We are becoming part machine.
That is the startling observation of Emmy-winning filmmaker Kirsten Johnson, who has been thinking deeply about the ramifications of artificial intelligence for human culture. The director of Cameraperson and Dick Johnson Is Dead will deliver a keynote at the IDA’s Getting Real conference in Los Angeles this week, addressing what she sees as a fundamental truth about AI that sets it apart from human endeavors: AI “lacks a body,” and as such is disengaged from the fate of humanity.
Johnson joins the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss her feelings about AI – its areas of promise, but also the way in which the emerging technology is going to fundamentally alter our experience. She notes that more people are already creating new images through generative AI prompts – e.g., “Make me a photo of a frog in a pinstripe suit balancing...
That is the startling observation of Emmy-winning filmmaker Kirsten Johnson, who has been thinking deeply about the ramifications of artificial intelligence for human culture. The director of Cameraperson and Dick Johnson Is Dead will deliver a keynote at the IDA’s Getting Real conference in Los Angeles this week, addressing what she sees as a fundamental truth about AI that sets it apart from human endeavors: AI “lacks a body,” and as such is disengaged from the fate of humanity.
Johnson joins the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss her feelings about AI – its areas of promise, but also the way in which the emerging technology is going to fundamentally alter our experience. She notes that more people are already creating new images through generative AI prompts – e.g., “Make me a photo of a frog in a pinstripe suit balancing...
- 4/16/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
In The Art of Documentary, host and Oscar-nominee Jim LeBrecht takes listeners — and potential documentarians — on a journey with six filmmakers, who reveal not just what drew them to the medium but how they’re helping to reshape it.
The executive producer and sound engineer, best known for co-directing the Oscar-nominated disability rights doc Crip Camp with Nicole Newnham, kicks off each of the six episodes of the Film Academy original podcast by asking his guests about the incident that lit their fuse as documentarians. In the conversations that ensue, the filmmakers — Danny Cohen (Anonymous Club), Bing Liu (All These Sons), Chase Joynt and Aisling Chin-Yee (No Ordindary Man), Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson), Garrett Bradley (Time) and Roger Ross Williams (Life, Animated) —unpack how their unique perspectives and identities shape their creative narratives and careers.
The discussions yield insights into how far documentary has come from its often exploitative cinéma vérité roots.
The executive producer and sound engineer, best known for co-directing the Oscar-nominated disability rights doc Crip Camp with Nicole Newnham, kicks off each of the six episodes of the Film Academy original podcast by asking his guests about the incident that lit their fuse as documentarians. In the conversations that ensue, the filmmakers — Danny Cohen (Anonymous Club), Bing Liu (All These Sons), Chase Joynt and Aisling Chin-Yee (No Ordindary Man), Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson), Garrett Bradley (Time) and Roger Ross Williams (Life, Animated) —unpack how their unique perspectives and identities shape their creative narratives and careers.
The discussions yield insights into how far documentary has come from its often exploitative cinéma vérité roots.
- 7/6/2023
- by Abbey White
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Founded in 1999 and situated in the historic arts colony on the Massachusetts Cape, the Provincetown International Film Festival has been a bastion for independent filmmakers and their projects for a quarter of a century, with classics such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Cameraperson and Coffee & Cigarettes appearing across its programming. Piff has also long been known for its established rapport with queer directors (John Waters has returned annually to present awards and host events) and the the LGBTQ+ community that resides in the town year-round. Piff’s 2023 edition, which begins today and runs through the 18th, is the festival’s […]
The post Executive Director Anne Hubbell on the Provincetown International Film Festival at 25 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Executive Director Anne Hubbell on the Provincetown International Film Festival at 25 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 6/14/2023
- by Natalia Keogan
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Founded in 1999 and situated in the historic arts colony on the Massachusetts Cape, the Provincetown International Film Festival has been a bastion for independent filmmakers and their projects for a quarter of a century, with classics such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Cameraperson and Coffee & Cigarettes appearing across its programming. Piff has also long been known for its established rapport with queer directors (John Waters has returned annually to present awards and host events) and the the LGBTQ+ community that resides in the town year-round. Piff’s 2023 edition, which begins today and runs through the 18th, is the festival’s […]
The post Executive Director Anne Hubbell on the Provincetown International Film Festival at 25 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Executive Director Anne Hubbell on the Provincetown International Film Festival at 25 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 6/14/2023
- by Natalia Keogan
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has launched an Academy Originals podcast, “The Art of Documentary.”
The new podcast is hosted by Oscar-nominee and “Crip Camp” documentarian Jim LeBrecht. The six-episode season will include LeBrecht sitting down with documentary filmmakers, as they reveal to the host and the audience their filmmaking processes.
“The Art of Documentary,” will chronicle “how a filmmaker approaches their subject and how they engage with it,” according to the press release. The podcast will highlight how the various documentarians work to find new filmmaking approaches, all in an effort to tell their stories in innovative ways. LeBrecht and guests will discuss how they achieve special access and how far they’ll go to get their story — even if that means taking dangerous risks.
The first episode features an interview with “Anonymous Club” documentarian Danny Cohen. The remaining five episodes will include interviews with filmmakers including Bing Liu,...
The new podcast is hosted by Oscar-nominee and “Crip Camp” documentarian Jim LeBrecht. The six-episode season will include LeBrecht sitting down with documentary filmmakers, as they reveal to the host and the audience their filmmaking processes.
“The Art of Documentary,” will chronicle “how a filmmaker approaches their subject and how they engage with it,” according to the press release. The podcast will highlight how the various documentarians work to find new filmmaking approaches, all in an effort to tell their stories in innovative ways. LeBrecht and guests will discuss how they achieve special access and how far they’ll go to get their story — even if that means taking dangerous risks.
The first episode features an interview with “Anonymous Club” documentarian Danny Cohen. The remaining five episodes will include interviews with filmmakers including Bing Liu,...
- 5/17/2023
- by Charna Flam
- Variety Film + TV
Kristen Stewart is no stranger to biopics, with “Seberg” in 2019 and “Spencer” in 2021. Now she has another to add to her upcoming projects, but this one has a meta twist. Variety reports (via Screen Daily) that Stewart will star as the writer and intellectual Susan Sontag in Kirsten Johnson‘s next film, the director’s follow-up to 2016’s “Cameraperson‘ and 2020’s “Dick Johnson Is Dead.”
Read More: ‘The Chronology Of Water’: Kristen Stewart’s Feature Directorial Debut Is A Swimming Memoir With Imogen Poots Set To Star
Johnson will base “Sontag” off Ben Moser‘s 2019 biography “Sontag: Her Life,” with Johnson co-writing a script with Lisa Kron.
Continue reading Kristen Stewart Will Play Susan Sontag In Kirsten Johnson’s Upcoming Meta Documentary, Which Starts Filming At Berlin 2023 at The Playlist.
Read More: ‘The Chronology Of Water’: Kristen Stewart’s Feature Directorial Debut Is A Swimming Memoir With Imogen Poots Set To Star
Johnson will base “Sontag” off Ben Moser‘s 2019 biography “Sontag: Her Life,” with Johnson co-writing a script with Lisa Kron.
