Your Source for Documentary News
Your Source for Documentary News
Spotlight
“Hoop Dreams” director Steve James is reinventing the documentary industry by defying it
Source: The Washington Post Chicago moviemaker Steve James has always stayed ahead of the documentary film industry. Maybe too far ahead. James brought a then-unheard-of narrative sensibility to his 1994 basketball documentary “Hoop Dreams.” He embedded dangerously...
Nancy Buirski, director of “The Rape of Recy Taylor,” talks about the Oprah Winfrey effect
Source: Vulture At the Golden Globe awards ceremony on Sunday night, while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement, Oprah Winfrey used her enormous platform and oratory skills to shine light on a little-known historical figure who died at the...
Documentary film legend Frederick Wiseman’s entire catalog heading to free streaming service Kanopy
Source: Deadline With "Ex Libris: The New York Public Library," the 41st and latest documentary by Frederick Wiseman, making an Oscar run, the noted filmmaker’s entire catalog will start streaming in the coming months on Kanopy, a service that's free to library card...
“Last Men in Aleppo” director Firas Fayyad comments on Syria’s elusive endgame
Source: The Hollywood Reporter Within the crowded field of documentaries vying for awards this season is a sub-skirmish of titles dealing with the war in Syria. But the only one made by a Syrian is Firas Fayyad’s "Last Men in Aleppo," a Sundance Film Festival 2017...
Morgan Spurlock admits to sexual misconduct. Steps down from his production company.
Source: Reuters Award-winning documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock stepped down from his production company, Warrior Poets, on Thursday after saying on social media that he had engaged in sexual misconduct. The “Super Size Me” director posted a message through his...
“Icarus” filmmakers respond to Russia’s Olympics ban for state-sponsored doping system
Source: IndieWire In an unprecedented move, the International Olympic Committee has banned Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. In December 2016, the I.O.C. began disciplinary proceedings against 28 athletes who represented Russia at the previous Winter...
“Chasing Coral” director is confident there will be a climate change solution: “We have no choice other than to solve it”
Source: IndieWire For a time, “Chasing Coral” director Jeff Orlowski was worried he wouldn’t actually be able to capture the climax of his film. “We weren’t capturing the bleaching and the cameras didn’t work,” he recently said. “We knew that, unfortunately for the...
“This Is Congo” director Daniel McCabe on telling the country’s real story
Source: TIME Photojournalist Daniel McCabe first went to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008 to cover a series of armed rebellions that were tearing the country’s eastern regions apart. A chance encounter with a young, charismatic and potentially dangerous major...
“Oklahoma City” filmmakers say there’s a direct line between Timothy McVeigh and Charlottesville
Source: IndieWire The Oklahoma City bombing occurred more than 20 years ago, but it remains the worst act of domestic terrorism in America. “Oklahoma City” traces the interactions between law enforcement and fringe groups in Ruby Ridge and Waco that led to Timothy...
Filmmaker Joe Berlinger on Documenting 25 Years of True Crime
Source: HuffPost True crime documentaries are having a moment—and award-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger knows why. Berlinger has been making movies for more than 25 years. His films “Brother’s Keeper” (1992) and the Paradise Lost trilogy (1996-2011) helped pioneer...
Meet Violeta Ayala, the director who gave cameras to Bolivian inmates for “Cocaine Prison”
Source: Remezcla Amid the celebrity profile documentaries and high-profile biopics that dotted the landscape at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Violeta Ayala’s "Cocaine Prison" was an extraordinary hunk of primary-source reporting: a documentary shot...
Director Brett Morgen talks about the transition from rock docs to his intimate portrait of Jane Goodall
Source: Film Journal International Jane Goodall may seem like a well-chronicled woman—after all, she’s written more than a dozen books and been the subject of numerous films. But documentary director Brett Morgen’s new National Geographic film "Jane" adds some...
An interview with Elaine McMillion Sheldon, director of opioid crisis doc “Heroin(e)”
Source: 100 Days in Appalachia Elaine McMillion Sheldon won a Peabody Award for her 2013 interactive documentary “Hollow,” which examines the future of rural America through the eyes and voices of McDowell County, West Virginia residents. McMillion Sheldon's latest,...
Inside the making of “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” with director Steve James
Source: PBS Director Steve James is no stranger to telling the stories of people and communities facing challenging circumstances. Over the course of his decades-long career, the iconic documentary filmmaker behind "Hoop Dreams," "Life Itself," and "The Interrupters"...
“20 Feet from Stardom” director Morgan Neville shares how he got his start
Source: Peninsula Daily News Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville found his life’s work at a young age. Neville, Academy Award winner for "20 Feet from Stardom," was interviewed by actress and educator Akuyoe Graham at Port Townsend High School...
Oakland, California police documentary “The Force” is second film in director’s trilogy
Source: hoodline A new documentary opening this week offers a look inside one of the most tumultuous periods for the Oakland, California police department, including a period of intense protests, a string of deadly officer-involved shootings, and an explosive...
Director Greg Barker talks about capturing Obama’s last months in office
Source: Variety Greg Barker set out to make a thematic bookend to “The War Room” with “The Final Year,” a look at Barack Obama’s foreign policy team over their last 12 months in office. Whereas "The War Room," the 1993 documentary about Bill Clinton’s White House...
Errol Morris on Alternative Facts, CIA Coverups, and His New Netflix Series “Wormwood”
Source: Variety Errol Morris, the Oscar-winning director of “The Thin Blue Line” and “The Fog of War,” is back with the most formally daring project of his career, “Wormwood.” The six-part Netflix miniseries defies easy categorization. It is equal parts documentary...
Ron Howard on why he loves making documentaries
Source: Screen Daily Ron Howard’s documentary, "The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years," earned five Emmy nods including one for outstanding documentary. The director tells Screen Daily how documentary film has been a new creative outlet in his career,...
Meet the Broadway producer who directed one of the best documentaries of the year
Source: Playbill Among her theatre industry friends and colleagues, Amanda Lipitz is primarily known as a producer, with a Broadway résumé that includes "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," "Legally Blonde The Musical," "The Performers," "A View From the Bridge," and...