Many media depictions of Chicago don’t resonate with me. As someone raised in its northern suburbs, I’m happy to watch works such as "The Dark Knight" (2008), "Widows" (2018), or one of the Kartemquin documentaries shot in the city. However, most of them focus on the city’s corrupt politics or have a strong crime element in the story. In a saturated media market where (true) crime sells, a story’s criminal and political attention-grabbing subject can overshadow the aspirations of real-life residents.
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In films like 'Hoop Dreams' (1994), 'Stevie' (2002), and 'The Interrupters' (2011) and television series like 'America to Me' (2018) and 'City So Real' (2020), Steve James has established himself as one of the preeminent observational documentarians in the US. Over nearly 30 years, he’s chronicled social change in Chicago via various ordinary citizens, from aspiring basketball players to antiviolence activists. In a departure for James, his latest film, 'A Compassionate Spy,' is a real-life espionage thriller about Theodore Hall, a young physicist on the Manhattan Project.
Like other languages, filmmaking is one that is learned but also raised in historical, societal, and cultural patterns. As Augusto Boal posits in his book 'Theatre of the Oppressed,' "By learning a language, a person acquires a new way of knowing reality and passing that knowledge on to others." In May 2023, Kundura DocLab brought together documentary theater- and filmmakers from Turkey and surrounding countries to explore the intersections of the two practices and encourage new languages.
When we think about the traces we usually identify as “surrealist” in cinema, the main reference tends to be the work of French surrealist artists and thinkers from the 1920s. But what would happen if— in search of an alternative history, unexplored forms of thought, and a different way of understanding some artistic gestures—we redirect our gaze to Latin America? In this essay, I try to follow the footprints of an idea that keep appearing, although mostly in a marginal way, in the writings and films of several Latin American authors throughout the 20th century, in order to rethink some recent
Returning to Toronto for my first post-pandemic visit to Hot Docs for this year’s 30th anniversary celebration (April 27-May 7) was well worth both the (red-eye) trek and (three-hour) time zone change. Besides getting my spring sneak peek at some of the best documentaries likely to land at a US fest/theater/streamer this fall, I was able to experience the added bonus of an inaugural festival within the fest: the Hot Docs Podcast Festival Showcase. In addition to five live events at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema—including buzzy evenings with the Radiolab guys, the Scamfluencers ladies, and the
The pieces published this month celebrate Disability Pride Month and Immersive July, comprising a series of events, convenings, and articles centering on the potential of immersive technologies like AR, VR, and haptics to push forward the nonfiction form.
IDA proudly awards the IDA Supported Artist Grant to Cirta (Tunisia) – Producer Olfa Ben Achour and Director Saif Chida. With an authentic approach and creative construction, this cinematic film made us remember why we love physical exhibition spaces.
We are pleased to announce that on Friday, July 21, International Documentary Association (IDA) and Documentary Workers United/CWA Local 9003 ratified their first two-year contract.
Largely due to the ongoing efforts of disabled artists and activists, ensuring art is accessible—to both audience members and artists—has moved from the margins to a central topic in creating, producing, and staging immersive nonfiction. We’ve seen the conversation reach major stages through initiatives like the 2022 Film Festival Accessibility Scorecard , a step toward institutionalized accountability and rewritten best practices for showcasing accessible art. From including CART and ASL transcriptions in live events (like this one) to including content warnings in depictions of triggering
Member Spotlight highlighting Dani Wieczorek, a Brazilian, LA-based creative producer. Born with a disability, Dani has a journey where unimagined things were proven possible. She believes her incredible capacity to solve problems to be a special power brought to her by her disability. She has defied the odds and found ways to hack life from a young age. Nothing seems impossible to her.