THE INTERNET'S OWN BOY: THE STORY OF AARON SWARTZ will open this year's Hot Docs festival in Canada.
This week Hot Docs announced its lineup for 2014, with the Brian Knappenberger-helmed THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY: THE STORY OF AARON SWARTZ set to open the festival. At The Hollywood Reporter, Etan Vlessing reported on Hot Docs’ lineup, as did Adam Benzine of Realscreen and the Indiewire site.
The Ekathimerini news site reported on the awards handed out at this year’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, with ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD from director Claus Drexel taking home the top foreign feature award. At his What (Not) to Doc blog, Basil Tsiokos provided an overview of the docs screening at this year’s festival.
Writing for the New York Times, John Anderson profiled FINDING VIVIAN MAIER from directors John Maloof and Charlie Siskel. At Nonfics.com Dan Schindel penned a review of the film, giving it four stars.
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The film WHEN I WALK from director Jason DaSilva is slated for POV's upcoming season.
The PBS documentary show POV announced the films screening during the first part of its upcoming season, which begins Monday June 23. Alison Willmore of Indiewire also reported on POV’s lineup, which includes WHEN I WALK from director Jason DaSilva and AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS from director Grace Lee.
The South by Southwest Film Fest concluded last week, but not before handing the Grand Jury Prize for documentary feature to THE GREAT INVISIBLE from director Margaret Brown. Adam Benzine of Realscreen reported on the award, as did Craig Phillip of the Independent Lens blog.
In other SXSW news, Manori Ravindran of Realscreen interviewed EVAPORATING BORDERS director Iva Radivojevic. At the Women and Hollywood blog, Melissa Silverstein also interviewed Radivojevic, while Sarah Salovaara chatted with Radivojevic for Filmmaker Magazine. Her colleague Danielle Lurie interviewed Eline Jongsma of the interactive documentary THE EMPIRE PROJECT, which also showed at SXSW. Lurie also interviewed UKRAINE IS NOT A BROTHEL director Kitty Green. Back at Realscreen Kevin Ritchie spoke with HARMONTOWN director Neil Berkeley, and also interviewed VESSEL director Diana Whitten. Realscreen’s Manori Ravindran also profiled the SXSW film THE IMMORTALISTS from directors David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg.
This week Stranger Than Fiction is closing out its Winter Season by hosting a screening of AMANDLA! A REVOLUTION IN FOUR PART HARMONY, a film about the history of music during South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle from director Lee Hirsch. The film plays at the IFC Center in Manhattan on Tuesday, March 18 at 8 p.m. Following the screening, director Hirsch will be in attendance for a Q&A. For more information or to purchase tickets please go here.
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The film EVAPORATING BORDERS from director Iva Radivojevic was set to screen at SXSW this year.
This week saw the launch of the film portion of SXSW. At his What (Not) to Doc blog, Basil Tsiokos provided an overview of the docs screening in Austin as part of the festival. Writing for Realscreen, Adam Benzine interviewed director Beth Harrington about her new doc WINDING STREAM, which screens in Austin. At Nonfics.com, Christopher Campbell reviewed THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY: THE STORY OF AARON SWARTZ.
Coverage of the True/False Fest continued to make its way out of Columbia, Missouri this week. In a piece for Indiewire, Paul Dallas made the case for why True/False is one of the most vital festivals in the U.S. At Cinema Scope, Adam Nayman provided his own recap of the festival, while Noel Murray did the same at The Dissolve. Vadim Rizov turned in his second post on True/False for Filmmaker Magazine, and Ben Godar also produced a recap of the fest at Nonfics.com.
Daniel Walber wrote a post naming his eight favorite films of True/False at Nonfics.com. In his weekly Docutopia post, Anthony Kaufman considered the presentations of reality in the True/False films ACTRESS and APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT. At the KBIA Missouri public radio station blog, Katarina Sostaric interviewed True/False educational outreach coordinator Polina Malikin. Back at Nonfics.com, Daniel Walber reviewed RICH HILL and also penned a review of CAIRO DRIVE.
This week Stranger Than Fiction is hosting a screening of HARLEM STREET SINGER from directors Trevor Laurence and Simeon Hutner on Tuesday, March 11 at 8pm at the IFC Center in Manhattan. The film tells the story of the blues guitarist the Reverend Gary Davis. Following the screening, directors Laurence and Hutner will be in attendance for a Q&A. For more information or to purchase tickets please go here.
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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.
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The film TIME IS ILLMATIC was named as the opening film for this year's Tribeca FIlm Festival.
The Tribeca Film Festival this week named the documentary TIME IS ILLMATIC about the seminal hip-hop album Illmatic by Nas as its opening film. Manori Ravindran of Realscreen had a report, as did Mekado Murphy of the New York Times and Nigel M. Smith of Indiewire.
The team of Joshua Oppenheimer, Errol Morris and Werner Herzog on Sunday hosted a Reddit AMA intended to focus on Oppenheimer’s film THE ACT OF KILLING. Nick Fraser of BBC Storyville sparked some controversy with a piece in the Guardian advocating that the film not win an Oscar. At Variety, Tim Gray spoke with Morris about the film, while the BBC’s Tim Masters spoke with Oppenheimer, who told him he feared returning to Indonesia, in advance of the Oscars.
At the New York Times, Lauren Sandler wrote about the ties between True/False and a local church in Columbia, Missouri. Tom Roston of the POV blog interviewed filmmaker Robert Greene about his new film ACTRESS, as well as the True/False Film Festival, where the film will screen. Aarik Danielson of the Columbia Daily Tribune also spoke with Greene about his film. Over at KBIA, Abbie Fentress Swanson interviewed director Jessica Oreck about her film THE VANQUISHING OF THE WITCH BABA YAGA, also a True/False selection.
This week Stranger Than Fiction is hosting A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM, a film about a photo taken of a collection of some of the greatest jazz musicians in history, on Tuesday, February 25 at 8 p.m. at the IFC Center in Manhattan. Following the screening there will be a Q&A with the film’s producer Matthew Sieg and editor Susan Peehl. For more information or to buy tickets please go here.
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