Barbara Kopple on How Documentaries Have Changed Since She Won Her First Oscar and the Enduring Appeal of True Stories

A few minutes before the North American premiere of “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” director Evgeny Afineesvky summed up his state of mind in a single word: “exhausted.”That makes sense, because “Freedom on Fire” screened at the Toronto International Film Festival about six months after Afineevsky and his team began working on it, barely more than a month after its final footage was filmed and only a few weeks after Helen Mirren recorded narration for a scene that comes early in the documentary.For Afineevsky, who landed Oscar and Emmy nominations for 2015’s “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” this sequel of sorts was made in a six-month rush, including just three months of editing after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February of this year. “The urgency of the movie,” the Russian-born director told the audience before the Tuesday morning TIFF screening, “is to not neglect the situation right now.”Certainly, urgency is a hallmark of “Freedom on Fire,” a harrowing document shot by dozens of people inside Ukrainian cities as the Russian army conducted a bombing campaign and an invasion that seemingly targeted civilians, despite Vladimir Putin’s claims that Russia was there to “demilitarize” and “denazify” the country, and to somehow “free” it – though as more than one person in the film points out, the Russian offensive has resulted in ordinary citizens being freed from their lives, their homes, their families.The director’s first film about Ukraine, “Winter on Fire,” was an on-the-ground look at the 2013-2014 Maidan uprising, in which student protests against the Russian-backed president drew a brutal response but resulted in the removal of the president.

a gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, targeting fans at the country music festival. The attack left 58 people dead and hundreds injured, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.The four-part documentary, titled 11 Minutes, will include the first in-depth interview with country star Jason Aldean, who was performing at the time when the 11-minute shooting began.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter On the stage at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Harry Styles is a bonafide rock star, brimming with swagger and self confidence. But Styles, the actor, was more soft spoken while accepting an acting award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Styles was a man of few words as he, along with the cast of “My Policeman,” received the ensemble award at the festival’s Tribute Awards on Sunday.  “Thank you so much to everyone here on behalf of all of us for this wonderful, wonderful award,” said Styles, who stars in the romance drama as a closeted police officer. “We all loved working on this film so much. And we hope you enjoy it.”

LA-based distribution company Myriad Pictures has picked up international rights to Zátopek, the Czech Republic’s 2021 Oscar Entry. The film has also sold in the US to Gravitas Ventures.

The live-action remake of “Pinocchio” hit Disney+ today to a mixed-to-negative reception from critics. No surprise there, given the critical response to Tim Burton‘s dismal “Dumbo” and Jon Favreau‘s “The Lion King” in 2019.

HBO Documentary Films has acquired U.S. television and streaming rights to Oscar winner Laura Poitras’s film All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, fresh from its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and sneak preview at Telluride.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Reservoir Docs has acquired documentary “The Other Fellow,” which is about several men named James Bond, like the movie’s hero. It has debuted the trailer (below). The comedy-thriller premiered and won an award at Doc Edge New Zealand, and gets its European premiere in Dinard at the British Film Festival in France. In Jamaica in 1952, author Ian Fleming needs a name for his suave, sophisticated secret agent, so he steals one from an unaware birdwatcher and creates a pop-culture phenomenon about the ultimate fictional alpha-male. In 2022, the year of 007’s 60th anniversary onscreen, Australian filmmaker Matthew Bauer is on a global mission to discover the lasting, contrasting and very personal impacts of sharing such an identity with James Bond.

Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard will be released September 19 on Discovery+.Titled Johnny vs Amber: The US Trial, the documentary features interviews with Depp’s lawyers, legal experts and journalists, along with behind-the-scenes footage amid the trial which was held between April and June this year.The first episode will investigate Depp’s side of events, covering his “abusive childhood and drug dependencies” and presenting “an alternative version of events that show Johnny to be a victim of domestic abuse himself”.The second episode details Heard’s account, including “her detailed description of alleged sexual assault told on camera for the first time” and how “advocates of Depp mercilessly attacked her via social media,” as noted in a press release.A synopsis reads: “The series gives a forensic account of the key evidence and turning points of the case from both sides, allowing viewers to make up their own minds about who to believe.”Depp sued Heard for defamation over a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post, where she wrote about being a survivor of domestic violence. While his name isn’t mentioned in the piece, Depp’s lawyers argued it falsely implies she was sexually and physically abused by him in their marriage.

