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Exclusive: A wider audience is about to get the chance to see director Skye Fitzgerald’s Hunger Ward, the Oscar-nominated short film from MTV Documentary Films.

The film, an unsparing look at the suffering of children in Yemen who have been reduced to starvation during the country’s civil war, will premiere on the Paramount+ streaming platform on Friday. Hunger Ward will be released the same day in more than 120 theaters, coupled with virtual cinema engagements, as part of the Academy’s 2021 Oscar Nominated Short Films program.

“It is an honor to have MTV Documentary Films and Paramount+ bring Hunger Ward’s urgent message of the humanitarian crisis affecting children of Yemen to a broad and engaged audience,” Fitzgerald said. Added Sheila Nevins, head of MTV Documentary Films, “The greatest humanitarian crisis exists in Yemen. Children are starving to death in front of America’s eyes. Filmmaker Skye Fitzgerald...

In “17 Blocks,” Cheryl Sanford, matriarch of a low-income African American household in southeast Washington, D.C., talks wistfully of a “parallel universe” where she and her family enjoy cookouts, vacations and gift-filled Christmas mornings. This melancholy confession comes moments after a closeup of her casually snorting cocaine. It’s a heartbreaking scene in that have destroyed the future, and often claimed the lives, of too many African Americans in poor communities.

Though it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019 and was subsequently slated for distribution by MTV Documentary Films last fall, Davy Rothbart’s intimate and uncompromising documentary was then held back for 2020. The subsequent coronavirus outbreak put those plans in limbo once again, with theatrical and broadcast release still in flux. In the interim, “17 Blocks” has taken on fresh relevance amid the #BlackLivesMatter protests, speaking even more directly to this moment and an America convulsing in protest over racial inequality.

17 Blocks will screen at The Missouri History Museum (5700 Lindell Blvd) Saturday, Nov 9 at 7:00pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Director Davy Rothbart will be in attendance and will host a post-screening Q&a. This is a Free event

In 1999, 9-year-old Emmanuel Sanford-Durant and his Washington, D.C., family began to film their daily lives in America’s most dangerous neighborhood — just 17 blocks behind the U.S. Capitol building. They’ve been filming ever since. Made in a unique collaboration with filmmaker and journalist Davy Rothbart — author, editor of Found magazine, and director of “Medora,” which played Sliff in 2013 — the film focuses on four generations of the Sanford Family, including Emmanuel, a promising student; his brother, Smurf, a local drug dealer; his sister, Denice, an aspiring cop; and his mother, Cheryl, who must conquer her own demons for her family to prosper. Spanning two decades,...

Each year for over a decade, the Cinema Eye Honors selection committees, comprised of filmmakers from the documentary community, help to whittle down an increasingly overwhelming list of must-see non-fiction film and television. The 2020 nominees for Outstanding Feature Film are lead by Oscar frontrunners “American Factory” and “Apollo 11”, with five nominations each, and “For Sama”, “Honeyland”, “Midnight Family”, and “One Child Nation”, with three apiece.

Also scoring three nominations were “Aquarela” (Sony Pictures Classics”), “The Cave” (NatGeo), and “Beyoncé’s Homecoming” (Netflix). “American Factory,” “Honeyland,” and “One Child Nation” also earned nods for Outstanding Direction, along with Feras Fayyad for “The Cave,” Mads Brügger for “Cold Case Hammarskjöld,” and Brett Story for “The Hottest August.”

Audience Choice nominees include “17 Blocks,” “The Amazing Johnathan Documentary,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Knock Down the House,” and “Maiden.”

Netflix led all distributors/broadcasters with a record total of 17 nominations,...

Each year for over a decade, the Cinema Eye Honors selection committees, comprised of filmmakers from the documentary community, help to whittle down an increasingly overwhelming list of must-see non-fiction film and television. The 2020 nominees for Outstanding Feature Film are lead by Oscar frontrunners “American Factory” and “Apollo 11”, with five nominations each, and “For Sama”, “Honeyland”, “Midnight Family”, and “One Child Nation”, with three apiece.

Also scoring three nominations were “Aquarela” (Sony Pictures Classics”), “The Cave” (NatGeo), and “Beyoncé’s Homecoming” (Netflix). “American Factory,” “Honeyland,” and “One Child Nation” also earned nods for Outstanding Direction, along with Feras Fayyad for “The Cave,” Mads Brügger for “Cold Case Hammarskjöld,” and Brett Story for “The Hottest August.”

Audience Choice nominees include “17 Blocks,” “The Amazing Johnathan Documentary,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Knock Down the House,” and “Maiden.”

Netflix led all distributors/broadcasters with a record total of 17 nominations,...

“American Factory” and “Apollo 11” led all films in nominations for the 13th annual Cinema Eye Honors, a New York-based awards show created to pay tribute to all facets of nonfiction filmmaking.

The two films each received five nominations, including Outstanding Nonfiction Feature, from the Cinema Eye jury of festival programmers, as well as votes from this year’s eligible filmmakers.

