Documentary
AFI DOCS and Provincetown Fests Will Open and Close with Women-Directed Pics
Cannes, this is how it’s done: projects from female filmmakers are set to kick off and conclude both AFI DOCS and Provincetown International Film Festival. AFI DOCS, a documentary fest in the...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Laura Bari — “Primas”
Laura Bari made her full-length debut with “Antoine,” a documentary about the imaginary life of a blind boy. The film was shown at 30 festivals around the world and won over a dozen prizes. She...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Alba Sotorra — “Commander Arian”
Alba Sotorra is an independent filmmaker and producer based in Barcelona. She has directed a number of documentaries, including “Unveiled Views,” which premiered at Guadalajara International...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Biljana Tutorov — “When Pigs Come”
Biljana Tutorov is a director, producer, film curator, and VJ. In 2010 she founded Wake Up Films, an independent film production company dedicated to young European talent. She is now in...
Trailer Watch: Cannes Film “Whitney” Presents Both Sides of an Incredible Talent
Whitney Houston’s family and friends describe her two sides in a new trailer for “Whitney.” The late singer was an iconic, amazingly gifted artist and performer, but she was also, as one of the...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Audrey Gordon — “Siblings”
Audrey Gordon is a French documentary filmmaker and former journalist. She has directed several documentaries for TV including “Kinderlekh,” “Edith and Lucile,” “A Two-way-Street,” and...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Margarita Cadenas — “Women of the Venezuelan Chaos”
Margarita Cadenas served as a co-writer and producer for French Television, and has produced numerous commercials around the world. Her filmmaking credits include “Cenizas Eternas,”(“Eternal...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Hind Bensari— “We Could Be Heroes”
Hind Bensari’s first documentary short, “475: Break the Silence,” contributed to a movement in Morocco that succeeded in repealing a law that allowed men accused of rape to marry their...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Sandra Luz López Barroso — “Artemio”
Sandra Luz López Barroso is an anthropologist and award-winning filmmaker. She’s spent more than 10 years working on diverse artisticprojects in Mexico. She served as a DP on the short film...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Christy Garland — “What Walaa Wants”
Christy Garland has directed award-winning and critically acclaimed documentary features and fiction shorts. Her credits include “Cheer Up,” “The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song,” and...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Trisha Ziff — “Witkin & Witkin”
Trisha Ziff has worked for the last 25 years as a writer, editor, curator, and documentary filmmaker. Her feature credits include “The Mexican Suitcase,” and “The Man Who Saw Too Much,”...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Elizabeth Mirzaei — “Laila at the Bridge”
Elizabeth Mirzaei served as director and cinematographer on the BBC’s “The Killing of Farkhunda,” which was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award, and a cinematographer on the...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Cynthia Wade and Sasha Friedlander — “Grit”
Cynthia Wade’s 2008 documentary “Freeheld” won an Academy Award, Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and 13 other awards. Her other credits include “Grist for the Mill,”...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Elan Bogarín — “306 Hollywood”
Elan Bogarín was nominated for at the 2009 Gotham and Spirit Awards for producing “Big Fan.” She co-founded The Wassaic Project, an arts festival/residency program that has hosted thousands of...
Tribeca 2018 Women Directors: Meet Kate Novack — “The Gospel According to André”
Kate Novack is an Emmy-nominated producer and director of documentary films. She was a producer and writer on “Page One: Inside the New York Times,” which was nominated for two News &...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Katrina Costello — “The Silver Branch”
Katrina Costello co-founded Sea Fever Productions in 2006 along with her husband, Kevin O’Sullivan. The company is dedicated to producing natural history documentary films in Ireland. “The...
Tribeca 2018 Women Directors: Meet Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown— “United Skates”
Dyana Winkler is a director, producer, and film festival programmer whose narrative screenplay “Bell” was a participant in the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab and awarded a Sundance Sloan...
