Located betwixt Oklahoma’s Cherokee Nation and kitsch Missouri family fun destination Branson, Northwest Arkansas’s Bentonville is one of the great cultural destinations of the SEC region. In addition to its thriving theaters, museums and local artist community, the city has announced itself as a burgeoning cinema hub, thanks to the emergence of the Bentonville Film Festival.
Founded in 2015 by activist and Oscar winner Geena Davis, in partnership with producer and businessman Trevor Drinkwater, the annual June festival is the centerpiece event for the year-round BFFoundation, providing a safe space and exhibition venue for emerging creators and visual storytellers hailing from underrepresented backgrounds—sounds familiar!
But don’t worry, we’re not being paid off by Big Arkanite to say nice things. Next week, Film Independent kicks off Festival Visions, a Film Independent Presents summer spotlight series featuring—online and for free—some of the best indie films programmed...
Founded in 2015 by activist and Oscar winner Geena Davis, in partnership with producer and businessman Trevor Drinkwater, the annual June festival is the centerpiece event for the year-round BFFoundation, providing a safe space and exhibition venue for emerging creators and visual storytellers hailing from underrepresented backgrounds—sounds familiar!
But don’t worry, we’re not being paid off by Big Arkanite to say nice things. Next week, Film Independent kicks off Festival Visions, a Film Independent Presents summer spotlight series featuring—online and for free—some of the best indie films programmed...
- 5/18/2023
- by Matt Warren
- Film Independent News & More
Exclusive: Oscar-winning filmmaker Tom McCarthy’s production company Slow Pony has inked an exclusive first-look film deal with Concordia Studio, the talent-first studio whose most recent production, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, world premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will bow on Apple TV+ on May 12.
McCarthy comes to the deal after numerous successful collaborations with Concordia co-founder Jonathan King, who exec produced his Best Picture Oscar winner Spotlight during his tenure as President of Narrative Film and Television at Participant. King also produced McCarthy’s recent Cannes-premiering Matt Damon starrer Stillwater for Focus Features, as well as his 2007 drama The Visitor, which brought Richard Jenkins his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.
The filmmaker will look to build out a diverse slate of features under the Concordia deal, all of which will be in the narrative space, helping the studio to expand in that area after...
McCarthy comes to the deal after numerous successful collaborations with Concordia co-founder Jonathan King, who exec produced his Best Picture Oscar winner Spotlight during his tenure as President of Narrative Film and Television at Participant. King also produced McCarthy’s recent Cannes-premiering Matt Damon starrer Stillwater for Focus Features, as well as his 2007 drama The Visitor, which brought Richard Jenkins his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.
The filmmaker will look to build out a diverse slate of features under the Concordia deal, all of which will be in the narrative space, helping the studio to expand in that area after...
- 4/10/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Concordia Studio has named industry veteran Lori Rovner, formerly of Imagine Entertainment and Skydance Media, as its COO and general counsel, overseeing all operational, business, financial and legal aspects of the company, as well as serving as key liaison with Emerson Collective, one of its founders.
She reports to Davis Guggenheim and Jonathan King, who launched Concordia in partnership with Laurene Powell Jobs and Emerson Collective, an organization Jobs founded to focused on issues from education, immigration reform and the environment to media, journalism and health.
Rovner most recently served as EVP and head of Business & Legal Affairs for Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment. Previously, she worked at Skydance Media’s SVP and Deputy General Counsel. She has also held posts at Fox 21 Television Studios and Lionsgate Entertainment, and began her career as a litigator.
“We are a small but growing company, so Lori’s breadth...
She reports to Davis Guggenheim and Jonathan King, who launched Concordia in partnership with Laurene Powell Jobs and Emerson Collective, an organization Jobs founded to focused on issues from education, immigration reform and the environment to media, journalism and health.
Rovner most recently served as EVP and head of Business & Legal Affairs for Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment. Previously, she worked at Skydance Media’s SVP and Deputy General Counsel. She has also held posts at Fox 21 Television Studios and Lionsgate Entertainment, and began her career as a litigator.
“We are a small but growing company, so Lori’s breadth...
- 11/5/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
In a complex, eye-opening new documentary, El Paso high schoolers hold complicated reasons for wanting to become part of a divisive institution
The US border with Mexico is a region unto itself, with its own culture, rules and politics. If that wasn’t clear before the 2020 presidential election, then it became so when Donald Trump, riding on a wave of Latino support, became the first Republican to win Texas’s border-hugging Zapata county in 100 years, despite getting trounced 58% to 41% among all of Texas’s Latinos. All of a sudden, Democrats were scrambling to understand how a man known for his virulent anti-immigrant, anti-Latino rhetoric and actions could appeal so strongly to this group.
This is a dynamic that film-maker Maisie Crow dives into in her fascinating and delicate documentary At the Ready, which follows the lives of high school students in El Paso as they train to become border patrol agents.