The full slate of nominees in that category is a solid lineup of the year’s most acclaimed docs. In addition to Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s “American Factory” and Todd Douglas Miller’s “Apollo 11,” it includes Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ “For Sama,” Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s “Honeyland,” Luke Lorentzen’s “Midnight Family” and Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s “One Child Nation.”

Also Read: 12 Documentaries to Check Out This Fall, Including Films by Bruce Springsteen and Agnès Varda (Photos)

“American Factory,” “Apollo 11...

They say music is the only international language, and the American South may as well be another country to many gay people. For years Lgbtq people have fled conservative small towns in search of more accepting pastures, a pattern that has only continued during the recent swell of legislation curtailing civil rights brought on in the Trump era. In “Gay Chorus Deep South,” director David Charles Rodrigues follows the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus throughout an emotional tour of the Southern United States. The film is the first Oscar contender for powerhouse producer and former HBO executive Sheila Nevins in her position as head of MTV Documentary Films, and she is coming out strong with “Gay Chorus Deep South.”

This moving exclusive first trailer gives you a good indication as to why.

According to the official synopsis, the film “follows a choir of Lgbtq singers as they tour the American...

“17 Blocks” filmmaker Davy Rothbart began filming the members of the Sanford-Durant family when he met 9-year-old Emmanuel and his older brother Smurf while playing basketball at a local Washington, D.C. court in 1999. Over the ensuing 20 years, Rothbart became enmeshed in their family and unofficially adopted by the people whose stories he eventually put on screen in his documentary.

“I wanted to make a narrative film, and I thought Emmanuel would be a perfect lead actor. And so as we became friends, and [their mother] Cheryl and everyone welcomed me into their house, we filmed little bits and pieces of this narrative film I had an idea for,” Rothbart said at an International Documentary Association screening in Los Angeles. “But quickly I realized the family themselves and just their everyday goings-on was what was the most interesting to me.”

The film is comprised mainly of footage the family shot themselves, plus...

Davy Rothbart on the Sanford family: 'I think it’s pretty unusual and it says something about their bravery, honesty and their wisdom that they have not only been willing to include some of the most challenging moments of their lives but not just allowed it, encouraged it' Photo: Beachside Films Davy Rothbart’s documentary 17 Blocks is the latest in a growing trend for films including a lot of self-documentation, in this case captured by Rothbart and several generations of the Sanford family across a 20-year period. They live in a part of Washington DC just 17 blocks from the Capitol building but which is dogged by gun violence – an issue the family, come to tragically experience first-hand.

Catching up with Rothbart fresh from the film’s world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, where it won an editing award for the sterling work of Jennifer Tiexera, he apologies for not...

A documentary with Cinema Verite sensibilities and no qualms whatsoever about the honest presentation of its subjects, “17 Blocks” is both heartbreaking and inspiring. Director Davy Rothbart wisely removes himself from the effort to allow the cruel and dangerous sprawl of suburban Washington, D.C. to unfold before his audience’s eyes, providing a window into a world many are familiar with yet don’t “know.” And while it’s a difficult sit sometimes, “17 Blocks” is essential viewing for anyone interested in how the confluence of race and class have codified into a sort of informal caste for an entire subsection of America’s citizenry.

Continue reading ‘17 Blocks’ Is An Essential Viewing Doc About Race & Class In America [Tribeca Review] at The Playlist.

Phillip Youmans’ “Burning Cane” took home the Founders Award for best narrative feature at the 18th annual Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday, with star Wendell Pierce earning Best Actor.

Youmans, a 19-year-old freshman at NYU, is the first African-American director to win the Founders Award and the youngest director to have a feature in Tribeca — he was just 17 when he wrote, directed and shot the film, about the fractious relationship between a mother and son in rural Louisiana.

Korean director Bora Kim’s “House of Hummingbird” won for best international narrative feature, and Ji-hu Park won best international actress.

In addition, Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin won for their documentary feature “Scheme Birds.”

Here’s the complete list of winners.

Also Read: 'Xy Chelsea' Film Review: Doc Tackles Chelsea Manning's Very In-Progress Story

U.S. Narrative Competition Categories:

The jurors for the 2019 U.S. Narrative Competition were Lucy Alibar,...

“Burning Cane” has won the Founders Award for best U.S. narrative feature and star Wendell Pierce has been awarded the top actor in the category for the 18th Annual Tribeca Film Festival.

Haley Bennett won the festival’s award for best actress in a narrative feature for her performance in “Swallow.” “House of Hummingbird” (Beol-sae) took the prize for best international narrative feature, and “Scheme Birds” won for top documentary feature.

The awards were announced Thursday. Rania Attieh won the Nora Ephron Award and a $25,000 prize for Initials S.G. (“Iniciales S.G.”). The award honors excellence in storytelling by a female writer or director embodying the spirit and boldness of the late filmmaker. Tribeca’s Storyscapes Award went to “The Key,” created by Celine Tricart.

“Burning Cane,” set in the Louisiana swamplands, is directed by Phillip Youmans, who wrote, directed and shot the film at the age of 17. He...