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The Sundance Institute has today named the participants and projects set for the latest edition of its Producers Lab, taking place at Utah’s Sundance Mountain Resort from July 24-28, as well as for its Producers Intensive, taking place this fall.

Feature Film producers taking part in the Producers Lab include Pierre M. Coleman (Ricky), Julia Kennelly (Clare), Liz Lian (Skin), Valerie Castillo Martinez (Anita) and Cameron Morton (Lollygag). Among those coming to the Lab with documentary projects are Colleen Cassingham (Life After), Nicole Docta (The Dead Zone), Emma D. Miller (Untitled Mistress Dispeller Project), Jolene Pinder (Fun House) and Flor de oro Tejada (Wild Darlings Sing the Blues (And It’s a Song of Freedom)).

Fellows for the third edition of the Producers Intensive, on the fiction side, include Alifya Ali and Samantha Skinner (’06-’07), Paula González-Nasser (Saca Tu Lengua), Kyra Knox (South Side Girls), Xin Li (Santa Anita...

Exclusive: Lucy J. Mukerjee has joined Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith’s media company Firelight Media, geared toward nonfiction cinema by and about communities of color, as the new director of its flagship Documentary Lab.

An 18-month fellowship that provides emerging filmmakers of color with customized mentorship from prominent leaders in the documentary world, as well as funding, professional development workshops and networking opportunities, the Documentary Lab has thus far helped to advance the careers of over 100 filmmakers, including Dawn Porter, Yoruba Richen and Peter Nicks.

Mukerjee succeeds Sabaah Folayan, who for the past year has served as the Lab’s Interim Director. She comes to Firelight Media with over 20 years of experience producing films, programming festivals, and overseeing artist development programs. Her previous roles include Senior Programmer at Tribeca Festival, Director of Programming at Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Outfest Fusion Qtbipoc Festival and NewFest New York’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival,...

Exclusive: Veteran non-fiction agent Andy Stabile is joining Verve as Partner and Head of Unscripted, bringing the number of partners at the agency to ten. Stabile spent the last six years at ICM Partners, which he left in the aftermath of the agency’s acquisition by CAA. Before that, he was at CAA for 14 years. His start date at Verve is Tbd.

Bill Thompson, who had served as Head of Unscripted at Verve since joining four years ago when the agency set off to expand into the space, will stay on.

“Andy will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to Verve and we’re excited to have him join the agency and the Partnership,” the Verve partners said in a statement. “His addition will not only bolster our existing Unscripted business but will allow us to expand our ability to bring advocacy to a broader spectrum of creators.”

It...

In a particularly ominous moment from Hulu‘s new documentary Look at Me: XXXTentacion, we see a 19-year-old Jahseh Onfroy, a.k.a. XXXTentacion, make an official-sounding announcement on his Instagram. “I’m going to stop calling you guys fans,” he says. “I’m going to start calling you members of my cult. This is a cult, not a fanbase. This is far more genuine than a fanbase.” Cult leaders, of course, are often more interested in power than they are in the salvation of their followers, and Onfroy, who...

There’s a scene a little over halfway through Sabaah Folayan’s newest film, “Look at Me: XXXTentacion,” that speaks to the conflicting ideas presented in the Hulu documentary. The documentarian — presumably Folayan, though offscreen — sits down with all the relevant interviewees, asking them about the (in)famous SoundCloud rapper, real name Jahseh Onfroy, and his unwillingness to take public accountability for horribly abusing his ex-girlfriend Geneva Ayala.

Continue reading ‘Look At Me: XXXTentacion’ Review: Hulu’s Music Doc Is More Overview Than Nuanced Exploration Of The Infamous Rapper at The Playlist.

Back in 2013 on an app called Soundcloud, Jahseh Onfroy published his first song “News/Flock”. His first official mixtape was released in March 2014, simply titled “XXX,” this then spawned multiple releases in the following years and Jahseh’s popularity grew.

Now people know him as Xxxtentacion, his debut album from 2017 had reached the number 2 slot on Billboard’s top 200.

“Look At Me: Xxxtentacion” is titled after Jahseh’s first mainstream hit “Look At Me” which was released in 2017.

