hegedus and...
2019 marks the tenth anniversary of Doc NYC and it is dedicated to the memory of the great Da Pennebaker. Barbara Kopple: “On August 1st 2019 I lost someone irreplaceable in my life, my friend and inspiration Da Pennebaker.” Andrew Rossi: “Da Pennebaker was such a monumental influence on so many filmmakers. It's not just because his films were so poetic and historically important, putting him on the Mt. Rushmore of documentarians like Maysles, Wiseman and Varda.”
Andrew Rossi puts Da Pennebaker, Albert Maysles, Frederick Wiseman and Agnès Varda on the Mt. Rushmore of documentarians Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Chris Hegedus and...
- 11/8/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Each year for over a decade, the Cinema Eye Honors selection committees, comprised of filmmakers from the documentary community, help to whittle down an increasingly overwhelming list of must-see non-fiction film and television. The 2020 nominees for Outstanding Feature Film are lead by Oscar frontrunners “American Factory” and “Apollo 11”, with five nominations each, and “For Sama”, “Honeyland”, “Midnight Family”, and “One Child Nation”, with three apiece.
Also scoring three nominations were “Aquarela” (Sony Pictures Classics”), “The Cave” (NatGeo), and “Beyoncé’s Homecoming” (Netflix). “American Factory,” “Honeyland,” and “One Child Nation” also earned nods for Outstanding Direction, along with Feras Fayyad for “The Cave,” Mads Brügger for “Cold Case Hammarskjöld,” and Brett Story for “The Hottest August.”
Audience Choice nominees include “17 Blocks,” “The Amazing Johnathan Documentary,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Knock Down the House,” and “Maiden.”
Netflix led all distributors/broadcasters with a record total of 17 nominations,...
Also scoring three nominations were “Aquarela” (Sony Pictures Classics”), “The Cave” (NatGeo), and “Beyoncé’s Homecoming” (Netflix). “American Factory,” “Honeyland,” and “One Child Nation” also earned nods for Outstanding Direction, along with Feras Fayyad for “The Cave,” Mads Brügger for “Cold Case Hammarskjöld,” and Brett Story for “The Hottest August.”
Audience Choice nominees include “17 Blocks,” “The Amazing Johnathan Documentary,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Knock Down the House,” and “Maiden.”
Netflix led all distributors/broadcasters with a record total of 17 nominations,...
- 11/7/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Each year for over a decade, the Cinema Eye Honors selection committees, comprised of filmmakers from the documentary community, help to whittle down an increasingly overwhelming list of must-see non-fiction film and television. The 2020 nominees for Outstanding Feature Film are lead by Oscar frontrunners “American Factory” and “Apollo 11”, with five nominations each, and “For Sama”, “Honeyland”, “Midnight Family”, and “One Child Nation”, with three apiece.
Also scoring three nominations were “Aquarela” (Sony Pictures Classics”), “The Cave” (NatGeo), and “Beyoncé’s Homecoming” (Netflix). “American Factory,” “Honeyland,” and “One Child Nation” also earned nods for Outstanding Direction, along with Feras Fayyad for “The Cave,” Mads Brügger for “Cold Case Hammarskjöld,” and Brett Story for “The Hottest August.”
Audience Choice nominees include “17 Blocks,” “The Amazing Johnathan Documentary,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Knock Down the House,” and “Maiden.”
Netflix led all distributors/broadcasters with a record total of 17 nominations,...
Also scoring three nominations were “Aquarela” (Sony Pictures Classics”), “The Cave” (NatGeo), and “Beyoncé’s Homecoming” (Netflix). “American Factory,” “Honeyland,” and “One Child Nation” also earned nods for Outstanding Direction, along with Feras Fayyad for “The Cave,” Mads Brügger for “Cold Case Hammarskjöld,” and Brett Story for “The Hottest August.”
Audience Choice nominees include “17 Blocks,” “The Amazing Johnathan Documentary,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Knock Down the House,” and “Maiden.”
Netflix led all distributors/broadcasters with a record total of 17 nominations,...
- 11/7/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Documentary group Cinema Eye on Thursday unveiled nominations for the 2020 Cinema Eye Honors, with Netflix’s American Factory and Neon’s Apollo 11 leading the way with five nominations each. Netflix tops all distributors with 17 noms, the most ever in a single year.
Winners will be revealed at a ceremony January 6 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.
American Factory, which counts Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground among its executive producers, and Todd Douglas Miller’s deep dive into the 1969 moon mission Apollo 11 were nominated in the marquee Outstanding Nonfiction Feature category. They are joined there by For Sama, the PBS/Frontline Syrian drama from Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watt; Neon’s Honeyland, the Sundance-winning Macedonian beekeeper tale from Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevsk; 1901 Media’s Mexico City ambulance industry pic Midnight Family; and Amazon Studios’ Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize-winning One Child Nation.
Last year,...
Winners will be revealed at a ceremony January 6 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.
American Factory, which counts Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground among its executive producers, and Todd Douglas Miller’s deep dive into the 1969 moon mission Apollo 11 were nominated in the marquee Outstanding Nonfiction Feature category. They are joined there by For Sama, the PBS/Frontline Syrian drama from Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watt; Neon’s Honeyland, the Sundance-winning Macedonian beekeeper tale from Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevsk; 1901 Media’s Mexico City ambulance industry pic Midnight Family; and Amazon Studios’ Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize-winning One Child Nation.
Last year,...
- 11/7/2019
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
“American Factory” and “Apollo 11” led all films in nominations for the 13th annual Cinema Eye Honors, a New York-based awards show created to pay tribute to all facets of nonfiction filmmaking.
The two films each received five nominations, including Outstanding Nonfiction Feature, from the Cinema Eye jury of festival programmers, as well as votes from this year’s eligible filmmakers.
The full slate of nominees in that category is a solid lineup of the year’s most acclaimed docs. In addition to Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s “American Factory” and Todd Douglas Miller’s “Apollo 11,” it includes Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ “For Sama,” Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s “Honeyland,” Luke Lorentzen’s “Midnight Family” and Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s “One Child Nation.”
Also Read: 12 Documentaries to Check Out This Fall, Including Films by Bruce Springsteen and Agnès Varda (Photos)
“American Factory,” “Apollo 11...
The two films each received five nominations, including Outstanding Nonfiction Feature, from the Cinema Eye jury of festival programmers, as well as votes from this year’s eligible filmmakers.
The full slate of nominees in that category is a solid lineup of the year’s most acclaimed docs. In addition to Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s “American Factory” and Todd Douglas Miller’s “Apollo 11,” it includes Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ “For Sama,” Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s “Honeyland,” Luke Lorentzen’s “Midnight Family” and Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s “One Child Nation.”
Also Read: 12 Documentaries to Check Out This Fall, Including Films by Bruce Springsteen and Agnès Varda (Photos)
“American Factory,” “Apollo 11...
- 11/7/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Less a motion picture than a picture of still photographs projected in succession, Alan Berliner’s latest documentary, Letter to the Editor, takes as its inspiration the vast photography featured in The New York Times over the past four decades. Berliner, now 63, began collecting and categorizing thousands of photographs since Ronald Reagan’s first year in the White House (1980) and continues unabated to this day, or at least until Letter to the Editor made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this past Saturday evening. Comprised entirely of typically hi-res photographs first published in The New York Times […]...
- 9/10/2019
- by Erik Luers
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Less a motion picture than a picture of still photographs projected in succession, Alan Berliner’s latest documentary, Letter to the Editor, takes as its inspiration the vast photography featured in The New York Times over the past four decades. Berliner, now 63, began collecting and categorizing thousands of photographs since Ronald Reagan’s first year in the White House (1980) and continues unabated to this day, or at least until Letter to the Editor made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this past Saturday evening. Comprised entirely of typically hi-res photographs first published in The New York Times […]...
- 9/10/2019
- by Erik Luers
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The Miami Gems Film Festival has selected Pedro Almodovar’s semi-autobiographical drama “Pain and Glory,” starring Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz, as its opening night title on Oct. 10 at the Tower Theater. The annual confab will close with Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Parasite,” a black comedy from Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho.
The festival also set Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles’ “The Two Popes,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, as the centerpiece film.
Spotlight screenings at the festival will include Kore-eda Hirokazu’s French-language “The Truth,” a tribute to the actress Catherine Deneuve; as well as the Alma Har’el-directed “Honey Boy, directed by Alma Har’el, written by and starring Shia Labeouf, based on his own experiences as a child actor and early adult life coping with his divorced father’s mental health issues. Also on deck is an adaptation of the book “Motherless Brooklyn,” which was written, directed and stars Edward Norton.
The festival also set Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles’ “The Two Popes,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, as the centerpiece film.
Spotlight screenings at the festival will include Kore-eda Hirokazu’s French-language “The Truth,” a tribute to the actress Catherine Deneuve; as well as the Alma Har’el-directed “Honey Boy, directed by Alma Har’el, written by and starring Shia Labeouf, based on his own experiences as a child actor and early adult life coping with his divorced father’s mental health issues. Also on deck is an adaptation of the book “Motherless Brooklyn,” which was written, directed and stars Edward Norton.
- 9/4/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
The television series “Mrs. Fletcher,” “Briarpatch” and “Limetown” have been added to the lineup at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, which will screen two or three episodes of each series followed by extended Q&As with the creators and cast.
Those three U.S. series will be part of Tiff’s Primetime section, which will also showcase the international series “Black Bitch” (Australia), “Savages” (France) and “The Sleepers” (the Czech Republic).
“Mrs. Fletcher” is an upcoming series from HBO and Crave, based on the Tom Perotta novel and starring Kathryn Hahn as an empty-nest mother. “Briarpatch,” from USA Network, stars Rosario Dawson as a political fixer investigating the death of her sister. And Facebook Watch’s podcast-based “Limetown” follows a public radio journalist (Jessica Biel) looking into the disappearance of 300 people at a research facility.
