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In “Are We Good?” comedian and podcast pioneer Marc Maron works his way through life after the unexpected death of his partner, filmmaker Lynn Shelton.

The 95-minute documentary is directed by Steven Feinartz, who also directed the comedian’s 2023 HBO special “Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark.” The doc captures Maron as he processes his grief on and off comedy stages. The film also chronicles Maron’s lengthy, complicated career, his struggle with addiction, his relationship with his declining father, and what the comedian is best known for – his podcast “Wtf With Marc Maron,” which launched in 2009.

Feinartz and Maron, who met 13 years ago during an episode of Wtf, started filming “Are We Good” in May 2021 – a year after Shelton died.

“The film was a three and a half year undertaking, where I spent a bulk of the production with just myself filming Marc,” says Feinartz. “My intention was to...

A number of mega-star comedians have hosted the Oscars over the course of its long history — from Bob Hope, to Whoopi Goldberg, to the anti-comedy performance artist known as “James Franco.”

One famous name who’s not likely to be back hosting the Academy Awards any time soon is Ellen DeGeneres, who, to be fair, gave us one of the most memorable Oscar moments of all-time: the star-studded selfie, which may or may not have been “cursed.”

Since Ellen has subsequently experienced a tidal-wave of bad publicity concerning her behind-the-scenes behavior, which seemingly led to the cancellation of her talk show and inspired a self-pitying stand-up special, one more bad story probably won’t make a difference. But according to longtime Oscars joke writer Bruce Vilanch, DeGeneres was the most difficult host to work with.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Vilanch acknowledged that to “throw more fire on...

Steve James’ iconic, genre-defining documentary Hoop Dreams earned great acclaim upon its release in 1994. The film was instantly a hit with critics and earned an impressive $11.8 million at the worldwide box office, a rare feat for a documentary at that time. Due to this success, the film was considered to be a favorite in the Best Documentary category at the Oscars by many critics and prognosticators, with some even thinking a Best Picture nomination was possible. When the nominees for the 67th Academy Awards were announced though, many were stunned to see Hoop Dreams omitted from both categories, only earning one total nomination for Best Editing, which it would go on to lose. The film’s snub in the documentary category caused immediate outrage. Among the angered fans was famed film critic Roger Ebert. Hoop Dreams’ snub bothered him to such a degree that his vocal objection would contribute to...

“It’s very scary.”

In separate interviews, three veteran nonprofit executives used the same phrase to describe the future of public media in the United States under the next Trump Administration. While agencies are currently funded through 2025, the attacks are fierce.

The GOP Is Out for Blood

In April, president-elect Donald Trump called National Public Radio (NPR) “a liberal disinformation machine” and vowed to never give it a penny while Congressman Scott Perry (R-pa) introduced the “No Propaganda Act,” a bill that aims to prohibit federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (Cpb). Senator Ted Cruz (R-tx) called the Cpb “complicit in perpetuating political bias.”

Three weeks ago, Department of Government Efficiency co-heads Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy joined the fray, calling for an end to federal funding to the Cpb in the Wall Street Journal.

This isn’t new, of course.

Conservative politicians have tried to destroy public...

I attended my first Toronto International Film Festival in 2006. At a midnight screening on the city’s then-Ryerson University campus, Sacha Baron Cohen showed up — on a horse — for the premiere of Borat. Twenty minutes in, the projector broke. Michael Moore climbed over seats to try to fix it. “What on earth is happening here?” I remember thinking. Cohen then got up and did 45 minutes of stand-up — in character. The projector was never fixed. No one cared.

That was my introduction to awards season. The tuxedos? The champagne glasses? The stilted debate over which British actor best inhabits the royals drama and other supposed trappings of the season? Well, Ok, they were a part of it, too. But nearly two decades later, this Borat moment is the film-festival memory that sticks with me. A moviemaking wacko with a vision, adjusting on the fly when the winds weren’t blowing his way.

Since getting to hang out with Elmo wasn’t enough, “We Live in Time” star Andrew Garfield took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to relax in the Criterion Closet. In his video, which you can watch below, he explained how he initially felt threatened by the idea of coming to such a magical place, but that actually being there was a different experience entirely.

“Every time I watch these videos, I’m quite intimidated and I’m like, ‘God, if I ever do that, I’m probably going to be so overwhelmed.’ But it’s like being in one of those sensory deprivation pods where you’re only surrounded by the most incredible cinema ever made,” said Garfield. “And I feel very genuinely humbled to have been invited here.”

Diving right in, Garfield honored Terry Gilliam, who he worked with on “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” by...

Exclusive: The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival will host the world premiere of American Coup: Wilmington 1898, about a forgotten chapter in American history that saw a white supremacist mob terrorize Black residents of a North Carolina city, overthrowing an elected city government.

