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Park City. Documentarian Kirby Dick has done oddball character studies, intellectual biographies and targeted the motion picture ratings system. But if 25 or 50 years from now Dick is most remembered for scathing polemics exposing epidemics of sexual assaults in America's most powerful institutions, well that would be a pretty honorable thing upon which to hang one's hat.  Targeting the Catholic Church ("Twist of Faith") and the military ("The Invisible War"), Kirby Dick has proven himself a master of visceral polemics that inspire outrage and culminate in aggressive calls to bear witness and take action. But Dick's approach to institutional sexual abuse isn't just to shine light on a subject and give exposure to victims.  When "The Invisible War" premiered at Sundance in 2012, I wrote, "'The Invisible War' may depress you and make you cry, but it'll also probably leave you inspired. It's a portrait of courage as much as victimhood.

From Oscar-nominated "Invisible War" director Kirby Dick comes this brutal exposé of rising rape crimes on American college campuses, and the institutional cover-ups and victim-blaming that have followed. One student, as seen in the trailer below, alleges that after being sexually assaulted, the dean of her university told her "not to talk to anyone about this." The documentary film blends verité footage with first-person testimonies, following survivors who continue to pursue their education even while fighting for justice, and against retaliation and harassment. Following "The Invisible War," "This Film Is Not Yet Rated," "Twist of Faith" and "Derrida" among them, "Hunting Ground" marks the seventh documentary brought to Sundance from director Kirby Dick, who has shrewdly observed the systematic abuse of power throughout his career. "Invisible War" co-director produces "Hunting...

The list of Kirby Dick signed films that have made it into the festival date back to 1997s’ Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist and since then the assembly line has churned out Chain Camera, Derrida, Twist of Faith, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Outrage and most recently, The Invisible War. His latest, promises to be another distress call. Going by workshop titles of “The Campus Project” and “Campus Assaults”, this received coin and was part of the 2013 Sundance Documentary Film Grant and 2013 Catalyst Weekend. Three weeks back, and certainly in lieu of the upcoming festival, RADiUS and CNN Films teamed for a pick-up: a theatrical run in 2015, followed by broadcast on CNN.

Gist: Undergraduate assault survivors fight to pursue education and justice in this groundbreaking project that exposes the epidemic of rape on U.S. campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and the devastating toll they take on students and families.

Bravo has committed to a second season of “Newlyweds: The First Year.” The cable network’s cameras will once again follow four newly hitched couples from their wedding day to their one year anniversary. Season 2 will star four all new couples through the highs and lows of their first year of marriage. Bravo didn’t say when the series will return and for how many episodes. Also read: Style Network’s Rihanna Reality Series Lands at Bravo (Exclusive) Season 2 will be produced by Monkey Kingdom, part of NBCUniversal International Television Production, along with Academy award-nominated documentarian Eddie Schmidt (“Twist of Faith...

Bravo has ordered a Season 2 of Newlyweds: The First Year. For the second season, as with the first, Bravo will partner with Monkey Kingdom, which is part of the NBCUniversal International Television Production family, and Eddie Schmidt (Twist of Faith). Season 1 of Newlyweds averaged about 1.3 million total viewers (L+7, premieres only), following four newlywed couples through their first 365 days of marriage. A full 50% of all marriages end in divorce, Bravo noted in today’s announcement. Spending the first year of a marriage on TV really helps.

Espn isn't the only network announcing its fall doc lineup -- HBO announced its own new set of nonfiction films set to air in the upcoming months today, among them the Alec Baldwin and James Toback Cannes feature "Seduced and Abandoned," Whoopi Goldberg's directorial debut on Moms Mabley and the David Cronenberg-narrated "Tales From the Organ Trade." Here's the full list, with descriptions courtesy of the network: Valentine Road (debuting Oct. 7) unravels the school shooting of a young teenager who had begun exploring his gender identity, detailing the circumstances that led to his murder by a fellow student, as well as its complicated aftermath. Directed and produced by first-time filmmaker Marta Cunningham and produced by Sasha Alpert (HBO’s “Autism: The Musical”) and Eddie Schmidt (HBO’s “Twist of Faith”), the powerful and disturbing documentary raises questions about the safety of Lgbt teens, while challenging the efficacy of...

Naketha Mattocks has been named VP Original Movies at Disney Channels, where she will oversee creative development for the Disney Channel Original Movie franchise, reporting to Evp Original Programming Adam Bonnett. She succeeds Svp Original Movies Michael Healy, who left the company in April after nearly 16 years and more than 90 Disney Channel movies to pursue other opportunities. The next installment in Disney Channel’s original movie franchise, Teen Beach Movie, premieres July 19. Mattocks comes from an independent film and television producer background. Last year, she was a consultant for Lifetime, where she served as an executive on such telefilms as Betty and Coretta, A Killer Among Us, Twist of Faith and House of Versace. From 2006-11 Mattocks was Head of Development for writer-director Gary Ross’s Larger Than Life and before that she was an executive for more than three years at Paramount Pictures, supervising development and production for Alfie,...

