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The Producers Guild of America has invited 11 documentary producing teams to take part in the inaugural cohort of the PGA Create lab for emerging and mid-career documentary producers from diverse backgrounds. The program, which will take place from April 25-28, is designed for producers in active development, financing and packaging of nonfiction features or series, and the producing teams are making films about topics including climate change activists, women’s roles in the Catholic Church and queer activist Sarah Hegazi.

The first cycle of PGA Create, which took place in October, spotlighted scripted feature films or series. The nonfiction cycle includes nine feature docu projects and two docuseries. In all, 20 producers will be part of the four-day session.

Sponsored by Google, PGA Create works to support producers from underrepresented backgrounds. Participants will have opportunities to hone their project pitches, attend master classes with experienced producers and build their network of...

Sharon Van Etten ventures into dark, cinematic dance-rock with “Comeback Kid,” the lead single from her newly announced fifth LP, Remind Me Tomorrow, out January 18th, 2019 via Jagjaguwar.

The singer-songwriter, known primarily for her guitar- and piano-driven arrangements, shifts into full-on synth mode with “Comeback Kid,” crooning over whirring keys and a jagged, tumbling drum groove. “Hey, you’re the comeback kid, see me look away/ I’m the runaway,” she sings, the first of several fragmented lyrics.

Van Etten worked with producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Future Islands, Lana Del Rey...

This is definitely the time of year when film critic types (I’m sure you know who I mean) spend an inordinate amount of time leading up to awards season—and it all leads up to awards season, don’t it?—compiling lists and trying to convince anyone who will listen that it was a shitty year at the movies for anyone who liked something other than what they saw and liked. And ‘tis the season, or at least ‘thas (?) been in the recent past, for that most beloved of academic parlor games, bemoaning the death of cinema, which, if the sackcloth-and-ashes-clad among us are to be believed, is an increasingly detached and irrelevant art form in the process of being smothered under the wet, steaming blanket of American blockbuster-it is. And it’s going all malnourished from the siphoning off of all the talent back to TV, which, as everyone knows,...

So here we are, smack dab in the middle of the dog days of summer (and if you don’t get that little saying, try lying out on the sidewalk in 100-degree heat for 15 minutes or so, like Fido does, and see if a light bulb doesn’t go off). The dogs are often howling in movie theaters too—at times it seems as though August has replaced January in the hearts of moviegoers as the dumping ground for pictures not really worthy of our attention (or a serious investment in the marketing department). Movies like Pixels and Fantastic Four have their perverse fascination—just how bad can they possibly be? Both were greeted with reviews so scathing and unyielding in their acidity that studio heads can only pray nothing in October, November or December will be perceived as worse, and I have to admit a certain curiosity. But that...

“Good evening, hello, I have cancer,” the blank-faced and dry Tig Notaro exclaimed at her now-legendary Largo stand-up set, revisited in the new documentary Tig, premiering on Netflix this Friday, July 17. “How are you?” Notaro wasn’t sure whether she could make comedy out of tragedy, feeling that her battle with a rare digestive tract disease and the death of her mother wouldn’t exactly translate into side-splitting laughs. Then she got breast cancer, and the monumentally awful year of her life that was 2012 became an epic night of stand-up comedy that went viral overnight and flung her into newfound success.

Of course, as are with documentaries, it wasn’t all happy endings. Tig transitions naturally between moments of extreme devastation and true belly laughs, mining the comedian’s tragic backstory for some truly genuine moments of euphoria — both emotional and humorous — just as Notaro herself did at the Largo theater.

Sometimes words just aren't enough. That was the case for Tig Notaro, the comedian who almost three years ago tried to express how she felt after a tragic few months — which included a near-fatal infection, the sudden death of her mother, a breakup, and a breast-cancer diagnosis — in the form of a now-legendary stand-up set. Though hilarious and powerful, any listener of the recording from that night knew they would never be able to fully understand what Notaro was feeling. Tig, the new documentary by directors Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York, starts on the night of that set and ends a year later, at a show marking its anniversary. In between, Notaro works on her comedy while she tries to come to terms with her newfound fame, attempts to get pregnant, and falls in love.After the film, the song "Words" by Sharon Van Etten plays over the credits.