Also Read: Mister Rogers, the Joker and Judy Garland Are All Headed to Toronto Film...
Those three U.S. series will be part of Tiff’s Primetime section, which will also showcase the international series “Black Bitch” (Australia), “Savages” (France) and “The Sleepers” (the Czech Republic).
“Mrs. Fletcher” is an upcoming series from HBO and Crave, based on the Tom Perotta novel and starring Kathryn Hahn as an empty-nest mother. “Briarpatch,” from USA Network, stars Rosario Dawson as a political fixer investigating the death of her sister. And Facebook Watch’s podcast-based “Limetown” follows a public radio journalist (Jessica Biel) looking into the disappearance of 300 people at a research facility.
Also Read: Mister Rogers, the Joker and Judy Garland Are All Headed to Toronto Film...
- 8/15/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The Toronto Film Festival has revealed this year’s lineups for its documentary, Midnight Madness, Discovery and retro Cinematheque sections, adding movies from Alex Gibney, Barbara Kopple, Bryce Dallas Howard, Richard Stanley and Ali LeRoi to the 2019 fest that kicks off next month.
Tiff Docs’ 25 pics kicks off with the world premiere of Feras Fayyad’s The Cave, about an underground hospital led by a female doctor in war-torn Syria. Also in the mix is Kopple’s Desert One, chronicling a perilous mission to rescue hostages in Iran, and Gibney’s Citizen K, profiling the Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Meanwhile, the genre lineup of Midnight Madness includes Richard Stanley’s H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Color Out of Space, which stars Nicolas Cage and brings the director back to the section after 29 years, and Takashi Miike’s Japanese action-comedy First Love.
The Discovery section will open with Chiara Malta’s Simple Women,...
Tiff Docs’ 25 pics kicks off with the world premiere of Feras Fayyad’s The Cave, about an underground hospital led by a female doctor in war-torn Syria. Also in the mix is Kopple’s Desert One, chronicling a perilous mission to rescue hostages in Iran, and Gibney’s Citizen K, profiling the Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Meanwhile, the genre lineup of Midnight Madness includes Richard Stanley’s H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Color Out of Space, which stars Nicolas Cage and brings the director back to the section after 29 years, and Takashi Miike’s Japanese action-comedy First Love.
The Discovery section will open with Chiara Malta’s Simple Women,...
- 8/8/2019
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
New works from celebrated documentary filmmakers Alex Gibney, Barbara Kopple, Lauren Greenfield, Alan Berliner, Feras Fayyad, Patricio Guzman, Fisher Stevens and Mark Cousins will be showcased in the Tiff Docs section of the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, Tiff organizers announced on Thursday.
In addition to the 25 documentaries, the festival also revealed more than 50 additional films in the Midnight Madness, Tiff Discovery and Tiff Cinematheque sections.
The documentary section will open with “The Cave” from Feras Fayyad, director of the Oscar-nominated “Last Men in Aleppo.” The film is set in an underground hospital led by a female doctor in Syria. Other former Oscar nominees and winners showing films at Tiff include Gibney with “Citizen K,” his portrait of Russian oligarch-turned-Putin-critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky; Kopple, with “Desert One,” about an Iranian hostage rescue mission; and Stevens, co-director with Malcolm Venville of “And We Go Green,” a Leonardo DiCaprio-produced film about the Formula...
In addition to the 25 documentaries, the festival also revealed more than 50 additional films in the Midnight Madness, Tiff Discovery and Tiff Cinematheque sections.
The documentary section will open with “The Cave” from Feras Fayyad, director of the Oscar-nominated “Last Men in Aleppo.” The film is set in an underground hospital led by a female doctor in Syria. Other former Oscar nominees and winners showing films at Tiff include Gibney with “Citizen K,” his portrait of Russian oligarch-turned-Putin-critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky; Kopple, with “Desert One,” about an Iranian hostage rescue mission; and Stevens, co-director with Malcolm Venville of “And We Go Green,” a Leonardo DiCaprio-produced film about the Formula...
- 8/8/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled its documentary, discovery, and midnight programs.
The lineup of 25 nonfiction works in the documentary category cover an array of topics and subjects — ranging from immigration to corruption in politics to Truman Capote’s rarefied social circle. The announcement comes as documentaries have become one of the most reliable sources of box office revenues for indie studios. Films such as “Free Solo” and “Rbg” were among the biggest arthouse hits of 2018 and there’s a lot of interest among buyers in the films in this section. Thom Powers, Tiff Docs programmer, attributes the rising commercial prospects of these films to the ubiquity of non-fiction works on Netflix and other streaming services.
“People have developed a real appetite for documentary films similar to the way they once developed an appetite for serial television,” says Powers. “Once they started sampling, they just wanted more. With Netflix...
The lineup of 25 nonfiction works in the documentary category cover an array of topics and subjects — ranging from immigration to corruption in politics to Truman Capote’s rarefied social circle. The announcement comes as documentaries have become one of the most reliable sources of box office revenues for indie studios. Films such as “Free Solo” and “Rbg” were among the biggest arthouse hits of 2018 and there’s a lot of interest among buyers in the films in this section. Thom Powers, Tiff Docs programmer, attributes the rising commercial prospects of these films to the ubiquity of non-fiction works on Netflix and other streaming services.
“People have developed a real appetite for documentary films similar to the way they once developed an appetite for serial television,” says Powers. “Once they started sampling, they just wanted more. With Netflix...
- 8/8/2019
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Two of the Toronto International Film Festival’s signature programs have today unveiled their full slates, including both the genre-bending Midnight Madness program and the wide-ranging Tiff Docs section. Both slates will feature a number of highly anticipated premieres, with the lauded documentary section playing home to films like Feras Fayyad’s “The Cave” (which will open Tiff Docs), Mark Cousins’ 14-hour “Women Make Film,” Bryce Dallas Howard making her feature directorial debut with the documentary “Dads,” along with new films from Barbara Kopple, Alex Gibney, and Lauren Greenfield.
The Tiff Docs lineup includes 25 non-fiction works, including 18 world premieres with representation from 18 countries. The films cover many high-profile figures, both famous and infamous — including Truman Capote, Merce Cunningham, Ron Howard, Bikram Choudhury, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Imelda Marcos — and a broad range of themes, including artistic achievement, the power of journalism, immigration, global politics, and resistance against corrupt leaders.
“This year...
The Tiff Docs lineup includes 25 non-fiction works, including 18 world premieres with representation from 18 countries. The films cover many high-profile figures, both famous and infamous — including Truman Capote, Merce Cunningham, Ron Howard, Bikram Choudhury, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Imelda Marcos — and a broad range of themes, including artistic achievement, the power of journalism, immigration, global politics, and resistance against corrupt leaders.
“This year...
- 8/8/2019
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Canadian zombie film Blood Quantum, Ugandan gonzo action film Crazy World bookend Midnight Madness.
Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) brass on Thursday (8) unveiled selections in the Midnight Madness, Discovery, Tiff Docs, and Cinematheque programmes set to screen next month.
The 10-strong Midnight Madness programme includes world premieres of Rose Glass’s psychological thriller Saint Maud, Joko Anwar’s Indonesian superhero adaptation Gundala, and Richard Stanley’s H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Color Out Of Space starring Nicolas Cage. Jeff Barnaby’s previously announced zombie outbreak thriller Blood Quantum from Canada and Isaac Nabwana’s Ugandan gonzo action film Crazy World bookend the section.
Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) brass on Thursday (8) unveiled selections in the Midnight Madness, Discovery, Tiff Docs, and Cinematheque programmes set to screen next month.
The 10-strong Midnight Madness programme includes world premieres of Rose Glass’s psychological thriller Saint Maud, Joko Anwar’s Indonesian superhero adaptation Gundala, and Richard Stanley’s H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Color Out Of Space starring Nicolas Cage. Jeff Barnaby’s previously announced zombie outbreak thriller Blood Quantum from Canada and Isaac Nabwana’s Ugandan gonzo action film Crazy World bookend the section.
- 8/8/2019
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Costa Rica may not be known as a haven for filmmaking talent, but with the development of its film commission and the Costa Rica International Film Festival, that’s starting to change. The latest edition of the festival showcases a number of promising young directors from the region — some born there, others who came later — throughout the lineup. Here’s a look at a few of them in their own words.
Read More: Costa Rica’s Plans to Build Its Film Industry
Nathalie Álvarez Mesén
Age: 28
Latest Project: “Filip” (National Short Film Competition) is about a seven-year old boy who admires his older brother Sebastian most of all. One evening, Filip sees something unexpected happen between Sebastian and Sebastian’s best friend. He doesn’t know how to handle it. Filip questions his admiration for his older brother when he discovers that he is homosexual. But even living in a...
Read More: Costa Rica’s Plans to Build Its Film Industry
Nathalie Álvarez Mesén
Age: 28
Latest Project: “Filip” (National Short Film Competition) is about a seven-year old boy who admires his older brother Sebastian most of all. One evening, Filip sees something unexpected happen between Sebastian and Sebastian’s best friend. He doesn’t know how to handle it. Filip questions his admiration for his older brother when he discovers that he is homosexual. But even living in a...
- 12/9/2016
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Three-time emmy award winning documentary filmmaker Alan Berliner is set to speak at this year's Antenna Documentary Film Festival in Sydney..
As part of DocTalk, delegates will hear from leading international documentary specialists, including festival programmers and funding experts, at the one-day series of masterclasses and panel discussion.
Acclaimed Us documentary filmmaker, Berliner; Wieland Speck and Maryanne Redpath from the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale); and Leah Biblin from Cinereach in New York will speak at DocTalk in Sydney on Wednesday 14 October 2015.
