As the storytelling for cinematic documentary has evolved over the years, and audiences become ever more comfortable with the blending of techniques, the experience of seeing a documentary on the big screen is often every bit as gratifyingly gripping as a dramatic thriller. Two British films playing at the 63rd annual BFI London Film Festival brought this home to me— both created nail-bitingly suspenseful dramatic storylines from their very different subjects. Ed Perkins' Tell Me Who I Am is essentially a two-hander in which twin brothers confront some painful, long-suppressed secrets of their
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Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Now available on YouTube Originals, The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash, directed by Thom Zimny, explores the artistic victories, the personal tragedies, the struggles with addiction, and the spiritual pursuits that colored Johnny Cash's life. The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash is nominated for an IDA Documentary Award for Best Music Documentary. The Interpreters, from Andres Caballero and Sofian Khan, is streaming on Independent Lens through December 11. The film tells
Essential Doc Reads is a weekly feature in which the IDA staff recommends recent pieces about the documentary form and its processes. Here we feature think pieces and important news items from around the Internet, and articles from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! Variety's Addie Morfoot assesses the documentary landscape for gender parity, and finds more progress than elsewhere in the media arts industry--but challenges remain. But women behind the camera, including an impressive roster of female nonfiction gatekeepers at HBO, Apple, PBS and Netflix, as well as the launch
Between 2017 and 2018, Stephen K. Bannon, a former documentary film distributor (Werner Herzog's The White Diamond, Jonathan Caouette's Tarnation, Steve James' Reel Paradise), former film producer (Sean Penn's The Indian Runner), former head of the conservative media website Breitbart News, former manager of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and until mid-2017 chief strategist for now-President Donald Trump, was considered a Shakespearean figure. Some dubbed him "Trump’s Brain." Time magazine dubbed him "The Great Manipulator." Many believed then, and still today, that Trump would never
Open City Documentary Festival was founded in 2010 at University College London by Michael Stewart, and is now directed by Chloe Trayner. The festival showcases a socially engaged selection of films from around the globe each year. This year was no exception. Around 40 films screened across six venues in five days. Not one of these seemed very far removed from the social and historical circumstances of its center of production. This year’s festival focused on "The Art of Non Fiction." While this apparent theme might seem to detract from the global political climate, the recurrent preoccupation
Roger Ross Williams grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania and then moved to New York to, as he has said, escape both racism and homophobia in his hometown. After graduating from New York University, he started his career writing for Michael Moore's 1994 television series TV Nation. He continued working in television over the next decade, including directing New York Underground, a documentary TV series produced by The New York Times and the Discovery Channel about the life in the city's subway system. In 2010, Williams became the first African-American director to win an Oscar, for his documentary
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. IDA Documentary Award nominee Sea of Shadows, from Richard Ladkani, makes its broadcast premiere this Saturday, November 9 on National Geographic. The film tracks the efforts of a team of scientists, conservationists, journalists, undercover agents and the Mexican Navy as they battle to save the rare totoaba fish from poachers, whose deadly methods threaten to destroy virtually all marine life in the Sea of Cortez region. Julia Reichert, the 2018 IDA Career Achievement Award
Back in high school I had a psychology teacher who was known for opening up students’ backpacks and slowly removing ALL the contents out onto one’s desk if classroom rules weren’t followed. This ritual caused a great deal of fascination for the class. I thought of this when Tom White approached me asking me to share what is “inside my bag” with Documentary. Unlike my high school days, I’ll do a bit of editing and share with you the poignant stuff that I’ve photographed here. What is not pictured are my iPhone, laptop and lip gloss. On my iPhone are essential apps: Artemis for framing, Sun
Ready to venture into the world of podcasting? Well, the good news is, there is a low barrier to entry, meaning you don’t need much in the way of equipment to set up shop: a digital recorder, microphone, headphones, editing software and a few peripherals are about what it takes. Remember, It’s the Story That Matters. Of course, having top-of-the-line equipment would be nice, but it’s all in the way you use it—how you position the mic, how close you get the mic to the subject (which is different for film vs. audio). And of course, how comfortable you make the subject feel is key. First, you’re
Essential Doc Reads is a weekly feature in which the IDA staff recommends recent pieces about the documentary form and its processes. Here we feature think pieces and important news items from around the Internet, and articles from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! The New York Times Magazine's Christine Smallwood profiles maverick docmaker Caveh Zahedi and his "abject, self-defeating ethically questionable, maddeningly original approach to documentary." "Caveh’s work opened me up: as a creator, as a viewer, as a recovering moralist," wrote Lena Dunham in the notes