- Doc Soup: Best Reviewed Docs from Rottentomatoes.com
Are you as much of a Rotten Tomatoes junkie as I am? I’ve always enjoyed perusing the site’s compilations of critical reactions to a film. It’s about as indispensable to me as imdb.com, the Internet Movie Database, where you can get information about the producers, cast, release dates and more on a film. Well, last […]
- Doc Roundup: March 6, 2008
IN THEATERS From The Unforeseen Laura Dunn‘s The Unforeseen, executive produced by Terrence Malick and Robert Redford, tells the story of massive real estate developments near Austin, Texas and their impact on the environment. The film, called “part straight-ahead land-war documentary and part elegiac contemplation of the earth and what humans do to it” by […]
- From the Archives: Documentaries for Women's History Month
March is National Women’s History Month, so why not curl up with some films from the POV archives that celebrate amazing, courageous women from around the country? The women showcased in these three POV films — an African-American Congresswoman running for president; a Christian teenager from Lubbock, Texas; and an Asian-American architect — are very […]
- Valentine's Day Docs: POV Staff Picks
Who says Valentine's Day has to be all about flowers and candy?
- Documentary Filmmakers at Sundance
For two weeks each January, the film world turns its attention to Park City, Utah. The Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the U.S., brings out the stars, the buyers and filmmakers from around the world. This year’s festival will begin on Thursday, January 17. For documentary filmmakers, having a film selected […]
- Doc Roundup: January 10, 2007
IN THEATERS Chuck Close — painter, photographer, printmaker — is the subject of a new documentary film by Marion Cajori, Chuck Close: An Elegant Portrait of the Art World’s Leading Portraitist. Previously, Ms. Cajori had made a short film that aired on PBS in 1998 called Chuck Close: A Portrait in Progress. The new feature-length […]
- Doc Roundup: Best Docs of 2007
By all accounts, 2007 was a great year for American films. In addition to a slate of wildly acclaimed fictional films, a number of well regarded documentaries made their way into theaters. Unfortunately, most of those documentaries didn’t fare so well at the box office. However, some of them have made it onto “Best Of” […]
- Doc Roundup: December 20, 2007
IN THEATERS A still from Steal a Pencil For Me The new documentary Steal a Pencil For Me, by Michàle Ohayon, promises to be a Holocaust story unlike any other you’ve seen. Jack and Ina Polak fell in love in a concentration camp in 1943. He was also married to someone else at the time. […]
- Gift Guide: The Gift of Documentaries
Looking for a gift for your history-obsessed uncle? Your environmentally-conscious friend? Your urban sophisticate of a brother-in-law? Documentary DVDs could be the way to their heart this holiday season. When it comes to ordering documentaries, the glut of online stores selling DVDs make purchasing and shipping a breeze, but buyers and gifters beware: despite what […]
- Doc Roundup: December 13, 2007
IN THEATERS A film still from Nanking In 1937, Japan invaded the Chinese city of Nanking (now called Nanjing). They slaughtered over 200,000 civilians and committed 20,000 rapes in six weeks. The new film Nanking by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman remembers this event, also known as the rape of Nanking. Twenty-two Europeans and Americans […]
- Doc Roundup: December 6, 2007
Our weekly doc roundup collects critical reactions to some current documentary releases in the theaters and on DVD. IN THEATERS from Billy the Kid Billy the Kid, Jennifer Venditti’s first film, is a portrait of a troubled, misfit 10th grader named Billy Price. The critic for the Village Voice says “I have seen more than […]
- Doc Roundup: November 30, 2007
The Film Independent’s 2008 Spirit Award nominees were announced on Tuesday, and quite a few of the docs (in both the Best Documentary category and the Truer Than Fiction category) are already available on DVD. Here’s your chance to check out some of the nominated films well before the winners are announced on February 23, […]
- Doc Roundup: Thanksgiving Edition
Thanksgiving: a time for family, food, more food and for some, football. But for those of us who aren’t interested in football but still keen to sit on the couch and watch TV while digesting our turkey, there are a number of recent food-related documentaries that are both entertaining and provocative. from Our Daily Bread […]
- Doc Roundup: November 16, 2007
Our weekly doc roundup collects critical reactions to some current documentary releases in the theaters and on DVD. IN THEATERS NOW It’s a sparse week for documentary releases in the theaters. The only major release is Rob VanAlkemade’s What Would Jesus Buy, which follows the anti-consumerist Reverend Billy, a performance artist and mock evangelist who […]
- Doc Roundup: October 25th, 2007
This week’s new docs all seem to focus on already well-known figures. Incidentally, all of them happen to be white men… Jonathan Demme’s Jimmy Carter Man From Plains followed the former president during his book tour for Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” an accordingly to most critics, portrays Carter in the most flattering of lights. The […]
- Doc Roundup: October 11th, 2007
Our weekly doc roundup collects critical reactions to some current documentary releases in the theaters and on DVD. IN THEATERS NOW Helvetica, the documentary about a typeface, gets four stars from the Chicago Tribune, which calls the film “…80 unexpectedly blissful minutes.” But apparently, 80 minutes was too long for the New York Times, which […]