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POV's Documentary Blog



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  • Doc Memo: The Film That Changed a Genre, The Cost of Creative Freedom
    POV's daily list of essential reading for the documentary and independent filmmaking community.
    POV Staff 4 min read August 15, 2016 Documentary News Comments
  • Remembering Documentary Pioneer Albert Maysles
    Tom Roston remembers veteran documentarian and mentor Albert Maysles.
    Tom Roston 3 min read March 6, 2015 Doc Soup Comments
  • The Greatest Documentaries of All Time: Doug Block on 'Sherman's March'
    "[It] was, by turns, quirky and smart, comic and thematically serious, very personal yet highly entertaining, with an auteur's voice stamped indelibly on every frame. It was pure revelation."
    POV Guest Blogger 2 min read November 20, 2012 Documentary News Comments
  • Documentary Year in Review Countdown #8: Cinéma Vérité Pioneer Richard “Ricky” Leacock Dies
    POV is counting down the top documentary stories of 2011 on New Year's Eve 2012.
    POV Staff 1 min read December 31, 2011 Documentary News Comments
  • Doc Soup: Werner Herzog: 'I am the director'
    Who is the director? Albert Maysles and Werner Herzog take two positions after DOC NYC's opening night premiere of Herzog's doc Into the Abyss.
    Tom Roston 3 min read November 3, 2011 Doc Soup Comments
  • Zachary Levy Shows Sensitive Side of 'Strongman'
    The director of the self-distributed documentary (opening in New York City on Friday, September 23, 2011), talks about the film and his vérité influences.
    Adam Schartoff 4 min read September 23, 2011 Documentary News Comments
  • Doc Soup: Ten Best Documentary Film Posters
    Movie posters have always been a hip form of art; the unique images designed for movies such as Anatomy of a Murder, Vertigo and Last Temptation of Christ are as much works of art themselves as they are stunning sales pitches for the movies they were made for. (Mea culpa; throughout my teen years, I […]
    Tom Roston 1 min read February 8, 2010 Doc Soup Comments
  • Doc Soup: The Glittering Docerati at the Cinema Eye Honors
    So, how about those Golden Globes! What, who cares? That’s right — all of you doc lovers know that the real big night in documentary film wasn’t in L.A. on Sunday (the Hollywood Foreign Press doesn’t even have a nonfiction filmmaking category) — it was last Friday, when the third annual Cinema Eye Honors took […]
    Tom Roston 4 min read January 19, 2010 Doc Soup Comments
  • Doc Soup: Best Documentary Characters of All Time
    As promised, it’s time for my “Best Documentary Characters of All Time” list. You may be wondering: How does one go about compiling a list of best characters from nonfiction films? These “characters” aren’t the products of imagination and craft, after all; they are real people. But, wait, don’t we have the expression, “He/she is […]
    Tom Roston 3 min read May 4, 2009 Doc Soup Comments
  • Doc Soup: The 10 Greatest Moments in Documentary Film, Part 2
    Finally — the post that you’ve all been waiting for: my top 5 greatest doc moments. You’ll note that POV’s Ruiyan wins an honorable mention for beating me to the punch in the comments section from last week, with her admiration for Harlan County, USA. What a moment, eh? I agree, and had ranked it […]
    Tom Roston 3 min read April 6, 2009 Doc Soup Comments
  • Doc Soup: 'Johnny Cash', 40 Years Later
    Every Monday, independent journalist Tom Roston checks in and writes about the world of documentaries in his column, Doc Soup. This week, POV is airing 1969’s Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music, a real time capsule of a documentary about the legendary country musician. I am particularly struck by how director Robert Elstrom […]
    Tom Roston 2 min read August 5, 2008 Doc Soup Comments
  • Doc Soup: Test Screenings for Docs?
    Last week, at the premiere for Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? director Morgan Spurlock asked everyone who had worked on the film to stand up. I’d say a good 20% of the audience rose from their seats. “Wow, that is a lot of people. We should have had a test screening with […]
    Tom Roston 3 min read April 21, 2008 Doc Soup Comments
  • Doc Soup: Telling the Truth in Film and in Print
    One of my favorite bands in the 1980s, Depeche Mode, used to sing: “get the balance right.” I might be the first person to quote David Gahan in defense of the mission of the nonfiction writer (what a way to hack at my own credibility), but that’s the state I’m in. I have always tried […]
    Tom Roston 3 min read March 21, 2008 Doc Soup Comments
  • IDA's Top 25 Docs List
    The International Documentary Association (IDA) is celebrating their 25th anniversary this year, and last week they announced their list of the top 25 documentary films of all time. The list was tabulated from a poll of IDA members, which number over 3,000 and include filmmakers, executives and academics. Hoop Dreams snagged the top spot from […]
    theresa 1 min read October 9, 2007 Documentary News Comments