Continue reading Kristen Stewart Will Play Susan Sontag In Kirsten Johnson’s Upcoming Meta Documentary, Which Starts Filming At Berlin 2023 at The Playlist.
- 2/10/2023
- by Ned Booth
- The Playlist
Kristen Stewart’s next role continues her trend of portraying influential real life women, although this project will feature a meta twist.
The actor is set to portray Susan Sontag in “Sontag,” which will be directed by Kirsten Johnson. Screen Daily first reported the project. The feature is based on the biography “Sontag: Her Life” by Ben Moser, and will be written for the screen by Johnson and Lisa Kron. UK-Australia-based Brouhaha Entertainment will produce the project, which is set to start filming at the Berlin Film Festival, where Stewart is the jury president.
“We’re using Berlin as a moment to kick off the project and do documentary footage of Kristen as the head of the jury and talking to her about how she’s going to become Sontag,” said Gabrielle Tana, who co-founded Brouhaha Entertainment and is producer on the project. “It will be a drama, but with a documentary aspect to it.
The actor is set to portray Susan Sontag in “Sontag,” which will be directed by Kirsten Johnson. Screen Daily first reported the project. The feature is based on the biography “Sontag: Her Life” by Ben Moser, and will be written for the screen by Johnson and Lisa Kron. UK-Australia-based Brouhaha Entertainment will produce the project, which is set to start filming at the Berlin Film Festival, where Stewart is the jury president.
“We’re using Berlin as a moment to kick off the project and do documentary footage of Kristen as the head of the jury and talking to her about how she’s going to become Sontag,” said Gabrielle Tana, who co-founded Brouhaha Entertainment and is producer on the project. “It will be a drama, but with a documentary aspect to it.
- 2/10/2023
- by William Earl
- Variety Film + TV
US documentary filmmaker Kirsten Johnson will direct, with filming commencing at the Berlinale.
Kristen Stewart is to play US writer, philosopher and political activist Susan Sontag in an upcoming feature for UK-Australia production outfit Brouhaha Entertainment, with US filmmaker Kirsten Johnson to direct.
Four chapters in the tumultuous life of the celebrated and controversial 20th century intellectual will be depicted in the drama, which is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Sontag: Her Life by Ben Moser. The feature has the working title of Sontag.
New Yorker Sontag, who passed away in 2004, is known for her widely influential critical works such as Against Interpretation,...
Kristen Stewart is to play US writer, philosopher and political activist Susan Sontag in an upcoming feature for UK-Australia production outfit Brouhaha Entertainment, with US filmmaker Kirsten Johnson to direct.
Four chapters in the tumultuous life of the celebrated and controversial 20th century intellectual will be depicted in the drama, which is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Sontag: Her Life by Ben Moser. The feature has the working title of Sontag.
New Yorker Sontag, who passed away in 2004, is known for her widely influential critical works such as Against Interpretation,...
- 2/10/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
In this age where documentaries have become more like narrative films in approach and content, “Riotsville, USA” can’t help but seem old-school in scope. For those seeking information, or some version of the truth even, that is not a bad quality.
At the heart of the doc from director Sierra Pettengill (“The Reagan Show”) is the genesis of police militarization primarily through the phenomena of fictional towns known as Riotsvilles, built by the U.S. military to train law enforcement how to ward off the perceived growing militancy in the nation in the late 1960s.
To do this, Pettengill and her squad — including film editor Nels Bangerter (“Cameraperson”) and producer Jamila Wignot (“Ailey”) — rely on archival footage, a significant portion of which has never before been seen by the public. While some of the older footage leans towards the mundane, none of it is unimportant.
Also Read:
‘Till’ Trailer...
At the heart of the doc from director Sierra Pettengill (“The Reagan Show”) is the genesis of police militarization primarily through the phenomena of fictional towns known as Riotsvilles, built by the U.S. military to train law enforcement how to ward off the perceived growing militancy in the nation in the late 1960s.
To do this, Pettengill and her squad — including film editor Nels Bangerter (“Cameraperson”) and producer Jamila Wignot (“Ailey”) — rely on archival footage, a significant portion of which has never before been seen by the public. While some of the older footage leans towards the mundane, none of it is unimportant.
Also Read:
‘Till’ Trailer...
- 9/16/2022
- by Ronda Racha Penrice
- The Wrap
Opening her masterclass at doc film festival Visions du Réel in Switzerland, cinematographer and filmmaker Kirsten Johnson – an Emmy and Sundance award winner for “Dick Johnson Is Dead” – started by naming each and every member of the technical crew on set.
“What I often find upsetting with cinema is that we forget to acknowledge all the people it takes to make these moments together. I learnt that through being a cameraperson, and I’m interested in understanding why we want to reduce it to just one person, because there’s something beautiful about the fact that all of these humans, collectively, help us be here today,” she said, employing her favorite word to describe her work, “Cameraperson,” which is also the title of second feature film.
Over three decades, Johnson has worked on some 60 films as a cinematographer, for the likes of Michael Moore and Laura Poitras, made a couple...
“What I often find upsetting with cinema is that we forget to acknowledge all the people it takes to make these moments together. I learnt that through being a cameraperson, and I’m interested in understanding why we want to reduce it to just one person, because there’s something beautiful about the fact that all of these humans, collectively, help us be here today,” she said, employing her favorite word to describe her work, “Cameraperson,” which is also the title of second feature film.
Over three decades, Johnson has worked on some 60 films as a cinematographer, for the likes of Michael Moore and Laura Poitras, made a couple...
- 4/16/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Festival line-up includes 84 world premieres.
Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, heads the programme of the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.
The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.
Elizabeth comes to VdR following a world premiere at Belgium’s Ostend Film Festival earlier this month.
It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales...
Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, heads the programme of the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.
The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.
Elizabeth comes to VdR following a world premiere at Belgium’s Ostend Film Festival earlier this month.
It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales...
- 3/17/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Festival line-up includes 84 world premieres.
Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, will have its world premiere at the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.
The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.
It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales and Signature distributing in the UK and Ireland.
It is one of 84 world premieres on the VdR line-up,...
Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, will have its world premiere at the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.
The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.
It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales and Signature distributing in the UK and Ireland.
It is one of 84 world premieres on the VdR line-up,...
- 3/17/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Been meaning to check out some Oscar-nominated films before the 94th Academy Awards on March 27? Well does HBO Max have some good news for you! HBO Max’s list of new releases for March 2022 is filled with classic films, new originals, and yes: plenty of current Oscar nominees.
Two Best Picture nominees roll out on HBO Max on March 2: Steven Spielberg’s epic musical adaptation West Side Story and Japanese drama Drive My Car. Those two contenders will be followed by Dune on March 10 and King Richard on March 24.
Read more Movies Oscars 2022: Predictions and Analysis By David Crow Movies How Dune’s Director Helped with Marvel’s Eternals By Joseph Baxter
HBO Max is not neglecting its original responsibilities this month either. March 3 sees the arrival of pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death. That will be followed by Adam McKay-produced Lakers drama Winning Time on March...
