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The ethics of documentary filmmaking is not a new topic of debate, but after last month’s Washington Post article about an Afghan man allegedly murdered by the Taliban as a consequence of his participation in Matthew Heineman’s Oscar shortlisted 2022 documentary “Retrograde,” the discussion around the moral responsibility of nonfiction filmmakers has once again heated up.

Unlike with journalists, there are no widely-accepted standards that documentary filmmakers are expected to abide by. Regulations for personal nonfiction storytelling can be counterintuitive. Intrusive. Unless a director is working on a documentary for PBS’ “Frontline” series, known for adherence to journalism standards, situational ethics determined on a case-by-case are more often than not the norm.

“Retrograde” tells the story of the United States’ final months of its 20-year war in Afghanistan. In the film Heineman, whose “Cartel Land” was nominated for an Oscar in 2016, embedded with the U.S. Army Green Berets and Lt.

Despite what you may think, Memorial Day isn’t just a day off work or an occasion for a good storewide mattress sale. The ostensible purpose of this federal holiday, of course, is to remember the sacrifice of those who have died while serving in our country’s five armed services branches: the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy—all of which continue to suffer great losses performing their duties around the globe.

The experiences of servicemen and servicewomen have served as the basis of countless movies and TV shows over the years, in all sorts of different forms. But the most powerful of these are the ones based upon actual journalistic accounts from real-life soldiers. So in advance of Memorial Day on Monday, here are five military-themed indies we love…

Generation Kill

Year: 2008

Directors: Susanna White, Simon Cellan Jones

Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, James Ransone, Lee Tergesen,...

Directed by William Eubank from a script written by him and David Frigerio, Land of Bad provides an explosive approach to the war-action genre. The new war movie stars Liam Hemsworth as rookie Sergeant JJ "Playboy" Kinney, who joins a Delta Force team on a mission in the Philippines. But when the soldiers step into battle, the plan goes haywire, and it's up to drone pilot Captain Eddie "Reaper" Grimm (Russell Crowe) to get a stranded Kinney out from behind enemy lines. Land of Bad also stars Milo Ventimiglia, Ricky Whittle, and Luke Hemsworth.

Cbr met up with Eubank to discuss his latest film and how it took over a decade for it to materialize. The filmmaker discussed how the movie managed to pair up the Hemsworth brothers for the first time on the big screen, and how it was more challenging for them because of the familiarity of their relationship.

In the opening moments of 20 Days in Mariupol, Mstyslav Chernov’s chilling account of the siege of the Ukrainian port city, a Russian tank marked with the ominous ‘Z’ swivels its turret toward a hospital. On an upper floor of the building, Chernov and his small team record as the cannon slowly rotates towards them, preparing to fire.

“The tank did shoot the hospital right above the floor we were at,” he says. “It hit between the fifth and sixth floors and a patient was killed with that shell.”

It was one of many times he put his life at risk to show the Russian army’s destruction of the city and its systematic targeting of civilians. He remembers feeling his life was about to end.

“Exactly in that moment in the film, this moment of uncertainty, the moment when tanks are shooting at the residential areas, when the hospital...

This week on CBS’ Magnum P.I., Thomas gets an unexpected blast from the past when Nuzo, his dearly departed Buds bud, is posthumously implicated in a murder.

For Magnum, this represents an opportunity for redemption, seeing as he couldn’t save Nuzo’s life but now can preserve his friend’s honor. Airing tonight at 9/8c, “It’s a very different kind of episode and unlike anything we’ve ever done before,” exec producer Eric Guggenheim previously told TVLine. “We think it’s going to be pretty special, and we’re excited for everyone to see it.”

More from TVLineS.

Exclusive: Virgil Films has acquired worldwide rights to Surviving The Silence, a documentary revealing a long-hidden story from the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” era.

Directed and produced by Cindy L. Abel, the film revisits the case of Army hero Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, who was expelled by Col. Patsy Thompson because she was a lesbian. What was previously unknown is that Thompson was also a lesbian. The way she handled the military trial, however, led to Cammermeyer’s re-instatement via federal court and eventual change in military policy.

The “don’t ask don’t tell” policy was instituted by the Clinton Administration in 1994. While it was intended as a progressive measure, the updated rule prohibited gay, bisexual or transgender people from speaking about or disclosing same-sex relationships during their time in the armed services. It faced numerous legal challenges and ultimately was phased out in...

Participant has promoted veteran executive Laura Kim to executive vice president of marketing, the company announced on Tuesday.

Kim, who first joined Participant in 2014, will focus on independent and international films and series, reporting to Christina Kounelias, Participant’s president of worldwide marketing.

