Elon Musk’s positions on race and racism can be viewed as problematic, to say the least — much like his ownership of Twitter/X, one of the foremost means of modern communication. He has used the social media platform he bought in October 2022 to attack diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. And last year he tweeted (X’d?) to his millions of followers, accusing “elite” high schools and universities of being racist against white and Asian people.
The South African-born entrepreneur has gone further than that. Fortune magazine says he has promoted the far-right “Replacement Theory” – the very embodiment of white entitlement and fragility. On June 6, NBC News reported, “Elon Musk’s social media app X has been placing advertisements in the search results for at least 20 hashtags used to promote racist and antisemitic extremism, including #whitepower, according to a review of the platform.” Mother Jones published an article in March that said,...
The South African-born entrepreneur has gone further than that. Fortune magazine says he has promoted the far-right “Replacement Theory” – the very embodiment of white entitlement and fragility. On June 6, NBC News reported, “Elon Musk’s social media app X has been placing advertisements in the search results for at least 20 hashtags used to promote racist and antisemitic extremism, including #whitepower, according to a review of the platform.” Mother Jones published an article in March that said,...
- 6/11/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
For a guy who admits he doesn’t enjoy the hassle of going through airport security and the inevitable inconveniences of international travel, Eugene Levy has been getting around quite a bit lately.
The actor, writer and Schitt’s Creek Emmy winner hopscotches throughout Europe – Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Scotland and more – in the second season of his nonfiction series The Reluctant Traveler, now streaming on Apple TV+. As the title of the series suggests, he’s not a “Heck yeah, I’m up for anything!” kind of guy, and part of the charm of the show is seeing him tiptoe beyond his comfort zone.
Levy joins the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss what he’s learned about the world and himself while making the show, which is in contention for Emmy consideration. He also explains what finally convinced him to sign onto the series after he turned it down initially.
The actor, writer and Schitt’s Creek Emmy winner hopscotches throughout Europe – Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Scotland and more – in the second season of his nonfiction series The Reluctant Traveler, now streaming on Apple TV+. As the title of the series suggests, he’s not a “Heck yeah, I’m up for anything!” kind of guy, and part of the charm of the show is seeing him tiptoe beyond his comfort zone.
Levy joins the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss what he’s learned about the world and himself while making the show, which is in contention for Emmy consideration. He also explains what finally convinced him to sign onto the series after he turned it down initially.
- 6/4/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is just back from the Cannes Film Festival, where he premiered his latest film, Jim Henson Idea Man. Ahead of the documentary’s launch Friday on Disney+, the director stops by Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to share insights into his exploration of the Muppets creator, filmmaker and creative genius.
Howard tells us how his film went over in Cannes and what got the biggest laughs at a screening just a few days ago in Los Angeles.
Related: ‘Jim Henson Idea Man’ Review: Ron Howard Paints Moving Portrait Of Muppets Creator As Restless Innovator – Cannes Film Festival
He also recalls the unusual circumstances of his one face-to-face encounter with Henson decades ago, and he shares what George Lucas thought of the groundbreaking puppet master (Henson helped design...
Howard tells us how his film went over in Cannes and what got the biggest laughs at a screening just a few days ago in Los Angeles.
Related: ‘Jim Henson Idea Man’ Review: Ron Howard Paints Moving Portrait Of Muppets Creator As Restless Innovator – Cannes Film Festival
He also recalls the unusual circumstances of his one face-to-face encounter with Henson decades ago, and he shares what George Lucas thought of the groundbreaking puppet master (Henson helped design...
- 5/29/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Film festivals in North America have launched some of the greatest movies ever – whether nonfiction or fiction. Telluride premiered Free Solo, Slumdog Millionaire, and Argo; Sundance debuted sex, lies and videotape, Napoleon Dynamite, An Inconvenient Truth, and this year’s Oscar winning documentary 20 Days in Mariupol; the Toronto International Film Festival premiered I Am Not Your Negro and Ray.
The importance of festivals to the industry is beyond question, but many of the most celebrated ones on this continent are facing a moment of crisis. Post-pandemic financial struggles are plaguing Sundance, TIFF, and Hot Docs among others, and the situation with the latter festival is serious enough that it may have to fold.
Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast digs into the precarious state of film festivals in our latest episode, examining that vital question with guests steeped in the field: Ken Jacobson, executive director of the Hot Springs Documentary...
