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The Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Festival will open with the world premiere of Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance from Canadian director Noam Gonick and the National Film Board of Canada on April 24.

The feature doc explores the trajectory and milestones in Canada’s 2Slgbtq+ movement, including pride and protest footage and first person accounts. “This is such a wonderful and meaningful acknowledgement,” Parade producer Justine Pimlott told a Hot Docs press conference on Tuesday. “There is still much work to be done. My hope is that our film serves as an inspiration and a call to action, not only for the queer community, but also for our allies,” she added.

News of the festival opener came as Hot Docs, North America’s biggest documentary showcase, released its full film lineup for its 32nd edition set for April 24 to May 4 in Toronto.

The Special Presentations program is programmed with mostly...

At Y.M. Cinema, we recently questioned Canon’s absence from Sundance 2025 and the festival’s apparent preference for Arri Alexa cameras. We also explored the evolving nature of Sundance itself, asking whether it still serves true independent filmmakers or has become an exclusive industry machine. However, Come See Me in the Good Light—winner of the prestigious Festival Favorite Award—serves as a powerful counterpoint to both discussions. Shot on a Canon C500 Mark II instead of the expected Arri Alexa, the film defied the dominant trends of Sundance cinematography while resonating deeply with audiences. In this exclusive interview, we sit down with the film’s cinematographer, Brandon Somerhalder, to discuss his choice of gear, his creative process, and what it means to craft a visually striking indie feature outside the Alexa ecosystem. Let’s dive in.

BTS of Come See Me in the Good Light A short bio...

Gibson’s documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light” explores the delicate spaces between existence and finality, as Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley confront an incurable cancer diagnosis. The film offers a profound examination of love’s resilience amid mortality’s shadow. Its unblinking lens reveals the harsh progression of illness while uncovering something deeper: the human spirit’s capacity to flourish even when challenged by devastating circumstances.

The narrative centers on an extraordinary contrast — the stark reality of impending death juxtaposed against an unwavering commitment to living fully. Andrea’s medical condition transforms from a clinical diagnosis into an exploration of human endurance.

Using an observational approach, the documentary removes traditional barriers between viewers and subjects. We are drawn into an intensely personal experience, feeling the gravity of each passing moment, understanding time’s precarious nature. The emotional landscape becomes a testament to love’s complexity — not as a simple solution,...

If there’s one word to describe this year’s Sundance Film Festival, it’s “uncertainty.” That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as this year’s festival was far more interesting than any festival has been since the Covid-19 pandemic. And, amazingly, despite all the challenges that came their way, Sundance’s organizers were able to make the event feel genuinely fun and memorable. So they deserve massive kudos for that.

The question that was in everyone’s minds at this year’s festival: where will the festival be come 2027? Next year, at least, will still be in Sundance’s long-time home of Park City, Ut, but after that, we could see the festival move to Boulder, Co, or Cincinnati, Oh — with the possibility of still staying in Park City and nearby Salt Lake City.

Then, there’s the issue of the festival’s online component, which saw two...

“Come See Me in the Good Light” director Ryan White has made a documentary that mirrors the way he felt when he first arrived at the home of spoken word artist Andrea Gibson, who has been diagnosed with incurable ovarian cancer, and their spouse, poet Megan Falley. Like their greeting, the documentary comes as an unexpected and welcoming invitation to stay awhile, even play awhile.

If that seems at odds with the deep pain, the arduous treatments and the medical assurances of an early death they face, the film — which won the Sundance Film Festival’s Festival Favorite Award on Sunday evening — disabuses viewers of that notion. There’s a closeness here that allows viewers to spend a year at the poets’ home in Longmont, Co.; to accompany the couple on oncologist visits and chemo treatments; and to hover around their bed as the pair ponder the silly and the utterly serious.

Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley in ‘Come See Me in the Good Light, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Brandon Somerhalder)

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival wrapped up with the announcement of the Festival Favorite Award. The documentary Come See Me in the Good Light, directed by Ryan White, was voted by audiences as the best of the feature films screened at the 2025 festival.

“Throughout the Festival we saw audiences moved by Andrea Gibson’s and Megan Falley’s journeys in Come See Me in the Good Light. Festival goers embraced the humor and heartbreak of this intimate documentary directed by Ryan White, as it speaks to art and love and reminds us what it means to be alive as we face mortality,” stated Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming.

As the 2025 festival comes to a close, the Sundance Institute announced...

With 2025’s Sundance Film Festival wrapping up, the Institute responsible for the yearly indie forum is already cooking up plans for next year’s gathering. Dates have been set, with in-person events in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, stretching from January 22 to February 1, 2026.