“Laura has become a good friend and trusted colleague for the past five years that we have worked closely together,” Kounelias said in a statement. “Her vast knowledge and deep expertise in independent, specialty and international films is second-to-none, contributing greatly to the success of our films. Her strategic thinking, great devotion to mentorship and genuine passion for impact and the issues match Participant’s core values, and on behalf of everyone at the company, we are thrilled to recognize her numerous contributions with this promotion.”

“I am excited to be working on films and series that move me and that challenge us to try harder and do better,...

Marketing and publicity veteran Laura Kim has been elevated to EVP of Marketing at Participant.

In her new position, Kim will assume broadened executive responsibilities, with a focus on independent and foreign films and series.

Kim first joined Participant as SVP of Film Marketing in 2014. During her tenure, she’s been key in working on the company’s specialty features, including such Oscar-winning films as American Factory, A Fantastic Woman, Spotlight, and Citizenfour, as well as Monos, Human Flow, and the Oscar-nominated films The Look of Silence and Rbg, the latter of which went on to become a documentary box office hit in 2018 with over $14M. Recent marketing efforts include two-time Oscar-nominated Collective, and the upcoming Final Account and My Name Is Pauli Murray, which had its world premiere this year at the Sundance Film Festival.

Prior to joining Participant, Kim was principal and founder of Inside Job, a motion picture marketing,...

Exclusive: Fatima Ali, a viewer favorite on Top Chef who died of bone cancer in 2019, is among a handful of subjects of documentary Her Name Is Chef.

Virgil Films & Entertainment will premiere the film in virtual cinemas March 26 before a digital HD release on April 27 and a DVD rollout on May 11.

The film examines gender equality in the restaurant business through interviews conducted by Leia Gaccione, herself a chef. Along with Ali, the film features Elizabeth Falkner, Hillary Sterling, Esther Choi, Juliet Masters and Caroline Schiff. Instead of the more straightforward look at female chefs initially planned, Her Name Is Chef took on a different shape in light of Ali’s illness and death. While it is not a solo portrait of Ali, her legacy is woven through much of the film.

Oscar’s Documentary Short Nominees Celebrate A Magical Monday: “It’s Gratifying For Sure”

In an essay...

Camilo Restrepo's Los Conductos is exclusively showing in many countries starting March 11, 2021 in Mubi's Debuts series.Nervy and brazen, Camilo Restrepo’s much-anticipated feature debut is a portrait of a young Colombian man struggling with addiction and the physical and psychological after-effects of religious indoctrination and exploitation at the hands of a cult leader. Shot on grainy 16mm in vibrant primaries and unfolding a striking, graphic interplay of light and darkness fitting to the protagonist’s dramatic plight, Los Conductos is a feverish fictionalized account of Felipe “Pinky” Lozano’s life. A friend of Restrepo who appears in his short film Como crece la sombra cuando el sol declina (2013), Pinky plays himself in this revenge fantasy destined to expiate his demons but which also exhumes the cyclical violence of Colombia’s past through radical and energizing abstraction. With hypnotic and elliptical rhythms, the film takes place in a largely nocturnal and quasi-mythological Medellín,...

Exclusive: Virgil Films has acquired the worldwide rights to 7 Yards: The Chris Norton Story, which tells the true, viral tale of a college football player who rebuilds his life in spectacular fashion after a devastating on-field injury.

The film will be released through on-demand platforms in February.

Norton was 18 when he suffered a spinal cord injury during a football game at Luther College in Decorah, Ia. Doctors gave him almost zero chance of ever moving again, and he began years of intense medical therapy and physical training. Norton’s triumph over his injury became a viral sensation in 2015 after he successfully walked across the college graduation stage with the help of his fiancée, Emily. (Check out a video clip above.)

The couple then set the ambitious goal of walking seven yards, side by side, down the aisle at their 2018 wedding. Video of Norton’s graduation walk has been viewed more...

Directors Sebastian Junger and Nick Quested have traveled to the darkest corners of the world, from Afghanistan to Syria and beyond. Together, they earned a News and Documentary Emmy Award and an Oscar nomination for their films, including the harrowing “Restrepo” and “Korengal.” In their new National Geographic documentary “Blood on the Wall,” the journalists-turned-filmmakers pivot to Central America to explore the corruption dictating and impeding the swell of migration into Mexico, diving into such issues as how Acapulco went from tourism hotspot to murder capital of the world. Check out the first trailer for “Blood on the Wall,” exclusive to IndieWire, below. Look for the film on National Geographic on September 30.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“Blood on the Wall” explores the internal and external influences on Mexico as it deals with the key issues of migrant caravans from Central America heading to the U.S., the dangerous but...

Exclusive: Virgil Films has acquired rights in U.S. and Canada rights to The Blech Effect, which traces the singular path of biotech entrepreneur David Blech.