The film directed by Yoruba Richen and Brad Lichtenstein is among the highlights of the 33rd edition of Hsdff, the oldest all-documentary film festival in North America. Directors Richen and Lichtenstein and two of the film’s main participants are expected to attend the festival, which runs October 18-26 in the Arkansas resort town. [Scroll for the full lineup]

Hsdff, presented by Oaklawn, will kick off with Space Cowboy, directed by Marah Strauch and Bryce Leavitt, fresh from its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film tells the story of Joe Jennings, a man who has pulled off some of the most amazing skydiving stunts in cinema history, some that...

It suffered at the box office and failed to win any Oscars, but the 1994 prison drama is still seen by many as greater than The Godfather

The Shawshank Redemption is not the greatest film ever made. Heck, it’s not even one of best films of 1994 – the year of Pulp Fiction, Hoop Dreams, Chungking Express, Exotica, Quiz Show and the last two entries in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours trilogy. And yet it continues to sit at or near the top of IMDb’s top 250, currently a shade above The Godfather and The Dark Knight, despite opening to polite reviews, middling box office and a resurgent Oscar campaign that nonetheless yielded zero awards. That’s an incredible comeback story, a video-and-cable-fueled long game as steady and methodical as, say, spending two decades chipping a hole in the prison walls with a rock hammer.

Much of the film’s standing in...

On Monday September 2 2024, Fox broadcasts Name That Tune!

Hoop Dreams Season 4 Episode 11 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Name That Tune,” titled “Hoop Dreams,” promises an exciting lineup of contestants and music challenges. This episode will air on Fox and features two thrilling games that showcase a diverse range of participants.

In the first game, a sales consultant will face off against a university professor. Both contestants bring unique skills and knowledge to the table. The sales consultant, known for quick thinking and a competitive spirit, will try to outsmart the professor, who has a sharp mind and a deep appreciation for music. The tension between them is sure to create an engaging atmosphere as they race to identify tunes and score points.

The second game shifts gears with a former professional basketball player pitted against an optometrist. This matchup adds an interesting twist, as the basketball player is used...

Paramount’s free streaming service Pluto TV has revealed its September highlights. The Pluto TV September 2024 lineup includes coverage of the new NFL season and the launch of contact sports channels One Championship TV and Wow – Women of Wrestling.

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Pluto TV is expanding its channel lineup in the category, and for fans looking to return to a place where everybody knows your name, they have a new Cheers + Frasier channel to deliver nostalgic vibes.

Pluto TV is the leading free streaming television service, delivering hundreds of live, linear channels and thousands of titles on-demand to a global audience. The Emmy Award-winning service curates a diverse lineup of channels in partnership with hundreds of international media companies.

Pluto TV offers various genres, languages, and categories featuring movies, television series, sports, news, lifestyle, kids, and much more. The service can be easily accessed and streamed across mobile,...

On Monday, 2 September 2024, at 8:00 Pm, Fox invites audiences to enjoy an exciting new episode of “Name That Tune” titled “Hoop Dreams.” This episode promises thrilling competition as two pairs of contestants face off in a battle of musical knowledge and quick thinking.

In the first game, a sales consultant and a university professor will go head-to-head, showcasing their skills as they try to identify popular songs and earn points. With their different backgrounds, viewers can expect a unique dynamic and plenty of surprises as they race against the clock. The competition heats up in game two when a former professional basketball player takes on an optometrist. Fans can anticipate an energetic atmosphere as these two diverse contestants bring their A-game to the musical stage.

With its mix of music, fun, and friendly rivalry, “Hoop Dreams” is set to be a memorable episode. Whether cheering for a favorite contestant or just enjoying the music,...

In a marketplace dominated by social media, streaming and celebrities, sports and entertainment have never been more aligned. Streamers across the board are clamoring for live sports to pair with their original content, and athletes of all disciplines and genders can rocket to international fame with a single post.

To examine the growing nexus of sports, media and entertainment, Variety & Sportico held the Sports & Entertainment Summit, presented by City National Bank, on July 12 at the Beverly Hilton. The summit brought together agents, executives, and athletes to discuss fan engagement, the rise of women’s sports, the state of the art in presenting live games, and much more.

Watch highlights from the summit below.

Keynote Conversation with Jay Williams

Jay Williams, Chairman and Co-Founder, Improbable Media and ESPN Analyst

In January, ESPN anchor Jay Williams and NBA Champion Giannis Antetokounmpo founded Improbable Media with the mission to reinvent storytelling in the world of sports.

Previous | Image 1 of 11 | NextJohn C. Reilly, Career Achievement Award honoree.

Chicago – The Red Carpet was for rock … er, cinema … stars at the the 60th Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff) Summer Gala, and the directors, actors and film VIPs were present and feted. Patrick McDonald and Photographer Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com were also there, and got the stars to pose and talk.

