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The Sundance Film Festival is known for exposing audiences to films they otherwise might not have a chance to see. It is also a launching pad for many films that go on to have robust theatrical and broadcast lives. More and more people are familiar with American documentaries that got their start at Sundance--in fact Super Size Me and this year's Oscar winner, Born into Brothels, were both favorites at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. But with fewer opportunities to see docs from abroad, Sundance audiences are far less familiar with world documentaries. That changed this year when the festival
DocuWeeks alumns 'Kings Point,' 'Open Heart' and 'The Perfect Fit' among the titles.
'Love Free or Die' airs October 29 on PBS' 'Independent Lens.'
'Photographic Memory' opens October 12 in New York City through First Run Features.
After ten days of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the world takes on a somewhat surreal hue. It is a sensory overload, a state of constant motion, shuttling between the Scotiabank and Bell Light Box theaters, the media lounge, slivers of fresh outside air in between. It is exhausting and exhilarating. TIFF's 2012 documentary film lineup was eagerly anticipated. Hip-hop luminaries, A-list actors and superstar intellectuals were in town to promote films to which they were attached. From Sarah Polley's buzzed-about, secretive Stories We Tell to Peter Mettler's profound and
Honey Boo Boo holds sway; Kirby Dick holds court.
IFP's Independent Film Week, which ran September 17 through 20 in New York City, had a strong focus on narrative filmmaking, but the programmers saved the best for last, devoting the final day to a wide range of discussions about documentary. The party kicked off with a conversation with Orlando Bagwell, director of the JustFilms initiative at the Ford Foundation; Jess Search, chief executive of the London-based BRITDOC Foundation, moderated the conversation. Bagwell began by walking us through his journey from teacher to filmmaker to film-funder. Orlando Bagwell, speaking at IFP's Independent
A review of the new book from Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein and Sharon Wood.
Documentaries about 20th century artists are rarely produced these days, and for a very good reason: The filmmakers can't afford to pay for rights. It isn't just painters' estates that obstruct these projects. Sometimes it's a still photographer who shot an artist for a magazine article. A case in point is Un Modle pour Matisse/A Model for Matisse, the feature-length documentary by Barbara Freed about the creation of Vence Chapel by French modernist painter Henri Matisse and his inspiration, his former nurse and model Monique Bourgeois, now Sister Jacques-Marie. Freed captures the Marcel