The US border with Mexico is a region unto itself, with its own culture, rules and politics. If that wasn’t clear before the 2020 presidential election, then it became so when Donald Trump, riding on a wave of Latino support, became the first Republican to win Texas’s border-hugging Zapata county in 100 years, despite getting trounced 58% to 41% among all of Texas’s Latinos. All of a sudden, Democrats were scrambling to understand how a man known for his virulent anti-immigrant, anti-Latino rhetoric and actions could appeal so strongly to this group.
This is a dynamic that film-maker Maisie Crow dives into in her fascinating and delicate documentary At the Ready, which follows the lives of high school students in El Paso as they train to become border patrol agents.
- 10/19/2021
- by Veronica Esposito
- The Guardian - Film News
"All this stuff, it only makes you stronger." Gravitas Ventures has debuted an official trailer for the indie documentary At the Ready, which originally premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. A group of seniors train to become police officers and Border Patrol agents at El Paso's Horizon High School, only 10 miles from the US / Mexico border. Sundance offers a good primer to what it's really about: "Through intimate access and a clear-sighted lens, director Maisie Crow takes us inside one of the largest policing education programs in the region, offering a rare portrait of Latinx adolescents grappling with their place within their communities. Unafraid of confronting the difficult questions that lurk at the intersection of identity, immigration, and personal politics, At the Ready asks: What is the price of pursuing dreams that have very real ramifications?" Honestly this looks terrifying. Looks like an eye-opening doc unlike any other.
- 9/23/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American distribution rights to At the Ready, the documentary from Maisie Crow that follows three El Paso teenagers who embark on careers in law enforcement as the debates surrounding immigration and police reform in America reach fever pitches. The doc will be released in theaters and on digital platforms October 22.
Crow’s film focuses on students at El Paso’s Horizon High School, 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, who are part of a criminal justice club, which includes mock-ups of drug raids and active-shooter takedowns as they eye careers with the Border Patrol and in policing and customs enforcement. They soon discover their choices may clash with the values and people they hold most dear.
Crow, Hillary Pierce and Abbie Perrault are producing. Gravitas previously released Pierce’s immigration doc The River and the Wall.
Gravitas’ Huggins and Tony Piantedosi negotiated the deal...
Crow’s film focuses on students at El Paso’s Horizon High School, 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, who are part of a criminal justice club, which includes mock-ups of drug raids and active-shooter takedowns as they eye careers with the Border Patrol and in policing and customs enforcement. They soon discover their choices may clash with the values and people they hold most dear.
Crow, Hillary Pierce and Abbie Perrault are producing. Gravitas previously released Pierce’s immigration doc The River and the Wall.
Gravitas’ Huggins and Tony Piantedosi negotiated the deal...
- 8/21/2021
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Concordia Studio has acquired rights to the autobiography of Weight Watchers co-founder Jean Nidetch and is partnering with Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and Blackpink: Light Up the Sky director Caroline Suh, John Lewis: Good Trouble producer Laura Michalchyshyn and Whitney producer Lisa Erspamer to turn her story into a feature documentary.
Davis Guggenheim, Jonathan Silberberg and Nicole Stott will executive produce Having Your Cake: The Jean Nidetch Story for Concordia, which also is developing a scripted TV project based on the story of Nidetch, who began the now ubiquitous company in the early 1960s hosting friends in her Queens, NY, home once a week to share the best ways to lose weight.
The story centers on how one woman’s quest for self-improvement and self-invention combined with a pre-feminist focus on self-help and American entrepreneurial spirit led to a global company that now hosts more than 40,000 meetings each week,...
Davis Guggenheim, Jonathan Silberberg and Nicole Stott will executive produce Having Your Cake: The Jean Nidetch Story for Concordia, which also is developing a scripted TV project based on the story of Nidetch, who began the now ubiquitous company in the early 1960s hosting friends in her Queens, NY, home once a week to share the best ways to lose weight.
The story centers on how one woman’s quest for self-improvement and self-invention combined with a pre-feminist focus on self-help and American entrepreneurial spirit led to a global company that now hosts more than 40,000 meetings each week,...
- 8/18/2021
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
When the documentary Summer of Soul sold for a record $12 million+ out of Sundance, it was just the latest piece of good news in a breakthrough year for production house Concordia Studio.
The company, founded in 2017 by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim and Laurene Powell Jobs of Emerson Collective, launched two other docs at Sundance 2021: Peter Nicks’ Homeroom and At the Ready, directed by Maisie Crow. But it’s Concordia Studio films that premiered at last year’s Sundance that have lifted the firm to greater prominence. Time, directed by Garrett Bradley, and Boys State, from directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, are in the thick of contention as Oscar nomination voting proceeds.
“We couldn’t be prouder of Time and Boys State,” Nicole Stott, Concordia’s EVP Nonfiction, tells Deadline. “I mean, we couldn’t be more thrilled by the response.
The company, founded in 2017 by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim and Laurene Powell Jobs of Emerson Collective, launched two other docs at Sundance 2021: Peter Nicks’ Homeroom and At the Ready, directed by Maisie Crow. But it’s Concordia Studio films that premiered at last year’s Sundance that have lifted the firm to greater prominence. Time, directed by Garrett Bradley, and Boys State, from directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, are in the thick of contention as Oscar nomination voting proceeds.