In a statement shared with IndieWire, Acting CEO of Sundance Institute Amanda Kelso said, “The past 11 days of the Festival have been a meaningful opportunity to connect as a community in support of independent storytelling. We look forward to being reunited with audiences, artists, industry, and press next January for another edition of the Festival.”

Adding his excitement, Director of Sundance Film Festival and Public Programming Eugene Hernandez said, “As this year’s Festival comes to a close, we’re already looking ahead to 2026 and what will no doubt be an unforgettable experience! We invite you to save the date and get ready to join...

Sundance audiences have cast a bright light on Ryan White’s, Come See Me in the Good Light, by delivering a festival favorite prize on the feature film documentary.

Come See Me in the Good Light follows two poets, Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley, as they “go on an unexpectedly funny and poignant journey through love, life and mortality,” per the official festival description, spurred by the former’s incurable cancer diagnosis. The doc’s high profile roster of producers and executive producers includes such names as Tig Notaro, Brandi Carlile, Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Kevin Nealon and Sara Bareilles, among others.

“Throughout the festival we saw audiences moved by Andrea Gibson’s and Megan Falley’s journeys in Come See Me in the Good Light. Festival goers embraced the humor and heartbreak of this intimate documentary directed by Ryan White, as it speaks to art and love and reminds...

Come See Me in the Good Light, in the Premieres category, received the Festival Favorite award at the 2025 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, voted for by the audiences from all the new feature films presented. Looking ahead to next year, the fest announced dates for the 2026 edition, taking place in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, from Jan. 22 to Feb. 1.

“The past 11 days of the Festival have been a meaningful opportunity to connect as a community in support of independent storytelling,” acting CEO of the Sundance Institute Amanda Kelso said. “We look forward to being reunited with audiences, artists, industry, and press next January for another edition of the Festival.”

Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival director of programming, added: “Throughout the Festival we saw audiences moved by Andrea Gibson’s and Megan Falley’s journeys in Come See Me in the Good Light. Festival goers embraced the humor...

At its heart, Sundance is about discovery. Some of our brightest, biggest filmmaking stars — we’re talking Steven Soderbergh, Richard Linklater, Ava DuVernay, Paul Thomas Anderson, Lulu Wang, Ryan Coogler, Aubrey Plaza, Catherine Hardwicke, Todd Haynes, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Eggers, the Duplass brothers, Michael B. Jordan, Amy Adams, Elizabeth Olsen, Brie Larson, Lakeith Stanfield, Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, and many, many more — first rose to acclaim by bringing their work to Sundance.

In 2025, a year that was long-heralded as one all about new discoveries, that tradition only continued. While this year’s lineup included a number of returning names, like Ira Sachs, Amy Berg, Andrew Ahn, Justin Lin, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Cooper Raiff, Kahlil Joseph, Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady, David France, Jesse Short Bull, Ryan White, Sophie Hyde, Jesse Moss & Amanda McBaine, Meera Menon, and Clint Bentley, there were also a hefty number of newbies joining those filmmaking ranks.

A spoiler, and a good one, for one of Sundance’s best films of this year: Ryan White’s loving, luminous documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light” doesn’t end in darkness, or death, or even in the way its own filmmaker and subjects were expecting it to. Instead, the film, which follows genderqueer poet Andrea Gibson and their wife, fellow poet Megan Falley, as they wrestle with Gibson’s aggressive ovarian cancer, is a celebration of life in all its messy glory.

When White was brought on to the film by producer Tig Notaro (who joined him at our studio) and her producing partner Stef Willen, he expected the film would end with Gibson’s death. So did Gibson and Falley, who even joke about it in the opening scene. The spoiler? Gibson was on hand to celebrate the film’s premiere at Sundance last week.

“It...

When Ryan White initially asked producer Tig Notaro why documentaries aren’t funnier, he did not expect her to pitch a queer poet’s terminal cancer journey as the antidote.

“Tig called us a couple years ago with this idea,” the director said at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt. “We said truly what could be a less funny combination of words than poetry and cancer?”

After meeting the soon-to-be subjects of “Come See Me in the Good Light,” White — previously best known for directing docs like “Good Night Oppy” and “Pamlea: A Love Story” — quickly changed his mind. White and Notaro’s unlikely documentary charts poet laureate Andrea Gibson’s journey with ovarian cancer. Following the now 49-year-old writer, who uses they/them pronouns, the film shows them navigating life after the diagnosis and enjoying the time left with partner and fellow poet Megan Falley. It...

