The doc on rapper Nas, TIME IS ILLMATIC, opened up this year's Tribeca Film Festival.
The 2014 Tribeca Film Festival started this week with a screening of the new Nas doc TIME IS ILLLMATIC. At Indiewire, Eric Kohn reviewed the new film from director One9 as did Scott Foundas of Variety. Associated Press writer Jake Coyle had coverage of the Tribeca opening night film for his press outlet. Basil Tsiokos provided an overview of the docs screening at the festival at his What (Not) to Doc blog. At DocGeeks, Emma Norton had a list of must-see docs at the festival. Writing for Nonfics.com, Daniel Walber previewed 10 of the festivals most anticipated docs. Walber also penned a review of the Tribeca film BALLET 422 from director Jody Lee Lipes and one of DIOR AND I from director Frederic Tcheng. Steve Pond of The Wrap had an interview with BEYOND THE BRICK: A LEGO DOCUMENTARY filmmakers Daniel Junge and Kief Davidson at The Wrap.
This week Chicago-based documentary production non-profit Kartemquin Films announced that it would collaborate with network Al Jazeera America to produce a six-part documentary series on the struggles of those on low incomes in the U.S. Sergio had coverage of the development for Indiewire’s Shadow and Act blog, while Deadline also covered the news.
Nikita Stewart of the New York Times reported that New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced that Cynthia Lopez, co-executive producer of the PBS doc series POV, had been appointed the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. Todd Cunningham of The Wrap also covered the appointment, as did Marisa Guthrie and Tatiana Siegel of The Hollywood Reporter and Shipra Gupta of Indiewire.
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The film TIME IS ILLMATIC was named as the opening film for this year's Tribeca FIlm Festival.
The Tribeca Film Festival this week named the documentary TIME IS ILLMATIC about the seminal hip-hop album Illmatic by Nas as its opening film. Manori Ravindran of Realscreen had a report, as did Mekado Murphy of the New York Times and Nigel M. Smith of Indiewire.
The team of Joshua Oppenheimer, Errol Morris and Werner Herzog on Sunday hosted a Reddit AMA intended to focus on Oppenheimer’s film THE ACT OF KILLING. Nick Fraser of BBC Storyville sparked some controversy with a piece in the Guardian advocating that the film not win an Oscar. At Variety, Tim Gray spoke with Morris about the film, while the BBC’s Tim Masters spoke with Oppenheimer, who told him he feared returning to Indonesia, in advance of the Oscars.
At the New York Times, Lauren Sandler wrote about the ties between True/False and a local church in Columbia, Missouri. Tom Roston of the POV blog interviewed filmmaker Robert Greene about his new film ACTRESS, as well as the True/False Film Festival, where the film will screen. Aarik Danielson of the Columbia Daily Tribune also spoke with Greene about his film. Over at KBIA, Abbie Fentress Swanson interviewed director Jessica Oreck about her film THE VANQUISHING OF THE WITCH BABA YAGA, also a True/False selection.
This week Stranger Than Fiction is hosting A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM, a film about a photo taken of a collection of some of the greatest jazz musicians in history, on Tuesday, February 25 at 8 p.m. at the IFC Center in Manhattan. Following the screening there will be a Q&A with the film’s producer Matthew Sieg and editor Susan Peehl. For more information or to buy tickets please go here.
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Canadian documentary film festival Hot Docs kicked off this week.
This year’s Hot Docs festival began on Thursday, April 26 in Toronto, Canada. Realscreen’s Adam Benzine had a chance to speak with some of those responsible for the festival, North America’s largest dedicated to documentary films. Benzine also interviewed filmmaker Shawney Cohen about his Hot Docs premiere THE MANOR. At the POV blog, Tom Roston provided a preview of the festival. Ezra Winton of Art Threat provided a nice history of the festival, and offered its organizers five pieces of constructive criticism for the future. Writing for Canada’s POV Magazine, Marc Glassman posted a roundup of reviews of films screening at the festival. Laura Zizek of the Toronto Review of Books also provided an overview of Hot Docs, while Christopher Campbell shared some reviews at Film School Rejects. At the Globe and Mail, Steve Ladurantaye and Simon Haupt noted the drop in domestic doc production faced by filmmakers in the Great White North.