Hosted with raucous glee by “Today Show” personality Al Roker, the night was a luminous event with brilliant speeches, highlighted by Career Achievement Awardee John C. Reilly, who thanked his born-and-bred Chicago upbringing for his movie star career. Also honored was filmmaker Jennifer Reeder (“Knives and Skin”) who received the Tour De Force Award for her progressive feminist filmography, and took us through her journey in a screenplay speech format. Ciff Founder Michael Kutza was also honored, and received a standing ovation.

Also among the Red Carpet attendees...

Chicago – One of the great partners of local filmmaking in the Chicago area is Noisefloor Sound Solutions. The company provides the ambience for storytellers not only in cinema, but for the wide range of creative endeavors in the 21st Century … including TV, Web Series, Video Games and of course, Podcasts.

Starting with just two sound experts in 2005, Noisefloor has grown to a 13 person staff of sound designers, music composers, producers, audio implementors, mixers and location recordists. The team has brought their talent and passion to such projects as the films “Hoop Dreams,” “Apollo 13” and the recent locally produced ”Single Car Crashes”, in addition to the Halo series of video games. With their variety of sound services, Noisefloor’s client list ranges from Coca Cola to Ego to The Big Ten Network to Warner Bros.

Noisefloor Sound Solutions

Photo credit: Noise-Floor.com

Katie Waters is a Foley Artist (reproducing Sound...

“Hoop Dreams” (1994) broke the mould for high school basketball documentaries, charting the progress of young hopefuls as they balance education, social pressures and a dedication to sport in the face of local celebrity. And while Erica Tanamachi's “Home Court” covers a similar scenario, its journey is a very different one through high school basketball.

Home Court is screening at CAAMFest

Teenage basketball star Ashley Chea, a Californian of Cambodian descent, has one ambition: to play basketball professionally. And the starting point for this is high school basketball. She enrolls at a private school with a strong basketball heritage, where her coaches are more like family than her parents. And therein lies the problem: with Ashley's parents working hard to support her, combined with her mother's lack of understanding basketball and middle-class American customs, she gradually becomes more and more distant from her family as college looms closer. But she...

Oscar nominee Steve James (Hoop Dreams) has been set to direct Mind vs. Machine, a new docuseries on the lightning rod topic of artificial intelligence from Oscar winner Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions, Closer Media, Anonymous Content, and Emmy-winning producers Alyssa Fedele & Zachary Fink of Collective Hunch.

Gibney comes to the project after working with Closer Media and Anonymous Content on the forthcoming documentary Musk, to be distributed by HBO/Universal. Within the last year, his Jigsaw has also teamed with the companies on the MGM+ acquired documentary In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon and the Raoul Peck-helmed Orwell on 1984 author George Orwell, to be distributed by Neon.

As artificial intelligence bursts onto the world stage – and into our lives – it may seem like a radical new life form has suddenly been created. But as Mind vs. Machine illustrates,...

Steve James, the Oscar-nominated director behind Hoop Dreams and Life Itself, will tackle AI in the docuseries Mind vs. Machine, which has Alex Gibney on board as a producer.

Closer Media and Anonymous Content, which are working with Gibney on his upcoming Elon Musk doc Musk, are financing the project and also producing alongside James and Gibney, Alyssa Fedele and Zachary Fink of Collective Hunch.

New York Times technology correspondent Cade Metz will executive produce with Closer Media’s Zhang Xin, William Horberg, and Joey Marra, and Anonymous Content’s Nick Shumaker, Jessica Grimshaw, and David Levine.

According to the announcement, the project is described as “a five-part, landmark docuseries artfully crafted from a blend of interviews, archival footage, dramatic recreations, AI visualizations, and cutting-edge special effects, is definitive in its unparalleled access to key inventors, scientists, futurists, and thinkers including Geoffrey Hinton, Yann LeCun, Ray Kurzweil, Deborah Raji, and Meghan O’Gieblyn.

Exclusive: Rtg Features, the sister studio to basketball media company Slam, is partnering with arts organization Heartland Film to launch the first annual Slam Film Festival dedicated to basketball-themed movies.

The festival, which will take place February 16-18, 2024, at Living Room Theaters in Indianapolis, will be a mix of world premiere titles, recent festival circuit movies and iconic films. The event will be the first-ever film festival exclusively focused on basketball, and is launched in celebration of Slam’s 30th anniversary in 2024. Scroll down for the lineup.

There will be 30th anniversary screenings of Steve James’ classic doc Hoop Dreams, William Friedkin’s Nick Nolte and Shaquille O’Neal film Blue Chips and Jeff Pollack’s Above The Rim. Newer films set to screen will include Palm Springs 2024 title Amongst The Trees, exec-produced by NBA star Paul George, and recent doc biopic Stephen Curry: Underrated (2023).

