Documentary
Valentine Road: An Examination of Accountability, Awareness and Compassion
The documentary Valentine Road — depicting the aftermath surrounding the shooting of young Oxnard, California high school student Larry King — had been winning accolades and gaining...
Cinema Eye Announces List of 25 Most Influential Documentaries
Cinema Eye announced their list of the 25 Most Influential Documentaries which was put together by current filmmakers who are vying for the 2014 Cinema Eye Honor, one of the top awards for...
IDFA Announces 2013 Lineup
The International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) announced their 2013 lineup. The festival will screen a total of 288 films and over a 100 will be premieres. This year the festival...
DOC NYC Announces Line Up
DOC NYC, the largest documentary festival in the U.S., has just announced its slate. The festival will run from November 14–21. Over 125 documentary filmmakers and and special guests are expected...
After Tiller Expands Across the Nation
Lana Wilson and Martha Shane’s deeply affecting and discourse changing documentary, After Tiller, is about the current state of late-term abortions after the murder of Dr. George Tiller in 2009....
One Woman Directed Short on 2013 Oscar Documentary Short Shortlist
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have announced the 8 documentary shorts that are on the 2013 Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Short. Three to five of the films on the list will...
Guest Post: Afghan Doc Subject from The Network Flees to the Netherlands
In 2011, I spent 3 months in Afghanistan making The Network, a film set behind the scenes at Afghanistan’s largest media company, Tolo. The film is about the power of media to effect social change...
Cinema Eye Announces 15 Nonfiction Short Film Finalists
Cinema Eye has announced the 15 nonfiction short film finalists for their 2014 Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking award. The announcement was made on the opening day of the...
Laura Poitras and Geralyn Dreyfous to be Honored at IDA Documentary Awards
Laura Poitras and Geralyn Dreyfous will be receiving awards for their contributions to documentary film at this year’s IDA Documentary Awards. Dreyfous will receive the Amicus Award which is given...
Veterans Day News: The Invisible War Inspires Creation of Program To Treat Military Sexual Assault Victims
Last week in LA, in a star studded event to celebrate the DVD release of The Invisible War that included Senator Barbara Boxer, the filmmakers and executive producers launched a new program that was...
Guest Post: Why Make Babies When You Can Just Make Documentaries?
Being a woman, I was told since I was a teenager, “just wait, it’ll hit you — you’ll suddenly be overcome by the rash, ridiculous desire to have kids.” This was presented as a...
Guest Post: Cinema Eye Honors 2013 Nominations
In her latest research, Independent Women: Behind-the-Scenes Representation on Festival Films (2011–2012), Martha Lauzen found that in selected film festivals 39% of documentary directors were...
Guest Post: Looking at Real Women With Real Life and Body Issues in Yogawoman
With the presidential debate including talk once again of women getting equal pay, it seems surreal to me that we are still having this discussion. In the 70’s, when I was a teenager reading books...
Trailer Watch: The Central Park Five — Co-Directed by Sarah Burns, Ken Burns and David McMahon
Recently nominated for a 2012 IDA Documentary Award for Best Feature and on the roster for the upcoming 2012 AFI Film Festival, The Central Park Five is based on Sarah Burns’ best-selling book. In...
Guest Post: Labor of Love: How Women are Changing Documentaries
In 2010, I finished my first feature documentary, Living Downstream. Based on the book by ecologist and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, the film follows Steingraber as she tries to ring the...
PBS To Air 6 Women Focused Documentaries for Women and Girls Lead Campaign
The second part of Half the Sky aired last night on PBS — which marked the start of the Women and Girls Lead Campaign. This campaign focuses on programming that brings attention to the issues...
Women Do Rule the Documentary World
Last week was Independent Film Week here in NYC. There are a wide variety of events, panels and of course parties. I was able to attend the Chicken and Egg Pictures event (which was beyond packed)...
TIFF: Interview with Shola Lynch — Director of Free Angela & All Political Prisoners
On the day of the premiere of her documentary at the Toronto Film Festival, director Shola Lynch answered some questions about the film. Here is a look at the importance of the film — Black...
Interview with Lisa Immordino Vreeland — Director of Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel
Lisa Immordino Vreeland loved Diana Vreeland before she married her grandson. Even though they never met she paints a glorious portrait of a unique woman who was a driving force in the fashion and...
Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg Direct Knuckleball
Who says women can’t direct sports movies? Stern and Sundberg who directed the amazing documentary on Joan Rivers, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work have set their sights now on the world of baseball...
TIFF Review: The Stories We Tell — Sarah Polley’s Effective New Documentary
Toronto loves Sarah Polley. The display of that love was evident last week at the premiere of her first documentary Stories We Tell which held its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film...
Black Power Takes Center Stage at TIFF With Angela Davis Documentary
Sunday, a bit of history was explored here in Toronto. The festival premiered Shola Lynch’s documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners in one of its gala slots. For a festival that...
A Chat with Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing: Directors of Detropia
Detropia is a very prescient film. It’s about what is going on in our country right now. It’s about how the middle class is disappearing. This is a painful movie to watch because it documents...
Linda Bloodworth Thomason and Jodie Foster Take On New Directing Projects
Two new exciting female directed projects were announced yesterday. The first, from Designing Women creator, Linda Bloodworth Thomason is Bridegroom, a Kickstarter funded documentary, raising...
Trailer Watch: Sarah Polley Directs a Documentary — Stories We Tell
This is a busy year for Sarah Polley. Her film Take This Waltz is now in release in the US and now she has a documentary premiering at Venice and Toronto. Here’s the opaque description from the...
