Morgan Neville's film 20 FEET FROM STARDOM won the Oscar for the best documentary this year.
Morgan Neville’s film 20 FEET FROM STARDOM emerged the winner of the Oscar doc contest this year, beating out the more politically oriented films – DIRTY WARS (STF alum), THE SQUARE, among other films. Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times reported on the win for 20 FEET FROM STARDOM, which also screened at DOC NYC last year. Also writing for the Los Angeles Times, Tracy Brown reported on the win by Malcolm Clark for his short doc THE LADY IN NUMBER 6: MUSIC SAVED MY LIFE. Also, at Indiewire Paula Bernstein reported on how Edgar Barens shot his Oscar-nominated short PRISON TERMINAL: THE LAST DAYS OF PRIVATE JACK HALL in a maximum security prison.
The True/False FIlm Fest seems to keep burnishing its reputation as the documentary filmmaker’s festival, and this year was no different. At Filmmaker Magazine, Vadim Rizov issued a dispatch covering his first day at the festival, while the festival’s own blog did the same. Basil Tsiokos provided an overview of the festival at his What (Not) to Doc blog. Also writing for Filmmaker Magazine, director Robert Greene considered the benefits of premiering at True/False. At Nonfics.com, Daniel Walber wrote up the festival’s five most anticipated films. Public radio station KBAI had a handful of interviews with True/False directors: Ryan Famuliner interviewed Ryan Murdock, director of BRONX OBAMA; Kellie Moore spoke with THE JOYCEAN SOCIETY director Dora Garcia; and Katie Hiler chatted up THE NOTORIOUS MR. BOUT directors Tony Gerber and Maxim Pozdorovkin.
At the True/False blog, Dan Steffan spoke with director Robert Greene about his film ACTRESS and APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT, which was directed by Amanda Rose and produced and edited by Greene. Writing for the POV blog, Tom Roston issued a list of five True/False films to keep an eye out for. Writing for Nonfics.com, Daniel Walber gave Jessica Oreck’s new film THE VANQUISHING OF THE WITCH BABA YAGA a four-star review. Indiewire critic Eric Kohn reviewed Robert Greene’s ACTRESS, giving it a grade of A-.
This week Stranger Than Fiction hosts a screening of THE ROAD TO FAME from director Hao Wu on Tuesday, March 4 at 8 p.m. at the IFC Center in Manhattan. The film follows the collaboration between China’s top drama academy and Broadway. Director Hao Wu and editor Jean Tsien will be in attendance for a Q&A following the screening. For more information or to purchase tickets, please go here.