The DOC NYC Festival this week announced its full lineup.
The DOC NYC Festival, which runs Nov. 8-15 in New York City, announced its lineup, which features a nice mix of films, premieres and panels, with a number of filmmakers and other special guests in attendance. The festival kicks off Thursday, Nov. 8 with two gala events, a screening of the film ARTIFACT with subject and actor/musician Jared Leto in attendance, as well as a screening of the film VENUS AND SERENA, which follows the famous tennis-playing Williams sisters. Head to www.docnyc.net to check out the festival’s full lineup and purchase tickets, and follow the fest’s Twitter account at @DOCNYCfest.
It doesn’t look like the debate over the new Oscar doc rules is ending anytime soon, although it’s starting to take on the tenor of a tempest in a teapot (alliteration!). Interestingly, the debate seems to reflect the fact that a film made to screen solely in a theater increasingly seems like an anachronism (or at the very least, a poor business decision). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) seemed to take note of the problems facing its documentary branch members this year, sending out a note indicating that it had extended its voting period from to Nov. 26, from Nov. 14. At Variety, John Weisman wondered if the rule changes were an improvement or a stumbling block. Writing for Indiewire, Anthony Kaufman took aim at filmmaker Michael Moore, one of the forces behind the rules changes, for hampering indie doc makers. Deadline’s Pete Hammond had a lengthy take on the issue, talking with Moore about further changes to the process that could occur. Steve Pond at TheWrap.com reported yesterday that Moore had proposed to eliminate the documentary rules completely.
The POV film LAST TRAIN HOME won two awards at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards.
In the same week that a presidential nominee threatened its funding, PBS took home the most hardware of any network from the Oct. 1 33rd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards, with nine total wins. (I’m not sure if that’s ironic or fitting.) POV was responsible for five of those wins, while Frontline took home two statues, and Independent Lens and Nature won one apiece. ABC and NBC each snagged seven awards, with NBC taking three. Realscreen’s Kevin Ritchie has a brief breakdown of the awards. For those interested in checking out some of the award-winners, POV has put their four programs online for free viewing for a limited time.
Unlike President Obama, documentary filmmakers Laura Poitras and Natalia Almada had a pretty good week, as both were named MacArthur Fellows, an award more commonly referred to as the “genius grant.” The award will give the two recipients no-strings-attached annual payments of $100,000 over the next five years. Melissa Block of NPR got a chance to talk to Poitras, who had been in press earlier this year after it was reported that she was routinely held and harassed by customs officials when returning to the U.S. after shooting in Middle Eastern countries. The POV blog also paid homage to the two geniuses, both of whom are alums of the PBS show. You can find some clips of Poitras and Almada talking about their work in this post on The Wrap by Tim Molloy.
Doc fans in New York City should keep an eye out tomorrow for the lineup announcement for this year’s DOC NYC film festival, which is set to take place in Manhattan Nov. 8-15. With an expanded list of films, panels and other events, there should be a little something in there for everyone. You can keep up to date on all the festival’s latest information by going to www.docnyc.net, and by following the festival’s Twitter account, @DOCNYCfest.
This week, Stranger Than Fiction is hosting the classic HERB & DOROTHY, the extraordinary story of Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. Director Megumi Sasaki and film subject Dorothy Vogel will also be in attendance for a Q&A following the screening. You can find out more information and buy tickets here.
BETTING THE FARM by directors Cecily Pingree and Jason Mann opened this year’s CIFF.
This weekend, the Camden International Film Festival was held Sept. 27-30 in the town of Camden, Maine. One of a handful of smaller, regional festivals devoted to non-fiction work, CIFF also plays host the Points North Documentary Forum, a series of panels and workshops dedicated to professional improvement and creative inspiration. At the POV blog, Morlene Chin spoke with CIFF founder Ben Fowlie and Points North Forum director Sean Flynn. Realscreen’s Adam Benzine examined the efforts put into developing programs for the Points North forum, while Basil Tsiokos of the What Not to Doc blog gave us an overview of the festival’s film program.
David France’s HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE about the AIDS activist movement hit cinemas this week.