The importance of festivals to the industry is beyond question, but many of the most celebrated ones on this continent are facing a moment of crisis. Post-pandemic financial struggles are plaguing Sundance, TIFF, and Hot Docs among others, and the situation with the latter festival is serious enough that it may have to fold.
Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast digs into the precarious state of film festivals in our latest episode, examining that vital question with guests steeped in the field: Ken Jacobson, executive director of the Hot Springs Documentary...
- 5/21/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
What is the purpose of police in the U.S.? To ensure public safety, many people might answer. But that’s a thoroughly misleading definition in the view of Oscar-nominated filmmaker Yance Ford. In his new documentary Power, premiering on Netflix this Friday, the filmmaker argues policing in America is really about the maintenance and enforcement of a particular social order, one that privileges property-owning members of society while targeting and disadvantaging others.
Ford, who earned an Academy Award nomination for the 2017 film Strong Island, is our guest on the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, co-hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley and Matt Carey, Deadline’s documentary editor.
“This film offers an analysis of police history that I’d like you to consider,” the director says at the beginning of Power. “This film requires curiosity or at least suspicion. I leave that choice up to you.”
Power...
Ford, who earned an Academy Award nomination for the 2017 film Strong Island, is our guest on the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, co-hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley and Matt Carey, Deadline’s documentary editor.
“This film offers an analysis of police history that I’d like you to consider,” the director says at the beginning of Power. “This film requires curiosity or at least suspicion. I leave that choice up to you.”
Power...
- 5/14/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Archival producers spend their days immersed in history – cultural, political, or personal, depending on the project. Yet, historically, their specialized work has often been overlooked, even though it’s key to the Ken Burns canon and other great documentaries like Man on Wire, 13th, The Fog of War, Apollo 11, How to Survive a Plague, They Shall Not Grow Old, and so many others.
The recently formed Archival Producers Alliance is helping to address this fundamental lack of understanding of what archival producers do and how they do it. And it’s also alerting the doc community to foundational challenges posed by the rapid emergence of AI.
In the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we speak with Debra McClutchy, a member of the APA who earned an Oscar nomination for co-directing the archive-driven short film The Martha Mitchell Effect. She discusses where archival producers find the rarities...
The recently formed Archival Producers Alliance is helping to address this fundamental lack of understanding of what archival producers do and how they do it. And it’s also alerting the doc community to foundational challenges posed by the rapid emergence of AI.
In the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we speak with Debra McClutchy, a member of the APA who earned an Oscar nomination for co-directing the archive-driven short film The Martha Mitchell Effect. She discusses where archival producers find the rarities...
- 5/7/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Apologies to Thomas Wolfe, but it appears you can go home again.
Oscar winner John Ridley, co-host of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, returns to his native Milwaukee for the latest edition of the pod, recorded live during the 16th Milwaukee Film Festival. He and co-host Matt Carey, documentary editor at Deadline, speak with two filmmakers bringing new work to the festival: Sav Rodgers, director of Chasing Chasing Amy, and Mary Louise Schumacher, director of Out of the Picture.
Rodgers makes his feature documentary debut with Chasing Chasing Amy, a film that examines how Kevin Smith’s 1997 hit Chasing Amy became a lifeline for Rodgers as a queer, trans kid growing up in conservative Kansas, and how the indie drama impacted the culture at large. Smith’s film told the story of a straight man (played by Ben Affleck) falling in love with a gay woman (played by Joey Lauren Adams...
Oscar winner John Ridley, co-host of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, returns to his native Milwaukee for the latest edition of the pod, recorded live during the 16th Milwaukee Film Festival. He and co-host Matt Carey, documentary editor at Deadline, speak with two filmmakers bringing new work to the festival: Sav Rodgers, director of Chasing Chasing Amy, and Mary Louise Schumacher, director of Out of the Picture.
Rodgers makes his feature documentary debut with Chasing Chasing Amy, a film that examines how Kevin Smith’s 1997 hit Chasing Amy became a lifeline for Rodgers as a queer, trans kid growing up in conservative Kansas, and how the indie drama impacted the culture at large. Smith’s film told the story of a straight man (played by Ben Affleck) falling in love with a gay woman (played by Joey Lauren Adams...
