Documentary
Debuts From Female Filmmakers Win Three of Sundance 2016’s Top Four Awards
Three of Sundance 2016’s top four awards were bestowed on feature debuts from women directors. Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman’s “Weiner,” a portrait of disgraced politician Anthony...
Sundance Deals: ‘Audrie and Daisy’ to Netflix, ‘Weiner’ to Hulu and Showtime
Two high-profile docs that made their world premieres at Sundance 2016 have found new distribution deals. Netflix acquired all rights to Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s “Audrie & Daisy,” about...
Trailer Watch: Ellen Page Travels Around the World in LGBT-Centered Docuseries ‘Gaycation’
Ellen Page’s new docuseries project has been hotly anticipated since a video released online last summer showed the “Freeheld” star confronting Texas senator Ted Cruz about LGBT rights at the...
Docu-Series About Hollywood’s Gender Inequality to Air on Epix
Gender inequality has persisted in Hollywood since the early days of the silver screen, but it’s only in recent years that the mainstream media has devoted much attention to sexism on screen and...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Rita Coburn Whack — ‘Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise’
Rita Coburn Whack is an award-winning writer, producer and director for television, magazines, series, news, talk shows, documentary programming and social media. Coburn Whack is the owner of RCW...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Sara Jordenö — ‘Kiki’
Sara Jordenö is a New York- and Gothenburg-based Swedish visual artist and documentary filmmaker. Her stories often concern communities facing different types of marginalization and how they...
Finding Inspiration at Sundance 2016
So I’ve been a bit logistically challenged here at Sundance, meaning that I have missed a films and been shut out of others. That’s the way it goes here. You have to surrender to it. But the one...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Bonni Cohen — ‘Audrie & Daisy’
Since co-founding Actual Films in 1998, Bonni Cohen has produced and directed an array of award-winning films, including “The Island President,” “Inside Guantanamo,” “The Rape of Europa”...
Sundance 2016 Movies, Part 1
So I’ve been here on the ground at Sundance for a little over three days, and it feels like it’s been three weeks. This is my second real Sundance, and I’m finding it to be an acquired taste....
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Maya Goded — ‘Plaza de la Soledad’
Through her photographs and now on film, Maya Goded explores the subjects of female sexuality, prostitution and gender violence in a society in which the role of women is narrowly defined and...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Stephanie Soechtig — ‘Under the Gun’
Stephanie Soechtig is an award-winning writer, producer and documentary-film director. Her most recent film, “Fed Up,” premiered at Sundance and was acquired by Radius-TWC. It also received a...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Chris Hegedus — ‘Unlocking the Cage’
Chris Hegedus has been making films as a director, cinematographer and editor for 40 years. She received the 2001 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for “Startup.com.” With her...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami — ‘Sonita’
Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami studied filmmaking and animation at Tehran Art University. Ghaemmaghami is the author of “Animated Documentary, a New Way to Express,” which is a product of her research on...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Dawn Porter — ‘Trapped’
Dawn Porter is an award-winning filmmaker whose 2013 documentary, “Gideon’s Army,” won the Sundance Film Festival Editing Award, the Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award and was nominated...
‘The Hunting Ground’ to Receive PGA’s Social Issues Award
“The Hunting Ground,” Kirby Dick’s harrowing exposé of campus sexual assault and rousing portrait of a group of young women battling rape-accepting university administrations across the...
Only 3 Women Composers Among 112 Original Scores in 2016 Oscar Race
Of the 112 original scores eligible for an Oscar this award season, only three, or 2.7%, were composed or co-composed by women. Those three female composers are Miriam Cutler for the campus-rape...
Kartemquin Films’ Diverse Voices in Docs Program Now Accepting Applications
Kartemquin Films, the award-winning non-profit documentary production collective behind “Life Itself” and “Hoop Dreams,” is now accepting applications for their 2016 Diverse Voices in Docs...
