Category Archives: In the Works

An inside look at the complex forces behind the Democratic Republic of Congo’s ongoing conflicts.

The history of the DRC has been synonymous with conflict. The country is among the poorest – its wealth of natural resources benefitting not its people, but shady middlemen, corrupt politicians, multinational electronics corporations, and, ultimately, end users in the developed world. The vast majority of Congolese instead suffer through perpetual war, with their women raped and their children forced into combat. Director Daniel McCabe tells the stories of several Congolese on various sides of the conflicts, demonstrating the connections between instability and violence in the region and the market in illegally mined natural resources. Continue reading →

In the Works is a regular feature of this blog on most Fridays – a brief look at a documentary currently in production or post-production, often but not always while it’s in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign. Occasionally, I’ve been contacted by filmmakers to consider writing about their own projects, while more typically I’ve chanced upon films on my own.

As an experiment, I’ve decided to make the former process more standardized by adding a simple submission form on my Contact page. Let me know about your feature-length documentary and I’ll consider writing about it. As noted on the page, however, I likely won’t be able to write about every film submitted, based on some combination of available space, time, and personal interest – but I’m very curious to hear about what w(n)td readers are working on, and drawing attention to some of them by profiling them here.

Animation blends with traditional interviews to reveal the interior world of one of the most infamous prisoners in the US penal system.

In 1981, at 19, Mark DeFriest was sentenced to four years in the Florida prison system for a non-violent crime, despite being declared mentally incompetent prior to his trial by numerous experts. More than three decades later, DeFriest’s still in prison, his original sentence extended time and time again due to his frequent and ingenious escape attempts – many of them successful. Having experienced the worst of prison life – rape, violence, solitary confinement – his advocates feel it’s time to make a push for the mentally ill man’s freedom. Having gained direct access, director Gabriel London interviews the “Houdini of Florida” in prison, as well as the psychologist whose dissenting opinion on DeFriest’s competency helped secure his original conviction, and follows the prisoner’s latest parole attempt. Along the way, London uses creative animation to reveal DeFriest’s unique way of making sense of the alien world of the prison system that has been his home for his entire adult life. Continue reading →

The Beatles’ concert tours, revealed through never-before-seen footage, crowdsourced from the fans who were there.

Recognizing the lasting, global impact of the Beatles on music and culture, the production company One Voice One World is working on a project to assemble a multifaceted archival project on Beatlemania. Authorized by Apple Corps, they are crowdsourcing the discovery of rare and personal photos, film, audio recordings, and other ephemera of the Beatles made during their concert tours between October 1963 – the birth of Beatlemania – and August 29, 1966, their final concert at Candlestick Park. Submitted media, such as the concert a fan filmed in Forest Hills in 1964 (pictured), will be considered for inclusion in a planned feature doc exploring and celebrating Beatlemania. Continue reading →

The director of multi-festival award winner SIERRA LEONE’S REFUGEE ALL STARS turns his camera on his mother, grappling with Alzheimer’s and with her complex relationship with her own mother.

When she is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, Pam White and her family have to adjust to the changes she is experiencing, and the growing dependency she must have on those around her. When the disease makes it difficult for Pam to continue writing her memoir about her artist mother, Marian Williams Steele, who herself suffered from Alzheimer’s, her son Banker films Pam’s remembrances as a way to keep her working on the project. Working with co-director Anna Fitch, Banker White has developed this personal story into an exploration not only of two influential women in his family, but of universal themes of memory, illness, and loss. Continue reading →

Two filmmaking sisters tell the story of their former home – America’s largest commune.

In the early 1970s, a group of more than 300 hippies traveled by caravan from San Francisco across the US to eventually settle in Tennessee. Purchasing over a thousand acres, they founded The Farm, a self-governing, self-sufficient commune that grew to 1,500 members by 1980, and attracted curious visitors by the thousands. Sisters Nadine Mundo and Rena Mundo Croshere were born there. Though they left The Farm as children, it left its indelible mark. Seeking out the founders of this still-extant alternative society, and through interviews with their parents and fellow Farm children, the Mundos offer an insider’s view of a fascinating social experiment. Continue reading →

The director of the child-focused THE SOUND OF MUMBAI trains her camera on a young Russian orphan struggling to fit into her new adoptive American family.

When the Wisconsinite Diaz family adopts Masha, an eleven-year-old raised in a Russian orphanage, they find a young girl much different from their own fourteen-year-old Cami. Faced with the challenge of establishing a bond with Masha – who has never encountered parental love before – as well as with their adopted five-year-old twins, they seek help in the form of a scientific program of therapy devised by one of the leaders in child attachment, developmental psychologist, Professor Robert Marvin, PhD. Filmmaker Sarah McCarthy follows them over a year as the family tries to learn to come together, supplementing this real-life application of Marvin’s principles with archival footage of past animal and human research around concepts of attachment and love, like Harry Harlow’s infamous soft mother/wire mother monkey experiments, to show, as the film’s tagline says, how “science can change the way you love.” Continue reading →

A filmmaker sets out to uncover the forgotten story of a Chinese-American filmmaker who was behind a lost Oscar-winning documentary, and discovers much more.

Seeking Asian-American film role models, Hawaiian filmmaker Robin Lung learned of the little-remembered author, actress, and lecturer, Li Ling-Ai, herself Hawaiian. Ling-Ai was involved in the production of KUKAN, a 1941 documentary about China’s struggle against Japan prior to WWII – a film recognized with an honorary Oscar before the Academy had a Best Documentary category, and, sadly the sole documentary Oscar winner for which there were no known existing film prints or even video copies. In the process of tracking down information about Ling-Ai, and clarifying her role on the film, which was credited to Rey Scott, a freelance photographer who had never made a film before, Lung manages to do what archivists had not been able to – find a copy of the lost KUKAN! Her documentary tells the story of that discovery, and reintroduces Scott, and, most importantly, Ling-Ai to the world. Continue reading →

Decades before Oprah Winfrey and Arsenio Hall established African Americans as popular talk show hosts, Ellis Haizlip paved the way with his PBS show SOUL!

In 1968, against the backdrop of the radical changes wrought by the Civil Rights movement, Haizlip conceived of and launched SOUL!, which has been referred to as “the Black TONIGHT SHOW,” on a local New York station. By 1969, the hour-long weekly series began being broadcast nationwide on PBS – the only show of its kind, produced by and geared toward African Americans. Lasting five seasons, SOUL! exposed the country to the diversity of African American arts, music, culture, and politics, often presenting the first TV appearances of entertainers who became household names. Directors Sam Pollard and Melissa Haizlip set out to share the story of SOUL!, and, significantly, that of Haizlip – an openly gay, politically active African American man – with a new generation. Continue reading →