Aside from the starry, flashy documentaries usually floating around the festival scene, the 2025 Sundance Film Festival also offers a large selection of nonfiction films from around the world. These range from movies smuggled out of Russia to cinema centered on a musical movement born right here in Chicago, but the...

To many of those who have gone through end-of-life decisions after a cancer diagnosis, the disease itself tends to be no laughing matter. It has the ability to destroy families, knock down the strongest of humans and alter one’s trajectory permanently. But for the lucky few, like poet laureate Andrea Gibson, cancer can be a struggle but it can also shed light on the true meaning of what it takes to keep a life well-lived going.

Gibson was diagnosed with ovarian cancer several years ago, but that’s not the end of the story. Identifying with they/them pronouns, the now 49-year-old has made their mark on society as a poet who tours the country, spouting frustrations with confident tones. Very fitting, their life after the diagnosis and their relationship with wife and fellow poet Megan Falley is detailed with great humor and humility in director Ryan White’s...

Ahead of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, political commentators on both sides of the aisle compared the fraught voting process to a kind of national biopsy. Now, “Come See Me in the Good Light” — a striking and airy documentary about genderqueer poet Andrea Gibson and their harrowing battle with ovarian cancer — is premiering at Sundance 2025 against a flurry of new anti-lgbtq steps recently taken by President Trump.

Director Ryan White delivers this touching look at the fragility of human life at an essential time for queer and trans people in media. White’s atypical portrait of Gibson — reminiscent of something like the tragicomic “50/50” from 2011 — relies on intimate beauty and sharp humor to champion the poet’s art, identity, and partner Megan Falley (also a poet) with optimism and vigor.

The well-spoken and likable subjects foster a generous tone that could earnestly inspire compassion from some less tolerant Americans. The...

It’s hard to imagine an occasion that would make Sara Bareilles nervous, considering that the Grammy Award winner is a veteran of stages far and wide. But Friday night’s Celebrating Sundance Institute fundraiser at Park City’s Grand Hyatt Deer Valley proved to be such an event.

Upon taking her place in the ballroom lights to close out the starry event, Bareilles admitted that it was the “fancy room” that sent her nerves into overdrive. The fundraiser saw a long list of honorees and presenters take the stage including A Complete Unknown filmmaker James Mangold, Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter, Glenn Close, Joel Edgerton, Marielle Heller, R.J. Cutler and Tessa Thompson. Guests making the rounds included Jon Hamm, Boots Riley, Kimberly Peirce, Roger Ross Williams and more.

Or maybe it was because the film that brought her to Sundance this year means so much to her.

Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? Day one. I had never met Andrea before—they came out to the driveway and gave me a hug and said, “So you’re gonna be with me when I die,” and then they invited us inside. Usually Day one (and often Month one) of a documentary is just a warm-up in building trust and getting […]

The post “From Day One, Andrea Was All-in” | Ryan White, Come See Me in the Good Light first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? Day one. I had never met Andrea before—they came out to the driveway and gave me a hug and said, “So you’re gonna be with me when I die,” and then they invited us inside. Usually Day one (and often Month one) of a documentary is just a warm-up in building trust and getting […]

The post “From Day One, Andrea Was All-in” | Ryan White, Come See Me in the Good Light first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Come See Me in the Good Light follows Andrea, a poet in Colorado, as they face a cancer diagnosis. The film is an intimate verité documentary and marks director Ryan White’s return to Sundance after Assassins and Ask Dr. Ruth. Brandon Somerhalder served as the film’s Dp. Below, he explains why a verité approach was right for the project and the difficulties of maintaining that at a live poetry reading without jeopardizing the comfort of his ailing subject. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]

The post “We All Have a Desire to Make Our Lives Make Sense”: Dp Brandon Somerhalder on Come See Me in the Good Light first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Come See Me in the Good Light follows Andrea, a poet in Colorado, as they face a cancer diagnosis. The film is an intimate verité documentary and marks director Ryan White’s return to Sundance after Assassins and Ask Dr. Ruth. Brandon Somerhalder served as the film’s Dp. Below, he explains why a verité approach was right for the project and the difficulties of maintaining that at a live poetry reading without jeopardizing the comfort of his ailing subject. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]