Women in Film Announces 30th Annual Finishing Fund Recipients
Three narrative features, four documentary features and a pair of shorts — all from female filmmakers — have been selected to receive Women in Film’s finishing funds this year....
Sundance’s Shorts Program is 39% Female-Helmed
The short film programs at Sundance 2016 have been announced, and of the 72 shorts being screened across various subsections, 28 are directed or co-directed by women. That means that, overall, the...
Trailer Watch: Working-Class Pals Breed a Racehorse in Sundance Winner ‘Dark Horse’
Louise Osmond’s “Dark Horse” has a new trailer, and this is an underdog story you won’t want to miss. The documentary, which won the World Cinema Documentary Award at Sundance, focuses on a...
‘Amy,’ ‘Malala,’ ‘Hunting Ground,’ ‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’ Make Oscars’ Doc Shortlist
Three women-directed films and another three women-centric ones have made the 2016 Oscars documentary shortlist. Among the 15 finalists for an Academy Award nomination are Liz Garbus’ “What...
12 of BFI’s Top 20 Films About Girls and Women
It’s been a good year for women at the movies, at least where the arthouse is concerned. That impression is bolstered by the British Film Institute’s list of the top 20 best films of 2015, as...
‘Motley’s Law,’ About an American Lawyer’s Fight for Afghan Human Rights, to Air on Al Jazeera Am
Nicole N. Horanyi’s “Motley’s Law,” a documentary profile of human rights lawyer Kimberley Motley, has found a new home at Al Jazeera America (AJAM). The winner of the Grand Jury Prize at...
“The Hunting Ground,” “Meru,” “Something Better to Come” Nominated for PGA’s Top Doc Award
Two documentaries directed/co-directed by female filmmakers have been nominated for the Producers Guild of America’s nonfiction award. Hanna Polak’s “Something Better to Come,” a portrait...
Black Female Friendship and Women’s Suffrage Revisited: November 2015’s Crowdfunding Picks
This month’s crowdfunding picks all feature women breaking glass ceilings in male-oriented fields. “Mothers of Men” is a newfound 1917 suffrage film about a woman running for governor in...
Chicken & Egg Pictures Launches New Diversity Initiative and Announces Inaugural Fellows
Chicken & Egg Pictures, longtime champion of women directors, has launched a new diversity fellows initiative and announced its first batch of participants. The organization will support seven...
Havana Marking Wins Sundance Institute and TED Award For Doc on Political Corruption
Havana Marking has been named the recipient of the Sundance Institute | TED Prize Filmmaker Award, an honor that includes a $125,000 grant. Making won for “Bloody Mary,” a documentary short...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sabrina Schmidt Gordon — ‘BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez’
Sabrina Schmidt Gordon is a documentary producer, editor and director from NYC. Her editing debut won an Emmy for WGBH (public broadcasting from Boston), and she has continued to distinguish herself...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Shannon Post — ‘Circle of Poison’
Shannon Post is a filmmaker, sociologist and food and garden educator based in Brooklyn. “Circle of Poison” is her first film. Post is also the co-founder of Player Piano Productions, a company...
Exploring Internal Lesbian Discrimination in ‘The Same Difference’
Within the lesbian community — especially in communities of color (in the United States but also around the globe) — there are a lot of rules and internal discrimination that take place....