The documentary’s director is David Greenwald, a seasoned editor who directed the short film My Father’s House. The acquisition deal was struck by Virgil Films president Joe Amodei, Eastgate Films’ Ronna Wallace and Jonathan Gray of Gray Schwartz.

Blech became known as the “king of biotech” after his small firm skyrocketed to the heights of Wall Street and pioneered the model of financing emerging medical solutions. “The Blech Effect” became a term for the way that investment capital, technology and medical science combined to explosive effect.

Although he did not have any training in science, Blech worked as a stockbroker to support his ambition to become a songwriter. At 24, Blech decided to go into business with his brother, Isaac. They hustled and...

You might expect director Rod Lurie (West Point class of 1984 with four years in military service) to push the flag-waving aspect of a film about the war in Afghanistan. Though The Outpost pays heartfelt tribute to the soldiers who fought and died during the bloody 2009 Battle of Kamdesh, he opens fire on the military hubris and stupidity that put these soldiers there in the first place. While President Obama talked of withdrawing troops, Army brass ordered a small unit of 53 U.S. soldiers to hold down Camp Outpost Keating, located...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Virgil Films concerning the outstanding documentary 40 Years Of Rocky: The Birth Of A Classic

From Virgil Films & Entertainment comes Director Derek Wayne Johnson’s new documentary film 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic. The film – narrated by ‘Rocky’ star and creator Sylvester Stallone, who shares insights from his battle to get the story of a down-on-his-luck boxer greenlit and onto the big screen – will premiere on digital HD June 9th.

In 1976, a low budget movie written by an unknown actor was released, inspiring audiences around the world to go the distance. Rocky became the ultimate underdog film. Over forty years later, Sylvester Stallone recounts the making of the beloved classic through rare home movies provided by Director John G. Avildsen and Production Manager Lloyd Kaufman.

Sylvester Stallone pitched the idea of this film to director Derek Wayne Johnson...

Virgil Films has acquired the U.S. and Canadian digital rights to Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies, a feature-length look at Alan Ladd Jr. directed by his daughter, Amanda Ladd Jones.

The studio boss and producer is responsible for some of Hollywood’s all-time biggest titles, including Star Wars, Alien, Blade Runner, Chariots of Fire, Police Academy, Braveheart, Thelma & Louise and Young Frankenstein. The film features interviews with George Lucas, Ridley Scott, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Affleck, Ron Howard, Morgan Freeman, Mel Brooks, Richard Donner.

As Deadline noted in a 2017 post, Ladd had a low-key style and was a man of few words relative to the industry’s chattering norms. When he was just 37, having grown up in the industry as the son of a popular Hollywood actor, Ladd became head of production at 20th Century Fox. Before long, he had green-lit several films that would cement his legacy.

Behind-the-scenes documentary 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic will enter the digital on-demand ring on June 9.

Virgil Films & Entertainment is releasing the film. It is directed by Derek Wayne Johnson, who profiled the director of Rocky in his 2017 film John G. Avildsen: King of the Underdogs. Avildsen, who died in 2017, captured his own 8mm footage during pre-production and shooting of his 1976 Best Picture Oscar winner. It forms the basis of the new documentary, which is narrated by screenwriter and star Sylvester Stallone.

Lloyd Kaufman, who would go on to run Troma Entertainment, home of B-movies like The Toxic Avenger, also shot some of the footage seen in the new documentary during his stint as Rocky‘s production manager. Kaufman’s footage has never previously been seen, Virgil says. The footage shows makeup tests, boxing choreography sessions and other moments involving Stallone and co-stars Carl Weathers and Talia Shire.

Exclusive: Acclaimed documentary producer John Battsek, whose credits include Oscar-winner One Day In September and Emmy-winner Manhunt: The Inside Story Of The Hunt for Bin Laden, is making his first foray into podcasts with Audible series Deepcut.

The investigative six part non-fiction series will see Battsek and his new production company Ventureland tackle the complex and controversial cases of four deaths at the Deepcut army barracks in the UK.

The series will examine the deaths of the four young soldiers, found shot dead at the Princes Royal Barracks (Aka Deepcut) in Surrey, England between 1995 and 2002. As their families searched for answers, allegations of bullying, sexual abuse and violence begin to surface and suspicions mounted that evidence had been withheld or destroyed. The incidents led to lengthy legal contests.

Battsek’s team for the series includes investigative journalist Jane MacSorley and former detective chief inspector Colin Sutton who join forces to...

Exclusive: Oscar-winning producer John Battsek (One Day In September) is exiting Passion Pictures after a stellar 20-year run to launch La and London-based company Ventureland with Kerstin Emhoff, Ali Brown, and director Paul Hunter of U.S. production and commercials firm Prettybird.