Berliner will deliver the Directing Documentary Masterclass at DocTalk.
Speck, the director of the Panorama section at Berlinale - a position that he.s held for more than 20 years - will provide insight into Berlinale and the European Film Market at DocTalk.
Redpath, the official Berlinale Delegate for Australia and New Zealand, head of the Generation section and head curator of the NATIVe series of Indigenous programming at Berlinale,...
As part of DocTalk, delegates will hear from leading international documentary specialists, including festival programmers and funding experts, at the one-day series of masterclasses and panel discussion.
Acclaimed Us documentary filmmaker, Berliner; Wieland Speck and Maryanne Redpath from the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale); and Leah Biblin from Cinereach in New York will speak at DocTalk in Sydney on Wednesday 14 October 2015.
Berliner will deliver the Directing Documentary Masterclass at DocTalk.
Speck, the director of the Panorama section at Berlinale - a position that he.s held for more than 20 years - will provide insight into Berlinale and the European Film Market at DocTalk.
Redpath, the official Berlinale Delegate for Australia and New Zealand, head of the Generation section and head curator of the NATIVe series of Indigenous programming at Berlinale,...
- 9/25/2015
- by Staff Writer
- IF.com.au
More than 80 documentaries to receive world premieres.
The line-up for the 27th Idfa (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam) has been unveiled.
A total of 298 titles, selected from 3,200 submissions, will be screened from Nov 19-30 in Amsterdam - of which 81 will receive their world premiere.
This year, a special themed programme, titled The Female Gaze, is dedicated to the role of women in documentary.
Another strand, Of Media and Men, will focus on how opinions are shaped within a democracy through the media.
This year’s Top 10 is provided by Heddy Honigmann, and a retrospective of her work will also be screening. Her film, Around the World in 50 Concerts, opens this year’s Idfa and also plays in Competition.
Idfa and Eye, the Netherlands national museum for film, will be present a joint themed programme concentrating on hybrid film: Framing Reality.
The festival’s main locations will once again be Pathé Tuschinski, Pathé de Munt...
The line-up for the 27th Idfa (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam) has been unveiled.
A total of 298 titles, selected from 3,200 submissions, will be screened from Nov 19-30 in Amsterdam - of which 81 will receive their world premiere.
This year, a special themed programme, titled The Female Gaze, is dedicated to the role of women in documentary.
Another strand, Of Media and Men, will focus on how opinions are shaped within a democracy through the media.
This year’s Top 10 is provided by Heddy Honigmann, and a retrospective of her work will also be screening. Her film, Around the World in 50 Concerts, opens this year’s Idfa and also plays in Competition.
Idfa and Eye, the Netherlands national museum for film, will be present a joint themed programme concentrating on hybrid film: Framing Reality.
The festival’s main locations will once again be Pathé Tuschinski, Pathé de Munt...
- 10/10/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Some docs are journalism. Some are history. Some are entertainment. Very few aspire to poetry -- the Oscar-shortlisted “First Cousin, Once Removed” by Alan Berliner being a notable exception. Ostensibly about Berliner’s cousin and his battle with Alzheimer’s disease, “First Cousin” (HBO Docs) is a film that broadens the definition of what nonfiction filmmaking can mean, while also expanding its capacity for creative expression. It tells a highly emotional story without adhering to narrative conventions; it celebrates the life of an artist in the only way that does it justice, by being art. Five years in the making, “First Cousin” is “about” the distinguished Edwin Honig, and the poet's painful descent into dementia. One of Berliner’s magic acts is making his movie both dispiriting and exhilarating -- the former because of the obvious cruelty of disease, age and mortality; the latter because the director, freed from the constraints of conventional narrative,...
- 1/3/2014
- by John Anderson
- Thompson on Hollywood
In his introduction to Alan Berliner's film, "First Cousin Once Removed," which screened as part of the "Documentary Short List" program recently at Doc NYC, the festival's Artistic Director Thom Powers mentioned that most filmmakers he knows stop watching their films with audiences after the first few screenings, but Berliner is the exception. Berliner, whose experimental documentary films "Wide Awake," "The Sweetest Sound," "Nobody's Business," "Intimate Stranger" and "The Family Album" have been broadcast and screened at festivals all around the world, makes a point of watching his films along with an audience almost every chance he gets. "First Cousin Once Removed," which Eric Kohn called "equal parts psychological mystery and lyrical treatise on the passage of time," chronicles the late Edwin Honig, a poet and professor (as well as a cousin of Berliner's) and his life with Alzheimers. Below, Berliner explains why he relishes the opportunity to watch his films with an audience.
- 12/20/2013
- by Alan Berliner
- Indiewire
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced the shortlist of 15 films from the five nominees for Best Documentary will be chosen. That announcement comes on January 16, but until then we can pore over a pretty strong list, featuring Gotham winner The Act of Killing plus new films from such vets as Alex Gibney, Alan Berliner, Lucy Walker and Jehane Noujaim plus crowd favorites from newcomers such as Zachary Heinzerling (Cutie and the Boxer) and Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Blackfish). There are also inevitably a number of notable absentees, such as Lana Wilson and Martha Shane’s After Tiller, […]...
- 12/3/2013
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced the shortlist of 15 films from the five nominees for Best Documentary will be chosen. That announcement comes on January 16, but until then we can pore over a pretty strong list, featuring Gotham winner The Act of Killing plus new films from such vets as Alex Gibney, Alan Berliner, Lucy Walker and Jehane Noujaim plus crowd favorites from newcomers such as Zachary Heinzerling (Cutie and the Boxer) and Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Blackfish). There are also inevitably a number of notable absentees, such as Lana Wilson and Martha Shane’s After Tiller, […]...
- 12/3/2013
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" received the most nominations at the 2013 Gotham Awards but in the end, the Coen Brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" took home the big award of the night -- the Best Feature award. Matthew McConaughey also beat "12 Years a Slave's" Chiwetel Ejiofor with his memorable, feel it in your bones performance as a dying AIDS patient in "Dallas Buyers Club."
Is this a sign to come this awards season? Stay tuned!
Here's the complete list of winners (highlighted) and nominees of the 2013 Gotham Awards:
Best Feature
12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen, director; Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Anthony Katagas, producers. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Ain't Them Bodies Saints
David Lowery, director; Tony Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Amy Kaufman, Cassian Elwes, producers (IFC Films)
Before Midnight
Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Sara Woodhatch,...
Is this a sign to come this awards season? Stay tuned!
Here's the complete list of winners (highlighted) and nominees of the 2013 Gotham Awards:
Best Feature
12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen, director; Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Anthony Katagas, producers. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Ain't Them Bodies Saints
David Lowery, director; Tony Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Amy Kaufman, Cassian Elwes, producers (IFC Films)
Before Midnight
Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Sara Woodhatch,...
- 12/3/2013
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
While technically this was Forest Whitaker’s big night (Actor Tribute plus the weight he threw behind as a producer accolades for a small San Fran based film), if tonite’s Gothams awards informs us on how future noms might pan out for the “bigger” award shows, it’s that there are no tapering off signs for Fruitvale Station, that a Coen bros. film Inside Llewyn Davis has just become a partner alongside 12 Years a Slave as the front-runner for Best Picture slots for the Indie Spirits and Oscars, and that Joshua Oppenheimer should get the ultimate speech ready for The Act of Killing. Ryan Coogler’s big Sundance winner went 2 for 2 in the Breakthrough Director and Actor categories, while the heart, soul and spirit of Short Term 12 in Brie Larson rightly beat out her group of peers to win the Best Actress award. Here’s hoping that it picks up steam elsewhere.
- 12/3/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
This is a tough awards season! Lots of great movies to see, so little time! I'm catching up like crazy before we vote for the Critics' Choice Movie Awards for the Broadcast Film Critics Association. So I apologize if I haven't updated you with the latest on the awards season 2013-2014! And there were many award-giving bodies announcing nominations.
We already told you about the Rome Film Festival and the Film Independent Spirit Awards, now let's talk about the 2013 Gotham Awards, the Ida Documentary Awards, the Cinema Eye, and the Producers Guild announcing its best documentary choices.
First stop, we have the 2013 Gotham Awards where Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" topped the nominations with three nods including best feature, best actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor and breakthrough actor for Lupita Nyong'o.
Winners will be announced on Dec. 2nd where Richard Linklater, Forest Whitaker, and Katherine Oliver (head of the NYC...
We already told you about the Rome Film Festival and the Film Independent Spirit Awards, now let's talk about the 2013 Gotham Awards, the Ida Documentary Awards, the Cinema Eye, and the Producers Guild announcing its best documentary choices.
First stop, we have the 2013 Gotham Awards where Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" topped the nominations with three nods including best feature, best actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor and breakthrough actor for Lupita Nyong'o.
Winners will be announced on Dec. 2nd where Richard Linklater, Forest Whitaker, and Katherine Oliver (head of the NYC...
- 12/2/2013
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Zachary Heinzerling’s "Cutie and the Boxer" led the nominations for the 7th Annual Cinema Eye Honors, taking six nominations including the top prize, Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking. Also nominated in the that category were Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing" (which was close behind "Cutie" with five nods), Martha Shane and Lana Wilson’s "After Tiller," Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel’s "Leviathan" and Sarah Polley’s " Stories We Tell". Nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Direction included Alan Berliner for "First Cousin Once Removed," Tinatin Gurchiani for "The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear," Oppenheimer for "The Act of Killing," Shane and Wilson for "After Tiller," Castaing-Taylor and Paravel for "Leviathan" and Polley for "Stories We Tell." This marks the first time in Cinema Eye history that more women were nominated for the Directing Award than their male counterparts. In addition,...