In addition to screenings and post-screening Q&As,...

Kon Ichikawa's “Tokyo Olympiad” is revolutionary for documentary filmmaking. The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo had been documented and memorialized on film forever in such an atmospheric, emotional, and cinematic grand scope. Audiences could revel in the emotions of watching athletes pour their hearts into their dedicated craft of physical endurance as people worldwide gather to observe.

Tokyo Olympiad is screening at Black Movie

Assembled by the Organizing Committee for the Games of the Xviii Olympiad and financed by the Japanese government, the initial intentions behind the production were quite different from the final product. With the 1964 Olympics commencing in Tokyo, this was viewed as an opportunity for Japan to highlight its accomplishment of postwar economic resurgence. Kon Ichikawa was selected to direct, and his inclusion ultimately steered the documentary originally meant to primarily celebrate the country's modernization into a completely new and arguably more unique direction. “Tokyo Olympiad” was...

Throughout film history, some years stand out as superior to others. In terms of Hollywood, many critics and scholars consider 1939 the best year in American movie history. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the films of 1994, a year with countless notable releases from all over the globe.

1994 was a fascinating time for cinema. In America, Hollywood blockbusters such as The Lion King and Forrest Gump set box office records while filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith continued the renaissance of early 90s independent cinema. Overseas, Hong Kong was in the midst of the second part of its New Wave film movement, while in Europe, Krzysztof Kieślowski premiered the final two films of the Three Colors trilogy. Many of these now 30-year-old films rank among the greatest movies of all time.

Hoop Dreams Is One Of Cinema's Greatest Documentaries (1994)

Hoop Dreams

A film following the lives of two...

January is one of the biggest months of the year for independent film, with hundreds of film critics descending upon the Sundance Film Festival to discover the works of up-and-coming directors. But for those of us who can’t make the trek to Park City, Utah, there are plenty of independent movies to enjoy from the comfort of our homes.

This month, there’s a particularly big selection of independent classics to choose from on streaming, particularly if you’re subscribed to the Criterion Channel. In celebration of the approaching festival, Criterion is hosting a massive selection of past Sundance favorites, including the 1968 experimental documentary “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One.” Other favorites in the selection include “Blood Simple,” “Stranger Than Paradise,” “The Times of Harvey Milk,” “Desert Hearts,” “Working Girls,” “Paris Is Burning,” “Mississippi Masala,” “Slacker,” “Hoop Dreams,” and “The Doom Generation.” Other major indie favorites on the streamer this January include...

André Braugher has died. The two-time Emmy-winning star of series including Homicide: Life on the Street, Men of a Certain Age and Brooklyn Nine-Nine was 61.

Braugher, whose first film role came alongside Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington in the Ed Zwick-directed Glory, died Monday after a brief illness.

While Braugher peppered his résumé with comedies, many will remember him for his ferocious portrayal of Detective Frank Pembleton in the NBC drama Homicide: Life on the Street. Put him in “the box,” sweating out and outsmarting crime suspects in the interrogation room, and you were looking at a weekly dose of tour de force acting, as good as it got on television during that time. He won an Emmy for that show he starred in from 1992-98. His wife, Ami Brabson, recurred as Pembleton’s wife on Homicide.

Related: André Braugher Remembered As “Megawatt Talent” & “Incredible Human Being”

He won...

As more and more of the season’s precursor prizes are announced, one major Oscar mainstay has made its way home. Block out a solid chunk of time — it’s a long one.

The contender to watch this week: “Killers of the Flower Moon“

Fresh off an AFI honor and four National Board of Review distinctions, including Martin Scorsese for Best Director and Lily Gladstone for Best Actress, “Killers of the Flower Moon” has arrived on VOD ahead of its Apple TV+ streaming debut. The ambitious crime epic adapted from David Grann‘s nonfiction book about white men killing Osage Nation residents and stealing their oil headrights will surely continue this awards-season upswing when the Golden Globe nominations are announced on Monday, so now is the perfect time to catch up. Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and composer Robbie Robertson are among the movie’s other top candidates.

Other contenders:...

Peacock offers a wide range of documentaries that cater to various interests, including sports, music, filmmaking, and social issues. Notable documentaries available on Peacock include "Hardball: The Girls of Summer," "QT8: Quentin Tarantino: The First Eight," and "Hoop Dreams." Peacock also features acclaimed documentaries like "Being Evel," "Man On Wire," and "Food, Inc." that have received universal acclaim and awards recognition.

Peacock is the over-the-top streaming service from NBC Universal, which means it has a robust library of movies and television shows to entice any viewer, including great Peacock documentaries. While many fans know about the NBC shows that make their way to the streaming service, there is also a huge catalog of Universal movies, as well as movies licensed for the streaming service from other studios. This includes a huge back catalog of documentaries that make for the most engaging, versatile deep dives into what Peacock has to offer.

