- Doc Soup: Two More Films for Veteran's Day
Having given a good think to Veteran’s Day and the film Hearts and Minds, I came across two other veteran-related films, one old and one new, that I think are worth tracking down. First, the new: Dan Cogan, from Impact Partners, whom I interviewed several weeks ago, tells me that Impact’s How to Fold a […]
- Doc Soup: Looking Back at “Hearts and Minds”
Someone once told me that there’s a historical rule that the greatest eras of documentary filmmaking have coincided with the times that the United States has been at war. So, we’d have to look at 1940-1945, 1950-1953, 1965-1973 (give or take a few years), and then 2003 to now. I suppose there’s truth to this […]
- POV to Relaunch “Re: Vietnam” as “Regarding War” Next Month
In 1996, a “dog’s age ago” in Internet time, POV launched one of our first websites entitled “Re: Vietnam | Stories Since the War.” It was conceived as a companion website to the POV/PBS broadcast of the Academy Award-winning film, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision. On the site’s homepage, a quote from Maya Lin […]
- Doc Soup: Remastered Vietnam War Doc “Hearts and Minds” Back in Theaters
What’s this?!?! A documentary film being remastered and restored and re-released to theaters like it were a regular
.classic film? Okay, so maybe this is not the first time, but it seems that Hearts and Minds, the 1974 Academy Award-winning doc about the Vietnam War, certainly got the royal treatment for its re-release to theaters on […]
- Soldiers of Conscience's Gary Weimberg Answers Viewer Questions
Gary Weimberg and Catherine Ryan produced and directed Soldiers of Conscience, which had its broadcast premiere on PBS on October 16 but if you missed the broadcast, the full film is available online through November 30. Last month, Gary participated in a live chat hosted by PBS Engage and answered viewer questions online. Time […]
- Watch 'Boomtown' Online and Celebrate Native American Heritage Month
As Americans come off a historic day at the polls, American Documentary (the producer of POV) presents a film about America’s national identity. Boomtown, by Bryan Gunnar Cole, portrays the selling of fireworks by the Suquamish Nation–exploring life, liberty and the politics of Indian sovereignty in America. November is Native American Heritage Month. Celebrate by […]
- What's Your POV About 'Soldiers of Conscience'?
For those of you coming to this entry post-broadcast, Soldiers of Conscience is available on the POV website through November 30, 2008. Watch it now and return here afterward to enter your comments on the film. Soldiers of Conscience is not a film that tells an audience what to think, nor is it about the […]
- Ask the Filmmakers: Soldiers of Conscience's Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg
With Soldiers of Conscience, filmmakers Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg confront the question of what it means for a person to kill another human being. As told through the eyes of both active military personnel and conscientious objectors, the film presents a dramatic window on the dilemma facing individual U.S. soldiers in the current Iraq […]
- Do You Have a Question for Aidan Delgado, Joshua Casteel, or Lt. Col. Pete Kilner?
Three of the people who were featured in Soldiers of Conscience — Lt. Col. Pete Kilner and conscientious objectors Aidan Delgado and Joshua Casteel — will answer questions from viewers during the week following Thursday, October 16, 2008. Soldiers of Conscience airs on most PBS stations on Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 9 PM. (Schedules […]
- Ask the Filmmakers: The Judge and the General's Elizabeth Farnsworth and Patricio Lanfranco
The Judge and the General filmmaker Patricio Lanfranco was 19 years old when General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected Chilean president Salvadore Allende in 1973. His co-director, Elizabeth Farnsworth, had spent time filming in Chile in 1970, and some of the people she had met there were killed in the coup. Elizabeth and Patricio […]
- The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández's Kieran Fitzgerald Answers Viewer Question
Kieran Fitzgerald is the director of The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández. After the film aired on July 8, viewers wrote in with questions for Kieran on the POV Blog. Read on as he answers questions about the equipment used in making the film, the decision to include President George W. Bush in the story and […]
- What's Your POV?
The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández tells a frightening and cautionary tale about the dangers of using military as domestic law enforcement — a role that the military, under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, had been prohibited from taking. In 1997, U.S. Marines patrolling the Texas-Mexican border as part of the U.S. war on drugs […]
- Doc Soup: Tipping a Hat to 'Full Battle Rattle' and Other War Docs
Ack! Not another doc about Iraq! Ah yes, this Wednesday we are being treated to Full Battle Rattle, another film related to that unfortunate war we’re waging, and I’m quite sure we doc fans are soon going to be treated to more newspaper stories declaring the film DOA at the BO, relegating its fate along […]
- Doc Roundup: June 20, 2008
IN THEATERS Werner Herzog‘s Encounters at the End of the World opened in limited release on June 11. The film follows Herzog’s travels in Antarctica, from the 1,100-person community of McMurdo Station, to the Ross Sea, to the Erebus volcano, capturing as many of nature’s sights as possible. Encounters at the End of the World […]
- Doc Soup: On Docs, Distribution and the Cinematic Experience
Last week, two docs from 2007, What Would Jesus Buy? and Darfur Now were released on DVD. They both disappointed at the box office. I think I know why. I don’t like to knock a doc when it’s down, but when I noticed that they were both hitting DVD shelves, I thought there’s something worth […]
- 2008 POV Preview: '9 Star Hotel'
On July 22nd, POV will broadcast 9 Star Hotel by Ido Haar, which takes a unique look at the lives of Palestinian workers. Here’s a sneak peek. 9 Star Hotel documents the lives of a group of young Palestinian men working illegally as construction laborers in the Israeli city of Modi’in. Caught between Israeli security […]
- Doc Soup: Waltz with Bashir
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 […]
- Doc Soup: 'Standard Operating Procedure'
Why can’t they just leave Errol Morris alone? I know I’m coming a little late to the conversation, but the guy makes the most sensitive, humanizing films that try to bridge our understanding of human frailty, oddity, evil and injustice. One of his films even got a guy off of death row. And he has […]