- 11/6/2013
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
2013 Gotham Awards 2013: Nominations (photo: Best Actress nominee Cate Blanchett in ’Blue Jasmine,’ directed by Woody Allen) See previous post: “Gotham Awards Nominations: No Oscar Guarantee (or Even Likelihood)?“ Best Feature 12 Years A Slave. Steve McQueen, director; Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Anthony Katagas, producers. (Fox Searchlight Pictures) Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, David Lowery, director; Tony Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Amy Kaufman, Cassian Elwes, producers (IFC Films) Before Midnight, Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Sara Woodhatch, producers (Sony Pictures Classics) Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, directors; Scott Rudin, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, producers (CBS Films) Upstream Color, Shane Carruth, director; Shane Carruth, Casey Gooden, Ben LeClair, producers. Best Documentary The Act Of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, director; Signe Byrge, Joshua Oppenheimer, producers (Drafthouse Films) The Crash Reel, Lucy Walker, director; Julian Cautherly,...
- 10/29/2013
- by Zac Gille
- Alt Film Guide
Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave leads this years Gothams award noms with three, but well-received Sundance items in Blue Caprice, Concussion, Fruitvale Station, Upstream Color and the Cannes preemed Inside Llewyn Davis find themselves all in the hunt for trophy-ware with a pair of nominations each. In the heavyweight Best Feature category, David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight (oddly no mention in the acting categories) and Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color go up against the Coens and McQueen. The 23rd Gotham Independent Film Awards will take place on December 2nd. Here are the categories:
Best Feature
12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen, director; Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Anthony Katagas, producers. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints – David Lowery, director; Tony Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Amy Kaufman, Cassian Elwes,...
Best Feature
12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen, director; Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Anthony Katagas, producers. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints – David Lowery, director; Tony Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Amy Kaufman, Cassian Elwes,...
- 10/24/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
The 2013 Gotham Independent Film Awards nominations have been announced. The trophies will be handed out December 2 at Cipriani Wall Street. This is the first of the many upcoming awards shows, and because of the Gotham’s indie bent, the awards rarely reflect how the Oscars turn out. I always found that to be the most charming thing about them. Here are the nominees: Best Feature 12 Years A Slave. Steve McQueen, director; Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Anthony Katagas, producers. (Fox Searchlight Pictures) Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, David Lowery, director; Tony Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Amy Kaufman, Cassian Elwes, producers (IFC Films) Before Midnight, Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Sara Woodhatch, producers (Sony Pictures Classics) Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, directors; Scott Rudin, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, producers (CBS Films) Upstream Color,...
- 10/24/2013
- by MIKE FLEMING JR
- Deadline
Documentarian Alan Berliner is frequently the focus of his movies, but his intentions extend beyond his neuroses. Rather than the star of the show, he's a vessel for bigger ideas and evades the perils of self-indulgence that could result from putting himself in front of the camera. That tricky balance is on display better than ever in the stirring "First Cousin Once Removed," which deepens an oeuvre that has already dealt with the tender issues of father-son relationships ("Nobody's Business") and insomnia ("Wide Awake") by exploring his fears of senility to devastating effect. Using a powerful focal point to manifest the movie's central concerns, Berliner makes his interest in the topic relevant to everyone. His case study is Edwin Honig, the first cousin of Berliner's mother, a bond that gives the movie its title. But there's more about Honig -- once a world-class poet and founder of Brown University's creative...
- 9/23/2013
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Sure, Sunday tends to be overcrowded with high-end TV, including "Breaking Bad," "Boardwalk Empire," the returning "Homeland" and "Eastbound and Down" and more, but what to watch the rest of the time? Every Monday, we bring you five noteworthy highlights from the other six days of the week. "First Cousin Once Removed" Monday, September 23rd at 9pm on HBO Documentarian Alan Berliner ("Wide Awake," "The Sweetest Sound") turns his camera to his cousin Edwin Honig, an acclaimed poet and professor, in his latest film, which premiered at the New York Film Festival last year. Honig had begun experiencing signs of Alzheimer's when Berliner started shooting the film, and "First Cousin Once Removed" chronicles his decline due to the disease, becoming a tribute to a writer and intellectual as well as a film about memory and loss. In his review of the film from Nyff, Eric Kohn called it Berliner's "crowning achievement.
- 9/23/2013
- by Alison Willmore
- Indiewire
On TV this Monday: How I Met Your Mother’s series-ending wedding weekend begins, James Spader reveals his Blacklist, Mom moves in and Castle gets the answer to a popped question. As the fall TV season arrives in earnest, here are 10 programs to keep on your radar.
8 pm The Voice (NBC) | Season 5 premiere: The blind auditions begin, and viewers trade in Christina Milian for Christina Aguilera. (The lesser of two evils, Imo.) (Watch Carson Daly dish on the coaches.)
8 pm How I Met Your Mother (CBS) | Hour-long Season 9 premiere: Robin and Barney make a startling discovery, while The Mother hits it off with Lily.
8 pm The Voice (NBC) | Season 5 premiere: The blind auditions begin, and viewers trade in Christina Milian for Christina Aguilera. (The lesser of two evils, Imo.) (Watch Carson Daly dish on the coaches.)
8 pm How I Met Your Mother (CBS) | Hour-long Season 9 premiere: Robin and Barney make a startling discovery, while The Mother hits it off with Lily.
- 9/23/2013
- by Rebecca Iannucci
- TVLine.com
The 6th Istanbul Documentary Days was blessed with an outstanding location for a documentary film festival: a park which has become a cause and a symbol of an urban uprising movement that has spread to the whole of the country. What makes it even more fantastic is that it was not meant to be so. It all happened naturally, so to speak.
In 2012, an announcement was made that there was a plan to turn Gezi Park, a small historical park in central Istanbul, into a shopping mall area. Activists for environmental as well urban rights launched a campaign to preserve the park. As work which would destroy the park began in the second half of May this year, a small group of activists set up tents in the park to stage a peaceful protest.
As the police reacted violently to push the protesters out of the park, tens of thousands...
In 2012, an announcement was made that there was a plan to turn Gezi Park, a small historical park in central Istanbul, into a shopping mall area. Activists for environmental as well urban rights launched a campaign to preserve the park. As work which would destroy the park began in the second half of May this year, a small group of activists set up tents in the park to stage a peaceful protest.
As the police reacted violently to push the protesters out of the park, tens of thousands...
- 7/22/2013
- by N. Buket Cengiz
- The Moving Arts Journal
Thom Powers is a friend of ours in the business and amazes us by his acumen, generosity, range of activities and devotion to what many of us consider the most frequently relevant, creative and earth changing form of feature length cinema - the documentary. I came upon this fascinating dialogue on his website (link below) where he ruminated most eloquently about what actually went on at Sundance business wise with documentaries. Fascinating. Please check out his 'Stranger Than Fiction' website which is of great value to any filmmaker wanting clarity on the business of documentary film. Two fascinating reports (for example) listed on the site among others were these two - Guide to Documentary Buyers at Tiff and Guide to Documentary Sales Agents at Tiff. Every docu filmmaker should start here. Thom Powers has been an International Documentary Programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival® since 2006. He is also responsible for Mavericks, the Festival’s discussion series with cinema innovators. Powers is the Artistic Director for the weekly documentary series, “Stranger than Fiction” at Manhattan’s IFC Center and for the Doc NYC festival in November. He also consults on programming for the Miami International Film Festival. He has directed documentaries for HBO and PBS; and is a founding member of the documentary production company Sugar Pictures. He teaches documentary courses at New York University’s School of Continuing Professional Studies and the School of Visual Arts. He is a co-founder of the Cinema Eye Honors, an annual award for documentary excellence; and the Garrrett Scott Development Grant. He has served as a juror for Sundance, SXSW, Cph: Dox and DocAviv festivals; as well as the Emmy, Ida and Independent Spirit Awards. He has written extensively on documentary filmmaking for The Boston Globe, Real Screen, and Filmmaker Magazine. Stranger than Fiction Exclusive documentary film screenings, hosted by Raphaela Neihausen and Thom Powers. Winter Season: Jan 8 - Feb 26, 2013 IFC Center 323 Sixth Ave. @ West Third St.
A Conversation With Thom Powers on the Sundance Film Festival
by Rahul Chadha | Sunday, February 3rd, 2013
For most people on the indie film circuit, the Sundance Film Festival marks the start of the new year. Park City is where filmmakers go to earn buzz for their projects, get some press and maybe even ink a distribution deal. On Jan. 30 I spoke with Thom Powers about the documentary films at Sundance that garnered the most chatter and the biggest checks, among other subjects.
[Q&A has been edited for content and clarity]
Rahul Chadha: It seemed like so much of the press attention around Sundance was focused on sales. The Hollywood Reporter said that four docs sold for at least seven figures and I read a report that Blackfish elicited a bidding war from four or five distributors. Did you get the sense that sales were better this year, and if so, why do you think that was?
Thom Powers: Some of those figures are slightly inflated. I know at least one of those films that is being reported as a million dollar sale is a little under a million dollars. But the fact remains that there were some very strong doc sales, and notably the emergence of a new player in The Weinstein Company’s RADiUS brand run by Tom Quinn and Jason Janego. Tom previously worked for Magnolia, where he worked on several successful docs such as Food Inc. and Man On Wire. Months ago RADiUS announced involvement in the new Errol Morris film about Donald Rumsfeld, The Unknown Known, due out later this year. Tom told me they would be very selective about docs which left me unprepared for their recent buying streak. Their first Sundance acquisition was the opening night title 20 Feet From Stardom, set in the music industry that gives it a solid commercial hook. Then RADiUS acquired Inequality For All, which struck me as less obvious. But if you imagine it following in the footsteps of An Inconvenient Truth you can see the commercial appeal. Then they announced Cutie And The Boxer, which has no celebrity connection and on the surface feels less obviously commercial, although it had strong word of mouth. So it seems RADiUS is trying out a wide range of docs and it’s good for the industry to have a new player in the mix. In addition to their strong showing, there was notable acquisitions by mainstay distributors including Sundance Selects, which bought Dirty Wars and The Summit, and Magnolia Pictures, which bought Blackfish.