Making a documentary set in a high school seems like an absolute nightmare. It’s a tightly contained setting with layers of bureaucracy, and all your potential subjects require heaps of parental clearances for themselves and anybody they happen to talk to. Plus, teenagers tend to be just a wee bit changeable, defying a traditional narrative arc.

It’s important that we realize how miraculous projects like Hoop Dreams and America to Me are.

Lucha: A Wrestling Tale, director Marco Ricci’s two-year chronicle of the women’s wrestling team at Taft High School in the Bronx, is, on many levels, a mess. It wants to be a story of individual students, a team, a school and even a borough, but owing primarily to issues of access and choices of focus, it struggles to achieve many of its biggest storytelling aspirations.

But for all the places Lucha fails to craft a convincing portrait,...

Basketball movies go beyond just telling stories of great players and also capture the vibrant culture of the sport, from style to music to the rich history of the NBA. Some of the best basketball films explore mature themes and showcase strong performances, demonstrating the importance of mentorship and personal growth in the world of sports. Iconic basketball movies, like Space Jam, have become an important part of basketball culture and continue to hold nostalgia for fans even years after their release.

Basketball is a tricky sport to capture on film, but there are some fantastic movies for fans of the game. Sports movies have always been appealing, typically telling feel-good stories of characters triumphing over hardship to win games or conquer internal struggles. Even for non-sports fans, these films can be sources of inspiration and entertainment.

Whether it be pro-level or youth hoops, on the court or off the court,...

A well-told story ends when the credits roll, but not so documentaries. There, in most cases, the lives of the people depicted on-screen continue on, transformed by the fact of being filmed — and even more by whatever attention the project ignites in the culture at large. That’s why, in the hundreds of post-screening Q&As I’ve seen for docs over the years, the same questions come up virtually without fail: What’s happened since? How are the movie’s subjects doing now?

In “Subject,” co-directors Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall catch up with the people at the center of several major documentaries — from “Hoop Dreams” and “The Wolfpack” to “Capturing the Friedmans” and “The Staircase” — to see how their involvement in such projects changed their lives. That may be the hook that lures in audiences, though the film is far more than just a years-later epilogue to those high-profile docs.

A24’s Priscilla by Sofia Coppola catapults from four screens to 1,300, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers from Focus Features expands to 60 from six and two new indies have wide debuts — What Happens Later from Bleecker Street, directed by and starring Meg Ryan, opens at 1,400 locations and Daisy Ridley-starring The Marsh King’s Daughter from Roadside Attractions at over 1,000.

What Happens Later moved here from its original Oct. 16 perch, avoiding The Eras Tour opening crush. The rom-com debut of Meg Ryan after a long hiatus co-stars David Duchovny. Based on the play Shooting Star by Steven Dietz, the pic follows a chance encounter between two ex-lovers, Willa and Bill, who are snowed in at a regional airport and indefinitely delayed. See Deadline review.

The Marsh King’s Daughter stars Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelsohn in an adaptation of a bestselling 2017 thriller by Karen Dionne,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSPoor Things.The 80th Venice Film Festival concluded last weekend. The jury, chaired by Damien Chazelle, awarded the Golden Lion to Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest, Poor Things; in his latest dispatch, Leonardo Goi calls it "joltingly alive, a film that crackles with the same restless curiosity and lust of its protagonist." See a summary of all the awards, plus a roundup of our coverage.San Sebastian Film Festival has announced who will serve on their festival juries for their 71st edition: Claire Denis will be the president for the Official Section, while Hayao Miyazaki will receive an honorary award for career achievement. His latest film, The Boy and The Heron, will open the festival.Recommended VIEWINGFor their 50th anniversary, the Film Fest Gent have commissioned 25 new short films inspired by new musical compositions. There's...

Updated with new release date in New York of Nov. 3.

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment is maintaining a brisk pace of acquisitions. A day after picking up North American rights to the TIFF premiere documentary Sorry/Not Sorry, the independent distributor announced it has partnered with Kanopy to acquire U.S. and Canadian rights to the feature doc Subject.

Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall produced and directed the film, which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Festival. Greenwich plans to open the film in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on November 3, while Kanopy will host a pre-theatrical screening and Q&a with the filmmakers online through public and college libraries. Tvod/DVD, college and public library streaming kicks off December 5.

“Subject goes behind the scenes of such famous nonfiction stories as Hoop Dreams, Capturing the Friedmans, The Wolfpack, The Square and The Staircase to explore the often murky ethical dilemmas and complex...

