Documentary
Guest Post: The Importance of Amplifying Quieter Voices in Film
Guest Post by Elhum Shakerifar At the end of 2017, I was humbled to accept the Women in Film and TV Factual Award. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in news, factual programming, current...
Rose McGowan Has an E! Series in the Works
Actress, activist, and director Rose McGowan is heading back to TV. The “Charmed” alumna is getting her own show, The Hollywood Reporter confirms. She’ll produce and star in “Citizen...
Eliza Hittman and Penny Lane Receive Grants from Rooftop Films
“Beach Rats” writer-director Eliza Hittman and “Nuts!” helmer Penny Lane both have something to celebrate. They’ve scored grants from non-profit org Rooftop Films, Variety reports. The...
Metrograph to Host “Tell Me: Women Filmmakers, Women’s Stories” Film Series
The Metrograph wants to amplify women’s voices. The NYC theater has announced that an upcoming film series will focus on women directors, their work, and how their female subjects see the world....
Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller Named Exec VPs of HBO Doc and Family
Sheila Nevins is leaving HBO Documentary in good hands. A press release has announced that Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller have been promoted to executive vice presidents of HBO Documentary and Family...
Ursula MacFarlane to Direct Harvey Weinstein Doc for the BBC
Harvey Weinstein’s abuse of women has been dominating the news cycle since early October. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the disgraced mogul will be the subject of a BBC documentary...
2017’s Best Documentaries By and About Women
“Step” A workers’ rights activist, a movie star-turned-inventor, and a retiring prima ballerina are just a few of the characters at the center of our favorite documentaries by and about women...
Cara Mertes Named Hot Docs’ 2018 Doc Mogul
Cara Mertes is set to be honored at the 2018 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, POV Magazine reports. The director of the JustFilms initiative at the Ford Foundation will receive...
“Unrest,” “One of Us,” and Other Women-Directed Documentaries Advance in Oscar Race
The Oscar race is heating up. The Academy has narrowed down the films in the running for Documentary Feature to 15, and four of them are directed or co-directed by women, amounting to about 27...
Oscars 2018: Best Documentary Short Semi-Finalists Announced, Over 50 Percent Are Women-Directed
Oscar nominations won’t be announced until January 23, but we’re getting a peek at what to expect next month. A “screening committee drawn from documentary branch members has winnowed a field...
Trailer Watch: Five American Latinas Get Ready to Celebrate in HBO’s “15: A Quinceañera Story”
“A quinceañera’s not just a party. It’s how I’m embracing being Hispanic while still being an American,” says one of the characters in “15: A Quinceañera Story” in a new trailer for...
Exclusive: Female Activists Unite in “Naila and the Uprising” Trailer
“Naila and the Uprising” “For over a decade, whenever I’ve asked Palestinian grassroots leaders about the models of inspiration that they draw on, they’ve consistently pointed me towards...
Vice Media to Invest in Female Filmmakers with Newly Launched Broadly Films
Vice Media is expanding Broadly, its female-driven channel and website. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Vice has introduced Broadly Films, a three-year program dedicated to funding and...
Oscar Doc Submissions Are 35 Percent Women-Directed
It’s time to meet the 2018 Oscar doc contenders. One hundred seventy features have been submitted for consideration in the category at the upcoming Academy Awards, and one of them will be taking...
Trailer Watch: Rose Marie Sings Her Way into Showbiz History in “Wait for Your Laugh”
Rose Marie has been performing since she came out of the womb. “The minute she was born, the doctor slapped her and she started singing,” we’re told in a new trailer for “Wait for Your...
Exclusive: An Entrepreneur Changes Lives at a Refugee Camp in “Soufra” Trailer
“Every refugee has a dream. They dream of a better life,” says Mariam Shaar in an exclusive trailer for “Soufra.” She’s spent her entire life in a refugee camp south of Beirut, Lebanon,...
Trailer Watch: A Holocaust Survivor Revisits Her Trauma in “Big Sonia”
“You live with it all your life and you can never forget. I would catch myself laughing and feel guilty,” says the titular character of “Big Sonia” in a new trailer for Leah Warshawski’s...
Watch: Jane Goodall Observes a Supportive Mother Chimp in This “Jane” Clip
Prepare for your heart to melt. A clip from “Jane,” the Jane Goodall documentary that opens today, has been released and it shows the most adorable baby chimp you’ve ever seen. As the...
