Dawn Porter Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Storied docs producer Dawn Porter has said private funding in the documentary space could help plug financial gaps that have opened up in today’s challenging market.

Addie Morfoot Contributor MipDoc keynote speaker Dawn Porter is coming to Cannes to discuss not only the challenging doc marketplace, but also how to work and prosper within it. In the last few years the doc industry has favored a handful of big-name filmmakers, like Porter, who are commissioned to make one-off films or docuseries. Over the last 12 months two of Porter’s docus were released: “Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court” which was financed and distributed by Showtime and “The Lady Bird Diaries,” which was financed and distributed by Hulu/ABC News.

Ben Croll Both MipTV and the wider TV business are at an inflection point. Times are tight for audiovisual producers, as the total pay-TV revenue pool continues to diminish, while streaming growth decelerates and consumers hit their subscription thresholds, altogether making for a pinched economic climate.

EXCLUSIVE: Gotham Award winner Dawn Porter (Luther: Never Too Much) will direct and produce a documentary about one of the most iconic, politically-charged partnerships in history: the remarkable, largely untold story of Nelson and Winnie Mandela. She’ll also produce through her Trilogy Films, alongside the Schultz Family Foundation.

Luther Vandross‘ voice was the soundtrack of many Black millennial childhoods. Personally, I would wake up every Sunday to church music followed by his hit single “Never Too Much” which still stops most people in their tracks to this day. In the documentary, Luther: Never Too Much, director Dawn Porter chronicles a his journey to stardom and how he manifested the career he desired.

Todd Gilchrist editor Although it isn’t structured any differently from dozens of other cradle-to-grave documentaries about artistic luminaries, “Luther: Never Too Much” sheds light on much more than just the life and career of R&B singer Luther Vandross. Drawn largely from interview and performance footage of Vandross over his almost 40 years in entertainment, and bolstered and contextualized by retrospective talks will collaborators and confidantes, director Dawn Porter’s film exposes some uneasy truths about the music industry and the media we may now know, but whose seeming ubiquitousness at the time he was alive may be difficult to fully comprehend.

Caroline Brew editor Lena Waithe, who is a juror at Sundance, believes the festival “really sets the tone for the year,” citing “Past Lives” as an example from last year. “Obviously, ‘Past Lives’ has done really well, surprisingly so to the business. It’s a quiet movie about home, friends, what would’ve happened if you would’ve stayed in one place versus going somewhere else,” Waithe said.

EXCLUSIVE: The MACRO Lodge at Sundance Film Festival (www.StayMACRO.com), hosted by MACRO Founder & CEO Charles D. King (Mudbound, Judas and the Black Messiah) and his wife Stacey Walker King, Chief Brand Officer of the company, returns to the Sundance Film Festival for its seventh annual showcase of panels and parties at the iconic film festival to champion inclusion and people of color at its prime location at 136 Heber Avenue in Park City, UT with three days of programming. 

Ethan Shanfeld The Sundance Institute unveiled the lineup of 53 short films for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, taking place Jan. 18-28 in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. The film fest will happen in person, with a selection of titles available online from Jan.

Oscar-nominated director Matthew Heineman and late filmmaker Nancy Buirski will be honored at the Hamptons Doc Fest in New York next month.

The Bee Gees, The Go-Go’s, David Bowie, the Grateful Dead, Louis Armstrong, the Velvet Underground, and Tina Turner have something more in common than just musical greatness. They’ll all been the subject of recent documentaries, part of an explosion in popularity of the nonfiction genre.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Writers and actors aren’t the only people in Hollywood grappling with the impact generative artificial intelligence will have on the entertainment industry. Documentarians are also concerned about AI and what it means for the ethical standards and practices of nonfiction filmmaking.

Showtime’s four-part docuseries on the Supreme Court, Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court, will premiere its first episode on September 22, amid a period of intense concern over the impact and integrity of the high court.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The world of documentary, news and nonfiction content is as varied as the work done by Rachel Maddow, Dawn Porter and Roy Wood Jr. Those three are among the industry notables set to appear at Variety and Rolling Stone’s third annual Truth Seekers Summit, a daylong gathering for the nonfiction production sector to be held Aug. 2 at New York’s Second, an event location on 6th Avenue.

EXCLUSIVE: Lucy J. Mukerjee has joined Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith’s media company Firelight Media, geared toward nonfiction cinema by and about communities of color, as the new director of its flagship Documentary Lab.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Busy documentarian Dawn Porter will debut her latest project, “The Lady Bird Diaries,” March 10 at SXSW. The all-archival doc, which will bow on Hulu later this year, relies on 123 hours of personal and revealing audio diaries that Lady Bird recorded during her the presidency of her husband, Lyndon Baines Johnson. The tapes, which were not publicly released until 2017, reveal the critical role the former First Lady played in LBJ’s White House as a close advisor and trusted political partner.Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson began her recording diary shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963 and kept recording through her family’s departure from the White House in January 1969. Julia Sweig spent five years researching the diaries for her 2021 biography “Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight,” which she turned into an eight-part podcast that formed the basis for Porter’s 90-minute docu.

Dawn Porter Dawn Porter is a filmmaker whose latest project “The Lady Bird Diaries,” an all-archival documentary about Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady of the United States, will debut at the SXSW Film Festival. Her four-part docuseries “Supreme” explores the history of the United States Supreme Court and the legal battles that have shaped America. Porter’s other projects include the next installment of the civil rights series “Eyes on the Prize” for HBO. Throughout the month of February, Variety will publish essays from prominent Black artists, artisans and entertainment figures celebrating the impact of Black entertainment and entertainers on the world at large.

