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Oscar 2010: Documentary Feature Semi-Finalists

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 15 semi-finalists in the 2010 Academy Awards’ Documentary Feature category. Eighty-nine films had been in the running.
The 15 documentary feature semi-finalists are:

The Beaches of Agnes, Agnès Varda, director (Cine-Tamaris)

Burma VJ, Anders Østergaard, director (Magic Hour Films)

The Cove, Louie Psihoyos, director (Oceanic Preservation Society)

Every Little Step, James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo, directors (Endgame Entertainment)

Facing Ali, Pete McCormack, director (Network Films Inc.)

Food, Inc., Robert Kenner, director (Robert Kenner Films)

Garbage Dreams, Mai Iskander, director (Iskander Films, Inc.)

Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders, Mark N. Hopkins, director (Red Floor Pictures LLC)

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Judith Ehrlich [...]

Yoav Shamir’s DEFAMATION Opens in NY/LA

European Film Award nominee and a very likely contender for the 2010 best documentary feature Academy Award*, Yoav Shamir’s Defamation opens on Friday, Nov. 20, in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities across the United States.
The film info below is from distributor First Run Features’ website:
"Intent on shaking up the ultimate ‘sacred cow’ for Jews, Israeli director Yoav Shamir embarks on a provocative — and at times irreverent — quest to answer the question, ‘What is anti-Semitism today?’ Does it remain a dangerous and immediate threat? Or is it a scare tactic used by right-wing Zionists to discredit their critics?
"Speaking with an array of people from across the political spectrum (including [...]

FOUR SEASONS LODGE Screenings

Directed by Andrew Jacobs, Four Seasons Lodge is currently playing at New York City’s IFC Center at Sixth Avenue at West Third Street. The film opens Friday, Nov. 20, at the Quad Cinema at 34 West 13th Street. This week, the filmmaker will be present at the IFC Center’s Wednesday-Thursday 8pm shows.
The Four Seasons Lodge summary reads:
"From the darkness of Hitler’s Europe to the lush mountains of New York’s Catskills, Four Seasons Lodge follows a community of Holocaust survivors who come together each summer at their beloved bungalow colony to dance, cook, fight and flirt — and celebrate their survival. Beautifully photographed by a team of cinematographers led by Albert Maysles (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens), [...]

BLESSED IS THE MATCH, PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL Screening

Roberta Grossman’s Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh and Gini Reticker’s Pray the Devil Back to Hell (above, lower photo) will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 28th annual “Contemporary Documentaries” series on Wednesday, November 11, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission is free.
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh tells the story of poet, diarist, and paratrooper Hannah Senesh, who took part in the only military rescue mission for Jews during the Holocaust. Blessed Is the Match was also produced by Grossman, who will be present to take questions from [...]

THE WAR GAME Review II

THE WAR GAME Review: Part I

Given the spate of nuclear Armageddon films made in the 1960s (e.g., Fail Safe, Planet of the Apes) and up through the early 1980s television production The Day After, it’s remarkable how such a low-budget effort like The War Game retains its effectiveness when almost all other films on the topic seem corny. It’s likely that the timeless effectiveness of Watkins’ film is the very reason it was banned for nearly two decades. Scenes of British police shooting civilians were probably deemed too disturbing. Worse yet, the film’s realistic feel and unflinching look at the total inability of the U.K. government to protect its citizens from a nuclear [...]

THE WAR GAME d: Peter Watkins

The War Game (1965)
Direction and Screenplay: Peter Watkins
Narration: Michael Aspel and Peter Graham
 

 

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
For anyone who thinks that those 50-pack mega-DVD sets of public domain films put out by several different video companies are worthless, I would argue that the amount of films you get for the money is worth it, even if all were mediocre, and that the truth is: each DVD package will come with at least 8-10 enjoyable films, a few true classics like Carnival of Souls or Night of the Living Dead, and every so often a great little film will pop up that makes the package a total steal.
One such 50-pack I [...]