“We couldn’t be prouder of Time and Boys State,” Nicole Stott, Concordia’s EVP Nonfiction, tells Deadline. “I mean, we couldn’t be more thrilled by the response.
- 3/8/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
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Documentary filmmaking is often a scrappy enterprise — at its core, all you really need is a camera and a desire to tell a story. In the case of at least eight of the filmmakers whose documentaries were a part of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, it’s one camera in particular.
Their gear of choice? The Canon Eos C300 Mark II, which was used for the U.S. Documentary Competition entries “Ailey,” “At the Ready,” “Cusp,” and “Rebel Hearts,” World Cinema Documentary Competition entry “Sabaya”; Next entry “Searchers”; and premieres “Philly D.A.” and “My Name Is Pauli Murray.” Of course, the camera body you use is only one part of the equation — the lenses...
Documentary filmmaking is often a scrappy enterprise — at its core, all you really need is a camera and a desire to tell a story. In the case of at least eight of the filmmakers whose documentaries were a part of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, it’s one camera in particular.
Their gear of choice? The Canon Eos C300 Mark II, which was used for the U.S. Documentary Competition entries “Ailey,” “At the Ready,” “Cusp,” and “Rebel Hearts,” World Cinema Documentary Competition entry “Sabaya”; Next entry “Searchers”; and premieres “Philly D.A.” and “My Name Is Pauli Murray.” Of course, the camera body you use is only one part of the equation — the lenses...
- 2/5/2021
- by Jean Bentley
- Indiewire
The filmmakers of “At the Ready” — a documentary following students training to become Border Patrol officers — know how timely their film is, but they didn’t want to let recent politics shape the doc entirely.
“At the Ready” also takes a look at how the Trump Administration changed policies surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border, It documents moments where children are separated from their parents at the border, prompting many students to weigh their options.
“I think the outside forces definitely play a part in the shaping of all these young adults, but I think no matter the time period, the time we made this film, the outside forces would shape one part of this journey,” director Maisie Crow told Beatrice Verhoeven at TheWrap’s Sundance studio presented by Nfp and National Geographic. “We wanted to include those but not just have the film be about those, so we could...
“At the Ready” also takes a look at how the Trump Administration changed policies surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border, It documents moments where children are separated from their parents at the border, prompting many students to weigh their options.
“I think the outside forces definitely play a part in the shaping of all these young adults, but I think no matter the time period, the time we made this film, the outside forces would shape one part of this journey,” director Maisie Crow told Beatrice Verhoeven at TheWrap’s Sundance studio presented by Nfp and National Geographic. “We wanted to include those but not just have the film be about those, so we could...
- 2/4/2021
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
The 2021 Sundance Film Festival has wrapped a most unconventional edition, as audiences tuned into the virtual program from around the world, but one aspect of the experience felt somewhat normal: The 74 features delivered a wide range of exciting and memorable movies, many of which will continue to make waves in the year ahead. Culled from over 14,000 submissions, Sundance’s program was a hodgepodge of ambitious formalism, daring subject matter, and a lot of crowdpleasers. Here are the biggest highlights. Explore all of IndieWire’s Sundance 2021 coverage here.
Christian Blauvelt, Jude Dry, David Ehrlich, Tambay Obenson, and Zack Sharf contributed to this article.
“At the Ready”
“At the Ready” is a riveting piece of journalism — its director, Maisie Crow, is the editor of a weekly newspaper in west Texas — and one of the most eye-opening accounts of teen life that’s been put onscreen in years. Three high schoolers in Horizon,...
Christian Blauvelt, Jude Dry, David Ehrlich, Tambay Obenson, and Zack Sharf contributed to this article.
“At the Ready”
“At the Ready” is a riveting piece of journalism — its director, Maisie Crow, is the editor of a weekly newspaper in west Texas — and one of the most eye-opening accounts of teen life that’s been put onscreen in years. Three high schoolers in Horizon,...
- 2/3/2021
- by Eric Kohn and Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
When choosing cameras and lenses, nonfiction filmmakers are not only guided by the look, feel, and cinematic language they want to employ, but also by what their production demands and resources allow. Which is why in answering the question of why they picked the gear they used to shoot their Sundance nonfiction feature premieres, this year’s crop of cinematographers and directors also tell us how they shot their movies — the challenges and choices, as well as their cinematic styles.
Check out our survey of this year’s narrative features right here.
The following films from the U.S. Documentary Competition, World Documentary Competition, and Premieres appear in alphabetical order by title.
“Ailey”
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
Dir: Jamila Wignot, DoP: Naiti Gámez
Format: 4k
Camera: Canon c300 mkII & Canon c300 mkIII
Lens: Canon Cn-e Cine primes; Cn-E30-105mm zoom & L-series lenses.
Gámez: We wanted nimble and affordable...
