ESPN Magazine has come up with its list of Top 10 sports documentaries. It includes Hoop Dreams, When We Were Kings and Murderball to name a few. The whole list is published over at the Stranger than Fiction blog. What are yours?
Is big government good for the United States? Maybe it's just good for the National Parks. That's pretty much what Time magazine columnist James Poniewozik argued when talking about Ken Burns' new six-part PBS series The National Parks: America's Best Idea. His piece got Patrick Goldstein at the Los Angeles Times pondering the same thing. What do you think? Check out both pieces. But read them online, the trees will appreciate it.There will be no 2010 CineVegas Film Festival. Festival President Robin Greenspun and Artistic Director Trevor Groth announced today that the event will be canceled due to the economic downturn. "Given the current economic climate and the pressures it has created, we made the difficult decision to put CineVegas on hiatus for the coming year," Greenspun said in a statement. "CineVegas has become such a well respected film festival, and rather than allow the economy to affect its level of quality we have opted to put the event on hold." (via indieWIRE)
Showtime has picked up a documentary which covers New Jersey hair metal rockers Bon Jovi during the band's 2008 tour, called When We Were Beautiful. We think Jon was more beautiful with that '80s hair, but we'll take this all the same. The doc will debut on Saturday, Oct. 24. (via TV Week)
Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) will have a one-night only viewing at select Cineplex Entertainment theaters across Canada, announced Cineplex Entertainment and Eagle Rock Entertainment. On October 22, Canadian theatergoers will see the HD doc, followed by a Q&A shot live in New York with the Pythons. On October 27, the Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) DVD-set will be released, a six-part docu-series from which the theatrical version is drawn from. (via Realscreen.com)The San Francisco Film Society announced a partnership with film fundraising website IndieGoGo (indiegogo.com) to provide independent filmmakers access to a greater range of fundraising opportunities. SFFS and IndieGoGo will provide filmmakers a single-platform solution integrating fiscal sponsorship with audience-building and crowd-funding efforts, thus streamlining filmmakers' efforts to raise money and build audiences.
A documentary fan who simply states, "I love documentaries and I love making slideshows set to music" married his two passions together with a fun slideshow set to a Neutral Milk Hotel instrumental track and posted it on his blog. The video features 240 docs he's watched (in order) since he started subscribing to Netflix at the end of 2004 (see, the catalog goes deep). Check it out: