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! Marking the 50th anniversary of Okinawa Prefecture officially reverting from American to Japanese control, Japan Society in New York programmed the recently-concluded “Okinawa in Focus” series. Hyperallergic’s Dan Schindel delves deeper. The NDU’s two documentaries in the program, 1971’s Motoshinkakarannu and 1973’s Asia is One, bookend the Okinawan reversion, with
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The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the appointment of three new members to its Board of Directors.
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Two years since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis by police officers, the documentary Police on Trial—produced by FRONTLINE in partnership with Star Tribune and CAAM—explores this “pivotal event in the history of race and policing in America.” Directed by Mike Shum and produced by Shum and Marcia Robiou, the documentary follows George Floyd’s murder and Derek Chauvin’s subsequent conviction, and continues to highlight the ongoing demand for police accountability and
It has been a devastating month for us reeling from gun violence in the US. The most recent wave of horrifying shootings targeting Black Americans and young children has many asking, “When will this end?” Yet, the topic of gun control in the US still remains taboo for many. As with many issues, we look to documentaries to give us a deeper understanding of how we got here and what's next. This blog explores eight documentaries that discuss the topic of guns and America, taking a specific look at the activists on the frontlines fighting back against gun violence and pushing for comprehensive gun
For over four decades, 20,000 feet of 16mm-shot film sat untouched in the San Francisco home of lifetime Chinatown resident Reverend Harry Chuck. The footage was supposed to serve as the basis for Chuck’s sweeping graduate thesis, “Chinatown San Francisco: A Community in Transition.” But then life invariably got in the way, and the epic cinematic history of one marginalized community’s generational struggles—‘60s-radicalized youth vs. their “keep your head down” elders raised under the threat of the Chinese Exclusion Act—was never completed. Until now. With the help of son/co-director and
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. We at IDA are heartbroken at the passing of Heddy Honigmann, documentarian extraordinaire and a true master of the form. As big fans and admirers, we are dedicating this week’s Screen Time to celebrate her and her art. Honigmann’s Buddy takes an unsentimental look at six canine and human pairs to “reveal what’s really given and received.” Many critics have noted the ease with which the filmmaker would open people up to trust her and the camera. "I don't do interviews. I make
By KRISTAL SOTOMAYOR and EDDIE Hustleby The 2022 IDA Documentary Awards Call For Entries (CFE) launches on Thursday, May 26! The IDA Documentary Awards are a crucial event in our field. Nominations can elevate a documentarian’s career and their project’s global impact. Last year’s nominees have gone on to win many accolades: Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; Suave won the Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting; and nine IDA Documentary Awards nominees received Peabody Award nominations. In this post, the people
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 New Yorker’s Patrick Radden Keefe listens on as filmmaker Ron Howard chats with chef José Andrés, discussing their new documentary We Feed People. Howard, who has directed more than thirty movies, sees some affinities between filmmaking and the work that Andrés does, even if the stakes are lower in Hollywood. "I love collaborators. So does he," Howard said. "He
Cow opens with its protagonist, Luma, mid-labor in a cattle barn where she delivers her newborn calf, Malu. The audience observes the beauty of childbirth, and the tender moment of grooming her glistening babe clean that follows. Then, the scene quickly takes a sinister and heartbreaking turn, as Malu is whisked away to a separate section of the farm in a nearly mute scene. Cow is director Andrea Arnolds’ first feature documentary. Most notably known for narrative films such as Red Road, Fish Tank, and the narrative short Wasp, for which she won an Academy Award, Arnold worked on Cow
Local film festivals have taken some of the biggest hits during the pandemic and it’s among the many reasons that returning to the historic Castro Theater and hearing “welcome back to the movies” was so emotional for many of us in the audience. The 65th SFFILM Festival, or San Francisco International Film Festival, has endured more than most since it began in 1957, making it now the longest continuous film festival in the Americas. Their return to an in-person format, with extensive COVID protections, set a hopeful tone for the future of independent film in the Bay Area and beyond