DOC NYC’s 2017 Feature Lineup Is 40 Percent Women-Directed
DOC NYC, the largest American documentary film festival, has unveiled its 2017 program. The fest’s eighth edition will screen 111 feature docs, 44 of which, or about 40 percent, are women-helmed....
Julia Bacha’s Doc “Naila and the Uprising” Acquired by Fork Films, Will Air on PBS
“Naila and the Uprising” has found a home. Julia Bacha’s most recent project, a documentary about nonviolent Palestinian movement the First Intifada, has been nabbed by Fork Films and...
Trailer Watch: Joan Didion Finds Her Voice in Netflix Doc “The Center Will Not Hold”
“My first notebook was given to me by my mother with the suggestion that I amuse myself by writing down my thoughts,” says Joan Didion in a new trailer for an upcoming Netflix documentary about...
Patricia Arquette to Make Feature Directorial Debut with “Love Canal”
Patricia Arquette is stepping behind the camera. Deadline reports that the Oscar-winning actress is set to make her feature debut with “Love Canal,” a drama based on “The Canal,” an upcoming...
Meryl Streep to Narrate Women’s Rights Documentary
Meryl Streep and Alicia Keys are teaming up on a short film chronicling the women’s rights movement. The former will narrate “We Rise,” and the latter’s song “We Are Here” will be...
Nancy Buirski on Exploring Hidden Stories in the Civil Rights Movement in “The Rape of Recy Taylor”
Nancy Buirski’s writing, directing, and producing credits include “By Sidney Lumet,” “Afternoon of a Faun,” and the the Oscar shortlisted, Peabody and Emmy Award-winning “The Loving...
Women In Entertainment to Launch Women-Directed Doc Series at ArcLight Santa Monica
Women in Entertainment and ArcLight Santa Monica are joining forces. The group of activists, artists, entrepreneurs, executives, and journalists are set to launch a series highlighting...
Trailer Watch: Steven Spielberg Steps in Front of the Camera for Susan Lacy’s HBO Doc
Steven Spielberg is one of the most prolific and celebrated filmmakers of all time, but according to the man himself, he still gets nervous every time he starts a new scene. “When that verges on...
Trailer Watch: Jane Goodall Enters the Field and History Books in “Jane”
“Day after day, in the sun and the rain and the wind, I climbed into the hills,” recalls Jane Goodall in the first trailer for “Jane.” “This is where I was meant to be. The more I learned,...
Apply Now for Fork Films’ Documentary Grants
Documentary filmmakers, take note: Fork Films’ annual open call for doc grant applications is here. The New York-based production company will accept applications via an online submission form...
Maria Callas Documentary Acquired by Sony Pictures
“Maria By Callas: In Her Own Words” has secured distribution. Sony Pictures Classics acquired all rights for the documentary in North America, Australia, and New Zealand, a press release has...
Guest Post: Directing “Red Trees” and Discovering My Own Identity
Guest Post by Marina Willer The title of my film, “Red Trees,” refers to the moment when my father discovered that he was color blind as a child, drawing trees with red leaves. It makes...
Trailer Watch: A Grieving Family Searches for Answers in Lucy Cohen’s “Kingdom of Us”
“Kingdom of Us” One of the subjects of Lucy Cohen’s doc “Kingdom of Us” recalls an interaction she had with her father the morning before he killed himself. “He told me he had nobody...
Tatiana Huezo’s “Tempestad” Is Mexico’s Foreign-Language Oscar Pick
Another film from a female director has been selected to compete for a best foreign-language film nomination at the 2018 Academy Awards. “Tempestad,” a documentary about the human trafficking...
Trailer Watch: A Buddhist Priest Helps People Find the Will to Live in Lana Wilson’s “The…
Trailer Watch: A Buddhist Priest Helps People Find the Will to Live in Lana Wilson’s “The Departure” A Japanese punk-rocker-turned-Buddhist-priest provides much-needed hope to suicidal people...
Trailer Watch: A Young Drifter Rejects Society’s Rules in Nanfu Wang’s “I Am Another You”
A trailer has arrived for “I Am Another You,” Nanfu Wang’s award-winning follow-up to “Hooligan Sparrow.” The atmospheric spot clocks in at over two minutes but we don’t hear a single...
