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Better than ever, now in its seventh year, the spectacular program with its filmmaking guests and a committed community of dedicated and intellectually alive filmgoers invigorates the mind and activist tendencies already in play.

Take for instance, University of Arizona Professor Noam Chomsky, one of the most influential public intellectuals in the world, speaking with Regents’ Professor Toni Massaro about social justice and the environment. Here he is, in person, being honored as every word he speaks is treated as a jewel. Considered the founder of modern linguistics, Chomsky has written more than 100 books, his most recent being Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power. An ardent free speech advocate, Chomsky has published and lectured widely on U.S. foreign policy, Mideast politics, terrorism, democratic society and war. Chomsky, who joined the UA faculty this fall, is a laureate professor in the Department of...

Noam Chomsky is one of America's most important thinkers, critical minds, and voices of dissent, and thus it's hardly a surprise that his gripping ideas have been the subject of more than one documentary. 1992's "Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media" might be the most well known, and Michel Gondry's "Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?" the quirkiest, but the upcoming "Requiem For The American Dream" — slated to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival — might be the most relevant given social and economic landscape of the moment. Directed by Peter Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, and Jared P. Scott, the film is constructed from four years worth of interviews with Chomsky, and explores the growing inequality in the country and what that means for stability, democracy, and more. Here's the official synopsis: In his final long-form documentary interview - filmed over four years - Chomsky unpacks the principles that...

Four Letters Apart [pictured] and Becoming an Actor among winners.

The 16th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (Tdf) and its concurrent Doc Film Market has unveiled the winners for its 2014 edition.

At the Tdf, the Peter Wintonick Audience Award for a foreign feature length documentary went to Four Letters Apart by Erlend E. Mo (Denmark), while Dimitris Koutsiabasiakos’ Becoming an Actor was the recipient of the Tdf Audience Award for Greek features.

Four Letters Apart centres on three children at odds with themselves and the world around them, at a time when more and more are being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd). The film, produced by Lise Lense-Møller, is sold by Danish outlet Magic Hours Films.

Becoming an Actor deals with a group of young actors, chronicling their anxieties and dreams throughout a three-year course of study. Produced by Koutsiabasiakos, the film is sold by the Greek production company KinoLab.

This is the second year in a row...

Peter Wintonick -- a filmmaker, journalist, festival programmer and mentor who was a beloved presence in the international documentary film world -- passed away this morning in Montreal. Born in Trenton, Ontario in 1953, Wintonick was a pioneering voice in the  documentary film world. His career spanned 35 years, with involvement in more than 100 films and transmedia projects.  Among them were 1992's "Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media" and 2000's "Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment," both documentary features he directed. He notably won the Canadian Governor General's Award in 2006 for Visual and Media Arts (Canada's highest such honor), and was one of the founders of DocAgora, an event inserted into various film festivals showcasing cutting-edge digital strategies. Wintonick announced a few weeks ago that he had been diagnosed with Cholangio Carcinoma, a rare form of liver cancer. He was using the diagnosis as motivation for a new film, "Be Here Now,...

TORONTO -- The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival on Wednesday selected a jury to judge 77 films during the April 23-May 2 event in Toronto. Set for jury duty were documentary filmmakers Jehane Noujaim (Startup.com), Frederick Wiseman (Titticut Follies), Jennifer Baichwal (The True Meaning of Pictures), Tracey Deer (One More River), John Kastner (Rage Against Darkness), Ali Kazimi (Passage to India), Peter Wintonick (Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky and the Media) and Peter Lynch (Cyberman). Also named were Sundance Channel vp acquisitions Christian Vesper; Wolter Braamhorst, a commissioning editor for Dutch broadcaster AVRO, film producer Robin Cass, Toronto One executive director Karen King, Globe and Mail newspaper foreign editor John Stackhouse, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. head of documentary production Mark Starowicz and Sheffield International Documentary Festival director Brent Woods. The blue ribbon jury will choose prize winners in the categories of best Canadian short, best Canadian feature, best international short, best international feature and best film from the National Spotlight on the Netherlands.