Documentary Filmmakers Discuss Viability of Industry Amidst Livelihood Crisis

Angelique Jackson Filmmaker, actor, chef and television personality Eddie Huang (“Boogie,” “Fresh Off the Boat”) has signed on to direct a new documentary exploring the rise and surprising fall of Vice Media. In a dramatic turn of events, the digital media company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May after boasting a valuation of $5.7 billion in 2017. Earlier this month, Vice Media Group announced a new restructuring plan and layoffs in the wake of its bankruptcy and $350 million asset sale.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In the last two years the documentary landscape has shifted from the golden age of docus to the corporate age of docus, making it increasingly difficult for nonfiction filmmakers with projects that aren’t about celebrities or true crimes to find distribution. But HBO Documentary Films is proving that despite being part of a corporate conglomerate, it still wants content that doesn’t necessarily pertain to bold faced names, salacious murders or cults. Proof is Irene Taylor‘s “Trees and Other Entanglements,” a feature doc that uses trees as the main throughline to tell various subject’s personal stories.

Netflix’s Wham! documentary and the George Michael co-directed George Michael: Freedom, which is the ultimate second part of a whopping double-header that I urge you to do over the Christmas period. And now, you can add another to the list; George Michael: Portrait of A Legend which is available on special collectors’ edition Blu-ray and DVD with a smashing a host of extras and a 44-page booklet.I’ve not seen this one as yet but I’ve heard good things.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Marrakech Film Festival’s 20th edition kicks off on Friday with Richard Linklater’s action comedy “Hit Man” as its gala opening, Mads Mikkelsen being feted, and a rich roster of stars and top talents supporting a panoply of cinema from the African continent and the Arab world. The event will run Nov. 24-Dec.

IDFA – the largest documentary film festival in the world — has just wrapped its 36th edition, and it was a memorable one by every definition. Two hundred and fifty films screened in Amsterdam, representing work from across the globe –the Middle East to Africa, Asia, North and South America, and Europe.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent For its first Pitching Paradiso, to be held at Ventana Sur on Nov. 30, Brazil’s Projeto Paradiso is looking to Brazil’s North-East and a new more diverse generation of filmmakers which is bringing a sense of urgency and excitement to Brazilian cinema.

K.J. Yossman A documentary about Eddie Hall, the strongman and “Expendables 4” actor, has been acquired for worldwide theatrical release and streaming by sports media company Generation Iron. “Taming The Beast – The Emptiness Within” is a feature-length doc from Switzerland-based Jeridoo Universe about British strongman Hall.

“I think I didn’t realize how lucky I got with this team,” franchise star Anna Kendrick said about DreamWorks Animation‘s Trolls Band Together.

Deadline has confirmed that Peacock is working on a documentary series that will follow the family of accused Gilgo Beach Serial Killer Rex Heuermann as they cope with his upcoming trial and their shattered lives.

Writer-producer team Phil Lord and Chris Miller, alongside director Kemp Powers, joined Deadline’s Contenders Film L.A. event on Saturday to discuss world-building, groundbreaking animation and the fun risk they took in creating a character inspired by Daniel Kaluuya for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly is leaving the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam with a major award: Best Director in International Competition for his film Life Is Beautiful. But where he goes next is uncertain – he can’t return to Gaza for the time being because the border is closed as the Israel-Hamas war rages on.

Documentaries about the impact of war claimed two of the top prizes as the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam handed out awards Thursday night.

With all due respect to Sally Potter’s visually sumptuous “Orlando,” the seemingly best way to adapt Virginia Woolf is through a side door. Michael Cunningham’s novel “The Hours” works, in part, not because it’s a quasi-adaptation of “Mrs.

Angelique Jackson “Sing Sing” and “Jockey” filmmakers Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley have signed with CAA for representation. The award-winning filmmakers’ most recent feature, “Sing Sing,” a prison-set drama, stars Emmy winner Colman Domingo and features a supporting cast that includes Oscar nominee Paul Raci, but is comprised primarily of formerly incarcerated individuals. The film is directed by Kwedar, co-written by both, and produced by Bentley, with its story inspired by the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor As part of this year’s industry program at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), producer Ted Hope sat down with the festival’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia for an in-depth conversation about his career in U.S. independent film, the future of the industry, and the ways in which filmmakers and audiences are “trained by major players to adapt and conform to a creative process that colors only between the lines.” Hope, who is at IDFA to support Vanessa Hope’s “Invisible Nation,” has navigated the independent filmmaking scene since the late 80s.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Distribution platform Gathr and documentary distribution agency Roco Films have teamed to create Roco Voices, a new speakers bureau. Roco Voices, launching Nov.

Caroline Brew editor Film Movement has acquired the U.S. rights to Maciek Hamela’s “In the Rearview,” following its Cannes Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival premieres. Film Movement has a theatrical release and awards campaign planned with the documentary’s producers and Polish Film Institute, which co-financed the film.

Two-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Ed Lachman looked shattered by the time he sat down with us for an interview here at EnergaCamerimage in Torun, Poland. 

Documentary’s gatekeepers are playing it awfully safe lately, in the estimation of Orwa Nyrabia, artistic director of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the world’s largest documentary film festival. 

The Palestine Film Institute is planning to hold a “Stand Up For Palestine” rally on Monday at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the world’s biggest nonfiction film festival.