Tribeca Documentaries Tackle Urgent Subjects

Dennis Harvey Film CriticThough it’s been consistently overshadowed by more dramatic breaking news stories, few issues have dealt 21st-century U.S. society such a crippling blow as the opioid crisis.

Clayton Davis Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official awards predictions for the upcoming Oscars and Emmys ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis; Awards Circuit Column, a weekly analysis dissecting the trends and contenders by television editor Michael Schneider (for Emmys) and Davis (for Oscars); Awards Circuit Podcast, a weekly interview series with talent and an expert roundtable discussion; and Awards Circuit Video analyzes various categories and contenders by Variety's leading awards pundits. Variety's unmatched coverage gives its readership unbeatable exposure in print and online, as well as provide inside reports on all the contenders in this year's awards season races.

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount+ announced today that its documentary The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s “American Pie” will premiere exclusively on the streamer on July 19th, both in the U.S. and internationally, where the service is available. The film will also get an Academy-qualifying run in Los Angeles and New York City starting on July 8th, screening in Showcase Cinemas and associated theaters globally on July 14th and 17th.

Netflix documentary Civil: Ben Crump follows civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who often represents marginalized clients in wrongful death, injury, police brutality, and discrimination lawsuits. Director Nadia Hallgren follows Crump and his various cases, including the one against the city of Minneapolis for the death of George Floyd. The documentary is filmed against the backdrop of this historical case while showing how Crump handles these tragic events that captured the full attention of Americans and the international community.

If there hadn’t been a body count, Chris and Jeff George’s escapades might have made for a divinely trashy TLC reality show. The brothers had gargantuan appetites, a habit of breaking the law without consequences, a flair for exaggeration, and a knack for spending money as fast as it came in on all the things that would keep a certain kind of viewer coming back: strip club visits, firearms, McMansions, and jacked-up trucks.

Jennifer Lopez’s documentary “Halftime” is available to stream now, and the 90-minute film has captivated audiences everywhere- including Khloe Kardashian. On Wednesday, the Good American founder shared several clips from the film, on her Instagram story, tagging JLo with the hashtag #Halftime.It’s not surprising Khloe was moved by the film, as she has said in the past that JLo was her curvy rolemodel. The curvy Kardashian opened up about her struggle to find a curvy remodel in 2017.

EXCLUSIVE: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American rights to the Blumhouse-produced feature documentary, The Youth Governor, slating it for release on August 26.

“American Dreamer” is a mess of a movie, in which scenes of startling wit and emotional truth co-exist alongside entire subplots that are utterly inexplicable. It’s all over the damn place; its good ideas in near equal proportion to its bad ones, feeling less like a polished production than a filmed first draft, released as a rough assembly.

The horrors of opioid addiction, greed, corporate interests, and the exploitation of the drug and patients are nothing new, and shows like “Dopesick” have done a great job of putting the epidemic in a great cultural, capitalistic and political context. But a new true-crime documentary, “American Pain” is showing one specific slice of the story that’s almost too unbelievable to believe.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticThough the term “Islamophobia” may seem of relatively recent vernacular vintage, such sentiments have been aggressively popularized — and politicized — for over three decades in the American consciousness. Nausheen Dadabhoy’s “An Act of Worship” chronicles that trend and its impact on Muslims in the U.S., while focusing on several individual activists combatting related discrimination, hate crimes and related woes.This Tribeca-premiering documentary provides a gracefully crafted, persuasive portrait of communities demonized for the acts of an extremist (and mostly overseas) minority with whom they share a religious identity, but little ideology.

technological doomsday. Filmmakers Brian Becker (“MLK/FBI” producer) and Marley McDonald are currently looking for American home videos from Dec.

Red carpet official! After dating for one year, Ryan Seacrest and Aubrey Paige have taken the next step in their relationship — appearing side-by-side on the red carpet.

Eminem has praised hip-hip pioneer The D.O.C. in a new documentary.The film The DOC, which is set to premiere this week at the Tribeca Festival, tells the story of the veteran rapper from his work in the Fila Fresh Crew in the 1980s, writing with NWA and Dr Dre and co-founding Death Row Records to how a car crash 30 years ago took away his voice.In the clip below, a host of stars are interviewed for the Dave Caplan documentary, including Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and Eminem, who hailed the rapper before reciting lyrics from ‘Mind Blowin’, which appeared on the 1989 album ‘No One Can Do It Better’.“He was doing things that nobody had done yet, like just lyrically,” he said.While he is reciting the lyrics, he calls The D.O.C.

Ryan Seacrest is making a rare public appearance with his girlfriend!

Jeremy Lin is coming to HBO.

Jeremy Lin’s historic NBA eruption in 2012, highlighted by a stunning performance on a particular night at Madison Square Garden, is detailed in 38 at the Garden, a documentary making its world premiere at Tribeca on Sunday and newly acquired by HBO.

UPDATED with trailer: Briarcliff Entertainment on Tuesday dropped the trailer for Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down, the upcoming documentary from RBG and Julia directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen.

A documentary feature is in the works based on the 2020 Sports Illustrated story about alleged sexual abuse scandal at the Ohio State University that spanned three decades.