February 15, 2017 | POV’s daily list of essential reading for the documentary and independent filmmaking community.
The Frontier of Documentary Filmmaking at MoMA
From the plight of workers at a massive textile factory in western India (Machines, February 16) to the youth protest movement spearheaded by two rappers in Senegal (The Revolution Won’t Be Televised, February 17 and 18) to the lives of families in the Chinese cities that process the world’s plastic waste (Plastic China, February 22, 23), this year’s edition of Doc Fortnight offers a global portrait of hardship, upheaval, and creative problem-solving.
Read more | Hyperallergic »
Notorious B.I.G. Authorized Documentary Announced
The Notorious B.I.G. will be the subject of a new authorized documentary, Variety reports. The film, tentatively titled Notorious B.I.G.: One More Chance, will be made in collaboration with his mother, Violetta Wallace. Directed by Emmet and Brendan Malloy (The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights), it’s currently in development with Submarine Entertainment (Muscle Shoals, Miss Sharon Jones!) and ByStorm. The companies made the announcement at the Berlin Film Festival. “The challenge of making a film about one of the most influential artists of my generation is what I live for as a filmmaker,” director Emmet Malloy said.
Read more | Pitchfork »
Capturing James Baldwin’s Legacy Onscreen
The movie moves, and James Baldwin moves in it. Sometimes he looks like a graceful queen, as he sits, poised, his back erect with grand indulgence or tolerance or love. His expressive hands cut through the air during this or that interview, speaking a wordless language of their own, as the former boy preacher from Harlem, small, dark, and compact, talks and talks about race, sounding like no one else on earth. It’s Baldwin’s voice—his luminescent words describing and analyzing dark matters—that ties together Raoul Peck’s latest film, I Am Not Your Negro, which is about many things, including the writer’s relationship to racial politics and the fantastic yet undermining power of the cinema’s racially defined images.
Read more | New Yorker »
Jon Stewart Jabs Donald Trump at Screening for Oscar-Nominated Documentary Short About Holocaust Survivor
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Jon Stewart took the stage after a screening of the Oscar-nominated short film Joe’s Violin in New York on Monday, but Stewart quickly had the crowd in stitches — all at President Donald Trump’s expense.
Read more | IndieWire »
Netflix Grants Public Screening Access for Ava DuVernay’s Documentary ’13th’
Netflix has granted public screening access to Ava DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated documentary 13th for classrooms, community groups, book clubs, and other educational settings. The streaming service said Tuesday that there has been a groundswell of interest from elementary school, universities, another other educational institutions asking for permission to screen the film. 13th — which takes its title from the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery — explores the link between slavery and the modern-day prison system.
Read more | Varierty »
Upcoming Festivals and Deadlines
This Week
- Berlinale Feb 9 – 19
- Doc Fortnight 2017: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media Feb 16 – 26
- Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Feb 17 – 26
- Deadline: 2017 Tribeca Snapchat Shorts Submissions Feb 17
- Deadline: Art of Brooklyn Film Festival Submission Feb 17
- Deadline: ITVS Digital Open Call Feb 17
- Deadline: Nantucket Film Festival Submissions Feb 17
Next Week
- Berlinale Feb 9 – 19
- Doc Fortnight 2017: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media Feb 16 – 26
- Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Feb 17 – 26
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