Documentary News

Festival Reports Kylie Boltin 17 May 2012

Outfest turns 30

2012 marks the 30th edition of Outfest: The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Festival Reports Omar Majeed 9 May 2012

Hot Docs ended with a sense of triumph. Although recent budget cuts have made the playing field rough and treacherous for doc filmmakers and producers, we managed to maintain a sense of solidarity throughout.

Festival Reports Omar Majeed 7 May 2012

Notes From Hot Docs, Part 3

As Hot Docs is coming to a close, things are getting increasingly politicised around here.

Festival Reports Omar Majeed 2 May 2012

Notes from Hot Docs, Part 2

The best line coming out of a film I’ve seen at the festival so far goes to the documentary, Beware of Mr. Baker.

Festival Reports Michelle Orange 30 Apr 2012

Tribeca Notes 3: Men in the Mirror

Although I missed out on Mansome, Morgan Spurlock’s new one about the grooming habits of the modern male, the last round of documentaries I took in at the Tribeca Film Festival followed an unmistakably manly theme. Several of them also featured outsiders being repelled by a tight-knit community—an entry point to exploring the larger anxiety of establishing a stable identity on shifting economic and cultural shores.

Festival Reports Omar Majeed 27 Apr 2012

Notes from Hot Docs, Part 1: Hot Docs has changed its temperature

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival looks cleaner and more focused with new head programmer, Charlotte Cook at its reins. Cook, who previously curated edgy and au courant docs for the Edinburgh Film Festival and London’s trendy Frontline Club, clearly knows a thing or two about making docs hip and sexy.

Festival Reports Julia Scott-Stevenson 25 Apr 2012

Festival of (In)appropriation

Following on nicely from my recent top ten list of innovative archival docs, I’ve discovered that there’s a film festival specifically for films of this type.

Festival Reports Michelle Orange 21 Apr 2012

Tribeca Notes 2: Around the World in 34 Documentaries

After a wobbly start to this year’s feature documentary program at the Tribeca Film Festival, on day two a winning streak took me from Hollywood to Tel Aviv to Ethiopia to China.

Festival Reports Michelle Orange 18 Apr 2012

Tribeca Notes 1: Tribeca’s Big Spring Clean

Even the seasons seem to go faster in New York, where summer made a bid to surge past spring as the Tribeca Film Festival began this week. Temperatures more suited to the boggy depths of August greeted journalists as they arrived in the city to cover what has become New York’s biggest film festival in the eleven years since its inception. Founded by producing partners Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal as a way to help rejuvenate the lower Manhattan neighborhood in the aftermath of September 11th, Tribeca gained a reputation early on of trying to do too much, too soon—being too pushy, too cluttered, too mercenary, too New York.

Festival Reports Julia Scott-Stevenson 10 Apr 2012

Sydney Film Fest offers a sneak peek

The Sydney Film Festival has released a sneak peek of 25 films that it will be screening in June, including ten documentaries. So far it looks like there’s a rich selection covering a range of styles, from some famous faces of documentary to more obscure picks. Here’s a totally subjective selection of a few that stand out.

Festival Reports Julia Scott-Stevenson 4 Apr 2012

Reflections on SXSW

Chewing over the interactive sessions from the South by Southwest festival with a bit of distance, I’m finding some themes beginning to emerge - and the main one is that old principles are new again. For a conference essentially about technology (described to me by one person as ‘mardi gras for nerds’), it was good to see story getting a run in there as well.

Festival Reports Kylie Boltin 23 Mar 2012

Hot Docs lineup out

Held in Toronto, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America’s largest documentary festival, conference and market. It runs from April 26 to May 6. In what is director of programming Charlotte Cook’s first year at the helm, this year the festival boasts 189 official selections, from a festival record 51 countries, in 11 screening programs.

Festival Reports Julia Scott-Stevenson 20 Mar 2012

Notes from SXSW, Part 5: A day of winning documentaries

I was feeling rather unsatisfied by the films I'd seen thus far at South by Southwest (SXSW), so I lined up three diverse films in a day to improve my chances of finding a winner. Here my fortunes changed markedly; all three were excellent films in totally different ways.

Festival Reports Julia Scott-Stevenson 19 Mar 2012

Notes from SXSW, Part 4: Interactive on show

The sun came out, the clothes became skimpier, 6th Street got crazier and South by Southwest (SXSW) had finally hit its stride. I began walking with purpose from panel to panel, rather than bouncing around the convention centre like I'd found myself in an MC Escher painting. The interactive panels were a mixed bag, offering up tidbits of information and ideas that I could slowly fit together rather than any one big mind blowing presentation.

Festival Reports Julia Scott-Stevenson 15 Mar 2012

Notes from SXSW, Part 3: The definitive life of Bob Marley

My first South by Southwest trip to the Paramount Theatre, mega-theatre of the mega-queues, was for the premiere of Kevin Macdonald’s latest film, Marley. The film has attracted a fair amount of hype, as the combination of a director of Macdonald’s calibre (Touching the Void, Life in a Day, Last King of Scotland) and the story of Bob Marley could mean a zinger of a film. The audience buzzed in anticipation, and this built to a crescendo when Macdonald took the stage to introduce the film accompanied by several members of the Marley family.