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Chicago – What does the title of Alison Klayman’s new documentary, “The Brink,” mean? On the surface, it is a fly-on-the-wall profile of right wing operative Steve Bannon, who worked for Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016 and was on his executive staff at the White House, until he unceremoniously resigned. But below the Bannon profile is a remarkable film about the nature of what Bannon does, creating nationalist division while pretending to be a righteous political warrior.

Operative Steve Bannon in ‘The Brink,’ Directed by Alison Klayman

Photo credit: Magnolia Pictures

Filmmaker Alison Klayman, notable for award-winning documentaries like “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” and Netflix’s “Take Your Pills,” got unprecedented access to Bannon, following him throughout 2018 as he reinvigorated his strategies after the White House disgrace. He is a globe trotting “advisor” to many Donald Trump-like campaigners while Klayman followed him, and in the film he talked about his philosophies,...

While the government focuses on opioid addiction, Take Your Pills serves as a cautionary reminder that a drug intended for those with Adhd is still causing problems nationwide

The role Adderall plays in driving America, and Americans, is put under the spotlight in a new Netflix documentary launching this week.

In Take Your Pills, Alison Klayman, best known for her 2012 film Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, explores the pressures that drive some people to use Adderall to improve grades and performance.

March may be something of a light month in terms of new additions to Netflix, but it’s still a strong one, and it finds the streaming giant doing what they do best: Padding their library with the kind of comfort viewing that you’re perfectly happy to watch from your couch.

The movies coming to the service over this next few weeks represent a broad cross-section of comedies and crime dramas that have firmly established themselves as cable television classics — “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Casino” alone are probably enough to keep you busy until spring. March also finds Netflix continuing to serve up new titles straight from the festival circuit, with Alison Klayman’s “Take Your Pills” and Jody Hill’s “The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter” both coming to home video just a few short days after they debut at SXSW.

For a full list of everything...

Refugees walking near Idomeni Camp, Greece in the documentary Human Flow, an Amazon Studios release. Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios ©

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei was the subject of a 2012 documentary titled AI Weiwei: Never Sorry. Now the artist has made his own documentary, about refugees, mostly fleeing war in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, called Human Flow.

Ai Weiwei knows something of this experience, having been an undocumented immigrant in New York in his youth. He returned to his native China, gained fame as an artist but the artist has since left, following his release from house arrest. Ai Weiwei’s sympathy lies firmly with the refugees and their plight in this emotional film.

In his documentary, Ai turns his camera on refugees fleeing Iraq and Syria, landing on the shore of Lesvos, Greece, and in refugee camps in Iraq. Ai documents the arrival of refugees by boat, as well as assisting some,...

Artist, activist and filmmaker Ai Weiwei has gained international acclaim for his work, and been the subject of films including “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” and “Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case.” This time around, he’s going behind the camera to explore a crisis that’s currently gripping the globe.

The documentary “Human Flow” will take audiences around the world, as it details the profound human migration that is seeing people cross deserts, seas, and more to find safety and shelter.

Continue reading ‘Human Flow’ Trailer: Ai Weiwei Explores The Refugee Crisis at The Playlist.

There’s a punctuation party raging throughout Hollywood, which is in desperate need of a colon cleanse. This year alone, Hollywood will release 20 films with colons in their titles, which appears to be a record. The colon proliferation is indicative of the industry’s reliance on sequels and reboots that need to distinguish themselves from their predecessors with a pair of dots and a subtitle. And we’re not even counting all the foreign films and documentaries released in less than 100 theaters, projects like “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks,” “Cinco de Mayo: La Batalla” and “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.

The 2016 presidential election is finally coming to an end, but The Orchard is just getting started on “11/8/16,” the follow-up to Jeff Deutchman’s 2008 documentary about the election of President Obama, “11/4/08.” Produced by Deutchman and directed by more than 40 filmmakers who will capture footage from all over the country on Tuesday, November 8, the film represents the most ambitious Election Day documentary ever produced.

Read More: Hillary Clinton for President: 37 Filmmakers Reveal Why She’s the Best Choice

Filmmakers contributing to the project include “Suited” director Jason Benjamin, who will be following Lena Dunham as she volunteers for the Hillary Clinton campaign; “Bombay Beach” director Alma Har’el, who will be following Clinton’s director of video Sierra Kos; “Being Evel” director Daniel Junge, who will be follwing the Los Angeles Times’ assistant managing editor of politics, Christina Bellantoni; and “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” director Alison Klayman, who will be following NPR...

Read More: Why We Bought Your Film: Top Distributors Answer the Tough Questions  At one of this week's Ifp Film Week panels, two documentary producers at the top of their game weighed in on what it's like to work in the increasingly fast-paced industry, and shared some tips on how to handle the role of creative producer. Nancy Goldman, Svp of HBO Documentary Films and Julie Goldman, founder of Motto Pictures, whose credits include "Best of Enemies," "The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble," "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present," "Buck" and "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," sat down to talk.  What do you need to be a good creative producer?  "I think creative producing and executive producing are in a similar place, but the intensive, hands-on version is the creative producer," explained Goldman. In short, the creative producer does everything. "Ideally, you should be across...

XLRator Media has provided us with an exclusive clip for their new documentary entitled Mateo, which opened in limited release last weekend and debuts on VOD and iTunes formats August 25. This clip showcases the vocal skills of Matthew Stoneman, America's first white mariachi singer, as he records his song "The Virtue of Cuba." XLRator acquired the rights to the film earlier this month, following its critically-acclaimed debut at the South By Southwest Festival back in March.

Mateo follows America's most notorious gringo mariachi singer on his misadventures in Cuba. Matthew Stoneman dreamed of pop stardom. Instead, he went to jail, learned Spanish, and emerged as Mateo, America's first white mariachi singer. Mateo is on the brink of completing an album of original songs in Havana. But his estrangement from friends and family, his criminal past, and his love for Cuban women could derail him on his quest for fame. Here's...

Impact Partners, the leading financier and executive producer of documentary film, will launch a new annual Emerging Documentary Producers Fellowship. The fellowship will be awarded to some of the industry’s most promising new producers at an inaugural ceremony at Doc NYC this fall. The goal of the new fellowship is to foster emerging producing talent by launching a program that consists of a yearlong series of workshops with some of the most prominent luminaries in the field of documentary film. Guest documentary experts confirmed to participate in the 2015-2016 fellowship workshops include: Victoria Cook ("Page One: Inside the New York Times,"), Geralyn Dreyfous ("The Square"), Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady ("Jesus Camp"), Liz Garbus ("What Happened, Miss Simone?"), Howard Gertler ("Do I Sound Gay?"), Julie Goldman ("Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry"), Amy Hobby ("What Happened, Miss Simone?"), Tabitha Jackson (...

SundanceNow Doc Club brings three enticing panels to Park City throughout the next week, all of which are tied to the digital programming already on offer via the documentary streaming service. The panels will focus on short films, black lives on film and documenting celebrities, with featured panelists including award-winning directors Lucy Walker, Liz Garbus, Morgan Neville and Daniel Junge. Full info below. Panels go down at the SundanceTV HQ and will be moderated by SundanceNow Doc Club Curator and documentary impresario Thom Powers. Panels will stream online in the coming weeks. Also, check out Doc Club's Sundance Festival Favorites program, curated by festival programmers including Sundance's Director of Programming Trevor Groth. Now available online, the slate includes "5 Broken Cameras," "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," "Black Power Mixtape," "Hoop Dreams," "The Weather Underground," "The Red...

After a documentary premieres, what happens to the people that are its focus? SundanceNow Doc Club offers Toh! four exclusive videos that will bring you up to speed on the subjects of acclaimed docs "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," "We're Not Broke," "Hot Coffee" and Oscar nominee "How to Survive a Plague," all of which contended for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in recent years. These director interviews are part of SundanceNow Doc Club's latest curation Fight the System, a slate of docs that dig into contemporary American issues and are now available to stream.  "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" - Dir. Alison Klayman "Hot Coffee" - Dir. Susan Saladoff "How to Survive a Plague" - Dir. David France "We're Not Broke" - Dirs. Victoria Bruce, Karin Hayes...

Exclusive: Indie film subcription service Fandor has acquired sci-fi short film The Sand Storm ahead of its Telluride debut this weekend, and has set a day and date release coinciding with its world premiere this Sunday, August 31. The narrative short is directed by Jason Wishnow, the filmmaker behind the viral idea-fostering Ted Talks. It co-stars Chinese art star Ai Weiwei (Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry) in the dystopian tale of a city facing a water crisis in the near future, told from the perspectives of a woman, a man, a lover and a water smuggler. Wishnow co-wrote the script with Li-Anne Huang.

Fandor is the indie subscription VOD service that independent producer Ted Hope took the reins of in January. The company will make The Sand Storm available online on Fandor.com simultaneous to its world premiere at Telluride this Sunday at 4pm Mt. Earlier this summer the filmmakers launched a...

Ifp announced its 2014 slate of 133 new films in development and works in progress selected for its esteemed Project Forum at Independent Film Week. This one-of-a-kind event brings the international film and media community to New York City to advance new projects by nurturing the work of both emerging and established independent artists and filmmakers. Through the Project Forum, creatives connect with financiers, executives, influencers and decision-makers in film, television, new media and cross-platform storytelling that can help them complete their latest works and connect with audiences. Under the curatorial leadership of Deputy Director/Head of Programming Amy Dotson & Senior Director of Programming Milton Tabbot, this one-of-a-kind event takes place September 14-18, 2014 at Lincoln Center supporting bold new content from a wide variety of domestic and international artists.

“As we set to embark on our 36th Independent Film Week, we are impressed by the outstanding slate of both U.S. and international projects selected for this year’s Project Forum,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of Ifp. “We know that the industry will be as excited as we are with the accomplished storytellers and their diverse and boundary pushing films.”

Featured works at the 2014 Independent Film Week include filmmakers and content creators from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. From documentarians Tony Gerber ("Full Battle Rattle"), Pamela Yates ("Granito: How To Nail A Dictator"), and Penny Lane ("Our Nixon") to Michelangelo Frammartino ("Quattro Volte") and Alexis Dos Santos ("Unmade Beds"), as well as new work from critically acclaimed artists and directors Aurora Guerrero ("Mosquita y Mari"), Barry Jenkins ("Medicine for Melancholy"), Travis Matthews ("Interior. Leather. Bar") and Yen Tan ("Pit Stop").

