THE ACT OF KILLING distributor Drafthouse Films released a promotional bundle for the film via BitTorrent this week.
The New Year holiday has left us with another light news week. Perhaps the most interesting news was that distributor Drafthouse Films released a “bundle” of content related to THE ACT OF KILLING via BitTorrent, a medium most closely associated with pirating. The bundle dropped at the same time the film was being released on iTunes. Realscreen’s Adam Benzine covered the development, as did Paula Bernstein of Indiewire. And Anthony Ha of TechCrunch also had the news.
Indiewire rounded up all of their doc advice from last year in one incredibly helpful post that you can check out here.
Melena Ryzik of the New York Times took note of the fact that both PUSSY RIOT: A PUNK PRAYER and THE SQUARE had been banned in the respective countries in which they had been shot, while also landing on the Oscar shortlist for docs. Vanessa Thorpe of The Guardian mentioned PUSSY RIOT in a piece noting the political nature of those getting on the shortlist. Jezebel’s Rebecca Rose had details on a screening of PUSSY RIOT intended to take place in Russia that was scuttled by the government there.
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The filmmaker Peter Wintonick passed away last week and was remembered by the doc community.
The documentary community this past week continued to remember filmmaker Peter Wintonick, who passed away from a rare form of liver cancer last Monday. In a touching piece for Indiewire, Heather Croall, director of the Sheffield Doc/Fest, remembered Wintonick. Marc Glassman did the same at Canada’s POV Magazine, and you can read Wintonick’s own “Doc the World” manifesto at POV’s site here. Adam Benzine of Realscreen wrote on various elements of the doc community celebrating Wintonick’s life, and also reported that the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece had named an award after Wintonick. The CBC reported on Wintonick’s passing, while Matthew Pearson and Brendan Kelly of the Ottawa Citizen wrote on Wintonick’s perhaps best known work, MANUFACTURING CONSENT.
Michel Gondry’s new animated documentary on Noam Chomsky, IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY?, had its premiere at DOC NYC in advance of a run at the IFC Center. At the New York Times, Gondry narrated a scene from the film, while Eric Kohn of Indiewire interviewed the director. R. Kurt Osenlund did the same for Filmmaker Magazine, while Gondry was interviewed by Zachary Wigan for the Tribeca Institute’s blog. At Nonfics.com, Daniel Walber reviewed the film, while Christopher Campbell shared a list of Gondry’s five favorite docs.
Adam Benzine of Realscreen reported on the awards winners from the DOC NYC festival, with A WORLD NOT OURS from Mahdi Fleifel winning the grand jury prize in the festival’s Viewfinders section. Daniel Walber penned a review of the festival film TOXIC HOT SEAT, and another of the film TOWN HALL. At Filmmaker Magazine, Scott Macaulay interviewed I LEARN AMERICA directors Jean-Michel Dissard and Gitte Peng. Also, Sarah Salovaara of Filmmaker Magazine interviewed director Grace Lee about her film AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS. The staff at Indiewire also extracted 10 filmmaker tips on hiring a publicist from DOC NYC panels.
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Director Errol Morris speaks at the DOC NYC screening of his new film, The Unknown Known.
This week the DOC NYC Festival officially kicked off its fourth year in New York City with a screening of Errol Morris’ new Donald Rumsfeld film THE UNKNOWN KNOWN. Writing for the POV blog, Tom Roston recapped the screening. At his Docutopia post for the SundanceNOW, Anthony Kaufman wrote on some of the films screening at DOC NYC, including THE PUNK SINGER and PATROLMAN P. Director Jeremy Xido penned a guest post on his film DEATH METAL ANGOLA, which screened at DOC NYC, for Filmmaker Magazine. Also at Filmmaker Magazine, Scott Macaulay named his 10 favorite picks for the festival, as did Lauren Wissot at the same publication. The folks at Indiewire also shared 10 of their top choices. And Daniel Walber reviewed DOC NYC film THE FINAL MEMBER for Nonfics.com.
The Women and Hollywood blog on Indiewire played host to a series of interviews with female filmmakers screening work at the DOC NYC. Inkoo Kang spoke with Dori Berinstein, Sarah McCarthy and Ky Dickens. Melissa Silverstein chatted up Sini Anderson, Suzan Beraza, Samantha Grant, Gitte Peng, Dawn Porter, Therese Shechter, Linda Hoaglund, Lucy Kostelanetz, Merete Mueller, Beth B, Sierra Pettengill and Jamila Wignot. And at Filmmaker Magazine, Randy Astle spoke with WEB director Michael Kleiman.
Earlier this morning, Canadian documentary filmmaker Peter Wintonick passed away from a rare form of liver cancer. Adam Benzine had the details in a piece at Realscreen, while Peter Knegt reported the news for Indiewire. Wintonick was in the midst of making the film BE HERE NOW when he passed. For those interested in helping the film reach its completion, please go here.
BRITDOC named THE ACT OF KILLING the winner of this year’s PUMA Impact Award, handed out to the film determined to have had the most substantial positive impact over the past year. Sarah Salovaara covered the event for Filmmaker Magazine, while Christopher Campbell did the same for Nonfics.com. Bryce J. Renninger looked at some of the metrics turned out b BRITDOC on the award nominees.
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