Chadha: It seemed like Submarine had a strong presence this year.
Powers: For years Submarine–run by Josh Braun and his brother Dan–has been the dominant doc sales agent making the biggest doc deals at both Sundance and Toronto. There are certainly other big sales agents, including Cinetic and big agencies like Wme, CAA, UTA, or ICM taking on the occasional doc. But no one carries as big a slate of high prestige documentaries as Submarine. This year their lineup included 20 Feet From Stardom, Blackfish, The Summit, Dirty Wars and Cutie And The Boxer, all of which were high-profile deals. Their slate includes other films that have yet to announce deals, including God Loves Uganda, Muscle Shoals, Who Is Dayani Cristal? and Citizen Koch.
Chadha: Do you think this underscores that filmmakers really do need a sales agent at a festival the level of Sundance?
Powers: I think for a film that has real theatrical potential a sales agent is key. For a film that may find it tougher in the American marketplace, such as many of the docs in the world competition that may not be competing for deals – any subtitled film has a harder time in this marketplace – for those films I don’t know that a sales agent necessarily helps for the kinds of smaller deals that may or may not be offered.
Chadha: Do you think that as digital becomes an increasingly important distribution channel that festivals will take on a new importance?
Powers: I do. In an old model, the way a film would imprint itself on the public’s consciousness is to get a theatrical run. But now there are more documentaries and more films in general being released than ever before. There are weeks when the New York Times is reviewing 15 films, so it’s harder to leave an impression on the public. A lot of these films are seeing their financial future on digital platforms. Because viewers aren’t hearing as much about films in theatrical release, I think the festival circuit is going to have increasing importance for the life of a film.
Chadha: There were a few films at Sundance that dealt with the legacy of 9/11. You mentioned Dirty Wars but there was The World According To Dick Cheney and Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? The Life And Time Of Tim Hetherington and We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks.
Powers: Yes that thematic cluster absolutely stood out. The legacy of 9/11 and the response to it through wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other kinds of counter-terrorism actions played out in other countries, remains a key subject for documentary makers to grapple with. I think the distance of 12 years from 9/11 gives us time to reflect. In the film Manhunt about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, there’s a clear connection. The World According To Dick Cheney is about the chief architect of post-9/11 counter-terrorism actions. It came in for criticism that the filmmakers weren’t hard enough on Dick Cheney, weren’t asking tough enough questions. And while I shared some of those frustrations, I certainly learned a lot about Cheney’s career from watching it.
Chadha: Anthony Kaufman recently wrote a piece that singled out Dirty Wars and the Alex Gibney film We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks as two films that he thought might presage a wave of films by left-leaning filmmakers that are critical of Obama and his policies? Do you agree with that assessment or see a similar trend?
Powers: It’s a smart observation. Dirty Wars – which is one of the films I was most impressed by at Sundance – takes a long view of American foreign policy after 9/11 in the hands of the journalist at the center of that film, Jeremy Scahill, who’s best known for his book on Blackwater, and who now has a new book coming out that ties into this film. Alex Gibney’s Wikileaksfilm looks at the harsh response of the Obama administration to Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier who had leaked the headline grabbing documents to Wikileaks. Those two films make an interesting contrast to documentaries of the past decade which comfortably coincided with a liberal critique of the Bush administration. I’m thinking of docs like Farhenheit 9/11 or No End In Sight that liberals rallied behind to point a finger at their political opponents. These new films force a more uncomfortable confrontation with an administration that those same liberals helped get elected.
Chadha: You previously mentioned to me that you thought that filmmakers screening unfinished films at Sundance were taking a risk. Why is that?
Powers: For some reason at Sundance, more than other festivals that I’m aware of, you find filmmakers rushing to screen works that sometimes aren’t completed. In my seven years of programming at Toronto, I’m not aware of any documentaries that went back for serious editing after their premiere – other than those presented as works-in-progress. But at Sundance every year there seems to be a few films that push the deadline so hard that they get taken back to the edit room afterwards. A notable example a couple of years ago was The Interrupters which played at Sundance in a version close to three hours before getting re-edited and having nearly an hour of material taken out of it. The question is, how much does that hurt a film, to have its first presentation before critics and industry be a version of itself that’s not the best. You can point to The Interrupters as a positive example. A lot of people, myself included, appreciated the long version of that film, and it didn’t diminish our interest at all. A fresh example this year was The Square, Jehane Noujaim’s film about the last two years of protest in Egypt around Tahrir Square. In this case the film arrived without any credits on it and Jehane told audiences that she was going back into the edit room. Normally that would sound to me like a challenging strategy. However, The Square came away from Sundance with an audience award. There’s clearly a power to that film, and a power that touched me watching that film, that transcended any rough edges that it contained. So I’ve just given two examples of films that made it work for them. I wouldn’t want to call out films where I think that strategy has not worked. But there certainly are cases and I’d strongly caution filmmakers not to assume that they’ll be the happy exceptions if they’re rushing their films for a festival deadline.
Chadha: There was a lot of talk this year about how well-represented women were on the doc side. I was wondering why you think this difference exists between the doc side and the fictional narrative side, where women still are underrepresented?
Powers: You can start a documentary with just a camera, as opposed to a fiction film where you need actors, a crew, a script, a lot more start-up resources. It may be self-perpetuating. Because there have been more prominent female doc makers, dating back to Barbara Kopple winning an Academy Award in the mid-70s, they’ve become role models for other women.
Chadha: What lost opportunities do you think filmmakers are struggling through at Sundance in terms of self-promotion? I know you’re a big proponent of filmmakers using Twitter.
Powers: I continue to be surprised by filmmakers who spend thousands of dollars on a publicist, but don’t take more advantage of social media which isfree. The Sundance docs that I saw making strong use of Twitter were Sound City which had 20,000 followers at the end of the festival; and 99% – The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film which had 15,000 followers. Then there’s a sharp drop-off. Films such as After Tiller, Dirty Wars and American Promise had around 1,500 followers each – they are getting off to a good start. Whenever possible, filmmakers need to begin their Twitter strategy well before their first festival in order to accumulate followers who can spread what’s happening at the festival.
Chadha: Which film were you most surprised by, and why?
Powers: It’s a reality of film festivals that you can’t see everything. You’re dividing your time between seeing films and utilizing that unique space to have meetings with people that you can’t otherwise. There were around 40 docs at Sundance and I’ve now seen roughly half. I think the film Blood Brother that won the audience prize and the jury prize took a lot of people by surprise because there was hardly any chatter about it in the corridors where press and industry exchange tips. It shows you that in a big festival, things can always surprise you.
I think certain filmmakers going into Sundance or other big festivals should consider screening more for press and tastemakers before the festival. The traditional wisdom has always been the opposite: to not screen for anyone prior, let your film be seen by an audience, and generate the buzz from there. That works for a film like Supersize Me – where the description made people put it on their priority list. But for a film that doesn’t have an obvious hook – including a lot of the films in the world documentary competition – those filmmakers might be better served trying to strategically screen for certain press and tastemakers so they can enter the festival with people already talking about them.
Chadha: Are there any films that are now on your “can’t miss” list?
Powers: Some of my favorite Sundance titles I’ve programmed for the Miami International Film Festival, which just announced its line-up last week. They include 20 Feet From Stardom, Blackfish, Gideon’S Army, The Crash Reel, Valentine Road, Which Way To The Front Line From Here? and Who Is Dayani Cristal?. There were many other strong films at Sundance that I look forward to showing at the Montclair Film Festival and Stranger Than Fiction. The Square I admire a lot. Muscle Shoals really took me by surprise. It played late in the festival and didn’t gain as much buzz as I thought it deserved. The director, who I believe is a first time director, made all kinds of smart creative decisions. Another film that went under the radar but made a big impression on me was The Stuart Hall Project about the U.K.-based black intellectual Stuart Hall. The film is wholly constructed out of archival sources, primarily from the BBC.
Chadha: What were the lessons about funding that came out of Sundance?
Powers: Sundance is a good survey of how docs are getting funded. This year reflects the important influence of Kickstarter. Recently Kickstarter introduced a tag for its projects that have a Sundance affiliation, and skimming that list I was impressed to see that Inequality For All had raised $83,000 and American Promise had raised $50,000 on Kickstarter. Other documentaries raised more modest sums. What’ so significant about Kickstarter is that those filmmakers did not need to wait around for a grant application committee to give them a green light. They could take matters into their own hands. Other funding players who were prominent are the Sundance Institute, the Tribeca Institute and the Ford Foundation which last year announced a $50 million commitment through the Just Films program. That Ford initiative supported projects like Gideon’S Army, Valentine Road, American Promise, Who Is Dayani Cristal?, God Loves Uganda and Citizen Koch.
Another important player is the equity group Impact Partners, who for several years have had a strong showing of their catalog at Sundance. This year their involvement included American Promise, The Crash Reel, Who Is Dayani Cristal? and Pandora’S Promise. The last group that I would mention is Cinereach, who were the heroes of Sundance last year for their funding of Beasts Of The Southern Wild, and who were back this year with four docs: Cutie And The Boxer, Citizen Koch, God Loves Uganda, and Narco Cultura.