Check out our survey of this year’s narrative features right here.
The following films from the U.S. Documentary Competition, World Documentary Competition, and Premieres appear in alphabetical order by title.
“Ailey”
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
Dir: Jamila Wignot, DoP: Naiti Gámez
Format: 4k
Camera: Canon c300 mkII & Canon c300 mkIII
Lens: Canon Cn-e Cine primes; Cn-E30-105mm zoom & L-series lenses.
Gámez: We wanted nimble and affordable...
- 2/1/2021
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
They’re suited up in kevlar. Their bulletproof helmets snap tightly at the chin. A lieutenant gives assignments: “Active Shooter,” “Drug Raid.”
But we’re not about to see seasoned law enforcement professionals enter harm’s way. These are high school kids being directed into simulations of high-stress policing situations as part of Horizon High School’s Law Enforcement Club. The school, located 10 miles east of El Paso, is one of 900 Texas high schools that now offer police training as a vocational track. As captured on camera by journalist and documentarian Maisie Crow, these teenagers, nearing graduation and hoping to enter law enforcement, anchor — another documentary about how a particular group of kids reveal larger truths about the entire nation — except it’s better.
Better because “Boys State,” despite its seeming representation of America’s divides as enacted by a group of student legislators, was a much more artificial construct.
But we’re not about to see seasoned law enforcement professionals enter harm’s way. These are high school kids being directed into simulations of high-stress policing situations as part of Horizon High School’s Law Enforcement Club. The school, located 10 miles east of El Paso, is one of 900 Texas high schools that now offer police training as a vocational track. As captured on camera by journalist and documentarian Maisie Crow, these teenagers, nearing graduation and hoping to enter law enforcement, anchor — another documentary about how a particular group of kids reveal larger truths about the entire nation — except it’s better.
Better because “Boys State,” despite its seeming representation of America’s divides as enacted by a group of student legislators, was a much more artificial construct.
- 1/31/2021
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
“Active Shooter at 12! Hostage negotiation at 1:30! Drug raid at 2:30,” hollers an authoritative voice in a sun-baked concrete yard. The retired police officer who announces this schedule at the start of “At the Ready,” Maisie Crow’s sobering documentary about a community of kids growing up on the Mexican border, isn’t at a professional police school or military facility. And yet, he addresses neat rows of individuals dressed in military gear — all teenagers, attending an unusual extracurricular training program at El Paso’s Horizon High School, seeking eventual employment in the law enforcement field in the near future. What follows this startling scene is a revealing look at several of these youngsters at a defining moment in their lives, as they learn to navigate the intersection of their identities, career goals and evolving perspectives on the country’s ideological realities.
An unsettling, often tender and thoroughly well-timed film,...
An unsettling, often tender and thoroughly well-timed film,...
- 1/31/2021
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
Following in the footsteps of last year’s Boys State, Maisie Crow’s At the Ready is another documentary about an education program in Texas that pushes young people toward conservative ideology. It’ll make you just as worried for the next generation of Americans as Boys State did, although unfortunately this rather standard doc isn’t nearly as compelling or insightful.
Crow documents a group of high school seniors at El Paso’s Horizon High School as they take a law enforcement education class, which essentially trains them up to be police officers, and in some cases, work in border patrol. It was interesting to see the film just weeks after watching Fernanda Valadez’s brilliant Identifying Features, which deals with the harrowing dangers that await Mexicans trying to cross the US/Mexico border. Notably, the majority of Crow’s subjects are Mexican immigrants or the children of immigrants.
Crow documents a group of high school seniors at El Paso’s Horizon High School as they take a law enforcement education class, which essentially trains them up to be police officers, and in some cases, work in border patrol. It was interesting to see the film just weeks after watching Fernanda Valadez’s brilliant Identifying Features, which deals with the harrowing dangers that await Mexicans trying to cross the US/Mexico border. Notably, the majority of Crow’s subjects are Mexican immigrants or the children of immigrants.
- 1/31/2021
- by Orla Smith
- The Film Stage
After President Donald Trump was elected in 2016, documentary filmmaker Maisie Crow moved from New York to Texas with the hope to tell stories about her home state. It was then that she learned Texas high schools offered law enforcement training programs, where students engage in a number of criminal justice activities, including fake drug raids and active shooter drills.
Set at Horizon High School, just outside El Paso, Texas, and within 10 miles of the Mexican border, “At the Ready” focuses on three Mexican-American students who participate in the criminal justice clubs and consider a career path in law enforcement and border patrol.
“Americans tend to go back and forth on these ideological conversations in a vacuum, without taking note or truly understanding the implications it has on a child growing up on the border and their future career choices,” Crow said in a statement. “It often ignores how these conversations...
Set at Horizon High School, just outside El Paso, Texas, and within 10 miles of the Mexican border, “At the Ready” focuses on three Mexican-American students who participate in the criminal justice clubs and consider a career path in law enforcement and border patrol.