The post “We All Have a Desire to Make Our Lives Make Sense”: Dp Brandon Somerhalder on Come See Me in the Good Light first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In the latest documentary by Ryan White, poets Andrea and Meg turn to their art to help them cope with Andrea’s cancer diagnosis. Come See Me in the Good Light will screen as part of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres section. Editor Berenice Chavez, who also edited Pamela, A Love Story returns to the cutting room for Come See Me in the Good Light. Below, she talks about finding her way into Andrea and Meg’s life despite not, at least initially, being a fan of poetry. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. […]

The post “I Even Found Myself Taking Lines into My Personal Life”: Editor Berenice Chavez on Come See Me in the Good Light first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In the latest documentary by Ryan White, poets Andrea and Meg turn to their art to help them cope with Andrea’s cancer diagnosis. Come See Me in the Good Light will screen as part of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres section. Editor Berenice Chavez, who also edited Pamela, A Love Story returns to the cutting room for Come See Me in the Good Light. Below, she talks about finding her way into Andrea and Meg’s life despite not, at least initially, being a fan of poetry. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. […]

The post “I Even Found Myself Taking Lines into My Personal Life”: Editor Berenice Chavez on Come See Me in the Good Light first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

It’s no secret that corporations like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple have lost their appetite for current event documentaries that tackle politics. The good old days when streamers shelled out seven figures for docus about polarizing politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“Knock Down the House”), and eye-opening mock-government teen conferences (“Boys State”) after their Sundance debuts are behind us. That type of nonfiction, streamers would like you to think, doesn’t attract enough eyeballs and doesn’t lead to new subscriptions. Algorithms suggest that doc audiences are mostly interested in watching docus about celebrities, cults and true crime.

But Sundance programmers aren’t making their selections with commercial potential as their priority. Between the fraught political climate and growth of right-wing documentaries and streaming buyers’ taste for crowd-pleasing subjects, it falls to festivals to program the bold titles that will garner awards attention down the line.

“We know that some distributors...

While we were eager to tell you last year about Sundance premieres starring Kristen Stewart and Pedro Pascal, the unlikely “Thelma” became the true indie success story of 2024. Unexpected buyer Magnolia Pictures turned the June Squibb film into a hit, opening the doors for other buyers to take their own risks this year.

Heading into 2025, uniqueness is the name of the game, as is picking out the discovery that you won’t see coming, and not necessarily the movie with the big cast, commercial pedigree, or crowdpleaser premise. Last year, we were pretty spot on with “A Real Pain” and “My Old Ass” surviving the long haul, and we were among the few to tell you about “It’s What’s Inside” before Netflix plunked down $17 million to buy it; we were way off on a few others.

The below list is not a collection of movies certain to sell or do so for eight figures,...

Sundance, as ever, is coming, and fast. Today, the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the 87 feature films and six episodic projects selected for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, with more announcements expected in the coming weeks. While the festival may be moving in 2027, for 2025, it will be out in full force in its traditional home of Park City, Utah.

This year’s lineup includes a number of returning names, including Ira Sachs, Amy Berg, Andrew Ahn, Justin Lin, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Cooper Raiff, Kahlil Joseph, Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady, David France, Jesse Short Bull, Ryan White, Sophie Hyde, Jesse Moss & Amanda McBaine, Meera Menon, and Clint Bentley. But there are also a hefty number of newbies joining these ranks, as the 2025 program is composed of 36 of 87 (41 percent) feature film directors who are first-time feature filmmakers. Mostly, new work will be on offer, as the film and episodic slate includes 89 (or 96 percent) world premieres.

If it’s early December, it’s time for the unveiling of the annual Sundance Film Festival. The 2025 edition is potentially the second to last installment with any presence in Park City, Utah. If that is the case, the festival programmers are working to bring some familiar filmmakers back into the fold. January’s festival will see new films from Justin Lin, Elegance Bratton, Bill Condon, Ira Sachs, Andrew Ahn, Amy Berg, Questlove, Clint Bentley, Eugene Jarecki, Ryan White, and Clint Bentley, among others.

Continue reading Sundance Lineup 2025: New Films Featuring Olivia Colman, Ayo Edebiri, Bowen Yang, Josh O’Connor, Benedict Cumberbatch at The Playlist.

When filmmaker Gia Coppola set about casting the lead of her third film, “The Last Showgirl,” finding her titular Las Vegas showgirl initially posed quite a conundrum. Coppola’s film follows Shelly, a longtime performer whose entire life is thrown into disarray when her show, the last of its kind on The Strip, is set to close. It’s a deeply felt character study about a singular woman, a part that required old-school glamour and hard-won smarts.

“I couldn’t really envision who was right for the role of Shelly. I kind of would think of Marilyn Monroe or actors that were no longer present, no one else really felt right,” Coppola said during a Sunday evening post-screening Q&a in New York City.

