#Documentary 2
Guest Post: The Aerial Cinematography and Fearless Living of ‘Sunshine Superman’
As I write this, my documentary "Sunshine Superman" has been out in the world for a little over a year. We have played at over 40 festivals worldwide and had a limited theatrical run...
Chicken & Egg Pictures Announces Recipients of Its Inaugural Breakthrough Filmmaker Award
Documentary filmmakers Kristi Jacobson, Julia Reichert, Yoruba Richen, Elaine McMillion and Michèle Stephenson have been named the five recipients of Chicken & Egg Pictures’...
Sundance Selects Acquires Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman’s Anthony Weiner Doc
Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman’s doc portrait of Anthony Weiner documentary has found a buyer in Sundance Selects days ahead of the film’s January 24 premiere at the 2016 Sundance...
2016 Oscar Noms Announced; ‘Brooklyn,’ ‘Room,’ ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ to Compete For Best Picture
2016 won’t go down as the most homogeneous (i.e., exclusionary) year in recent Oscar history. Three female-centric films ("Brooklyn," "Room" and...
Trailer Watch: Elaine May’s PBS Portrait of Director Mike Nichols
One of Mike Nichols’ best-known collaborators has helmed a documentary about the Oscar-winning director and one of his most beloved films. Elaine May has directed an "American...
HBO to Air 17 Docs in Spring 2016; Subjects Include Nora Ephron, Mavis Staples, Gloria Vanderbilt
Writer Nora Ephron, filmmaker Laurie Anderson, singer Mavis Staples, heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, Cuban LGBT activist Mariela Castro (Fidel’s niece) and a 18-year-old Pakistani woman...
Guest Post: Gender Parity in Documentary Filmmaking Is A Fiction
Over the holiday break, I read many of the Oscar predictions that litter not just the trades but the various general interest "papers of record" this time of year. But I hardly saw a single...
Directors Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos on Challenges and Misconceptions About ‘Making a Murderer’
Since its debut on Netflix last month, the ten-part documentary miniseries "Making a Murderer" has dominated the water-cooler conversation. Below, we rerun an interview with directors Laura...
Sundance Rerun: Interview with Lana Wilson and Martha Shane – Directors of After Tiller
Originally published on January 29. After Tiller is in theaters today. One of the highlights of Sundance was seeing the documentary After Tiller directed by Martha Shana and Lana Wilson....
Carine Roitfeld in Conversation on Mademoiselle C
After a decade as editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris ended with her resignation in December 2010, Fabien Constant’s Mademoiselle C elegantly shows Carine Roitfeld embarking on a new project,...
Guest Post: Director Kandeyce Jorden’s Journey Through the World of Female DJs
When director Kandeyce Jorden found herself at a personal crossroads, she went looking for a creative project that would open her eyes to a new way of life–and she found it in the...
Women Win Top Doc Awards at TIFF
Women directors took home the top audience awards in the documentary area at TIFF this year. Jehane Noujaim’s The Square took home the top audience prize. The film looks at the Egyptian...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Beeban Kidron
Beeban Kidron was born in London. She studied at the National Film and Television School and co-founded the educational charity FILMCLUB. Her directing credits include the fiction features Used...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Leanne Pooley
Leanne Pooley was born and raised in Canada, and now lives in New Zealand. She has directed over twenty features, including the documentaries Haunting Douglas (03), The Promise (05), Try...
TIFF Women Directors and Producers: Meet Sabine Emiliani and Stephanie Levy
Sabine Emiliani’s documentary editing has garnered accolades from Sundance to Cannes to the Academy Awards. Ms. Emiliani’s 2006 Oscar-winning documentary, March of the Penguins...
Guest Post: Filming the Unimaginable
I remember feeling scared of entering the room Neil was in, of approaching him. Maybe part of this was fear of seeing his suffering, but it was also disquiet about the ethics of filming...
