This week the new doc FED UP from director Stephanie Soechtig bowed at theaters, drawing a fair amount of attention in the process. At Variety, Malina Saval had a capsule review and a quote from Soechtig, while The Economist reviewed the film. Nathan Rabin pulled the same duty at The Dissolve. And Jordan M. Smith of Ion Cinema interviewed Soechtig and producers Laurie David and Heather Reisman.
Netflix again made news this week by acquiring a new slate of docs, among them E-TEAM from directors Ross Kauffman and Kate Chevigny. At Realscreen, Adam Benzine had the details, as did the Associated Press. At the Los Angeles Times, Joe Flint focused on the acquisition of THE BATTERED BASTARDS OF BASEBALL.
In other distro news, Manori Ravindran of Realscreen reported that Lionsgate was in talks to release the film AMERICA: IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT HER from filmmaker John Sullivan and writer Dinesh D’Souza. Realscreen colleague Kevin Ritchie had the news that Kino Lorber had snagged North American rights for the the new Alex Gibney film, FINDING FELA.
This week Stranger Than Fiction hosts the new Joe Berlinger film, WHITEY: THE UNITED STATES V. JAMES J. BULGER at the IFC Center on Tuesday, May 13 at 8 p.m. The film follows the trial of gangster James “Whitey” Bulger. Berlinger will be in attendance for a Q&A session following the film. For more information or to purchase tickets please go here.
Over at Indiewire, Anthony Kaufman wrote a piece about Cannes general ambivalence towards doc titles. Kaufman also penned a separate piece detailing the forces leading to the abandonment of foreign-language films in the U.S.
At the New York Times, Michael Cieply reported on Cinedigm’s impending launch of the online Docurama digital streaming channel. Kevin Ritchie of Realscreen also had the news.
IDA Board President Marjan Safinia is programming a new documentary screening series this week in Los Angeles, called the ArcLight Documentary Series. Films will screen on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. at the ArcLight Hollywood. For its inaugural film, the series will present Doug Block’s 112 WEDDINGS. Katharine Relth reported on the program’s details in a post for the IDA.
At the International Documentary Association (IDA), Wanda Bershen recapped Lincon Center’s The Art of the Real series. In another piece at the IDA’s site, Marc Glassman had a review of Hot Docs 2014. Also, Lisa Hasko had a nice roundup of summer grant opportunities for doc filmmakers.
The System, the new Al Jazeera America series from director Joe Berlinger premieres this coming Sunday, May 18 at 9 p.m. EST on the cable news channel. More information on the show, which examines the criminal justice system, can be found here.
The PBS show POV announced the projects for its sixth hackathon, this one taking place in Los Angeles.
The Sheffield Doc/Fest released details of its films this week, with Adam Benzine and Kevin Ritchie of Realscreen reporting news of its program. At the DocGeeks blog, Emily Wright penned a post on Sheffield’s lineup.
At the New York Times, Nicolas Rapold reviewed the new film DAMNATION from directors Ben Knight and Travis Rummel. And Filmmaker Magazine’s Scott Macaulay had a piece detailing the distribution and release strategy behind the film.
This week, the Brooklyn Film Festival announced it’s lineup. You can check out the selection of doc features screening here.
Back at Realscreen, Julianna Cummins reported that Gerry Flahive of the National Film Board was leaving his producer position to pursue writing. Cummins also reported on a new report from the Documentary Organization of Canada detailing the trouble filmmakers are having funding their work in Canada.
Over at Nonfics.com, Christopher Campbell turned out a list of the 10 most memorable doc characters.
Writing for the Independent Lens blog, Craig Phillips spoke with director Jason Osder about his film LET THE FIRE BURN.
The POV blog played host to a post on a case study regarding the release strategy for the film AFTER TILLER.
At his What (Not) to Doc blog, Basil Tsiokos provided an overview of the DOK.fest Munich festival.
Eric Hynes wrote a piece for the New York Times on the effect a documentary can have on its subject.
Kevin Jagernauth of Indiewire’s Playlist blog took note of the release of the trailer for the film ELENA, which bows at the IFC Center on May 30.
In a piece for Film International, Paul Risker interviewed Kim Longinotto about her film SALMA.
Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Natalie Jarvey reported on the release of the doc THE ART OF THE GAME via the live stream platform Twitch, and also through the Xbox.
In his latest Filmwax podcast, Adam Schartoff spoke with lauded filmmaker Jem Cohen (INSTRUMENT, MUSEUM HOURS).
At Filmmaker Magazine, Vadim Rizov recapped the recently announced lineup for this year’s BAMcinemaFest.
Back at Nonfics.com, Christopher Campbell highlighted noteworthy docs making it to homes via various distribution channels this week. Also at Nonfics.com, Dan Schindel reviewed TOUGH BOND from directors Austin Beck and Annaliese Vandenberg. And writing for Film School Rejects, Campbell considered what 50 years passed means for the “UP” doc series.
Ion Cinema’s Jordan M. Smith also turned out two reviews this week, one of Sara Dosa’s film THE LAST SEASON and another of Jessica Oreck’s THE VANQUISHING OF THE WITCH BABA YAGA.
At Antenna Free TV, Joel Keller shared his entire interview with filmmaker Morgan Spurlock.
Back at The Dissolve, Tasha Robinson considered some of the interactive docs that made it to Tribeca this year.
Tom Roston penned a piece for the POV blog identifying the top five docs that screened at this year’s Hot Docs. Roston also wrote a piece about documentaries and their relation to “poverty porn.”
At the SF Station, Martin Malloy had details on the lineup of the San Francisco Documentary Film Festival.
That’s it for this week. Please e-mail any tips or recommendations for the Memo here, or send them via Twitter to @GuerrillaFace. Thanks and have a great week everyone!