Author Archives: basiltsiokos

About basiltsiokos

Basil Tsiokos is a Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, focusing on nonfiction features. He was most recently with DOC NYC for nearly a decade, where he served as Director of Programming since 2014, and with the Nantucket Film Festival as its Film Program Director. Prior to those positions, Basil was the longtime Artistic and Executive Director of NewFest. He has been affiliated with Sundance since 2005 as a Programming Associate. Basil serves on the feature nominating committees for the International Documentary Association Awards and Cinema Eye Honors. He has written about documentaries daily since 2010 on what (not) to doc. Basil holds a Masters degree from New York University and two undergraduate degrees from Stanford University.

January 12, 2018 · 12:01 PM

2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: QUIET HEROES

Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Torben Bernhard

QUIET HEROES
Jenny Mackenzie, Jared Ruga, and Amanda Stoddard recognize the only doctor in the state of Utah who would treat patients with AIDS in the early years of the epidemic.

Festival Section:
Documentary Premieres
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Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance

January 12, 2018 · 11:15 AM

2018 Cinema Eye Honors Winners

The 11th annual Cinema Eye Honors, recognizing achievements in non-fiction film from 2017, were celebrated at the Museum of the Moving Image at a ceremony last evening. Earlier this week, the organization announced its Legacy Award winner, Leon Gast’s WHEN WE WERE KINGS; as well as THE FLORIDA PROJECT as the winner of the Heterodox Award, which annually goes to a fiction film that incorporates nonfiction strategies; and ICARUS as the winner of the Hell Yeah! Prize, celebrated work that has had a significant, demonstrable real-world impact.

Below is the full list of winners announced at last night’s ceremony, which was hosted for the third year in a row by the very funny documentarian Steve James. I was happy to once again serve on the Nominations Committee. Congratulations to all the winners, nominees, and the Cinema Eye organizers.

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
STRONG ISLAND

Audience Choice Prize
JANE

Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Yance Ford for STRONG ISLAND

Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Lindsay Utz for QUEST

Outstanding Achievement in Production
Kareem Abeed, Stefan Kloos, and Søren Steen Jespersen for LAST MEN IN ALEPPO

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
Andrew Ackerman and Jeff Orlowski for CHASING CORAL

Outstanding Acheivement in Nonfiction Films Made for Television
THE KEEPERS

Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
STRONG ISLAND

Outstanding Achievement in an Original Music Score
Philip Glass for JANE

Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation
Stefan Nadelman for LONG STRANGE TRIP

Spotlight Award
LOTS OF KIDS, A MONKEY AND A CASTLE

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
THE RABBIT HUNT

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Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations

January 11, 2018 · 3:02 PM

2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: KING IN THE WILDERNESS

Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Flip Schulke Archives/Getty Images

KING IN THE WILDERNESS
Peter Kunhardt explores the final years of Martin Luther King Jr, against a backdrop of America’s social and political turmoil.

Festival Section:
Documentary Premieres
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Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance

January 11, 2018 · 2:12 PM

In Theatres: WHAT LIES UPSTREAM

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, January 12:
WHAT LIES UPSTREAM

Director:
Cullen Hoback

Premiere:
Slamdance 2017

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Seattle, AFI Docs, Traverse City, Dallas, Sonoma, Ashland

About:
The filmmaker investigates the coverup behind drinking water contamination in West Virginia.

Hoback, taking a crusading Michael Moore/Josh Fox approach, appears throughout his film as an onscreen guide and narrator – an unnecessarily excessive and at times clumsy device – as he tries to get to the bottom of a spill that took place in early 2014 in Charleston’s Elk River which might never have been revealed save for a distinctive licorice smell in the drinking water. Fingers point to Freedom Industries, but Hoback suspects the chemical company is a convenient fall guy for a much deeper problem. The filmmaker finds compelling figures in local health department head Dr Rahul Gupta, who questions the safety of the contaminated water despite state official reassurances; and in Randy Huffman, head of WV’s Department of Environmental Protection, who is surprisingly open about how the organization primarily serves to help corporate exploitation of resources. Hoback’s digging revels the collusion of corporate interests with the government, evidence of regulatory capture in a broken system that works for industry rather than the public good.