The Blind Side controversy exposes the exploitative nature of the Sports Industrial Complex, particularly in terms of high school recruitment and college sports. Michael Oher's petition against the Tuohy family reveals a troubling relationship and raises questions about their true intentions and why they chose conservatorship over adoption. Oher's story highlights the disproportionate impact of the Sports Industrial Complex on young black athletes, who face criticism and threats to their agency and public image.

When ESPN’s Michael A. Fletcher broke the news of ex-football player Michael Oher petitioning in Tennessee court alleging Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy “never adopted him [and] tricked him into signing a document making them his conservators,” the general responses that arose were quite reactionary. With limited knowledge available, many news outlets were dusting off headlines signaling the white savior complex and calling for Sandra Bullock to give up her Oscar for her leading...

Documentaries have the power to captivate audiences with real-life stories, revealing the most thrilling and jaw-dropping moments. From shocking confessions to disturbing crimes, these fifteen documentaries offer real-life plot twists that will surprise, disturb, and uplift viewers. Whether it's uncovering a fraudulent identity in "The Imposter" or questioning the limits of nature vs. nurture in "Three Identical Strangers," these documentaries showcase the variety and complexity of true stories.

The truth is definitely stranger than fiction in these fifteen documentaries with real-life plot twists. From catching a killer’s confession in The Jinx to unraveling the dark underbelly of tickling competitions in Tickled, documentaries remind audiences that the most thrilling moments in cinema can come from other people’s real lives. Sometimes the most jaw-dropping scenes are not in the latest blockbuster but in someone’s decade-old story being documented for the first time. Viewers searching to be swept away by...

Right on time, this week brings a companion documentary to one of summer’s biggest movies, directed by an acclaimed filmmaker whose pedigree makes him an immediate Oscar candidate — especially in a year that isn’t overflowing with breakout docs.

The contender to watch this week: “A Compassionate Spy”

On the heels of “Oppenheimer” comes a documentary about Ted Hall, an American physicist who gave the Soviet Union classified intelligence about the construction of the atomic bomb. “A Compassionate Spy” has deep pedigree in two-time Oscar-nominated director Steve James, who made “Hoop Dreams,” “Life Itself,” and “City So Real.” If the campaign gods are smart, they’ll put James and Christopher Nolan in a room together at some point, even though Hall isn’t depicted in “Oppenheimer.” “Spy” is now in theaters and on VOD.

Other contenders:

“Black Ice”: Hockey is Canada’s most popular sport, which of course...

Following the release of Christopher Nolan's smash hit Oppenheimer, another smaller film looks to explore another controversial figure aboard the Manhattan Project. A Compassionate Spy from Academy Award-nominated Hoop Dreams director Steve James is a documentary about Theodore Hall, a young physicist who fears a future of nuclear annihilation and begins passing information to the Soviets to help tip the scales and prevent a U.S. atomic bomb monopoly. Despite being morally-conflicted colleagues, Hall and J. Robert Oppenheimer are vastly different people in James's eyes. Speaking to Collider's Chase Hutchinson, the director compares his subject to Nsa whistleblower and U.S. defector Edward Snowden.

Adding spark to this summer’s Oppenheimer buzz is director Steve James’ intriguing new documentary, A Compassionate Spy. The filmmaker, whose previous work includes masterpieces like Hoop Dreams and The Interrupters, weaves together a captivating tale in his latest movie, which transports audiences back into the heart of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project, singling out the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project, Ted Hall, the spirited leftist who decided to pass key information about the bomb’s construction to the Soviet Union. The layered documentary also reveals how Hall and his wife, Joan, kept that big secret throughout their 52-year marriage.

That’s just one of the things that make A Compassionate Spy a worthy investment. It also offers another look at the 1940s, Oppenheimer’s impact, and the genesis of the Cold War. Steve James, always an expert storyteller, also employs several creative concepts here that give this documentary a distinctly unique feel.

In Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, a fair amount is made of Klaus Fuchs, the German theoretical physicist who passed secrets from Los Alamos to the Soviet Union. But nowhere in this substantive blockbuster do we hear about Theodore Hall. A wunderkind physicist from Far Rockaway, New York City, recruited to the Manhattan Project as an 18-year-old Harvard senior, Hall, too, shared atomic secrets with the Soviets, for what he later claimed were purely moral reasons: He thought the possibility of the U.S. — or any country — having a monopoly on...

Though the massive event that was the opening weekend of Barbenheimer is now behind us, there is another film that would serve as a rather fitting accompaniment to Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. A Compassionate Spy, the latest documentary from director Steve James who previously made the 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams, takes a look at a man who was also at Los Alamos while work on the bomb was being done. His name was Ted Hall and he was recuited to join the Manhattan Project while only a teenager with little understanding of what exactly he would be doing. Once he found out, he grew alarmed by the potential for mass death and began passing information to the Soviet Union in the hopes of averting this.