Gay Documentary THIS AREA IS UNDER QUARANTINE Banned

Thunska Pansittivorakul’s Thai-made experimental documentary This Area Is Under Quarantine, which discusses the difficulties faced by both gays and Muslims in Thailand, has been banned by that country’s Ministry of Culture from showing at next month’s World Film Festival of Bangkok.
According to a report in the Bangkok Post, the problem has less to do with an outright ban of the film’s themes — which includes mention of the Tak Bai Incident of 2004, a case of police/army brutality that left nearly 100 Muslim protesters dead in the southern Thai province — than with labyrinthine new laws involving ratings committees and subcommittees that are supposed to classify films shown at special screenings or festivals.

On his [...]

CRIPS AND BLOODS: MADE IN AMERICA d: Stacy Peralta

Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008)
Direction: Stacy Peralta
Screenplay: Stacy Peralta and Sam George
Narration: Forest Whitaker
 

 

In the 1980s and into the first half of the 1990s, gang violence in American urban centers grabbed nightly news headlines with a distant sensationalism that appears almost quaint in the era of the 24-hour news cycle. Perhaps because threats emerging beyond the borders of the United States appear more prevalent or maybe because superficial aspects of the thug life entered the pop culture vernacular, gang warfare in cities such as Los Angeles has bled into the background of media chatter in the last fifteen years.
Crips and Bloods: Made in America reintroduces the conversation into the mainstream. Director Stacy Peralta [...]

DAVID MCCULLOUGH, GLASS: A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP Screening

David McCullough: Painting with Words (top); Philip Glass in GLASS: a portrait of Philip in twelve parts (bottom)

David McCullough: Painting with Words and GLASS: a portrait of Philip in twelve parts will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 28th annual “Contemporary Documentaries” series on Wednesday, November 4, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission is free.
Directed by Mark Herzog and produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, David McCullough: Painting with Words takes a look at the career of Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough (Truman, John Adams). Herzog will be present to take questions from the audience following the screening.
Shot on [...]

THE END OF POVERTY? US Release

Philippe Diaz’s documentary The End of Poverty?, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week sidebar and has been screened at more than two dozen international film festivals, will be released nationwide by Cinema Libre starting in New York City on November 13 (at the Village East Cinema), followed by Los Angeles on November 25 (at the Laemmle Sunset 5 and Culver Plaza Theaters), with a platform release to follow including runs in Seattle, Portland, and Austin, and later in Boston, San Francisco, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Atlanta.
"Most of the experts interviewed in the film had predicted the current economic crisis more than two years ago, when we started to film, explaining that a system based on a [...]

THE GLASS HOUSE, BANKING ON HEAVEN Screening

Two new documentaries to be screened at the American Cinematheque:
The Glass House (above) with director Hamid Rahmanian In Person
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at the Aero Theatre
Banking of Heaven with writer-producer Laurie Allen In Person
An Unflinching Look at the Controversial Latter-Day Saint Community
Thursday, October 29, 2009  at the Egyptian Theatre
The Glass House, which was screened at Sundance 2009, is "an intimate portrait of the never-before-seen plight of underclass Iranian women," while Banking of Heaven is " an unflinching look at a controversial Latter-Day Saints community" that is described as "home to a culture that routinely practices child rape, welfare fraud and systematic mind control."
Wednesday, October 28 – 7:30 PM at the Aero Theatre
THE GLASS HOUSE, 2009, 92 min. [...]

ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, FLOW: FOR LOVE OF WATER Screening

Werner Herzog’s Academy Award-nominated Encounters at the End of the World (above, lower photo) and Irena Salina’s Flow: For Love of Water will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 28th annual “Contemporary Documentaries” series on Wednesday, October 21, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission is free.
Directed by Herzog and produced by Henry Kaiser, Encounters at the End of the World looks at human beings interacting with the harsh environment of Antarctica. Werner Herzog will be present to take questions from the audience following the screening.
Flow: For Love of Water deals with the dire consequences of increased privatization [...]

TAPESTRIES OF HOPE Screening in New York

PRESS RELEASE
Freshwater Haven, a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the dramatic social change that is required to stop the physical, sexual and emotional abuse of women, announced today it’s production, Tapestries of Hope, will be shown at an exclusive screening on Sunday, October 18, 2009 in New York City. This special event will be followed by screenings at the United States Department of State and in the Capitol Visitors Center Theater 10/20/09.
Tapestries of Hope (www.tapestriesofhope.com) is an astounding story told through the eyes of filmmaker Michealene Cristini Risley. The film captures her sojourn to Africa as she investigated the longstanding myths surrounding the power of virgin blood, including its ability to cure HIV/AIDS.
Documenting the work of Zimbabwean child and [...]

