For one week of the year, the genre that spends most of its time in the cultural margins moves to center stage. The Sundance Film Festival, which continues until this Saturday, places documentaries on a white hot pedestal, so I asked director Marshall Curry, whose POV film If a Tree Falls is premiering there, to […]

Another year is upon us so let’s look forward to 2011 for the most exciting and intriguing things that’ll be happening in the documentary world. Here are five that are on my radar: 5) The Launch of OWN The Oprah Winfrey Network means a whole new outlet for doc material but there’s even more here. […]

We’ve been talking a lot lately in the Doc Soup kitchen about really well made documentaries that actually effect change, so I’ve compiled a list of the Most Aesthetically Accomplished Documentary Films that Come with a Social Agenda. I’m not going to include war documentaries, although there happen to be several excellent ones (Operation Homecoming: […]

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 […]

It’s end of the year wrap-up time, at a juncture when the world of movies and entertainment and even docs seems a little removed from what’s really on our minds: we appear to be stuck in the muck (but for how long?), though many of us are hopeful that an Obama administration could bring great […]

Maybe it’s the Obama campaign, but the activist in me is coming out and I’ve got something I’m fired up about. I have to admit, it’s not entirely a selfless cause. It’s something that could have great political impact, but, just as important, it’s something that could make us all laugh. And I think we […]

In addition to the exciting tidbit that Michael Moore‘s next film will be a follow-up to Fahrenheit 9/11, the most enticing news from the Cannes Film Festival, which just concluded, is about an Israeli documentary called Waltz with Bashir. It’s a fully animated film by a former Israeli soldier, Ari Folman, who’s trying to reckon […]

I am giddy with joy. Last week, Disney announced that following the box office success of March of the Penguins (a bit of a delayed reaction, no?), it is launching a new film production unit called Disneynature to produce and distribute documentary films. I grew up watching Mutual of Omaha‘s nature show and then the […]

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 […]

The hot theatrical doc season begins! The month of April sees two much-anticipated documentaries being released, Errol Morris‘ Standard Operating Procedure (on April 25) and Morgan Spurlock‘s Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (on April 18). Although both of these are from A-list filmmakers, these two documentaries have a lot stacked against them […]

According to Variety, the best-selling book, Freakonomics, is being adapted into a documentary that will begin shooting in January for release next summer. POV alums Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (Boys of Baraka, POV 2006), Laura Poitras (My Country, My Country, POV 2006), and noted filmmakers Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), Alex Gibney (Enron: The […]

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 […]

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 […]