David France’s film HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE, about the efforts of AIDS activist groups AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and the Treatment Action Group (TAG), hit theaters this week after garnering good buzz on the festival circuit. Christopher Campbell at the Documentary Channel Blog spoke with France, along with the film’s producer, Howard Getler. The filmmakers shared with Campbell their approach to hunting down archival footage, much of which had been shot by activists, some of whom had passed away years before. Tom Roston at the POV blog also spoke with France about his film, touching on parallels between the AIDS activist movement and Occupy Wall Street. And Anthony Kaufman, in his Docutopia blog, examined the film’s strategy of investigating the past, and compared it to a number of other docs that do the same. You can also catch a video interview with France at the Sundance Institute’s website.
Although the Toronto International Film Festival concluded on Sunday, Sept. 16, a few pieces on the festival came trickling in this week as critics and festival-goers had a chance to process all of the work they had seen. At Realscreen, Adam Benzine had a comprehensive take on all of the doc news that went down in Toronto, noting that Sarah Polley’s STORIES WE TELL left the festival as the most buzzed about doc. Benzine also had a moment to interview Spike Lee about his Michael Jackson BAD 25, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of Jackson’s album Bad and had its premiere at TIFF.
The good word on Polley’s film was also helped along after it was named TIFF’s best doc by Indiewire’s Criticwire members. Basil Tsiokos of the What Not to Doc blog also published the second part of his two-part roundup of TIFF docs. Christopher Campbell, writing for Movies.com, wondered if the year’s best docs had their premiere at TIFF, and provided a roundup of reviews. And Julie Miller of Vanity Fair had an interview with rapper/actor/fimmaker Ice-T and Jorge Hinojosa, the executive producer and director, respectively, of ICEBERG SLIM: PORTRAIT OF A PIMP.
This week marks the launch of the Stranger Than Fiction fall season, which is kicking off with a special Thursday, Sept. 27, 8 p.m. screening of Katie Dellamaggiore’s festival darling BROOKLYN CASTLE, about the chess team at Brooklyn’s Intermediate School 318. Dellamaggiore will be in attendance for a Q&A following the film. You can find more information about the film or purchase tickets here. Also keep in mind that season passes for the fall season are available for $99, which gets you a ticket to all of the fall season’s films, along with a free popcorn.
Deco Dawson’s film KEEP A MODEST HEAD won the award for best Canadian short film at TIFF this year.
The doc news world has been subsumed by posts coming out of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this week, so let’s get right into it. On Saturday, Sept. 16 the festival’s awards hardware was handed out. The short doc on French surrealist Jean Benoit, KEEP A MODEST HEAD by Deco Dawson, won best Canadian short film, and the Blackberry People’s Choice Documentary Award went to ARTIFACT, a film about the perils of the music industry, by Bartholomew Cubbins.
At Reuters, Julie Gordon took note of all of the buzz earned by docs screening at TIFF, highlighting the gala treatment given to Liz Garbus’ LOVE, MARILYN and Shola Lynch’s FREE ANGELA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS. Brian Johnson of Macleans magazine presented his top 10 list of films to see at TIFF, with documentaries THE ACT OF KILLING by Joshua Oppenheimer and STORIES WE TELL by Sarah Polley nabbing the numbers one and two spots, respectively. Eric Kohn at Indiewire was similarly struck by Polley and Oppenheimer’s films. On the POV blog, Tom Roston turned out a list of must-see docs screening at the festival.
Basil Tsiokos of the What Not to Doc blog wrote up a post about the films at TIFF that had caught his attention. Writing for Vogue Magazine, John Powers took note of the hype surrounding fictional narrative CLOUD ATLAS, but also had good things to say about doc VENUS AND SERENA, about the tennis-playing Williams sisters, that earned a bit of notoriety after news broke that the pair had withdrawn their support for the film, reportedly due to unhappiness at the way the film portrayed their father. Jay Cheel at the Documentary Blog took time to write up a group of capsule reviews of the docs he managed to catch in Toronto. B. Ruby Rich, writing for Fandor, had a pretty comprehensive overview of the festival as well.