"A Compassionate Spy" is a documentary that sheds light on the lesser-known story of Ted Hall, the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project, who passed key information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union out of fear of nuclear catastrophe. Filmmaker Steve James sympathetically portrays Ted Hall's actions as driven by conscience rather than selfish motivations, as Hall was genuinely concerned about the US having a post-war monopoly on the bomb and the potential consequences. The documentary explores Ted Hall's unique marriage to Joan, who convinced him to keep his secret for 52 years, and also touches upon the FBI surveillance and a love triangle involving Ted, Joan, and his colleague, Saville "Savy" Sax. Overall, the film provides an engaging and timely perspective on the dangers of technology and the nuclear threat.

Two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Steve James' new documentary, A Compassionate Spy, arrives at the perfect time. Barbenheimer is full...

While the latest film from Hoop Dreams and Life Itself director Steve James premiered last fall at Venice Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival, it’s clear why Magnolia Pictures wanted to wait until later this summer for a release. Ideal viewing shortly after Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer arrives in theaters, A Compassionate Spy tells the thrilling story of a controversial Manhattan Project physicist Ted Hall, who infamously provided nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, told through the perspective of his loving wife Joan, who protected his secret for decades. Ahead of the August 4 release, the first trailer has now arrived.

Here’s more of the synopsis: “Recruited in 1944 as an 18-year-old Harvard undergraduate to help Robert Oppenheimer and his team create a bomb, Hall was the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project, and didn’t share his colleagues’ elation after the successful detonation of the world’s first atomic bomb.

"Something gruesome & horrible was being constructed." Magnolia Pictures has revealed an official trailer for an acclaimed documentary film titled A Compassionate Spy, made by the award-winning Chicago-based doc filmmaker Steve James. This premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival last year, and ended up being one of my favorite films of the festival. A Compassionate Spy tells the incredible story of Manhattan Project scientist Ted Hall, who shared classified nuclear secrets with Russia. Hall is interviewed extensively, along with his wife Joan Hall, and courageously tells his story in this. It's a very sensitive topic, especially nowadays, but fascinating to dig into - he was one of a few people who had worked on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos and shared its secrets to the Russians. He thought it would be wrong for America to be the only country with this extraordinary power. Does he regret this knowing what Russia became?...

Is there such thing as a sympathetic cause for treason?

Magnolia Pictures documentary “A Compassionate Spy,” directed by two-time Oscar nominee Steve James, captures the controversial true story of Manhattan Project physicist Ted Hall. Part of the team behind J. Robert Oppenheimer’s atomic bomb, Hall shared nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union. The documentary is told through the perspective of Ted’s wife Joan Hall, who protected his secret across their 50-year marriage.

The official “Compassionate Spy” synopsis reads: Recruited in 1944 as an 18-year-old Harvard undergraduate to help J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team create a bomb, Ted Hall was the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project, and didn’t share his colleagues’ elation after the successful detonation of the world’s first atomic bomb. Concerned that a U.S. post-war monopoly on such a powerful weapon could lead to nuclear catastrophe, Hall began passing key information about the...

While the brains at Warner Bros. Discovery were hard at work creating Max, it seems they took an unfortunate shortcut while slapping together their “Kids & Family” section. A quick glance through the titles shows your kids are in for a shock if you let them choose from the list on your profile.

The first title to jump out is “Doc Hollywood,” a mostly benign 1991 comedy with Michael J. Fox. But shortly after our hero finds himself stranded in the middle of nowhere, he encounters a woman emerging topless from a lake.

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Clearly, the folks making the “Kids & Family” section saw the PG-13 rating and figured that was fair game. And, perhaps, your family has no hang-ups about the female form. But in an era when people are shooting beer cans with assault rifles...

If aliens ever land on planet Earth and request an orientation to humanity through one of our cultural products, we would probably offer them the Up Documentary series. A few attempts have been made to chart the course of a human life in popular media. Boyhood attempted to capture the childhood and adolescent years of an average boy by filming the subject over the course of 12 years. Hoop Dreams attempted to depict a similar sense of youth spanning over five years. As remarkable as these projects are, however, they’re dwarfed by the sheer ambitiousness of Michael Apted’s Up Series.

Documentary specialist Autlook Filmsales closed a raft of sales at a vibrant market during the Copenhagen documentary festival Cph:dox.

“Subject,” directed by Camilla Hall and Jennifer Tiexiera, got picked up by Sweden’s Svt, Denmark’s Dr, Norway’s Nrk, Norway’s Vgtv, The Netherlands’ Vpro, Israel’s Yes Doc, and Madman for Australia and New Zealand. Dogwoof released the film early this month in the U.K.