Two Best Picture nominees roll out on HBO Max on March 2: Steven Spielberg’s epic musical adaptation West Side Story and Japanese drama Drive My Car. Those two contenders will be followed by Dune on March 10 and King Richard on March 24.
Read more Movies Oscars 2022: Predictions and Analysis By David Crow Movies How Dune’s Director Helped with Marvel’s Eternals By Joseph Baxter
HBO Max is not neglecting its original responsibilities this month either. March 3 sees the arrival of pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death. That will be followed by Adam McKay-produced Lakers drama Winning Time on March...
- 3/1/2022
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
HBO Max has a crowded month of new movies and shows streaming in March, from franchise films to original series debuts — and it’s shaping up to be a go-to streaming service for awards contenders, just in time to get caught up before the Oscars.
Warner Bros. films “Dune” and “King Richard,” both of which are nominated in several key categories including Best Picture, make their return to streaming on HBO Max. “Dune” returns on March 10, but last-minute viewers looking to catch up before the Oscars will only have a few days to stream “King Richard,” which returns on March 24. The 94th Academy Awards ceremony airs on March 27.
Fellow Best Picture contenders “Drive My Car” and “West Side Story” are also arriving on HBO Max in the coming weeks. “Drive My Car,” which has been in limited theaters, is finally available to stream on March 2, as is “West Side Story...
Warner Bros. films “Dune” and “King Richard,” both of which are nominated in several key categories including Best Picture, make their return to streaming on HBO Max. “Dune” returns on March 10, but last-minute viewers looking to catch up before the Oscars will only have a few days to stream “King Richard,” which returns on March 24. The 94th Academy Awards ceremony airs on March 27.
Fellow Best Picture contenders “Drive My Car” and “West Side Story” are also arriving on HBO Max in the coming weeks. “Drive My Car,” which has been in limited theaters, is finally available to stream on March 2, as is “West Side Story...
- 2/26/2022
- by Haleigh Foutch
- The Wrap
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” defied expectations last week when it nabbed Oscar nominations for best picture, director, adapted screenplay and international feature. The Japanese movie, released domestically by venerable art-house distributor Janus Films, surpassed titles with more robust campaigns, including Amazon’s “Being the Ricardos” and Netflix’s “Tick, Tick … Boom!”
Even Hamaguchi was surprised by the noms.
“I could have never imagined that I would be a realistic contender,” he tells Variety, speaking through Stacy Lee, a Japanese interpreter. “In terms of the campaign, it was a steady effort where people at Janus made these recommendations. They also have very strong connections with the critics and other parts of the community.”
Hamaguchi tells the story of being on a plane with no internet when the nominations were announced, and receiving about 60 text messages when it landed.
Recent changes to the Academy’s membership and voting methods have...
Even Hamaguchi was surprised by the noms.
“I could have never imagined that I would be a realistic contender,” he tells Variety, speaking through Stacy Lee, a Japanese interpreter. “In terms of the campaign, it was a steady effort where people at Janus made these recommendations. They also have very strong connections with the critics and other parts of the community.”
Hamaguchi tells the story of being on a plane with no internet when the nominations were announced, and receiving about 60 text messages when it landed.
Recent changes to the Academy’s membership and voting methods have...
- 2/16/2022
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Fork Films, a New York production company co-founded by Abigail Disney, has announced 11 grantees for its 2021 round of documentary funding. Topics explored in the slate of films include social justice, the impact of the pandemic on historically marginalized communities, climate gentrification and maternal mortality.
The company has funded over 100 projects over 14 years, adding up to over $4.5 million in documentary grants and support. With an aim to elevate justice-driven filmmakers, Fork Films has funded critically acclaimed projects in the past such as “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen,” “One Child Nation,” “Cameraperson,” “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,” “Strong Island,” “The Square” and “The Invisible War.”
This year, along with financial support, Fork Films is offering grantees the opportunity to participate in workshops titled Collective Lens: An Impact Roadmap led by nonprofit organization Peace is Loud. The workshops will cover impact producing strategies, building campaigns and designing distribution plans with impact in mind...
The company has funded over 100 projects over 14 years, adding up to over $4.5 million in documentary grants and support. With an aim to elevate justice-driven filmmakers, Fork Films has funded critically acclaimed projects in the past such as “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen,” “One Child Nation,” “Cameraperson,” “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,” “Strong Island,” “The Square” and “The Invisible War.”
This year, along with financial support, Fork Films is offering grantees the opportunity to participate in workshops titled Collective Lens: An Impact Roadmap led by nonprofit organization Peace is Loud. The workshops will cover impact producing strategies, building campaigns and designing distribution plans with impact in mind...
- 11/22/2021
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix’s awards hopefuls Robert Greene’s “Procession” and Alonso Ruizpalacios’ “A Cop Movie” are heading to Manhattan’s Paris Theater as part of its “New Directions in Documentary” series.
Both hybrid features, which are vying for a spot on this year’s Academy Award doc shortlist, will screen alongside previously celebrated form-bending docus in the upcoming series beginning Oct. 15.
Since 2019 Netflix has operated the 571-seat venue, which the streaming company uses year-round for exclusive theatrical engagements, premieres, special events, retrospectives, and filmmaker appearances.
Curated by Paris Theater programmer David Schwartz, the five-day public event will highlight and celebrate docus that combine elements of fiction and non-fiction into the fabric of their storytelling.
“ ‘Procession’ and ‘A Cop Movie’ are exciting and inventive movies that heighten the documentary form,” says Schwartz. “They find innovative ways to explore truth through deeply personal and dramatic subjects. Their work transcends the formulaic with rigorous fidelity to vision,...
Both hybrid features, which are vying for a spot on this year’s Academy Award doc shortlist, will screen alongside previously celebrated form-bending docus in the upcoming series beginning Oct. 15.
Since 2019 Netflix has operated the 571-seat venue, which the streaming company uses year-round for exclusive theatrical engagements, premieres, special events, retrospectives, and filmmaker appearances.
Curated by Paris Theater programmer David Schwartz, the five-day public event will highlight and celebrate docus that combine elements of fiction and non-fiction into the fabric of their storytelling.
“ ‘Procession’ and ‘A Cop Movie’ are exciting and inventive movies that heighten the documentary form,” says Schwartz. “They find innovative ways to explore truth through deeply personal and dramatic subjects. Their work transcends the formulaic with rigorous fidelity to vision,...
- 10/5/2021
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Imagine growing up at the end of times, on a tattered planet suffocating under ceaseless environmental mayhem and the putrid fumes of socioeconomic injustice. That today’s children and teenagers, conscious of the discouraging prospects left for them by adults, can still envision a livable future must be a miracle of our species’ resilient hopefulness.
Testimonies from those young souls bolster “C’mon C’mon,” a heartwarmingly chaotic intergenerational dialogue turned heartening dramedy. Mike Mills’ latest feature, his first in five years, sees the writer-director once again observing the impasses and affinities of parents and their kids. He plied similar emotional topography in “20th Century Women” and “Beginners,” but now there’s the formal melancholy of black-and-white cinematography and the story of a minor and his impromptu guardian.
