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! The Los Angeles Times' Amy Kaufman checks in on documentary filmmakers who are persevering through lockdown on their projects. While there are still no clear answers on when and how production could resume on Hollywood's scripted movies, many documentary filmmakers have been able to continue working. Some, like Porter, have been able to forge ahead by equipping their
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Most of us find ourselves spending an unprecedented amount of time at home, and cities seem to have come to a standstill. However, thousands of individuals have been waking up and going to work throughout the pandemic, for their loss from the workforce would be devastating for our daily lives. Many of us have the luxury to continue our professional lives from the comfort and safety of our homes, but essential workers are truly at the frontlines of the crisis, ensuring that we remain fed, housed and, if sick, taken care of, during these times. Whether it's medical staff working in emergency
When one thinks of a coming-out story these days, an LGBTQ teenager proudly declaring their identity on Instagram might immediately spring to mind. Which wasn't the case for the two women at the center of Chris Bolan's heartfelt doc A Secret Love (prods.: Ryan Murphy, Beech Hill, Alexa L. Fogel and Brendan Mason; exec. prod.: Jason Blum) streaming on Netflix starting April 29. The film is a decades-spanning portrait of the director's great-aunt Terry Donahue, a member of the women's pro baseball league that inspired the 1992 film A League of Their Own, and Pat Henschel, the hockey player she
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Premiering May 1 as part of Oscilloscope Laboratories' virtual cinema initiative, The Infiltrators, from Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera, tells the story of young immigrants who are detained by US Border Patrol and thrown into a detention center. These detainees, Marco and Viri, are on a mission to stop unjust deportations—by being detained. Their attempt at a prison break, however, doesn't go according to plan. This hybrid film—a blend of documentary footage of the real
As a graduate student at U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, I was required to take a class on law and ethics (students still are). As a student, I grumbled about reading case law and decades-old ethical case studies when I’d much rather be running around with a crew and a camera. But when I found myself in a newsroom setting, I immediately realized that it was potentially the most consequential class I had taken. Whether or not we are conscious of it, the work we do as journalists and filmmakers is laden with ethical decisions. That common ground is part of the DNA of the IDA
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! IndieWire's Kate Erbland examines the virtual cinema landscape. And, almost immediately, there was something else: the proliferation of so-called "virtual cinema," new programs that allow audiences to rent new releases or library titles online for a flat fee, with part of the revenue going to specific movie theaters (as chosen by the ticket buyer). As the doc world
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Rachel Mason's Circus of Books, a project of IDA's Fiscal Sponsorship Program, premieres April 22 on Netflix. The film tells the story of the Los Angeles-based gay porn shop, Circus of Books, owned and operated by Mason's parents. The store served as the catalyst for LA's LGBT community for over 35 years, and the Masons themselves, a straight couple with three children, became one of the biggest distributors of hardcore gay porn in the United States. Circus of Books was the
In one of Pare Lorentz’s defining films, The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936), Lorentz illustrated the impact of destructive agricultural practices with striking imagery and an artistry that moved audiences in a way that headlines did not. Its release pioneered the power of film to magnify injustice, spur national discourse and create change. More than 80 years later, the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund continues his filmmaking legacy by supporting feature-length documentary films that reflect the spirit and nature of his work. The fund empowers filmmakers to use cinema for social justice and
Letter to Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell CC: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Re: Replenishing PPP funds to support self-employed workers impacted by COVID-19 pandemic Today we are facing the greatest crisis to the freelance workforce in modern history. Freelancers — including self-employed, sole proprietors, and other independent workers — comprise over 57 million of America’s workforce and contribute an estimated $1 trillion to its GDP. Freelancers are among the hardest hit by COVID-19 closures. The signatories as a group represent and support freelancers in independent media who
While the planet's human population reels from the devastating impact of the COVID -19 crisis, many have become aware of their immediate natural environment responding to the sudden drop in activity. With social media and news articles discussing bluer skies, cleaner water and a resurgence in wildlife activity, among other phenomena, the possibility for slowing down climate change has been one of the more positive topics of discussion of late. At the same time, our optimism has to be tempered, since the amount of plastic waste generated has increased significantly, alongside the loosening of