This week the documentary THE DOG from directors Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren reached movie theaters. At the New York Times, Manohla Dargis awarded the film a NYT Critics’ Pick, while Diane Anderson-Minshall of The Advocate also wrote on the film. Josh Modell reviewed the film for the A.V. Club, while Susan King of the Los Angeles Times spoke to the filmmakers.

The Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship has opened its call for applicants for 2015. The fellowship helps emerging documentary editors to hone their craft by providing them with resources and mentorship over the course of a year. The fellowship was founded to honor Karen Schmeer, a film editor who was killed in a hit-and-run-accident in 2010.

The NYC-based Diverse Filmmakers Alliance is also in search of applicants for its inaugural year. The alliance is designed to give filmmakers feedback in an environment that is aware of and acknowledges the politics and power dynamics inherent in the relationship between a filmmaker and their subjects. For more information, or to apply, please go here.

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This week saw the loss of Robert Drew, widely credited as one of the major creative forces behind the creation of the American Cinema Verite movement. At the New York Times, Bruce Weber penned an obituary of Drew; the Times also published an obit from the Associated Press. A statement from Drew’s family was released on the the International Documentary Association (IDA) website. Drew was also remembered by Richard Brody of the New Yorker, while Adam Benzine of Realscreen penned his own obit. At Fandor, a 2003 interview of Drew conducted by John Marlow was republished, while Filmmaker Magazine’s Vadim Rizov wrote about him. Film First shared some advice from Drew that was included in the book “Tell Me Something.” A 2001 piece from Drew about storytelling published by Nieman Reports also made the social media rounds.

Filmmaker Harun Farocki also passed away this week, with Alexander Forbes of Artnet marking the news. David Hudson of Fandor also remembered Farocki, while Margalit Fox wrote an obit at the New York Times.

The Toronto International Film Festival announced its doc lineup this week. At Indiewire, Anne Thompson provided a quick overview of the festival. Sarah Salovaraa of Indiewire fame was also able to provide a roundup of new additions to the festival.

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This week the doc THE KILL TEAM from director Dan Krauss reached theaters. At New York Magazine’s Vulture blog, David Edelstein reviewed the film, while Jordan M. Smith did the same at Ion Cinema. Writing for Indiewire, Anthony Kaufman described the film as “essential viewing,” while Nathan Rabin shared his thoughts on the film at The Dissolve.

Writing for Realscreen, Kevin Ritchie reported that Joshua Oppenheimer’s follow up to THE ACT OF KILLING, a film titled THE LOOK OF SILENCE, would screen at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Also at Realscreen, Nick Krewen reported that the festival was set to honor documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman.

Alison Byrne Fields wrote a very interesting piece about the complications resulting from attempts to quantify the impact of social issue docs at the Aggregate site.

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This week the nominees for the 35th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards were announced. Kevin Ritchie of Realscreen provided coverage of the news, as did Christopher Campbell of Nonfics.com. The ITVS blog made note of its nominated films, as did the POV blog.

Also this week, the Sundance Institute named the recipients of grants from its documentary film program. Writing for Realscreen, Manori Ravinran had some details on the topic.

In a series of posts at The Collaborative, Orly Ravid and Sheri Candler wrote a series of posts on preparing for independent distribution: you can find part one here, part two here and part three here.

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This week Pete Hammond of Deadline reported that rule changes to the documentary category of the Oscars were results of an effort to pare down the number of films eligible for the awards.

Writing for Indiewire, Anthony Kaufman reported on the rise of VOD for docs with the concurrent decline of box office receipts. In a related piece, Indiewire’s Eric Kohn took a look at the VOD-friendly distribution strategy used by the action narrative film SNOWPIERCER.

At Filmmaker Magazine, Michael Murie provided a roundup of new developments in non-linear editing systems.

The True/False fest blog posted a panel from its latest iteration, this one on the topic “Beyond Pretty Pictures.”

Writing for The Dissolve, Jason Guerrasio interviewed director Steve James about his latest film, LIFE ITSELF.

At his What (Not) to Doc blog, Basil Tsiokos provided an overview of docs screening at the Outfest Film Festival, as well as those offered at the Jerusalem Film Festival.

The POV blog announced that the show had selected a new digital technology fellow in Brian Chirls. Also on the POV blog, Emma Dessau shared some advice for filmmakers considering using cloud storage services as a tool for collaboration.

Writing for Realscreen, Adam Benzine shared a report on the archival footage-dependent film LET THE FIRE BURN by director Jason Osder. Realscreen colleague Manori Ravindran examined the interactive doc FORT MCMONEY and the use of transmedia by a variety of doc producers.

At the International Documentary Association (IDA) website, Corinne Gaston shared five tips for digital distribution by filmmakers. Gaston also threw in a distribution terminology guide for digital DIY distro newcomers. Also at the site, Katharine Relth wrote about the breadth of films offered by the Los Angeles Film Festival, while Thomas White also shared his thoughts on the festival’s lineup

Daniel Walber of Nonfics.com penned a review of the film AIM HIGH IN CREATION! from director Anna Broinowski about fracking and the propaganda style of North Korea (yes, you read that correctly). Walber also shared a piece on a few docs screening at this year’s Japan Cuts, a film series put on by the Japan Society.

Back at the IDA site, Ron Deutsch took a look at the film GETTING BACK TO ABNORMAL about post-Katrina New Orleans, a film screening on POV tonight. Also at the site, Madelyn Grace Most recapped the international doc marketplace Sunny Side of the Doc. Finally, Amanda Lin Costa explored the new opportunities offered for documentary filmmakers by online publications.

Also at Nonfics.com, Christopher Campbell provided coverage of the nominations for primetime Emmy awards, whose ranks included the film THE SQUARE. In a separate post, Campbell made a solid case for why documentary filmmakers should not care about the Oscars.

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) this week announced the 19 new project recipients of its Bertha Fund.

At Indiewire, Sam Adams reacted to a proposed plan by Participant Media to track the ability of docs to inspire change in viewers

Writing for his blog, Zak Forsman shared the first part of his DIY DCP tutorial.

Finally, Simon Parkin of Technology Review reported that virtual reality might yield a reimagining of documentary journalism.

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