And then she found the 2023 Netflix documentary “Pamela, a Love Story,” which reorients our understanding of Pamela Anderson. The Ryan White film sets the record straight on...

Netflix has a reputation for producing outstanding documentaries on a wide variety of topics, including many wildly popular true crime titles.

On Oct. 7, Netflix added The Menendez Brothers, a new true crime documentary series about Lyle and Erik Menendez. The Menendez brothers' story was also the subject of the second season of Netflix's Monster series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. The series from Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan premiered on Netflix on Sept. 19.

We shared the list of the best true crime documentaries worth watching on Netflix this month.

The Menendez Brothers

The recent series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story has brought the brothers back into the headlines. While that series is a dramatization of events that took place almost 30 years ago, The Menendez Brothers is a two-hour documentary feature.

The film includes interviews with Erik and Lyle Menendez from prison. The brothers were convicted of murdering their parents,...

When people say the name Pamela Anderson, you might think about her Playboy beginnings or sultry turn as C.J. Parker on the lifeguard series “Baywatch,” but now, the Canadian model and actress is looking to change the perception of her built in many people’s minds. Her determination to do so, she shared in a recent interview with Variety, comes after two decades of deep, emotional struggles.

“I look at it now and it feels like I went from ‘Baywatch’ to Broadway,” Anderson said, recognizing her run as Roxie Hart in the Broadway production of “Chicago” as a turning point for her. “I don’t know what happened in between, it’s all a big blur. I am just happy to be here, in this moment, because I think I have had depression for a couple of decades.”

Anderson went on to discuss how Rob Marshall, who directed the Oscar-winning film adaptation of “Chicago,...

Fall is officially here, and we’re all about embracing those cozy vibes! Imagine yourself wrapped up in your favorite blanket, a steaming cup of tea or cocoa in hand, and the flicker of your TV screen as you dive into an engrossing documentary binge. There’s really no better way to spend those crisp fall evenings, right?

Well, Netflix is making sure your autumn viewing lineup is stacked with fresh documentaries to keep you entertained. Whether you're a true crime junkie or a fan of celebrity insights, Netflix has something for everyone this season. Get ready for the chilling and infamous story of The Menendez Brothers, a case that has intrigued the nation for decades. Or, if you’re looking for something a bit more inspirational, Martha Stewart herself is ready to invite you into her world with an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at her life and career.

And that’s just the beginning!

Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter delves into one mother’s unwavering determination to uncover what happened to her daughter. The two-part Netflix documentary, directed by Ryan White, follows Cathy Terkanian on her nearly 15-year-long search for answers surrounding the 1989 disappearance of her birth daughter, Aundria Bowman.

Cathy placed Aundria for adoption as a young teenager but always regretted that decision. Years later, when she learned Aundria had gone missing at age 14, her quest began to find the truth.

Through Cathy’s incredibly moving story, viewers experience the emotional highs and lows of her investigation alongside local authorities and an amateur sleuth. Piece by piece, they uncover layer upon layer of secrecy and deception regarding Aundria’s adoptive family.

But it’s Cathy’s persistence fueled by a mother’s love that remains the documentary’s beating heart. Though the realities uncovered grow increasingly unsettling, Cathy never stops fighting for...

In April 2010, Cathy Terkanian received a letter that would change her life forever. It was written by a social worker, who explained that the daughter Terkanian had given up for adoption 35 years prior had disappeared from her adoptive home in 1989. Driven by a need for answers, Terkanian enlisted the help of an amateur sleuth and local authorities and embarked on a 10-year quest to uncover what happened to her child.

Into the Fire: The Lost Daughterchronicles that quest, diving into the shadowy depths of a chilling true-crime story that feels almost impossible to believe. At the center of this labyrinthine tale, however, is the unbreakable bond between mother and child — and the power of maternal instinct across space and time.

Directed and produced by Ryan White, Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter is also produced by Jessica Hargrave, Matt Maher,...

«Entre las llamas: La hija perdida» es una docuserie dirigida por Ryan White.

Cathy había sido dada en adopción a su hija siendo apenas un bebé. Años más tardes, descubre que su hija (a la que no había vuelto a ver), ha desaparecido, y la policía necesita su Adn. No quisieron darle su nombre, pero Cathy pronto se enteró de su verdadero nombre: Aundria Michelle Bowman.