Ventureland will produce a range of content across the documentary and scripted spaces but will also work in branded content, technology, music and original IP.

Battsek and Emhoff have previously teamed up to produce Emmy-winning projects Manhunt: The Inside Story Of The Hunt For Bin Laden and The Tillman Story, as well as The Final Year, Sergio and Legion Of Brothers. The duo have worked together on-and-off for more than a decade and the majority of Passion’s U.S. productions have been based out of Prettybird’s La facilities.

Battsek co-founded Passion Pictures Films in 1999 with Andrew Ruhemann and won the company’s first Oscar with One Day In September,...

Leading up to the 20th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School this month, a new feature documentary revisits the hallways of the Colorado school and explores the topic of school shootings through the experiences of survivors.

We Are Columbine, directed by one such survivor, Laura Farber, will be released in select theaters on April 9 by Virgil Films. It will also be on DVD and video on demand ahead of a streaming engagement on Hulu starting April 15.

Columbine was among the first high-profile cases of mass shootings erupting on a school campus. The heavy burden carried by survivors has returned to the news with two survivors of last year’s Parkland shooting in Florida committing suicide in recent weeks. The father of a young victim of the Sandy Hook tragedy also died by apparent suicide last week.

We Are Columbine follows four students who experienced the shooting at the school,...

Polygram Entertainment has unveiled a quartet of music documentaries in development on the Bee Gees, the Go-Go’s, hip-hop jewelry and the origins of mixtapes, Variety has learned exclusively.

Polygram, which was revived in 2017 by Universal Music Group, rolled out details of the projects Saturday afternoon during a pre-Grammys showcase in downtown Los Angeles. Members of the Go-Go’s were in attendance along with Umg executives Michele Anthony and David Blackman and veteran film producer Frank Marshall, who’s handling the Bee Gees documentary.

Since 2017, Polygram has co-distributed Ron Howard’s “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years” and developed several notable upcoming projects: a Luciano Pavarotti documentary directed by Howard, a Velvet Underground documentary directed by Todd Haynes and “Hitsville: The Making of Motown.”

The Bee Gees documentary feature is authorized by Barry Gibb and the families of his late brothers Maurice Gibb and Robin Gibb. The...

Feature documentaries from stars including Tilda Swinton and Alan Cumming as well as producers such as Searching For Sugarman’s John Battsek and Shooting Bigfoot’s Morgan Matthews are some of the high-profile projects searching for funding at this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest.

Major broadcasters including HBO and the BBC as well as a slew of European networks have come on board a raft of early-stage docs, which are searching for final funding at Sheffield Doc/Fest’s MeetMarket. The marketplace, which is whittled down from around 550 projects, entices over 300 decision makers including Netflix and YouTube as well as distributors including Neon, Submarine and Cinetic.

We Need To Talk About Kevin star Swinton’s On Drumduan Hill, which she will direct, is arguably the most high-profile project on offer at the event, held in the UK city between June 7 – 12. The film, which is produced by Lily Ford with a...

YouTube Red is taking a tentative step toward becoming more like Amazon Studios with the announcement of an in-house production that it says will see a theatrical release.

Directed by Iranian-American writer-director Maryam Keshavarz (“Circumstance”), “Vulture Club” stars Susan Sarandon as an ER nurse whose co-workers have no idea that her journalist son has been taken hostage by terrorists. The film also stars Julian Morris (“Pretty Little Liars”), Edie Falco, and Matt Bomer. Producers are J.C. Chandor, Anna Gerb, and Neal Dodson.

While YouTube Red announced that principal photography is complete, details on how it plans to release it in theaters are slim.

“We don’t have any news to report on a theatrical partner at this stage, a YouTube Red representative said. “Perhaps later once we identify a partner.”

This would represent a significant strategy shift for the streaming service. Last year, YouTube Red booked its own one-week runs...

Ten months into the year, it’s hard out here for an Oscar contender. Being worthy of remembering, or being watched by Academy members, demands a warm film-festival reception, rave reviews, effective marketing and distribution, strong theater attendance, and word of mouth. Check out this curated (alphabetical) selection of long-shot performers who are worthy of Oscar consideration, but may see their movies get lost in the intense competitive awards shuffle.

1. Bryan Cranston

Category: Best Actor

Awards: Nominated for Best Actor by SAG and the Oscars for “Trumbo,” Cranston won three Best Actor in a Drama Emmys for playing Walter White in “Breaking Bad” and won SAG Best Actor in TV movie as Lbj in “All the Way.”

Last Hit: “Why Him?” ($60 million domestic)

Title: “Last Flag Flying” (Amazon Studios)

Bottom Line: This layered New York Film Festival opener stars Cranston in one of his signature large, colorful, entertaining performances as Sal,...