“Subject” is an examination of the relationship between nonfiction filmmakers and their subjects. It raises important ethical questions during a golden of age for documentaries, when docs are screened by millions of viewers. The film re-visits protagonists of some of the most viewed documentaries of today – “The Staircase,” “The Square,” “Hoop Dreams,” “The Wolfpack” and “Capturing the Friedmans.”

Australia and New Zealand distribution powerhouse Madman Entertainment and Spanish broadcaster Movistar have acquired “The Corridors of Power,” a documentary and upcoming eight-part series.

Kevin Iannucci, Kaitlin Olson, James Day Keith, and Woody Harrelson in ‘Champions’ (Photo Credit: Shauna Townley / Focus Features)

There have been many inspirational basketball films, including Hoosiers, Hoop Dreams, and Above the Rim. Add to that list Champions starring Woody Harrelson as Marcus, a minor-league basketball coach in De Moines, Iowa, who has just been fired for pushing head coach Phil Perretti (Ernie Hudson) for not listening to him about strategy during a game.

To make matters worse, Marcus ends up slamming into a police car on his way home and is ordered by the court to perform 90 days of community service.

The judge notices his unique talents and orders him to coach a basketball team of young players with intellectual disabilities. Wanting to stay out of jail, Marcus reluctantly agrees.

To say he’s unimpressed with his players and their non-existent hoop skills would be a gross understatement. “It...

We all construct narratives about our lives, drafting and redrafting them with friends, family and ourselves. But what if they were packaged by a documentarian and broadcast on Netflix, a streaming platform with 230 million subscribers across 190 countries? How would it affect you, and would anyone care? This is the subject of Subject, a documentary about documentaries, and it is a process that Margie Ratliff knows all too well.

Ratliff was in her early twenties when she appeared in The Staircase, a documentary series about the trial of her father Michael Peterson, who was charged, convicted, and then released for the murder of his wife, Kathleen. In the interest of ‘transparency’, Peterson invited cameras into the trial and into Ratliff’s life, exposing her confusion and anguish for all to see. “I can’t tell you how painful it is,” says Ratliff, now in her 40s, “…reliving my mum’s death over and over again.

Mubi starts Cannes prizewinner ‘Close’ in 74 sites.

Warner Bros’ Creed III will look to improve on the strong performances of the first two films in the boxing series, when opening in 637 UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend.

The film is the directorial debut of Michael Jordan who also stars in the film series as Adonis Creed, son of former heavyweight champion Apollo Creed. In this third instalment, Adonis’ thriving career and family life are disrupted by the resurfacing of a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy, played by Jonathan Majors.

Creed III is written by Ryan Coogler, who directed the first film...

The subjects of The Staircase, Hoop Dreams, Capturing the Friedmans and others contribute to this thoughtful film about the duty of care film-makers owe those whose stories they tell

If you’ve seen the sensational true crime documentary series The Staircase, you’ll know the story. In 2001, after Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of the stairs at her home in North Carolina, police suspicion turned to her novelist husband Michael Peterson. When he allowed a documentary team to film what happened next, Peterson said it was because he was worried about getting a fair trial. His adopted daughter, Margaret Ratliff, 20 at the time, grief-stricken and terrified that her dad could be facing the death penalty, agreed to be part of the film. The loss of her privacy in the years since has been devastating, she admits now. “I can’t tell you how painful it is, reliving...

Magnolia Pictures announced on Wednesday that it has acquired the North American distribution rights to Participant’s documentary “A Compassionate Spy” and will release it later this year.

Directed by two-time Oscar nominee Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”), “A Compassionate Spy” tells the story of Ted Hall, who at the age of 18 was the youngest physicist to work on the Manhattan Project with Robert Oppenheimer. Fearful that an American monopoly on something as devastating as a nuclear bomb could lead to catastrophe, Hall shared key secrets on the bomb’s development to Soviet spies, significantly shaping the course of the Cold War in the decades to come.

“A Compassionate Spy” is also a love story, retelling Hall’s lifelong relationship with his wife Joan, with whom he raised a family while under the shadow of FBI surveillance. The documentary tells Hall’s story through Joan’s perspective, as she kept many...

Acquisition

Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights from Participant to “A Compassionate Spy,” the new documentary from Steve James. The film, which world premiered at the Venice Film Festival ahead of its North American launch at Telluride, is a real-life spy story about Manhattan Project physicist Ted Hall, who provided nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, told through the perspective of his wife Joan, who protected his secret for decades. Magnolia will release the film in theaters later this year.

“A Compassionate Spy” is presented by Participant and is a Mitten Media and Kartemquin Films production produced by Mark Mitten p.g.a., Dave Lindorff, and Steve James. Executive producers are Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Tim Horsburgh and Gordon Quinn.

The deal was negotiated by Magnolia executive VP Dori Begley and senior VP of acquisitions John Von Thaden; Participant’s Liesl Copland, executive VP content strategy and sales, Adam Macy,...