Años más tardes, descubre que su hija (a la que no había vuelto a ver), ha desaparecido, y la policía necesita su Adn. No quisieron darle su nombre, pero Cathy pronto se enteró de su verdadero nombre: Aundria Michelle Bowman.

A partir de ahí, y por internet, Cathy encontró a muchas personas que conocieron a Aundria y a muchos misterios sobre la personalidad y el comportamiento de Aundria, una chica difícil que terminó por frecuentar malas compañías.

Es sólo el comienzo de una búsqueda,...

“Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter” is a docuseries directed by Ryan White.

“Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter,” a riveting documentary streaming on Netflix, delves into the harrowing journey of a mother named Cathy, who embarks on an exhaustive search for her adopted daughter. Cathy had to give up her baby girl for adoption years ago, and since that day, she had never laid eyes on her again.

Years passed, and Cathy was devastated to learn that her daughter had vanished without a trace. The police needed Cathy’s DNA to proceed with their investigation, although they initially withheld the girl’s name. Despite this, Cathy soon discovered her daughter’s real identity: Aundria Michelle Bowman. Armed with this crucial information, Cathy took to the internet, connecting with numerous people who had known Aundria. She unearthed a plethora of mysteries surrounding Aundria’s personality and behavior, painting a portrait...

Despite working in Hollywood for decades, Pamela Anderson never was offered a meaty role like “The Last Showgirl” protagonist Shelley, a struggling dancer about to lose the only job she’s ever known due to age and shifting tastes among the Las Vegas tourist set.

“I underestimated myself too,” Anderson said during an interview at the Variety Toronto Film Festival Studio. “And it just came at the right time. Everything just came at the right time.”

The right time for Anderson was a career-changing 2023 that saw her sex symbol public persona morph into something more multidimensional thanks to Ryan White’s 2023 Emmy-nominated documentary “Pamela, A Love Story” and her best-selling memoir “Love Pamela.”

“The stars have really aligned,” Anderson added. “And now it just it also feels very surreal, like I’m going to wake up and this isn’t really happening, and then I’ll be really pissed because...

"I saw the fire and I walked right in it - and that transformed me." Netflix has revealed an official trailer for the documentary film titled Into The Fire: The Lost Daughter, from acclaimed doc director Ryan White. This is set for a streaming debut on September 12th this fall. A mother finds herself drawn into a labyrinth of unanswered questions when she discovers that the daughter she gave up for adoption many years ago has disappeared. "We want people to see people like Cathy and realize that when you take action and fight for what you believe is right, the truth can and will come out, and more often than not there’s people that will want to help bring that truth to light." The film is produced by Jessica Hargrave, Matt Maher, and Charlize Theron - stating: "Cathy was resilient and followed her intuition all the way to...

Ruth Westheimer, the diminutive guru of the American sexual revolution whose straightforward, matter-of-fact way of discussing the facts of life led to an illustrious career as a radio talk-show host, television personality, author and advice expert, has died. She was 96.

Westheimer died Friday at her home in New York City, spokesman Pierre Lehu told The New York Times.

She escaped Nazi Germany in the 1930s and was profiled by The Hollywood Reporter in January 2016 as one of the entertainment industry’s last survivors of the Holocaust.

For more than three decades, when the subject turned to sex, Dr. Ruth (as she was known to her legion of fans) was the go-to person. People magazine included her on its 1998 list of the Most Intriguing People of the Century. In Playboy’s 55th anniversary issue in 2009, she landed the No. 13 spot on its list of the most important people in sex from the past 55 years.

General Hospital (Gh) asks, do you remember what you were doing 30 years ago? Chances are you’ll remember watching the very first Nurses’ Ball to take place in Port Charles, New York.

The Nurses’ Ball is an AIDS/HIV charity that brings together the good people of Port Charles to raise money for a good cause and watch hilarious host Lucy Coe (Lynn Herring) as she changes costumes and sidesteps shenanigans (mostly).

It’s been three decades since the show’s creative team at the time, Wendy Riche, executive producer, and head writer Claire Labine, debuted what would become a regular event.

One year after the Nurses’ Ball debuted in 1994, fans watched the end of Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough) and Stone Cates’ love story when Stone (Michael Sutton) died from AIDS, and Robin was diagnosed as HIV-positive. Here is the history of the illustrious and beloved Nurses’ Ball.

General Hospital...

Baywatch star? Canadian icon? Animal rights activist? Playboy model? Nineties tabloid staple? Forget what you think you know about Pamela Anderson. A new Netflix documentary attempts to explore every facet of a woman who’s been in the spotlight — for better or worse – for over 30 years.

