Courtesy of Sundance Institute and CNN Films
Betsy West and Julie Cohen profile the legendary, outspoken US Supreme Court Justice.
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2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: RBG
Betsy West and Julie Cohen profile the legendary, outspoken US Supreme Court Justice.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: QUIET HEROES
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Torben Bernhard
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.
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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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2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: KING IN THE WILDERNESS
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Flip Schulke Archives/Getty Images
Peter Kunhardt explores the final years of Martin Luther King Jr, against a backdrop of America’s social and political turmoil.
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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.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: JANE FONDA IN FIVE ACTS
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo courtesy of Everett Collection
Susan Lacy constructs a compelling portrait exploring the many facets of the living legend.
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2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: HALF THE PICTURE
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Ashly Covington
Amy Adrion surveys the current state of gender bias in Hollywood filmmaking.
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2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: GENERATION WEALTH
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Lauren Greenfield
Lauren Greenfield explores society’s preoccupation with materialism through a review of her photographic and film oeuvre.
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On DVD: CITY OF TREES
New to DVD this week:
CITY OF TREES
Director:
Brandon Kramer
Premiere:
American Conservation Film Festival 2015
Select Festivals:
St Louis, Annapolis, Full Frame, and at enviro fests in Washington DC, Yale, and Princeton
About:
A well-intentioned plan to benefit an impoverished community leads to controversy.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
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2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: THE GAME CHANGERS
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by The Game Changers
Louie Psihoyos explores the misconceptions and truths about plant-based diets.
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what (not) to doc 