Continue reading ‘Look At Me: Xxxtentacion’ Trailer: Director Sabaah Folayan’s New Hulu Documentary at The Playlist.

An authorized but often unflattering portrait of rapper Jahesh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, known as XXXTentacion, Look at Me is a comprehensive study of his career, influences, and tragically short life. In that time he gave voice to a generation of confused and angry kids, though it was not without extreme toxicity. Directed by Sabaah Folayan, the documentary’s ultimate destiny is Hulu and the film responsibly provides resources for those thinking of harming themselves or for those who have been victims of domestic abuse, early on advising viewers to pause the film if they so need.

Launching his rap career while incarcerated, Onfroy was a kid committed to the game but full of self-hate, doubt, and living in a state of paranoia. Soundcloud rap is the music of an overmedicated generation, sometimes with sad consequences. If rock ‘n’ roll had its “27” club, Lil Peep, Juice Wrld, and XXXTentacion all died...

XXXTentacion, who became one of his generation’s biggest hip-hop stars before being murdered in a robbery at age 20, was candid about assuming the role of “villain” in his music, which he ascribed to a knack for marketing. Looking at his literal rap sheet, of course, it didn’t seem like just a persona. Known in real life as Jahseh Onfroy, the performer was awaiting trial on felony charges of home invasion and aggravated battery when he was arrested for imprisoning and brutally beating his girlfriend while she was apparently pregnant. So, with that as one of the most memorable parts of his legacy, it’s understandable if you’d want to take a pass on anything looking to “humanize” the late rapper, as does “Look at Me: XXXTentacion,” a documentary that premiered at SXSW this week (with a Hulu debut set for June 10).

That said, there are some emotional...

It’s not easy putting on the green. The Muppets have been added to this season of ABC’s reality competition “Holey Moley,” the network announced Tuesday. It’s part of the Alphabet network’s Spring unscripted series lineup, with three shows set to premiere May 3.

Season 4 of “Holey Moley,” the mini-golf competition show executive produced by Steph Curry, will air at 8 p.m. Et. The series, which is produced by Unanimous Media and Eureka Productions, will feature characters from “The Muppets” as guest commentators this season, alongside established commentator duo Rob Riggle and Joe Tessitore. Sideline correspondent Jeannie Mai also returns to the show. Eureka Productions and Unanimous Media produce “Holey Moley,” with Curry, Chris Culvenor, Paul Franklin, Wes Dening, Charles Wachter, Michael O’Sullivan, Kate Shelbourn, Jeron Smith and Erick Peyton executive producing.

“The Chase,” ABC’s remake of the popular British game show, is back for its season premiere that night at 9 p.

The festival has five competition sections.

Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox) has revealed the full film programme for its 2022 edition, including a focus on Russia and Ukraine.

Three films that consider one or both of Russia and the Ukraine will compete for the main Dox:Award competition of the festival, which will return as an in-person event from March 23 to April 3, after two years impacted by the pandemic.

Scroll down for the full list of Dox:Award titles

The films are Antoine Cattin’s Swiss title Holidays, about Russia’s large number of national holidays; Daniel Roher’s US doc Navalny,...

The festival has five competition sections.

Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox) has revealed the full film programme for its 2022 edition, including a focus on Russia and Ukraine.

Three films that consider one or both of Russia and the Ukraine will compete for the main Dox:Award competition of the festival, which will return as an in-person event from March 23 to April 3, after two years impacted by the pandemic.

Scroll down for the full list of Dox:Award titles

The films are Antoine Cattin’s Swiss title Holidays, about Russia’s large number of national holidays; Daniel Roher’s US doc Navalny,...

Next month’s Mubi lineup for the U.S. has been unveiled, with a major highlight being their recent release Lingui, The Sacred Bonds and more films from director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (read our recent chat with him). Matías Piñeiro’s Isabella and Kazik Radwanski’s Anne at 13,000 Ft., two of last year’s highlights, will also arrive.

Two recent Cannes premieres, the Adèle Exarchopoulos-led Zero Fucks Given and Peter Tscherkassky’s Train Again will also finally come to the U.S. courtesy of Mubi. In terms of older highlights, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, Hong Sang-soo’s The Power of the Kangwon Province, Jafar Panahi’s Crimson Gold, Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion, and more will arrive.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

March 1 | The Willmar 8 | Lee Grant | Down and Out in America: Lee Grant’s Documentaries

March 2 | Train Again | Peter Tscherkassky | Brief Encounters

March...