Director Laura Poitras Is at the Center of the Biggest Political Story of the Year
Unless you live under a rock you know that one of the biggest, if not the biggest, political stories this year is the release of classified documents by Edward Snowden about the US government and...
Samuel Goldwyn Films Acquires Anita Hill Documentary
Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired the U.S. rights to Anita, the documentary about Anita Hill. Directed by Freida Mock, Anita follows the life of Anita Hill–looking at her experiences...
The Hillary Clinton TV Panic – Part One
It’s summer and everyone is sick of talking about Anthony Weiner and his sexting, so now there is another controversy to discuss — the impending Hillary Clinton media TV projects on both...
Billie Jean King Talks Coming Out and Tennis for Upcoming PBS Special
Iconic tennis player, Billie Jean King, spoke at the PBS TCA panel this week for her upcoming American Masters special. King is the first sports figure to be profiled in the series. The...
TIFF Announces Documentary Line Up
Last week, the 2013 Toronto Film Festival began announcing its line up. However that came with dismaying news for female directors–out of the 16 galas not one was directed by a woman. And of...
Nine for IX: Swoopes Directed by Hannah Storm Premieres July 30
Sheryl Swoopes is one of the greatest women’s basketball players to have ever graced the court. Those early seasons after she had her son and she was playing on the Houston Comets when...
Women Directed Documentaries on HBO’s Fall Line Up
HBO announced their Fall 2013 documentary line up and it’s ruled by women directed features. They’ll be airing docs from Whoopi Goldberg, Andrea and Sean Fine and Cynthia Wade....
New Trailer Watch: After Tiller Directed by Martha Shane and Lana Wilson
I saw After Tiller when it premiered at Sundance. It is a film that needs to be seen and is so relevant to our times and the continued assaults on women’s reproductive freedom....
Guest Post: A Rising Tide: Women in Independent Documentary Production
As a documentary director and producer, I am surrounded by women working and thriving in the entertainment industry. The documentary realm has long had a reputation for being more open to...
Guest Post: There She Is: From Festival Rejections To Online Success
In film school you learn that there is an established process once you’re done with your film. After hours slaving away in an edit room, you start applying to festivals and hope for the...
Trailer Watch: Billie Jean King
For the first time, PBS’ American Masters series is profiling a sports figure and we are glad that they chose Billie Jean King. The documentary focuses on King’s career as a tennis...
Malala Yousafzai To Be Subject of New Documentary
The extremely brave 16 year old Malala Yousafzai will be the subject of a new documentary by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth.) Last October, Yousafzai was shot in the head by...
Sundance Institute Awards Documentary Grants
The Sundance Institute awarded 29 documentaries grants from their Documentary Film Program and Fund. Combined all the films will receive over $550,000 in grants. Here are the women directed...
xoxosms directed by Nancy Schwartzman to Air on PBS July 15th
Nancy Schwartzman’s short documentary, xoxosms, will be airing on PBS on July 15th. Schwartzman’s doc follows the romance between Gus and Jiyun–seemingly opposites in every...
Directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal Use Kickstarter to Replace PBS Funding
Documentarians Tia Lessin and Carl Deal made a big wave with their film, Trouble the Waters about Hurricane Katrina. They got funding through PBS to make their new film that examined the role...
Showtime To Make Tig Notaro Documentary
Showtime has greenlit a documentary about comedian, Tig Notaro. The doc, Knock Knock, It’s Tig Notaro, will follow Notaro as she tours the country. The twist is that her performances will be...
Whoopi Goldberg Has Gotten Really Busy Lately
I saw Whoopi Goldberg last evening on a post screening discussion at the ESPN Films & espnW kickoff event for the NINE For IX Series following the New York premiere of Venus Vs. which...
Miss You Can Do It Premieres Tonight on HBO
Miss You Can Do It is a wonderful, uplifting film about a beauty pageant targeted at girls with disabilities. It shows the power these events can have to make girls who are sometimes...