Ten months into the year, it’s hard out here for an Oscar contender. Being worthy of remembering, or being watched by Academy members, demands a warm film-festival reception, rave reviews, effective marketing and distribution, strong theater attendance, and word of mouth. Check out this curated (alphabetical) selection of long-shot performers who are worthy of Oscar consideration, but may see their movies get lost in the intense competitive awards shuffle.

1. Bryan Cranston

Category: Best Actor

Awards: Nominated for Best Actor by SAG and the Oscars for “Trumbo,” Cranston won three Best Actor in a Drama Emmys for playing Walter White in “Breaking Bad” and won SAG Best Actor in TV movie as Lbj in “All the Way.”

Last Hit: “Why Him?” ($60 million domestic)

Title: “Last Flag Flying” (Amazon Studios)

Bottom Line: This layered New York Film Festival opener stars Cranston in one of his signature large, colorful, entertaining performances as Sal,...

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.

Having made a trilogy of docs viewing the war in Afghanistan through deliberately tight frames (the first of which, Restrepo, earned an Oscar nomination), Sebastian Junger and Nick Quested grapple with a sprawling Middle East topic in Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of Isis. A useful primer for those who haven't paid enough attention and a synthesis for those who've been overwhelmed by years of upsetting news reports, the film explains cause-and-effect relationships that, while hardly unexplored, merit continued attention. Though premiering in limited theatrical release this week, it will reach most of its audience...

In a world where TV networks fight for the opportunity to showcase the best nonfiction content that will keep viewers on their couches, the Toronto-based Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival (April 27 – May 7) is a very, very good place to be.

What began 24 years ago as a modest showcase for Canadian documentaries is now a sprawling international program that screens 230 titles from 58 countries. The festival still favors homegrown product, but also amplifies movies from Sundance (“Chasing Coral,” “Long Strange Trip,” “City of Ghosts”) and Tribeca (“The Departure,” “A River Below”), as well as some international (Joe Berlinger’s “Intent to Destroy”) and world premieres (“A Moon of Nickel and Ice”).

“Hot Docs creates an environment where you can meet with the best in the documentary world,” said director Cullen Hoback, who brought his sharp pollution whodunit “What Lies Upstream” first to Slamdance, then to Hot Docs (Preferred Content is seeking...

In a world where TV networks fight for the opportunity to showcase the best nonfiction content that will keep viewers on their couches, the Toronto-based Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival (April 27 – May 7) is a very, very good place to be.

What began 24 years ago as a modest showcase for Canadian documentaries is now a sprawling international program that screens 230 titles from 58 countries. The festival still favors homegrown product, but also amplifies movies from Sundance (“Chasing Coral,” “Long Strange Trip,” “City of Ghosts”) and Tribeca (“The Departure,” “A River Below”), as well as some international (Joe Berlinger’s “Intent to Destroy”) and world premieres (“A Moon of Nickel and Ice”).

“Hot Docs creates an environment where you can meet with the best in the documentary world,” said director Cullen Hoback, who brought his sharp pollution whodunit “What Lies Upstream” first to Slamdance, then to Hot Docs (Preferred Content is seeking...

Exclusive: Sales and distribution veteran Mark Lindsay to introduce five new titles to Cannes buyers.

New York-based Saboteur Media has launched a production and finance operation with a broader sales remit and hired former Miramax International senior executive Mark Lindsay as president of distribution.

The moves comes as executive director Nick Quested expands the suite of services beyond those of documentary distributor and sales company initially launched under the auspices of Goldcrest Films.

Saboteur now operates as a stand-alone entity that produces, finances and sells narrative and documentary features, with particular emphasis on empowering the New York creative community and an opportunistic eye towards television.

The company has the ability to finance tax credits and invest equity in select projects, which will not rely on pre-sales in order to get greenlight. It serves as co-producer on all five titles headed for Cannes.

Lindsay, whose executive roles have included head of sales and distribution at Kimmel International, Arclight...

Something Better Better Come: Afghan Kids Reign Supreme

In the opening sequence of The Land of the Enlightened following a radio broadcast from President Obama that announces that American troops would soon be pulling out of Afghanistan, first time filmmaker Pieter-Jan De Pue‘s alluring vérité depiction of Afghanistan’s bleak future, makes no bones about the country’s seemingly cursed existence, plotting out the cycle of Afghan misfortune via voiceover of holy legend and images mythical landscapes. “I made a mistake,” he (god) said. “I don’t have any land left for you.” With stunning 16mm cinematography, an empathetic eye, and a great deal of courage, De Pue digs into this lawless desert world, following a renegade band of armed children as they raid weary travelers and trade the opium and lapis lazuli they take as bounty, forging in the end a futureless portrait in which morals are discarded in the name of survival.