The 2015 Outfest Los Angeles Lgbt Film Festival opens tonight with Tig, Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York's documentary on Tig Notaro's landmark standup performance in 2012. The 19th annual Outfest Achievement Award has been presented to John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig & the Angry Inch, Rabbit Hole, Shortbus). We've got the trailer for the festival and we're collecting reviews, beginning with Sharon Shattuck's This Day Forward, Maureen Bradley's Two 4 One, Nils Bökamp's You & I, Jamie Babbit's Addicted to Fresno—and more. » - David Hudson...

The 2015 Outfest Los Angeles Lgbt Film Festival opens tonight with Tig, Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York's documentary on Tig Notaro's landmark standup performance in 2012. The 19th annual Outfest Achievement Award has been presented to John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig & the Angry Inch, Rabbit Hole, Shortbus). We've got the trailer for the festival and we're collecting reviews, beginning with Sharon Shattuck's This Day Forward, Maureen Bradley's Two 4 One, Nils Bökamp's You & I, Jamie Babbit's Addicted to Fresno—and more. » - David Hudson...

"It's so cliche - but it's like, you're alive, you might as well take chances." Netflix has debuted the official trailer for the powerful and inspiring documentary Tig, from filmmakers Kristina Goolsby & Ashley York, about the incredible story and heartfelt humor of Tig Notaro. Most people know the story, but Tig was diagnosed with cancer just after her mother died, and she had a tough time dealing with it but found her way through stand up comedy. Ethan caught the film at this year's Sundance, where it premiered, and wrote in his review that it "packs an emotional punch, and also shines a fascinating light on the life of a comedian, both professionally and personally." I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this film myself. Take a look. Here's the official trailer for Kristina Goolsby & Ashley York's documentary Tig, direct from Netflix: "Good evening. Hello. I have cancer." It was...

“Tig” follows comedian Tig Notaro, who famously announced in front of a stunned audience back in 2012, “Good evening, I have cancer. Everyone having a good time? I have cancer.” In just 30 minutes, Notaro not only revealed her grave prognosis, she delivered the news with a disarming mixture of humor and vulnerability. The set became a media sensation and critical smash overnight and, as Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York's new documentary reveals, helped push the beloved comedian past a series of devastating setbacks. Having just recovered from a life-threatening infection and still in mourning over her mother’s sudden passing, Notaro's subsequent discovery of bilateral breast cancer left her no choice but to turn profound pain into an ongoing punch line, both on and off the stage. The result is an alternately poignant and playful window into a comedian's process turning her worst fears and anxieties into pure comic gold.

Comedian Tig Notaro had endured a life-threatening infection, the sudden death of her mother from cancer, a breakup and then a diagnosis of bilateral breast cancer, which required a double mastectomy. What could be more challenging than all of that? Being trailed by a documentary filmmaking crew filming you every step of the way. The resulting film, "Tig," co-directed by Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York, recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it received a standing ovation. Indiewire recently spoke to Notaro about her involvement in the film and the challenges of being the subject of a documentary. How did the project come about? Kristina [Goolsby], the director, [along with Ashley York] has been a friend of mine for almost 20 years. She had always wanted to do a documentary. She reached out to me maybe four months after my surgery and asked what I thought about that. I said "yes." It started two days later.

Tig Notaro is a pretty remarkable person. A long-serving and much-respected comic (the kind often described as a “comedian’s comedian”) she was, until relatively recently, known only among true stand-up nerds, aside from a handful of appearances on “The Sarah Silverman Program,” “Community” and “The Office.” But then, in 2012, Notaro suffered a series of terrible events in her personal life, culminating in an August show at L.A’s Largo that immediately passed into legend: her friend Louis C.K, who was present at the show, tweeted afterwards that “In 27 years doing this, I’ve seen a handful of truly great, masterful standup sets. One was Tig Notaro last night at Largo.” C.K. persuaded Notaro to release the audio from the night on his website as a comedy album, and the result, Live, sold 75,000 copies in a week. The documentary “Tig,” directed by Notaro’s friends Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York,...

In an ironic twist of fate, comedian Tig Notaro’s life started looking up from the moment she got onstage at the Largo comedy club in Los Angeles in October 2012 and announced, "Good evening, I have cancer.” Before that funny-poignant set — highly praised by Louis C.K. and other comics — Notaro, 43, had endured a life-threatening infection, the sudden death of her mother, a breakup, and a diagnosis of bilateral breast cancer, requiring a double mastectomy. Filmmakers Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York talked Notaro into letting them follow her around for a year as she got back on her feet and prepared for an anniversary stand-up show at the Largo in October 2014. Along the way, Notaro tried to have a baby on her own, found love, and perfected a joke about her breasts getting so sick of her referring to her flat-chestedness that they tried to kill her.