For this psychologically textured effort, Mills careens with the tale of a 9-year-old boy with a hyperactive mind, his burdened mother, and his uncle-turned–temporary putative father.
Testimonies from those young souls bolster “C’mon C’mon,” a heartwarmingly chaotic intergenerational dialogue turned heartening dramedy. Mike Mills’ latest feature, his first in five years, sees the writer-director once again observing the impasses and affinities of parents and their kids. He plied similar emotional topography in “20th Century Women” and “Beginners,” but now there’s the formal melancholy of black-and-white cinematography and the story of a minor and his impromptu guardian.
For this psychologically textured effort, Mills careens with the tale of a 9-year-old boy with a hyperactive mind, his burdened mother, and his uncle-turned–temporary putative father.
- 9/3/2021
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
In making her Academy Award-shortlisted documentary Dick Johnson is Dead, Kirsten Johnson was keen to ask questions of what cinema can do.
The filmmaker has worked for decades as cinematographer, with 50+ credit list that boasts films such as the Oscar-winning Citizen Four and Oscar-nominated The Invisible War.
In 2016, she helmed Cameraperson, an autobiographical collage that used footage from her cinematography career.
Dick Johnson is Dead is her follow up, a celebration and commemoration of her father, who has Alzheimer’s.
As Johnson tries to cope with his disease, she stages, with the assistance of stunt people, ways for her father to die. We see him get hit by a falling air conditioner, fall down a flight of stairs, and even attend his own funeral. She creates fantastical scenes of her father in heaven.
Described as a love letter between father and daughter, it was made with the hope that the...
The filmmaker has worked for decades as cinematographer, with 50+ credit list that boasts films such as the Oscar-winning Citizen Four and Oscar-nominated The Invisible War.
In 2016, she helmed Cameraperson, an autobiographical collage that used footage from her cinematography career.
Dick Johnson is Dead is her follow up, a celebration and commemoration of her father, who has Alzheimer’s.
As Johnson tries to cope with his disease, she stages, with the assistance of stunt people, ways for her father to die. We see him get hit by a falling air conditioner, fall down a flight of stairs, and even attend his own funeral. She creates fantastical scenes of her father in heaven.
Described as a love letter between father and daughter, it was made with the hope that the...
- 3/1/2021
- by Jackie Keast
- IF.com.au
On February 9, the documentary branch of the academy will announce the 15 films that made the shortlist for their Best Documentary Feature award. This is the branch’s first step in narrowing down the 238 documentary features that qualified for Oscar consideration before the final five nominees are unveiled along with all the other Academy Award categories on March 15.
In order to determine the 15-title short list, members of the academy’s documentary branch have been working their way through eligible films via a virtual screening room. While the more than 500 members of the branch are encouraged to watch as many titles as possible, one fifth of them are assigned to each title. By now they’ve all compiled and submitted a preferential ballot of their top 15 choices.
Once these ballots are collated to determine the 15 and the short list has been announced, branch members will then be encouraged to watch the...
In order to determine the 15-title short list, members of the academy’s documentary branch have been working their way through eligible films via a virtual screening room. While the more than 500 members of the branch are encouraged to watch as many titles as possible, one fifth of them are assigned to each title. By now they’ve all compiled and submitted a preferential ballot of their top 15 choices.
Once these ballots are collated to determine the 15 and the short list has been announced, branch members will then be encouraged to watch the...
- 2/4/2021
- by John Benutty
- Gold Derby
2021 PGA Awards documentary nominations include Oscar frontrunners ‘Time’ and ‘Dick Johnson Is Dead’
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced the seven nominees for its 2021 Best Documentary award on Tuesday February 2. The winner will be revealed at the 32nd Annual PGA Awards which will take place virtually on Wednesday, March 24. The remaining Producers Guild Awards nominations, including those for the Oscar bellwether Best Picture, will be unveiled on Monday, March 8. The lucky seven documentary features in the running are:
“David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet”
“Dick Johnson Is Dead”
“My Octopus Teacher”
“Softie”
“A Thousand Cuts”
“Time”
“The Truffle Hunters”
The PGA nomination is an important step on the path to Oscar glory. In the last five years, four of the eventual Oscar champs for Best Documentary Feature were nominated first by the producers guild, including last year’s “American Factory.” That film was distributed by Netflix, a studio that has proven itself incredibly strong in the doc branch in the last decade.
“David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet”
“Dick Johnson Is Dead”
“My Octopus Teacher”
“Softie”
“A Thousand Cuts”
“Time”
“The Truffle Hunters”
The PGA nomination is an important step on the path to Oscar glory. In the last five years, four of the eventual Oscar champs for Best Documentary Feature were nominated first by the producers guild, including last year’s “American Factory.” That film was distributed by Netflix, a studio that has proven itself incredibly strong in the doc branch in the last decade.
- 2/2/2021
- by John Benutty
- Gold Derby
Since premiering to global audiences via Amazon Prime on Oct. 16, Garrett Bradley‘s debut film “Time” has earned its fair share of accolades, positioning it as one of the top contenders for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. After showing the film at Sundance last January, Bradley won the festival’s directing award in the U.S. Documentary Competition, making her the first Black woman to do so and putting her in the company of last year’s documentary Oscar winner “American Factory.” Bradley would also be the first Black woman to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature if her film goes all the way.
With the Sundance win under its belt, “Time” has gone on to be a five-time Cinema Eye Honors nominee, four-time nominee at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards and Gotham winner for Best Documentary. Bradley won Best Director with the International Documentary Association on top of netting two other nominations.
With the Sundance win under its belt, “Time” has gone on to be a five-time Cinema Eye Honors nominee, four-time nominee at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards and Gotham winner for Best Documentary. Bradley won Best Director with the International Documentary Association on top of netting two other nominations.
- 1/25/2021
- by John Benutty
- Gold Derby
The Oscars were built to highlight the cinematic year’s most audacious and outstanding achievements. Past snubs have left many of the industry’s finest filmmakers, actors and technical artists waiting for their first Dolby Theatre invitation. This year, multiple contenders are angling for an inaugural mention, even though it should be one of many. So who are they?
It’s always gratifying to see a veteran actor — in this case, Delroy Lindo — finally receiving the acclaim he’s deserved for his nearly 40-year career. Lindo’s role in Vietnam War drama “Da 5 Bloods,” which reunited him with director Spike Lee after 1995’s “Clockers,” could bring him his first nomination for best actor. But where were the voters in 1995 or in 1992 for “Malcolm X”?
Robin Wright hopes to drop into a very competitive Oscar race with her directorial debut “Land,” which is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Despite her work in “Forrest Gump,...
It’s always gratifying to see a veteran actor — in this case, Delroy Lindo — finally receiving the acclaim he’s deserved for his nearly 40-year career. Lindo’s role in Vietnam War drama “Da 5 Bloods,” which reunited him with director Spike Lee after 1995’s “Clockers,” could bring him his first nomination for best actor. But where were the voters in 1995 or in 1992 for “Malcolm X”?