Tribeca 2018 Women Directors: Meet Laura Brownson — “The Rachel Divide”
Laura Brownson worked for nearly 15 years in narrative features and television before turning to documentary film. She is the co-director of the documentary “Lemon,” which won a Special Jury...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Paula Eiselt — “93Queen”
Paula Eiselt is an independent filmmaker. She is currently a POV/Wyncote Filmmaker Fellow and was a 2017 Sundance Creative Producing Summit Fellow and a 2016 IFP Lab fellow. “93Queen” is her...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Menzies — “Afghan Cycles”
Sarah Menzies’ documentary films have screened at Telluride Mountainfilm, Banff Mountain Film Festival, Port Townsend Film Festival, and many other festivals. She directed the documentary shorts...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Azadi Moghadam — “The Broker”
Azadi Moghadam was born in Tehran. She filmed her first documentary, “Kahrizak — Tajrish,” in 2015. She published Simia, a professional theater magazine, while she was a student in...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Lindsey Cordero — “I’m Leaving Now (Ya Me Voy)”
Lindsey Cordero is a Mexican filmmaker based in Brooklyn. She previously co-directed the TV documentary “Firmes, Mexicans in the Bronx” and produced “En el Séptimo Día.” “I’m Leaving...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Samara Grace Chadwick — “1999”
Samara Grace Chadwick has spent more than 15 years working in the field of documentary film throughout Europe and North and South America, primarily as a filmmaker, editor, and festival programmer....
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Christina D. King and Elizabeth A. Castle — “Warrior Women”
Christina D. King is a member of the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma whose work across commercials, documentary, film, and television focuses on human rights issues, civic engagement through...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Irene Lusztig— “Yours in Sisterhood”
Irene Lusztig is a filmmaker whose work has been screened around the world, including at the Berlinale and MoMA, and on television in Europe, Taiwan, and the U.S. Her credits include her...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Yasemin Samdereli— “Night of All Nights”
While at the University of Television of Film in Munich, Yasemin Samdereli worked as Assistant Director on two of Jackie Chan’s features. She has also directed “Kismet” and “Almanya: Welcome...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Shameela Seedat — “Whispering Truth to Power”
Shameela Seedat is a human rights law specialist turned filmmaker from South Africa. Since she began documentary filmmaking, Seedat has been commissioned by various local and international...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Joannie Lafrenière — “Snowbirds”
Joannie Lafrenière is a photographer and director based in Montreal, Canada. Her credits include “The Woman Who Saw the Bear,” which has been shown in major festivals across Canada and...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Almudena Carracedo — “The Silence of Others”
Almudena Carracedo directed and produced her debut feature, the Emmy-winning documentary “Made in L.A.” She also directed the award-winning short “Welcome, A Docu-Journey of Impressions.”...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Beatrice Behn— “The Artist & the Pervert”
Beatrice Behn is Senior Film Critic and Editor-in-Chief of Kino-Zeit, the largest German language film magazine for arthouse and independent film. “The Artist & The Pervert” is her first...
Gretchen Carlson Inks Deal with A+E Originals, First Project Deals with Sexual Harassment
Gretchen Carlson is continuing a conversation she helped start. The former Fox News anchor has signed a deal with A+E Originals that sees her producing documentary specials, and her first project...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Katja Fedulova — “Faith Hope Love”
Katja Fedulova has been working since 2004 as a freelancer, cinematographer, and director for advertising, documentary, and feature films. “Faith Hope Love” will premiere at the 2018 Hot Docs...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Elwira Niewiera — “The Prince and the Dybbuk”
Elwira Niewiera’s last feature documentary, “Domino Effect,” was shown at more than 50 festivals and received many awards. She is a member of the Polish Film Academy. “The Prince and the...
Hot Docs 2018 Women Directors: Meet Shasha Nakhai — “Take Light”
Shasha Nakhai is a filmmaker based out of Toronto with Compy Films and Storyline Entertainment. Her award-winning films have screened at festivals and aired on TV worldwide. Her last film with...
Tribeca 2018 Women Directors: Meet Dava Whisenant — “Bathtubs Over Broadway”
Dava Whisenant is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker making her directorial debut with “Bathtubs Over Broadway.” She served as editor on docs “Two Trains Runnin’,” “Under the Electric Sky,”...
