#Documentary
Trailer Watch: “Denise Ho: Becoming the Song” Celebrates Canto-pop Singer and Activist
“The record companies just didn’t know what to do,” says Denise Ho in a trailer for a new documentary about her. “And I wasn’t ready to conform to what they expected.” Directed by Sue...
“Transhood” Wins Big at AFI Docs Film Fest
The winners are in for the 2020 edition of AFI Docs. “Transhood,” Sharon Liese’s portrait of four transgender kids living in Kansas City, was honored with the festival’s...
Elizabeth Lo’s Hot Docs Winner “Stray” Acquired by Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures has landed North American rights to “Stray,” an award-winning documentary about stray dogs in Istanbul. Elizabeth Lo made her directorial debut with the film, which was...
Trailer Watch: Bryce Dallas Howard Makes Her Feature Directorial Debut with “Dads” Doc
“I want to know more about what it takes to be a father and celebrate all the great dads out there,” says Bryce Dallas Howard in a trailer for “Dads,” her feature directorial...
Voting Rights Doc from Stacey Abrams, Liz Garbus, and Lisa Cortés Acquired by Amazon Studios
Worldwide rights to an untitled voting rights documentary from Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés have been acquired by Amazon Studios. A press release announced the news. Prominently featuring insights...
Ivy Meeropol on Looking Beyond Evil in “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn”
Ivy Meeropol’s documentary feature debut was “Heir to an Execution,” which premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, and was shortlisted for an Academy Award. It was followed by two short...
Totem Films Launches New Documentary Label with Female-Driven Projects
Totem Films has launched a new documentary label, Totem Doc, and will present its inaugural lineup of four female-driven projects at Cannes Film Market next week. Screen Daily confirmed the news. The...
Apply Now: American Documentary’s Artist Mental Health Fund for BIPOC Directors & Producers
Applications are now open for a new U.S.-based fund designed to support artists of color, specifically with regards to mental health. American Documentary (AmDoc), the nonprofit organization behind...
Pick of the Day: “Seahorse: The Dad Who Gave Birth”
Shortly before I watched “Seahorse: The Dad Who Gave Birth,” Jeanie Finlay’s documentary about a trans man embarking upon pregnancy and parenthood, “Harry Potter” author...
Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2020 Women Directors: Meet Mira Jargil – “Reunited”
Mira Jargil is known for the award-winning festival hit “The Time We Have,” the feature documentary “Dreaming of a Family,” and the series “Till Death Do Us Part.” The...
Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2020 Women Directors: Meet Erika Cohn – “Belly of the Beast”
Erika Cohn is a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning director and producer. Most recently she completed “The Judge,” a Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated film about the first woman judge...
Ramona S. Diaz’s “A Thousand Cuts” Acquired by PBS’ “Frontline”
“A Thousand Cuts” has secured distribution. A press release announced that PBS’ “Frontline” scored U.S. rights to the Sundance title. Offering an inside look at the fight...
Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2020 Women Directors: Meet Shalini Kantayya – “Coded Bias”
Shalini Kantayya directed the season finale episode for the National Geographic television series “Breakthrough,” a series profiling trailblazing scientists transforming the future. Her debut...
Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2020 Women Directors: Meet Christina Antonakos-Wallace – “From Here”
Christina Antonakos-Wallace is a filmmaker and cultural organizer. Her short films and interactive work has been exhibited in over a dozen countries, in contexts from schools to festivals galleries...
Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2020 Women Directors: Meet Juliana Fanjul – “Radio Silence”
Juliana Fanjul received a BA in Visual Communication and attended the documentary department at EICTV (International Cinema and TV School of San Antonio de las Banos). She received a Masters in...
Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2020 Women Directors: Meet Ursula Liang – “Down a Dark Stairwell”
Ursula Liang is a journalist-turned-filmmaker and producer. Her producing credits include “One October,” “Tough Love,” “Wo Ai Ni Mommy,” “Spartan Ultimate...