Robin Wright hopes to drop into a very competitive Oscar race with her directorial debut “Land,” which is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Despite her work in “Forrest Gump,...
- 1/21/2021
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Dick Johnson is very much alive in “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” which is one of the many meta qualities in this documentary by Kirsten Johnson. The film provides an unusually touching portrait of Johnson’s father and his slide into dementia, but it’s hardly a sentimental journey. Johnson developed a knack for risk-taking during her decades-long career as a documentary cinematographer (as recounted in her own 2016 doc “Cameraperson”) and here she concocts onscreen various ways her father could die.
The film, Johnson told TheWrap, “is me saying, ‘So I’m going to kill my father and laugh about it because I desperately don’t want him to die.'” In one scene, he trips down the stairs, and in another, he is struck by a falling air conditioner while walking down the street. What emerges is a confrontation with death — specifically the loss of a parent — that grows more...
The film, Johnson told TheWrap, “is me saying, ‘So I’m going to kill my father and laugh about it because I desperately don’t want him to die.'” In one scene, he trips down the stairs, and in another, he is struck by a falling air conditioner while walking down the street. What emerges is a confrontation with death — specifically the loss of a parent — that grows more...
- 12/8/2020
- by Joe McGovern
- The Wrap
One of the most devastating things to witness is the disappearance of a parent due to dementia or Alzheimer’s. The change generally begins slowly with confusion and forgetfulness. They may lose their way driving home from the store. They stop reading and may even become obsessed with a person or a TV series. And then their personality begins to change; they are quick to anger and cry in frustration. Soon, they can’t operate the phone or even know how to tell time. They have hallucinations and forget to eat. They just fade away.
See‘Athlete A’ could be the next sports scandal documentary to vault into Oscar contention
Thanks to his daughter, documentarian Kristen Johnson (“Cameraperson”), Dick Johnson will never disappear. “Dick Johnson is Dead,” her love letter to her octogenarian widowed dad is a wildly imaginative, funny, poignant and haunting look at her coping with her father...
See‘Athlete A’ could be the next sports scandal documentary to vault into Oscar contention
Thanks to his daughter, documentarian Kristen Johnson (“Cameraperson”), Dick Johnson will never disappear. “Dick Johnson is Dead,” her love letter to her octogenarian widowed dad is a wildly imaginative, funny, poignant and haunting look at her coping with her father...
- 11/5/2020
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
It’s been more than four years since I started regularly attending the Camden International Film Festival in coastal Maine (not far from the greater Portland area where I grew up), but I’ll never forget the first film I saw: Laura Viezzoli’s La natura delle cose. I arrived in Camden a little late on a Friday afternoon, rushed to get my press badge and, a bit frazzled, scurried on into the quaint, majestic Camden Opera House just in time to glimpse La natura’s opening scene. Viezzoli’s warm paean to love and individual spirituality stuck with me long after the festival was over and was selected by that year’s jury to win the festival’s Cinematic Vision Award. I never again heard a peep about it in the greater film world and I don’t remember it playing at all in New York. Viezzoli has yet to make another feature.
- 10/27/2020
- MUBI
When I spoke to Kirsten Johnson ahead of the release of her documentary Dick Johnson Is Dead, Dick, her father, wasn’t. I’m unsure if that’s true now; talking to Johnson, I realized that although the film depicts a conscious, mobile Dick Johnson, happy to lend himself to his daughter’s camera as a subject, he is not, in the film, the opposite of dead. He’s watching his personhood ebb and flow in preparation for death; sometimes he is able to watch it happening, but mostly not. He is at the whim of his dementia, and thus at the whim of the present moment. For Johnson, a documentarian whose films have often been zeitgeist-oriented, the process of “making meaning,” as she puts her work as a cinematographer-cum-director, takes on further levels of simultaneity here. Dick Johnson, a career psychiatrist, makes meaning from his daughter’s efforts to make meaning,...
- 10/7/2020
- MUBI
An unconventional Oscar contender for Best Documentary Feature premiered on Netflix on October 2: “Dick Johnson is Dead,” in which filmmaker Kirsten Johnson directs her father, retired clinical psychologist Richard Johnson, in a series of death enactments as a means of coping with his actual impending death. What do critics think of this unique, tragicomic approach to mortality?
Well, they love it. As of this writing the film has a MetaCritic score of 88 based on 21 reviews counted thus far, all of them positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film is just as universally loved with a perfect 100% freshness rating based on 43 reviews. The Rt critics consensus says that the film “celebrates a life with bittersweet humor and grace, offering a deeply resonant perspective on mortality in the bargain.”
SEE2021 Oscars: ‘Crip Camp,’ ‘Boys State,’ ‘Time’ among leading documentary feature contenders
The film is being described as “weird,” “disarming,” “slippery,” “lightly blasphemous and inventive.
Well, they love it. As of this writing the film has a MetaCritic score of 88 based on 21 reviews counted thus far, all of them positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film is just as universally loved with a perfect 100% freshness rating based on 43 reviews. The Rt critics consensus says that the film “celebrates a life with bittersweet humor and grace, offering a deeply resonant perspective on mortality in the bargain.”
SEE2021 Oscars: ‘Crip Camp,’ ‘Boys State,’ ‘Time’ among leading documentary feature contenders
The film is being described as “weird,” “disarming,” “slippery,” “lightly blasphemous and inventive.
- 10/4/2020
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
A man walks down the street, carrying a package, thinking to himself what a lovely day it is —” Thwack! An air conditioner, falling from an apartment window several stories above him, comes crashing down on his head. He didn’t see it coming; neither, for that matter, do you. The passerby lies there on the pavement, sprawled out among the debris. Then a crew of people, including a lady in a bright orange coat, come and help him up. Despite the pool of “blood” behind his head, he seems a-ok,...
- 10/3/2020
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
It’s one of the few life events that each and every one of us has in common, but death remains a taboo topic in Western culture. Clearly hoping to break that trend is acclaimed documentarian Kirsten Johnson (“Cameraperson”), whose Sundance award-winner “Dick Johnson Is Dead” tackles the subject with openness, understanding and no shortage of wit.
Dick Johnson is the director’s father; we meet him as an octogenarian psychiatrist in the process of retiring, leaving his longtime home in Seattle to move in with Kirsten in her one-bedroom New York apartment. Over the course of the film, we get to learn two very important things about Dick: one is that — like his wife and his own mother before him — he is beginning to deal with advancing dementia. The other is that he’s got a great sense of humor, and he’s game for his daughter’s ideas...
Dick Johnson is the director’s father; we meet him as an octogenarian psychiatrist in the process of retiring, leaving his longtime home in Seattle to move in with Kirsten in her one-bedroom New York apartment. Over the course of the film, we get to learn two very important things about Dick: one is that — like his wife and his own mother before him — he is beginning to deal with advancing dementia. The other is that he’s got a great sense of humor, and he’s game for his daughter’s ideas...
