Now a quarter-century old, the Museum of Modern Art’s Doc Fortnight has developed into one of the most sharply curated showcases for nonfiction film in the United States. In a climate of festivals fixated on acquiring flashy premieres, MoMA’s programmers instead focus on finding the new and recent titles that interest them most to give New York a taste of the international doc scene. This year, many of Doc Fortnight’s picks significantly repurpose existing media to new ends: Eight Postcards From Utopia, B.F. Skinner Plays Himself, John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office, Give it Back: Stage Theory, Henry Fonda for President, and An Unfinished Film.
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Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival’s industry platform Agora has gained prominence among documentary professionals and become one of the key events in the winter calendar. Documentary Magazine spoke to Vergou and several professionals in attendance to take stock of this year’s market, examining content trends and the current climate for business. When discussing content trends, Vergou focuses on the growing conversation about supporting filmmakers who lack access to national funding due to political reasons or who have been forced to flee their home countries due to persecution. This year, Agora, in collaboration with DOK Leipzig’s DOK Industry, launched the Doc Together initiative to provide practical support.
At Wednesday morning’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee hearing, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, joined by several House Republicans, argued for rolling back federal funding of PBS and NPR due to alleged bias in their content and reporting. The brunt of the heat was concertedly directed at NPR, which GOP members lambasted for allegedly “violating journalistic integrity” due to the outlets’ coverage of topics that range from COVID-19 to Hunter Biden’s laptop controversy. The meeting, which boasted the title “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS
While SXSW undoubtedly has its share of buzzy (i.e., some combination of the true crime, music, and celebrity genre) documentaries, navigating through the admittedly unwieldy program can also be a fun treasure hunt. In the end, you’re likely to be gifted with at least a handful of inspiring U.S. nonfiction films no one is talking about yet. This latest edition (March 7–15) began with the added bonus of a trio of female-helmed films, all focused in different ways on one virtually off-the-radar topic: motherhood and its intersection with the law: Baby Doe, Arrest the Midwife, and Uvalde Mom.
In 2003, a group of eight artists covertly built a living space in an unused part of the parking structure for Providence, Rhode Island’s gargantuan Providence Place shopping mall. Upon the apartment’s discovery in 2007, it became a brief local news sensation, before the story was largely forgotten. Jeremy Workman has brought the group back together to tell the tale in his documentary Secret Mall Apartment. We sat down with Workman for a call to discuss the unusual art project, the footage his subjects captured, and how he gained their trust to make the documentary after they’d denied other filmmakers for years.
Documentary is happy to debut a clip from Jim Lebrecht’s ( Crip Camp ) latest feature, Change, Not Charity: The Americans With Disabilities Act. The film premieres tonight as part of flagship history series American Experience on PBS and streaming on pbs.org. Alongside narration from Peter Dinklage, this meticulously researched doc is told through the voices of key participants and witnesses who testify to “the power of coalition building and bipartisan compromise,” according to the official description, that culminated in the 1990 passage of the American With Disabilities (ADA) Act
Documentary is happy to debut the trailer for Vicky Du’s first feature, Light of the Setting Sun (2024) . The film premiered last year at Full Frame and will open theatrically next month at DCTV. Light of the Setting Sun inquires into the director’s family history through family archives, Du’s voiceover, and a culminating mother-daughter trip to Taiwan to unlock what can’t be said. Pic is produced by Danielle Varga ( The Hottest August ). Citing inspiration from Taiwanese auteur Edward Yang, Du explains the incredibly personal beginnings of her film: “Eight years ago, my brother shared that he
Earlier today, March 24, No Other Land co-director Hamdan Ballal was violently attacked and kidnapped in the West Bank. This news was reported in social media posts published by Ballal’s No Other Land collaborators Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham.
International Documentary Association (IDA) announced that Inti Cordera, executive director of DocsMX, Nathalie Seaver, Producer and executive vice president of Foothill Productions, Joel Simon, founding director of the Journalism Protection Initiative at Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, and Luis González Zaffaroni, executive director of DOCSP have joined its board of directors.
Yesterday, Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner officially rescinded his recent proposal to defund and evict the government-housed and funded O Cinema for showing No Other Land. At a Miami Beach City Commission meeting on Wednesday, March 19, Meiner presented an alternate proposal, which would require the independent theater to “showcase films that highlight a fair and balanced viewpoint of the current war between Israel and the groups Hamas and Hezbollah.” “We were so very glad to see the vast majority of the commissioners speak up for the importance of free speech without government interference,” O Cinema co-founder and board member Kareem Tabsch tells Documentary, after the meeting concluded. “And grateful that Mayor Meiner listened to his community and his colleagues and withdrew the resolution.”