- 4/30/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The news last week that Participant Media would be shutting down shocked the entertainment industry, but it hit the documentary community with particular force.
Going back 20 years, the production and distribution company has supported premium nonfiction content on a major scale, backing documentaries that took on important social and political issues ranging from climate change to race in America, education, the national security state, the U.S.-Mexico drug war, and much more. Along the way, it earned Oscars for Citizenfour, An Inconvenient Truth and American Factory, and Oscar nominations for a slew of others including Flee, Rbg, The Square, and Food, Inc.
On the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we discuss the developments at Participant and what they mean for a nonfiction field already been reeling from a sluggish acquisition market and slashed budgets at streamers. Our guests are Oscar-nominated filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen,...
Going back 20 years, the production and distribution company has supported premium nonfiction content on a major scale, backing documentaries that took on important social and political issues ranging from climate change to race in America, education, the national security state, the U.S.-Mexico drug war, and much more. Along the way, it earned Oscars for Citizenfour, An Inconvenient Truth and American Factory, and Oscar nominations for a slew of others including Flee, Rbg, The Square, and Food, Inc.
On the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we discuss the developments at Participant and what they mean for a nonfiction field already been reeling from a sluggish acquisition market and slashed budgets at streamers. Our guests are Oscar-nominated filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen,...
- 4/23/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
We are becoming part machine.
That is the startling observation of Emmy-winning filmmaker Kirsten Johnson, who has been thinking deeply about the ramifications of artificial intelligence for human culture. The director of Cameraperson and Dick Johnson Is Dead will deliver a keynote at the IDA’s Getting Real conference in Los Angeles this week, addressing what she sees as a fundamental truth about AI that sets it apart from human endeavors: AI “lacks a body,” and as such is disengaged from the fate of humanity.
Johnson joins the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss her feelings about AI – its areas of promise, but also the way in which the emerging technology is going to fundamentally alter our experience. She notes that more people are already creating new images through generative AI prompts – e.g., “Make me a photo of a frog in a pinstripe suit balancing...
That is the startling observation of Emmy-winning filmmaker Kirsten Johnson, who has been thinking deeply about the ramifications of artificial intelligence for human culture. The director of Cameraperson and Dick Johnson Is Dead will deliver a keynote at the IDA’s Getting Real conference in Los Angeles this week, addressing what she sees as a fundamental truth about AI that sets it apart from human endeavors: AI “lacks a body,” and as such is disengaged from the fate of humanity.
Johnson joins the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss her feelings about AI – its areas of promise, but also the way in which the emerging technology is going to fundamentally alter our experience. She notes that more people are already creating new images through generative AI prompts – e.g., “Make me a photo of a frog in a pinstripe suit balancing...
- 4/16/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
As award-winning directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss prepared to shoot their new documentary Girls State, they had no way of knowing real-world events would intrude upon the production in a major way. Nor, of course, did their protagonists.
Just as hundreds of young women in Missouri were assembling for an annual exercise in mock government, the draft Dobbs opinion leaked, signaling the U.S. Supreme Court’s intent to reverse Roe v. Wade. McBaine and Moss join Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their film and how the Dobbs ruling impacted high school-age girls embarking on their campaigns for governor, state supreme court and other high offices.
The filmmaking couple calls Girls State a “sibling” – not a sequel – to their 2020 film Boys State, winner of the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. Missouri’s Girls State and Boys State programs took place at the same time and same location,...
Just as hundreds of young women in Missouri were assembling for an annual exercise in mock government, the draft Dobbs opinion leaked, signaling the U.S. Supreme Court’s intent to reverse Roe v. Wade. McBaine and Moss join Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their film and how the Dobbs ruling impacted high school-age girls embarking on their campaigns for governor, state supreme court and other high offices.
The filmmaking couple calls Girls State a “sibling” – not a sequel – to their 2020 film Boys State, winner of the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. Missouri’s Girls State and Boys State programs took place at the same time and same location,...
- 4/10/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Oscar winner John Ridley has some choice words for Nelson Peltz, the activist investor who’s trying to land two seats on the board of the Walt Disney Co.
In the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, pod co-host Ridley excoriates Peltz for remarks the Trian Fund titan made about Disney’s superhero movies, specifically The Marvels and Black Panther. In reference to The Marvels, which starred Brie Larson, Peltz told the Financial Times, “Why do I have to have a Marvel [film] that’s all women? Not that I have anything against women, but why do I have to do that?”
