- The DocAviv Film Festival
POV executive director Simon Kilmurry attended DocAviv, a documentary film festival in Tel Aviv. He writes in with a report. DocAviv, Israel’s premiere documentary festival, wrapped up a remarkable 10th anniversary edition on April 12. I attended the festival for the first time this year, and had the pleasure of serving on the jury for […]
- Weekly Roundup: March 28, 2008
Cinematical reviews the Iraq War documentary Body of War, directed by former talk show host Phil Donahue and filmmaker Ellen Spiro. Read an interview with the filmmakers, along with Tomas Young, the Iraq War veteran who is the subject of the film, at Democracy Now! The New York Times reviewed Benson Lee‘s Planet B-Boy, a […]
- Web Spotlight: 'War Torn'
Several months ago, Yance Ford recommended a series of short films about the Iraq War entitled War Torn for our online short film festival. After a little googling, I realized that the series is already available on the Web, at Channel Four’s excellent Dispatches website. So I put the DVD aside, and moved on to […]
- Weekend Web Roundup
The documentary blogosphere weighs in with reactions to the inaugural Cinema Eye Awards held last week in New York City. Our own Yance Ford offered her reaction last week. The Reeler Blog’s S.T. VanAirsdale summarizes the evening as well, calling it an evening “organized by friends for friends” and criticizing the awards for bowing to […]
- Doc Roundup: March 6, 2008
IN THEATERS From The Unforeseen Laura Dunn‘s The Unforeseen, executive produced by Terrence Malick and Robert Redford, tells the story of massive real estate developments near Austin, Texas and their impact on the environment. The film, called “part straight-ahead land-war documentary and part elegiac contemplation of the earth and what humans do to it” by […]
- Doc Soup: Looking into Oscar's Crystal Ball
The Oscars are taking place this Sunday, so I’ll do my best to break down who has the best shot at winning in the Documentary Feature category. First, let’s just do away with Operation Homecoming and War/Dance. You know it hurts me to say it, after having advocated so strongly for both films, but their […]
- Thoughts on the WGA Nominations and Doc Audiences
I was intrigued and troubled by David Poland’s recent blog post about the Writers Guild of America (WGA) awards. In his critique of the awards, Poland says: “Third, has anyone outside of the WGA seen the top doc vote-getter, The Camden 28? The film was release [sic] by First Look in July on 1 screen […]
- Doc Soup: A New Award for Documentaries
Ah, the doc world never sleeps. There I was, slowly plotting my next blog post about the January 12 deadline for submitting Oscar nomination ballots: I was going to make an 11th hour pitch for Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, the fantastic doc based on writings by U.S. soldiers in Iraq by Richard Robbins. […]
- Doc Roundup: December 20, 2007
IN THEATERS A still from Steal a Pencil For Me The new documentary Steal a Pencil For Me, by Michàle Ohayon, promises to be a Holocaust story unlike any other you’ve seen. Jack and Ina Polak fell in love in a concentration camp in 1943. He was also married to someone else at the time. […]
- UNICEF Photo of the Year Award – Stephanie Sinclair
Freelance photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair has won the 2007 UNICEF photo of the year award for her striking portrait of a 40-year-man and his 11-year-old bride in Afghanistan. Portrait of soon to be wed Faiz Mohammed, 40, and Ghulam Haider, 11, at her home in a rural village of Damarda in Ghor province © Stephanie Sinclair […]
- Gift Guide: The Gift of Documentaries
Looking for a gift for your history-obsessed uncle? Your environmentally-conscious friend? Your urban sophisticate of a brother-in-law? Documentary DVDs could be the way to their heart this holiday season. When it comes to ordering documentaries, the glut of online stores selling DVDs make purchasing and shipping a breeze, but buyers and gifters beware: despite what […]
- Ask a Filmmaker: Freida Lee Mock Answers, Part I
Last week, POV aired Academy Award-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock’s latest film, Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner. Viewers wrote in with questions about the film for Ms. Mock via email and via blog comments. She’ll be answering a selection of those questions on the POV Blog this week. Question: Wrestling With Angels is about […]
- Doc Soup: A Whimper at the Box Office for Docs in 2007
As the curtain rises on another entry into the blogosphere, let me quickly introduce myself: My name is Tom Roston, and I was a Senior Editor at Premiere magazine — where I covered movies 24/7 for ten years — until that publication folded this year. I have always been a passionate fan of documentaries, particularly […]
- Doc Roundup: December 13, 2007
IN THEATERS A film still from Nanking In 1937, Japan invaded the Chinese city of Nanking (now called Nanjing). They slaughtered over 200,000 civilians and committed 20,000 rapes in six weeks. The new film Nanking by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman remembers this event, also known as the rape of Nanking. Twenty-two Europeans and Americans […]
- 'Freakonomics' Documentary in the Works
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 […]
- Documentary Short: Star Spangled Blues
POV alums Doug Hawes-Davis and Drury Gunn Carr (Libby, Montana, 2007) made their documentary short, Star Spangled Blues, as part of the International Documentary Challenge, a timed filming competition, held every year in March. The short won the best writing and best original song awards. Star Spangled Blues (2006) is a contemplative and moving look […]
- Film Independent Spirit Award Noms Announced
The nominations for the 2008 Film Independent Spirit Awards were announced on Monday morning by ceremony hosts Zach Braff and Lisa Kudrow in Los Angeles. The Spirit Awards celebrate independent (and low budget) filmmaking. Eligible films must be at least 70 minutes long, and the cost of the completed film, including post-production, must be under […]
- Documentary Filmmaker Panel: Bringing War Home
The Starz Denver Film Festival is taking place this week and I just listened to a great podcast of a panel held yesterday about the role of documentary filmmakers in covering the war in Iraq. The festival is featuring several new non-fiction films about Iraq including Alex Gibney‘s Taxi to the Dark Side, Gary Weimberg […]