Independent Film Week brings the international film and media community to New York City to advance new documentary and narrative works-in-progress and support the future of storytelling. The program nurtures the work of both emerging and established independent artists and filmmakers through the facilitation of over 3,500+ custom, one-to-one meetings with the financiers, executives, influencers and decision-makers in film, television, new media and cross-platform storytelling that can help them complete their latest works and connect with audiences. In recent years, it has also played a vital role in launching the first films of many of today’s rising stars on the independent scene including Rama Burshtein ("Fill The Void"), Derek Cianfrance ("Blue Valentine"), Marshall Curry ("If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth LIberation Front"), Laura Poitras ("The Oath"), Denis Villeneuve ("Incendies") and Benh Zeitlin ("Beasts of the Southern Wild").

For the full 2014 Project Forum slate visit Here

New For 2014

Evenly split between documentary and narrative features, selected projects hail from throughout the U.S., Europe and Canada, as well Africa, Asia, South America, and the Middle East. New this year, Ifp will be including web series in it programming, as well as spotlighting Latin & Central American artists and content with 15 projects featured across all programs in the Forum.

In a joint effort to recognize the importance of career and creative sustainability, Ifp and Durga Entertainment have partnered on a new $20,000 filmmaker grant for an alumnus of Ifp. The grant is intended for active, working filmmakers who are also balancing a filmmaking career with parenting. The grant provides a $20,000 unrestricted prize to encourage the recipient to continue on her or his career path of making quality independent films. American directors or screenwriters working in narrative film who have participated in the Ifp Filmmaker Labs or Ifp Independent Film Week's Emerging Storytellers or No-Borders International Co-Production market are encouraged to apply by the deadline of August 8, 2014.

Narrative Feature Highlights

Narrative features and webseries in Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers and No Borders International Co-Production Market sections highlight new work from top emerging and established creative visionaries on the U.S. and international independent scene.

This year’s slate includes new feature scripts featuring directors Dev Benegal ("Road, Movie"), Alexis Dos Santos ("Unmade Beds"), Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin ("Now, Forager"), Michelangelo Frammartino ("Le Quattro Volte"),Terry George ("Hotel Rwanda"), Rashaad Ernesto Green ("Gun Hill Road"), Aurora Guerrero ("Mosquita Y Mari"), Barry Jenkins ("Medicine for Melancholy"),Alison Klayman ("Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry"), Travis Mathews ("Interior. Leather Bar"), Stacie Passon ("Concussion"), Yen Tan ("Pit Stop"), as well as up-an-coming actor/directors Karrie Crouse ("Land Ho!") and Peter Vack ("Fort Tilden""I Believe in Unicorns").

Producers and executive producers of note attached to participating projects include Jennifer Dubin and Cora Olson ("Good Dick"), Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams ("Hellion"),Laura Heberton ("Gayby"), Dan Janvey ("Beasts of the Southern Wild"), Kishori Rajan ("Gimme the Loot"), Adele Romanski ("The Myth of the American Sleepover"), Kim Sherman ("A Teacher"), Susan Stover ("High Art"), and Alicia Van Couvering ("Tiny Furniture").

Web Storytellers Highlights

For the first time this year, Ifp presents a dedicated spotlight within the Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers program for creators developing episodic content for digital platforms. The inaugural slate for the Web Storytellers spotlight includes new works from filmmakers Desiree Akhavan ("Appropriate Behavior", HBO’s Girls), Calvin Reeder ("The Rambler"), and Gregory Bayne ("Person of Interest"), as well as producers Elisabeth Holm ("Obvious Child"), Susan Leber ( "Down to the Bone"), and Amanda Warman ("The Outs,"Whatever This Is"). Two of the series participating are currently in post-production, and will be making their online debut in the coming months – Rachel Morgan’s Middle Americans, starring Scott Thompson, Carlen Altman, and Alex Rennie, and Daniel Zimbler and Elisabeth Gray’s Understudies, starring Richard Kind and David Rasche. [p Spotlight On Documentaries Highlights

The documentary selection includes new work from seasoned non-fiction directors such as Emmy winners Robert Bahar andAlmudena Carracedo ("Made in La"), Pamela Yates ("Granito: How to Nail a Dictator"),Ramona Diaz ("Imelda," "Don’t Stop Believin’") Gini Reticker ("Pray the Devil Back to Hell") Tony Gerber ("Full Battle Rattle"); from producers such as Court 13’s Benh Zeitlin and Dan Janvey ("Beasts of the Southern Wild"), Liran Atzmor ("The Law in These Parts"), Tim Williams ("Once In A Lifetime") and Hilla Medalia ("Web Junkie"), and follow-up second features from recent doc world “breakouts”Steve Hoover ("Blood Brother") Penny Lane ("Our Nixon"), Michael Collins ("Give Up Tomorrow"), and Michael Nichols and Christopher Walker ("Flex is Kings").

Exciting new work from debut documentary directors previously known for fiction films include Alex Sichel ("All over Me") with her personal doc The Movie about Anna, Lisa Cortés (producer, "Precious") with "Mothership: The Untold Story of Women and Hip Hop," and Daniel Patrick Carbone ("Hide Your Smiling Faces") with Phantom Cowboys.

Sponsors

Independent Film Week’s Premier sponsors are Royal Bank of Canada (Rbc) and HBO. Gold sponsors are A&E IndieFilms and SAGIndie. Silver sponsors are Durga Entertainment, Eastman Kodak Company, National Film & Video Foundation of South Africa and Telefilm Canada. Official Independent Film Week Partner is Film Society of Lincoln Center. Independent Film Week is supported, in part, by funds provided by the Ford Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council for the Arts and Time Warner Foundation.

About Ifp

The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) champions the future of storytelling by connecting artists with essential resources at all stages of development and distribution. The organization fosters a vibrant and sustainable independent storytelling community through its year-round programs, which include Independent Film Week, Filmmaker Magazine, the Gotham Independent Film Awards and the Made in NY Media Center by Ifp, a new incubator space developed with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. Ifp represents a growing network of 10,000 storytellers around the world, and plays a key role in developing 350 new feature and documentary works each year. During its 35-year history, Ifp has supported over 8,000 projects and offered resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers, including Debra Granik, Miranda July, Michael Moore, Dee Rees, and Benh Zeitlin. More info at www.ifp.org.

The distinction between fawning infomercial and documentary, particularly when the subject is either an artist or important subcultural figure, is one that increasingly few documentarians seem able to draw. Too many contemporary nonfiction filmmakers seem to think their subjects must be presented in as sanitized and inoffensive a manner as possible. One of the things that made, say, Alison Klayman's Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry such potent viewing was Klayman's unwavering juxtaposition of her subject's noble artistic and political causes with his often ignoble treatment of his wife and family. The full spectrum of his being was presented and the film was better for it.

See also: <a href="http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2014/03/stones_throw_records_our_vinyl_wei...

While all studio eyes are on "Godzilla," a few indies are quietly making their way to theaters this weekend, too, and we're previewing them in terms of their box office potential. It's a rather underwhelming pack, with only James Gray's "The Immigrant" the one most definitely expected to impress. Clearly not with "Godzilla"-sized numbers (or even 1 percent of them), but with a promising start for one of the few well-reviewed alternatives to studio fare opening this weekend. Here's how things could shake down for it and three other new specialty releases (in alphabetical order):Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case (International Film Circuit) Director:  Andreas Johnsen Cast: Ai Weiwei Criticwire Average: No grades yet. Where Is It Screening: Exclusively at New York's IFC Center. Box Office Expectation: Two years ago, Chinese artist and advocate Ai Weiwei got the documentary treatment in the financially successful "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,...

To celebrate the releases of The Act Of Killing and The Gatekeepers on DVD, Madman is giving you, our dear readers, the chance to win a DVD pack consisting of 10 documentaries (pictured above). Whether you like it confronting, informative or entertaining, you will definitely find something you like in the pack. First prize (one winner): All 10 of the pictured documentaries on DVD - The Act Of Killing, The Gatekeepers, Pussy Riot, The Human Scale, The House I Love In, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, Searching For Sugar Man, El Bulli: Cooking In Progress, Dreams Of A Life, The Queen Of VersaillesSecond prize (three winners): One of the following documentaries on DVD - The Act Of Killing, The Gatekeepers, Pussy Riot, The Human Scale, The House...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Mixed media artist Ai Weiwei is the rare Chinese iconoclast whose provocative output manages to circumvent countless efforts by the government to censor him, which is a particularly impressive feat given his current ubiquity. Last year, Alison Klayman's documentary "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" followed Ai through the aftermath of his work on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, his daring critique of government aid "The Sichuan Earthquake Names Project" and his eventual imprisonment by the government for 80 days. Now comes Danish filmmaker Andreas Johnsen's "Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case," which premiered this week at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. An unofficial follow-up to "Never Sorry," "The Fake Case" explores Ai's yearlong period of probation after his release in 2011. At the same, Ai himself has recently completed a documentary, "Stay Home!," a touching portrait of a strong-willed young woman with AIDS fighting the government for better care. The movie extends Ai's cinematic.

His attendance was never expected, but a provocative response to his predicament was all but assured.  In place of himself, dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has sent an empty chair to the Stockholm Film Festival, a defiant artistic gesture symbolizing his inability to attend the event because of the intervention of Chinese authorities. Ai has been prevented from leaving China since he was released from prison in 2011, over charges of tax evasion, amid a political crackdown on outspoken artists and government critics.  Film Review: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry The Stockholm Film Festival, which opens today, each year reserves

read more...

The line-up of the 2nd edition of the Dharamshala International Film festival has been announced. The festival will showcase feature films, documentaries and short films.

Organised by White Crane Arts & Media; the festival will be held from October 24 – 27, 2013 in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala.