- 10/3/2020
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
For her feature-directing debut “Cameraperson” (2016), top non-fiction cinematographer Kirsten Johnson explored the moral dilemma of filming people under duress. The film was intuitive and nonlinear, as Johnson and editor Nels Bangerter searched for twisty ways to connect things. The movie landed on the Academy Awards shortlist, and for her next film Johnson decided to let her creative instincts fly.
“‘Cameraperson’ freed me and allowed me to see myself in ways I hadn’t seen myself,” she told filmmaker Mike Mills during an AFI Q&a. “When we did that, we broke things and broke where the edge was. You are seeing the people, not the screen, and understanding more. It offered more of who I was.”
For this one, she chose a subject she could not keep at arms’ length: her declining father. Four years later, “Dick Johnson is Dead” debuted at Sundance 2020 to more praise. The elder Johnson has dementia,...
“‘Cameraperson’ freed me and allowed me to see myself in ways I hadn’t seen myself,” she told filmmaker Mike Mills during an AFI Q&a. “When we did that, we broke things and broke where the edge was. You are seeing the people, not the screen, and understanding more. It offered more of who I was.”
For this one, she chose a subject she could not keep at arms’ length: her declining father. Four years later, “Dick Johnson is Dead” debuted at Sundance 2020 to more praise. The elder Johnson has dementia,...
- 10/2/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
For her feature-directing debut “Cameraperson” (2016), top non-fiction cinematographer Kirsten Johnson explored the moral dilemma of filming people under duress. The film was intuitive and nonlinear, as Johnson and editor Nels Bangerter searched for twisty ways to connect things. The movie landed on the Academy Awards shortlist, and for her next film Johnson decided to let her creative instincts fly.
“‘Cameraperson’ freed me and allowed me to see myself in ways I hadn’t seen myself,” she told filmmaker Mike Mills during an AFI Q&a. “When we did that, we broke things and broke where the edge was. You are seeing the people, not the screen, and understanding more. It offered more of who I was.”
For this one, she chose a subject she could not keep at arms’ length: her declining father. Four years later, “Dick Johnson is Dead” debuted at Sundance 2020 to more praise. The elder Johnson has dementia,...
“‘Cameraperson’ freed me and allowed me to see myself in ways I hadn’t seen myself,” she told filmmaker Mike Mills during an AFI Q&a. “When we did that, we broke things and broke where the edge was. You are seeing the people, not the screen, and understanding more. It offered more of who I was.”
For this one, she chose a subject she could not keep at arms’ length: her declining father. Four years later, “Dick Johnson is Dead” debuted at Sundance 2020 to more praise. The elder Johnson has dementia,...
- 10/2/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
12 Hour Shift (Brea Grant)
Any professional dealing with routine levels of stress and trauma is bound to develop a morbid sense of humor–and the funny horror-comedy 12 Hour Shift might become a cult classic amongst nurses. Written and directed by Brea Grant and set in a small rural hospital in Arkansas in 1999, the film finds cynical ER nurse Mandy (Angela Bettis) about to start what she thinks is a routine twelve-hour shift. Her definition of routine involves a scheme to poison patients with bleach while shift supervisor Karen (Nikea Gamby-Turner) harvests their organs for a local black market dealer. Things don’t go as planned when Mandy’s cousin by marriage,...
12 Hour Shift (Brea Grant)
Any professional dealing with routine levels of stress and trauma is bound to develop a morbid sense of humor–and the funny horror-comedy 12 Hour Shift might become a cult classic amongst nurses. Written and directed by Brea Grant and set in a small rural hospital in Arkansas in 1999, the film finds cynical ER nurse Mandy (Angela Bettis) about to start what she thinks is a routine twelve-hour shift. Her definition of routine involves a scheme to poison patients with bleach while shift supervisor Karen (Nikea Gamby-Turner) harvests their organs for a local black market dealer. Things don’t go as planned when Mandy’s cousin by marriage,...
- 10/2/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
There are few directorial debuts as sui generis as Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson. A kind of experimental documentary, its premise was simple: it collected unused fragments from her long and storied career as a cinematographer, mostly for non-fiction works, among them Citizen Four, Fahrenheit 9/11, The Oath, and more. There was no story, there was no clear mission statement or theme, and the viewer was left to intuit meaning between the fragments arranged seemingly at random. And it was a success, quickly ushered into the Criterion Collection and taking her from a name among non-fiction auteurs to a name auteur herself. […]...
- 9/24/2020
- by Matt Prigge
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
There are few directorial debuts as sui generis as Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson. A kind of experimental documentary, its premise was simple: it collected unused fragments from her long and storied career as a cinematographer, mostly for non-fiction works, among them Citizen Four, Fahrenheit 9/11, The Oath, and more. There was no story, there was no clear mission statement or theme, and the viewer was left to intuit meaning between the fragments arranged seemingly at random. And it was a success, quickly ushered into the Criterion Collection and taking her from a name among non-fiction auteurs to a name auteur herself. […]...
- 9/24/2020
- by Matt Prigge
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
After her acclaimed directorial debut Cameraperson, Kirsten Johnson turned to her family once again for her follow-up. Dick Johnson Is Dead follows her relationship with her father and takes a humorous, touching look at life and death in surprising ways. After winning the Special Jury Award for Innovation in Non-fiction Storytelling at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Netflix will now release the film next month. Ahead of the debut, the first trailer and poster have now arrived.
I said in my Sundance review, “There’s only one universal truth shared amongst all humans: one day, we will die. For some, this cold, uncomforting reality can lead to paralyzing anxiety as we think of who and what we’ll leave behind. For others, it’s a call to action to live every day with receptive empathy towards others and a curiosity to explore what the world has to offer. As already proven...
I said in my Sundance review, “There’s only one universal truth shared amongst all humans: one day, we will die. For some, this cold, uncomforting reality can lead to paralyzing anxiety as we think of who and what we’ll leave behind. For others, it’s a call to action to live every day with receptive empathy towards others and a curiosity to explore what the world has to offer. As already proven...
- 9/15/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Imagine staging an elegy for your parent, except they’re still alive. That’s the premise behind “Cameraperson” director Kirsten Johnson’s “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” one of the most beloved documentaries from this year’s (however limited) festival circuit. The film was the winner of the Special Jury Award for Innovation in Nonfiction Storytelling at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and an official selection of the True/False Film Festival. The movie arrives on Netflix October 2 and ahead of its release, exclusive to IndieWire, check out the first trailer and poster for the film below.
Here’s the official synopsis: “A lifetime of making documentaries has convinced award-winning filmmaker Kirsten Johnson of the power of the real. But now she’s ready to use every escapist movie-making trick in the book — staging inventive and fantastical ways for her 86-year-old psychiatrist father to die while hoping that cinema might help her bend time,...
Here’s the official synopsis: “A lifetime of making documentaries has convinced award-winning filmmaker Kirsten Johnson of the power of the real. But now she’s ready to use every escapist movie-making trick in the book — staging inventive and fantastical ways for her 86-year-old psychiatrist father to die while hoping that cinema might help her bend time,...
