June 27, 2016 | POV’s daily list of essential reading for the documentary and independent filmmaking community.
New Documentaries Use Animation to Bring Nonfiction Stories to Life
In recent decades, some of the best documentary films — including Oscar-winners such as Bowling for Columbine and Searching for Sugar Man, and, more recently, festival favorites Point and Shoot and Meet the Patels — have have relied on animation to tell compelling nonfiction stories in nontraditional ways. It’s a technique audiences have grown accustomed to and nonfiction filmmakers have learned to adopt with varying degrees of success. While in the past, documentary purists might have posited that animation had no place in non-fiction storytelling, it’s now largely accepted that even observational documentaries involve some degree of manipulation.
Read more | Filmmaker Magazine »
The Look of Silence and Indonesia’s Quest for Truth and Reconciliation
After filming a group of elderly gangsters boasting about their role in murdering suspected communists in the 1965–66 anti-communist pogrom in Indonesia, American filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer followed it up with another documentary: this time focusing on the family of a massacre victim. The Look of Silence, to be aired on PBS on Monday (tonight) night.
Read more | TIME »
Sandy Hook Parents Speak at AFI Docs Screening of Newtown in Wake of Democrats’ Sit-In
Just hours after Democrats ended their sit-in on the floor of the House of Representatives, two of those who participated were greeted with applause at an AFI Docs screening of Newtown. The documentary, from director Kim A. Snyder and producer Maria Cuomo Cole, is an intensely personal look at how the families of the victims and survivors of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School have grieved and grappled with the horrific tragedy.
Read more | Yahoo Movies »
Watch: Dr. Strangelove Documentary Shows Tons of Amazing Behind-the-Scenes Footage of the Classic Satire
Choosing the best movie Stanley Kubrick ever made is a contentious task fit for the War Room, but deeming one the funniest is considerably easier: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb elicits more laughter than “The Shining,” “2001” and “Eyes Wide Shut” combined. A making-of documentary available on YouTube goes behind the scenes of Kubrick’s political satire.
Read more | IndieWire »
“Medium’s team did everything”: How 5 publishers transitioned their sites to Medium
“Even 15 years after Blogger, it’s still hard to publish on the internet,” a Medium executive told a group of publishers this past spring. Medium has now made it its mission to make publishing easier: After a few years of back-and-forth about whether it was a publisher or a platform (or, ugh, a platisher), the company has stepped firmly into the platform camp.
Read more | Nieman Lab »
This Week
- POV’s Call for Entries closes! 6/30
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival When 7/1 – 7/9
Next Week
- Deadline: DOK LEIPZIG Submissions 7/7
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival When 7/1 – 7/9
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