Sheryl Crow, Nick Cave, King Crimson, Dio, XXXTentacion, Tanya Tucker, Chumbawamba, Courtney Barnett, Cesária Évora and Mojo Nixon — together again for the first time: These are some of the highly diverse subjects of a slate of music documentaries set to unspool at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin March 11-20.

The 16 movies represented in the “24 Beats Per Second” lineup are nearly all world premieres, in a film festival that skews toward SXSW’s original roots as a pure music festival by always carving out a special category for features that chronicle musicians or music scenes.

The music doc coming into the festival with probably the highest level of fan anticipation is , which promises to have director Sabaah Folayan offering “a sensitive portrayal” of a precocious, highly controversial, Soundcloud-based rapper “whose acts of violence, raw musical talent and open struggles with mental health left an indelible mark on...

One of the first major in-person gatherings for the documentary industry is gearing up in Maine, where next month’s Camden International Film Festival’s Points North Institute has unveiled the doc makers and projects selected for its artist programs.

The programs include the Points North Fellowship, North Star Fellowship, 4th World Media Lab and Lef/Ciff Fellowship. Through private workshops, screenings and industry meetings taking place both in-person on the coast of Maine and online, the four programs will support 25 documentary projects in development.

Eighty percent of this year’s new Points North-supported projects are directed or co-directed by filmmakers from backgrounds historically marginalized or excluded from the film industry, according to the org.

The artist programs are designed to connect filmmakers with mentors, funders and potential collaborators. More than 80 fellows, mentors and industry professionals are expected to attend the festival — which runs Sept. 16-26 — alongside 20 directors in the Ciff program.

Exclusive: Tfc Management has signed writers-producers Kyle Long (Unsolved), Taylor Elmore (The Stand), Sabaah Folayan (Betty) and Alison McDonald (Your Honor). Launched last summer by senior TV lit agents Ben Jacobson and David Stone, Tfc Management represents creators, showrunners, filmmakers and producers.

Long recently exited an overall deal at UCP where he created and executive produced the USA Network series Unsolved about the murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. Prior to that, he worked on USA’s Suits and Fox’s The Good Guys. Long also has worked extensively as a feature writer, setting up projects at Disney, New Regency and recently just sold a pitch, with Jameal Turner and Will Packer producing, to Lionsgate.

Elmore is an executive producer on the Justified offshoot in the works at FX. He was most recently under an overall deal at CBS Studios where he was the co-showrunner of the...

As the term “fake news” gets thrown around recklessly and clickbait headlines spread misinformation, many people have found it hard to find facts from reliable sources. Perhaps people should turn to documentaries. In a new study from The Center for Media & Social Impact, Americans view documentary storytelling as a trustworthy information source and a touchstone for civic dialogue on social challenges such as racism and police violence

The study, “Breaking the Silence: How Documentaries Can Shape the Conversation on Racial Violence in America and Create New Communities”, was conducted in 2020 before the world saw a surge in discourse on systemic racism. The participatory research focused on the responses to the Itvs co-production Always in Season directed by Jacqueline Olive. The docu debuted at Sundance in 2019 and premiered on Independent Lens on PBS. Always in Season explores the lingering impact of more than a century of lynching African Americans and connects...

Tribeca Film Institute and Gucci have announced the grantees of this year’s Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund.

The grant, funded by Gucci, provides production finances for feature-length documentary films examining domestic and international social justice issues.

Eleven projects — Jon Sesrie-Goff’s “After Sherman,” Shaunak Sen’s “Airborne,” Sabaah Folayan’s “Ain’t I A Woman,” Débora Souza Silva’s “Black Mothers,” Nesa Azimi’s “Driver,” Jasiri, Moyo and Duke’s “Jasiri,” Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s “King Coal,” Zaynê Akyol’s “Rojek One Day,” Rachel Lears’ “To The End,” Sura Mallouh’s “Untitled” and Kate Stonehill’s “Untitled Privacy Project” — have been selected this year to receive a total of $140,000 in funding. A majority of these films were directed by womxn and explore female-led narratives or stories about environmental change.

