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Erik Nelson describes his documentary “The Cold Blue” as “the garage band of movies” — he didn’t have the large team or crew other documentary contenders have.

“The Cold Blue” is a World War II documentary that looks at raids and B-17 bombing missions that took place during the war. Nelson’s team looked at 34 reels of 16mm footage from William Wyler’s “The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress,” poring over them for 15 hours.

The footage was without sound, so Nelson not only restored it to stunning quality, but he also tracked down eight of the existing B-17 planes, flew up in them and captured the sound. The end result is an immersive and modern documentary.

As a film historian, Nelson also sought out veterans who flew the B-17s.

“Wyler covered the bomb runs, the briefings, and I knew what we had,” Nelson said of the footage.

Erik Nelson’s absorbing new documentary uses unseen footage shot by William Wyler for his 1944 film The Memphis Belle

Here is an interesting footnote to one of the great documentaries of the second world war era – The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944), William Wyler’s study of the B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft, which flew hugely dangerous daytime raids into Germany from Raf Bassingbourn in Cambridgeshire. Wyler himself went with them and took the same risks as the combatants. Erik Nelson’s film recounts the discovery and subsequent digital restoration of the fascinating undiscovered footage that Wyler and his crew shot.

There is a succession of poignant images: very often of that piercingly blue sky ­– the hostile “cold blue” – in which the Memphis Belle and the other B-17s flew their missions. Perhaps the most arresting material is that showing civilian life in the ruins of Berlin in...

Friday, August 24

– The Camden International Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 14th edition, including opening-night selection “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.” Morgan Neville’s documentary on Orson Welles kicks off the fest, which takes place September 13–16 and concludes with the Us premiere of the sailing drama “Maiden.”

The full slate is comprised of 37 features, 43 shorts, one episodic series, and 20 virtual-reality and immersive experiences; half of the lineup was directed or co-directed by women. Other standouts include Kahlil Hudson and Alex Jablonski’s “Young Men and Fire,” Lana Wilson’s series “The Cure for Fear,” Jane Gillooly’s “Where the Pavement Ends,” “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” “What Is Democracy,” “The Truth About Killer Robots,” Locarno winner “Fausto,” and Karlovy Vary winners “Walden” and “Putin’s Witnesses.” Take a look at the full slate at https://pointsnorthinstitute.org.

Wednesday, August 22

– Today Sffilm announced...

Errol Morris’ look at Steve Bannon, Alexis Bloom’s dissection of Roger Ailes, and James Longley’s unflinching portrait of life in war-torn Afghanistan are just a few of the politically charged documentaries that will screen as part of this year’s New York Film Festival.

The annual gathering for cinephiles and Oscar hopefuls has unveiled the complete lineup for its Spotlight on Documentary section, and it’s filled with some of the biggest names in non-fiction filmmaking. These directors are turning their cameras not just on agitprop masters and geopolitical hotspots, they’re also highlighting artistic giants, social justice champions, and off-beat fashion photographers.

The festival, which is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, appears to be leaning into the polarized present. The selections include “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” which is directed by Bloom, the filmmaker behind “Bright Lights;” “The Waldheim Waltz,” director...

Entertainment journalist Mark Harris followed up his well-reviewed 2009 “Pictures at a Revolution” with an even better and more accessible book, the dramatic story of five top Hollywood directors and their roles in producing WWII propaganda films, told over 500 pages: “Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War. The first book was doomed not to become a movie due to prohibitive clip costs. But the urge to open up Harris’s exhaustive research on “Five Came Back” via dramatic documentary shorts shot in the global arena was irresistible — and they were free.

Read More: ‘Five Came Back’ Review: A Cinephile’s Dream Documentary Becomes Enthralling for Everyone on Netflix

There’s plenty of rich footage to choose from: Frank Capra’s “Why We Fight” propaganda, John Huston’s re-enacted “The Battle of San Pietro,” John Ford and William Wyler’s live footage of the D-Day invasion from sea and air,...

Entertainment journalist Mark Harris followed up his well-reviewed 2009 “Pictures at a Revolution” with an even better and more accessible book, the dramatic story of five top Hollywood directors and their roles in producing WWII propaganda films, told over 500 pages: “Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War. The first book was doomed not to become a movie due to prohibitive clip costs. But the urge to open up Harris’s exhaustive research on “Five Came Back” via dramatic documentary shorts shot in the global arena was irresistible — and they were free.

Read More: ‘Five Came Back’ Review: A Cinephile’s Dream Documentary Becomes Enthralling for Everyone on Netflix

There’s plenty of rich footage to choose from: Frank Capra’s “Why We Fight” propaganda, John Huston’s re-enacted “The Battle of San Pietro,” John Ford and William Wyler’s live footage of the D-Day invasion from sea and air,...

Netflix has released the trailer for a fascinating new three part documentary called Five Came Back. It focuses on how World War II changed Hollywood and features directors like Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro diving into this subject matter.