This year, a new section ‘Art and Film’ has been introduced at the festival in collaboration with Vienna-based Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Foundation. The section will feature art films made by international artists Sean Snyder, Wael Shawky, Marine Hugonnier, Omer Fast, Walid Raad and Rabih Mroué.

The Best of recent Indian Shorts curated by filmmaker Umesh Kulkarni will also be showcased.

Besides, Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky’s Watermark will make its world premiere at the festival.

Some of the film personalities who will attend the festival are: Jacek Borcuch (Lasting), Nishtha Jain (Gulabi Gang), Nitin Kakkar (Filmistaan), Avijit Mukul Kishore (To Let the World In), Nagraj Manjule (Fandry...

Sky Atlantic is holding a film festival event to coincide with the launch of its new season of documentaries.

The Sky Atlantic Documentary Film Festival - which will take place on Thursday, October 24 - is open to the public and will air all six films from the first season throughout the day, accompanied by masterclasses and panel discussions with the film-makers behind the documentaries.

Documentaries featured include The Crash Reel, a Lucy Walker film focused on champion snowboarder Kevin Pearce, Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry, the story of China's most famous artist, and The Act of Killing, which explores the imaginations of death squad leaders.

Former war correspondent Greg Barker's Man Hunt: The Search for Bin Laden, Beeban Kidron's InRealLife, and James Toback's Seduced and Abandoned starring Alec Baldwin, completes the line-up.

Director of Sky Atlantic Elaine Pyke said: "Sky Atlantic is the home of great storytelling...

Sky Atlantic is holding a film festival event to coincide with the launch of its new season of documentaries.

The Sky Atlantic Documentary Film Festival - which will take place on Thursday, October 24 - is open to the public and will air all six films from the first season throughout the day, accompanied by masterclasses and panel discussions with the film-makers behind the documentaries.

Documentaries featured include The Crash Reel, a Lucy Walker film focused on champion snowboarder Kevin Pearce, Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry, the story of China's most famous artist, and The Act of Killing, which explores the imaginations of death squad leaders.

Former war correspondent Greg Barker's Man Hunt: The Search for Bin Laden, Beeban Kidron's InRealLife, and James Toback's Seduced and Abandoned starring Alec Baldwin, completes the line-up.

Director of Sky Atlantic Elaine Pyke said: "Sky Atlantic is the home of great storytelling...

Chinese artist and political activist complements festival’s spotlight on “freedom”.

Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and subject of an award-winning documentary, is to join the jury of the 24th Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 6-17).

Stockholm’s festival jury always features film industry figures but saves one seat for a personality from an art form other than film, which Weiwei will fill this year.

However, for the first time in the festival history, there is a risk that a jury member might not be physically present during the festival, as Ai Weiwei currently is being prohibited from travelling outside of China.

Siff director Git Scheynius said: “We still look forward to welcoming Ai Weiwei to the festival and hope the Chinese authorities will lift his travel prohibition.”

This year’s spotlight is ”freedom” and will highlight the fact that many filmmakers, artists and journalists are still unable to perform their work without the influence of censorship...

Not Just For Children: Berstein Elegantly Draws An Illustration Legend

Documentaries on the eccentric or tortured artist are a dime a dozen, but it seems each year a few view worthy films pop up, reminding us of forgotten gems by presenting their work through a reflective lens. This year we’ve already seen the release of the humorous and endearing Beauty is Embarassing, the bizarre Pushwagner, and the politically charged Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, but with Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story, director Brad Bernstein’s first feature, we are blessed with the opportunity to delve into the incredible life story of an often overlooked, but legendary figure of modern illustration, and like the aforementioned films of 2012, highlights the artist’s voracious propulsion to create. With signature eccentricity and heartfelt candor, Ungerer himself recants his tale that begins with the Nazi take over of France, moves...

Independent was founded by CEO Luc Roeg who has over twenty years experience in the film business. His team of highly motivated and experienced professionals with expertise in project development, production, structured finance, sales and marketing has also recently established a U.K. Distribution specializing in the acquisition and distribution of content across all media channels in the U.K. (theatrical, TV, DVD, digital, etc.).

They most recently produced John Banville’s Booker Prize winning novel, The Sea which is currently in post production starring Ciarán Hinds, Charlotte Rampling, Rufus Sewell and Sinéad Cusack. Previously, having produced the Tolstoy - based film Boxing Day which had its World Premiere at Venice last year. In 2011 they produced the critically acclaimed adaptation of Lionel Shriver's novel We Need to Talk About Kevin, directed by Lynne Ramsay and starring Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly. The film had its world premiere in competition in Cannes and won the Best British Film Award at the London Critic's Circle.

In addition to developing, producing and distributing its own content, Independent also acquires third party rights to manage through its sales and distribution divisions. Latest titles include Roman Coppola’s A Glimpse Inside The Mind Of Charles Swan, Sean Ellis’ Sundance Audience Award winner Metro Manila and Multi Award winner documentary AI WeiWei: Never Sorry. The company has an excellent network of buyers all over the world and attends all relevant markets throughout the year showcasing highly acclaimed films.

For more information on their films and Cannes line up go here...

Filling The Void: Jacobson and Silverbush Eye Hunger

While the United States continuously extends its charitable hands to famished communities the world over, we often turn a blind eye to those in our own communities unfortunate enough to lack the means to keep a stocked pantry with affordable, healthy foods. Collaborating for the first time, directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush broach our little talked about hunger issue with the feeling of infomercial conviction in lieu of invasive action. Their formulaic wake up call boasts celebrities like Top Chef star Tom Colicchio and Jeff Bridges with their mutual campaigns against domestic hunger, underscoring their pleas with heart-string strumming tales of famished families tethered to a broken system in which a lack of employment and perpetual poverty are the true underlying issues. Though compositionally bland and far from impartial, A Place at the Table surely directs some much needed attention to...

Sure, Sunday tends to be overcrowded with high-end TV, including "Shameless," "Girls," Californication" and "Enlightened," but what to watch the rest of the time? Every Monday, we bring you five noteworthy highlights from the other six days of the week. "Bunheads": Winter Finale Monday, Feb. 25 at 9pm on ABC Family Amy Sherman-Palladino's scruffily lovable dance drama finishes its first season, or however ABC Family measures its shows, with "Next," an episode that finds Michelle (Sutton Foster) exploring how ready she is to give up performing by going to an audition for a Broadway show, one that the girls secretly follow her to. Foster's brother, Hunter Foster, returns as Michelle's equally wayward brother Scotty. Independent Lens: "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" Monday, Feb. 25 at 10pm on PBS Alison Klayman's documentary about Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei arrives on...

Some people can win for losing.

Ben Affleck claimed the Directors Guild of America Award for Argo on Saturday in Hollywood’s latest thumb-in-the-eye to the small group of filmmakers in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who failed to nominate him for an Oscar.

“I worked really, really hard to become the best director I could be, by putting in as hours as I can, and banging my head against a wall, berating myself, lying to myself about whether it’s going to work,” Affleck told the crowd, never mentioning the snub. “Basically, I got to a...

Sundance Selects has acquired North American rights to Nick Ryan’s documentary “The Summit,” which had its world premiere Friday, Jan. 18, at the Sundance Film Festival. The film digs in to what happened when 24 climbers attempted to summit K2, widely considered the most dangerous mountain on Earth, and only 13 returned. A sister division of IFC Films, Sundance Selects picked up “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” and Oscar-nominated “How to Survive a Plague” at the 2012 festival. Submarine Entertainment’s Josh Braun repped the sale for the filmmakers.

Vol. I Issue 6

Send us links to your sizzle reels and film sites.

Note: See Issues 1, 2, 3, and 4 for reviews and clips of the Academy documentary films and short films. Additional reviews of the documentary features follow in this issue.

Best documentary feature

5 Broken Cameras Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi

The Gatekeepers Nominees to be determined *See note below

How to Survive a Plague Nominees to be determined

The Invisible War Nominees to be determined

Searching for Sugar Man Nominees to be determined

Best documentary short subject

Inocente Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine

Kings Point Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider

Mondays at Racine Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan

Open Heart Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern

Redemption Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill

Best animated short film

Adam and Dog Minkyu Lee

Fresh Guacamole Pes

Head over Heels Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly

Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare David Silverman

Paperman John Kahrs

Best live action short film

Asad Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura

Buzkashi Boys Sam French and Ariel Nasr

Curfew Shawn Christensen

Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw) Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele

Henry Yan England

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song) from a documentary

Before My Time from The documentary feature Chasing Ice Music and Lyric by J. Ralph

Note: *Nominees to be determined* The Documentary Brand gives the nomination to the individual(s) most involved in the key creative aspects of the filmmaking process. A maximum of two persons may be designated as nominees, one of whom must be the credited director who exercised directorial control, and the other of whom must have a producer or director credit. If a producer is named, that individual must have performed a major portion of the producing functions, in accordance with Academy producer criteria. No more than two statuettes will normally be given in the Documentary Feature category. All individuals with a “Producer” or “Produced by” credit on films that reach the semifinal round will automatically be vetted.

The Documentary Branch Executive Committee will determine which producers, if any, are eligible to receive an Oscar. In the unlikely event of a dispute, filmmakers may appeal the committee’s decision. In extremely rare circumstances, a third statuette may be awarded.

Production companies or persons with the screen credit of executive producer, co-producer or any credit other than director or producer shall not be eligible as nominees for the motion picture.

DGA Documentary Award Nominations

Kirby Dick The Invisible War

This is Mr. Dick’s first DGA Award nomination.

Malik Bendjelloul Searching For Sugar Man

This is Mr. Bendjelloul’s first DGA Award nomination.

Lauren Greenfield The Queen of Versailles

This is Ms. Greenfield’s first DGA Award nomination.

David France How To Survive A Plague

This is Mr. France’s first DGA Award nomination.

Alison Klayman Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry

This is Ms. Klayman’s first DGA Award nomination.

Two Academy Nominated Documentary Features

& One Academy Short Listed Documentary Reviewed

The Gatekeepers, directed by Dror Moreh

Documentary Feature Nominee

Six former heads of Israel’s domestic secret service agency, the Shin Bet, share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions in The Gatekeepers, a film by Dror Moreh. These six heads of the Shin Bet stood at the center of Israel's decision-making process in all matters pertaining to security. They worked closely with every Israeli prime minister, and their assessments and insights had—and continue to have—a profound impact on Israeli policy. The Gatekeepers is an exclusive account of their successes and failures.

