The film AMERICAN PROMISE took home top honors at this year's Full Frame festival.
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, concluded this weekend, with Glenn McDonald of the Raleigh News and Observer reporting that the grand jury award for best doc feature going to AMERICAN PROMISE by Michele Stephenson and Joe Brewster. Prior to the festival’s start, Basil Tsiokos wrote up an overview for his What (Not) to Doc bog, as did McDonald for the News and Observer. Writing for Film School Rejects, Christopher Campbell reviewed A.K.A. DOC POMUS, as well as MEDORA. And the Tribeca Film Institute published a list of five influences on Marco Williams, the director behind the film THE UNDOCUMENTED, which premiered in Durham.
This week the film community lost two valued members in film critic Roger Ebert and director Les Blank. Writing for the New York Times, Bruce Weber had an obituary for Blank, who had bladder cancer. Phil Gallo of Billboard also had an obit for Blank. You can find an interview with Blank from 2007 conducted by David Tamés for The Independent magazine.
At Realscreen, Adam Benzine penned an obit for Roger Ebert, as did Douglas Martin of the New York Times. Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Steve James planned to finish his in-progress doc biopic on the highly regarded Ebert, as did Nick Venable of CinemaBlend.
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Shola Lynch discusses the eight-year journey of producing FREE ANGELA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS. Photo by Simon Luethi.
Filmmaker Shola Lynch describes the story of Angela Davis’ arrest and trial in the early 1970s as “a political crime drama with a love story in the middle of it.” That inherent intrigue and drama is what led her to make Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, a documentary that she has been working on for the past eight years. Through a mix of present-day interviews and archival film and audio recordings, Lynch tells the story of Davis’ early days as a professor and activist and highlights the series of events that led to Davis becoming an internationally-recognized symbol of social justice. Regardless of one’s existing familiarity with Davis’ history, the film presents a fascinating and complex look at the culture of radical organizing that has cultivated advances in racial justice, feminism, economic issues, and prison reform over the past 50 years. Additionally, all aspects of Free Angela and All Political Prisoners — from the on-screen events depicted to the off-screen collaborative process of Lynch and Executive Producer Jada Pinkett Smith — demonstrate the power of women working together to create and support social change. If you missed Tuesday’s screening, you can see the film at AMC Theatres in New York, LA, Atlanta, Boston, DC, Detroit, Oakland, and Philadelphia starting this weekend.
After the screening, Lynch joined filmmaker and friend of STF, Hugo Perez, for a discussion.
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Short docs, such as Oscar-winning film INOCENTE, face changes in awards rules from AMPAS.
Writing for The Wrap, Steve Pond this week reported that the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) had turned their attention to an overhaul of rules governing the short documentary award. Similarly to the changes visited by the Academy last year on the feature documentary award, the new changes were intended to open voting up to more Academy members. Guy Lodge of HitFix also had coverage of the new changes.
Scott Macaulay of Filmmaker Magazine profiled Tugg, the online platform that allowed viewers to organize theatrical screenings of films. Writing for Indiewire, Erin Whitney reported that Tugg and Codeblack Films were working to make the film FREE ANGELA & ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS available at theaters across the country. In a post for the Reel Politik column at Indiewire, Anthony Kaufman highlighted a viral video being used to promote the film.
If you can’t wait for Tugg to do its work, you’re in luck. This week Stranger Than Fiction is hosting a screening of FREE ANGELA on Tuesday, April 2 at 8 p.m. at the IFC Center. Director Shola Lynch will be in attendance and will hold and audience Q&A following the screening. For more information or to buy tickets, go here.
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Janet Tobias shares an incredible story of adventure and survival in NO PLACE ON EARTH. Photo by Simon Luethi.
Stranger Than Fiction’s Spring 2013 season opened on the second night of Passover, an appropriate night to share a story of Jewish survival and liberation. No Place on Earth, directed by Janet Tobias, is the story of the Stermers, a Ukranian Jewish family who survived the Holocaust by hiding in underground caves for a year and a half. Their amazing story may have been forgotten forever were it not for the work of Chris Nicola, a cave explorer who discovered remnants of the Stermers’ lives in the 1990s. Today, brothers Saul and Sam Stermer and their nieces, Sonia and Sima Dodyk, are alive to recount their stories on-camera, while the memories of the late matriarch Esther Stermer survive through her writings. No Place on Earth combines these interviews and writings, as well as dramatic recreations and a climactic reunion in Ukraine, in order to tell a moving story of perseverance and survival.
After the screening, Tobias spoke with STF’s Thom Powers about the filmmaking process and how the film has affected the lives of the Stermers.
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Among the films included in POV's upcoming season are HERMAN'S HOUSE from director Angad Singh Bhalla
POV this week announced the lineup for its 26th season, which includes a solid lineup of festival darlings such as 5 BROKEN CAMERAS from directors Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi; HERMAN’S HOUSE from director Angad Singh Bhalla; and ONLY THE YOUNG from directors Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims, among several other great titles. Adam Benzine of Realscreen covered the announcement, as did Alison Willmore of Indiewire.
Canada’s Hot Docs festival also announced it’s full lineup this week; you can check out the full schedule for the festival, set to run April 25 – May 5 in Toronto, by going here. Realscreen’s Adam Benzine also had coverage of the announcement.
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