European Film Awards 2009: THE SOUND OF INSECTS Chosen Best Documentary

Peter Liechti’s Swiss documentary The Sound of Insects – Record of a Mummy was the winner of the Prix ARTE for best European documentary, the European Film Academy (EFA) has announced.
Inspired by Shimada Masahiko’s novella How I Became a Mummy, itself inspired by true events, The Sound of Insects tells the story of a forest hunter who discovers the mummified body of a man — the remains of someone who starved himself to death while recording the process along the way.
The jury, composed of Franco-Georgian documentary filmmaker Nino Kirtadzé, Austrian producer Franz Grabner, and Russian documentary filmmaker Viktor Kossakovsky, decided to give the award to The Sound of Insects "for its [...]

Oscar 2010: Early Predictions – Best Documentary

BEST DOCUMENTARY

The Beaches of Agnès, Agnès Varda
Veteran filmmaker Agnès Varda remembers her life’s beaches, sand dunes, sun rays, and more.

Burma VJ, Anders Østergaard
In 2007, thousands of monks took to the streets of Burma to protest the military government’s brutal anti-democratic policies.

The Cove, Louie Psihoyos
Beautiful, intelligent dolphins are abused and slaughtered to provide entertainment and fodder for ugly, stupid people. The bloody cove of the title is located near Taijii, Japan, where the government does nothing to stop the slaughter.

Food, Inc., Robert Kenner
The distasteful food industry and their government accomplices vs. your health

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
Daniel Ellsberg, the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers, undemocracy at work, [...]

Oscar 2010: Documentary Short Subject Semi-Finalists

Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak (top); The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (middle); China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (bottom)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the list of eight semi-finalists in the Documentary Short Subject category for the 2010 Academy Awards. Three to five of those shorts will end up with Oscar nominations.
The eight films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:

China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province, Downtown Community Television Center, Inc.
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner, Just Media
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, Community Media Productions
Lt. Watada, Chanlim Films
Music by Prudence, iThemba [...]

TEN9EIGHT – Mary Mazzio’s Inner-City Youth Documentary

Filmmaker Mary Mazzio

PRESS RELEASE
This is the compelling question behind award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio’s newest project Ten9Eight, a thought provoking film which tells the inspirational stories of several inner city teens (of differing race, religion and ethnicity) from Harlem to Compton and all points in between, as they compete in an annual business plan competition run by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).
The film includes students such as:

Rodney Walker, age 19, Founder of Forever Life Music and Video Productions: Rodney was put into the foster care system at the age of 5 and ended up homeless on the streets of Chicago. Almost becoming a statistic like many of his brothers, Rodney was able to chart a new future – and is [...]

European Film Awards 2009: Best Documentary Nominations

The European Film Academy has announced the ten non-fiction features up for the 2009 Prix Arte for Best European Documentary.

The nominated documentaries are:

THE BEACHES OF AGNES (Les Plages d’Agnès)
Agnès Varda, France

BELOW SEA LEVEL, Gianfranco Rosi, Italy / USA

BURMA VJ, Anders Østergaard, Denmark

COOKING HISTORY (Ako Sa Varia Dejiny)
Peter Kerekes, Slovakia / Austria / Czech Republic

THE DAMNED OF THE SEA (Les Damnés de la Mer)
Jawad Rhalib, Belgium

DEFAMATION, Yoav Shamir, Denmark / Austria / Israel / USA

THE HEART OF JENIN (Das Herz von Jenin)
Leon Geller & Marcus Vetter, Germany

PIANOMANIA, Lilian Franck & Robert Cibis, Germany / Austria

THE SOUND OF INSECTS – RECORD OF A MUMMY
[...]

ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE: Oscar’s Docs

Michael Moore shooting Bowling for Columbine

Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine, Kevin Macdonald’s One Day in September, and Errol Morris‘ The Fog of War are among the 12 Oscar-winning short and feature documentaries to be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ "Oscar’s Docs, Part Five: Academy Award-Winning Documentaries 1998–2003" beginning Monday, October 19, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. The screenings will be held Monday evenings through November 23.
“Oscar’s Docs” is a comprehensive screening series of every short subject and feature to win the Academy Award for documentary filmmaking since the category was established in 1941.
As per the Academy’s press release, [...]