Apparently in reference to the Black Panther movies, which have made more than $2 billion worldwide, Peltz added, “Why do I need an all-Black cast?”
Ridley rips into Peltz, saying the billionaire has no business near the Disney board room.
And that’s just the capper to a...
In the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, pod co-host Ridley excoriates Peltz for remarks the Trian Fund titan made about Disney’s superhero movies, specifically The Marvels and Black Panther. In reference to The Marvels, which starred Brie Larson, Peltz told the Financial Times, “Why do I have to have a Marvel [film] that’s all women? Not that I have anything against women, but why do I have to do that?”
Apparently in reference to the Black Panther movies, which have made more than $2 billion worldwide, Peltz added, “Why do I need an all-Black cast?”
Ridley rips into Peltz, saying the billionaire has no business near the Disney board room.
And that’s just the capper to a...
- 4/2/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
What’s the biggest documentary festival in the world? The International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. For now.
Upstart Cph:dox in Copenhagen aims to overtake IDFA as the top showcase for nonfiction film worldwide. On the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we sit down with Cph:dox Artistic Director Niklas Engstrøm for a conversation about the growth of the festival in the Danish capital and how he aims to make it No. 1.
Engstrøm argues that Cph:dox has been central to the emergence of Denmark as one of the most important hubs for documentary on the planet. It’s a country of less than 6 million that has produced a remarkable number of Oscar-nominated documentary directors and producers in recent years, including Signe Byrge Sørensen, Monica Hellström, Simon Lereng Wilmont, Jonas Rasmussen, Sigrid Dyekjær and Kirstine Barfod.
In our report from the field at Cph:Dox, we also talk with filmmaker Benjamin Ree about Ibelin,...
Upstart Cph:dox in Copenhagen aims to overtake IDFA as the top showcase for nonfiction film worldwide. On the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we sit down with Cph:dox Artistic Director Niklas Engstrøm for a conversation about the growth of the festival in the Danish capital and how he aims to make it No. 1.
Engstrøm argues that Cph:dox has been central to the emergence of Denmark as one of the most important hubs for documentary on the planet. It’s a country of less than 6 million that has produced a remarkable number of Oscar-nominated documentary directors and producers in recent years, including Signe Byrge Sørensen, Monica Hellström, Simon Lereng Wilmont, Jonas Rasmussen, Sigrid Dyekjær and Kirstine Barfod.
In our report from the field at Cph:Dox, we also talk with filmmaker Benjamin Ree about Ibelin,...
- 3/26/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
As David Newlyn Gale reached his mid-80s, he lived in his own home, but not in the most resplendent conditions. He cohabitated with an untold number of mice in a hoarder’s horror of detritus, a place chocked with tins of food that probably fell off store shelves around World War II.
Gale’s legs were swollen and reddened by eczema, and he could best be described as only semi-ambulatory. Despite the challenges of his circumstances, the former stage actor and teacher took tremendous joy in life, erupting into song or quoting Shakespeare continually. But he could also be a bit of a drama queen – frequently convinced he was nearing his last breath.
This unforgettable man stars in Much Ado About Dying, directed by Simon Chambers, David’s (one must say) longsuffering nephew. The director is our guest on the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, discussing...
Gale’s legs were swollen and reddened by eczema, and he could best be described as only semi-ambulatory. Despite the challenges of his circumstances, the former stage actor and teacher took tremendous joy in life, erupting into song or quoting Shakespeare continually. But he could also be a bit of a drama queen – frequently convinced he was nearing his last breath.
This unforgettable man stars in Much Ado About Dying, directed by Simon Chambers, David’s (one must say) longsuffering nephew. The director is our guest on the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, discussing...
- 3/19/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
If Vladimir Putin was watching the Academy Awards on Sunday night from his dacha on the Black Sea, his mood may have been blackened by the Best Documentary Feature category. As Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast had predicted, the Oscar went to 20 Days in Mariupol, Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing film about the early days of Russia’s brutal siege of the Ukrainian port city.
Chernov delivered emotional remarks as he accepted the Oscar, saying he would gladly trade his trophy for the lives of the thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed by Russia’s aggression. Kate McKinnon and America Ferrera served as presenters for that category as well as for Best Documentary Short; Doc Talk called that race accurately as well, predicting victory for The Last Repair Shop, the film by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers.
