Screen Time

Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Like everyone else, the Documentary team has been deeply mourning the passing of Broadway titan Stephen Sondheim, but we’ve also been celebrating his life by playing and replaying soundtracks from his musicals, and watching documentaries that honor his amazing legacy. No surprises here, but DA Pennebaker's 1970 documentary, Original Cast Album: “Company" tops our list. The film, as legendary as the eponymous musical, was long unavailable, but you can now watch it on Criterion

Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Sian-Pierre Regis’ Duty Free is the story of the filmmaker teaming up with his 75-year-old mother, Rebecca, to take the trip of a lifetime—checking things off Rebecca’s bucket list of adventures. Join them on their journey as they take us on a fun ride but also remind us of the terrible ways in which the State and the society view elders and do very little for their upkeep and wellness. Watch the film, now streaming on PBS’ Independent Lens. Did you know that in 1992, at the

Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. It’s Noirvember! Kick off your celebrations with the " Film Noir" episode of PBS’ American Cinema series, which is now available on YouTube. Directed by Jeffrey Schon and hosted by John Lithgow, the documentary walks the audiences through the history of film noir and includes interviews with several filmmakers from across cinematic ages. We’ve known Wuhan for a variety of reasons over the last few years. Back in 2007, filmmaker Weijun Chen made Please Vote For Me, which is

Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. The National Film Board of Canada’s annual American Indian Film Festival is back, and is running ​​November 5–13, 2021. In its 46th year, all the films in the virtual program will be available for streaming in the US. While everything on the program is recommended viewing, don’t forget to check out the nominated doc features: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy, Campbell Dalglish, Dr. Henrietta Mann’s Savage Land, Tanya Talaga’s Spirit to Soar

Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. It’s the season for scary movies! Even as real life continues to be scarier than fictional tales of ghosts and ghouls, David Stubbs’ Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses manages to spook the most steel-hearted of audiences. The film follows the 22-year-old Janet Moses who, believed to be cursed, is made to undergo a most horrific exorcism ritual that later came to be known as “the Wainuiomata exorcism.” Watch it on Apple TV with the lights on. Although “The Rumble in the

Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. October is Filipino American History Month. Here at IDA we’re forever in awe of our Filipino American colleagues who continue to make our worlds richer with their stories. We are also big fans of Maria Ressa, who was the recipient of our 2020 Truth to Power Award, and is now a Nobel Peace Prize laureate! This week’s Screen Time is dedicated to Ressa, her amazing colleagues at the Philippines-based online news network Rappler, and to all our other Filipino colleagues. Make

Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. At IDA, we deeply mourn the passing of Melvin Van Peebles, the “the godfather of modern Black cinema.” Van Peebles was an actor, poet, artist, filmmaker and playwright, among other things. Celebrate his humbling legacy with filmmaker ​​Joe Angio’s How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) on Amazon Prime. In Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue, filmmaker Jia Zhangke speaks to three authors who, like Jia, all hail from China’s Shanxi province. Through their

Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. To continue our celebration of documentaries around Hispanic heritage, we wanted to make sure you’ve watched María José Cuevas’s Bellas de Noche. An exploration of Mexico’s burlesque culture of the 1970s and 1980s, the documentary, playing on Netflix, introduces us to fascinating protagonists who were former showgirls living up the disco lifestyle. In Lali Houghton’s Dead Woman’s Pass, join Maxi Manuttupa, a single mother from Cusco, Peru, and an Indigenous woman, who helps

Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Maya Cade, who works as an Audience Strategist at The Criterion Collection, has painstakingly pulled together a collection of Black films made between 1915 and 1979, that are currently streaming. It's called the Black Film Archive and as it says on the website, “Every word on Black Film Archive is thoroughly researched and lovingly written by her.” It is a treasure trove and also a testament to how limited our viewing habits are. Thanks to Cade, changing that is easier than

Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. The New York Times critic James Poniewozik recently wrote in this piece, “Is 9/11 a Day, or Is It an Era?”: “For 20 years, the refrain has been: Remember, remember, remember. Memory is so ingrained in the language of Sept. 11 — “Never forget” — as to imply that it is obligatory, and sufficient, for future generations merely to remember by revisiting the narrative and imagery of one terrible day, rather than to connect it to the years of history that followed.” As important as