“Americans tend to go back and forth on these ideological conversations in a vacuum, without taking note or truly understanding the implications it has on a child growing up on the border and their future career choices,” Crow said in a statement. “It often ignores how these conversations...
- 1/31/2021
- by Christopher Rosen
- Gold Derby
Filmmaker Maisie Crow was visiting a Texas high school to speak to students in a video production class about her career behind the camera when she saw something shocking. A group of teenagers were making their way through the hallways, Swat team style, brandishing red plastic guns.
“I was taken aback,” says Crow. “It was at a time when people were talking about school shootings, so it was kind of stunning.”
It turned out that the students were participating in a criminal justice club, which put them in the orbit of law enforcement officers in order to lay the groundwork for a future career as police officers or border patrol agents. That chance encounter inspired Crow’s new documentary, “At the Ready,” which premieres at this year’s Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 31. What makes the film so compelling is that it grapples with hot-button issues like immigration from the...
“I was taken aback,” says Crow. “It was at a time when people were talking about school shootings, so it was kind of stunning.”
It turned out that the students were participating in a criminal justice club, which put them in the orbit of law enforcement officers in order to lay the groundwork for a future career as police officers or border patrol agents. That chance encounter inspired Crow’s new documentary, “At the Ready,” which premieres at this year’s Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 31. What makes the film so compelling is that it grapples with hot-button issues like immigration from the...
- 1/31/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
For job seekers in El Paso, Texas, one well-paid option is in law enforcement. The city sits on the U.S.-Mexico border and teems with officers from the border patrol, Ice, DEA, the Texas state police, the local police department and sheriff’s department. Plus there’s the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Teens who want to get a jump start on that career can study law enforcement in programs across Texas, including one at Horizon High School in the El Paso area. Horizon’s program and three of its students are the subject of At The Ready, premiering in U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
“We met these students, they all had different, compelling stories that they were all open to sharing,” director Maisie Crow said during an appearance in Deadline’s virtual Sundance Studio. “We really wanted to look...
Teens who want to get a jump start on that career can study law enforcement in programs across Texas, including one at Horizon High School in the El Paso area. Horizon’s program and three of its students are the subject of At The Ready, premiering in U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
“We met these students, they all had different, compelling stories that they were all open to sharing,” director Maisie Crow said during an appearance in Deadline’s virtual Sundance Studio. “We really wanted to look...
- 1/31/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
One of last year’s big Sundance breakouts was the documentary Boys State, in which high school students play-acted the mechanics of American democracy with results that were simultaneously inspiring and disheartening.
Hitting a somewhat similar sweet spot is Maisie Crow’s At the Ready, another documentary portrait of Texas teens dipping their toes into grown-up professional waters. If the image of kids experimenting with parliamentary procedure and political debate was disturbing, wait until you spent 100 minutes watching students learn about no-knock warrants and active shooter procedures. At the Ready generates a lot of the same inspiration and concern, but the subject ...
Hitting a somewhat similar sweet spot is Maisie Crow’s At the Ready, another documentary portrait of Texas teens dipping their toes into grown-up professional waters. If the image of kids experimenting with parliamentary procedure and political debate was disturbing, wait until you spent 100 minutes watching students learn about no-knock warrants and active shooter procedures. At the Ready generates a lot of the same inspiration and concern, but the subject ...
- 1/31/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
One of last year’s big Sundance breakouts was the documentary Boys State, in which high school students play-acted the mechanics of American democracy with results that were simultaneously inspiring and disheartening.
Hitting a somewhat similar sweet spot is Maisie Crow’s At the Ready, another documentary portrait of Texas teens dipping their toes into grown-up professional waters. If the image of kids experimenting with parliamentary procedure and political debate was disturbing, wait until you spent 100 minutes watching students learn about no-knock warrants and active shooter procedures. At the Ready generates a lot of the same inspiration and concern, but the subject ...
Hitting a somewhat similar sweet spot is Maisie Crow’s At the Ready, another documentary portrait of Texas teens dipping their toes into grown-up professional waters. If the image of kids experimenting with parliamentary procedure and political debate was disturbing, wait until you spent 100 minutes watching students learn about no-knock warrants and active shooter procedures. At the Ready generates a lot of the same inspiration and concern, but the subject ...
- 1/31/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Poh Si Teng, producer of Oscar-nominated documentary short “St. Louis Superman,” has joined the International Documentary Association (IDA) as the new director of the IDA Funds and Enterprise program.
Poh will oversee and build IDA’s grants portfolio and serve as a key liaison with the documentary field in the U.S. and globally, working with IDA’s program officer Dana Merwin.
Poh succeeds Carrie Lozano who joined the Sundance Institute as director of the documentary film program in fall 2020.
Prior to joining IDA, Poh oversaw the U.S., Canada and Latin America as documentary commissioner and senior producer for Al Jazeera English’s flagship documentary strand, “Witness.” She was previously a journalist with The New York Times, where she received an Emmy nomination and other awards from the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Nppa for her work.
Originally from Penang, Malaysia, Poh has also...
