Joshua Oppenheimer's new film THE LOOK OF SILENCE reached screens at a handful of film fests this week.
THE LOOK OF SILENCE, director Joshua Oppenheimer’s highly anticipated follow up to THE ACT OF KILLING, screened last week at the Venice International Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). At Realscreen, Adam Benzine reported on the film winning the grand jury prize at Venice. Writing for Cineuropa, Domenico La Porta reviewed the film, as did Guy Lodge at Variety. UK distributor Dogwoof also announced that it had acquired distribution rights for the film in Great Britain.
This week the Toronto International Film Festival kicked off. The folks at the Freep Film Festival interviewed TIFF doc programmer (and STF Artistic Director) Thom Powers, as well as filmmaker Michael Moore, in their latest podcast. Realscreen’s Manori Ravindran also spoke with Powers for a piece covering the festival, while Basil Tsiokos shared an overview of the festival’s doc lineup at his What (Not) to Doc blog.
In distro news, Manori Ravindran of Realscreen reported that HBO had snagged U.S. and Canadian TV rights for Alex Gibney’s new James Brown doc, MR. DYNAMITE: THE RISE OF JAMES BROWN. Deadline’s David Bloom also reported on the development. Realscreen colleague Adam Benzine had the news that Universal Pictures International Entertainment had picked up international rights for SUNSHINE SUPERMAN, while Jennie Punter of Variety had the same news.
Stranger Than Fiction is hosting a special preseason screening of BRONX OBAMA from director Ryan Murdock on Thursday Sept. 18 at 8 p.m. at the IFC Center in Manhattan. The film tells the improbable story of a Barack Obama impersonator living in the Bronx. Following the screening, Murdock and subject Louis Ortiz will be in attendance for a Q&A. For more information and to purchase tickets please go here.
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The Toronto International Film Festival announced that the new Martin Scorsese doc THE 50 YEAR ARGUMENT would see its Canadian premiere at this year's festival.
There was a host of news about the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this week. In a post at the POV blog, Tom Roston spoke with TIFF programmer (and STF Artistic Director) Thom Powers about the festival’s Doc Conference. Writing for Realscreen, Adam Benzine reported on details of the Doc Conference, and also had the news that the new Martin Scorsese doc THE 50 YEAR ARGUMENT would screen at TIFF. Benzine also reported that the doc MAIDAN about the Ukrainian revolution would also show at TIFF.
In a post at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) blog in early August, Jovana Jankovic wrote on the four basic types of documentary films.
The staff of the International Documentary Association (IDA) website mediated some questions submitted via Twitter for Lisa Chanoff and Bonni Cohen about the Catapult Film Fund.
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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 the documentary community lost Robert Drew, one of the forces behind the American cinema verite movement.
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 film THE KILL TEAM reached theaters.
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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