Trailer Watch: Michelle McNamara Investigates the Golden State Killer in “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark”
“The story of the victims — it has to be told,” says Michelle McNamara in a new trailer for “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.” The HBO docuseries is based on the late author’s 2018...
Trailer Watch: “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” Looks Beyond the Contradictions
“To call Roy Cohn evil, it’s true, but it doesn’t explain 100 other things about him,” says one of the characters featured in “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy...
Trailer Watch: “Imagining the Indian” Fights Against Native American Mascoting
“This country doesn’t really do anything voluntarily in terms of granting human rights. It comes through movements, and movements educate people,” says one of the characters...
Sheffield Doc/Fest Announces Virtual Lineup: “Shut Up Sona,” “The Go-Go’s,” & More
The UK’s most prominent documentary festival has unveiled its 2020 lineup. This year’s programming will be largely digital due to COVID-19. Sheffield Doc/Fest is “launching a VOD...
Inclusive Perspectives: Crowdfunding Picks
It’s more important than ever to support underrepresented voices and viewpoints in film — whether they focus on fact or fiction. Our latest round of crowdfunding picks each highlight...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Elizabeth D. Costa – “Bangla Surf Girls”
An alumna of the IDFA academy and former participant in the Chicken and Egg Accelerator Lab, Elizabeth D. Costa has over eight years of experience working on media projects as producer, director,...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Pippa Ehrlich – “My Octopus Teacher”
Pippa Ehrlich is a natural history filmmaker and award-winning environmental journalist, specializing in the field of marine science and conservation. Ehrlich has worked with some of the world’s...
Julia Bacha and Leslie Tai Among Keep The Lights On COVID-19 Doc Fund Recipients
Documentary studio XTR, Wavelength Productions, and Park Pictures have teamed up to help doc projects that have been affected by the pandemic. According to Deadline, the orgs’ have presented a...
Women in Tennis Doc “Unraveling Athena” Lands at Shout! Studios
“Unraveling Athena: The Champions of Women’s Tennis,” a documentary exploring the lives, careers, and struggles of some of history’s finest female tennis players, has been...
Salima Koroma Directing Black Wall Street Documentary
Another project examining the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre is in the works. Deadline confirms “Bad Rap” director Salima Koroma is helming and executive producing a documentary about Black...
Trailer Watch: An Artist Mourns Eric Garner in “A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe Boone”
“I was never really encouraged to be an artist or anything. I don’t think anybody took me seriously,” says Edythe Boone in a trailer for “A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe...
Penny Lane to Direct Quibi Docuseries “What We Keep,” Cynthia Erivo Exec Producing
Cynthia Erivo and Penny Lane are making their way to Quibi. According to a press release, the latter is directing “What We Keep,” a docuseries about people’s most prized...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Laura Gabbert – “Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles”
Laura Gabbert feature documentary credits include” “No Impact Man,” “Sunset Story,” and “City of Gold.” In 2017, she was a director on the Netflix show...
“Surviving R. Kelly’s” dream hampton to Direct and EP Tulsa Race Massacre Docuseries
dream hampton, executive producer of the award-winning, change-making “Surviving R. Kelly,” is working on another docuseries unearthing a horrific injustice that has been long ignored....
