Monday Memo: DOC NYC Announces Lineup


This year's DOC NYC festival runs Nov. 14-21 in New York City.

The DOC NYC film festival, set to run Nov. 14-21 at the IFC Center and the SVA Theatre, this week announced its lineup, with this year’s event consisting of 131 films, 72 features, and some 20 panel discussions and master classes. Ramzi de Coster at Indiewire had all the details, while Kevin Ritchie of Realscreen highlighted new films from Michel Gondry and Errol Morris that would make appearances. Kate Erbland had coverage of the festival for Film School Rejects, while Basil Tsiokos penned a post at his What (Not) to Doc blog. Gordon Cox provided coverage at Variety, while Adam Schartoff spoke with DOC NYC (and Stranger Than Fiction) Artistic Director Thom Powers for a Filmwax podcast.

This week AMERICAN PROMISE from directors Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson hit theaters on Friday. At the POV blog, Tom Roston looked at AMERICAN PROMISE as part of a pantheon of doc films that follow their subjects for a long period of time. At Filmmaker Magazine, Brandon Harris spoke with Brewster and Stephenson on the film, and Adam Schartoff also dedicated one of his Filmwax podcasts to speaking with the pair.

Chicago production house Kartemquin Films this week issued a call for participants in its Diverse Voices in Docs program, which provides professional development and mentorship to emerging documentary filmmakers of color. They’ll also be hosting a screening of work from graduates of its inaugural 2013 program on October 30 in Chicago.

This week Stranger Than Fiction plays host to THE NEW PUBLIC from director Jyllian Gunther, a film that follows an arts-focused high school that opens in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. The film screens on Tuesday, October 22 at 8 p.m. at the IFC Center in Manhattan, and will be followed by a Q&A with Gunther. For more information or to purchase tickets please go here.

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Monday Memo: Full Frame Festival 2013 Concludes


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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