In the new episode of the pod, hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey react to...
Chernov delivered emotional remarks as he accepted the Oscar, saying he would gladly trade his trophy for the lives of the thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed by Russia’s aggression. Kate McKinnon and America Ferrera served as presenters for that category as well as for Best Documentary Short; Doc Talk called that race accurately as well, predicting victory for The Last Repair Shop, the film by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers.
In the new episode of the pod, hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey react to...
- 3/12/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s been a remarkable past year for Free Solo directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. At Telluride, they premiered their first narrative feature Nyad, a dramatization of the relentless pursuit of extreme athlete Diana Nyad to swim from Cuba to Florida without the safety of a shark cage. The Netflix release has gone on to earn Oscar nominations for its stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster.
But the filmmaking couple hasn’t left the world of nonfiction cinema behind. They return to documentary storytelling this month with Photographer, a National Geographic series about the elite artists who take some of the world’s most remarkable images of wildlife and the human family. Vasarhelyi and Chin join the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their six-part series, which profiles NatGeo photographers Paul Nicklen, Cristina Mittermeier, Muhammed Muheisen, Krystle Wright and others.
Vasarhelyi and Chin also share insights from making Nyad,...
But the filmmaking couple hasn’t left the world of nonfiction cinema behind. They return to documentary storytelling this month with Photographer, a National Geographic series about the elite artists who take some of the world’s most remarkable images of wildlife and the human family. Vasarhelyi and Chin join the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their six-part series, which profiles NatGeo photographers Paul Nicklen, Cristina Mittermeier, Muhammed Muheisen, Krystle Wright and others.
Vasarhelyi and Chin also share insights from making Nyad,...
- 3/6/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
When director Amber Fares came out with her documentary Speed Sisters, about the Middle East’s first all-women race car driving team, the New York Times praised it as “unconventional in form as well as content.”
Many films about that part of the world have depicted Arab women cloaked in niqabs, obscuring their uniqueness as individuals. But here, Marah, Mona, Noor and Betty sport logo-covered racing jumpsuits as they tear around streets of the West Bank. “I do it for the release,” says Mona of the adrenaline rush that comes from burning rubber on hot pavement.
Doc Talk podcast co-host John Ridley revisits the film with Fares several years after its initial release, a documentary that takes on new significance with the ongoing conflagration in Gaza, only a few miles distant from the West Bank. Ridley also reckons with the director’s short film Reckoning with Laughter, about the daring...
Many films about that part of the world have depicted Arab women cloaked in niqabs, obscuring their uniqueness as individuals. But here, Marah, Mona, Noor and Betty sport logo-covered racing jumpsuits as they tear around streets of the West Bank. “I do it for the release,” says Mona of the adrenaline rush that comes from burning rubber on hot pavement.
Doc Talk podcast co-host John Ridley revisits the film with Fares several years after its initial release, a documentary that takes on new significance with the ongoing conflagration in Gaza, only a few miles distant from the West Bank. Ridley also reckons with the director’s short film Reckoning with Laughter, about the daring...
- 2/27/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
When the Oscar nominations were announced last month, it marked a watershed moment for the Documentary Feature category. All the nominated films focused on international subjects – stories from Uganda, Tunisia, Ukraine, India and Chile — and not a single American director was recognized.
Two prominent documentaries by major U.S. filmmakers were among the leading contenders that got snubbed: Matthew Heineman’s American Symphony, and Davis Guggenheim’s Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.
A headline in a recent Variety piece described the doc community as “reeling” over the nominations. An unnamed documentary producer quoted in the article expressed deep concern over the lack of recognition for American filmmakers and said it was a “giant mistake” that the Documentary branch – which determines the nominees – “did not nominate some of the most successful and most beloved films of the year.”
Related: Deadline Launches Streaming Site For Contenders Film: Documentary – Check Out All...
Two prominent documentaries by major U.S. filmmakers were among the leading contenders that got snubbed: Matthew Heineman’s American Symphony, and Davis Guggenheim’s Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.
A headline in a recent Variety piece described the doc community as “reeling” over the nominations. An unnamed documentary producer quoted in the article expressed deep concern over the lack of recognition for American filmmakers and said it was a “giant mistake” that the Documentary branch – which determines the nominees – “did not nominate some of the most successful and most beloved films of the year.”