The 2020 awardees were chosen by a jury composed of actor KiKi Layne, filmmaker Opal H. Bennett, film festival programmer Brett Story,...

The Crenshaw Dairy Mart is kicking off their “Black August” event this month with the debut of the 2017 Damon Davis documentary Whose Streets? on PBS’s educational platform, Pov on August 7. “Black August” is set to run through August 9.

The Crenshaw Dairy Mart is the home to an artistic collective and art gallery that is dedicated to shifting the trauma-induced conditions of poverty and economic injustice, bridging cultural work and advocacy, and investigating ancestries through the lens of Inglewood and its community.

As the Black Lives Matters movement continues to slowly push the needle for civic and social progress, “Black August” sets to champion artists, support the community and further amplify voices fighting for change.

Directed by Sabaah Folayan and co-directed by Damon Davis, Whose Streets? premiered at Sundance in 2017 before being acquired by Magnolia Pictures.. The docu follows the killing of Michael Brown and the Ferguson uprising that followed.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and O Cinema will work with Magnolia Pictures to make “I Am Not Your Negro,” “Whose Streets?” and “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” available to watch for free.

The effort comes in the wake of protests that are sweeping across the U.S., as tens of thousands of people have assembled in the streets to call attention to police brutality and systemic racism. They have been motivated to speak out because of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. The three films, which focus on influential Civil Rights leaders and Black thinkers such as James Baldwin and Toni Morrison, as well as issues of social injustice, could not be more topical.

Starting on June 7, the film will be available in eight cities through community partners. The cities include Akron, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; Detroit, Michigan; Macon, Georgia; Miami,...

Tribeca Film Institute (Tfi) and Pond5 have once again teamed up to offer microgrants to indie filmmakers and artists.

The grants, which go as high as $7,500, are intended to help storytellers during “in-between” phases of their projects, such as research, festival travel or community screenings. They’re the kind of unexpected costs that can lead to financial heartache for artists who are already tight on cash.

“These filmmakers shouldn’t be putting stuff on their personal credit cards and in many cases they simply can’t,” said Amy Hobby, executive director of Tribeca Film Institute. “We want to help with the things that don’t often make it into an independent film budget.”

Seven projects were selected for the awards from a pool of more than 200 applicants. Artists being honored are Erika Cohn and Angela Tucker (“Belly of the Beast”); Zoe Miranda (“Blue Hour”); Matt Fifer, Kieran Mulcare, Ramfis Myrthil...

Exclusive: Pov, American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, has announced their slate for their 31st season.

The series kicks off with Bill Nye: Science Guy, which puts the spotlight on the beloved titular children’s personality in celebration of Earth Day on April 18. Pov will also premiere the Dark Money, a thrilling doc that focuses on the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials.

Also featured on this season of Pov are critically acclaimed docs Whose Streets?, Quest, Brimstone & Glory, and Nowhere to Hide.

Pov films have won numerous Emmy and Peabody awards. To add to the accolades, four of Pov‘s documentaries featured in the 31st season received Peabody nominations yesterday: Last Men in Aleppo, The Islands and the Whales, Motherland, and America ReFramed: Deej.

Read the complete slate of documentaries below.

Pov 2018 Schedule – Season 31

(All programs air at 10 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Film is certainly not dead! The box office may be down due to a steady diet of crap fed by the studio system, but even if Baywatch (the whipping boy for this year’s domestic box office) had been decent, would we have remembered it months later? Hollywood did churn out some good films–the best of which were considered crowd pleasers with a charm all their own; films like Coco and Girls Trip offered big laughs with a lot of heart. Those that took risks, notably Get Out, also found themselves rewarded while too much risk (mother!) proved to turn off casual moviegoers, even if they offered pleasure for those resisting a literal reading of what was on screen.

At the art house (and those multiplexes that offer a screen or two to quality films), it was a virtual embarrassment of cinematic riches, with no shortage of stimulating conversation...

by Glenn Dunks

It’s not surprising that the spectre of the Los Angeles riots of 1992 has loomed large over documentary filmmaking this year. Emerging out from shadow of O.J. Simpson, whose story was everywhere in 2016, the 25th anniversary of this monumental moment in American history has been the focus of not just (by my count) five feature documentaries, but has also felt like an integral part of more contemporary films like Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis’ Whose Streets, Yance Ford’s Strong Island, and Peter Nicks’ The Force.