Poh will oversee and build IDA’s grants portfolio and serve as a key liaison with the documentary field in the U.S. and globally, working with IDA’s program officer Dana Merwin.
Poh succeeds Carrie Lozano who joined the Sundance Institute as director of the documentary film program in fall 2020.
Prior to joining IDA, Poh oversaw the U.S., Canada and Latin America as documentary commissioner and senior producer for Al Jazeera English’s flagship documentary strand, “Witness.” She was previously a journalist with The New York Times, where she received an Emmy nomination and other awards from the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Nppa for her work.
Originally from Penang, Malaysia, Poh has also...
- 1/29/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
All-night bidding wars are as much a staple of the Sundance Film Festival as snow drifts and thin air. The mountaintop gathering highlights the best of indie film and shines a light on the next generation of Tarantinos and Soderberghs. This year looks different. Sundance will go virtual in 2021 due to Covid-19. But that doesn’t mean that studio executives and agents aren’t going to be working the phones just as furiously. Here’s a look at films that have the goods to inspire streaming services and indies to go toe-to-toe in the hopes of landing the next “Palm Springs” or “Promising Young Woman.”
Coda
Director: Sian Heder
Cast: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur
Sales agent: CAA/ICM
Buzz: This drama about a girl who is the only hearing person in her deaf family is said to be emotionally stirring and commercial, two things that should resonate with potential buyers.
Coda
Director: Sian Heder
Cast: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur
Sales agent: CAA/ICM
Buzz: This drama about a girl who is the only hearing person in her deaf family is said to be emotionally stirring and commercial, two things that should resonate with potential buyers.
- 1/28/2021
- by Brent Lang, Rebecca Rubin and Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
I Was A Simple ManThe Sundance Institute has announced 72 feature films and 50 shorts selected for their 2021 Festival, including 66 world premieres and 38 films from first-time feature filmmakers. The first festival under new Festival Director Tabitha Jackson, Sundance 2021 is set to take place both digitally and in person across the entire United States at drive-ins and independent arthouses between January 28—February 3.U.S. Dramatic Competitioncoda (Siân Heder, USA) — As a Coda – Child of Deaf Adults – Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents. Cast: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant, and Marlee Matlin. World Premiere.I Was a Simple Man (Christopher Makoto Yogi, USA) — As a family in Hawai'i faces the imminent death of their eldest, the ghosts of the past haunt the countryside.
- 12/15/2020
- MUBI
The directorial debuts of actress Robin Wright and musician Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and a documentary from Edgar Wright will be among the new films screening at the largely virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Sundance organizers announced on Tuesday.
Robin Wright’s “Land,” starring Wright, Demian Bichir and Kim Dickens and set in the Rocky Mountains, will premiere at Sundance in advance of its Feb. 12 release from Focus Features. Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” is a documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival, which drew 300,000 people in the summer of 1969. Edgar Wright’s “The Sparks Brothers” is about Ron and Russell Mael, the two brothers who founded the rock band Sparks.
The Sundance lineup, which was revealed in its entirety, will consist of 72 feature films, 50 shorts, four indie episodic series and 14 “new frontier” projects. The films will screen on Sundance’s online platform, with each one having a live online premiere, and also...
Robin Wright’s “Land,” starring Wright, Demian Bichir and Kim Dickens and set in the Rocky Mountains, will premiere at Sundance in advance of its Feb. 12 release from Focus Features. Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” is a documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival, which drew 300,000 people in the summer of 1969. Edgar Wright’s “The Sparks Brothers” is about Ron and Russell Mael, the two brothers who founded the rock band Sparks.
The Sundance lineup, which was revealed in its entirety, will consist of 72 feature films, 50 shorts, four indie episodic series and 14 “new frontier” projects. The films will screen on Sundance’s online platform, with each one having a live online premiere, and also...
- 12/15/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Highlighting the consequences of personhood laws, which essentially prioritize the rights of an unborn fetus over those of the woman carrying the child, Jo Ardinger’s Personhood presents the horrifying consequences of Wisconsin’s Unborn Child Protection act. The law, inspired by fear-grabbing headlines, was intended to protect an unborn fetus from a reckless mother; the implementation of the law, however, puts those mothers who are honest about past health issues in danger of becoming wards of the state. Caught in the mix is Tammy Loertscher, who turns to street drugs to self medicate after being kicked off of her health insurance. When she learns she’s pregnant she makes the critical mistake of confiding in a doctor about her past bouts with depression and drug use. She’s almost immediately ushered into a court proceeding that requires her to admit herself into rehab, and when she refuses to comply...
- 11/13/2019
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
The Tribeca Film Institute and Gucci announced on Tuesday this year’s recipients for the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund.
Now in its 12th year, Tfi and Gucci have awarded $140,000 in grant funding, covered by Gucci, to support nine documentaries highlighting domestic and international matters, with a focus on female-led stories and filmmakers. The funding will cover the production and post-production of a number of the winning documentarians, as well as strategic campaign work and distribution efforts for two films.
