documentaries Articles

Kartemquin Films, the producing company of prestige documentaries such as Steve James‘ award-winning The Interrupters and Hoop Dreams, has posted on its website a scathing open letter criticizing PBS — the United States’ Public Broadcasting Service — for moving documentary showcases Independent Lens and POV from its Tuesday line-up to the highly competitive Thursday evening slot. Kartemquin states that it "encourage[s] all independent filmmakers and [...]

CALLING HEDY LAMARR (2004) Direction and Screenplay: Georg Misch Recommended with Reservations Hedy Lamarr Shot in digital format, Georg Misch’s entertaining documentary Calling Hedy Lamarr has the look of a well-crafted low-budget movie and the feel of a quirky independent film. That is hardly the sort of approach one would expect to find in a documentary about one of the most beautiful, most glamorous, and [...]

Kirk Cameron’s anti-gay rhetoric may have angered the fair-minded everywhere (read responses from Roseanne Barr, Alan Thicke, and others), but many (most? the vast majority?) of his fellow Fundamentalist Christians are definitely on his side. And Cameron has a — quite timely — gift for them in the form of the documentary Monumental: In Search of America’s National Treasure. (See trailer below.) Co-produced by Cameron, [...]

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Daniel Junge Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge, Oscar-winners for the Documentary Short Subject Saving Face, attend the Governors Ball following the 84th Academy Awards held at the Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood on Sunday, February 26, 2012. (Photo: Darren Decker / © A.M.P.A.S.) Saving Face tells the story of women who have had their faces disfigured by acid attacks in Pakistan. Below [...]