Directed by Ryan White, the as-of-yet untitled movie promises “an intimate portrait embedded in the life of Pamela Anderson as she looks back at her professional and personal path and prepares for the next steps on her journey.” White’s past credits include The Keepers, a Netflix docuseries investigating the cold case of murdered nun Catherine Cesnik in 1969.

Along with exclusive interviews with Anderson herself, viewers will have access to never-before-seen archival footage and personal journals to unpack her experience in Hollywood and beyond — in her own words this time.

Pamela Anderson leads an all-star cast in the upcoming drama film The Last Showgirl, receiving praise from director Gia Coppola for her daring and heartfelt performance. Anderson's recent documentary Pamela, a Love Story was critically acclaimed and nominated for two Emmy Awards, shedding light on her childhood, career, and marriage to Tommy Lee. The Last Showgirl is a dream project for the producers.

Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, and Billie Lourd are starring in Gia Coppola's The Last Showgirl. The upcoming drama follows a seasoned showgirl who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run. As a dancer in her fifties, she struggles with what to do next. As a mother, she strives to repair a strained relationship with her daughter, who often took a backseat to her showgirl family. Anderson, who portrays the film's titular character,...

Pamela Anderson … mogul?

The “Baywatch” icon has taken an ownership stake in a soon-to-launch free ad-supported streaming channel on Pluto TV dedicated to environmental-themed content. EarthDay 365 channel makes its debut on Feb. 5 exclusively on the leading free streaming TV service in the “Animals + Nature” category.

The channel marks a partnership between Anderson and K2 Studios, the IMAX format documentary film studio and unscripted TV producer/distributor. K2’s recent slate of IMAX format theatrical releases include “Turtle Odyssey,” narrated by Russell Crowe; “Sea Lions” with Sam Neill; “Mountain Quest” with Willem Dafoe; and “Journey to Space” with Patrick Stewart. Anderson has long been an outspoken advocate for environmental causes including the fight against climate change and deforestation as well as the preservation of marine ecosystems.

Anderson’s son Brandon Thomas Lee, who produced last year’s Netflix Emmy-nominated documentary “Pamela, a Love Story,” directed by Ryan White, is also a...

Pictures: Netflix

Welcome to another look back at the biggest hits of 2023. Today, we’ll look through the documentaries and docu-series that picked up the most points in the Netflix top 10s throughout the year.

This list is compiled with data from FlixPatrol, which tracks the daily top 10s in over 90 countries globally. Their data provides a daily snapshot of what’s trending in the TV and movie list by providing points to each title that features. Although we love their data, it’s neither perfect nor an exact measurement of viewership. Netflix does provide its own data on this front, but it doesn’t allow us to paint a big picture of what was watched most in 2023 as it stands.

Because documentaries feature in the movie lists and docu-series feature in the TV list, we’ll split them separately. We’ll have a look at the documentaries and docu-series to do best globally first,...

Amblin TV has built its reputation over the past three decades as one of the industry’s busiest boutiques, producing scripted series across all major platforms that range from popcorn to prestige.

But in recent years, there’s been a new storytelling target for Amblin TV chiefs Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey, who have headed Steven Spielberg’s TV production banner (previously DreamWorks TV) for more than 20 years. Amblin TV has moved aggressively into documentary feature and docu-series arena. It’s a development motivated by business necessity but also the desire to add more colors and canvases to the overall Amblin TV palette.

This year, the company fielded a surprise hit with a nature documentary for Netflix, “Life on Our Planet,” which topped the streamers’ domestic viewing charts for multiple weeks after its release in late October. Amblin also delivered the well-received feature “Good Night Oppy,” from director Ryan White...

Tense documentary follows the perilous ‘underground railroads’ defectors need to take to escape from the totalitarian state

The toxic anti-Shangri-La of North Korea continues to provide a rich seam of material for film-makers: the late Claude Lanzmann recounted his personal experiences there in the 1950s in Napalm and Werner Herzog discussed the North Korean reverence for Mount Paektu in Into the Inferno. There are many more, including Álvaro Longaria’s The Propaganda Game, Ross Adam and Robert Cannan’s The Lovers and the Despot, Morten Traavik’s Liberation Day and Ryan White’s Assassins. So far no documentary film-maker to my knowledge has tackled one of North Korea’s strangest events: Kim Jong-un’s summit meeting in 2018 with Donald Trump, the man who’d threatened him with “fire and fury”. Oddly, this otherwise excellent documentary about North Korea doesn’t mention that, despite it coming within its timeline.

Beyond Utopia...

