The Sheffield Doc/Fest concluded on Sunday.
England’s Sheffield Doc Fest concluded yesterday, with the festival’s jury handing out awards to films in competition. At About.com, Jennifer Merin had the details on the festival’s award winners, which included Joshua Oppenheimer’s film THE ACT OF KILLING, which took home the Special Jury Award. At the festival’s start, Realscreen’s Kevin Ritchie spoke with festival director Heather Croall, while Michael Rosser at Screen Daily also spoke with Croall. Alexandra Zeevalkink wrote a piece for KFTV explaining some tips for networking at Sheffield. Samuel Wigley previewed the festival for the British Film Institute’s site. Also at Realscreen, Kelly Anderson interviewed Jeanie Finlay about her film THE GREAT HIP HOP HOAX which screened at Sheffield.
Filmmaker Laura Poitras remained in the spotlight for her role in the NSA leak story. The Hollywood Reporter profiled her, as did Noam Cohen of The New York Times. Sam Adams of Indiewire considered her recent work profiling leakers Edward Snowden and William Binney. Lynn Elber of the AP had a longer piece on Poitras’ work, while Irin Carmon interviewed Poitras on the details of her recent work on Snowden.
At the What (Not) to Doc blog, Basil Tsiokos provided an overview of the AFI Docs Film Festival, set to take place in Washington D.C. and Silver Spring, Maryland, beginning June 19. Abigail Maravalli also profiled the festival for the Center for Social Media at American University, as did Ally Schweitzer of the Washington City Paper.
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For the 3rd Friday in a row, we present our favorite doc Tweets of the week. There’s plenty to discuss with an abundance of great docs opening in New York theaters including 20 FEET FROM STARDOM, CALL ME KUCHU, FAR OUT ISN’T FAR ENOUGH, MORE THAN HONEY and PANDORA’S PROMISE. Here are 15 notable feeds to follow…
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Richard Rowley's film DIRTY WARS hit theaters this week.
This week Richard Rowley’s DIRTY WARS, an analysis of U.S. foreign policy in the post 9/11 era based on the reporting of journalist Jeremy Scahill, opened at theaters. At the New York Times, Stephen Holden bestowed the film with a coveted Critic’s Pick. Writing for Indiewire, Anthony Kaufman shared his own take on the film, while Peter Knegt reported that the film had strong box office numbers over the weekend. Kaufman also penned a piece on the film for the Village Voice. And R. Kurt Osenlund had an interview with Rowley for Filmmaker Magazine.
Kaufman in his weekly Docutopia post at the SundanceNOW blog took note of the fact that war-themed docs are on a slight rise.
A new Ken Burns project for PBS based on the book “The Emperor of Maladies: A Biography of Cancer” by Siddharta Mukherjee was announced this week. The Hollywood Reporter reported details on the new three-part film, while David Bauder reported on the project for the AP. Madeline Raynor also reported the news at Indiwire.
At Filmmaker Magazine, Scott Macaulay noted the role filmmaker Laura Poitras had played in the NSA domestic espionage stories that broke this week. Poitras filmed an interview with whistle blower Edward Snowden for the Guardian. Her past filmmaking has caused her to be repeatedly detained at the U.S. border (reported last year in Salon).
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written by Nikki Erlick
After the screening of his documentary ANNIE: It’s the Hard-Knock Life, From Script to Stage, director Joshua Seftel apologized to the audience members for undoubtedly getting the titular song stuck in their heads. The film, shown in a crowded theater last Monday night as part of STF, brought the catchy tune from the stage to the screen, exploring the evolution of the iconic musical number from the current Broadway production of Annie.
The screening was held on Broadway’s night off to accommodate the evening’s special guests – the child actresses featured in the documentary. The young girls, who landed the coveted roles of “the orphans” in an open casting call that attracted 5,000 hopefuls, giggled and cheered at the sight of their younger selves on the big screen. Indeed, the film made a point of relaying just how young these professional actors are, such as showing the “orphan” Emily Rosenfeld with her stuffed animals and writing in her script, “You mista spot.” The film followed the girls from the ecstatic moment they learned they got the part to the nervous energy of opening night, as well as featuring the various crewmembers that brought the musical to life.
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Last week, we inaugurated a new feature for STFdocs, playing on Twitter’s “follow Friday” hashtag #FF. Here are 10 new Tweets from the doc world in the past week that caught our eye.
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