Related: Deadline Launches Streaming Site For Contenders Film: Documentary – Check Out All...
- 2/20/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s been a busy week for Oscar-nominated documentary filmmakers Maite Alberdi and Kaouther Ben Hania. On Monday, Alberdi, director of The Eternal Memory, and Ben Hania, director of Four Daughters, joined fellow nominees at the glittering Oscar Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton. Today, they sit down with Deadline for the latest edition of our Doc Talk podcast.
In her film, Alberdi documents the relationship between two of Chile’s most prominent figures in the arts and journalism – Paulina Urrutia and Augusto Góngora – a love story that endured even as Augusto coped with advancing Alzheimer’s disease. The director explains why she sees The Eternal Memory as “an answer” to her previous film The Mole Agent, which earned Alberdi the first Oscar nomination of her career..
In Four Daughters, Ben Hania explores a story from her native Tunisia — the case of a woman named Olfa who raised four girls, only to see the two eldest fall under the sway of radical Islamist ideology and join Isis. The director tells us why she made the decision to incorporate actors into her film to play Olfa and her two oldest daughters in re-creations. She also talks about why Hind Sabri, a star of Arab cinema who took on the role of Olfa, felt afraid of the woman she was portraying. And Ben Hania explains why a male actor she hired walked off the set during one particularly intense scene.
This marks a return trip to the Academy Awards for Ben Hania as well as Alberdi. They were both nominated in 2021 – Alberdi for Documentary Feature and Ben Hania in International Feature for her narrative feature The Man Who Sold His Skin.
In the new episode of Doc Talk, we also revisit our interview from last fall with Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, directors of the Oscar-nominated documentary Bobi Wine: The People’s President. And the titular Bobi Wine – the Ugandan pop star turned politician — joins us too – explaining what he wishes the filmmakers had left out of the documentary.
That’s on Doc Talk, the podcast co-hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s documentary editor. Doc Talk is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios, presented with support from National Geographic Documentary Films.
In her film, Alberdi documents the relationship between two of Chile’s most prominent figures in the arts and journalism – Paulina Urrutia and Augusto Góngora – a love story that endured even as Augusto coped with advancing Alzheimer’s disease. The director explains why she sees The Eternal Memory as “an answer” to her previous film The Mole Agent, which earned Alberdi the first Oscar nomination of her career..
In Four Daughters, Ben Hania explores a story from her native Tunisia — the case of a woman named Olfa who raised four girls, only to see the two eldest fall under the sway of radical Islamist ideology and join Isis. The director tells us why she made the decision to incorporate actors into her film to play Olfa and her two oldest daughters in re-creations. She also talks about why Hind Sabri, a star of Arab cinema who took on the role of Olfa, felt afraid of the woman she was portraying. And Ben Hania explains why a male actor she hired walked off the set during one particularly intense scene.
This marks a return trip to the Academy Awards for Ben Hania as well as Alberdi. They were both nominated in 2021 – Alberdi for Documentary Feature and Ben Hania in International Feature for her narrative feature The Man Who Sold His Skin.
In the new episode of Doc Talk, we also revisit our interview from last fall with Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, directors of the Oscar-nominated documentary Bobi Wine: The People’s President. And the titular Bobi Wine – the Ugandan pop star turned politician — joins us too – explaining what he wishes the filmmakers had left out of the documentary.
That’s on Doc Talk, the podcast co-hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s documentary editor. Doc Talk is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios, presented with support from National Geographic Documentary Films.
- 2/13/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago this month, instinct told Ukrainian photojournalist and war correspondent Mstyslav Chernov to head to Mariupol, a strategically important city located on the along the Sea of Azov. His intuition proved correct.
Within an hour of arriving there with a small team, Russia began bombarding Mariupol – the first salvo in a siege that would strangulate the city of half a million people, killing tens of thousands of civilians. The harrowing footage Chernov captured became the substance of 20 Days in Mariupol, the documentary that has earned the director the first Oscar nomination of his career.
Chernov joins the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss what the Oscar nomination means for his film and Russia’s efforts to sow a false counter-narrative to the carnage he documented. We also welcome another first-time Oscar nominee, director Nisha Pahuja, recognized...