I find The Gatekeepers remarkable. Not for its craft but for its concept and vision. Imagine

J Edger Hoover talking about his tenure at the FBI, his successes and his failures, his interactions with the Presidents and members of Congress, and his critical self-evaluation of his mission and how his agency’s work affected our nation. Imagine. Dror Moreh accomplished this feat when he convinced these six surviving members of the Shin Bet, to speak on camera.

The film provides a historical perspective of Israel that is both candid and critical of the successive governments in this rare Middle Eastern democracy. The Shin Bet was created in 1949 by David Ben-Gurion’s government to focus on the internal affairs of Israel and evolved into dealing with counterterrorism and intelligence gathering in the West Bank and Gaza.

These intelligence heads, like ours, report to the President/Prime Minister. They are not part of the military complex. It is this context that gives this work its power. We hear the story of Israel’s struggle to protect itself from both its internal and external enemies; the bombers, terrorists, agents and others who worked to destroy this small country. These men are not glamorous or like the fictional heads of the spy agencies we have seen in James Bond and Bourne films. They are bald or balding grandfather-types. Articulate, highly educated, calm and yet we know that they protected Israel from its enemies even if they had them killed.

This is one of the strongest of the nominated docs. It raises significant issues of personal responsibilities. Despite the lack of oversight we don’t feel that this is an organization gone amuck like the Catholic Church not protecting children or the Us Military not protecting its members from sexual harassment. We see these articulate men as guardians and protectors of their nation steadfastly doing their duty within the confines of their moral beliefs. What is scary about The Gatekeepers is that clearly there could have been abuses and wrongs done by the Shin Bet if these six had less character or their mission was redefined by the government without regard to moral or ethical standards. The film on reflection is troubling for regardless of how the spectator might feel about Israel it forces us to look at this conflict through the lenses of these six guardians and we can only wonder what they don’t tell us about what they did in the name of their country.

Credits:

Director: Dror Moreh

Camera: Avner Shahaf

Producers: Dror Moreh, Estelle Fialon, Philippa Kowarsky

Co Producer: Anna Van Der Wee

Sound: Amos Zipori

Sound Design: Aex Claude

Music: Ab Ovo, Jérôme Chassagnard, Régis Baillet

Editor: Oron Adar

Production Companies: Dror Moreh Productions, Les Films du Poisson, Cinephil

In Co-Production with: Mac Guff, Wild Heart Productions, Arte France, Iba, Ndr, Rtbf

With the support of: Cnc, Media, Région Ile-de-France, Procirep, Angoa, The Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts – Cinema Project

Distribution: Sony Classics

Trailer: http://www.sonyclassics.com/thegatekeepers/

The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki

Short Listed Documentary Feature for Academy Award nomination

The House I Live In looks at how America has waged war on some of its poorest citizens, costing countless lives, destroying families, and inflicting untold damage on future generations of Americans. It posits that over the last forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests and shows how America became the world’s largest jailer, damaging poor communities at home and abroad. Yet today drugs are cheaper, purer and more available than ever before. It shows that drug abuse is a public health issue. Despite this, it is treated by our society as a criminal matter and a vast machine has been created that feeds on the men and women who are incarcerated. Because of this, the prisoners are not offered help or a cure for their underlying problems, so they return to prison in a never ending cycle.

Eugene Jarecki, whose previous films looked at the military industrial complex (Why We Fight and The Trials of Henry Kissinger), won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance in both 2005 and 2010. The film tackles difficult material. Material that has been in scores of documentaries and television shows over the years. Yet Jarecki, using his personal experience, a wealth of interviews and strong case studies, builds a compelling case for changing the sentencing guidelines for crack (and cocaine) and for dealing with both addiction and the underlying causes of addiction. Jarecki is a skillful filmmaker who has picked a vast and complex subject and has created a work that while rich in content moves along at a good pace although it might have been stronger if it had tried to do less. The film editor Paul Frost and the composer Robert Miller do an excellent job building strong sequences with evocative music. It was nicely shot by Sam Cullman and Derek Hallquist. Richard Abramowitz’s Abramorama handled the distribution and was successful getting the work out which is never easy for such an issue oriented film.

Credits:

Director, Producer, Screenwriter: Eugene Jarecki

Producers: Melinda Shopsin, Sam Cullman, Christopher St. John

Executive Producers: Eugene Jarecki, Nick Fraser, Joslyn Barnes, Danny Glover, Russell Simmons, Roy Ackerman, John Legend, Sally Jo Feifer, Nick Fraser

Camera: Sam Cullman, Derek Hallquist

Sound: Matthew Freed, Art Jaso

Music: Robert Milller

Editor: Paul Frost

Production Companies: Charlotte Street Films, Zdf Enterprises, Independent Television Services, BBC, Aljazeera Documentary Channel, Vpro, Special Broadcasting Service Corporation, Louverture Films, Nhk

Distribution (Us): Abramorama Entertainment, Snag Films

How to Survive a Plague, directed by David France

Documentary Feature Nominee

How to Survive a Plague by writer and filmmaker David France tells the story of how two coalitions came together to lobby for effective treatments and funding for treatments of AIDS in the late 1980s when it was evident that the Us government and its health and other agencies were not being very effective dealing with the AIDS epidemic. The coalitions, Act Up and Tag (Treatment Action Group) helped to make AIDS more treatable. While there is still no cure for AIDS and thousands of people globally still die from the virus, it is now possible to prolong life with treatments that have been developed.

Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time. With access to never-before-seen archival footage from the 1980s and '90s, filmmaker David France puts the viewer smack in the middle of the controversial actions, the heated meetings, the heartbreaking failures, and the exultant breakthroughs. Faced with their own mortality an improbable group of young men and women, many of them HIV-positive took on Washington and the medical establishment.

While there have been a handful of outstanding films dealing with the AIDS epidemic including Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter and Silverlake Life, to name a few, How to Survive a Plague picks up on the story begun in the landmark Common Threads and updates the struggle, looking at the quest to find a treatment and possibly a cure for this vicious disease. The film weaves together stories of activism and shows how a small determined group can effect change not just nationally but globally. While the film is not as well made as Common Threads or Dr. Peter, it’s powerful. The archival footage manages to capture some of the key figures of Act Up and Tag showing actions as they take place. Instead of relying on talking heads to tell this amazing story, it is presented with footage shot as the story unfolded. This footage and its solid editing distinguishes this film from so many of the works that have tried to tell this story.

Few documentaries have such powerful antagonists, the government, incompetence, a lack of urgency on the part of the medical community and fear. Throw in homophobia and it is evident that the dramatic actions of these heroes saved hundreds of thousands of possible victims from this mostly sexually spread plague.

My only serious criticism of this documentary is its failure to be clearer that the plague continues, that there is no cure for HIV/AIDS and that the community continues to give a false sense of hope. Currently the Cdc states:

” ..estimates that 1,148,200 persons aged 13 years and older are living with HIV infection, including 207,600 (18.1%) who are unaware of their infection1. Over the past decade, the number of people living with HIV has increased, while the annual number of new HIV infections has remained relatively stable. Still, the pace of new infections continues at far too high a level—particularly among certain groups.

HIV Incidence(new infections): The estimated incidence of HIV has remained stable overall in recent years, at about 50,000 new HIV infections per year.2 Within the overall estimates, however, some groups are affected more than others. Msm (men who have sex with men) continue to bear the greatest burden of HIV infection, and among races/ethnicities, African Americans continue to be disproportionately affected.”

This information could have been contained in the last few minutes of this powerful work, to inspire and warn the audience that testing is critical and that safe sex is still the only way to contain AIDS.

The Filmmaker

David France, Director, Producer

David France is an award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author who has been writing about AIDS since 1982 and today is one of the best-known chroniclers of the epidemic. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, GQ, and New York magazine, where he is a contributing editor, and has received the National Headliner Award and the GLAAD Media Award, among others. Several films have been inspired by his work, most recently the Emmy-nominated Showtime film Our Fathers, for which he received a WGA nomination. He is at work on a major history of AIDS, due from Alfred A. Knopf in 2013. Based on decades of reporting, How to Survive a Plague is his directorial debut.

Credits

Director: David France

Writers: David France, Todd Woody Richman, Tyler H. Walk

Producers: David France, Howard Gertler

Executive Producers: Dan Cogan, Joy A. Tomchin

Co-Producer: Todd Woody Richman

Camera: Derek Wieshahn

Sound: Stuart Deutsch, Topher Reifeiss

Original Music: Stuart Bogie

Editor: Todd Woody Richman, Tyler H. Walk

Production Companies: Public Square Films, Ninety Thousand Words

Distribution (Us): Sundance Selects

Short Notes and Update:

The International Documentary Association in Los Angeles presents Doc U: The Doc Reporter

Navigating the Intersection of Documentary and Journalism

Moderated by: Karin Skellwagen (The Brooks Institute)

With Panelists:

Sarah Burns (The Central Park Five)

Michael Donaldson (Partner, Donaldson & Callif)

David France (How To Survive A Plague)

For information: http://doc-u-jan-2013-la.eventbrite.com/

Sundance Announces 2013 International Documentary Competition:

Fallen City/ China (Director: Qi Zhao) — Fallen City spans four years to reveal how three families who survived the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to embark on a journey searching for hope, purpose, identity, and to rebuild their lives in a new China torn between tradition and modernity. North American Premiere

Fire in the Blood/ India (Director: Dylan Mohan Gray) — In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Western governments and pharmaceutical companies blocked low-cost antiretroviral drugs from reaching AIDS-stricken Africa, causing 10 million or more unnecessary deaths. An improbable group of people decided to fight back. North American Premiere

Google and the World Brain/ Spain, United Kingdom (Director: Ben Lewis) — In the most ambitious Internet project ever conceived, Google is working to scan every book in the world. Google says it is building a library for mankind. But some are trying to stop it, claiming that Google may have other intentions. World Premiere