“These filmmakers are highlighting urgent social issues through strong character-led stories — from a young, stateless woman fleeing violence and revealing the complex geo-history and politics between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, to a brother and sister fighting on opposite ends of the Libyan revolution, and a kaleidoscopic look into the immediate aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” said Monika Navarro, senior director of programs at Tribeca Film Institute, in a statement.
Now in its 12th year, Tfi and Gucci have awarded $140,000 in grant funding, covered by Gucci, to support nine documentaries highlighting domestic and international matters, with a focus on female-led stories and filmmakers. The funding will cover the production and post-production of a number of the winning documentarians, as well as strategic campaign work and distribution efforts for two films.
“These filmmakers are highlighting urgent social issues through strong character-led stories — from a young, stateless woman fleeing violence and revealing the complex geo-history and politics between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, to a brother and sister fighting on opposite ends of the Libyan revolution, and a kaleidoscopic look into the immediate aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” said Monika Navarro, senior director of programs at Tribeca Film Institute, in a statement.
- 10/15/2019
- by Mackenzie Nichols
- Variety Film + TV
Showtime will air the television premiere of the critically acclaimed documentary “Jackson” on Tuesday, May 2 at 7:30 p.m. Et/Pt. From award-winning director Maisie Crow (“A Life Alone,” “The Last Clinic”), “Jackson” is an intimate look at the lives of… Continue Reading →...
- 4/21/2017
- by shadowandact
- ShadowAndAct
Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.
Lineup Announcements
– Montclair Film has announced the full program for the 6th annual Montclair Film Festival (Mff), taking place April 28 – May 7, 2017 in Montclair, NJ and featuring over 150 films, events, discussions, and parties, with over 150 filmmakers and industry guests attending. Highlights include “Casting JonBenet,” “Strong Island,” “Lady Macbeth,” “Menashe” and “Beach Rats.”
“This year, we have been fortunate to find filmmakers who are making work that gives depth and shape to the vital conversations of our time,” said Montclair Film Executive Director Tom Hall. “The festival is an opportunity for bringing audiences together with these incredible artists, so that, together, we can enjoy and engage with the images, ideas, and insights that are illuminated in these wonderful films.” Check out the full lineup right here.
– The Film Society...
Lineup Announcements
– Montclair Film has announced the full program for the 6th annual Montclair Film Festival (Mff), taking place April 28 – May 7, 2017 in Montclair, NJ and featuring over 150 films, events, discussions, and parties, with over 150 filmmakers and industry guests attending. Highlights include “Casting JonBenet,” “Strong Island,” “Lady Macbeth,” “Menashe” and “Beach Rats.”
“This year, we have been fortunate to find filmmakers who are making work that gives depth and shape to the vital conversations of our time,” said Montclair Film Executive Director Tom Hall. “The festival is an opportunity for bringing audiences together with these incredible artists, so that, together, we can enjoy and engage with the images, ideas, and insights that are illuminated in these wonderful films.” Check out the full lineup right here.
– The Film Society...
- 4/6/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Congratulations to “Jackson The Film” for winning this year’s Cicae — Art Cinema Award! The 3-member jury, which was made up of Oscar®-winning screenwriter and producer Diana Ossana (“Brokeback Mountain”), Urszula Śniegowska, Artistic Director of the American Film Festival in Wroclaw Poland and Sydney Levine, industry blogger (SydneysBuzz), chose Maisie Crow’s “Jackson”, stating that “Jackson is an essential film and one that presents a riveting microcosm in the universal battle for women’s rights everywhere.”
“Jackson”
This film is so important. Our bodies belong to us, not to the State of Mississippi or to the Federal Government or to the Nation of Poland or whatever governing body makes abortion a crime! The Loft Film Festival has awarded the Cicae Prize so that this organization of international arthouse theaters will show this important film!
Congrats to The Rebound for taking home this year’s Audience Choice Award! This is...
“Jackson”
This film is so important. Our bodies belong to us, not to the State of Mississippi or to the Federal Government or to the Nation of Poland or whatever governing body makes abortion a crime! The Loft Film Festival has awarded the Cicae Prize so that this organization of international arthouse theaters will show this important film!
Congrats to The Rebound for taking home this year’s Audience Choice Award! This is...
- 11/16/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Congrats to “The Rebound” for taking home this year’s Audience Choice Award!
“The Rebound”
Congratulations to “Jackson The Film” for winning this year’s Cicae — Art Cinema Award! The 3-member jury, which was made up of Oscar®-winning screenwriter and producer Diana Ossana (“Brokeback Mountain”), Urszula Śniegowska, Artistic Director of the American Film Festival in Wroclaw Poland and Sydney Levine, industry blogger (SydneysBuzz), chose Maisie Crow’s “Jackson”, stating that “Jackson is an essential film and one that presents a riveting microcosm in the universal battle for women’s rights everywhere.”