"We had so many stories to tell," says Kirby Dick, director of "The Invisible War." "We didn’t want people to walk away and think this was an experience of two or three or four men or women who’d been assaulted. We wanted people to understand that this was something that was occurring overseas, back home, in every single branch of the military. It’s a complete epidemic, and we wanted to convey that." -Insertgroups:8- The invisible war referred to in the film is the ongoing problem of rape and sexual assault in the U.S. military. The film has been nominated for this year's Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Dick – a previous nominee in this category for "Twist of Faith" (2004) – and his producing partner, Amy Ziering, reached out to over 100 men and women in order to tell their story, a task that was easier said than done.

February is Black History Month and Movies On Demand are celebrating the struggles, the history, the talent and the beauty that are part of the African-American experience. Through Diversity On Demand‘s initiative, viewers will be able to learn more about African-American history throughout Black History Month as well as find and watch their favorite titles with the click of a button. Audience favorites, such as “The Help,” “Flight” and “Lincoln” will be available, as well as documentaries like “The Real Abraham Lincoln,” “The Curious Case of Curt Flood” and “Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals.” The Lifetime films “Betty and Coretta” and “Twist of Faith” will also be available [ Read More ]

The post Win A February Movies On Demand Prize Pack From ShockYa! appeared first on Shockya.com.

Kirby Dick's "The Invisible War" has snagged one of the coveted five competing spots for the Academy's Best Documentary Oscar, and will be released January 18 at the Film Society at Lincoln Center and at Laemmle's Santa Monica, Pasadena and Claremont theaters January 19. The director has made a name for himself by writing and directing documentaries that challenge powerful institutions, from the Catholic Church (Oscar-nominated "Twist of Faith") to the MPAA Ratings Board ("This Film Is Not Yet Rated"). Most filmmakers hope that their movies will be seen, talked about, make money, earn awards, and maybe have some influence on the culture at large. With "The Invisible War," Dick and producer Amy Ziering set their sights on reforming the U.S. Military. They were determined to shake things and up and push for change, because to allow what is happening to continue is intolerable, unthinkable. "Invisible War" is now out on.

Chicago – There have been a lot of good movies in 2012 but very few truly stellar ones. Near the top of the list when people ask me what I consider the best films of 2012 is the year’s best documentary, Kirby Dick’s stunning “The Invisible War,” a film that says so much about where we are as a nation. It both reveals a horrible, shameful part of our country’s military and the heroic people trying to stop it. It’s now on DVD and it’s truly a must-see.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

No film has moved me in 2012 like Dick’s expose about the startling state of being a female soldier in the U.S. Military. Far too many young women who have volunteered to put themselves in harm’s way to protect our way of life are not being protected themselves. That is something that should shame anyone with the power to fix it.

No one airs America’s dirty laundry on the big screen like director Kirby Dick. In This Film Is Not Yet Rated, he revealed the Motion Picture Association of America’s shady rating system; Twist of Faith uncovered systemic sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. His latest documentary, The Invisible War, took home the esteemed Audience Award at Sundance this year for its startling investigation into the epidemic of rape in the U.S military. Dick recently spoke with Vulture about exposing sexual assault in the armed forces, his obsession with outsiders, and how YouTube stole his signature style. In The Invisible War, you were able to draw out very raw testimonies from survivors of military sexual assault. Some were pretty hard to watch. How were you able to get your subjects to open up about such a difficult topic on-camera, especially when many of them were shamed into silence while they were serving?...

Over two decades, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick (Twist of Faith) has explored edge territory in sex, art, and philosophy with films like Private Practice: The Story of a Sex Surrogate, Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, and Derrida, a playful portrait of the impish French poststructuralist thinker riffing on life and language during his tenure in New York City. In recent years, Dick and his producing partner Amy Ziering have zeroed in on institutional power, scrutinizing the hypocrisies and often dangerous doublespeak of powerful, secret-shrouded entities like the MPAA (This Film Is Not Yet Rated) and the Catholic Church (Twist of Faith), as well as closeted Congressional members who use their position to lobby for anti-gay statutes (Outrage). Such concerns find new expression with The Invisible War, a heartbreaking investigation into the systemic rape of servicewomen in the Us military, which won the 2012 Nestor Almendros Award...