The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear/ Georgia, Germany (Director: Tinatin Gurchiani) — A film director casting a 15-23-year-old protagonist visits villages and cities to meet people who answer her call. She follows those who prove to be interesting enough through various dramatic and funny situations. North American Premiere

The Moo Man/ United Kingdom (Directors: Andy Heathcote, Heike Bachelier) — A year in the life of heroic farmer Steve, scene stealing Ida (queen of the herd), and a supporting cast of 55 cows. When Ida falls ill, Steve’s optimism is challenged and their whole way of life is at stake. World Premiere

Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer/ Russian Federation, United Kingdom (Directors: Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin) — Three young women face seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. But who is really on trial: the three young artists or the society they live in? World Premiere

A River Changes Course/ Cambodia, U.S.A. (Director: Kalyanee Mam) — Three young Cambodians struggle to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt in this devastatingly beautiful story of a country reeling from the tragedies of war and rushing to keep pace with a rapidly expanding world. World Premiere

Salma/ United Kingdom, India (Director: Kim Longinotto) — When Salma, a young girl in South India, reached puberty, her parents locked her away. Millions of girls all over the world share the same fate. Twenty-five years later, Salma has fought her way back to the outside world. World Premiere

The Square (Al Midan)/ Egypt, U.S.A. (Director: Jehane Noujaim) — What does it mean to risk your life for your ideals? How far will five revolutionaries go in defending their beliefs in the fight for their nation? World Premiere

The Stuart Hall Project/ United Kingdom (Director: John Akomfrah) — Antinuclear campaigner, New Left activist and founding father of Cultural Studies, this documentary interweaves 70 years of Stuart Hall’s film, radio and television appearances, and material from his private archive to document a memorable life and construct a portrait of Britain’s foremost radical intellectual. World Premiere

The Summit/ Ireland, United Kingdom (Director: Nick Ryan) — Twenty-four climbers converged at the last stop before summiting the most dangerous mountain on Earth. Forty-eight hours later, 11 had been killed or simply vanished. Had one, Ger McDonnell, stuck to the climbers' code, he might still be alive. International Premiere

Who is Dayani Cristal?/ United Kingdom (Director: Marc Silver) — An anonymous body in the Arizona desert sparks the beginning of a real-life human drama. The search for its identity leads us across a continent to seek out the people left behind and the meaning of a mysterious tattoo. World Premiere. Day One Film

Producer’s Guild Announces Nominations for the Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures and Non-Fiction Television:

A People Uncounted(Urbinder Films)

Producers: Marc Swenker, Aaron Yeger

The Gatekeepers(Sony Pictures Classics)

Producers: Estelle Fialon, Philippa Kowarsky, Dror Moreh

The Island President(Samuel Goldwyn Films)

Producers: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen

The Other Dream Team(The Film Arcade)

Producers: Marius Markevicius, Jon Weinbach

Searching For Sugar Man(Sony Pictures Classics)

Producers: Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

Nominations for the Award for Outstanding Producer of

Non-Fiction Television:

American Masters(PBS)

Producers: Prudence Glass, Susan Lacy, Julie Sacks

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations(Travel Channel)

Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Sandy Zweig

Deadliest Catch(Discovery Channel)

Producers: Thom Beers, Jeff Conroy, Sean Dash, John Gray, Sheila McCormack, Bill Pruitt, Decker Watson

Inside the Actors Studio(Bravo)

Producers: James Lipton, Shawn Tesser, Jeff Wurtz

Shark Tank(ABC)

Producers: Rhett Bachner, Becky Blitz, Mark Burnett, Bill Gaudsmith, Yun Lingner, Brien Meagher, Clay Newbill, Jim Roush, Laura Skowlund, Paul Sutera, Patrick Wood

BAFTA Short and Documentary Feature Nominations (British Academy of Film and Television Arts, London)

Documentary Feature

The ImposterBart Layton, Dimitri Doganis

Marley Kevin Macdonald, Steve Bing, Charles Steel

McCullin David Morris, Jacqui Morris

Searching for Sugar Man Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

West of Memphis Amy Berg

Short Animation

Here to Fall Kris Kelly, Evelyn McGrath

I’m Fine Thanks Eamonn O'Neill

The Making of Longbird Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson

Short Film

The Curse Fyzal Boulifa, Gavin Humphries

Good Night Muriel d'Ansembourg, Eva Sigurdardottir

Swimmer Lynne Ramsay, Peter Carlton, Diarmid Scrimshaw

Tumult Johnny Barrington, Rhianna Andrews

The Voorman Problem Mark Gill, Baldwin Li

The Broadcast Film Critics Association (Bfca)

Documentary Feature Nominations

Bully

The Imposter

Queen of Versailles

Searching for Sugar Man (Winner)

The Central Park Five

West of Memphis

________________________________________________________________________

Credits: Editing by Jessica Just for SydneysBuzz

________________________________________________________________________

Block Doc Workshops in Los Angeles February 2013 Ida Doc U

The International Documentary Association will be hosting Documentary Funding and Documentary Tune-Up Workshops with Block on February 9/10. http://www.documentary.org/news/february-documentary-producing-workshops-mitchell-block

Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).

Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program.

______________________________________________________________________

©2013Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited.All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.

Ben Affleck's "Argo" continues its ascendance to Oscar glory. Adding to its treasure-trove of trophies was the big win at the Dorian Awards given by the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (Galeca).

In the acting categories, Daniel Day-Lewis won Film Performance of the Year -- Actor for "Lincoln" and Anne Hathaway was given the Female Performance of the Year award for her memorable performance as Fantine in Tom Hooper's "Les Miserables."

The complete list of Dorian Award winners is below. A celebratory toast will be held Sunday, February 17 in Los Angeles.

For more information, please visit: galeca.com and https://www.facebook.com/galecadorianawards

Here are the winners (in bold); for winners/nominees of other award-giving bodies, click here:

Film Of The Year

*** Argo (Warner Bros.)

Beasts of the Southern Wild (Fox Searchlight)

Keep the Lights On (Music Box)

Les Miserables (Universal)

Lincoln (DreamWorks/Touchstone)

Moonrise Kingdom...

The Directors Guild of America has announced the nominees for the Best Documentary category of the DGA Awards. I'm very happy that "Searching for Sugar Man" and "The Queen of Versailles," two of my favorite docs of 2012, received nods. Winner will be revealed on February 2nd.

Here's the complete list of nominees; for winners/nominees of other award-giving bodies, click here:

The Invisible War

Kirby Dick

Rise Film

Itvs

Fork Films

Cuomo Cole Productions

Canal Plus

Chain Camera Pictures

This is Mr. Dick.s first DGA Award nomination.

Searching For Sugar Man

Malik Bendjelloul

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Passion Pictures Production

Canfield Pictures & The Documentary Company

Red Box Films

This is Mr. Bendjelloul.s first DGA Award nomination.

The Queen of Versailles

Lauren Greenfield

Magnolia Pictures

Evergreen Pictures

BBC Storyville

Impact Partners

Candescent Films

Plus Pictures

Dr

Vpro

Queen of Versailles, LLC

This is Ms. Greenfield.s first DGA Award nomination.

Days after the Directors Guild of America singled out the candidates for feature-film nominees . rewarding Ben Affleck (Argo), Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), Tom Hooper (Les Miserables), Ang Lee (Life of Pi) and Steven Spielberg (Lincoln) . the guild turned its attention to documentary filmmakers . and once again, the term .snub. reared its ugly head. But first, the nominees (via Deadline). The Directors Guild nominated the following five filmmakers in the Documentary category: Kirby Dick, The Invisible War Malik Bendjelloul, Searching For Sugar Man Lauren Greenfield, The Queen of Versailles David France, How To Survive A Plague Alison Klayman, Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry Remarkably, all five nominees are first-timers. And they are all outstanding selections . and yet, there already is a bit of backlash about the directors who are left out of the category. Comments below the Deadline article single out The Imposter director Bart Layton, while I.m scratching my...

Los Angeles — The AIDS chronicle "How to Survive a Plague" and the military rape study "The Invisible War" are among nominees for the documentary prize at the Directors Guild of America Awards.

The contenders announced Monday all are first-time nominees for the guild honor, including "How to Survive a Plague" director David France and "Invisible War" filmmaker Kirby Dick.

The other nominees are Malik Bendjelloul's "Searching for Sugar Man," a portrait of 1970s singer-songwriter Rodriguez; Lauren Greenfield's "The Queen of Versailles," the story of a wealthy family's downturn amid the recession; and Alison Klayman's "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," an examination of the dissident Chinese artist.

Winners will be announced on Feb. 2 at a Directors Guild dinner.

Emmanuelle Riva could become the oldest acting winner for "Amour," but she's already one of the oldest living Oscar nominees. Counting down 100 veterans: The Film Experience -Addprediction:85:6:Click to predict Best Actress Oscar:addprediction- Directors Guild announces nominees for documentary film: Lauren Greenfield ("The Queen of Versailles") and Alison Klayman ("Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry") join Oscar nominees Malik Bendjelloul ("Searching for Sugar Man"), Kirby Dick ("The Invisible War"), and David France ("How to Survive a Plague"). Academy member David Clennon urges Oscar voters to boycott "Zero Dark Thirty": "In response, Sony president Amy Pascal said she was 'outraged' that an Academy member would try to influence the voting process. '"Zero Dark Thirty" does not advocate torture,' she said on Friday. 'To not ...

True to tradition, the Directors Guild documentary nominees do not match up completely with the Oscar documentary nominations. All five are first-time DGA nominees. In fact, two documentaries directed by women that did not make the Oscar final five are Lauren Greenfield's well-reviewed "Queen of Versailles," which Magnolia picked up out of Sundance, and Alison Kayman's "Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry," which made the Oscar shortlist of fifteen but not the final selection. The other three nominees, "The Invisible War," "How to Survive a Plague" and "Searching for Sugar Man" made the final Oscar cut. The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for 2012 are (in alphabetical order): Kirby Dick The Invisible War Rise Film Itvs Fork Films Cuomo Cole Productions Canal Plus Chain Camera Pictures Malik Bendjelloul Searching...