- 9/15/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
This year’s Sundance buzz was difficult to parse, with a range of movies pleasing various contingencies at the festival, but one breakout pleased critics and jurors alike. Director Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” the 1980s-set tale of a Korean-American family struggling with their new life in rural Arkansas, topped IndieWire’s annual critics poll just days after the movie won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize.
A record 187 accredited critics and journalists participated in the survey, with results showcasing many of the most acclaimed titles at the festival. Kirsten Johnson’s “Dick Johnson Is Dead” won Best Documentary with 25.8% of all participants casting a vote for it, while “Minari” dominated Best Film with 31.2%. The runner-up in the Best Film category, the Carey Mulligan drama “Promising Young Woman,” topped the Best First Feature category with 17% of the vote.
“Minari” was the consensus choice at this year’s Sundance for many audiences.
A record 187 accredited critics and journalists participated in the survey, with results showcasing many of the most acclaimed titles at the festival. Kirsten Johnson’s “Dick Johnson Is Dead” won Best Documentary with 25.8% of all participants casting a vote for it, while “Minari” dominated Best Film with 31.2%. The runner-up in the Best Film category, the Carey Mulligan drama “Promising Young Woman,” topped the Best First Feature category with 17% of the vote.
“Minari” was the consensus choice at this year’s Sundance for many audiences.
- 2/3/2020
- by Eric Kohn and Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Museum of Modern Art
MoMA has reopened, and it is–I do not say this lightly–almost too much in one weekend. See for yourself.
Film Forum
“Shitamachi: Tales of Downtown Tokyo” begins with both canon and lesser-known Japanese cinema.
Films by Tim Burton and Joseph Losey play this weekend.
Metrograph
Films by Hitchcock and Blake Edwards play this weekend.
Museum of Modern Art
MoMA has reopened, and it is–I do not say this lightly–almost too much in one weekend. See for yourself.
Film Forum
“Shitamachi: Tales of Downtown Tokyo” begins with both canon and lesser-known Japanese cinema.
Films by Tim Burton and Joseph Losey play this weekend.
Metrograph
Films by Hitchcock and Blake Edwards play this weekend.
- 10/25/2019
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
“The Hunting Ground” filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick have entered a two-year first-look deal with Entertainment One, the studio announced on Wednesday.
The deal will cover scripted and unscripted television content from Ziering and Dick’s Chain Camera production company. eOne will serve as the studio on all of the projects covered under the deal and control worldwide rights.
“Amy and Kirby are without a doubt two of the most important and well-respected filmmakers working in documentary film today. Together they have made films that have single-handedly defined and transformed our culture and have an unmatched record of crafting thrilling and original investigative features that are, in their own right, cinematic tours de force,” said Peter Micelli, eOne’s chief strategy officer for film and television. “We are thrilled that they will bring their bold talents to eOne and we look forward to providing them a platform where they...
The deal will cover scripted and unscripted television content from Ziering and Dick’s Chain Camera production company. eOne will serve as the studio on all of the projects covered under the deal and control worldwide rights.
“Amy and Kirby are without a doubt two of the most important and well-respected filmmakers working in documentary film today. Together they have made films that have single-handedly defined and transformed our culture and have an unmatched record of crafting thrilling and original investigative features that are, in their own right, cinematic tours de force,” said Peter Micelli, eOne’s chief strategy officer for film and television. “We are thrilled that they will bring their bold talents to eOne and we look forward to providing them a platform where they...
- 12/5/2018
- by Reid Nakamura
- The Wrap
Two-time Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated investigative documentary filmmaking duo Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick have signed a two-year first-look deal with Entertainment One via their Chain Camera production company for scripted and unscripted television programming. Under the pact, eOne will serve as the studio on all of the projects coming out of the partnership and will control worldwide rights.
“Amy and Kirby are without a doubt two of the most important and well-respected filmmakers working in documentary film today. Together they have made films that have single-handedly defined and transformed our culture and have an unmatched record of crafting thrilling and original investigative features that are, in their own right, cinematic tours de force,” stated Peter Micelli, eOne’s Chief Strategy Officer, Film & Television. “We are thrilled that they will bring their bold talents to eOne and we look forward to providing them a platform where they can bring their authentic...
“Amy and Kirby are without a doubt two of the most important and well-respected filmmakers working in documentary film today. Together they have made films that have single-handedly defined and transformed our culture and have an unmatched record of crafting thrilling and original investigative features that are, in their own right, cinematic tours de force,” stated Peter Micelli, eOne’s Chief Strategy Officer, Film & Television. “We are thrilled that they will bring their bold talents to eOne and we look forward to providing them a platform where they can bring their authentic...
- 12/5/2018
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
Barcelona — Paris-based Cat & Docs has taken all international rights to Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff’s “Los Reyes,” a documentary feature which screens in competition at the 31st International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa).
The feature is produced by Chile’s foremost young documentary director Maite Alberdi in association with Perut and Osnovikoff’s own company, founded in 2003. It is co-produced by Hamburg-based Dirk Manthey Film.
“Los Reyes” follows two stray dogs, Chola and Fútbol, and they wander around the oldest skatepark (Los Reyes) in the Chilean capital of Santiago. From the canine point of view –a peculiar, sometimes humorous counterpoint– the audience is offered, in the background, in voiceover, a vivid portrait of this singular microcosmos featuring hurtling skateboards and boisterous teenagers.
“‘Los Reyes’ is a radical and beautiful cinematic portrait of a location and a society told with wit and talent. We are very excited to launch...
The feature is produced by Chile’s foremost young documentary director Maite Alberdi in association with Perut and Osnovikoff’s own company, founded in 2003. It is co-produced by Hamburg-based Dirk Manthey Film.
“Los Reyes” follows two stray dogs, Chola and Fútbol, and they wander around the oldest skatepark (Los Reyes) in the Chilean capital of Santiago. From the canine point of view –a peculiar, sometimes humorous counterpoint– the audience is offered, in the background, in voiceover, a vivid portrait of this singular microcosmos featuring hurtling skateboards and boisterous teenagers.
“‘Los Reyes’ is a radical and beautiful cinematic portrait of a location and a society told with wit and talent. We are very excited to launch...
- 11/6/2018
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
With the recent loss of the Criterion Collection–backed streaming service FilmStruck, cinephiles looking to get their fix of indie, arthouse, and classic films from the comfort of their own homes are going to have to look elsewhere. When FilmStruck shuts down at the end of November, it will leave a giant gap in the curated streaming world, removing hundreds of essential films from easy viewing.
There are, of course, a few alternative options for movie lovers looking to fill the hole left by FilmStruck, and while no other single service offers everything that it did (how could they?), there are a few worth pursuing. From obvious streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime to more curated outlets like Shudder and Filmatique, there are more options than ever before, and more than enough to please even the most discerning of film fans. Can you cobble together your own fake FilmStruck from these picks?...
