The film LIFE ITSELF on film critic Roger Ebert from director Steve James will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival next year.
The Sundance Institute this week named the documentaries that would premiere at its festival next year, including LIFE ITSELF from director Steve James, FINDING FELA from Alex Gibney and FREEDOM SUMMER from Stanley Nelson. At Realscreen, Adam Benzine covered the announcement, as did Justin Chang of Variety. Indiewire’s Bryce J. Renninger took a look at the relationship between a Sundance premiere for a doc and an Oscar win, discerning an interesting relationship. Nate von Zumwalt of the Sundance blog spoke with Steve James on HOOP DREAMS, a restored version of which will screen at the festival next year. And Realscreen’s Kevin Ritchie reported on the doc shorts set to play at Sundance.
In awards news, Adam Benzine of Realscreen had a rundown of awards-winners from various festivals, while Realscreen colleague Kevin Ritchie repeated the feat a week later. The International Documentary Association (IDA) awards got their own post from Adam Benzine, while Dave McNary of Variety also wrote on the IDA awards.
Last week also appeared to be the week in which everyone tacitly agreed to start sending out their “Best Of 2013” lists. Tom Roston issued his top 10 picks for the year at the POV blog, while the writers at the Indiewire blog The Playlist did the same, but picked 15 films. Eric Kohn also released his list in a post at Indiewire. At the Los Angeles Times, Hugh Heart named his favorite music docs for the year, while Paula Bernstein produced a list of her favorite doc characters for the year. And Scott Tobias shared his reflections on the year in docs at The Dissolve.
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The film SEDUCED AND ABANDONED has earned a lot of press at Cannes this year.
The presence of docs at Cannes this year was commanding the attention of Melanie Goodfellow of ScreenDaily, who reported that docs were booming there, both onscreen and in distro deals. Writing for the AFP, Richard Ingahm reported that docs were an increasing portion of the films being marketed at Cannes. At the Chicago Tribune, critic Michael Phillips spoke with director James Toback and Alec Baldwin, the forces behind the film SEDUCED AND ABANDONED, a doc about the state of the film industry. Matt Mueller of Indiewire also interviewed Baldwin and Toback on the new film.
The top prize at Cannes Un Certain Regard went to the autobiographic doc A MISSING PICTURE by Cambodian director Rithy Panh. Read a review at The Hollywood Reporter. Other docs playing in Cannes official selection include Claude Lanzmann’s THE LAST OF THE UNJUST reviewed in Variety, Indiewire, and The Guardian; and Mark Cousins’ A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM reviewed in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and The Guardian. Playing in Directors Fortnight, Marcel Ophuls’ memoir doc AIN’T MISBEHAVIN was reviewed by Ben Kenigsberg on Roger Ebert’s website and Jordan Mintzer in The Hollywood Reporter. Continue reading…
Sarah Polley's festival darling STORIES WE TELL hit theaters this week.
Sarah Polley’s film STORIES WE TELL bowed at theaters this week, attended by a rash of coverage. Writing for the New York Times, Mary Jo Murphy spoke with Polley about the creative impulses that drove the making of the film. Danny King of The Film Stage shared a review of the film, as did Tom Hall at Hammer to Nail. Indiewire republished a review from Eric Kohn dating to the Telluride Festival, and Steve Erickson of Studio Daily interviewed Polley herself.
Ground was broken this week on New York City’s first documentary-specific theater at DCTV in Manhattan. Cristina A. Gonzalez of Indiewire had details on the event, as did Stewart Nusbaumer at Filmmaker Magazine and Jennifer Merin of About.com. Kelly Anderson covered the news event for Realscreen.
News on Hot Docs continued to make its way online, as writers loosed their listicles on the festival. Writing for Indiewire, Basil Tsiokos highlighted eight films from the festival’s forum to keep an eye out for. Tom Roston shared seven reasons to love Hot Docs on the POV blog. At Realscreen, Adam Benzine provided a full recap of the festival, while Robert Greene continued the discussion on whether we are in a documentary golden age at Hammer To Nail.
This week Stranger Than Fiction is hosting a screening of FOLLOW THE LEADER from director Jonathan Goodman Levitt on Tuesday, May 14 at 8pm at the IFC Center. The film is is a real-life coming-of-age story of three traditional American boys with Presidential dreams. Goodman Levitt will be in attendance for a Q&A following the screening. For more information or to purchase tickets please go here.
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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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AATSINKI: THE STORY OF ARCTIC COWBOYS from fimmaker Jessica Oreck is one of the films in competition at Tribeca this year.
Festival news was thick this week. The Tribeca Film Festival this week announced its lineup in two parts. At Filmmaker Magazine, Scott Macaulay had the first bit of news, which included the documentaries in competition, while his colleague Nick Dawson had the second chunk of news about spotlights, special screenings and more. At About.com, Jennifer Merin focused her attention to the docs in competition and the docs in the viewpoints section. At Realscreen, Adam Benzine covered the news similarly, noting the competition films and others getting a premiere. In a post for Indiewire, Anthony Kaufman highlighted some of the docs screening at Tribeca that he thought noteworthy.
Canada’s Hot Docs also announced 28 films screening as part of their Special Presentations program. Back at Realscreen Adam Benzine covered the news, while Etan Vlessing of The Hollywood Reporter pointed out some of the premieres in the announcement.
Full Frame, which runs in Durham, North Carolina, April 4-7 had news of its lineup this week, and that it would open with the Dawn Porter film GIDEON’S ARMY; Kelly Anderson of Realscreen had the details.
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