Documentary News

Q&A Kylie Boltin 21 May 2012

Hussain Currimbhoy of Sheffield Doc/Fest

Film programmer Hussain Currimbhoy speaks with Kylie Boltin about the 2012 Sheffield Doc/Fest.

Q&A Kylie Boltin 18 May 2012

Q&A with Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy

Saving Face is the 2012 Oscar-winning documentary short about the devastating effects of acid violence in Pakistan. It follows two victims, Zakia and Rukhsana as they attempt to bring their assailants to justice and move on with their lives. It also follows the work of plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad who left his London practice to return to Pakistan to help the victims of such attacks. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy discusses her film on the eve of its screening at the New York Indian Film Festival in Lower Manhattan.

Q&A Kylie Boltin 21 Mar 2012

Phil Grabsky, director of In Search Of Haydn

In recent years, director Phil Grabsky has immersed himself in the music of the world’s greatest composers. His feature documentaries, In Search of Beethoven and In Search of Mozart, have been particularly popular in Australia, screening for a number of months in art-house cinemas across the country. Now Grabsky has turned his attention to Joseph Haydn, a man who broke new ground in composition and has inspired countless artists.

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Q&A Kylie Boltin 7 Mar 2012

Jeff Malmberg, director of Marwencol

When it was released, Jeff Malmberg’s independently produced documentary Marwencol (2010) took the festival circuit by storm. At its SXSW debut it won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary. It also screened at the Melbourne and Brisbane International Film Festivals and was released theatrically in the USA. All together, it has won over 25 awards, including two Independent Spirit Awards and Best Documentary of the Year from the Boston Society of Film Critics.

Q&A Kylie Boltin 30 Jan 2012

Steve James interview, Part 2

Steve James' latest documentary, The Interrupters, topped many critics' best-of-2011 lists. Here is the second part of Kylie Boltin's talk with James about the inspiration for the film and the challenges of observational filmmaking. Part 1 is here.

Q&A Kylie Boltin 19 Jan 2012

Steve James interview, Part 1

Steve James just picked up the Cinema Eye Honors for best directing and feature documentary, as well as a nomination for the DGA Awards, the latest amongst a run of other prizes for his most recent film, The Interrupters. I spoke with the legendary director, best known for his seminal 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams, in Chicago. Part 2 of the interview is here.

Q&A Kylie Boltin 10 Jan 2012

We're Not Broke Q&A

Check out this clip courtesy of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival: Karin Hayes and Victoria Bruce talk about their new doc, We're Not Broke. The film is about corporate tax dodgers. It is one of 16 films set to screen as part of the US Documentary Competition.

Q&A Kylie Boltin 30 Dec 2011

Semper Fi: Always Faithful - director interview

The multi-award winning documentary, Semper Fi: Always Faithful is one of the fifteen features currently in contention for the 2012 Best Documentary Oscar. I spoke with director Rachel Libert in New York.

Q&A Kylie Boltin 5 Dec 2011

Interview: David Weissman, director of We Were Here

We Were Here is a portrait of the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco. Told via extended interviews with five survivors of the epidemic, the moving documentary has been shortlisted for an Academy Award and nominated for Best Documentary at the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards. I spoke with director/producer David Weissman by phone from California.

Q&A Kylie Boltin 16 Nov 2011

Spotlight: Danish director Jørgen Leth

Jørgen Leth is the subject of a retrospective and host of a master class at RIDM —The Montreal International Documentary Festival. I spoke with the Danish director by phone about his thoughts on the craft of documentary, his process of using poetry in the fabric of his films and the Lars Von Trier effect.

Q&A Kylie Boltin 28 Sep 2011

Exclusive interview: Jeffrey Schwarz

I spoke with Jeffrey Schwarz from his home in Los Angeles days before the world premiere of his feature documentary, Vito. The director is especially thrilled that the film is premiering in New York. “Vito was a quintessential New Yorker,” he says of the man whose extraordinary life is the subject of the documentary.

Q&A Kylie Boltin 6 Sep 2011

Life in a Day: Kevin Macdonald interview

Kevin Macdonald is especially keen to communicate one thing about his latest documentary, Life in a Day. It is not experimental.

Q&A Julia Scott-Stevenson 11 Nov 2010

The apartment in Amsterdam from Out My Window

Q&A with Katerina Cizek - Part 2

In the second instalment of an interview (the first one is here) with Katerina Cizek, she talks about the process of putting Out My Window together, the response they’ve received, and what we can expect next from Highrise.

Q&A Julia Scott-Stevenson 10 Nov 2010

The apartment in Bangalore from Out My Window

Q&A with Katerina Cizek - Part 1

The Canadian-made, globally-focused Out My Window, posted about here previously, is a groundbreaking piece of online interactive documentary making. It’s one component of a larger ongoing collaborative media project called Highrise. I spoke to the director, Katerina Cizek, about how the project came together and about what they’re trying to achieve with it.