This powerful, beautifully shot documentary tracks the intense, grim lives of the Afghan national army as they fight the Taliban alone after the Us departed

George W Bush’s notorious “Mission Accomplished” Iraq banner in 2003 is recalled by this excellent film about the tense aftermath of Nato’s withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan. It is an intimate documentary study of the Afghan national army, in whose hands the fight against the Taliban now rests – a tough, perceptive, beautifully photographed film, and something to set alongside Sebastian Junger’s great reportage documentary Restrepo (2010). That film could have been criticised for focusing on Us soldiers’ experience at the expense of the Afghans. Not this one. With great complexity and subtlety, it shows that the Afghan soldiers’ experience does not simply duplicate that of the departed Americans. There is a new loneliness and grimness.

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50 fabulous documentary films, covering hard politics through to music, money and films that never were...

Thanks to streaming services such as Netflix, we’ve never had better access to documentaries. A whole new audience can discover that these real life stories are just as thrilling, entertaining, and incredible as the latest big-budget blockbuster. What’s more, they’re all true too. But with a new found glut of them comes the ever more impossible choice, what’s worth your time? Below is my pick of the 50 best modern feature length documentaries.

I’ve defined modern as being from 2000 onwards, which means some of the greatest documentaries ever made will not feature here. I’m looking at you Hoop Dreams.

50. McConkey (2013)

d. Rob Bruce, Scott Gaffney, Murray Wais, Steve Winter, David Zieff

Shane McConkey was an extreme skier and Base jumper who lived life on the edge, and very much to the full.

Until now, Eline Jongsma & Kel O’Neill, an award-winning Dutch-American filmmaking team, has been best known for "Empire," the Emmy-nominated interactive documentary which appeared at The New York Film Festival in 2013 before being acquired by Pov. Read More: Check Out 'The Empire Project,' An Interactive Documentary at the Nyff The filmmaking team was recently awarded the inaugural Tim Hetherington Visionary Award in memory of the celebrated British photojournalist and filmmaker ("Restrepo") who was killed covering the civil war in Libya in 2011. They received the award for their latest project, "The Ark," a virtual reality documentary that will tell the stories of the African and American rangers and scientists who are fighting to conserve the world's last four remaining northern white rhinoceros. The pair is shooting "The Ark" with a 360° camera system in both San Diego and Kenya. With the funds they received...

Other winners include a film about the early years of Greenpeace and Us documentary 3½ Minutes, 10 Bullets.

Sean McAllister’s A Syrian Love Story has won the Grand Jury prize at Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 5-10).

Acclaimed British documentary filmmaker McAllister, whose credits include The Liberace in Baghdad and The Reluctant Revolutionary, shot the feature over four years.

It follows the plight of one Syrian family as they are forced to leave the war torn country and the impact it has on the family’s relationships. During the filming process, McAllister himself spent time in a Syrian jail when the authorities seized his camera.

On behalf of the jury, Ruby Chen of Cnex China said: “The jury were enamoured by this Bergmanesque portrait of a relationship and love, taking place against an ever-changing and tumultuous backdrop.

“Delivering unusual gender portraits it explores vulnerabilities, looking at the concept of belonging, providing a unique and intimate portrait of disillusionment.”

The...

Scarlett Johansson Oscar dress Scarlett Johansson at the Oscars Looking great in a long purple dress, Scarlett Johansson displays her tight-fitting costume and bare back at the 83rd Academy Awards held on Feb. 27 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Oscar 2011 co-host and Best Actor nominee James Franco (for Danny Boyle's 127 Hours) thus introduced Johansson and fellow Oscar presenter Matthew McConaughey: "I am six degrees of Kevin Bacon away from our next two presenters. Figure it out on the Internet." Well, if you're lucky. Some have remarked that Franco was a more effective Oscar host online, where he tweeted some of the evening's to-dos, than on the stage of the Kodak Theatre. His fellow equally panned Oscarcast host was actress Anne Hathaway. Scarlett Johansson movies Scarlett Johansson has been featured in more than 40 films since her debut at age 10 in Rob Reiner's North, back in 1994. Johansson, in fact,...

Stylistically, Raisani borrows a lot from Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger's documentary Restrepo. In the case of Alien Outpost, the handheld documentary footage is shot by a crew sent to capture what life is like on a military outpost. Little do they know, they are being sent into the heart of darkness. As it turns out, the outpost is not only threatened by the presence of heavies in the area, but the local townspeople have inexplicably taken up arms in support of the heavies. At first, this new phenomena seems to be a heavy-handed resurgence of anti-Americanism; but, thankfully, Alien Outpost eventually reveals a much more valid reason for the Iranians' unconditional support of the heavies.