Directors Guild of America President Taylor Hackford today announced the DGA?s nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentaries for the year 2012. “Whether shining a light on sweeping injustice or bringing us along on an intimate journey, the best documentaries challenge and enlighten us, and this year?s nominees are no exception,” said Hackford. “The powerful work of these nominated directors is a true testament to the skill and significance of non-fiction storytellers. Congratulations to each of the nominees on their remarkable accomplishments.” The winners will be announced at the 65th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, February 2, 2013 in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Los Angeles. The DGA Awards will be hosted by director/actor/producer Kelsey Grammer. *** Documentary The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for 2012 are (in alphabetical order): Kirby Dick The Invisible War Rise Film...

The Directors Guild of America on Monday announced the documentary nominees for its annual DGA Awards. They are Kirby Dick for The Invisible War; Malik Bendjelloul for Searching for Sugar Man; Lauren Greenfield for The Queen of Versailles; David France for How to Survive a Plague; and Alison Klayman for Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry. All five filmmakers are first-time DGA Award nominees. Their films range across various social issues and spotlight a number of vivid personalities. Dick's Invisible War examines the problem of rape in the U.S military, while France's Plague recounts how Act-up and other activist group

read more...

Sorry Oscars. But after the Indie Spirit Awards, the number two spot in terms of Award Season importance are the Cinema Eye Honors. Seems like it was only yesterday when Aj Schnack & Thom Powers teamed up for one basic, logical concept: an event that would reward yearly output of documentary film in a rightfully sound manner. With the wind in their sails, the 6th annual edition was held last night and deservingly so, adding to its double wins at the Idfa and Sundance, it is 5 Broken Cameras that took the top honors for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking. Co-directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi – political activism via you guessed it, five video cameras. The film was released via Kino Lorber.

The night’s only double winner, could be regarded as the silver medal doc film of the year: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Detropia grabbed the Outstanding...

The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (Galeca), of which I'm a proud voting member, have announced the Dorian Award nominees for 2012's best in film and television across 20 categories.

In the film category, "Argo," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Keep the Lights On," "Les Miserables," "Lincoln," and "Moonrise Kingdom" are competing for the Best Picture title.

Winners of the Dorian Awards will be announced on Wednesday, January 16.

Here are the nominees; for winners/nominees of other award-giving bodies, click here:

Film Of The Year

Argo (Warner Bros.)

Beasts of the Southern Wild (Fox Searchlight)

Keep the Lights On (Music Box)

Les Miserables (Universal)

Lincoln (DreamWorks/Touchstone)

Moonrise Kingdom (Focus)

Film Performance Of The Year - Actor

Alan Cumming / Any Day Now (Music Box)

Bradley Cooper / Silver Linings Playbook (Weinstein)

Daniel Day-Lewis / Lincoln (DreamWorks/Touchstone)

Hugh Jackman / Les Miserables (Universal)

Joaquin Phoenix / The Master (Weinstein)

John Hawkes / The Sessions (Fox...

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists have announced the winners of their awards and Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty" took the top prize! But my favorite categories are the catty ones, such as the Sequel or Remake That Shouldn.t Have Been Made Award or Actress Most in Need Of A New Agent.

Take a look at the full list of winners below; for winners/nominees of other award-giving bodies, click here:

Best Film

"Argo"

"Lincoln"

*** "Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Director

Ben Affleck, "Argo"

Steven Spielberg, "Lincoln"

*** Kathryn Bigelow, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Actor

*** Daniel Day Lewis, "Lincoln"

John Hawkes, "The Sessions"

Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"

Best Actress

*** Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Alan Arkin, "Argo"

*** Phillip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"

Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"

Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams,...

Vol. I Issue 5

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Two Short Listed Documentary Features

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, directed by Alison Klayman

Ai Weiwei is China's most famous international artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. Against a backdrop of strict censorship and an unresponsive legal system, Ai expresses himself and organizes people through art and social media. In response, Chinese authorities have shut down his blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention.

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is the inside story of a dissident for the digital age who inspires global audiences and whose actions blur the boundaries of art and politics. First-time director Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to Ai while working as a journalist in China. Her detailed portrait of Weiwei’s life and work allows us to follow Weiwei’s journey and his transformation of his life and works are perceived. Few artists have been able to use their public stature to help cause political change. Clearly this is the story of a giant killer. Regrettably the story continues and China continues to repress its people.

What’s special about Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is that the filmmaker was able to follow Ai Weiwei over several years. We are able to see a Chinese dissident whose home is watched by 1984-like cameras hung from telephone and power poles. We can only assume his home is bugged, his cell phone is bugged and all of his computers are bugged. The power of this work is seeing an artist functioning in this environment. Shocking. His spirit is best shown in his defiant art, his raised middle finger in the foreground of many still images of iconic monuments to the Chinese peoples’ struggles. He dares to challenge America’s biggest trading partner, debt holder and, by the end of the film, he is shown silenced, unable to comment because he was released from detention. The irony of this powerful work is that we and the world are shown to be complicit.

While the film lacks the slickness of many of the Academy’s short listed docs, its power flows from the subject. Clearly an artist whose work reflects his life experiences and struggle is a difficult subject. Weiwei constantly tweaks the authorities who clearly fear its citizens being free to express themselves and their feelings about their government globally. Yet the world is silent about this repressive government that spies on, beats up and terrorizes its citizens. This is another film that should be nominated. Its construction, score, shooting suggests that Ms. Klayman can, with some more experience, become an extraordinary filmmaker.

The Filmmakers

Alison Klayman, Director, Producer, Cinematographer

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorryis Alison Klayman's debut feature documentary, which she directed, produced, filmed and co-edited. She is a 2011 Sundance Documentary Fellow and one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film". She has been a guest on The Colbert Report, as well as CNN and NPR. Klayman lived in China from 2006 to 2010, working as a freelance journalist. She speaks Mandarin and Hebrew, and graduated from Brown University in 2006.

Adam Schlesinger, Producer

Adam Schlesinger is an award-winning independent film producer based in New York. He produced the Sundance Film Festival selections: Smash His Camera, which won for Best Director; Page One- Inside the New York Times; and God Grew Tired of Us, winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award.

Credits:

Director/Producer/Writer/Camera: Alison Klayman

Producer: Adam Schlesinger

Contributing Producer: Colin

Executive Producers: Andrew Cohen, Julie Goldman, Karl

Music: Ilan Isakov

Editor: Jen Fineran

Production Companies: Expressions United Media, Muse Film and Television, Never Sorry

Distribution: Sundance Selects, Artificial Eye

Bully, directed by Lee Hirsch A Case Study: How to be Short Listed and Gross $3Million

Bully, directed by Lee Hirsch

A Case Study: How to be Short Listed and Gross $3Million

Bully is a character-driven documentary that looks at how bullying has touched five children and their families. The five stories each represent a different facet of bullying. Filmed over the course of the 2009/2010 school year, Bully opens a window onto the lives of bullied kids, revealing a problem that transcends geographic, racial, ethnic and economic borders. It documents the responses of teachers and administrators to aggressive behaviors that defy “kids will be kids” clichés, and it captures a growing movement among parents and youths to change how bullying is handled in schools, in communities and in society as a whole.

Bully is a case study of how The Weinstein Company can take what would be a traditional non-theatrical documentary feature and turn it into both a cause and a theatrical event and, because of the rule changes at the Academy, have it come to be short listed for an Oscar.

Bully is an excellent film, it is well made, directed, edited and scored. Its characters and stories are well done. It’s just not in the same league as many of the documentary films short listed for this year’s Academy Award nomination.

When the film was released with an “R” rating, appropriate and consistent with the MPAA guidelines because of language and violence, the Weinsteins used the R rating to create a controversy which enabled the film to become a box office success and was the basis of a brilliant Academy campaign for a documentary nomination. This is one of the best examples (since Michael Moore and Roger and Menot being nominated for an Oscar) of creating a box-office success with a documentary. (Roger and Mewas distributed by Warners.) As of December 30, 2012 Bully had grossed over $3.5 million. (Box Office Mojo)

The MPAA gives an automatic “R” rating to films that use the “F” word. It has done this since its inception. This makes sense. The “F” word is inappropriate for children. But wait, Bullyis for middle and high school students! These schools can’t (or should not) show “R” rated films.

The MPAA rating system has never been particularly clear to Americans. Developed by the Motion Picture Association to prevent local and/or regional ratings it has always been “advisory”; however, some media outlets will not accept advertising or promote films with some of the harder ratings. The Weinsteins knew that this film would get an “R” rating because of the “F” word. No surprise. Yet how could this “important” film for school children to see be blocked from its audience?

“Bully's R ratingsparks a nationwide protest. ...stars, theater owners, and Members of Congress have joined forces to protest the film's R rating as a result of the film having six swear words.” This is in the industry press. (Deadline)

The Weinsteins, of course with great fanfare, appealed the rating decision which got the film more press. They decided to release the film in just two markets to qualify for the documentary Academy award, without a rating, but continue the press-push to have the rating changed.

On April 5, The Weinstein Company announced that their doc, Bully, was to receive a PG-13 from the MPAA, with some minor cuts. After removing three uses of the F-word it was re-released in the new PG-13 version on April 13 and shortly after the run was expanded to 55 theatrical markets.

Deadline reported, “The big victory, even though they had to remove three F-words, was that they could keep the controversial school bus bullying scene unedited and uncut, which (the director) Hirsch continuously refused to edit, "since it is too important to the truth and integrity behind the film." Hirsch states: "I feel completely vindicated with this resolution. While I retain my belief that PG-13 has always been the appropriate rating for this film, as reinforced by Canada's rating of a PG, we have today scored a victory from the MPAA. The support and guidance we have received throughout this process has been incredible."

Let’s note that the MPAA is an industry trade association. The Weinsteins are members. It’s not exactly a group that battles. The ratings are advisory only.