Chicago – This Thursday marks the beginning of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and yours truly will be in attendance to cover the fest for HollywoodChicago.com. Last year, the Park City, Utah event introduced the world to its 2014-defining sensations like “Whiplash” and “Boyhood”.

Those titles followed in the paths of indie landmarks such as “sex, lies and videotape,” “Clerks,” “Hoop Dreams,” “American Movie,” “Memento,” “Frozen River,” “Winter’s Bone,” and “Fruitvale Station,” among many others.

In pursuit of new favorite films for a new year, I’ve composed a relatively solid schedule so that I can devour as much diverse Sundance goodness as possible. Narratives, documentaries, white supremacists, nasty babies, Neil Hamburger, Chiwetel Ejiofor, stolen cop cars, and much, much more are all in play. But with hopes that everything I witness is the next “Boyhood”-like zeitgeist, I’ll be sure to report back here on what’s worth,...

The holidays are winding down and that means we at Ioncinema.com are gearing up for our annual pilgrimage to Park City where an A-list of documentaries is now set to premiere. Earlier this month Tabitha Jackson and the Sundance doc programming team let the cats out of the bag, unsurprisingly announcing much anticipated Us Doc Competition titles such as the Ross Brothers’ Western, Louie Psihoyos’ Racing Extinction, Marc Silver’s 3 1/2 Minutes and Lyric Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe’s (T)Error, along with some surprises like Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel’s bizarro Kickstarted doc Finders Keepers (see trailer below). Having been produced by the fine folks behind The King of Kong and Undefeated, the film bears all the markings of its well regarded pedigree, yet appears to be of even odder ilk, following the story that unfolded when a severed human foot was discovered in a grill bought at a North Carolina auction.

Announcements for the lineup for the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, taking place between January 22nd and February 1st, are starting to roll out. Watch this page for updates as more films and sections are revealed.

Premieres

Brooklyn (John Crowley, UK)

Digging for Fire (Joe Swanberg, USA)

Don Verdean (Jared Hess, USA)

End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt, USA)

Experimenter (Michael Almereyda, USA)

Grandma (Paul Weitz, USA)

I Am Michael (Justin Kelly, USA)

I'll See You In My Dreams (Brett Haley, USA)

Last Days in the Desert (Rodrigo Garcia, USA)

Lila & Eve (Charles Stone III, USA)

Mississipi Grind (Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden, USA)

Mistress America (Noah Baumbach, USA)

Seoul Searching (Benson Lee, USA/Korea)

Sleeping with Other People (Leslye Headland, USA)

Ten Thousand Saints (Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman, USA)

True Story (Rupert Goold, USA)

A Walk in the Woods (Ken Kwapis, USA)

Zipper (Mora Stephens, USA)

Documentary Premieres

Beaver Trilogy Part IV (Brad Besser,...

The 2015 Sundance Film Festival has been slowly unveiling the films that will screen in Park City, Ut from January 22-February 1. We’ve already listed the midnight line up as well as the list of films in competition. Now, the Premieres have been revealed and the event is looking more and more promising. The entire slate include films directed by Noah Baumbach, James Ponsoldt, Paul Weitz, Jared Hess, Joe Swanberg, Charles Stone III and others. Here is the full list.

Premieres

A showcase of world premieres of some of the most highly anticipated narrative films of the coming year.

Brooklyn / United Kingdom (Director: John Crowley, Screenwriter: Nick Hornby, based on the book by Colm Tóibín) — 1950s Ireland: Eilis must confront a terrible dilemma — a heartbreaking choice between two men and two countries, between duty and true love. Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent.

Digging for Fire / U.

A section that throws the competitive spirit out the window, but actively becomes part of the year-end docu-talk, last year’s dozen minus one offerings included current Oscar front-runner Steve James’ Life Itself and the controversial Happy Valley from Amir Bar-Lev. 2015 will be a highly flamable one, courting controversy friendly titles from established docu auteurs in Amy Berg (Prophet’s Prey), Kirby Dick (The Hunting Ground) and Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief). Here are the docu thirteen docu (world) premieres:

Beaver Trilogy Part IV/ U.S.A. (Director: Brad Besser) — A chance meeting in a parking lot in 1979 between filmmaker Trent Harris and a young man from Beaver, Utah, inspired the creation of an underground film that is now known as Beaver Trilogy. But the film itself is only part of the story.