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

Directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, Finding Vivian Maier documents Maloof’s journey to discover more about Vivian Maier after purchasing a box of her negatives in 2007. He began the search a few years later, after he realized the negatives consisted of some of the best undeveloped street photography of the 20th century. After some searching, it was revealed that Maier was a career-nanny who had died in 2009.

Since the documentary is in serious contention for a best documentary feature Oscar, we thought we’d check to see how many other photography-related films have managed to resonate with the Academy’s documentary branch and land a nomination in the same category. We found six.

The Naked Eye (1956)

Directed by two-time Oscar winner Louis Clyde Stoumen, this documentary celebrates photography through history by looking at pioneers in the field, such as Margaret Bourke-White. Though he covers works by multiple photographers,...

Award-winning war journalist and filmmaker Sebastian Junger is no stranger to risk-taking. After venturing to Afghanistan and Nigeria for film projects, he is now taking a daring and unconventional approach to marketing and distribution with his latest documentary, “Korengal.” See photos: 20 of Denzel Washington and Liam Neeson's Biggest Box Office Hits (Photos) While the film is available to stream via more traditional services including iTunes and Amazon, Junger and his partners at indie company Goldcrest Films are also releasing a series of extras to potential viewers via BitTorrent's Bundle streaming service. Also read: Facebook Members Memorialize ‘Restrepo’ Director “We don't have a distribution partner,...

The 2014 edition of the Margaret Mead Film Festival, a great annual documentary fest which screens at the American Museum of Natural History and runs this year from October 23-26, has as this year's theme "Past Forward." According to the festival, this theme describes "how traditions help cultures survive and thrive, even in the face of climate catastrophes and economic adversity." This year's festival opens with The Last Patrol, Sebastian Junger's follow-up to his Afghanistan war documentary Restrepo. As always, this festival offers artful and sensitively portrayed looks at a broad array of global cultures, with approaches to filmmaking and storytelling as diverse as the people and issues within them. Below are reviews of a few of this year's selections. For more information, and to purchase tickets,...

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Vanity Fair writer Sebastian Junger is well-known not only for "The Perfect Storm" (which was made into a George Clooney action movie) and his intrepid war reporting--which he ended after the untimely death in Libya of his long-time partner, British Vanity Fair photographer and cinematographer Tim Hetherington--but the Oscar-nominated documentary "Restrepo" and its sequel "Korengal."  Read: Why Sebastian Junger Made and Self-Released 'Restrepo' Sequel 'Korengal' Concluding his trilogy on war is HBO-backed "The Last Patrol" (which will also be a book), about four men who have given up covering war. The doc debuts Monday, November 10 (9:00-10:30 p.m. Et/Pt), the day before Veterans Day, exclusively on HBO. On a train trip from New York to Washington, D.C. with Hetherington, Junger noticed looking out the train window that "the railroad tracks go straight through the middle of everything--ghettos, suburbs, crumbling...

Vanity Fair writer Sebastian Junger is well-known not only for "The Perfect Storm" (which was made into a George Clooney action movie) and his intrepid war reporting--which he ended after the untimely death in Libya of his long-time partner, British Vanity Fair photographer and cinematographer Tim Hetherington--but the Oscar-nominated documentary "Restrepo." I interviewed Junger and Hetherington for that movie (see video below), and talked to Junger again recently about the sequel "Korengal," which is in current release and available for pre-order on Vhx.  "Restrepo" didn't resemble your standard documentary, in any way. It's not like other embedded war docs, or voice-over narration films, or movies with a strong personality or clear narrative spine. It's another animal. The film dogged me emotionally, messed up my tear ducts. Junger and Hetherington are strapping, manly men. They could hold their own with U.S. soldiers in the toughest mountain terrain. In our.

Sebastian Junger and fellow combat journalist, Tim Heatherington, who was killed covering the Libyan civil war two years ago, envisioned a film project that would unfold in two parts, showing what troops experience both on and off the battlefield. Korengal, directed by Junger with cinematography by both men, is not only a powerful companion piece to their 2010 Oscar-nominated documentary, Restrepo, but also a work that stands on its own as a remarkable record of war. While Restrepo gave audiences a front row seat to combat, Korengal reveals the complex psychology behind it and the spiritual and emotional toll it can take, using never-before-seen footage and interviews with the men and commanders of Battle Company’s 2nd Platoon. In an exclusive interview, Junger spoke about what inspired him to become a combat journalist and explore the experiences of the American soldier in combat, the logistical challenges he encountered shooting in a harsh and dangerous environment,...