There are, of course, a few alternative options for movie lovers looking to fill the hole left by FilmStruck, and while no other single service offers everything that it did (how could they?), there are a few worth pursuing. From obvious streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime to more curated outlets like Shudder and Filmatique, there are more options than ever before, and more than enough to please even the most discerning of film fans. Can you cobble together your own fake FilmStruck from these picks?...
- 10/27/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
The original title for “Exit Music,” changed at the eleventh hour ahead of its world premiere in Hot Docs, was “How Do You Feel About Dying,” and you can see why the switch was made: “Dying” is not, as a rule, a word that packs ’em into the aisles. Yet that initial question, which can be banal or bluntly confrontational depending on the tone in which it is asked, encapsulates the blend of frankness and delicacy that distinguishes Cameron Mullenneaux’s wrenching documentary study of a young cystic fibrosis patient’s final months.
28-year-old Ethan Rice drily answers it himself in the film’s opening minutes: “I feel sad,” he says with ironic languor, poking fun at the one-dimensional solemnity with which stories like his are usually told. The sadness goes without saying, but he feels much else besides: anger, exhaustion and impatience, with bursts of amusement and creative inspiration in between.
28-year-old Ethan Rice drily answers it himself in the film’s opening minutes: “I feel sad,” he says with ironic languor, poking fun at the one-dimensional solemnity with which stories like his are usually told. The sadness goes without saying, but he feels much else besides: anger, exhaustion and impatience, with bursts of amusement and creative inspiration in between.
- 5/6/2018
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Throughout the remarkable Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? – director Travis Wilkerson’s attempt to learn more about and confront the murder of the African American Bill Spann by his white great-grandfather, S.E. Branch, through a cinematic essay on racism in America – there are many black-and-white images of houses, forests, and roads in Alabama, the state in which the killing took place. As interview subjects recount memories or details related to the crime — through either first-person testimony or Wilkerson’s second-hand paraphrasing — the film often eschews focusing on the speaker to dwell on local spaces, quietly moving through static shots of Alabaman milieus. These images are so still that, at first, they resemble photographs — specifically, old photographs of the sort that one might find in the photo album of someone who was alive when Bill Spann was killed. But if you look closely, you’ll see that the...
- 2/27/2018
- by Jonah Jeng
- The Film Stage
Kirsten Johnson was among the most in-demand documentary DPs even before her much-celebrated 2016 film Cameraperson. Johnson has shot more than 50 films for such directors as Laura Poitras, Alex Gibney and Kirby Dick. Her latest film, A Thousand Thoughts, is a doc on the Kronos Quartet from directors Sam Green and Joe Bini. The film will be presented at Sundance as a “live documentary” with Green narrating live and the Quartet conducting the score in person. Before its premiere, Johnson spoke with Filmmaker about finding innovative ways to film a concert and how a shot from Cameraperson wound up in A […]...
- 1/21/2018
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
When host — and living documentary legend — Steve James took the stage on Thursday night to kick off the start of the 11th Annual Cinema Eye Honors Awards at Queens’ own Museum of the Moving Image, he might have enjoyed the benefit of being tipped off as to who would dominate the ceremony. For James, the night was all about a “new generation” of filmmakers, and bringing them further into a tight-knit community that could support them for the rest of their lives.
No surprise then that Yance Ford and his debut feature, the deeply personal and long-gestating “Strong Island,” emerged as the night’s biggest winner, pulling in wins for Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Debut, and Outstanding Nonfiction Feature Film. Ford’s win for Outstanding Direction was also a history-maker: the filmmaker is the first to ever win the award for a debut film.
Read More:Cinema Eye Honors Announces Nominees; ‘Strong Island,...
No surprise then that Yance Ford and his debut feature, the deeply personal and long-gestating “Strong Island,” emerged as the night’s biggest winner, pulling in wins for Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Debut, and Outstanding Nonfiction Feature Film. Ford’s win for Outstanding Direction was also a history-maker: the filmmaker is the first to ever win the award for a debut film.
Read More:Cinema Eye Honors Announces Nominees; ‘Strong Island,...
- 1/12/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Before she directed “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig brought a unique rhythm and cadence to the characters she played. The pinnacle of this came in “Frances Ha” and “Mistress America,” scripts she co-wrote with director Noah Baumbach, in which her characters’ graceful awkwardness and effortless rapid-fire line deliveries established her as one of her generation’s most exciting leading ladies. “Lady Bird,” Gerwig’s first solo directing credit, embodies so much of that Gerwig rhythm and feel — but with the actress behind the camera.
When Gerwig was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, she traced this back to her love of playwrights and not the Diy, improv-heavy microbudget productions that first introduced her to indie film fans.
“As a writer my writing was grounded in writing plays and admiring playwrights and in theater the playwright is king, you don’t change those words – you don’t change Kenneth Lonergan’s words,...
When Gerwig was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, she traced this back to her love of playwrights and not the Diy, improv-heavy microbudget productions that first introduced her to indie film fans.
“As a writer my writing was grounded in writing plays and admiring playwrights and in theater the playwright is king, you don’t change those words – you don’t change Kenneth Lonergan’s words,...
- 1/5/2018
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Ever since he was kid growing up in Brooklyn, Darren Aronofsky was drawn to alternative and polarizing forms of art. As a teenager, he would take the train into Greenwich Village to see underground films like “Liquid Sky” and “Clockwork Orange,” while falling in love with the cinema of directors like David Cronenberg.
“I think my tastes have always laid into those type of films, which are often polarizing and different, that’s just my taste,” said Aronofsky when he was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “All these films that I guess were supposed to be cool, but they kind of got me excited and moved me in different ways.”
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All of Aronofsky’s films have been cut from this same cloth, to one degree or another, but none more so than his latest, “mother!,” which the director knew would strike particularly strong reactions.
“I think my tastes have always laid into those type of films, which are often polarizing and different, that’s just my taste,” said Aronofsky when he was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “All these films that I guess were supposed to be cool, but they kind of got me excited and moved me in different ways.”
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All of Aronofsky’s films have been cut from this same cloth, to one degree or another, but none more so than his latest, “mother!,” which the director knew would strike particularly strong reactions.
- 12/29/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Because “Get Out” has been so commercially and critically successful it may seem, in retrospect, obvious how a black man visiting his white girlfriend’s family in the suburbs would be the perfect premise for a horror film. But that doesn’t give nearly enough credit to the incredible balancing act writer/director Jordan Peele executed in avoiding the tremendous risks involved with making the film.
“The worst fear would be that people wouldn’t have fun,” said Peele while he was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast. “It’s an entirely uncomfortable movie, a reminder of everything that is wrong with this country, but without the escape.”
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast
Right from the start, Peele knew he didn’t want to make a film about race that was comfortable. He wanted to make a film that captured what people of color experience daily,...
“The worst fear would be that people wouldn’t have fun,” said Peele while he was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast. “It’s an entirely uncomfortable movie, a reminder of everything that is wrong with this country, but without the escape.”
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast
Right from the start, Peele knew he didn’t want to make a film about race that was comfortable. He wanted to make a film that captured what people of color experience daily,...
- 12/22/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
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