It would make sense then that these films, which largely pull from many of the same archival footage sources, might be in danger of working against one another. Dampening their urgency and their power simply by being too numerous.

However, at least in the case of Dan Lindsay and Tj Miller’s La 92 and John Ridley’s Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992,...

Just a few short hours ago, the precursor season kicked off this morning for 2017 with the nominations for the 27th annual Ifp Gotham Independent Film Awards. Yes, we’ve reached that point in the year. Precursors will begin trickling in, starting to establish early frontrunners. Leading off is the Ifp Gotham Independent Film Awards, which will give us an idea of which indies are contenders, as opposed to just pretenders. This won’t be the last word on them, by any stretch, but it is the first word, and that’s something to take note of. Gotham is beginning a run that will ultimately end up at the Academy Awards in March. As you’ll see below, Get Out led the field with four nominations, followed by Call Me By Your Name, Columbus, The Florida Project, and Lady Bird with three apiece. There was also Good Time, I, Tonya, and Mudbound among multiple nominees,...

The Camden International Film Festival, which takes place September 14 – 17 throughout Camden, Rockport and Portland, Maine, announced its 2017 lineup today. Opening the festival is a world premiere, Dustin Nakao Haider’s basketball doc, Shot in the Dark, and the lineup also contains eight films, including The Reagan Show, All That Passes By Through A Window That Doesn’t Open and Whose Streets?, that received support from parent organization Points North Institute’s Artist Programs. “Screening at Ciff this year feels like a homecoming,” said Sabaah Folayan, Director of Whose Streets?, in a press release. “This community believed in our project […]...

As the nation reacts to the violence in Charlottesville, many are stunned by the hateful views that lurk beneath the country’s surface. One group that is unsurprised? Black people. African Americans have never forgotten America’s racist foundations, and never had the chance to turn a blind eye; they experience racism every day. Which why is a film like “Whose Streets?” — a documentary about the Ferguson protests, made by black filmmakers for black audiences — must be seen, celebrated, and heeded.

The film documents the genesis of the Black Lives Matter movement during 2013 demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo., following the murder of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson. Piecing together shaky footage with more intimate interviews with movement leaders, director Sabaah Folayan and producer Damon Davis weave a tale of unrelenting power that feels like today’s news. The film’s authenticity is largely derived from the filmmakers,...

It has been 25 years since the L.A. riots, an overflowing of racial unrest spurred on by the not guilty verdicts of the police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King. To mark the anniversary, there have been a number of documentaries about it including L.A. 92 and Burn, Motherf*cker, Burn! – unfortunately uncovered by The Film Experience due to access issues. It would be sad enough to watch Sabaah Folayan and co-director Damon Davis’ Whose Streets? in the shadow of that event; a sad indictment that in a quarter of century not much of anything has changed.

However, I sat down to watch this film last night, my digital screener playing in one tab of my internet browser while in another sits a news article about the Charlottesville protests, while in another is Twitter and in another Facebook, both flooded with angry, sad and hopeless words by friends...

When the citizens of Ferguson, Missouri took to the streets to protest the slaying of Michael Brown in 2014, writer and director Sabaah Folayan was watching the news. On the night...

You might think for a nanosecond that, after seeing footage of the protests and push-back in Ferguson, Missouri, played in TV-news loops during the back half of 2014, those images might have lost the ability to shock or stun you. And then you bear witness to the scenes of cacophony and chaos in Whose Streets?, the extraordinary documentary by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis – the tear gas and the tanks and bodies being slammed down on the ground – and your rage starts to play catch-up to the rage emanating from behind the camera.

Opening today in theaters is Sabaah Folayan’s Whose Streets?, co-directed by Damon Davis. Both visceral and thoughtful, it looks back at the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo in September, 2014, capturing all the turbulence and outcry of the moment before moving forward and following the activist energies ignited by the event. There’s archival and citizen-shot material, most only on cell phones, in the movie, but also expertly-captured footage of the original protests and following actions shot by the film’s Dp, Lucas Alvarado-Farrar. Here, in an interview conducted just prior to the film’s premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film […]...