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Chris J. Russo – “Lady Buds”
Chris J. Russo is a director whose work aims to give visibility to women in underrepresented communities in order to portray them in the power and equality they deserve. Her award-winning short films...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Asia Dér and Sári Haragonics – “Her Mothers”
Asia Dér graduated as a documentary director from the DOC Nomads MA program. Her graduation film was nominated for the best short film at the Hungarian Film Festival. She is working on her second...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Iryna Tsilyk – “The Earth Is Blue as an Orange”
Iryna Tsilyk is a Ukrainian film director and writer. “The Earth Is Blue as an Orange” marks her debut feature-length documentary film and has won a directing award at Sundance and two...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Ying Wang – “The World is Bright”
As a migrant navigating between multiple cultures, Ying Wang is fascinated by stories that reveal the geopolitical complexity of global migration. Inspired by her sister’s experiences, Wang wrote...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Judith Helfand – “Love & Stuff”
Peabody award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand tackles some of the most pressing issues of our time — from the climate crisis and systemic inequality to love, grief, and the transformative...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Priscila Padilla – “Breaking the Silence”
Priscila Padilla is a Colombian documentarist and scriptwriter. With over 20 years of experience in the documentary field, her film work has always revolved around women’s issues and stories...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Andrea Testa – “Mother-Child”
Andrea Testa is an Argentinian-born filmmaker. She made her feature documentary debut with 2016’s “Pibe Chorro.” Her 2016 feature film “The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis,” co-directed...
Exclusive: A Biologist Learns About Her Own Body in a Clip of “The Dilemma of Desire”
Can you draw a clitoris? Our exclusive clip of “Maria Finitzo’s” “The Dilemma of Desire” poses this important question. An exploration of female sexual desire that aims to...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Maytorena Taylor – “For the Love of Rutland”
Jennifer Maytorena Taylor’s work has shown at venues like the Sundance, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Locarno Film Festivals, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, and the New York...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Sharon Liese – “Transhood”
Before completing “Pink Collar Crimes,” a true crime series for CBS, Sharon Liese’s short documentary “Fight for the First” premiered at Chuck Todd’s Meet the Press...
June 2020 Film Preview
From hard-hitting documentaries to coming-of-age dramedies, there are a bevy of films by and about women hitting VOD and streaming platforms in June. Among the pics opening the month are Josephine...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Elizabeth St. Philip – “9/11 Kids”
Elizabeth St. Philip is a senior producer at CTV where she has traveled the globe covering a host of stories for both national news and the investigative show “W5.” She has a deep...
Pick of the Day: “On the Record”
In the two-plus years since the #metoo movement changed the culture, most of those who have been removed from power for misdeeds have been older white men — Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer,...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Nathalie Bibeau – “The Walrus and the Whistleblower”
Nathalie Bibeau is a director and producer of international award-winning productions. She began her career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, producing documentary projects such as “8th...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Cecilia Aldarondo – “Landfall”
Cecilia Aldarondo is a documentary director and producer from the Puerto Rican diaspora who makes films at the intersection of poetry and politics. Her work has been supported by ITVS, HBO, A&E,...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Deepti Gupta – “Shut Up Sona”
Deepti Gupta is a filmmaker and director of photography living in Mumbai, India. An alumna of the Film & TV Institute of India, she has shot many documentaries, narrative feature films, and music...
Trailer Watch: Abortion Rights Activists in Ireland Fight to Repeal “The 8th”
Two years ago, Ireland voted to repeal the 8th amendment, the 1983 law that granted fetuses the same right to life as their mothers, in a historic referendum. Now Maeve O’Boyle, Lucy Kennedy, and...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Stefanía Thors – “The School of Housewives”
Stefanía Thors is a filmmaker from Reykjavík, Iceland. She studied theater in Prague, and graduated with a masters from the Academy of Performing Arts. While studying, Thors worked as an assistant...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Maeve O’Boyle, Lucy Kennedy, and Aideen Kane – “The 8th”
Maeve O’Boyle is an Emmy-award winning editor and producer. She edited HBO’s “The Education of Mohammad Hussein,” which was shortlisted for an Academy Award. She co-produced and...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Diana Neille – “Influence”
Diana Neille is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker from Johannesburg, South Africa. Neille co-founded two media startups with the intention of fostering long-form investigative storytelling...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Suzanne Crocker – “First We Eat”
Suzanne Crocker’s first feature, “POV” documentary “All the Time in the World,” won 22 festival awards from around the world including nine audience choice awards, four...