From left, STF Artistic Director Thom Powers and director Carl Colby. Photo by Tony Voisin.
Former CIA Director William Colby is perhaps best known for the role he played in the hearings held by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the 1970s, which were chaired by the late Senator Frank Church. Clearly a polarizing figure in many regards, Colby during the hearings personified strife within the CIA over how much deference the U.S. intelligence needed to show to Congress during America’s post-Watergate years. The fact that there were elements within the CIA angered by Colby’s embrace of transparency in the hearings even today feeds conspiracy theories that his 1996 death was not an accident, as was concluded in a coroner’s report. In his film THE MAN NOBODY KNEW: IN SEARCH OF MY FATHER, CIA SPYMASTER WILLIAM COLBY, director (and William Colby’s son) Carl Colby posits the theory that Colby’s death was deliberate, but came at his own hands. Clearly a complicated figure, Carl Colby’s film further complicates history’s take on his father, a man it seems no one really knew. Following the screening, Stranger Than Fiction Artistic Director Thom Powers spoke with Carl Colby. Click “Read more” below for the Q&A.
Bart Layton’s THE IMPOSTER won the documentary competition at this year’s Miami International Film Festival.
The 29th annual Miami International Film Festival on Saturday announced its award winners. The Knight Documentary Competition winner was THE IMPOSTER, directed by Bart Layton and funded by A&E IndieFilms and Film 4. The film is being released theatrically by distributor Indomina. The jury also recognized two films with Honorable Mentions: UNFINISHED SPACES, directed by by Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray; and Simone Rapisarda Casanova’s THE STRAWBERRY TREE, which made its US premiere at the festival. Serving on the documentary jury were Nelson George (director of THE ANNOUNCEMENT and BROOKLYN BOHEME); Carmen Guarini (director of the DocBUENOSAIRES film festival); and Alfred Spellman (producer of COCAINE COWBOYS and BROKE). Also, Sports Illustrated writer Michael Bamberger shared his take on MIFF film YOU’VE BEEN TRUMPED, Anthony Baxter’s look at the efforts by Donald Trump to build a golf course in Scotland, over the objection of nearby residents.
The Tribeca Film Festival, set to take place April 18-29, this week released its lineup of films over the past week. Nisha Pahuja’s THE WORLD BEFORE HER, about two girls’ efforts to win the Miss India contest, is set to open the world documentary competition. Also set to screen are the prolific Morgan Spurlock’s MANSOME and SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN, Malik Bendjelloul’s Sundance Film Fest crowd favorite. This year’s festival is the first to be programmed by new artistic director Frederic Boyer.
From left, producers Adam Schlesinger and Linda Saffire, director Leon Gast and Basil Tsiokos. Photo by Simon Luethi.
Photographer Ron Galella in Leon Gast’s SMASH HIS CAMERA already seems like a paparazzo out of his era. By today’s standards, Galella’s approach to stalking the bushes around the homes of public figures for the purpose of putting them on film (actual film!) seems pretty tame. The guy is old school. And he seems to have a clear sense that the paparazzi world—which today ascribes high value to grainy textured cell phone videos and saturating its subjects with an insane number of camera flashes—has already passed him by. Though Galella’s photographs are derided by some as falling short of the aesthetic standard for high art, they are certainly more artful than the images that populate TMZ.com. As former Metropolitian Museum of Art Director Thomas Hoving notes in the film, history will ultimately be the final arbiter of Galella’s work. His role in helping to foster the now ubiquitous media coverage of so-called celebrities is already cemented. Following the screening film programmer and friend of Stranger Than Fiction Basil Tsiokos spoke with Gast and producers Linda Saffire and Adam Schlesinger. Click “Read more” below for the Q&A.
A Q&A session following a screening at the True/False Film Festival. Photo by Maureen Scarpelli, courtesy of True/False.
The True/False Film Fest, Columbia, Missouri’s most famous documentary festival, concluded yesterday after four days of screenings (and at least one parade). The festival launched with a screening of UNDEFEATED that honored the recent Oscar win of co-director Dan Lindsay, an alumnus of the University of Missouri. Christine Benedict at Indiewire’s Press Play blog also had highlights from days one and two of the festival. The transportation-conscious minds behind the festival this year also debuted a new bike-sharing system to facilitate the flow of doc heads around Columbia’s streets.
Efforts to combat the Motion Picture Association of America’s R rating for Lee Hirsch’s doc BULLY hit the grassroots this week, after self-professed bullying victim Kay Butler, 17, started a petition at Change.org asking the MPAA to change the rating to PG-13. As of March 4, the petition had drawn more than 198,400 signatures, and was drawing ever-closer to its goal of 200,000 signatures. The MPAA’s decision had drawn criticism from those who said it would limit the ability of teachers and administrators at high schools and middle schools to share the film’s anti-bullying message with students. The Weinstein Company (TWC) Co-President Harvey Weinstein, who is distributing the film, had previously threatened to withdraw its films from the MPAA rating process.
From left, Hugo Perez and director Thom Zimny. Photo by Simon Luethi.
Bruce Springsteen spent part of the three years following the 1975 release of “Born to Run” mired in a legal battle with former friend and manager Mike Appel, and forging a new approach to studio work with his E Street Band compatriots. Relying on footage shot by Springsteen friend Barry Rebo back in ‘75 as well as contemporary interviews, director Thom Zimny in THE PROMISE: THE MAKING OF DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN manages to encapsulate Springsteen’s new, iterative songwriting approach. Rebo’s footage is not only a boon in its ability to provide exposition, but also in its dreamy aesthetic—the footage was shot on ¾ inch video that looks as if it exists outside of time. Zimny complements the video with a variety of filmic textures that make THE PROMISE a pleasure to watch. The filmmaker also provides Springsteen fans with the gift of a rare window into the creative process of an artist searching for the right way to record for posterity the poetry his American experience. Following the screening, Stranger Than Fiction friend Hugo Perez spoke with Zimny. Click “Read more” below for the Q&A.