Directors Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis spent more than a year in Ferguson after the death of Michael Brown, bearing witness to the protests that followed

Three years ago this month, Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, was shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. His death prompted demonstrations, heavy-handed policing, violence and, eventually, national outcry.

Whose Streets?, from film-makers Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis, follows that arc as it unfolds, from the frontline of the protests to the behind-the-scenes of activists’ homes.

Continue reading...

This weekend sees the national debut of a documentary that addresses a topic still very much in the daily news, while also marking this particular incident’s third anniversary. On August 9, 2014 Michael Brown, an unarmed 18 year-old man was shot and killed by a police officer during the course of an arrest. For over three months the story dominated national news and was the subject of many special TV news channel reports and newspaper and magazine articles. Now comes a feature-length documentary that follows several members of the protest movements and incorporates multiple footage of those chaotic nights in Ferguson, Missouri. This village became a symbol of the racial divide rampant in cities all across the United States. Much of it boils down to the film’s title, a debate over “ownership” of this town. Does the neighborhood “belong” to the residents or to the police, that’s the question posed by Whose Streets?...

Ferguson, Missouri, is now a kind of geopolitical shorthand for the shocking, tragic death of black teenager Michael Brown, Jr. at the hands of white cop Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. But the new documentary “Whose Streets?” would also like to make perfectly clear that Ferguson is more, that it also represents what arose from Brown’s killing: a unified activism, and a renewed purpose from a targeted community. Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis’ film takes us into the charged, mournful and even hopeful days, weeks and months after Brown was shot, told from the perspective of the citizens who...

“St. Louis, I don’t know what year it is, but it’s not 2014,” a voice intones at the start of Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis’ activist documentary “Whose Streets?.” That weariness comes back later in this documentary about the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and the waves of protest that followed, but it’s not the movie’s overriding emotion. Each of the film’s five sections is buttressed with beaten-but-not-down quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Continue reading ‘Whose Streets?’ Is A Righteous But Scattered View Of Post-Ferguson Activism [Review] at The Playlist.

It was just three years ago—on August 9, 2014—that Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed the unarmed Michael Brown, setting off widespread protests in suburban St. Louis and around the country. There are differing accounts of what happened that day and the reasons behind it, but to Ferguson’s residents, the shooting exemplified the overzealousness of cops in a predominately black community. As video of their demonstrations spread across social media and cable news, the images of law enforcement in riot gear intimidating people in their own neighborhoods reinforced the message the protestors were trying to deliver. The incident and its aftermath were terrifying—and galvanizing.

Sabaah Folayan’s documentary Whose Streets? focuses more on what was awakened in Ferguson than on the despair that so many felt back then—both in Missouri and among those watching around the world. Proceeding roughly chronologically from the ...

Chicago – The historic 2014 street killing by law enforcement of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. – and the subsequent deflection by the police – continues to resonate. “Whose Streets?” is a new documentary about the incident and aftermath, and it marks the debut of co-directors Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis.

“Whose Streets?” relates the incident of an unarmed teenager named Michael Brown, who was killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9th, 2014. His body laid in the streets for hours, and police tried to deflect what happened. This marked a breaking point for the African American community in Ferguson, nearby St. Louis, and supporters from all over the world. The subsequent protests and confrontations made headlines, all the way up to when Officer Wilson was acquitted of wrongdoing by a grand jury. However, the events empowered the community, to stand up to systemic racism within the law enforcement community...

Whose Streets? Magnolia Pictures Director: Sabaah Folayan, Co-director Damon Davis Written by: Sabaah Folayan Cast: Brittany Farrell, Alexis Templeton, David Whitt, Tef Poe, Layla Reed, Tory Russell, Jamala Ashley, T Dubb O, Bassem Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 7/31/17 Opens: August 11, 2017 It is the right of the people to petition the government for […]

The post Whose Streets? Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Magnolia Pictures has released a new trailer for the documentary Whose Streets? Directed by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis, the film chronicles the Ferguson uprising from the very beginning, with a ground-level look on Day 1 at the community’s outpouring of grief over the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, the overbearing police response, and the subsequent turmoil. This trailer gives an overview of the characters you’ll meet within the context of the film, as it really serves as an unflinching historical document about this pivotal moment in modern American history. I caught the film back …...