When you look at the kinds of films that are showing up at Sundance, you see the names of some key producers re-occurring. This year the producer Julie Goldman, whose recent Sundance titles include Buck was back with three projects – Gideon’S Army, Manhunt and God Loves Uganda. The producer John Battsek from the U.K. who last year came with Searching For Sugar Man, was back this year with The Summit and Manhunt. And Jess Search, also based in the U.K., who is the founder of Britdoc and the Good Pitch had her name attached to the films Dirty Wars and Who Is Dayani Cristal? Clearly those producers and others like them have a good eye for spotting what makes a strong documentary in development. Those producers perform a variety of roles for filmmakers, whether it’s connecting them to financial support or supplying editorial perspective or connecting them to the other kind of industry players who can take a project further.
Chadha: Going back to Kickstarter for a minute, do you think films that have success on Kickstarter have the added benefit of showing to grantmaking institutions that their films are viable and that there’s an audience for them?
Powers: Absolutely. One bit of industry news this past week was that the HotDocs Forum, which has been a key place for documentaries to raise money, mainly in the broadcast world, announced that they will now accept projects on the basis of a certain amount of funds raised on Kickstarter. It used to be that you had to demonstrate a portion of your budget, like a quarter, was already being supported by a broadcaster or other traditional grantmaking institution. This change in policy signals the way in which Kickstarter funding is being taken more seriously.
In the case of The Square, the producers launched a Kickstarter campaign at Sundance to help finish their film. That seems like a very smart strategy for other filmmakers to consider. When you’re at a film festival, you have a rapt and enthused audience and if you can point them to a Kickstarter campaign, that’s a great way to leverage that enthusiasm. Even if you don’t need finishing funds, it’s a way to get outreach funds. I also saw the team from The Square selling t-shirts. After one screening they came away with few hundred dollars of cash in hand, which can help defray costs of attending a festival. These are strategies that filmmakers like Gary Hustwit have long practiced, emulating the way rock musicians sell t-shirts and posters at live performances. The film community has been slow to catch on. Maybe filmmakers are so busy getting their films made that they don’t have time to think about merchandise. But every bit of revenue helps.
Chadha: Any final thoughts?
Powers: We’ve talked about theatrical and digital distribution and new trends in crowdfunding. But it has to be said that the most long-standing and reliable place for documentary makers to get money is the broadcast world. HBO, which usually has a strong presence at Sundance, had the most overwhelming presence that I can remember, coming with six feature length documentaries. Plus during Sundance HBO bought Pussy Riot-a Punk Prayer. When you consider that HBO also has the film that was the 2012 winner at Idfa, Alan Berliner’s First Cousin Once Removed, and had two films at the Toronto festival – Mea Maxima Culpa by Alex Gibney and First Comes Love by Nina Davenport – that’s an impressive slate of films. There was news generated by other broadcasters getting active in the documentary field, including Showtime, which came with The World According To Dick Cheney. Just before Sundane, The New York Times reported about Showtime’s announcement of several documentaries in progress, including a film about Richard Pryor by Marina Zenovich, who made the Roman Polanski film, that I am personally looking forward to. In addition, CNN made an announcement during Sundance about a slate of feature-length docs, including a film by Alex Gibney. Another major player in that realm is A&E IndieFilms, which didn’t have any films in Sundance this year, but they’re already attached to Errol Morris’s Donald Rumsfeld documentary coming out later this year. All in all, the year is off to a good start.
Link to the original article here...
A Conversation With Thom Powers on the Sundance Film Festival
by Rahul Chadha | Sunday, February 3rd, 2013
For most people on the indie film circuit, the Sundance Film Festival marks the start of the new year. Park City is where filmmakers go to earn buzz for their projects, get some press and maybe even ink a distribution deal. On Jan. 30 I spoke with Thom Powers about the documentary films at Sundance that garnered the most chatter and the biggest checks, among other subjects.
[Q&A has been edited for content and clarity]
Rahul Chadha: It seemed like so much of the press attention around Sundance was focused on sales. The Hollywood Reporter said that four docs sold for at least seven figures and I read a report that Blackfish elicited a bidding war from four or five distributors. Did you get the sense that sales were better this year, and if so, why do you think that was?
Thom Powers: Some of those figures are slightly inflated. I know at least one of those films that is being reported as a million dollar sale is a little under a million dollars. But the fact remains that there were some very strong doc sales, and notably the emergence of a new player in The Weinstein Company’s RADiUS brand run by Tom Quinn and Jason Janego. Tom previously worked for Magnolia, where he worked on several successful docs such as Food Inc. and Man On Wire. Months ago RADiUS announced involvement in the new Errol Morris film about Donald Rumsfeld, The Unknown Known, due out later this year. Tom told me they would be very selective about docs which left me unprepared for their recent buying streak. Their first Sundance acquisition was the opening night title 20 Feet From Stardom, set in the music industry that gives it a solid commercial hook. Then RADiUS acquired Inequality For All, which struck me as less obvious. But if you imagine it following in the footsteps of An Inconvenient Truth you can see the commercial appeal. Then they announced Cutie And The Boxer, which has no celebrity connection and on the surface feels less obviously commercial, although it had strong word of mouth. So it seems RADiUS is trying out a wide range of docs and it’s good for the industry to have a new player in the mix. In addition to their strong showing, there was notable acquisitions by mainstay distributors including Sundance Selects, which bought Dirty Wars and The Summit, and Magnolia Pictures, which bought Blackfish.
Chadha: It seemed like Submarine had a strong presence this year.
Powers: For years Submarine–run by Josh Braun and his brother Dan–has been the dominant doc sales agent making the biggest doc deals at both Sundance and Toronto. There are certainly other big sales agents, including Cinetic and big agencies like Wme, CAA, UTA, or ICM taking on the occasional doc. But no one carries as big a slate of high prestige documentaries as Submarine. This year their lineup included 20 Feet From Stardom, Blackfish, The Summit, Dirty Wars and Cutie And The Boxer, all of which were high-profile deals. Their slate includes other films that have yet to announce deals, including God Loves Uganda, Muscle Shoals, Who Is Dayani Cristal? and Citizen Koch.
Chadha: Do you think this underscores that filmmakers really do need a sales agent at a festival the level of Sundance?
Powers: I think for a film that has real theatrical potential a sales agent is key. For a film that may find it tougher in the American marketplace, such as many of the docs in the world competition that may not be competing for deals – any subtitled film has a harder time in this marketplace – for those films I don’t know that a sales agent necessarily helps for the kinds of smaller deals that may or may not be offered.
Chadha: Do you think that as digital becomes an increasingly important distribution channel that festivals will take on a new importance?
Powers: I do. In an old model, the way a film would imprint itself on the public’s consciousness is to get a theatrical run. But now there are more documentaries and more films in general being released than ever before. There are weeks when the New York Times is reviewing 15 films, so it’s harder to leave an impression on the public. A lot of these films are seeing their financial future on digital platforms. Because viewers aren’t hearing as much about films in theatrical release, I think the festival circuit is going to have increasing importance for the life of a film.
Chadha: There were a few films at Sundance that dealt with the legacy of 9/11. You mentioned Dirty Wars but there was The World According To Dick Cheney and Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? The Life And Time Of Tim Hetherington and We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks.
Powers: Yes that thematic cluster absolutely stood out. The legacy of 9/11 and the response to it through wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other kinds of counter-terrorism actions played out in other countries, remains a key subject for documentary makers to grapple with. I think the distance of 12 years from 9/11 gives us time to reflect. In the film Manhunt about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, there’s a clear connection. The World According To Dick Cheney is about the chief architect of post-9/11 counter-terrorism actions. It came in for criticism that the filmmakers weren’t hard enough on Dick Cheney, weren’t asking tough enough questions. And while I shared some of those frustrations, I certainly learned a lot about Cheney’s career from watching it.
Chadha: Anthony Kaufman recently wrote a piece that singled out Dirty Wars and the Alex Gibney film We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks as two films that he thought might presage a wave of films by left-leaning filmmakers that are critical of Obama and his policies? Do you agree with that assessment or see a similar trend?
Powers: It’s a smart observation. Dirty Wars – which is one of the films I was most impressed by at Sundance – takes a long view of American foreign policy after 9/11 in the hands of the journalist at the center of that film, Jeremy Scahill, who’s best known for his book on Blackwater, and who now has a new book coming out that ties into this film. Alex Gibney’s Wikileaksfilm looks at the harsh response of the Obama administration to Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier who had leaked the headline grabbing documents to Wikileaks. Those two films make an interesting contrast to documentaries of the past decade which comfortably coincided with a liberal critique of the Bush administration. I’m thinking of docs like Farhenheit 9/11 or No End In Sight that liberals rallied behind to point a finger at their political opponents. These new films force a more uncomfortable confrontation with an administration that those same liberals helped get elected.
Chadha: You previously mentioned to me that you thought that filmmakers screening unfinished films at Sundance were taking a risk. Why is that?
Powers: For some reason at Sundance, more than other festivals that I’m aware of, you find filmmakers rushing to screen works that sometimes aren’t completed. In my seven years of programming at Toronto, I’m not aware of any documentaries that went back for serious editing after their premiere – other than those presented as works-in-progress. But at Sundance every year there seems to be a few films that push the deadline so hard that they get taken back to the edit room afterwards. A notable example a couple of years ago was The Interrupters which played at Sundance in a version close to three hours before getting re-edited and having nearly an hour of material taken out of it. The question is, how much does that hurt a film, to have its first presentation before critics and industry be a version of itself that’s not the best. You can point to The Interrupters as a positive example. A lot of people, myself included, appreciated the long version of that film, and it didn’t diminish our interest at all. A fresh example this year was The Square, Jehane Noujaim’s film about the last two years of protest in Egypt around Tahrir Square. In this case the film arrived without any credits on it and Jehane told audiences that she was going back into the edit room. Normally that would sound to me like a challenging strategy. However, The Square came away from Sundance with an audience award. There’s clearly a power to that film, and a power that touched me watching that film, that transcended any rough edges that it contained. So I’ve just given two examples of films that made it work for them. I wouldn’t want to call out films where I think that strategy has not worked. But there certainly are cases and I’d strongly caution filmmakers not to assume that they’ll be the happy exceptions if they’re rushing their films for a festival deadline.
