Essential Doc Reads is our curated selection of recent features and important news items about the documentary form and its processes, from around the internet, as well as from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! Honeyland was one of the most acclaimed documentaries of 2019, having opened the year with three awards at the Sundance Film Festival, and having wrapped it up a year later with two Academy Award nominations. Filmmakers Ljubomir Stefanov, Atanas Georgiev and Tamara Kotevska felt an obligation to their protagonists, Hatidze Muratova and Hussein Sam, in the wake of this
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While we are missing being with each other in person, we’re looking forward to nurturing our relationships with members of the documentary community online. Here are 10 reasons why you won’t want to miss this year's edition of #DocsGetReal.
COVID-19 exposed and accentuated long-standing fault lines in our industry: a financial sustainability crisis, the absence of labor protections, and a growing movement to reconcile decades of structural inequities between white and Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) filmmakers and communities.
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Now streaming via Alamo On Demand Virtual Cinema is Ai Weiwei’s latest film, Coronation, about the COVID-driven lockdown in Wuhan, China, which went into effect January 23, 2020—a month and a half after the first patient with COVID-19 symptoms was identified in Wuhan. Coronation, which Ai Weiwei directed and produced from his residence in Berlin and which was filmed by Wuhan citizens, examines the political specter of Chinese state control over the course of the lockdown. The
The first time an episodic series was programmed on opening day of the Sundance Film Festival happened a lifetime ago—i.e., just this past January. And the series to be awarded the unusual distinction was similarly unconventional. Love Fraud is unsurprisingly well-crafted, considering that the Oscar-nominated duo of Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady ( Jesus Camp; Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You) are the filmmakers behind this four-part docuseries premiering August 30 on Showtime. The series takes an often noirish approach to the inspired feminist takedown of the truly bizarre Richard Scott
Essential Doc Reads is our curated selection of recent features and important news items about the documentary form and its processes, from around the internet, as well as from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! René Otero, one of the protagonists featured in Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ Boys State, reflects on his experiences in the Texas-based program for teenage political aspirants in an Op-Ed in The New York Times. Boys State immersed me in a culture that refuses to criticize America, confusing praise with patriotism while ignoring the fact that with love comes
In this most tumultuous of years, 2020 is also shaping up to be a transformational year for IDA, lockdown notwithstanding. For one, there’s the much-anticipated digital rendition of Getting Real 2020 a month away, and the first of three Getting Real NOW conversation just having been launched. We also added five new staff members—Getting Real Programmers Stephanie Owens, Nat Ruiz Tofano and Christina D. King; Associate Communications Manager Sally Márquez; and Membership & Individual Giving Manager Veronica Monteyro. And last month, we witnessed a transition at the top of the IDA Board, with
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Mr SOUL!, the 2018 IDA Documentary Award winner from Melissa Haizlip, premieres virtually on August 28. The film profiles Haizlip’s late uncle, Ellis Haizlip, who produced and hosted the groundbreaking PBS program SOUL! from 1968-1973, at the height of the Black Power and Civil Rights Movements. SOUL! was a landmark celebration of Black American culture, art, life, love and community, that beamed out to households across the nation in their living rooms every week. Pacific
The most nerve-wracking sequence in David France’s Welcome to Chechnya is, without doubt, the rescue of Anya.
Britain’s public service broadcaster Channel 4 took an early lead in commissioning fast- turnaround films about how the coronavirus is impacting the UK. As a publisher broadcaster, Channel 4 solicits all of its content from the independent production community. Channel 4’s Head of Factual Danny Horan notes, “We have been in conversations and pitched great ideas by the best storytellers in the business. It’s been our lifeblood and will continue to be.” Documentary spoke to three production teams about their approach. A Day in the Life of Coronavirus Britain: Inspired by Kevin Macdonald’s Life