Within an hour of arriving there with a small team, Russia began bombarding Mariupol – the first salvo in a siege that would strangulate the city of half a million people, killing tens of thousands of civilians. The harrowing footage Chernov captured became the substance of 20 Days in Mariupol, the documentary that has earned the director the first Oscar nomination of his career.
Chernov joins the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss what the Oscar nomination means for his film and Russia’s efforts to sow a false counter-narrative to the carnage he documented. We also welcome another first-time Oscar nominee, director Nisha Pahuja, recognized...
- 2/6/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
When the Oscar nominations came out last week, the Best Documentary Feature category contained some bombshells: no recognition for two of the most decorated nonfiction films of the year.
In the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, co-hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey drill down on the nominations, examining the snubs of American Symphony and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. And they explore why the Academy’s documentary branch, which determines the nominees, went for five internationally themed films, bypassing American-focused stories entirely.
Plus Carey, Deadline’s Documentary Editor, reports from the just-concluded 2024 Sundance Film Festival, talking with Best Director winners Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie of Sugarcane, Rory Kennedy and Mark Bailey of the explosive series The Synanon Fix, EP Kerry Washington and two of the main participants in Daughters, Will Ferrell and Harper Steele of Will & Harper, and more.
Daughters, winner of both the Audience Award for U.
In the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, co-hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey drill down on the nominations, examining the snubs of American Symphony and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. And they explore why the Academy’s documentary branch, which determines the nominees, went for five internationally themed films, bypassing American-focused stories entirely.
Plus Carey, Deadline’s Documentary Editor, reports from the just-concluded 2024 Sundance Film Festival, talking with Best Director winners Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie of Sugarcane, Rory Kennedy and Mark Bailey of the explosive series The Synanon Fix, EP Kerry Washington and two of the main participants in Daughters, Will Ferrell and Harper Steele of Will & Harper, and more.
Daughters, winner of both the Audience Award for U.
- 1/31/2024
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
The Church of Satan would like to make it clear that members don’t worship the Devil, nor do they believe Satan is real. What they do believe in, and the rituals they practice, emerge in the documentary Realm of Satan, which just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Director Scott Cummings joins the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss the film, which he made in collaboration with the Church of Satan. It is described as a “nonfiction adjacent” film, which exists somewhere between reality and the fantastical. But that’s kind of the mindset of many members of the church, who believe in “indulgence” and carnal pleasures, and participate in incantatory ceremonies.
In one scene, the leader of the church, High Priest Peter Gilmore, trots around on hooves. And in another moment, the glowing spirit of wheelchair-bound man rises and floats out of frame. But there are mundane moments too,...
Director Scott Cummings joins the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss the film, which he made in collaboration with the Church of Satan. It is described as a “nonfiction adjacent” film, which exists somewhere between reality and the fantastical. But that’s kind of the mindset of many members of the church, who believe in “indulgence” and carnal pleasures, and participate in incantatory ceremonies.
In one scene, the leader of the church, High Priest Peter Gilmore, trots around on hooves. And in another moment, the glowing spirit of wheelchair-bound man rises and floats out of frame. But there are mundane moments too,...
- 1/24/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Editors note: John Ridley is the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave writer, writer-director of Five Days at Memorial, and the Eisner-nominated writer of the DC graphic novel series Gcpd: The Blue Wall. He also hosts with Matt Carey the Deadline podcast Doc Talk, and occasionally contributes guest columns, last of which focused on the dismantling of studio diversity leaders that became popular after George Floyd’s murder.
***
It’s called a Napoleon complex for a reason.
With the first round of Oscar voting closing out, I spent the long MLK weekend catching up on narrative films I’ve yet to see. Yes. I know. I’m a little late to the party, but my day job of watching other people’s amazing docs has bled into my evenings of watching other people’s amazing narrative features.
Among the films, I watched Mr. Ridley Scott’s Napoleon with our older son.
***
It’s called a Napoleon complex for a reason.
With the first round of Oscar voting closing out, I spent the long MLK weekend catching up on narrative films I’ve yet to see. Yes. I know. I’m a little late to the party, but my day job of watching other people’s amazing docs has bled into my evenings of watching other people’s amazing narrative features.
Among the films, I watched Mr. Ridley Scott’s Napoleon with our older son.