Watch This: Nine for IX Short Film Coach – Directed by Bess Kargman
As we previously reported, this summer ESPN will be airing Nine for IX–a series of films about women athletes directed by women. To say that we were excited would be an understatement. ESPN...
2013 Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund Announces Spotlighting Women Documentary Awards
The 2013 grantees for the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund were announced. The fund gives money to feature length projects that highlight important social issues from around the world. The Kering...
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer Premieres Tonight on HBO
If one had any doubts about the vibrancy of international feminism today, one need only watch the new documentary Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer which premieres tonight on HBO to have those doubts fully...
Trailer Watch: Blackfish – Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite
The official trailer for Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s Sundance hit, Blackfish, was recently released. Intense is the only way to describe it. It feels a lot like The Cove about dolphins in...
Interview with Judy Chaikin – Director of The Girls in the Band
The Girls in the Band opens for a one-week run in NYC on May 10. Tickets here. Women and Hollywood: What drew you to making this film? Judy Chaikin: I come from a family of musicians...
Guest Post: Invisible Women Who Rock
We are both filmmakers launching documentaries featuring different generations of women pursuing their artistic vision in the predominantly male bastion of rock and roll. And of course, the...
Guest Post: Aroused
I never thought I would ever make a documentary film, let alone one where my leading cast would be some of the biggest names in the Porn industry. I am a photographer, and yes, I have always felt...
Guest Post: Can Major League Dreams Defy Martial Law?
In the face of daunting odds of gender, geography and living under the gun, women and girls are the power players in my new documentary – The Only Real Game. This is the first nonfiction...
Hot Docs Preview: Interview with Liz Marshall – Director of The Ghost in Our Machine
The Ghosts in Our Machine is an extremely upsetting yet moving film about how we treat animals. It tells the story of Jo-Ann McArthur, a photographer, who has dedicated her life to showing the...
Interview with Lily Tomlin – Narrator and Executive Producer of An Apology to Elephants
Tonight, in honor of Earth Day, HBO will premiere An Apology to Elephants narrated by Lily Tomlin that will put to an end any feeling person’s trips to the circus. It’s an...
Vulture Includes No Women on 20 Essential Documentary List, Thom Powers Counters
Recently, Vulture listed their 20 Essential Documentaries of the century. Documentaries from Michael Moore, Werner Herzog and Morgan Spurlock made the cut, but not a single women-directed documentary...
Poster Premiere: A River Changes Course – Kalyanee Mam
Kalyanee Mam’s A River Changes Course is a documentary that chronicles the lives of three Cambodian families who are dealing with the struggle to maintain their traditional ways of life while...
SXSW Review – The Other Shore
Diana Nyad is a warrior. There has never been a woman so aptly named after a Goddess. The Other Shore tells the story of Nyad’s attempts to accomplish the near impossible feat,...
Trailer Watch: Venus and Serena – Directed by Maiken Baird and Michelle Major
Check out the trailer for Venus and Serena, directed by Maiken Baird and Michelle Major. The documentary gives us a look into the lives of bad-ass, iconic tennis powerhouses Venus and Serena Williams...
SXSW Interview with Sini Anderson, Tamra Davis and Kathleen Hanna of The Punk Singer
I can’t write about Sini Anderson’s great documentary The Punk Singer without mentioning that Kathleen Hanna has been one of my life-long heroes. When I was sixteen a friend gave me...
Peabody Award Winners Include Switched At Birth, Girls, Southland
The Peabody Awards announced the winners for their 72nd annual awards. The Peabody Awards recognize “distinguished achievement and meritorious service by broadcasters, cable and Webcasters,...
Bring Shola Lynch’s Free Angela & All Political Prisoners to Your Local Theater
Shola Lynch’s Free Angela & All Political Prisoners focuses on the remarkable life of the incomparable Angela Davis, a professor, a member of the Communist party and influential social...