Category Archives: Film Festivals

Moving beyond the US to the rest of the world, International Perspectives closes out today’s DOC NYC 2014 preview: Continue reading →

My DOC NYC 2014 preview turns to the festival’s panoramic view of the US: American Perspectives Continue reading →

The second of two feature competitions closes out today’s preview of DOC NYC 2014: Metropolis, focused on quintessentially NYC subjects and stories. Continue reading →

My look at DOC NYC 2014 continues with an overview of this year’s Special Events, signature selections with notable special guests: Continue reading →

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 29 sees the start of the 9th annual DocsDF: The International Documentary Film Festival of Mexico City. Attracting tens of thousands of attendees through its wrap up on Sunday, November 9, the festival presents a range of diverse programming, including competitions for new Mexican, Ibero-American, and international work, highlighted below: Continue reading →

America’s largest documentary festival, DOC NYC, celebrates its 5th anniversary next month, presenting over 150 films and events November 13-20. As the festival’s Director of Programming, I’m looking forward to presenting this work to our audience here in New York, and will once again profile each programming section here, starting with our Gala presentations. Continue reading →

Germany’s longest-lived documentary festival, DOK Leipzig, celebrates its 57th year beginning today, Monday, October 27, and running through Sunday, November 2. Dedicated to both documentary and animation, the event traditionally champions a unique range of films, tending to more unusual and sometimes challenging fare. This year is no different, as the following nonfiction highlights reveal: Continue reading →

One of the United Arab Emirates’ key film events, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, celebrates its 8th year starting tonight, Thursday, October 23, and running through Saturday, November 1. With programming that balances the regional debuts of films that have already garnered acclaim at key international events like Cannes and Sundance with new work from the Arab world, the festival offers scores of shorts and nearly 90 features, of which just over two dozen are nonfiction, many of which are noted below.

Among the Documentary Feature Competition entries with UAE production support presented are: Samir’s IRAQI ODYSSEY, a personal, 3D chronicle of five decades of family dislocation; Merieme Addou and Rosa Rogers’ PIRATES OF SALÉ (pictured), about a circus set in a Moroccan slum; Yasmin Fedda’s QUEENS OF SYRIA, in which Syrian refugee women perform an updated version of THE TROJAN WOMEN; Nujoom Al Ghanem’s SOUNDS OF THE SEA, following an old singer in his quest to sing folklore to local fishermen; and Nadine Salib’s MOTHER OF THE UNBORN, a portrait of an Egyptian woman stigmatized because of her inability to become pregnant.