Aug 30, 2024

And if you're a parent, Lauren Greenfield's new doc about teens and social media is a horror movie. See it here. 

 

The Hollywood Reporter has an inside story here of "Homegrown," and inside story of a far-right group and the lead up to January 6th.

 

Aug 17, 2024

A NY hospital was so pleased with the results of two docs filmed at their hospital, they have decided to start their own film production company. See the story here in the NY Times. 

 

Aug 11, 2024

Nat Geo Doc Films will be releasing "Fly," the base-jumping documentary in Imax Theaters for two days before it streams. See the Morningstar story here. 

 

Aug 4, 2024

See the 28 projects here in Filmmaker Magazine selected for the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund grants totaling $1,450,000.

 

Aug 4, 2024

How Generative AI is Redefining Documentary Filmmaking. See it here on Talkhouse. 

 

Jun 28, 2024

New members invited into the Documentary branch of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences;

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Trish Adlesic – “The ABCs of Book Banning,” “Gasland”
Daniela Alatorre – “A Cop Movie,” “Midnight Family”
Waad Al-Kateab – “We Dare to Dream,” “For Sama”
Anne Alvergue – “The Martha Mitchell Effect,” “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn”
Raed Andoni – “Ghost Hunting,” “Fix Me”
Alethea Arnaquq-Baril     – “Twice Colonized,” “Angry Inuk”
Mila Aung-Thwin – “Let There Be Light,” “Last Train Home”
Tina Baz – “Adolescents,” “Fix Me”
Jorge Bodanzky – “The Amazon, a New Minamata?,” “Third Millennium”
Moses Bwayo – “Bobi Wine: The People’s President”
Caryn Capotosto – “Little Richard: I Am Everything,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
Nadim Cheikhrouha* – “Four Daughters,” “Benda Bilili!”
Mstyslav Chernov – “20 Days in Mariupol”
Michael Collins – “Almost Sunrise,” “Give Up Tomorrow”
Flávia de Souza – “Aftershock,” “Open Heart”
Jeanie Finlay – “Your Fat Friend,” “Seahorse: The Dad Who Gave Birth”
Beadie Finzi – “Only When I Dance,” “Unknown White Male”
Ellen Goosenberg Kent – “Torn Apart: Separated at the Border,” “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1”
Sky Hopinka – “Kicking the Clouds,” “Malni: Towards the Ocean, towards the Shore”
José Joffily – “A Symphony for a Common Man,” “Foreign Soldier”
Rachel Lears – “To the End,” “Knock Down the House”
Rebecca Lichtenfeld – “The Eternal Memory    ,” “The Nightcrawlers”
Sergei Loznitsa – “Babi Yar. Context,” “Mr. Landsbergis”
Aïcha Macky – “Zinder,” “The Fruitless Tree”
Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala – “Delikado,” “Call Her Ganda”
Elaine McMillion Sheldon – “King Coal,” “Heroin(e)”
Mark Mitten – “A Compassionate Spy,” “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”
Vincent Moloi – “Skulls of My People,” “Men of Gold”
Nisha Pahuja – “To Kill a Tiger,” “The World before Her”
Pola Rapaport – “Addicted to Life,” “Broken Meat”
RaMell Ross – “Easter Snap,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
Ousmane Samassekou – “The Last Shelter,” “The Heirs of the Hill”
Frédéric Tcheng – “Invisible Beauty,” “Halston”
Jennifer Tiexiera – “Subject,” “P.S. Burn This Letter Please”
Hemal Trivedi – “Among the Believers,” “Saving Face”
Christine Turner* – “The Barber of Little Rock,” “Lynching Postcards: “Token of a Great Day”'
Keith Wilson – “Joonam,” “I Didn’t See You There”

 

Jun 23, 2024

The Future of Streaming...Do you want to know what's going on with all the networks and streamers from a business and programming point of view? Here is an excellent overview from the top down about all the buyers that doc filmmakers want to sell projects to. See the NY Times story today here. 

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Jun 22, 2024

Is it real? Or is it a reindeer? "Compliance" is the new word at network/streamers these days as Netflix is being sued for $170 million in the wake of "Baby Reindeer." Deadline has a compelling story here producers should read. 

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Jun 9, 2024

"The 9/11 Documentary You Will Never See. Extraordinary story by Allen Salkin in the Hollywood Reporter about the making of a doc and financial fraud. Take a look here. 

 

Jun 4, 2024

Doc filmmaker Rory Kennedy is producing a film about Alec Baldwin and the Santa Fe Rust shooting. See Variety story here. 

 

June 1, 2024

Oscar nominated doc filmmaker Mitchell Block dies at 73. Hollywood Reporter obit here.  

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May 24, 2024

Doc filmmaker Morgan Spurlock dead at 53. His groundbreaking first feature "Super Size Me" gave us all a different perspective on fast food. See the story in The Hollywood Reporter here. And a more in-depth obit in the NY Times here. 