Ah, the dog-days month of summer moviegoing! This August is pretty light on potential blockbusters (save a certain long-awaited fantasy-Western by one Stephen King), leaving room for a number of counter-programming indie curios worth investigating. Robert Pattinson, Channing Tatum and Aubrey Plaza all do some major-league acting in three respective, remarkably offbeat films; Kathryn Bigelow zeroes in on some historical racial tensions and riots in the 1960s Motor City; and a documentary reckons with more recent ones in Ferguson, Missouri. Here's what you need to see this month.

Beach Rats (Aug.

Getting out early can be an advantage in the documentary race, which is often front loaded at January’s Sundance Film Festival. While a raft of movies made their mark, the question is which ones can sustain support through the end of the year.

Among that festival’s breakouts were three Syria documentaries. Daring and timely “City of Ghosts” (July 14, A & E/Amazon Studios), which is Matthew Heineman’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated border drug war thriller “Cartel Land,” will get a major push. Any footage from Syria came from the fearless Raqqa journalists he tracked through Turkey and Germany, where they discover that they are not necessarily safe — anywhere.

It remains to be seen if there will be room for more than one Syrian documentary. HBO Documentary Films is forgoing Emmy consideration for “Winter on Fire” nominee Evgeny Afineevsky’s harrowing “Cries From Syria” (March 10, HBO), planning an Oscar push this fall.

Rooftop Films has announced its lineup for the 2017 Summer Series. This year’s series will feature more than 45 outdoor screenings in more than 10 venues, including films like Michael Showalter’s Sundance hit “The Big Sick” Ana Lily Amirpour’s “The Bad Batch,” (dates still Tbd).

The series kicks off on Friday, May 19 with “This is What We Mean by Short Films,” a collection of some of the most innovative, new short films of the past year. The screening will take place on the roof of The Old American Can Factory, in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The following night, Saturday, May 20, Rooftop will present a sneak preview screening of Zoe Lister-Jones’ 2017 Sundance entry, “Band Aid,” free and outdoors at House of Vans in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The entire lineup so far is below. Tickets are already for sale.

Friday, May 19

“This is What We Mean by Short Films”

Saturday, May 20

“Band Aid” (Zoe Lister-Jones)

Saturday,...

If one wants to experience the best independent cinema the year has to offer this summer, one of your best bets is the well-curated line-up at Brooklyn’s BAMcinémaFest. They’ve now unveiled this year’s slate for the festival running from June 14-25, including some of of my favorite films of the year thus far (A Ghost Story, Golden Exits, Columbus, Marjorie Prime, and Landline) as well as highly-anticipated others (the SXSW hit Gemini and Stephen Cone‘s Princess Cyd come to mind).

“I’m incredibly proud of the program our team has put together,” says Gina Duncan, Associate Vice President, Cinema. “From the endearing comedy The Big Sick to the micro-budget Princess Cyd and Lemon, the audacious first feature from Janicza Bravo, the line-up truly reflects the breadth of American independent cinema today. Other highlights include the world premiere of Jim McKay’s, En el Séptimo Día an...

While news stations attempt to cover the Black Lives Matter movement and in injustice stemming from its formation, the most thorough documents tend to be from those embedded deeper in the heart of the action. Director Sabaah Folayan and co-director Damon Davis, who were on the ground in Ferguson, captured the uprising in Whose Streets?. After being one of our favorite films at Sundance earlier this year, it will now arrive this summer, and the first trailer has landed.

We said in our review, “Dedicated to Michael Brown Jr., Whose Streets? is an alarming and vital documentary chronicling the grassroots formation of Black Lives Matter as well as efforts in Ferguson. A narrow document of time and place, it allows the story to unfold as it did on a local level — in a clutter of confusion, tweets, and amateur video as the Ferguson Police Department show up with guns and...

Magnolia Pictures has released the teaser trailer and poster for “Whose Streets?,” Sabaah Folayan & Damon Davis’ documentary about Ferguson, Missouri and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Avail yourself of both below.

