Hot Docs 2013: An Experience All My Own (Because It’s Impossible to Comprehensively Cover All of This Great Doc Fest)
Part of the fun of any film festival is the choose your own adventure aspect. Even those fests that are more like showcases, screening a limited amount of titles one after the other, allow for attendees to be present or absent for each depending on their preference and scheduling. Of course, it’s more exciting the more options you have, as …
Read MoreHot Docs 2013 Interview: Shawney Cohen on Fest Opener ‘The Manor’ and Why It’s More Than Just a Film About a Strip Club
The 2013 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival opens tonight with a fresh new voice in nonfiction filmmaking. My initial reaction to Shawney Cohen‘s feature debut, titled The Manor, is that it’s like Crazy Horse as made by Ross McElwee. But while it is a personal film about Cohen’s family and the strip club they own and work at, it’s …
Read MoreThe National, Ricky Jay, Michael Haneke and Pet Preservation Are Subjects in New Documentary Trailers
With the Tribeca and Nashville film festivals beginning this week and Hot Docs kicking off the next, we’ve got trailers for films playing at all three events. There are also a few music-related films and features on magicians, aliens, the afterlife of animals, garbage men, soccer players and one of the best living filmmakers in the world. Watch them all …
Read MoreThe Joy of Les Blank: On Five Wonderful Docs By the Late Filmmaker
When I heard of Les Blank‘s death last Sunday, I felt rather embarrassed. I’d only seen one of his films, the most obligatory for all movie fans, Burden of Dreams. This “making of” doc on the production of Werner Herzog‘s Fitzcarraldo is one of the greatest about filmmaking ever made. Plus it’s easily seen, either by streaming online or on …
Read MoreNews: IMAX Returns to Space, ‘Pelotero’ Sequel, ‘Hands on a Hard Body’ Rebuilt, Ken Loach Documented and More
Here is the latest documentary news from the past week: The full lineup for this year’s Hot Docs has been announced, and it’s especially exciting this year because I’ll be attending for the first time. Also nerve-racking because there are so many titles I’m interested in and I’m not good at choosing. I might just need to navigate randomly. This …
Read MoreClinton Campaign Doc ‘The War Room’ Wins the 2013 Cinema Eye Legacy Award
It was already a special year for The War Room, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus‘s Oscar nominee that follows Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and made movie stars out of George Stephanapolous and especially James Carville. The documentary got a nice Blu-ray edition from the Criterion Collection back in March. Then, while not specifically related to this work (though it …
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