Like father, like daughter.

Debbie Rowe breaks down in tears as she discusses her ex-husband Michael Jackson’s drug addiction in a candid new documentary.

For a certain type of cinephile versed in the avant-garde, the name Jonas Mekas brings to mind a particular type of autobiographical filmmaking — one that prioritized the immediacy of a given moment over context or sometimes even narrative coherence. He was an Immensely prolific filmmaker, critic, archivist, and poet who, in his own words, immigrated to the US in the late ’40s “hungry, thirsty for art,” taking in everything he could.  While not exactly forgotten, Mekas’ work as the “Film Culture” founder, Village Voice critic, historian, and champion of such directors as Kenneth Anger and Ken Jacobs, has often overshadowed his prolific film work.

EXCLUSIVE: London-based Dogwoof has boarded world sales, excluding North America, on The Last Rider, the latest documentary from MRC Non-Fiction and filmmaker Alex Holmes on the story of cyclist Greg LeMond.

The Centers for Disease Control’s weekly variant proportions data update today offered the clearest indication yet that a new Omicron strain dubbed BA.4.6 may be able to outcompete now-dominant BA.5 in the United States.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Utopia has acquired Participant Media’s feature documentary “Unseen Skies,” which the U.S. distributor will release on Sept. 13. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Yaara Bou Melhem, “Unseen Skies” explores the evolution of state and corporate surveillance. The film follows American artist and geographer Trevor Paglen as he launches an artwork called “Orbital Reflector” into space, visible with the naked eye from Earth, to highlight the global impact of technology in the modern world. Having achieved international notoriety for his conceptual art, which fuses photography and large-scale multidisciplinary events, Paglen’s work reveals the largely unseen power structures of technology and surveillance that shape, impact and increasingly define the framework of our lives.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Laura Poitras’ “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Steve James’ “A Compassionate Spy” and Evgeny Afineevsky’s “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” are among 11 documentaries making their world premieres at the Venice Film Festival this year, with Poitras’ competition title vying for a Golden Lion — a rare feat for a doc at a major international film festival. The growing number of high-profile non-fiction films in and out of competition at Venice suggests that major European film festivals have finally accepted documentaries as viable, cinematic art.While docs at the Toronto International Film Festival and major U.S. fests, including Sundance, Telluride and South by Southwest, have long been the belles of the ball, the most prominent international festivals, including Venice, Cannes and Berlin, have been slow to embrace non-fiction content, especially in competition.  

Addie Morfoot Contributor Abramorama and Roco Films have co-acquired U.S. distribution rights to Cynthia Lowen’s abortion documentary “Battleground.” The film premiered in the documentary competition category at the Tribeca Festival in June. The doc follows three women in charge of anti-abortion organizations devoted to overturning Roe v. Wade.Abramorama and Roco Films will co-release “Battleground” in hundreds of theaters across the country beginning Oct. 7 for an official Academy Award qualifying run. The film will also be simultaneously released in schools, non-profit spaces and corporate board rooms, both in-person and virtually. In addition, impact agencies Together Films and Red Owl will deliver a comprehensive national impact campaign alongside the release.

tweeted. The backlash comes after the Republican representative from Colorado criticized Biden’s speech at the Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Maryland last week, saying Saturday, “How the heck could Joe Biden call America First conservatives a threat to democracy with a straight face and a dry diaper?”“He’s the one who has allowed millions to invade our southern border,” she said in an interview with Fox News’ “Hannity.” “He’s the one who is robbing hardworking Americans to pay for Karen’s daughter’s degree in lesbian dance theory.” (No, lesbian dance theory isn’t a real major but rather a blanket term used to describe degrees that have no perceived value in the real-world workplace or in society.)In response to her comment, many called out the representative’s hypocrisy over her disapproval of taxpayer money being spent on things of which they don’t approve.

Michaela Zee editor DCTV’s new documentary-dedicated theater, “Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film,” will open its doors Sept. 23. Located in DCTV’s historic Chinatown firehouse building in New York, the nonprofit theater will begin its opening week with an exclusive screening of Abigail Disney and Kathleen Hughes’ “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.” “I’m so excited that my new documentary, ‘The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,’ will kick off the opening of DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema,” Disney said in a statement. “I can’t wait to meet the first audiences who will be enjoying and shaping this vital new addition to New York City’s arthouse film scene.”