From 2007 to 2008, writer, seasoned war journalist and filmmaker Sebastian Junger went on patrol, survived an Ied attack, endured firefights and boredom, and bonded with the soldiers of Camp Restrepo, a remote outpost deep in the Korengal Valley in the northeast region of Afghanistan. Embedded with the men of U.S. Army Battle Company 2nd of the 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Junger and his co-director, Tim Hetherington, documented the experience in their 2010 movie Restrepo — a you-are-there account of modern combat that earned the duo an Academy-Award nomination for Best Documentary.

Here's a rundown of the specialty box office this weekend, which saw Sebastian Junger's doc "Korengal" top openers in its exclusive engagement debut, narrowly beating out the per-theater-average of Kelly Reichardt's "Night Moves," which was in one more theater. News wasn't quite so good for other openers, with "We Are The Best," "Filth" and "Lucky Them" all failing to managed significant audiences. The Debuts: Debut Winner of the Weekend: "Korengal." Sebastian Junger's "Korengal" -- a follow up to the Oscar nominated doc "Restrepo" that Junger made with the late Tim Hetherington --opened exclusively at Landmark's Sunshine cinema in New York to a very strong $15,145 -- giving it the best average of any film in release save studio topper "Maleficent" (though it helped it was only on one screen). The film, a Saboteur Media release, was self financed by Junger. It will open in Los Angeles on June...

★★★☆☆When is too much enough and not enough moreish is the question one takes away from Sebastian Junger's sequel to his award winning and epoch busting 2010 documentary Restrepo, which he co-directed with recently deceased photographer Tim Hetherington. Battle Company: Korengal (2014) again focuses with a piercing gaze on Battle Company, 173rd Airborne Brigade that were the focus of the previous film. As in the first film, Restrepo refers to the outpost in the Korengal Valley looked upon as the most dangerous posting in Afghanistan, where the soldiers live and fight in spartan conditions with no electricity, running water or internet for up to six months at a time.

Related without narration or score, the 2010 Restrepo was a remarkable vérité documentary account of the war in Afghanistan that immersed the audience in the immediacy, boredom, adrenaline, and fear experienced by the Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade stationed in the Korengal Valley, widely regarded as one of the most dangerous locations in the country.

The follow-up, Korengal, bears the tagline "This is what war feels like," but this time, director Sebastian Junger means something different. Restrepo co-director Tim Hetherington died in 2012 while covering the civil war in Libya, and Junger revisited unused footage they shot together for the first film and embellished it with retrospective interviews with the soldiers.

The r...

Horses of God

Not Rated, 1 Hr., 55 Mins.

Four boys from the slums of Morocco mutate into suicide bombers in this tense drama, which uses the 2003 Casablanca terror attack as its backdrop. Director Nabil Ayouch hammers his points rather bluntly, but his filmmaking is hypnotic. The camera, initially jittery and handheld, slows to static shots, eerily matching the characters’ stagnant mindsets on their atrocious road to martyrdom. B+ –Joe McGovern

Korengal

Not Rated, 1 Hr., 30 Mins.

Sebastian Junger’s follow-up to 2010′s Restrepo (his Oscar-nominated war doc codirected by the late Tim Hetherington) shifts focus from combat in Afghanistan’s “Valley of Death” to the soldiers’ psychology,...

Sebastian Junger has joined the ranks of Hollywood crowdfunders Zach Braff and Rob Thomas with his recently launched Kickstarter campaign for "Korengal," the follow-up to the Academy-Award nominated "Restrepo." While embedded with the Second Platoon, Battle Company, 173rd Airborne back in 2007 and 2008, Junger and his co-director, the late photographer Tim Hetherington, shot over 150 hours of footage. In "Korengal," Junger returns to his archive of footage except this time from a psychological angle. "'Restrepo' was meant to be completely experiential," said Junger in the Kickstarter video, "like you feel like you're in the Korengal with these guys. We want[ed] you to jump out of your seat in that film. 'Korengal' is a little different. We're trying to understand the experience. The soldiers are talking about fear, about courage." According to the film's Kickstarter page, Junger financed the editing of the film himself, but turned to crowdfunding for the distribution costs.

Filmmaker Sebastian Junger launched a Kickstarter campaign earlier today for a follow-up to his Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo. And it’s already about a third of the way funded. The new film, titled Korengal: This Is What War Feels Like, is basically a sequel to that 2010 effort, for which he and co-director Tim Hetherington were embedded with a U.S. platoon in Afghanistan for a look at a year on the front lines of the war. Hetherington later died covering another dangerous conflict, the Libyan civil war, and became the subject of Junger’s subsequent film, Which Way Is the Front Line From Here. Korengal takes us back with the duo to the titular valley for events that happened either following or alongside those in Restrepo. Junger says in his campaign statement that it had been an idea during the editing of the earlier film that they’d come back and make another doc out of the...