TIFF 2017 Women Directors: Meet Violeta Ayala — “Cocaine Prison”
Violeta Ayala is an award-winning Indigenous filmmaker and writer from Bolivia. Her other credits include “The Flight,” “The Bolivian Case,” and “Stolen,” which has won numerous awards...
Trailer Watch: Three People Struggle to Leave Hasidic Judaism in Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady’s “One…
Trailer Watch: Three People Struggle to Leave Hasidic Judaism in Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady’s “One of Us” “One of Us” “I called my mom and I said, ‘Hey, Mom. Can I talk to...
Trailer Watch: A Superstar Seeks Connection in Sophie Fiennes’ “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami”
“I’ve been around the block — too many times,” Grace Jones observes in a trailer for Sophie Fiennes’ new documentary. “Around the globe is more like it.” That’s for sure: Jones...
Trailer Watch: A Dancer Changes Her Life in Elvira Lind’s Tribeca Winner “Bobbi Jene”
“I need to do what I need to do. I need to dance. I need to work hard. That’s it,” says Bobbi Jene Smith in a new trailer for Elvira Lind’s “Bobbi Jene.” The award-winning documentary...
TIFF 2017: Sara Driver’s Basquiat Doc Acquired by The Match Factory
The Toronto International Film Festival hasn’t even begun yet and already a woman-directed selection has been sold. Variety reports that Sara Driver’s doc “Boom for Real: The Late Teenage...
Lady Gaga to Perform at TIFF Premiere of Netflix Doc “Gaga: Five Foot Two”
Lady Gaga: Lady Gaga’s Twitter account Lady Gaga is such a larger-than-life figure that at times we forget that there’s a real woman behind the intricate costumes and bring-the-house-down...
Tallgrass Film Fest Announces Inaugural Picks for Women-Directed DOX Spotlight
Earlier this year, the Tallgrass International Film Festival announced its new DOX Spotlight Section. This new competition features undistributed, feature-length documentaries directed by women. And...
Netflix to Premiere New Joan Didion Doc at New York Film Festival
“How does one capture such a celebrated and prolific author while delivering something new for audiences to engage with?” That is precisely the question Netflix aims to tackle with its newly...
Trailer Watch: Real-Life Love Story “Dina” Presents an Unconventional Protagonist
“Dina’s” official synopsis promises “an unconventional movie protagonist the likes of which haven’t been seen before.” Its newly released trailer promises the same. This real-life...
Liz Garbus Directing Doc Series About New York Times in the Trump Era
Liz Garbus’ next project will give viewers an inside-look at The New York Times. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the “What Happened, Miss Simone?” director is helming a documentary series for...
Trailer Watch: Learn the Amazing History Behind Curious George and His Creators in “Monkey…
Trailer Watch: Learn the Amazing History Behind Curious George and His Creators in “Monkey Business” “He’s as much of an immigrant as anyone,” we’re told about the world’s most beloved...
Apply Now for the 2018 Diverse Voices in Docs Program
Applications are now being accepted for Kartemquin Films and The Community Film Workshop of Chicago’s sixth Diverse Voices in Docs (DVID) program. DVID will provide eight filmmakers of color from...
Amanda Lipitz on the Inspiring Girls of “Step”
Do yourself a favor and go see “Step” this weekend. It’s impossible to watch without wanting to dance in your seat. Directed by Amanda Lipitz, the inspiring doc follows three senior...
TIFF Announces More Lineups: “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami” to Open Doc Program
The Toronto International Film Festival is rolling out more of its lineups. About a week ago, TIFF announced its most high-profile programs, Galas and Special Presentations (which include Susanna...
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady Doc About Hasidic Judaism Lands at Netflix
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s portrait of an Evangelical Christian summer camp earned them an Oscar nomination, and the “Jesus Camp” directors’ latest project, “One of Us,” explores...
Bonni Cohen on Why “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” Gives Viewers A Bucket of Hope
Bonni Cohen is an award-winning producer and director. She co-directed “Audrie & Daisy,” which premiered in competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was picked up as a Netflix...
Guest Post: Why I Made “Birthright: A War Story,” The Real-Life “Handmaid’s Tale”
Guest Post by Civia Tamarkin As a veteran journalist and documentary filmmaker, much of my focus has been criminal and social justice issues. My investigations led to the releases of a young man...