The Weinstein press release continued the illusion, This decision by the MPAA is a huge victory for the parents, educators, lawmakers, and most importantly, children, everywhere who have been fighting for months for the appropriate PG-13 rating without cutting some of the most sensitive moments. Three uses of the 'F word' were removed from other scenes, which ultimately persuaded the MPAA to lower the rating. Hirsch made the documentary with the intent to give an uncensored, real-life portrayal of what 13 million children suffer through every year. The new rating, which came about with the great support from MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd, grants the schools, organizations and cities all around the country who are lined up and ready to screen Bully, including the National Education Association and the Cincinnati School District, the opportunity to share this educational tool with their children.”

It needs to be pointed out that this controversy was a set up. When The Weinstein Company released Bully "unrated" in theaters in New York and Los Angeles it barely earned $150,000. The film might be seen by a few hundred thousand people in theaters which is a theatrical success but not the millions of kids the filmmakers are on record to reach. (A $3.5 mil gross suggests at a $6 admission fee perhaps a half-million tickets were sold.) Millions of people don’t usually go to theaters to see docs. So a $3.5 mil theatrical gross makes this film a major theatrical success. It puts this film in the top 50 or so theatrical documentaries of all time.

But all along, the Weinsteins knew that the film can easily be provided in DVD and in video-on-demand to schools, teachers, students and families in an “Educational” version without the R rated language being included. The use of an educational version would totally serve the school market. This version could be provided for “free” or even for a modest fee if the Weinsteins were really interested in this aspect of marketing the film. The Bullybook is available now for sale and soon the Blu Ray and DVD. Seeing the film in a classroom and then talking about it is what educators do with films. There are over 100,000 school, church and other groups (like Girls Scouts) that can show this film to groups of kids.

Note: Full disclosure, I started a Move-on Campaign and petitioned the Weinsteins to offer

Bully for a Buck! after I saw the film. More than 480 people have signed the petition to date. No match for the hundreds of thousands who signed the rating controversy petition but I did not do any publicity. As a parent of two teens, I felt this was a far more logical thing to do to get the film out to children without the strong language. This petition continues on Change.org.

Bully Short Listed for an Academy Award

With the rule change at the Academy this year, the documentary branch is working as a committee of the whole to do both the short listing and the nomination. The committee members were sent 125 documentary features, mostly arriving at the tail end of the deadline, to review. The committee was made up of both documentary branch members and Academy members who have been nominated or won documentary Oscars. Obviously, few members saw all 125 documentaries. The short list of 15 films was made from tallying the results of each member’s list of their 15 top docs. I think the publicity for Bully insured it would make this list.

The Weinsteins also had it screened at the Academy as part of the Academy members screening program, one of the handful of documentaries that were screened as part of the weekend program. This also will likely help the film get on members’ radar. Smart. Last year, The Weinsteins’ film The Undefeatedwon the Documentary Oscar. They do a great job getting their films out.

Credits:

Directed by: Lee Hirsch

Produced by: Lee Hirsch, Cynthia Lowen

Written by: Lee Hirsch, Cynthia Lowen

Executive Producer: Cindy Waitt

Cinematography: Lee Hirsch

Edited by: Lindsay Utz, Jenny Golden

Original Score by: Ion Furjanic, Justin Rice/Christian Rudder

Consulting Editors: Enat Sidi, Cynthia Lowen

Music Supervisor: Brooke Wentz

Running Time: 94 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some language

Short Notes and Update:

WGA Announces Nominees for Documentary Screenplay Award

The WGA announced six nominees for its documentary screenplay award: War, Mea Culpa and Sugar Man also are on the Academy shortlist of feature docs hoping to score an Oscar nomination.

Winners will be honored by the Writers Guild of America, West (Wgaw) and the Writers Guild of America, East (Wgae) at the 2013 Writers Guild Awards on Feb. 17 during simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York.

Documentary Screenplay

The Central Park Five, written by Sarah Burns and David McMahon and Ken Burns; Sundance Selects

The Invisible War, written by Kirby Dick; Cinedigm Entertainment Group

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, written by Alex Gibney; HBO Documentary Films

Searching for Sugar Man, written by Malik Bendejelloul; Sony Pictures Classics

We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, written by Brian Knappenberger; Cinetic Media

West of Memphis, written by Amy Berg & Billy McMillin; Sony Pictures Classics

Sundance Announces 2013 Documentary Competition:

U.S. Documentary Competition

The world premieres of 16 American documentary films.

99% - The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film/ U.S.A. (Directors: Audrey Ewell, Aaron Aites, Lucian Read, Nina Krstic) The Occupy movement erupted in September 2011, propelling economic inequality into the spotlight. In an unprecedented collaboration, filmmakers across America tell its story, digging into big picture issues as organizers, analysts, participants and critics reveal how it happened and why.

After Tiller/ U.S.A. (Directors: Martha Shane, Lana Wilson) — Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009, only four doctors in the country provide late-term abortions. With unprecedented access, After Tiller goes inside the lives of these physicians working at the center of the storm.

American Promise/ U.S.A. (Directors: Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson) — This intimate documentary follows the 12-year journey of two African-American families pursuing the promise of opportunity through the education of their sons.

Blackfish/ U.S.A. (Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite) — Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.

Blood Brother/ U.S.A. (Director: Steve Hoover) — Rocky went to India as a disillusioned tourist. When he met a group of children with HIV, he decided to stay. He never could have imagined the obstacles he would face, or the love he would find.

Citizen Koch / U.S.A. (Directors: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin) — Wisconsin – birthplace of the Republican Party, government unions, “cheeseheads” and Paul Ryan – becomes a test market in the campaign to buy Democracy, and ground zero in the battle for the future of the Gop.

Cutie and the Boxer/ U.S.A. (Director: Zachary Heinzerling) — This candid New York love story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of famed boxing painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko. Anxious to shed her role of assistant to her overbearing husband, Noriko seeks an identity of her own.

Dirty Wars/ U.S.A. (Director: Richard Rowley) — Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill chases down the truth behind America’s covert wars.

Gideon's Army/ U.S.A. (Director: Dawn Porter) — Gideon’s Army follows three young, committed Public Defenders who are dedicated to working for the people society would rather forget. Long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads are so common that even the most committed often give up.

God Loves Uganda/ U.S.A. (Director: Roger Ross Williams) — A powerful exploration of the evangelical campaign to infuse African culture with values imported from America’s Christian Right. The film follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting “sexual immorality” and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow biblical law.

Inequality for All/ U.S.A. (Director: Jacob Kornbluth) — In this timely and entertaining documentary, noted economic-policy expert Robert Reich distills the topic of widening income inequality, and addresses the question of what effects this increasing gap has on our economy and our democracy.

Life According to Sam/ U.S.A. (Directors: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine) — Dr. Leslie Gordon and Dr. Scott Berns fight to save their only son from a rare and fatal aging disease for which there is no cure. Their work may one day unlock the key to aging in all of us.

Manhunt / U.S.A., United Kingdom (Director: Greg Barker) — This espionage tale goes inside the CIA’s long conflict against Al Qaeda, as revealed by the remarkable women and men whose secret war against Osama bin Laden started nearly a decade before most of us even knew his name.

Narco Cultura/ U.S.A. (Director: Shaul Schwarz) — An examination of Mexican drug cartels’ influence in pop culture on both sides of the border as experienced by an La narcocorrido singer dreaming of stardom and a Juarez crime scene investigator on the front line of Mexico’s Drug War.

Twenty Feet From Stardom/ U.S.A. (Director: Morgan Neville) — Backup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight. Their voices bring harmony to the biggest bands in popular music, but we've had no idea who these singers are or what lives they lead – until now. Day One Film

Valentine Road/ U.S.A. (Director: Marta Cunningham) — In 2008, eighth-grader Brandon McInerney shot classmate Larry King at point blank range. Unraveling this tragedy from point of impact, the film reveals the heartbreaking circumstances that led to the shocking crime as well as its startling aftermath.

________________________________________________________________________

Credits: Editing by Jessica Just for SydneysBuzz

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Block Doc Workshops in Los Angeles February 2013

The International Documentary Association will be hosting Documentary Funding and Documentary Tune-Up Workshops with Block on February 9/10. http://www.eventbrite.com/org/169037034

Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).

Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program. ______________________________________________________________________

©2013Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited.All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.

Cologne, Germany – Celebrated Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei will join the competition jury of the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam – from his home in Beijing. Weiwei, the subject of Alison Klayman's award-winning documentary and Oscar contender Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, is banned from leaving China by government authorities there who accuse him of various crimes, including tax evasion. The artist and his numerous supporters worldwide view the accusations as an attempt to silence his anti-government activism. Unable to travel to Rotterdam to judge this year's contenders for the Hivos Tiger Awards, Ai Weiwei will instead stream

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Bart Layton.s The Imposter premiered to acclaim in 2012, eventually earning a theatrical release. The film went on to air at other international and local festivals, earning the Grand Jury Documentary prize at the Miami International Film festival as well as earning the Best Documentary distinction at the British Independent Film Awards. The bottom line: a lot of people like it, and if you haven't gotten a chance to catch the documentary, you.ll be able to do so when The Imposter hits DVD on January 22, 2013. Last year featured a slew of great documentary DVD releases, including The Ambassador and Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, to name a few. Now, 2013 seems to be starting off with another bang with the release of The Imposter. The flick follows Frédéric Bourdin, a Frenchman who has posed as missing persons in the past. In the late nineties, Bourdin claimed to be a ...

With all the year's films now out in U.S. theaters, Metacritic.com has revealed what films and TV shows were the best of the year based on the aggregate scores of the top critics.

I've divided the lists into three sections - films, TV shows and major console games - specifically PS3 & 360. Check out the scores below:

Best Films

This list does Not include old film re-releases such as "Wake in Fright" and "A Man Vanishes". Films also have to have At Least ten reviews to be considered, which is why high scoring works like "Almayer's Folly," "The Gatekeepers" and "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" are not included.

"Zero Dark Thirty" - 95/100

"Amour" - 92/100

"This Is Not a Film" - 90/100

"Barbara" - 88/100

"Elena," "How to Survive a Plague," "The Kid with a Bike" - 87/100

"Argo," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Lincoln," "The Master" - 86/100

"Holy Motors," "Looper," "Moonrise Kingdom," "Oslo August 31st,...

With all the year's films now out in U.S. theaters, Metacritic.com has revealed what films and TV shows were the best of the year based on the aggregate scores of the top critics.