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution/ U.S.A. (Director: Stanley...

Festival top brass have revealed a high-profile roster of out-of-competition Premieres and Documentary Premieres entries featuring many returning heroes, as well as a new Special Events section and panel participants including George Lucas.

Justin Kelly’s I Am Michael is likely to become a major talking point and stars James Franco and Zachary Quinto in the true tale of activist and Young Gay America co-founder Michael Glatze, who renounced his homosexuality and became a Christian pastor. The Exchange handles international rights.

James Ponsoldt’s David Foster Wallace film End Of The Tour (pictured, photo by Jakob Ihre) starring Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel makes the cut — Fortitude International is the international sales agent — as does the latest from the newly prolific Noah Baumbach, whose Mistress America stars his Frances Ha and Greenberg muse Greta Gerwig and arrives three months after the Toronto premiere of While We’re Young.

Sundance regulars Ryan Fleck and Anna Bowden return with Mississippi Grind...

Kurt Cobain, Nina Simone and Tig Notaro are among the big names getting documentary treatment at this January's Sundance Film Festival. On Monday (December 8), Sundance announced 13 documentaries that will be premiering out of competition at the Festival, which runs from January 22 to February 1 in Park City. It's a group of films from some of documentary cinema's biggest names and, unsurprisingly, from some of Sundance's most frequent attendees. Sundance regular Liz Garbus ("The Farm: Angola, USA") is taking the previously vacant Us documentary Day One Film slot with "What Happened, Miss Simone?" The documentary looks singer and activist Nina Simone was recently acquired by Netflix, which had "Mitt" in an out-of-competition slot at last year's Festival. Also coming from a Sundance favorite and also with TV distribution already in place is HBO's "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck," an authorized biopic of the Nirvana frontman that features Frances Bean Cobain as an...

Festival top brass have revealed a high-profile roster of out-of-competition Premieres and Documentary Premieres entries featuring many returning heroes, as well as a new Special Events section and participants on two panels including George Lucas.

James Ponsoldt’s David Foster Wallace film End Of The Tour starring Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel makes the cut, as does the latest from the newly prolific Noah Baumbach, whose Mistress America stars his Frances Ha and Greenberg muse Greta Gerwig and arrives three months after the Toronto premiere of While We’re Young.

Sundance regulars Ryan Fleck and Anna Bowden return with Mississippi Grind starring Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn and Sienna Miller, while Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman introduce the New York Tompkins Square Park Riot drama Ten Thousand Saints starring the in-demand Ethan Hawke and Emily Mortimer.

Joe Swanberg brings Digging For Fire with Rosemarie Dewitt, Orlando Bloom, Brie Larson, Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick.

Peter Sarsgaard, [link...

Turkey or no turkey, these next couple of days lucky filmmakers who’ve been selected to screen as part of the Sundance Film Festival will get the invitation notice straight from John Cooper and the Park City programming team, and thus, those that we’re betting have made the cut have also inched up the list a bit. One of those that seem an obvious choice to premiere at the fest is director Steve Hoover and producer Danny Yourd’s Crocodile Gennadiy. Following up their Grand Jury Prize winning Blood Brother with incredible turnaround time, our new most anticipated film tracks the delicate operations of Gennadiy Mokhnenko, a Ukrainian activist, orphanage manager and savior of countless children whose addict parents favor injected cold medicine and alcohol over them. Part heartwrenching domestic drama, part sleuth thriller, the film looks to use the Ukrainian uprising as a backdrop to highlight its protagonist...

They often get quite a bit less attention than their fictional brethren, and it doesn’t help that many films fly under the radar while development and filming is underway. To chart this course with a little more precision, I’m launching Ioncinema.com’s latest feature, What’s Up Doc?, our monthly Top 50 Most Anticipated films, a sort of hitlist and/or snapshot of the most alluring, the most promising documentary film projects from the established documentarian guard, the new crop of future voices or the fiction filmmakers who on occasion dip their toes in the form. Curated by me, Jordan M. Smith, you’ll find docu items that are in their beginning stages to being moments away from their film festival berth. Like any such list, we can expect film items to fluctuate in ranking, with the cut-off being publicly items — such recent examples include Laura Poitras’s white hot Edward Snowden project,...