Trailer Watch: Diana Vreeland- The Eye Has to Travel Directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland
Film opens September 21.
Interview with Nicole Karsin — Director of We Women Warriors
We Women Warriors director Nicole Karsin answered some questions (by email) about her documentary that follows three native Colombian women who are using nonviolent resistance to defend their people...
Guest Post: Dreams in New York
As the producer of British filmmaker Carol Morley’s films to date and an ex-New Yorker now based in London, I’m thrilled Dreams of a Life is getting a hometown viewing. Dreams of a Life is a...
Women Directed Additions to Toronto 2012 Lineup
The Toronto International Film Festival rolled out 60 additional titles today. Here are some of the women directed films in the documentary and vanguard programs. (All Synopses from the TIFF press...
Trailer Watch: Detropia — Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
This doc opens September 7. More info here. Detroit’s story has encapsulated the iconic narrative of America over the last century — the Great Migration of African Americans escaping Jim...
Interview with Lauren Greenfield, Director of Queen of Versailles
In some ways this movie’s subtitle is revenge of the 99%. The film gives you a behind the scenes look of an absurdly wealthy couple — David and Jackie Siegel — who are building the...
Interview with Amy Ziering — Producer of The Invisible War
The Invisible War continues its roll out this weekend. It should be on your must see list. Producer Amy Ziering who made this film with director Kirby Dick talked about the film with Women and...
Trailer Watch: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry Directed by Alison Klayman
Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry opened the Human Right Watch Film Festival in NY and will be in theatres on July 27th.
The Invisible War
There are some movies that just gut you. They just hit you hard and twist until you are a spent rag ready to get up and fight against all the injustices that have just been witnessed. The Invisible...
Gucci Tribeca 2012 Documentary Fund Winners Are Full of Women Filmmakers
Marking its fifth year of grants The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) and Gucci today announced the 2012 recipients of the $150,000 of the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund. Included in these grants are...
Guest Post: The Pioneering Women of the Photo League
One of many gratifying aspects about making Ordinary Miracles was the opportunity it afforded to identify and celebrate the contributions made by an impressive number of extravagantly gifted female...
Doonesbury Takes on Sexual Assault in the Military
Gotta love Garry Trudeau. He has created a series of cartoons that play off the incredible, heartbreaking new documentary The Invisible War about the plague of sexual assault in the military. The...
‘Wish Me Away’: Directed by Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf
Wish Me Away is the incredibly moving coming out story of country music star Chely Wright. When I read a little over a year ago that Wright (who I did not know at the time) had come out my first...
There’s Nothing Pretty About the Pink in the New Documentary ‘Pink Ribbons, Inc.’
Ever since I saw this movie — which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall and is directed by Lea Pool — I have been obsessed. Now, since all the Komen crap over the last...
Interview with Pink Ribbons Director Lea Pool and Producer Ravida Din
This is a repost of an interview with the director Lea Pool and producer Ravida Din of the terrific and anger producing documentary Pink Ribbons that was conducted shortly after last fall’s...
Silver Docs 2012: The Women
The 10th edition of AFI Silver Docs Festival will take place in Washington DC from June 18–24. It will open with Ramona Diaz’ crowd pleaser DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’: EVERYMAN’S JOURNEY. If you...
Trailer Watch: Forbidden Voices — Directed by Barbara Miller
An incredibly moving story of three women bloggers fighting to keep telling the truth. As First Lady Michelle Obama says: “courage can actually be contagious.” This film opened in Switzerland...
Women’s Films Opening — May 4, 2012
The Perfect Family — directed by Anne Renton, written by Paula Goldberg and Claire V. Reily The Perfect Family written by Paula Goldberg and Claire V. Reily and directed by Anne Renton and...
Guest Post: The Women Who Propel Last Call at the Oasis
When we were first looking around for stories to feature in the film, we noticed that many of the best-known scientists were male. We wondered: “Where are the women in this picture?” During our...
The World Before Her Takes Top Doc Prize at Tribeca
The World Before Her directed by Nisha Pahuja is an eye-opening and disturbing documentary about the limited options for girls and young women in India. The film juxtaposes two opposing...
Guest Post: Filming Elephant Landmine Survivors Walk on Prostheses is No Small Feat
“The Eyes of Thailand” documentary tells the true story of Soraida Salwala’s quest to help two elephant landmine survivors, Motala and Baby Mosha, walk again on their own four legs by building...
Guest Post: The Woman Who Wasn’t There — A True Story
Almost everyone has a 9/11 story. They can describe where they were when the planes hit, when the towers collapsed, the days following. I have one. I was there. I watched the second tower collapse...
Trailer Watch: First Position — Directed by Bess Kargman
This looks terrific. It will hit theatres on May 4th. Also look for it on demand. First Position
Tribeca Trailer Watch: Wagner’s Dream Directed By Susan Froemke
The film will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday, April 25, followed by its worldwide theatrical release on May 7 — a one-day ticketed event as part of The Met: Live in...
Interview with the Director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Producer Kelcey Edwards of Wonder Woman — The Untold Story of American Superheroines
I am one of those girls who grew up watching Wonder Woman and The Bionic Woman. I loved those shows. The feminist in me was alive way back then when Lynda Carter and Lindsey Wagner were kicking butt...
Trailer Watch: Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines
I cannot wait to see this film. Hoping it will be ready for Athena Film Festival 2013! More info