Read More: ‘Whose Streets?’ Review: Ferguson Doc Shows the Birth of Black Lives Matter With Unrelenting Power — Sundance 2017

Here’s the synopsis: “Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, ‘Whose Streets?’ is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. Empowered parents, artists and teachers from around the country come together as freedom fighters. As the National Guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry,...

Although there’s no shortage of regional film festivals throughout the year, few — if any — are better curated than the Maryland Film Festival. With a slate organized by Director of Programming Eric Allen Hatch, the downtown Baltimore festival, which takes place from May 3-7, offers the finest in independent and international cinema of the past year, as well as some of our most-anticipated world premieres.

Now in its 19th year, we’re pleased to debut the full line-up for the 6-screen festival, and can exclusively reveal that Brett Haley‘s The Hero (one of our favorite films from Sundance) will be the Closing Night film. World premiering at the festival is Stephen Cone‘s Princess Cyd, his follow-up to one of last year’s finest films, Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party, along with Josh Crockett‘s Dr. Brinks & Dr. Brinks.

We can also exclusively reveal the Opening Night Shorts — 5 short...

Exclusive: Peter Greenaway to attend; Queerama premiere to open festival.

UK documentary festival Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 9-14) has unveiled the first batch of films and events set for its 2017 edition.

The festival will open with the world premiere of Queerama, a documentary chronicling the lives of gay men and women from 1919 to the present date.

The film features the music of American singer John Grant and dance band Hercules and Love Affair. Grant will attend the premiere and will perform live following the screening at Sheffield’s City Hall.

The project was supported by the BBC Storyville, Ffilm Cymru Wales and the BFI.

John Grant

Doc/Fest 2017’s main programme focus will be Resistance And Change, with the festival exploring the topic through its film programme and events.

British filmmaker Peter Greenaway will attend the festival for the first time to hold an in conversation event, in which he will discuss his career, including his current...

Chicago – The 2017 DOC10 Film Festival, now in its second year in Chicago, is spotlighting an incendiary and inspiring documentary for its March 31st showcase presentation at the Davis Theatre. “Whose Streets?” is a chronicle of the events in Ferguson, Missouri, in the wake of the killing of African American teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson. The film explores the coming together of community and the injustice within the Ferguson law enforcement system. For complete details and to purchase tickets for “Whose Streets?”, and other documentaries at DOC10 through Sunday, April 2nd, click here.

’Whose Streets?’ on Friday, March 31, 2017, at Chicago’s DOC10

Photo credit: DOC10

The 2017 edition of DOC10 continues its prominence as Chicago’s premiere documentary film festival, with 10 documentary films throughout the March 31st to April 2nd weekend, all at the newly restored and historic Davis Theater – 4614 North Lincoln Avenue – on Chicago’s north side.

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Lineup Announcements

– Exclusive: The 12th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival announced its official selections for the 2017 event featuring films with Alec Baldwin, Dylan McDermott, John Cleese, Daphne Zuniga and more. Opening night will feature Michael Mailer’s newest film, “Blind,” a romantic-drama, starring Alec Baldwin, Demi Moore and Dylan McDermott. Closing night will wrap up the festival with “Albion: The Enchanted Stallion,” a family fantasy adventure, starring John Cleese, Debra Messing, Jennifer Morrison and Stephen Dorff.

Retrospective Screenings will include Daphne Zuniga appearance at the festival honoring the 30th anniversary of “Spaceballs.” Also in this category will be “The Greatest Show on Earth,” from 1952 directed by Cecile B. DeMille, which won the Oscar for Best Pictures and Best Writing in 1953. The screening will honor the closing of the Ringling Bros.

Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to the feature documentary “Whose Streets?”, which made its world premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival just last month. Directed by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis, the film is a nonfiction account… Continue Reading →...

Magnolia has acquired the Sundance documentary Whose Streets? for North America.

The doc is the feature film debut for filmmakers Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis. It centers on the activist in Ferguson, Mo., who continues to fight for racial equality in the wake of Mike Brown's killing.

The Hollywood Reporter's review called the film “an essential testament to the commitment of activists whose credo is ‘We have nothing to lose but our chains.’”

Magnolia is planning to release the film theatrically this summer, to coincide with the anniversary of Brown’s murder. A film festival run is planned for this spring.

Jennifer MacArthur...