I've divided the lists into three sections - films, TV shows and major console games - specifically PS3 & 360. Check out the scores below:

Best Films

This list does Not include old film re-releases such as "Wake in Fright" and "A Man Vanishes". Films also have to have At Least ten reviews to be considered, which is why high scoring works like "Almayer's Folly," "The Gatekeepers" and "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" are not included.

"Zero Dark Thirty" - 95/100

"Amour" - 92/100

"This Is Not a Film" - 90/100

"Barbara" - 88/100

"Elena," "How to Survive a Plague," "The Kid with a Bike" - 87/100

"Argo," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Lincoln," "The Master" - 86/100

"Holy Motors," "Looper," "Moonrise Kingdom," "Oslo August 31st,...

Chicago – Hot on the heels of the wondrous 10 Most Overlooked Films of 2012 and the illustrious first look at The 10 Best Films of 2012 comes “The 10 Best Films of 2012, Part Two,” as rendered by Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com.

The best films of 2012 are a mixed bag, but there was incredible experiences in all of them, brought forth from a mix of old veterans, new voices and even debut filmmakers. There is less of the end-of-the-world theme of 2011 as if the end is near, let’s have a celebration. It continues to amaze me, now in my fifth year as a professional film critic, that the creative landscape continues to astound the senses and deliver the goods.

Of course there are several films that could have occupied the 10th spot on the list. They include the 2011 stragglers – “We Have a Pope” and “Footnote.” The notable documentaries – “The Central Park Five,” “Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry” and “Samsara.

Vol. I Issue 3

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Chasing Ice directed by Jeff Orlowski

Chasing Ice is the story of James Balog’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.

In a year where the Short Listed Academy documentary features deal with issues ranging from sexual harassment in the military to the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexually molesting children, Chasing Ice deals with arguably the most important issue proving that the ice caps are melting and that the warming of the planet will have a catastrophic effect. But this is a year where the MPAA rating of a film about bullying school students has seemed to get the most press. That’s a shame. Chasing Ice needs to be seen. It is the most important short listed documentary film of the year. Like Davis Guggenheim’s Al Gore PowerPoint presentation, this film is scary. With never-before-seen time lapse photography we can dramatically see the ice caps and giant glaciers shrinking. A chunk of ice the size of lower Manhattan crashes into the sea. The ice flows like a river into the sea. We all know that when the ice melts, it releases its fresh water into the sea and that the water will rise. In time a few feet. Say good bye to land that several hundred million people live on.

So what’s the problem? They don’t have the press machine of Bob and Harvey Weinstein that makes a mountain out of an MPAA rating. Can the Oscar nomination go to the most important film? (could this paragraph go after next paragraph?)

But wait, there is more. This is a strikingly well made film. It has a compelling character, James Balog, who is giving his body to science and this cause. The cracks we hear are not chunks of ice but his knees disintegrating as he scales cliffs of rock and ice. The filmmakers really are risking their lives making the film, the ice takes no prisoners, the small planes and helicopters regularly crash. The film unfolds with precision; we are moved and awed by the characters and the stunning photography. The score is first rate as is the editing. This is a work that should be short listed but might be overlooked because it lacks the political coolness of some of the other films. This would be a shame.

The Filmmakers

Chasing Ice is directed by Jeff Orlowski, cinematographer for the Extreme Ice Survey, and an award-winning filmmaker. A Stanford University graduate, he has been working with Balog since 2007 and has shot over 300 hours of footage of Eis in the field. His work for Eis has screened on NBC, CNN, PBS, National Geographic, and hundreds of other venues around the world.

The film is produced by Paula DuPre’ Pesmen, the winner of the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary and 2010 Producers Guild of America ‘Producer of the Year’ for her role on The Cove. She has also served as producer on three Harry Potter films, Rent, and Mrs. Doubtfire. The film is also produced by Jerry Aronson, nominated for an Academy Award for the documentary The Divided Trail, and the director of The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg.

Credits:

Director/Producer: Jeff Orlowski

Producers: Paula DuPre’ Pesmen, Jerry Aronson

Executive Producers: David and Linda Cornfield

Writer: Mark Monroe

Cinematography: Jeff Orlowski

Music Composer: J. Ralph

Editor, Mark Monroe

Production: Diamond Docs (in association with)

Exposure Production, Exposure

Distributors (Us): Submarine Deluxe and National Geographic Channel

Maggie Simpson a short animated film by David Silverman

The Longest Daycare is a four-and-a-half-minute-long animated 3D short animated film based on the animated television series The Simpsons.

Directed by David Silverman The Longest Daycare is one of my favorite short animated films short listed for the Oscar this year. Silverman, credited with creating the look of the Simpsons, has directed numerous episodes of this hit series. Daycare has no dialogue. It is hilarious in part because of its silent film style. It is smart and fun. Maggie is a delight. This short film is really special. Between the 3D, the super clever writing and the stunning animation style, it is one of the very rare animations that can be enjoyed by any audience. Silverman’s work deserves an Oscar.

Scored by Hans Zimmer, best known for his work on Hollywood blockbusters, the score references numerous films scores and adds another layer of meaning to this magnificent (really?) work. Silverman attended the University of Maryland College Park and studied animation at UCLA.

Credits:

Directed by: David Silverman

Produced by: James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Richard Raynis, Richard Sakai

Written by: James L. Brooks, Joel H. Cohen, Matt Groening, Al Jean, David Mirkin, Michael Price

Music by: Hans Zimmer, James Dooley (addition music)

Distributed by: 20th Century Fox

Running time: 4:30

Academy announces 15 feature documentary films shortlisted for the Documentary Film Nomination

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced the short listed documentary features on December 3, 2012. Under the new documentary branch rules all of the branch members as well as documentary nominees and award winners from other Academy branches could vote for the short listed films. About 180 Academy members participated. Dropping the committee process where four committees would screen one quarter of the submitted films, Documentary Branch Governor Michael Moore pushed the branch to use a preferential voting system with all branch members and other qualified Academy members participating. As this writer expected, works with a lot of hype, such as Bully, were short listed. One can wonder how many members who voted for this film actually saw it. In addition to changing the short listing process, the branch demanded that films had to have been reviewed in either the New York Times or the Los Angeles Times. Voters received 126 DVDs in the mail.

A number of worthy films were omitted, as is always the case, including: The Central Park Five (directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon), West of Memphis (directed by Amy Berg), The Queen of Versailles, directed by Lauren Greenfield. I also really liked Bad 25 (directed by Spike Lee) and Love Marilyn (directed by Liz Garbus). Samsara (directed by Ron Fricke) is the year’s best documentary for its sheer poetry

The Academy can choose to nominate up to three people. However, only the director has a lock on the nomination. Individuals credited as “Producer” are vetted by the Producer’s Guild. Each must prove that they did a majority of the producer roles. This is the third year that this rule has been in force. Many of the films have multiple “producers” so it remains to be seen who will receive nominations. The decision of the Academy will be announced once the films are nominated. This has been somewhat contentious in the past.

AMPAS rules follow:

The nominee(s) should be the individual(s) most involved in the key creative aspects of the filmmaking process. A maximum of two persons may be designated as nominees, one of whom must be the credited director who exercised directorial control, and the other of whom must have a producer or director credit. If a producer is named, that individual must have performed a major portion of the producing functions, in accordance with Academy producer criteria. No more than two statuettes will normally be given in the Documentary Feature category. All individuals with a “Producer” or “Produced by” credit on films that reach the semifinal round will automatically be vetted. The Documentary Branch Executive Committee will determine which producers, if any, are eligible to receive an Oscar. In the unlikely event of a dispute, filmmakers may appeal the committee’s decision. In extremely rare circumstances, a third statuette may be awarded. Production companies or persons with the screen credit of executive producer, co-producer or any credit other than director or producer shall not be eligible as nominees for the motion picture.

The Short List:

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, directed by Alison Klayman

Bully, directed by Lee Hirsch

Chasing Ice, directed by Jeff Orlowski

Detropia, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Ethel, directed by Rory Kennedy

5 Broken Cameras, directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi

The Gatekeepers, directed by Dror Moreh

The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki

How to Survive a Plague, directed by David France

The Imposter, directed by Bart Layton

The Invisible War, directed by Kirby Dick

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, directed by Alex Gibney

Searching for Sugar Man, directed by Malik Bendjelloul

This Is Not a Film, directed by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and Jafar Panahi

The Waiting Room, directed by Peter Nicks

The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards will be announced at 5:30 am (Pst) on Thursday, January 10, 2013. The awards will be handed out on Sunday, February 24, 2013.

Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).

Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program.

______________________________________________________________________

©2012Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited. All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.

Chicago – Call me a critical cheater but I separated out documentary films from my traditional Best of 2012 but I don’t want to let the strong year for non-fiction film go un-recapped. The broad variety of documentary work in 2012 was incredibly notable from true crime stories to historical documents to stories of cities in crisis. Let’s hope 2013 is just as strong for the form.

10. “The Flat”

The Flat

Photo credit: IFC

Arnon Goldfinger’s personal examination of his own family tree and how branches spread into Nazi history asks some questions that don’t have simple answers. When Goldfinger started to dig into his family past, he learned that his Jewish grandparents were incredibly close to a family who later became part of the Third Reich’s most important decision makers. And then they rekindled their friendship after the war. Were both side of this unique family friendship purely in denial?...

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists have chosen the nominees of their annual movie awards. "Argo," "Lincoln," and "Zero Dark Thirty" led the pack with all three films vying for the Best Film award.

Here's the full list of nominees; for winners/nominees of other award-giving bodies, click here:

Best Film

"Argo"

"Lincoln"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Director

Ben Affleck, "Argo"

Steven Spielberg, "Lincoln"

Kathryn Bigelow, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Actor

Daniel Day Lewis, "Lincoln"

John Hawkes, "The Sessions"

Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Alan Arkin, "Argo"

Phillip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"

Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"

Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams, "The Master"

Sally Field, "Lincoln"

Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables"

Best Adapted Screenplay

"Argo"

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

Best Original Screenplay

"Amour"

"Moonrise Kingdom...