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May 24, 2024

Finally, some optimism in the doc world. Read the Deadline story here. 

 

May 14,2024

We have been big supporters of the annual HotDocs documentary film festival held in Toronto, Canada every year. I was unable to attend this year but Doug Block of The D-Word (Westdoc episode # 123) has produced a short video that gives part of the feel of the pitching and networking. Take look here.

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May 9, 2024

NETFLIX, FAIR USE, and a cameraman making $150 per week...

...“Tiger King” was streamed by 34 million viewers in its first 10 days of release, and finding that weighed against a claim of fair use.

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“It’s not fair for one of the world’s largest media companies to take an aspiring creator’s footage without compensation, without credit, without his permission, and then use it in the most commercial manner,” Grimm argued in his appellate brief.

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This is one paragraph in the last half of the Variety story here about Fair Use. This could change Fair Use in documentaries. 

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May 3, 2024

The Hollywood Reporter writes here that the NY Times is restructuring their documentary film unit. In corporate speak that means cutting way back. More bad news for doc filmmakers as another potential outlet shrinks. 

 

Apr 26, 2024

Esquire posted their 64 Best Documentaries of All Time. Some of the choices in my opinion are a bit odd. But overall if you haven't seen most of these great docs, you have some catching up to do. All the listed films have trailers and are currently available. Take a look here. 

 

Apr 22, 2024

Filmmaker Alex Braverman and NY Times writer Irina Aleksander gave birth to a healthy baby girl yesterday. Hopefully she will have a first name soon.  (5/4/24) Eleanor Sasha Braverman pictured at one week. 

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Apr 22, 2024   

AMPAS, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced some new rules for the coming Oscar race today. And final submission deadline for Documentary films is October 17, 2024. Current rules can be viewed at oscars.org/rules.

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Apr 21, 2024

HotDocs is certainly the biggest and best doc fest in North America, and maybe the world. I have been going for years and it is always sensational. The two day HotDocs Forum is worth the trip alone.  It's no secret to us in the lower 48 that the Canadian government has subsidized the arts up north forever. But for whatever reason, as they give millions to TIFF and others, they are now shutting out HotDocs. Barry Walsh in Realscreen gives some details here.  

 

Apr 22, 2024

The shutting of Participant comes as a shock to many. The Hollywood Reporter writes some of the details here. 

 

April 10, 2024

Has the financial eco system for documentary films collapsed? Cutbacks and deal scarcity are the subjects of this Variety news story. 

 

Mar 31, 2024

Hotdocs is in trouble. It's the biggest and best documentary film festival in North America and I have attended a dozen times. In fact we were sponsors a decade ago and I represented a film at the Forum that is a two-day pitch event to international buyers. Here is a link to CityNews which is a local Toronto station interviewing the Hotdocs president, Marie Nelson. 

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Mar 25, 2024

What's going on at HotDocs? In my opinion, HotDocs is the best documentary film festival in the world. And one month before this year's April 25th opening, 10 programmers have resigned! Read the story here in Screen Daily

 

Mar 14, 2024

AMPAS cut the Documentary Oscar category in their shorter 90 minute international version of the awards show! Read the Deadline Hollywood story here. 

 

Feb 3, 2024

A fascinating story about feature documentaries in today's edition of Variety by Addie Morfoot. Is the Doc branch of the Motion Picture Academy imploding on itself? What is happening with many very good films not getting picked up while the "Superman" doc gets acquired for $15 million. You read that right, $15 million. See the story here. 

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Feb 8, 2024

Apparently, the Variety story abive is raising eyebrows and more. Here is a rebuttal to Variety from Slate. 

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Jan 27, 2024

Superman still has power. While a score of very good docs sit on shelves, waiting for some streamer love, the new Christopher Reeve Superman doc is in negotiations with Warner Bros. Discovery for $15 million. See the Variety story here. 

 

Jan 23, 2024

Major surprises and snubs in the Oscar feature documentary nominees. See the Deadline story here. 

 

Jan 11, 2024

We don't report every award group, but the Directors Guild of America (DGA) is a big deal. Here are Documentary nominees for 2023 just announced;

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MOSES BWAYO & CHRISTOPHER SHARP

Bobi Wine: The People’s President

(National Geographic)

 

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV

20 Days in Mariupol

(PBS Distribution)

 

MADELEINE GAVIN

Beyond Utopia

(Roadside Attractions)

 

DAVIS GUGGENHEIM

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

(Apple Original Films)

 

D. SMITH

Kokomo City

(Magnolia Pictures)​

 

Jan 4, 2024

Another list of great docs from the last year in Variety here. 

 

Jan 1, 2024

Matt Carey of Deadline Hollywood writes about a look back at the best docs of 2023 here. He has an interesting list. The most disturbing part of the reporting is his take on the economic state of today's docs which confirms that despite great docs being produced, very few sales are happening. A good number of doc features that would have been picked up a year ago for high six and low seven figure purchase and distribution, are just waiting...