The Loft Film Fest was originally published in SydneysBuzz The Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
“The Rebound”
Congratulations to “Jackson The Film” for winning this year’s Cicae — Art Cinema Award! The 3-member jury, which was made up of Oscar®-winning screenwriter and producer Diana Ossana (“Brokeback Mountain”), Urszula Śniegowska, Artistic Director of the American Film Festival in Wroclaw Poland and Sydney Levine, industry blogger (SydneysBuzz), chose Maisie Crow’s “Jackson”, stating that “Jackson is an essential film and one that presents a riveting microcosm in the universal battle for women’s rights everywhere.”
The Loft Film Fest was originally published in SydneysBuzz The Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
- 11/16/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.
Full Lineup Announcements
– The Nickelodeon Theater in Columbia, S.C. has unveiled the full lineup for their Daughters: Celebrating Emerging Women Filmmakers of Color Festival, which celebrates the legacy of Julie Dash’s seminal film “Daughters of the Dust,” and features the work of 9 filmmakers who were nominated for the honor.
This landmark festival is made possible by support from Nikky Finney and the African American Studies Program in the College of Art and Sciences at the University of South Carolina. Daughters is co-curated by the Nickelodeon’s managing director, Seth Gadsden, and Columbia filmmaker and artist, Roni Nicole Henderson. The festival will feature nine women of color in different stages of their filmmaking careers to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the groundbreaking “Daughters of the Dust,...
Full Lineup Announcements
– The Nickelodeon Theater in Columbia, S.C. has unveiled the full lineup for their Daughters: Celebrating Emerging Women Filmmakers of Color Festival, which celebrates the legacy of Julie Dash’s seminal film “Daughters of the Dust,” and features the work of 9 filmmakers who were nominated for the honor.
This landmark festival is made possible by support from Nikky Finney and the African American Studies Program in the College of Art and Sciences at the University of South Carolina. Daughters is co-curated by the Nickelodeon’s managing director, Seth Gadsden, and Columbia filmmaker and artist, Roni Nicole Henderson. The festival will feature nine women of color in different stages of their filmmaking careers to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the groundbreaking “Daughters of the Dust,...
- 11/10/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.
Full Lineup Announcements
– “3-D Auteurs,” a 19-day, 34-film festival spotlighting stereoscopic movies by some of history’s most distinguished directors, will run at Film Forum November 11 – 29. The festival spans 3-D’s earliest days (including some turn-of-the-century films by pioneer Georges Méliès) to the present, and represents virtually every genre, including Westerns, Film Noir, and Science Fiction. Hollywood’s first big 3-D craze (sometimes called 3-D’s “golden era”), intended to offset the threat of television, came in the early 1950s, with such movies as Hitchcock’s “Dial M For Murder,” André De Toth’s “House of Wax” and Jack Arnold’s “Creature From the Black Lagoon” (all included in the series).
Hollywood produced roughly 50 movies in the process from 1952 to 1954, before fizzling out and being overtaken by...
Full Lineup Announcements
– “3-D Auteurs,” a 19-day, 34-film festival spotlighting stereoscopic movies by some of history’s most distinguished directors, will run at Film Forum November 11 – 29. The festival spans 3-D’s earliest days (including some turn-of-the-century films by pioneer Georges Méliès) to the present, and represents virtually every genre, including Westerns, Film Noir, and Science Fiction. Hollywood’s first big 3-D craze (sometimes called 3-D’s “golden era”), intended to offset the threat of television, came in the early 1950s, with such movies as Hitchcock’s “Dial M For Murder,” André De Toth’s “House of Wax” and Jack Arnold’s “Creature From the Black Lagoon” (all included in the series).
Hollywood produced roughly 50 movies in the process from 1952 to 1954, before fizzling out and being overtaken by...
- 10/20/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
The Bronx Documentary Center (Bdc) kicked off its 2nd annual Women’s Film Series Friday night with Maisie Crow’s Jackson, a documentary about the only abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi and pro-life opposition attempts to shut it down. Situated in the Melrose neighborhood of the South Bronx, the Bdc is a block away from both the only Planned Parenthood in the borough and a Bronx Expectant Mother Care, known as Emc Frontline. (“All about saving the unborn lives threatened by abortion,” is how Emc Frontline is described on its website.) The tension between these two organizations is heated, having […]...
- 9/6/2016
- by Taylor Hess
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
For a film festival to have going on 27 editions in its long and storied history, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival is one of the great unsung gems of a year’s film festival calendar. Often times introducing new voices to mass audiences or highlighting some of the truly great and sociologically important works from across the globe, the Hrwff is a truly enthralling example of what a festival can be. Mixing fiction and non-fiction films ranging from domestic meditations on urban life to a documentary about political activism in China, this festival has a deeply political focus and an eye to the experiences of people from all countries.
And this year’s festival is now different. Again in its 27th edition, this year’s slate includes 18 films that will run from June 10-19. Co-presented by both the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, this festival is...
And this year’s festival is now different. Again in its 27th edition, this year’s slate includes 18 films that will run from June 10-19. Co-presented by both the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, this festival is...
- 6/10/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
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