The world has radically changed over the past four months. Not only has the work of documentary filmmakers been significantly disrupted, but so has the celebration of that work. We are certainly adapting to this brave new world that has been thrust upon us; the hopefully temporary loss of those spaces for celebration should be contemplated, if not grieved. Festivals are our party, our reward after years of work and labor in isolation. Watching a filmmaker's work on the big screen, seeing them doing a Q&A, and taking their work into the new world to bring knowledge to us all is like attending a
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Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. We lost Georgia Congressman and civil rights warrior John Lewis last week—a true titan in the ongoing battle for equality and justice and freedom, and a true embodiment of leadership: magnanimity, courage, principle and resolve. We are blessed that Dawn Porter delivered her documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble before his passing. That film streams via Magnolia Pictures. And be sure to watch Kathleen Dowdy's 2015 documentary John Lewis: Get in the Way, now streaming on PBS.org
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! Filmmaker Matt Heineman's announcement on Facebook that he and Matt Hamachek would be directing a documentary series on golfer Tiger Woods for HBO triggered a lengthy discussion from the documentary community about how the industry continues to fall short, even amid a global reckoning on racial justice, when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion—especially when
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Linda Goldstein Knowlton's We Are the Radical Monarchs, premiering July 20 on POV to kick off the series’ 33rd season, documents an Oakland-based group of tween girls of color, who lead an alt-scout troop whose mission is to educate themselves on social justice including being an LGBTQ ally, the environment, and disability justice. The film follows the first troop of Radical Monarchs for over three years, until they graduate, and documents the co-founders' struggle to respond
The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the appointment of Brenda Robinson as President of its Board of Directors. Robinson, who joined IDA’s Board of Directors in 2018, succeeds Kevin Iwashina, whose board term ends in December 2020.
Though Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets premiered in the US Documentary Competition at pre-pandemic Sundance back in January, I didn’t catch Bill and Turner Ross' heartfelt film until the festival world had turned upside down and digital. Fortunately, I was able to watch the unusual dive-bar drama during CPH:DOX's pioneering virtual edition, deeming it "the quintessential CPH:DOX film—i.e., designed to have doc purists tearing their hair out," and summed it up as follows: "Veering from the ridiculous to the poignant, often in the same scene, this collection of character studies shot during last call
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! In a Los Angeles Times editorial filmmaker Stanley Nelson presses the need for Black filmmakers to tell the story of 2020 Perhaps, had funding been available, along with more support for filmmakers of color, stories that we recognize as valuable and just good stories— from slavery and emancipation to reconstruction and so much more — would have gained popular acclaim
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Now streaming on American Experience, The Vote, a two-part series directed and written by Michelle Ferrari, commemorates the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, telling the story of the hard-fought campaign waged by American women for the right to vote. Streaming on American Masters, Unladylike 2020, an animated documentary series directed by Charlotte Mangin, profiles female trailblazers from the Progessive Era (1890s through 1920s) who broke barriers in
In this new age of physical distancing and social isolation, computer screens and television monitors have become the focal point for our contact with the world. What we see out there is ominous and tragic, ranging from deadly results of the ongoing pandemic to the rise of racism and a consequent fightback by those who have been the subject of so much hatred for too many years. Everything is in flux, from politics to medicine to culture. Where does that leave a festival like Hot Docs, which wrapped on Sunday, June 7, with a virtual ceremony, in which their Audience Award winner, the Canadian
Due to the long holiday weekend, we're a bit late on Essential Doc Reads. But here it 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! Sundance Film Festival Director Tabitha Jackson spells out her vision for the 2020 edition. This is my image for the Festival: a powerful array of perspectives, of talent and artistry—combining with audiences in homes and cities and across countries to reveal new truths. An accessible, inclusive