Exclusive: Chicken & Egg Announces 2018 Diversity Fellows
Chicken & Egg Pictures has announced the five projects selected for their 2018 Diversity Fellows Initiative. Created with the aim of identifying and increasing the visibility of diverse women...
Tribeca 2018 Women Directors: Meet Pietra Brettkelly — “Yellow is Forbidden”
Pietra Brettkelly is the director of “Beauty Will Save the World,” “The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins,” “Maori Boy Genius,” and “A Flickering Truth.” Her films have won various...
Trailer Watch: NYT Contends with Trust and Trump in Liz Garbus’ “The Fourth Estate”
Since Donald Trump’s election in November 2016, much of the country has been feeling tense. This sense of dread is front and center in a new trailer for Liz Garbus’ Showtime docuseries “The...
Tribeca 2018 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Kerruish — “General Magic”
Sarah Kerruish’s films have been distributed worldwide and won awards including a Peabody, and an Emmy nomination. In 2017, she made a short film about the last few days of the tech team at the...
Trailer Watch: Return to Steubenville, Ohio in Disturbing “Roll Red Roll”
“Is this football town putting its daughters at risk by protecting its sons in a situation like this?” asks one of the characters in “Roll Red Roll,” an upcoming documentary exploring the...
Apply Now: Firelight Media Documentary Lab Supporting Underrepresented Communities
A fellowship supporting filmmakers from racially and ethically underrepresented communities has announced a national open call for submissions. Firelight Media’s 18-month Documentary Lab program...
Trailer Watch: Dawn Porter Documents RFK’s Life and Death in “Bobby Kennedy for President”
“What I think is quite clear is, there is division, there’s violence, and disenchantment with our society,” Robert Kennedy asserts, via archival footage, in the trailer for “Bobby Kennedy...
“Insecure,” “Handmaid’s Tale,” and More Nominated for Peabody Awards
This is cause for a celebration: nominations for the 77th annual Peabody Awards have been announced and a wide range of projects by and about women are being recognized. Female-driven works such as...
Full Frame 2018 Women Directors: Meet Alyssa Fedele — “The Rescue List”
Alyssa Fedele is a documentary filmmaker and anthropologist. She produced and edited the short documentary film “The Ride of Their Lives,” which premiered at Sundance. From 2015 to 2017, Fedele...
Full Frame 2018 Women Directors: Meet Anne de Mare — “Capturing the Flag”
Anne de Mare is a documentary filmmaker and playwright with work supported by MacArthur Foundation and Sundance Institute. Her prior film credits include “The Homestretch,” which won a 2015...
Full Frame 2018 Women Directors: Meet Katie Galloway and Dawn Valadez — “The Pushouts”
Katie Galloway’s credits include “The Return,” “El Poeta,” and “Prison Town, USA.” She’s received numerous honors including the Writer’s Guild of America’s Best Documentary...
Lorena Bobbitt Docuseries in the Works at Amazon
“Get Out” writer-director Jordan Peele is set to revisit one of the most sensational trials in U.S. history. His Monkeypaw shingle has a Lorena Bobbitt docuseries in development at Amazon, The...
Full Frame 2018 Women Directors: Meet Talya Tibbon — “Sky & Ground”
Interview by Kaidia Pickels Talya Tibbon is an award-winning director, producer, and writer. She’s worked in four continents documenting wide-ranging subjects such as street gangs, mass shooters...
Trailer Watch: Lauren Greenfield Explores a Shift in the American Dream in “Generation Wealth”
“I’ve been a photographer for 25 years. With my lens focused on wealth, I noticed that no matter how much people had they still want more,” says Lauren Greenfield in a trailer for...
Full Frame 2018 Women Directors: Meet Alison McAlpine — “Cielo”
Alison McAlpine has worked in theater in Ireland, and in Canada, where she formed a theater company, and wrote and directed plays that were presented at festivals in Canada, Ireland, and France. She...
Full Frame 2018 Women Directors: Meet Laura Nix — “Inventing Tomorrow”
Laura Nix is an award-winning director, writer, and producer whose work has screened at Sundance, TIFF, Berlinale, and Outfest and has aired on HBO, PBS, CBC, and New York Times Op-Docs. Nix was...