Chadha: There was a lot of talk this year about how well-represented women were on the doc side. I was wondering why you think this difference exists between the doc side and the fictional narrative side, where women still are underrepresented?
Powers: You can start a documentary with just a camera, as opposed to a fiction film where you need actors, a crew, a script, a lot more start-up resources. It may be self-perpetuating. Because there have been more prominent female doc makers, dating back to Barbara Kopple winning an Academy Award in the mid-70s, they’ve become role models for other women.
Chadha: What lost opportunities do you think filmmakers are struggling through at Sundance in terms of self-promotion? I know you’re a big proponent of filmmakers using Twitter.
Powers: I continue to be surprised by filmmakers who spend thousands of dollars on a publicist, but don’t take more advantage of social media which isfree. The Sundance docs that I saw making strong use of Twitter were Sound City which had 20,000 followers at the end of the festival; and 99% – The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film which had 15,000 followers. Then there’s a sharp drop-off. Films such as After Tiller, Dirty Wars and American Promise had around 1,500 followers each – they are getting off to a good start. Whenever possible, filmmakers need to begin their Twitter strategy well before their first festival in order to accumulate followers who can spread what’s happening at the festival.
Chadha: Which film were you most surprised by, and why?
Powers: It’s a reality of film festivals that you can’t see everything. You’re dividing your time between seeing films and utilizing that unique space to have meetings with people that you can’t otherwise. There were around 40 docs at Sundance and I’ve now seen roughly half. I think the film Blood Brother that won the audience prize and the jury prize took a lot of people by surprise because there was hardly any chatter about it in the corridors where press and industry exchange tips. It shows you that in a big festival, things can always surprise you.
I think certain filmmakers going into Sundance or other big festivals should consider screening more for press and tastemakers before the festival. The traditional wisdom has always been the opposite: to not screen for anyone prior, let your film be seen by an audience, and generate the buzz from there. That works for a film like Supersize Me – where the description made people put it on their priority list. But for a film that doesn’t have an obvious hook – including a lot of the films in the world documentary competition – those filmmakers might be better served trying to strategically screen for certain press and tastemakers so they can enter the festival with people already talking about them.
Chadha: Are there any films that are now on your “can’t miss” list?
Powers: Some of my favorite Sundance titles I’ve programmed for the Miami International Film Festival, which just announced its line-up last week. They include 20 Feet From Stardom, Blackfish, Gideon’S Army, The Crash Reel, Valentine Road, Which Way To The Front Line From Here? and Who Is Dayani Cristal?. There were many other strong films at Sundance that I look forward to showing at the Montclair Film Festival and Stranger Than Fiction. The Square I admire a lot. Muscle Shoals really took me by surprise. It played late in the festival and didn’t gain as much buzz as I thought it deserved. The director, who I believe is a first time director, made all kinds of smart creative decisions. Another film that went under the radar but made a big impression on me was The Stuart Hall Project about the U.K.-based black intellectual Stuart Hall. The film is wholly constructed out of archival sources, primarily from the BBC.
Chadha: What were the lessons about funding that came out of Sundance?
Powers: Sundance is a good survey of how docs are getting funded. This year reflects the important influence of Kickstarter. Recently Kickstarter introduced a tag for its projects that have a Sundance affiliation, and skimming that list I was impressed to see that Inequality For All had raised $83,000 and American Promise had raised $50,000 on Kickstarter. Other documentaries raised more modest sums. What’ so significant about Kickstarter is that those filmmakers did not need to wait around for a grant application committee to give them a green light. They could take matters into their own hands. Other funding players who were prominent are the Sundance Institute, the Tribeca Institute and the Ford Foundation which last year announced a $50 million commitment through the Just Films program. That Ford initiative supported projects like Gideon’S Army, Valentine Road, American Promise, Who Is Dayani Cristal?, God Loves Uganda and Citizen Koch.
Another important player is the equity group Impact Partners, who for several years have had a strong showing of their catalog at Sundance. This year their involvement included American Promise, The Crash Reel, Who Is Dayani Cristal? and Pandora’S Promise. The last group that I would mention is Cinereach, who were the heroes of Sundance last year for their funding of Beasts Of The Southern Wild, and who were back this year with four docs: Cutie And The Boxer, Citizen Koch, God Loves Uganda, and Narco Cultura.
When you look at the kinds of films that are showing up at Sundance, you see the names of some key producers re-occurring. This year the producer Julie Goldman, whose recent Sundance titles include Buck was back with three projects – Gideon’S Army, Manhunt and God Loves Uganda. The producer John Battsek from the U.K. who last year came with Searching For Sugar Man, was back this year with The Summit and Manhunt. And Jess Search, also based in the U.K., who is the founder of Britdoc and the Good Pitch had her name attached to the films Dirty Wars and Who Is Dayani Cristal? Clearly those producers and others like them have a good eye for spotting what makes a strong documentary in development. Those producers perform a variety of roles for filmmakers, whether it’s connecting them to financial support or supplying editorial perspective or connecting them to the other kind of industry players who can take a project further.
Chadha: Going back to Kickstarter for a minute, do you think films that have success on Kickstarter have the added benefit of showing to grantmaking institutions that their films are viable and that there’s an audience for them?
Powers: Absolutely. One bit of industry news this past week was that the HotDocs Forum, which has been a key place for documentaries to raise money, mainly in the broadcast world, announced that they will now accept projects on the basis of a certain amount of funds raised on Kickstarter. It used to be that you had to demonstrate a portion of your budget, like a quarter, was already being supported by a broadcaster or other traditional grantmaking institution. This change in policy signals the way in which Kickstarter funding is being taken more seriously.
In the case of The Square, the producers launched a Kickstarter campaign at Sundance to help finish their film. That seems like a very smart strategy for other filmmakers to consider. When you’re at a film festival, you have a rapt and enthused audience and if you can point them to a Kickstarter campaign, that’s a great way to leverage that enthusiasm. Even if you don’t need finishing funds, it’s a way to get outreach funds. I also saw the team from The Square selling t-shirts. After one screening they came away with few hundred dollars of cash in hand, which can help defray costs of attending a festival. These are strategies that filmmakers like Gary Hustwit have long practiced, emulating the way rock musicians sell t-shirts and posters at live performances. The film community has been slow to catch on. Maybe filmmakers are so busy getting their films made that they don’t have time to think about merchandise. But every bit of revenue helps.
Chadha: Any final thoughts?
Powers: We’ve talked about theatrical and digital distribution and new trends in crowdfunding. But it has to be said that the most long-standing and reliable place for documentary makers to get money is the broadcast world. HBO, which usually has a strong presence at Sundance, had the most overwhelming presence that I can remember, coming with six feature length documentaries. Plus during Sundance HBO bought Pussy Riot-a Punk Prayer. When you consider that HBO also has the film that was the 2012 winner at Idfa, Alan Berliner’s First Cousin Once Removed, and had two films at the Toronto festival – Mea Maxima Culpa by Alex Gibney and First Comes Love by Nina Davenport – that’s an impressive slate of films. There was news generated by other broadcasters getting active in the documentary field, including Showtime, which came with The World According To Dick Cheney. Just before Sundane, The New York Times reported about Showtime’s announcement of several documentaries in progress, including a film about Richard Pryor by Marina Zenovich, who made the Roman Polanski film, that I am personally looking forward to. In addition, CNN made an announcement during Sundance about a slate of feature-length docs, including a film by Alex Gibney. Another major player in that realm is A&E IndieFilms, which didn’t have any films in Sundance this year, but they’re already attached to Errol Morris’s Donald Rumsfeld documentary coming out later this year. All in all, the year is off to a good start.
Link to the original article here...
- 2/19/2013
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
Some of the best films of the 2012/2013 calender year from Richard Linklater, Harmony Korine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Andrew Bujalski, Jeff Nichols, David Gordon Green, Shane Carruth and Joshua Oppenheimer are among the headliner names for the 2013 edition of the South by Southwest Film Festival. With a little over 100 plus film line-up (a whopping 2000+ titles were submitted), almost 70 are world premieres: there is the highly anticipated sophomore film (that has been on our radar since it first went into production) with M. Blash’s (The Wait), Joe Swanberg who makes SXSW his second home will premiere Drinking Buddies, veteran indie filmmaker John Sayles saddles in with Go For Sisters, and rounding out the Narrative Spotlight section we’ve got The Bounceback from Bryan Poyser, Loves Her Gun from Geoff Marslett along with titles we thought might break into Park City, but found an Austin home instead with Jacob Vaughan’s Milo and...
- 2/1/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
- Film Comment posted the "50 Best Undistributed Films of 2012," beginning with "Our Children" (Joachim Lafosse, Belgium/Luxembourg/France/Switzerland), followed by "Memories Look at Me" (Song Fang, China) and "First Cousin Once Removed" (Alan Berliner, U.S.). Read their full list here. - Watch a short (very short - twenty second) teaser for Nicolas Winding Refn's "Only God Forgives," with Ryan Gosling in this Thai-set revenge tale. Check it out below and here. - Take a look at Naomi Watts as Princess Diana. The actress also reveals her anxious perspective on the role; she agreed to take the "high, high, high risk" role because it would happen whether or not she accepted it. The film will focus on Princess Diana's affair with Dr. Hasnat Khan. - Matt Damon and Ben Affleck originally wanted Morgan Freeman or Robert De Niro to play the Robin Williams psychiatrist role in "Good Will.