Netflix’s “American Symphony,” which follows Grammy and Oscar winner Jon Batiste as he prepares for his performance at Carnegie Hall, leads the 2023 Critics Choice Documentary Award nominations with six, including best documentary feature and directing for Matthew Heineman. PBS’ “20 Days in Mariupol,” Magnolia Pictures’ “Kokomo City” and Apple Original Films’ “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” are tied for second with five nominations apiece. Each were also were nominated in the top category.

Other nominees for documentary feature include Roadside Attraction’s “Beyond Utopia,” MTV Documentary Films’ “The Eternal Memory,” Amazon’s “Judy Blume Forever,” National Geographic’s “The Mission” and Netflix’s “The Deepest Breath” and “Stamped from the Beginning.”

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

Now in its eighth year, the Critics Choice Documentary Awards have previously given the top prize to Oscar winners “O.J.: Made in America” (2016) and...

Oscar-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams has much to celebrate this weekend. His first narrative/fiction film, Cassandro, opens theatrically today. And he has just been named the recipient of the Critics Choice Impact Award from the Critics Choice Association.

The Critics Choice group also announced documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee will receive the Pennebaker Award, recognizing lifetime achievement in the nonfiction film arena. The honors for McElwee and Williams will be presented as part of the 8th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards gala in New York on Sunday, Nov. 12.

‘Stamped From the Beginning’

Williams is fresh from the world premiere at TIFF of his latest documentary, Stamped From the Beginning, which will premiere on Netflix later this year. In the film, “leading female scholars share a journey through history to understand how racist ideas were developed, disseminated and enshrined in American society,” according to a release from the Critics Choice Association.

There was barely a dry eye in the house at the Los Angeles premiere three decades ago of HBO’s landmark AIDS’ film “And the Band Played On.” During the end credit sequence set to Elton John’s “The Last Song” was a montage of well-known people who had died of AIDS or were HIV positive including Ryan White, Rock Hudson, Anthony Perkins, Rudolf Nureyev, Arthur Ashe, Michael Bennett, Liberace, Halston, Peter Allen, Denholm Elliott, Brad Davis, Amanda Blake and Robert Reed.

No wonder emotions were running high. Deaths were rising every year. According to Social Security Administration, some 37,000 people died of HIV Illness in 1993. And it would be three years before the introduction of Haart-highly active antiretroviral therapy-that is often called the anti-hiv “cocktail.”

Based on Randy Shilts’ 1987 best-seller, “And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic,” the acclaimed film, which premiered on HBO on Sept.

The people behind the scenes of the documentaries and nonfiction series at this year’s Emmy Awards sat down with Gold Derby and explain several topics including the first documentary that got their attention and, in the event that they win, what would be their ideal music to play as they make their way to the stage. This was all part of Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts panel on TV Documentaries that included Leah Wolchok (“Judy Blume Forever”), Ryan White, Lucinda Axelsson (“Secrets of the Elephants”), Nikole Hannah-Jones (“The 1619 Project”) and Padma Lakshmi (“Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi”).

You can watch the TV documentary group panel above with the people who made these five programs. Click on each person’s name above to be taken to each exclusive interview.

See over 200 video interviews with 2023 Emmy nominees

Wolchok’s love of documentaries came from seeing two films in...

Before working on “Pamela, a love story,” director Ryan White admits that there was no one more skeptical about making a Pamela Anderson documentary than him. “I think that’s because, like a lot of people, I had all of these preconceived notions about who Pamela Anderson is or who she would be today and I wasn’t really interested in being a part of that story,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent Meet the Experts: TV Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). All of that changed for White when he got the chance to have a Zoom session with Anderson. “I was so fascinated with who she appeared to be in this little box in front of me and I thought, ‘Wow. If I’m this surprised right now, if we could show an audience who this woman really is, that could be the recipe for a great documentary.

When Ryan White’s phone jolted to life the morning of July 12, buzzing with texts and calls, the filmmaker wasn’t expecting it. Yes, it was Emmy nomination day, but no, he hadn’t counted on recognition for his Netflix documentary about Pamela Anderson.

Yet there it was, in black and white on the Emmys.com website: For Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, Pamela, A Love Story, about the actress and former Playboy Playmate who swept from Canada onto television screens, magazine covers and scandal sheets in the 1990s.

“I think if you went back two and a half years or three years, whenever I first met Pamela, I think we would’ve both burst into laughter if you had told us that we were going make an Emmy-nominated film,” White says. “That was not the goal at all. And I don’t think either of us thought that was a possibility.