Joshua Oppenheimer's new film THE LOOK OF SILENCE reached screens at a handful of film fests this week.
THE LOOK OF SILENCE, director Joshua Oppenheimer’s highly anticipated follow up to THE ACT OF KILLING, screened last week at the Venice International Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). At Realscreen, Adam Benzine reported on the film winning the grand jury prize at Venice. Writing for Cineuropa, Domenico La Porta reviewed the film, as did Guy Lodge at Variety. UK distributor Dogwoof also announced that it had acquired distribution rights for the film in Great Britain.
This week the Toronto International Film Festival kicked off. The folks at the Freep Film Festival interviewed TIFF doc programmer (and STF Artistic Director) Thom Powers, as well as filmmaker Michael Moore, in their latest podcast. Realscreen’s Manori Ravindran also spoke with Powers for a piece covering the festival, while Basil Tsiokos shared an overview of the festival’s doc lineup at his What (Not) to Doc blog.
In distro news, Manori Ravindran of Realscreen reported that HBO had snagged U.S. and Canadian TV rights for Alex Gibney’s new James Brown doc, MR. DYNAMITE: THE RISE OF JAMES BROWN. Deadline’s David Bloom also reported on the development. Realscreen colleague Adam Benzine had the news that Universal Pictures International Entertainment had picked up international rights for SUNSHINE SUPERMAN, while Jennie Punter of Variety had the same news.
Stranger Than Fiction is hosting a special preseason screening of BRONX OBAMA from director Ryan Murdock on Thursday Sept. 18 at 8 p.m. at the IFC Center in Manhattan. The film tells the improbable story of a Barack Obama impersonator living in the Bronx. Following the screening, Murdock and subject Louis Ortiz will be in attendance for a Q&A. For more information and to purchase tickets please go here.
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The Toronto International Film Festival announced that the new Martin Scorsese doc THE 50 YEAR ARGUMENT would see its Canadian premiere at this year's festival.
There was a host of news about the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this week. In a post at the POV blog, Tom Roston spoke with TIFF programmer (and STF Artistic Director) Thom Powers about the festival’s Doc Conference. Writing for Realscreen, Adam Benzine reported on details of the Doc Conference, and also had the news that the new Martin Scorsese doc THE 50 YEAR ARGUMENT would screen at TIFF. Benzine also reported that the doc MAIDAN about the Ukrainian revolution would also show at TIFF.
In a post at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) blog in early August, Jovana Jankovic wrote on the four basic types of documentary films.
The staff of the International Documentary Association (IDA) website mediated some questions submitted via Twitter for Lisa Chanoff and Bonni Cohen about the Catapult Film Fund.
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The International Documentary Association (IDA) this week named the nominees for its documentary awards. At Nonfics.com, Christopher Campbell noted that Jason Osder’s LET THE FIRE BURN lead nominees in major categories, while Steve Pond had coverage at The Wrap. Adam Benzine had the news at Realscreen, while Anne Thompson did the same at Indiewire. In a blog post, POV also noted their nomination for the best continuing series award.
The film THESE BIRDS WALK from directors Bassam Tariq and Omar Mullick opened in theaters on Friday, winning a Critics Pick from New York Times writer Nicolas Rapold and a solid review from Scott Tobias at The Dissolve. Robert Greene wrote his own review for Hammer to Nail, as did Omer M. Mozaffar at RogerEbert.com. In a post at Indiewire, the pair wrote a piece sharing their ideas on how to make a documentary that evades social issue cliches. Tariq and Mullick were also featured on the latest episode of Adam Schartoff’s Filmwax podcast, while Tom Roston posed five questions for the pair in a post at the POV blog. Christopher Campbell and Daniel Walber also discussed the film in the latest episode of their podcast The Realness.
The folks at the True/False blog drew attention to a recently uploaded YouTube video documenting the festivals’ panel on doc criticism from earlier this year. The video’s posting seemed to provoke a response from Sam Adams of Indiewire, who wrote a piece asking if critics really understood documentary films.
This week Stranger Than Fiction is playing host to a screening of CALVET from director Dominic Allen on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. at the IFC Center in Manhattan. Film subject Jean-Marc Calvet 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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The news regarding the doc world was dominated this week by stories coming out of the Toronto International Film Festival. Jehane Noujaim left the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) with the People’s Choice award for her film THE SQUARE about the revolution in Egypt; Christopher Campbell had coverage of the award at Nonfics.com, while Evan Mitsui of the CBC also had the details. Writing for The Globe and Mail, Omar el Akkad covered the challenges faced by Noujaim in making the film. Globe and Mail colleague Simon Houpt also wrote up THE SQUARE and Alex Gibney’s THE ARMSTRONG LIE as films that had to evolve along with their fast-changing subject matter.
At Realscreen, Kevin Ritchie reported on a TIFF panel on distribution, while Indiewire reproduced Dan Cogan’s presentation on managing the relationship between film producers and investors. Indiewire also carried Liesl Copland’s speech on the need for more transparency regarding VOD, while Scott Macaulay at Filmmaker Magazine chimed in to back the sentiment. Kelly Anderson covered the talk for Realscreen. Michael Cieply of The New York Times also cited Copland’s speech in a piece on VOD revenues. And Kelly Anderson covered a panel discussion on the crowdfunding of the film HONDROS: A LIFE IN FRAMES for Realscreen.
This week Stranger Than Fiction is hosting a pre-season special screening of MUSCLE SHOALS on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 8 p.m. at the IFC Center in Manhattan. The film recounts the story behind one of the most important and influential recording studios in American music. For more information or to purchase tickets go here.
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The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) launched on Thursday, Sept. 5 and distributors were moving with alacrity to nab titles, with many picking up distro rights before the festival even launched. Realscreen’s Adam Benzine spoke with TIFF programmer (and Stranger Than Fiction Artistic Director) Thom Powers about several of the deals secured by films premiering at the festival. However, Benzine reported that Ron Howard’s Jay-Z concert doc MADE IN AMERICA had found an international rights sales agent in The Exchange. Realscreen colleague Kevin Ritchie had the news that the UK’s Dogwoof had acquired international rights for DANGEROUS ACTS STARRING UNSTABLE ELEMENTS OF BELARUS. Gregg Kilday of The Hollywood Reporter reported that HBO had nabbed U.S. television rights for the film.
At the What (Not) to Doc blog, Basil Tsiokos offered an overview of docs screening at TIFF. The Hollywood Reporter also shared a post on five must-see films screening at the festival. Writing for the POV blog, Tom Roston interviewed Thom Powers about certain festival selections. Back at Realscreen, Adam Benzine had the opportunity to speak with director Claude Lanzmann.
The folks behind the blog Film School Rejects this week launched a new site dedicated to nonfiction entertainment titled Nonfics.com and headed by former Documentary Channel blog editor Christopher Campbell. Campbell’s prodigious output has yielded too many posts to link individually, but you can check out his editor’s welcome here, as well as a list of 10 TIFF selections Campbell was excited to see. Campbell also wrote up an interview with TIFF sensation TIM’S VERMEER subject Tim Jenison, and penned a piece about the phenomenon of spoilers potentially ruining documentaries. Robert Greene also wrote the first of a series, Shots From the Canon, as part of efforts to identify a new nonfiction canon.
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