International Music Day is on October 1, and it’s the perfect opportunity to explore our world’s multifaceted communities through music! We’ve curated a list of eight documentaries worth your while to not only dive into some great music, but also understand its role as a vehicle for and mirror on social, political and cultural issues around the world. What Happened, Miss Simone? (Liz Garbus, 2015) Liz Garbus’ Academy Award-nominated film offers an up-close-and-personal look into the life of iconic American singer-songwriter, pianist and vocalist Nina Simone, whose distinctive artistry and
Latest Posts
Asif Kapadia’s new documentary about the Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona, a player almost as famous for his dubious conduct off the pitch as for his brilliance on it, opens with a POV shot through the windshield of a car. To the beat of a pulsating score, the vehicle dashes over city streets. We are seeing the world, it will become clear, through Maradona’s eyes as he speeds into a soccer stadium in Naples, Italy, to face a raucous press corps after his momentous signing by the local club. POV is critical to Kapadia’s style of documentary filmmaking, a style manifested in Amy (2015)
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! Nearly two years after he published his career-halting confessional essay as the #MeToo movement was gathering force, Morgan Spurlock sat down with Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. to talk about the fallout, the struggles and the long road to recovery. It started off with me thinking I needed to first talk about my
Documentary Filmmakers: Tell Us More About Your Gear & Help Creators Worldwide. WIN a GoPro HERO7 Black or DJI Osmo Action!
It’s been a year since 93Queen's theatrical release and subsequent POV broadcast. As the successful chaos of the release quiets, I am developing a new feature as an Artist in Residence at Concordia Studio, thus, making the transition from "first-time filmmaker" to simply "filmmaker." With this new project, I'm also moving from telling a universal story of women's empowerment in one very particular place, to finding a particular story embedded in a large national crisis. As I pause to take inventory of 93Queen's triumphs and trials in preparation for this new journey, I realize that the lessons
Editor’s Note: Filmmaker Lisa Valencia-Svensson was invited to deliver a keynote address at Hot Docs this past spring. What follows is an abbreviated version of that keynote. The "Why" of Diversity Diversity, inclusion, representation—familiar words in public discourse. In this keynote, I explore why the question of "Who is telling whose story to whom, and why?" should be at the center of the making of every documentary film. People often support "diversity initiatives" simply because they "know it’s good to do" or "we've been mandated to do so by those in charge." But our efforts to build a
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Buzz, premiering September 25 on HBO, follows Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author Buzz Bissinger as he experiences a sexual awakening while collaborating with Caitlyn Jenner on her tell-all memoir. A verité portrait of his transformative journey, directed by his childhood friend Andrew Shea, Buzz follows the author as he simultaneously examines his own heteronormative constraints, exploring previously uncharted sexual desires in ways that test his marriage, family and
Apply by October 25, 2019 for fellowship is designed to enhance opportunities for writers from underserved and underrepresented communities to participate in the editorial planning process at, and contribute content to Documentary magazine.
Thirty-seven years since IDA was launched, the documentary form has soared in popularity, keeping us attuned, informed and endlessly curious. Not only have documentaries become a staple of every digital streaming platform available, but they have transformed into episodic content, audio stories, animation and immersive, new media experiences that have widened the scope of what a documentary means, or can achieve. As the 35th anniversary of the IDA Documentary Awards approaches, we reached out to some of the prime movers behind the awards, as well as some of the past winners, to give us a sense
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! IndieWire's Erik Kohn talked to filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel about his slate of short docs he's making for The Nobel prize and National Geographic. "It's not a financially stable way to work, but it’s lovely to be able to do something relatively quickly," he said. "You can find a story and shoot in a reasonable