While the U.S. automotive industry has had a little bit of hope lately, don't forget to miss the downer doc, The Last Truck: The Closing of a GM Plant when it airs on HBO on Sept. 7. When filmmakers Julie Reichardt and Steven Bognar screened it to hundreds of workers who lost their jobs when General Motors closed an Ohio sport-utility vehicle plant, the subject of the film, it was met with cheers and tears.
RealScreen is excited to see the doc Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, come to the Toronto International Film Festival this year (he is, after all, bringing his girlfriends). TIFF runs from Sept. 10-19. (via Realscreen)
Andrew Herwitz's Film Sales Company has secured worldwide sales rights to Joan Baez: How Sweet The Sound ahead of its Toronto premiere in September. Pretty swee, huh? (via Screen Daily)
A new movie directed by Jodie Foster, entitled Cockeyed, Earth Camp One by Paris is Burning director Jennie Livingston and Fame High by The Garden director Scott Hamilton Kennedy are some of the highlights of the upcoming Independent Film Week. Formerly known as the IFP Market, the invitation only Project Forum of IFP’s Independent Film Week will present some 116 projects this year, September 19 - 24, 2009 in New York City. See an entire listing here. (via indieWIRE)
Opening this week: We Live in Public, which tells the story of the effect the Web is having on our society; At the Edge of the World about volunteers determined to shut down an illegal whaling fleet in Antarctic waters (check out the New York Times piece and our own Doc Shot interview); The September Issue, about bringing the single largest issue of Vogue to life. Check out legendary Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour on The Late Show with David Letterman:
In anticipation, perhaps, of the release date of the actual September issue of Vogue, R. J. Cutler's The September Issue, which captures the production process of that monumental issue as well as the driving forces behind it, opens in New York today, via Roadside Attractions and A&E Indie Films, with a nationwide release slated for September 11.
From the forthcoming Fall 2009 issue of Documentary, here's an article by Sara Vizcarrondo, which includes an interview with Cutler.