Since IDA's DocuClub was relaunched in 2016 as a forum for sharing and soliciting feedback about works-in-progress, many DocuClub alums have since premiered their works on the festival circuit and beyond. In an effort to both monitor and celebrate the evolution of these films to premiere-ready status, we reached out to the filmmakers as they were either winding their way through the festival circuit, or gearing up for it. In this edition of "The Feedback," we spotlight Juliane Dressner and Edwin Martinez' Personal Statement. We caught up with director Dressner and co-director Martinez via
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June 20 th is World Refugee Day. It has been 18 years since the United Nations General Assembly declaration and 67 years since the 1951 Refugee Convention, and yet the crisis of displaced populations persists around the world. And as long as refugees have been uprooted from their homelands and forced into an unending journey of hope and despair, filmmakers have captured their stories for the rest of us to experience. We at IDA have assembled a selection of docs that take you on wrenching treks across deserts and seas to new, strange lands--sometimes welcoming, sometimes hostile. 4.1 Miles
AFI Docs, held in Washington, DC in June, has come into its own as a smart, topical documentary festival for a place addicted to public issues, media manipulation and power. In Trump's town, the burning question this year was how documentaries raise critically important issues and address polarization. Shocking, but Routine Several of the docs that premiered at AFI Docs gave big issues a human face and voice, and some brought home terrifying realities about the Dickensian, even dystopian realities of daily life in today's America. The opening-night film, Julianne Dressner's Personal Statement
The 2018 FIFA World Cup has already caused a mini earthquake in Mexico City with Mexico’s stunning defeat of defending champion Germany, Iceland shocked the world by tieing Argentina, Brazil failed to topple the Swiss, Japan snatched victory from Colombia, we can go on. To keep your competitive spirit going between games, here are some football (or “soccer,” for the non-qualifying Americans) documentaries to watch. The Workers Cup (Adam Sobel, 2017) In 2022, Qatar will host the FIFA World Cup. But far from the bright lights, star athletes and adoring fans, the tournament is being built on the
Airing tonight on HBO, with an encore airing June 20 in conjunction with World Refugee Day, It Will Be Chaos, from directors Lorena Luciano and Filippo Piscopo, sheds an important light on the refugee crisis facing Europe, the US and the world today. Life in Southern Italy is thrown into a tailspin when refugees arrive by the thousands and the locals are left to fend for themselves. Aregai, an Eritrean refugee who survives a major shipwreck off the shores of Lampedusa, is trapped in the Italian faltering immigration system and goes underground to reach Northern Europe. Through his journey
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! IndieWire's Michael Schneider assesses the Time Warner/AT&T merger. At one level, US District Court Judge Richard Leon's ruling on Tuesday didn't tell us anything we didn't know: Bigger is better. The AT&T and Time Warner merger only reflects digital-behemoth disruptors like Netflix, Apple, Google and Amazon
Just in time for Father's Day, we at IDA have scoured the archives for a quintet of docs about dads, both in our lives, and in our hearts and minds; about docmakers and their dads; about fatherhood; and in general, about the complications, challenges, joys and mysteries of what it takes to raise a child. Enjoy! Quest (Jonathan Olshefski, 2017) Opening the 2018 POV season this Monday, June 18, Jonathan Olshefski's Quest is a longitudinal tale of a Philadelphia-based working-class African-American family that grapples with the challenges of their hardscrabble North Philly neighborhood. Over the
Pride Month is here and queer, which means it's the perfect time to watch these LGBTQ+ documentaries! These films represent just a taste of our vibrant community and the intersectional stories we have to share. Political Animals (Jonah Markowitz and Tracy Wares, 2016) Four California lesbian legislators lead the charge for gay rights through their unwavering commitment, passion, grit and perseverance. Directed by Jonah Markowitz ( Shelter) and Tracy Wares ( Bomb It), Political Animals won the Audience and Jury Awards for Best Documentary at the 2016 LA Film Festival. Watch it: Amazon Prime
Following the 2016 presidential election, there was a lot of hand-wringing across several industries about “what we missed.” Journalists in particular were among the guiltiest of parties (at least in our own minds). How, we wondered, did we miss what is clearly the biggest story of our time, a surge of disillusionment and discontent across the country? I was immediately of the opinion that we didn’t overlook the stories, we overlooked the storytellers. That’s why when we talk about diversity at IDA, we’re not only talking about ethnicity, but also about geography (among other demographics)
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Streaming on Kanopy is Deborah S. Esquenazi's Southwest of Salem, which excavates the nightmarish persecution of four Latina lesbians wrongfully convicted of raping two little girls in San Antonio, Texas. The film earned a Peabody Award, a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Documentary and a Critics' Choice Award for Best First Feature. Synopsis courtesy of Kanopy In Lars von Trier's 2005 documentary, The Five Obstructions, currently streaming on FilmStruck, he challenges his mentor