Closer to STF’s home, the Tribeca Film Festival came to a close yesterday in New York City. THE KILL TEAM from director Dan Krauss took home the award for best doc feature, while COACH from director Bess Kargman won the best doc short award. There’s a full list of award winners at festival’s website, while Adam Benzine of Realscreen had additional reporting on the doc awards. Writing for NPR’s Monkey See blog, Joel Arnold shared a roundup of films he saw, while Anthony Kaufman’s weekly Docutopia post also centered on the festival. Kaufman also considered how race, class and warfare played out as film subjects in a separate post at Indiewire.
At the New York Times’ ArtsBeat blog, Mekado Murphy posted an interview with Whoopi Goldberg, director of the Tribeca-screened Moms Mabley doc I GOT SOMETHIN’ TO TELL YOU. John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter penned a review of the Bill Siegel doc THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI, while Brandon Harris of Filmmaker Magazine named Jason Oder’s LET THE FIRE BURN the best film he had seen at Tribeca. Indiewire critic Eric Kohn made the case that Tribeca should have created a separate category for documentary profiles. And Kelly Anderson of Realscreen reported that work-in-progress (T)ERROR from filmmaker Lyric Cabral had nabbed the Tribeca All Access (TAA) Creative Promise documentary award.
The Tribeca Film Institute last week also hosted its second interactive day, with Liz Nord providing a recap for the POV blog, and Alex Campolo of the Harmony Institute doing the same. Patricia Aufderheide did the same for the blog at American University’s Center for Social Media.
This week Stranger Than Fiction plays host to Sarah Polley’s well-regarded film STORIES WE TELL on Tuesday, April 30 at 8pm at the IFC Center in Manhattan. Agata Smoluch Del Sorbo of the Toronto Film Festival described the film as “ a lively and richly textured documentary that seamlessly blends past and present, the real and the imagined.” Following the screening, filmmaker and D-Word founder Doug Block will be in attendance for a Q&A and discussion. For more information or to purchase tickets please click here.
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The doc Mistaken for Strangers opened this year's Tribeca Film Festival.
The 2013 edition of the Tribeca Film Festival began April 17 with a screening of the film MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS about the rock band the National, directed by Tom Berninger. Critic Eric Kohn reviewed the film for Indiewire, giving it a letter grade of “B.” At Reuters, Chris Michaud took a look at some of the docs screening at this year’s festival. Writing for the POV blog, Tom Roston also previewed the festival’s docs, and in a separate post highlighted the films BIG FLEX and FLEX IS KINGS. Also writing for the POV blog, Liz Nord described the transmedia Storyscapes section of the festival as a “must-see.” Alex Reben’s BlabDroids project, which uses robots to make a documentary, got write-ups from both Angela Wattercutter of Wired and Samantha Murphy of Mashable.
The doc WHICH WAY IS THE FRONT LINE FROM HERE? THE LIFE AND TIME OF TIM HETHERINGTON got a fair bit of press over the last week, cadging no fewer than four interviews with director Sebastian Junger. R. Kurt Osenlund interviewed Junger for the pages of Filmmaker Magazine, while Adam Benzine spoke with him for Realscreen. Alison Willmore of Indiewire also chatted up Junger, as did Christopher Campbell at the Documentary Channel blog.
For those interested in checking out Junger’s film, Stranger Than Fiction is hosting a screening on Tuesday, April 23 at 8pm at the IFC Center in Manhattan. Following the screening, James Barbazon, a colleague of Hetherington’s, and Alan Huffman, the author of Hetherington’s biography, will be in attendance for a Q&A. You can find out more information and purchase tickets here.
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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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