Occasionally a documentary manages to attract enough attention that it begins to trickle into our collective conversation, perhaps even holding sway for some kind of proactive social response. One hopes that the impact of director Kirby Dick's (Twist of Faith, This Film is Not Yet Rated) latest effort, The Invisible War, is incendiary enough to spark a full-fledged political firestorm.The recent Sundance Audience Award winner is an exhaustive yet utterly compelling look into the staggering rape epidemic in the U.S. military as well as its appallingly unjustifiable culture of non-response, reeking of institutionalized cover-up. Of particular note is how the film explores the chillingly high instance of predatory serial offenders, those enemies within the military's midst who repeatedly manage to perpetrate their crimes unabated and...

By now, it’s perfectly clear that Kirby Dick (This Film Is Not Yet Rated) is going a much more serious route with The Invisible War, a documentary that exposes the U.S. military’s incompetent, dangerous handling of sexual assault cases. That message was sent in a first trailer from December, and this second one serves as, more than anything else, a reminder that the film is still on its way; our review from the Dallas International Film Festival reinforced this pretty clearly, too, with our strong endorsement promising an experience that should really open eyes. With any luck, the crucial objective of this piece will gain some big traction when a release finally happens.

Watch it below (via Apple):

Synopsis:

From Oscar(R)- and Emmy(R)-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick (This Film Is Not Yet Rated; Twist of Faith) comes The Invisible War, a groundbreaking investigative...

The Invisible War

Directed by Kirby Dick

2012, USA, 93 minutes

Kirby Dick’s latest investigative documentary begins with a simple title card stating that all statistics used in The Invisible War come from the Us government. The move is bold, effective, and sets a sharp tone. So clear is the crime, so large is the epidemic of rape in the Us military, that the Us government can’t even contest the main weapon The Invisible War wields to condemn them.

To sit in the theatre and watch The Invisible War is to be inundated. Story after story of recruits raped is itself harrowing, but the sheer scale and brutality of rape in the military isn’t even the most outrageous aspect of the issue (and yes, having to write that sentence was bewildering). The most outrageous thing—and the focus of the film—is how the Us military treats rape victims...

Cinelan and Ge have announced additional filmmakers set to join their Focus Forward documentary initiative. Filmmakers Lucy Walker (“Waste Land”), Eddie Schmidt (Producer, “Twist of Faith”), Phil Cox (“The Bengali Detective”), Leslie Iwerks (“The Pixar Story”) and Stanley Nelson (“Freedom Riders”) have joined previously announced filmmakers in the effort. Spearheaded by Morgan Spurlock (“Super Size Me”) and Cinelan’s Karol Martesko-Fenster, the program was announced at the most recent Toronto Film ...

Ge and Cinelan announce from The Doha Tribeca Film Festival that the following award-winning filmmakers will join Focus Forward, a global documentary initiative that looks at the human power of ideas and innovation through three-minute films that can educate and inspire: Lucy Walker (director, Waste Land), Eddie Schmidt (producer, Twist of Faith), Phil Cox (director, The Bengali Detective), Leslie Iwerks (director, The Pixar Story) and Stanley Nelson (director, Freedom Riders). More information below: Cinelan also invites non–North American filmmakers to explore contributing to the Focus Forward effort. Cinelan's co-fournder, Karol Martesko-Fenster, says of the enthusiastic response to their program: "Focus Forward is a truly global initiative and we are encouraged that the universal appeal of its message ensures it will have a global face.” ...

See two clips from the HBO Films documentary "Outrage," directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick ("Twist of Faith"). Premieres on HBO on Monday, October 5th at 9pm Et/Pt. A searing indictment of the hypocrisy of closeted politicians with appalling gay rights voting records who actively campaign against the Lgbt community they covertly belong to. Boldly revealing the hidden lives of some of the United States’ most powerful policymakers, Outrage takes a comprehensive look at the harm they’ve inflicted on millions of Americans...

After a yearlong investigation into the behind-the-scenes machinations of the MPAA ratings board, filmmaker Kirby Dick is experiencing firsthand what many of his interview subjects described to him in his new documentary, This Film is Not Yet Rated. The IFC-TV movie has been rated NC-17 by the MPAA. Dick, who this year was nominated for a feature documentary Oscar for Twist of Faith, took a calculated risk by submitting the film for a rating because it includes several clips from NC-17 movies. Dick isn't sure which clips inspired the rating. "We encountered what many indie filmmakers encounter," he said. "There are a great many inequities and inconsistencies in the rating system, in part because it is so secret. The ratings board is reluctant to be specific, which can be maddening." Rated is set to premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival, where it will seek a theatrical distributor.

Artistic License Films has acquired HBO's Twist of Faith, the Kirby Dick-directed documentary, which was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary. The film, which begins airing Tuesday on HBO, centers on a firefighter from Toledo, Ohio, who was the victim of boyhood sexual abuse by a Catholic priest. Produced by Eddie Schmidt, it will be released theatrically in July. New York-based Artistic License also has acquired writer-director Mark Bamford's South Africa-set Cape of Good Hope, which it will begin to release in September.