Best Documentary Feature: “Good Night Oppy” (Amazon Studios)Silver medal winner: “Fire of Love” (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)Bronze medal winner: “Navalny” (HBO Max/CNN Films)Best Director: Ryan White – “Good Night Oppy” (Amazon Studios)Best First Documentary Feature: David Siev – “Bad Axe” (IFC Films)Best Cinematography: The Cinematography Team – “Our Great National Parks” (Netflix)Best Editing: Brett Morgen – “Moonage Daydream” (HBO/Neon)Best Score: Blake Neely – “Good Night Oppy” (Amazon Studios)Best Narration: “Good Night Oppy” (Amazon Studios)Written by Helen Kearns, Ryan White, performed by Angela BassettBest Archival Documentary: “Fire of Love” (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)Best Historical Documentary: “Descendant” (Netflix)Best Biographical Documentary: “Sidney” (Apple TV+)Best Music Documentary: “The Beatles: Get Back” (Disney+)Best Political Documentary: “Navalny” (HBO Max/CNN Films)Best Science/Nature Documentary: “Good Night Oppy” (Amazon Studios)Best Sports Documentary: (TIE) “Citizen Ashe” (Magnolia/HBO) and “Welcome to Wrexham” (FX/Hulu)Best Short Documentary: “Nuisance Bear” (The New Yorker)Best Limited Documentary Series: “The Beatles: Get Back” (Disney+)Best Ongoing Documentary Series: “30 for 30” (ESPN)The Pennebaker Award: Barbara KoppleCritics Choice Impact Award: Dawn Porter

EXCLUSIVE: Joy Gorman Wettels is launching her own production venture and has struck a deal with Fifth Season.

EXCLUSIVE: Six finalists were announced today for the richest prize in documentary film—the 4th Annual Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film.

The Supreme Court has been under the lens in a major way after its landmark ruling to reverse Roe v. Wade last week.

Addie Morfoot ContributorThis year, podcasts have been the inspiration for narrative watercooler content including on “The Dropout,” “The Thing About Pam” “WeCrashed” and “Gaslit.”However, the trend is expanding; the nonfiction community is entering the audio space too, not necessarily to seek out ideas, but to highlight the work that goes into making documentaries.Docus including Apple’s “The Big Conn,” HBO’s “Allen v. Farrow” and ESPN’s upcoming Title IX doc “37 Words” all feature what has been dubbed “the companion podcast.” Described as a behind-the-scenes look into the making of a nonfiction films or series, companion podcasts are less of a marketing tool and more of a chance for storytellers to give insights into the process of researching, producing, shooting and editing their films.

Disney’s Onyx Collective and ABC News have jointly acquired Aftershock, which picked up the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change upon its debut there last month. The latest from directors Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee will stream as an original film from Onyx Collective on Hulu in the U.S., on Star+ in Latin America, and on Disney+ in all other territories.

said upon introducing the awards ceremony. “This year’s festival expressed a powerful convergence; we were present, together, as a community connected through the work. And it is work that has already changed those who experienced it,” festival director Tabitha Jackson added.

Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Garrett Bradley (Time), Joey Soloway (Transparent), Andrew Haigh (Lean on Pete) and Dawn Porter (The Me You Can’t See) have been named as jurors for the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, taking place virtually from January 20-30.

Addie Morfoot ContributorDocumentary filmmaker Dawn Porter (“John Lewis: Good Trouble,” “The Way I See It”) considers Title IX, anti-gender discrimination legislation passed by Congress in 1972, as “one of the most misunderstood civil rights laws” and is setting out to change that with “Fifty/50,” a four-part ESPN docuseries that she is executive producing and co-directing.On Oct.

Cirque Du Soleil is opening its doors to the cameras as it prepares to get back on the Las Vegas stage.

Lisa Kennedy “Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer” begins with workers marking off patches of green grass with orange paint. The beeps of a bulldozer sounded as excavation at the Oaklawn cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, got underway last summer.

 and , filmmaker Dawn Porter has turned her attention to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry have teamed up for the new Apple TV+  docuseries “The Me You Can’t See” which features in-depth discussions about mental health, including that of the Duke of Sussex.

Prince Harry let cameras film him during therapy all to help people better understand mental health.

The producer of acclaimed documentaries John Lewis: Good Trouble and The Way I See It is going into business with Industrial Media. Trilogy Films, led by Dawn Porter, has signed an overall deal with the independent production group specializing in unscripted content, becoming the sixth company to partner with Industrial.

Tulsa Race Massacre is the subject of a new documentary from filmmaker Dawn Porter (, ).

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorAs the official White House photographer, Pete Souza had an unprecedented view of President Reagan and President Obama. Souza was everywhere, but it wasn’t until 2017 that he started sharing his work through Instagram and providing a window into the Oval Office and how Obama led the country.

Patrick Hipes Executive Managing EditorEXCLUSIVE: Lauren Greenfield’s Girl Culture Films, a female-driven commercial production company founded earlier this year by The Queen of Versailles director and her producing partner/husband Frank Evers, is bolstering its roster and adding a screening series to showcase its clients.John Lewis: Good Trouble director Dawn Porter, The Breaker Uppers duo Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami and former Snapchat exec Rylee Jean Ebsen are the latest names to join

Ellise Shafer editorIn making “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” director Dawn Porter naturally strove to highlight the congressman’s countless accomplishments, but also wanted to show a different side to him — the reserved joyousness that few people got to see.“I think people were always surprised that the Congressman was very quiet in person,” Porter tells Variety. “He was very funny and charming, but not a person who was seeking the limelight all the time.