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! From TVreal, Sara Alessi talks to gatekeepers about the true crime genre phenomenon. Audiences find true-crime so gripping because the traditional whodunits and longer explorations tap into "universal themes of betrayal, lust, greed, revenge and overcoming adversity," says Laura Fleury, A+E Networks' senior VP
Latest Posts
Leah Smith defiantly refuses to believe she needs to be "fixed." A media and entertainment advocate for the Center for Disability Rights, who holds degrees in both public relations and political science (as well as a master’s in public administration), Smith is one of several preconceived notion-upending characters in Emmy Award-winning documentarian Rachel Dretzin’s Far From the Tree. An adaptation of Andrew Solomon’s widely lauded 2012 bestseller Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, the film is a lovingly rendered deep dive into the lives of families with
IDA announced today that it will bring Gimme Truth! to Getting Real ‘18, the only documentary film gathering of its kind in North America. This special edition of the infamous documentary game show is presented in partnership with True/False Film Fest. The wildly entertaining event is a hilarious mashup of filmmaking and investigation, where local filmmakers attempt to stump the panelists with their short doc-style videos that are entirely TRUE or entirely FALSE. The game show will be free and open to the public.
"Show me the money!" was Cuba Gooding Jr.'s rallying cry in Jerry Maguire back in the '90s. Today everyone seems intent on showing you the money; ostentatious displays of wealth seem to be all around us. In her new film, Generation Wealth, veteran photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield ( Thin; Queen of Versailles) takes us on a dizzying journey around the globe, exploring our current obsession with wealth and its trappings. The documentary—part of a multiplatform project that includes a travelling photography exhibition and a photography book—explores our unbridled obsession with
Marina Zenovich is a documentary filmmaker known for her sensitive handling of the life stories of high-profile—some might say, controversial—personalities ( Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired; Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic; Who Is Bernard Tapie?). For her latest documentary, she has taken on the legacy of actor/comic Robin Williams, who took his life in 2014. Nearly four years later, the shock of his loss persists. Documentary recently caught up with Zenovich to discuss Come Inside My Mind, a title as provocative as the man the film explores. What has the public's reaction been to your film
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Premiering tonight on ESPN is Enhanced, a six-episode series that takes viewers inside the secret world of modern sports training, technology, recovery and more, and raises questions about the characters, power struggles, and breakthrough innovations that are driving the greatest performances on the planet. The series, produced by Alex Gibney, features episodes from directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jesse Sweet, Paul Taublieb and Alison Klayman. Opening today and running
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! From Mubi, Simran Hans critiques two recent docs about Whitney Houston—Kevin Macdonald's Whitney and Nick Broomfield's Whitney: Can I Be Me?. It's curious that two middle-aged white men from the UK—Macdonald is Scottish, Broomfield English—are the designated authors of a story about a black American woman. Which
When the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision opened the floodgates to money in political campaigns, New Jersey-based director Kimberly Reed felt frustrated but didn’t know what to do. Two years later, it turned out, an old high school classmate of hers from Montana—Steve Bullock, then the state’s attorney general—was preparing to come to Washington, DC, to wage the only state challenge to the decision before the Supreme Court. "Initially, I thought this was going to be a 'Mr. Bullock Goes to Washington' story about how Montana resists Citizens United," Reed admits. "I wanted to be on
On July 1, Mexicans hit the polls to decide the country's new president amidst widespread violence, including violence against political candidates. In a landslide victory, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (or AMLO), who ran on a platform of tackling corruption, prioritizing the poor and reducing violence, was elected president of Mexico. He will take the oath of office on December 1. The question on the minds of many in the country is what AMLO and his new government will be able to do to tackle the seemingly intractable violence that has engulfed much of the country. Last year, Mexico
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Streaming on POV through July 15 are two films that take a ground-level view of border culture and politics between the US and Mexico. IDA Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award honoree Natalia Almada's Al Otro Lado (2006) follows Magdiel, an aspiring corrido composer from the drug capital of Mexico, as he faces two difficult choices to better his life: to traffic drugs or to cross the border illegally into the United States. Almada artfully deploys the tradition of corrida