MANON, ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AN DESIRED Screening

This evening, UCLA’s James Bridges Theater will be screening Henri-Georges Clouzot’s (right) modernized version of Manon (1949) at 5 p.m., and, at 7:30 p.m., Marina Zenovich’s now much-discussed documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008), about the circus surrounding the legal (and at times apparently illegal) maneuverings throughout Roman Polanski’s trial for having sex with a minor in the late 1970s. Admission is free.
I’m assuming that Wanted and Desired will be packed. So, be ready to stand in line. Also, it should be noted that one of the prosecutors in the case, David Wells, has just recently recanted the story he told Zenovich, which revealed unethical behavior on the part of the judge assigned to Polanski’s case. Wells now says [...]

Perspectives on Editing: Editing for Documentary Films

Grizzly Man by Werner Herzog (lower photo)

The art and craft of editing documentary films is the topic of the third installment of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ four-part seminar series "Perspectives on Editing," which will be held on Tuesday, October 6, from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.
"Perspectives on Editing: Editing for Documentary Films" will be hosted by Academy Film Editors Branch governors Donn Cambern (The Last Picture Show, The Bodyguard) and Mark Goldblatt (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Starship Troopers).
Special guests will include Kate Amend (The Long Way Home, Jimmy Carter Man from Plains), Joe Bini (Little Dieter Needs to Fly, [...]

CRIPS AND BLOODS: MADE IN AMERICA, THE GARDEN Screening

Set in Los Angeles’ impoverished inner city areas, the documentaries The Garden (above, lower photo) and Crips and Bloods: Made in America will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 28th annual “Contemporary Documentaries” series on Wednesday, October 7, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission is free.
In Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s The Garden, the organization South Central Farmers fight a wealthy developer in order to preserve the community garden they created after the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The Garden earned an Academy Award nomination for Documentary Feature. Kennedy will be present to take questions from the audience following the [...]

Roman Polanski: Lifetime Achievement Ceremony to Proceed

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The Zurich Film Festival, which runs until Oct. 4, has released the following statement following the arrest of the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Roman Polanski:
"The planned ‘A Tribute to …’ Award ceremony for film maker Roman Polanski will go ahead in his absence. Roman Polanski, one of the greatest film directors of our time would have received an award for his life’s achievement at the Zurich Film Festival. However, he was detained by the police upon his entry at Zurich Airport. His detention is linked to the demand by US-authorities to a warrant for his arrest in 1978.
"The festival directors have received this news with great consternation and shock. They have decided that the ‘A Tribute to … Roman [...]

MAN ON WIRE, IN A DREAM Screening

Philippe Petit in James Marsh’s Man on Wire (top); Isaiah and Julia Zagar in Jeremiah Zagar’s In a Dream (bottom)

James Marsh’s Man on Wire and Jeremiah Zagar’s In a Dream will launch the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 28th annual "Contemporary Documentaries" screening series on Wednesday, September 30, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission to all screenings in the series is free.
Man on Wire tells the story of Philippe Petit, who in 1974 walked on a wire illegally rigged between the twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center — a feat that became known as "the artistic crime of the century." Directed [...]

THE 10 CONDITIONS OF LOVE Controversy at the Melbourne Film Festival

Protesting the planned appearance of Uighur-independence activist Rebiya Kadeer, whom the Chinese government blames for the ethnic violence this month between Uighurs and Han Chinese, a hacker has posted a Chinese flag on the Web site of the Melbourne International Film Festival, the New York Times has reported, citing the Associated Press. The ethnic riots in the East Turkistan region left nearly 200 people dead.
The hacker, reportedly a Chinese man offended by Kadeer’s scheduled appearance at the screening of Melbourne-based filmmaker Jeff Daniels‘ documentary The 10 Conditions of Love, also left messages in English demanding an apology from festival organizers. The 10 Conditions of Love, which chronicles Kadeer and her family’s struggles against the Chinese government’s oppression, premiered at [...]

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