Netflix put out an extensive press release with tons of details on what the doc will entail and I'm completely captivated by the film's subject matter. I love the history of film and the history of WWII and seeing a doc focusing on how these two things affected each other is film geek candy! Here are the additional details:

The movie is an adaptation of the book Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War written by Mark Harris. It's tells "the extraordinary story of how Hollywood changed World War II – and how World War II changed Hollywood, through the interwoven experiences of five filmmakers...

Tony Sokol Simon Brew Mar 1, 2017

How the big directors of the 1940s were drafted in to make films for the American military in World War II...

World War II's battles were fought on the battlefields, but also there was, as you probably know, a sizeable propaganda effort too. Major American film directors were involved in the war effort, making propaganda films. for the Us military. This story was wonderfully told by Mark Harris in his terrific book, Five Came Back. And now Netflix has a three-part documentary based on his work heading our way. And a trailer has just been released.

See related Prime Suspect prequel on its way Celebrating Jimmy McGovern's Cracker Endeavour series 4 episode 4 review: Harvest Inspector Morse 30th anniversary: the top 10 episodes

In the series, directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Paul Greengrass, Lawrence Kasdan and Steven Spielberg discuss the great generation of the 1940s,...

One of the more popular film-related books of the last few years is Mark Harris‘ Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War, which recounts the experience directors John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens had heading to war and then returning to Hollywood to make some of their greatest films. In a welcome surprise only recently revealed, the book has now been turned into a three-part series on Netflix and it’ll arrive next month.

Featuring narration from Meryl Streep and interviews with Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg, Paul Greengrass, and Lawrence Kasdan, the first trailer has arrived. Judging from this preview, it looks to be a rousing documentary capturing this crucial time in cinematic history and the world at large. Directed by Laurent Bouzereau, he and his team pored through 100 hours of archival and newsreel footage...

Netflix has announced the new titles arriving on the streaming platform next month, with five original films leading the pack: “Burning Sands” (3/10), “Deidra & Laney Rob a Train” (3/17), “Pandora” (3/17), “The Most Hated Woman in America” (3/24) and “The Discovery” (3/31). Three of these — “Burning Sands,” “Deidra & Laney,” “The Discovery” — are Netflix Origins that premiered during the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Read More: ‘The Discovery’ Review: Rooney Mara And Jason Segel Find Life After Death — Sundance 2017

Also available to stream next month are “The Bfg,” “Pete’s Dragon,” “The Life Aquatic,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Chicago,” “Jurassic Park,” “Memento,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Evolution,” “Fire at Sea” and “Welcome to New York,” among others, while the likes of “Jaws,” “Animal House,” “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” and “Entertainment” are all expiring at the end of February. Find a full list of what’s coming in March below.

Read More: Why Martin Scorsese’s Netflix Deal Is...

Mark Harris's study of the interwoven war careers of Ford, Wyler, Capra, Stevens and Huston impresses Philip French

The two most remarkable film books of last year were both about the ways – mostly craven and temporising – that the American cinema responded to the rise of Nazism: The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact with Hitler by Ben Urwand and Hollywood and Hitler 1933-1939 by Thomas Doherty. By a useful coincidence, the first important movie history so far this year, and likely to prove one of the most memorable, is Mark Harris's Five Came Back. His complementary work picks up Urband's and Doherty's studies at that crucial point where the bombs fall on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and Hollywood rolls up its sleeves and swaps the diplomatic velvet glove for a patriotic steel fist. As in his impressive first book, Scenes from a Revolution, a long, detailed study of five 1967 movies that...

William Wyler was one of the greatest film directors Hollywood — or any other film industry — has ever produced. Today, Wyler lacks the following of Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Frank Capra, or even Howard Hawks most likely because, unlike Hitchcock, Ford, or Capra (and to a lesser extent Hawks), Wyler never focused on a particular genre, while his films were hardly as male-centered as those of the aforementioned four directors. Dumb but true: Films about women and their issues tend to be perceived as inferior to those about men — especially tough men — and their issues. The German-born Wyler (1902, in Alsace, now part of France) immigrated to the United States in his late teens. Following a stint at Universal's New York office, he moved to Hollywood and by the mid-'20s was directing Western shorts. His ascent was quick; by 1929 Wyler was directing Universal's top female star, Laura La Plante in the...

Dear Nikki: I’m writing you today regarding the piece, “WGA Restores Blacklisted Writer Dalton Trumbo’s Screen Credit On ‘Roman Holiday,’” by Mike Fleming which appeared on Deadline New York online Monday, December 19, 2011. My father, Lester Koenig, was a writer and producer principally known for being second in command on Willy Wyler’s films from WWII (my father was the principal writer of The Memphis Belle) through Roman Holiday. He was blacklisted on the grounds that he had been named by someone as having questionable ties and then, on being subpoenaed, he refused to name names. He was a friend and colleague of Dalton Trumbo. Taking nothing away from Dalton, my father told me that the screenplay for Roman Holiday was a collaborative effort. When Willy Wyler, my father, and several other writers left port in New York on the Queen Mary bound for Europe, Willy was not satisfied with what they had.