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Dyllan McGee — ‘MAKERS: Once and For All’
Dyllan McGee is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and the founder and executive producer of “MAKERS,” an Emmy Award-nominated series on women in space, Hollywood, politics, war, comedy and...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Nicole N. Horanyi — ‘Motley’s Law’
Acclaimed Danish filmmaker Nicole N. Horanyi has screened her award-winning documentary films around the world. “Motley’s Law” is her most recent collaboration with leading European film...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Holly Morris — ‘The Babushkas of Chernobyl’
Holly Morris has written and directed several documentaries that explore the lives of courageous women: politicos, activists and artists making change in their home cultures. “The Babushkas of...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Amy Berg — ‘Janis: Little Girl Blue’
Amy Berg is a critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker. She was nominated for an Academy Award and a DGA Award (Outstanding Directorial Achievement in...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Erika Frankel — ‘King Georges’
Erika Frankel most recently produced “The Home Team” (SXSW, AFI DOCS 2014), “Annie: It’s the Hard Knock Life” (PBS 2013) and “Frontrunners” (SXSW, Oscilloscope 2008; Sundance Channel...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Juliet Jordan — ‘Miriam: Home Delivery’
Juliet Jordan is a British documentary filmmaker, currently based in New York City. She graduated from The National Film and Television School, Beaconsfield, Britain. She won the Royal...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Nicole Groton — ‘The Melting Family’
Nicole Groton started her career as Creative Executive at Intuition Productions, where she developed and produced new projects and served as field producer. Groton has worked for the president at...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Hillevi Loven — ‘Deep Run’
Hillevi Loven is a filmmaker, producer and still photographer based in Brooklyn. She is making her feature-film-directing debut with “Deep Run.” In collaboration with NYU anthropologist Natasha...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Redfearn — ‘Tocando la Luz (Touch the Light)’
Jennifer Redfearn is an Academy Award-nominated director and producer. She directed and produced “Sun Come Up,” nominated for an Academy Award and the IDA’s Pare Lorentz Award. Redfearn has...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Meghan L. O’Hara — ‘The C Word’
As a producer, Meghan L. O’Hara’s credits include the award-winning features “Sicko,” “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Bowling For Columbine.” She began her career directing, writing and...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Molly Bernstein — ‘An Art That Nature Makes: The Work of Rosamond Purcell’
Molly Bernstein was the director, producer and editor of “Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay,” about the great magician, actor and “scholar of the unusual.” She has...
‘Song of Lahore’ Co-Directer Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on Pakistan’s Rich Music Scene and Culture
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the Oscar-winning co-director of 2012’s “Saving Face,” once again finds inspiration in her birth country, Pakistan, in “Song of Lahore.” This time around,...
“Song of Lahore” Co-Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on Pakistan’s Rich Music Scene and Culture
Interview by Becca Rose Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the Oscar-winning co-director of 2012’s “Saving Face,” once again finds inspiration in her birth country, Pakistan, in “Song of Lahore.”...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sharon Shattuck — ‘From This Day Forward’
Sharon Shattuck is a filmmaker and animator. She is the co-creator of the New York Times Op-Docs series “Animated Life,” which illustrates historical moments of scientific discovery using...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Darcy Dennett — ‘The Champions’
Darcy Dennett has worked in photography, film and television for nearly twenty years. “The Champions” is her first documentary. In 2013, Dennett produced a segment in Nigeria for Oprah...
Kim Longinotto on Her Long Career and the Role of (Lack of) Confidence in Her Filmmaking
For over thirty years, Kim Longinotto has made acclaimed documentaries that have won awards from BAFTA, the Sundance Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival, among others....
DOC NYC 2015 Preview: Race-Car Drivers, Rock Gods and AIDS Activists
38% of the features screening at DOC NYC this year are directed or co-directed by women — 39 films of the 104 screening. The good and bad news is that there are simply too many films by female...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Emily Abt — ‘Daddy Don’t Go’
Filmmaker Emily Abt was one of Variety Magazine’s “Top 10 Directors to Watch” and has produced and directed documentaries for PBS, OWN, MTV, Showtime and the Sundance Channel. Abt earned her...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sara Fishko — ‘The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith’
Sara Fishko makes her directorial debut with “The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith.” Fishko is an Emmy Award-winning film editor and public radio broadcaster/podcaster whose explorations...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet June Cross — ‘Wilhemina’s War’
June Cross is a writer and documentary producer who covers the intersection of poverty, race and politics in the United States. She has been a Professor of Journalism at Columbia University’s...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Janelle Gueits — ’13 Million Voices’
Janelle Gueits is an artist, filmmaker and change-maker. Her career has spanned across artistic and social pursuits across the U.S. and worldwide as a feature film director, network television...