- 1/7/2013
- by Maggie Lange
- Thompson on Hollywood
Once in a blue moon a festival competition film comes along that’s a masterpiece, so flawless it’s inconceivable that it won’t take top prize. This year at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, that film was Alan Berliner’s First Cousin Once Removed (which I actually saw before this year’s 25th edition began), and it did indeed nabb the Vpro Idfa Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary, along with a nice sum of 12,500 euros. Fittingly, my reaction towards Berliner’s breathtaking portrait of his mentor and relative, the acclaimed poet and translator Edwin Honig, as he succumbs to Alzheimer’s disease, mirrors my …...
- 11/30/2012
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, or Idfa, piles a selection of the year’s docs into a window in mid-November--this year during its recently-wrapped 25th edition. The films are not all new, but enough of them are being seen for the first time that Idfa becomes a showcase for next year. Here are some docs that you can expect to see in 2013. "First Cousin Once Removed" Dir. Alan Berliner, USA, 2012 Alan Berliner makes no-budget films that tend to be about himself and his family. In this one (which premiered at the New York Film Festival and won Idfa’s feasture doc award), Edwin Honig (1919-2011), a poet and Berliner’s mother’s first cousin, is losing his memory and his mind. He doesn’t even recognize pictures of himself. “I’m not impressed,” is his opinion when he sees one. Often, when Honig speaks, what comes out sounds a lot like someone’s odd poetry.
- 11/27/2012
- by David D'Arcy
- Thompson on Hollywood
The awards for the 25th anniversary International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa) were announced in a ceremony today, covering the various competition sections of the world's largest documentary event. Alan Berliner's Nyff entry, "First Cousin Once Removed," a moving portrait of Edwin Honig facing Alzheimer's, took Idfa's top honor, the Vpro Idfa Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary, a distinction that comes with a hefty €12,500 prize. Esther Hertog's "Soldier on the Roof," a look at a small community of Jewish settlers in the overwhelmingly Palestinian West Bank city of Hebron, claimed both the First Appearance Award and the Best Dutch Documentary Award, a total of €10,000. Also taking home two nods was Malik Bendjelloul, whose "Searching for Sugar Man" received €7,500 between his Audience Award and Best Music Documentary Award, repeating the film's double win from its premiere at the beginning...
- 11/24/2012
- by Basil Tsiokos
- Indiewire
"Searching for Sugar Man" is continuing to find critical acclaim. Malik Benjelloul's documentary about musician Rodriguez, who abandoned music only to find his career resuscitated after becoming hugely popular in South Africa, won the Best Music Documentary award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the festival said Friday. Also read: "Searching for Sugar Man" Tops Cinema Eye Honors Nominations "Sugar Man" also took home the Audience award. Alan Berliner's documentary "First Cousin Once Removed," about his uncle's struggle with Alzheimer's disease, also scored big, winning for Best Feature-Length Documentary. ...
- 11/23/2012
- by Tim Kenneally
- The Wrap
At this year’s New York Film Festival I took part in a panel organized by Indiewire’s Critics Academy, a program for young, emerging film writers. The following is a consideration on the subject of death as it is depicted in three of this year’s films by one of those writers, Fariha Roisin. — Sm
In Michael Haneke’s latest film, Amour, an opening wide shot captures a crowded mass. An audience is watching a piano recital, and we are hypnotized, unsure of where to look, or rather, who to look for. The shot gives us no clues and yet a romanticism lurks, suggesting that this act of watching live music has a certain universality to it, as does death and its true contender and antithesis — love. The camera finally focuses on Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) as he turns to Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) his wife. They are elderly, well-to-do. He watches her,...
In Michael Haneke’s latest film, Amour, an opening wide shot captures a crowded mass. An audience is watching a piano recital, and we are hypnotized, unsure of where to look, or rather, who to look for. The shot gives us no clues and yet a romanticism lurks, suggesting that this act of watching live music has a certain universality to it, as does death and its true contender and antithesis — love. The camera finally focuses on Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) as he turns to Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) his wife. They are elderly, well-to-do. He watches her,...
- 10/21/2012
- by Fariha Roisin
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Alzheimer’s is one of the most tragic diseases for a creative person. While physically painless, the dementia and memory loss are dreadful impairments that no mind should have to bear, and that seems to be especially the case for celebrated artistic minds like that of Edwin Honig. The late poet and critic is the subject of a new documentary by Alan Berliner, the renowned maker of deeply personal experimental nonfiction films. Previous works of his include An Intimate Stranger, which focuses on his maternal grandfather, and Nobody’s Business, which is about his father. His relationship to Honig is directly spelled out in the new doc’s title, First Cousin Once Removed. In addition to that familial bond, though, Berliner considers his mother’s cousin to be his mentor and friend; Honig’s estranged adopted kids meanwhile imply that the filmmaker was treated more like a son than they each were. Making...
- 10/13/2012
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Documentarian Alan Berliner is frequently the star of his movies, but his focus extends beyond his neuroses. Rather than the star of the show, he's a vessel for bigger ideas and evades the perils of self-indulgence that could result from putting himself in front of the camera. That tricky balance is on display better than ever in the stirring "First Cousin Once Removed," which deepens an oeuvre that has already dealt with the tender issues of father-son relationships ("Nobody's Business") and insomnia ("Wide Awake") by exploring his fears of senility to devastating effect. Using a powerful focal point to manifest the movie's central concerns, Berliner makes his interest in the topic relevant to everyone. His case study is Edwin Honig, the first cousin of Berliner's mother, a bond that gives the movie its title. But there's more about Honig -- once a world-class poet and founder of Brown University's creative writing.
- 10/2/2012
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Above: Passion (Brian de Palma, France/Germany).
Tonight the 50th incarnation of the New York Film Festival gets underway at Lincoln Center, and for the third year running I have tried to find posters for all the films in the festival’s main slate (see 2010 and 2011). Poster art not being what it used to be, these inevitably pale in comparison to the posters I collected last week for the very first Nyff of 1963. For starters, most of those were illustrated, whereas only two of this year’s batch are hand drawn: the folk-art Filipino design for Bwakaw and Spanish artist Riki Blanco’s illustration for The Dead Man and Being Happy. But there are some other standouts, like the striking UK quads for Holy Motors and Ginger and Rosa, the near-abstract monochrome and gothic lettering of Leviathan, the unconventional titling for Barbara (coupled with that can’t-lose photo of Nina Hoss on a bike,...
Tonight the 50th incarnation of the New York Film Festival gets underway at Lincoln Center, and for the third year running I have tried to find posters for all the films in the festival’s main slate (see 2010 and 2011). Poster art not being what it used to be, these inevitably pale in comparison to the posters I collected last week for the very first Nyff of 1963. For starters, most of those were illustrated, whereas only two of this year’s batch are hand drawn: the folk-art Filipino design for Bwakaw and Spanish artist Riki Blanco’s illustration for The Dead Man and Being Happy. But there are some other standouts, like the striking UK quads for Holy Motors and Ginger and Rosa, the near-abstract monochrome and gothic lettering of Leviathan, the unconventional titling for Barbara (coupled with that can’t-lose photo of Nina Hoss on a bike,...
- 9/28/2012
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
The New York Film Festival announced its full slate of films on Thursday, a line up of 32 titles that largely serves as a catch-all compendium of standouts from other international festivals like Cannes, Berlin, Venice, and Toronto.
Along with the previously announced opening night film (Ang Lee’s Life of Pi), centerpiece gala (David Chase’s Not Fade Away), and closing night film (Robert Zemeckis’ Flight) — all world premieres — the highlights of the festival include: Hyde Park on Hudson, starring Bill Murray as President Franklin D. Roosevelt; Ginger and Rosa, starring Elle Fanning as a girl growing up in 1962 London...
Along with the previously announced opening night film (Ang Lee’s Life of Pi), centerpiece gala (David Chase’s Not Fade Away), and closing night film (Robert Zemeckis’ Flight) — all world premieres — the highlights of the festival include: Hyde Park on Hudson, starring Bill Murray as President Franklin D. Roosevelt; Ginger and Rosa, starring Elle Fanning as a girl growing up in 1962 London...
- 8/17/2012
- by Adam B. Vary
- EW - Inside Movies
Amour
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today the main slate of selections for the 50th New York Film Festival (September 28-October 14) including such notable directors as Olivier Assayas, Noah Baumbach, Leos Carax, Brian De Palma, Michael Haneke, Abbas Kiarostami, Ang Lee, Cristian Mungiu, Sally Potter, Alain Resnais, Raul Ruiz and Robert Zemeckis.
Regarding the line up of 32 films comprising the main slate for the 50th anniversary of Nyff Richard Peña, Selection Committee Chair & Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said, .The films making up the main slate of this year’s Nyff, have in common a general quality of fearlessness” that unites otherwise very disparate works. These are films that go all the way, works willing to take the risk or chance that by doing so they may be bringing audiences to places they might rather not go..
Award winners that will be presented for...
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today the main slate of selections for the 50th New York Film Festival (September 28-October 14) including such notable directors as Olivier Assayas, Noah Baumbach, Leos Carax, Brian De Palma, Michael Haneke, Abbas Kiarostami, Ang Lee, Cristian Mungiu, Sally Potter, Alain Resnais, Raul Ruiz and Robert Zemeckis.
Regarding the line up of 32 films comprising the main slate for the 50th anniversary of Nyff Richard Peña, Selection Committee Chair & Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said, .The films making up the main slate of this year’s Nyff, have in common a general quality of fearlessness” that unites otherwise very disparate works. These are films that go all the way, works willing to take the risk or chance that by doing so they may be bringing audiences to places they might rather not go..
Award winners that will be presented for...
- 8/16/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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