- 1/19/2024
- by John Ridley
- Deadline Film + TV
When the Oscar shortlist of feature documentaries was announced in December, it was dominated by films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival – films like Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, The Eternal Memory, Beyond Utopia and A Still Small Voice.
The shortlist announcement provided the latest evidence of the festival’s status as the prime launchpad for the best in documentary filmmaking – and whets the appetite for the upcoming 40th edition of Sundance, which starts Thursday.
In the new edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we talk with Sundance programmers Basil Tsiokos and Sudeep Sharma about what to expect from the festival’s nonfiction lineup. They tell us about Will & Harper, a road trip movie with Will Ferrell and his close friend Harper Steele that explores their evolving relationship after Harper’s transition, and Super/Man, the film about Christopher Reeve that features the late star’s children.
The shortlist announcement provided the latest evidence of the festival’s status as the prime launchpad for the best in documentary filmmaking – and whets the appetite for the upcoming 40th edition of Sundance, which starts Thursday.
In the new edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we talk with Sundance programmers Basil Tsiokos and Sudeep Sharma about what to expect from the festival’s nonfiction lineup. They tell us about Will & Harper, a road trip movie with Will Ferrell and his close friend Harper Steele that explores their evolving relationship after Harper’s transition, and Super/Man, the film about Christopher Reeve that features the late star’s children.
- 1/16/2024
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
In a hidden corner of Los Angeles, a small group of people toil in obscurity, tending to broken pegs, stuck valves, clogged tubing and damaged keys – all to restore musical instruments to perfect working order for the city’s public-school students.
These dedicated professionals are used to going about their work without any public recognition, but they get their due in the short documentary The Last Repair Shop, from filmmakers Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers. The co-directors join the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their film, which recently made the Oscar shortlist of nonfiction shorts remaining in contention for the Academy Award.
Bowers also made the Oscar shortlist with his score for The Color Purple. He has become one of the most sought-after composers in Hollywood, with credits that include Green Book and Ava DuVernay’s Origin. He’s also a graduate of the Los Angeles Unified School District...
These dedicated professionals are used to going about their work without any public recognition, but they get their due in the short documentary The Last Repair Shop, from filmmakers Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers. The co-directors join the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their film, which recently made the Oscar shortlist of nonfiction shorts remaining in contention for the Academy Award.
Bowers also made the Oscar shortlist with his score for The Color Purple. He has become one of the most sought-after composers in Hollywood, with credits that include Green Book and Ava DuVernay’s Origin. He’s also a graduate of the Los Angeles Unified School District...
- 1/9/2024
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s quiet for specialty openings after the holidays, in the thick of awards season. But one film needed this weekend — Abramorama documentary A Storm Foretold by Danish director Christoffer Guldbrandsen about the Maga movement and the Jan. 6 insurrection. The filmmaker captured footage over years of on-and-off access to Roger Stone.
It’s booked for over 20 rolling playdates in the next two weeks so far including the Quad Cinema in New York where Guldbrandsen will be holding Q&As all weekend.
Stone was former president Donald Trump’s closest political confidante and the film spans several years through Jan. 6, 2021. As Congress gathered that day to approve the election and declare Joe Biden the winner, less than a mile away, Donald Trump was urging a crowd to march towards the Capitol. Hours later, five people were killed and 141 wounded. With Stone as its central character, A Storm Foretold sees the storming...
It’s booked for over 20 rolling playdates in the next two weeks so far including the Quad Cinema in New York where Guldbrandsen will be holding Q&As all weekend.
Stone was former president Donald Trump’s closest political confidante and the film spans several years through Jan. 6, 2021. As Congress gathered that day to approve the election and declare Joe Biden the winner, less than a mile away, Donald Trump was urging a crowd to march towards the Capitol. Hours later, five people were killed and 141 wounded. With Stone as its central character, A Storm Foretold sees the storming...
- 1/5/2024
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
The list of feature documentaries still in contention for the Oscars has been cut to 15 finalists, a brutal culling from a contingent of 167 qualifiers. The annual shortlist announcement leaves a handful of filmmakers celebrating, many more disappointed, and documentary watchers with much to debate.
Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast cohosts John Ridley and Matt Carey analyze the shortlist that advanced films from Oscar winners Davis Guggenheim and Roger Ross Williams, and Oscar nominees Matthew Heineman, Maite Alberdi and Kaouther Ben Hania. The shortlist brought recognition to filmmakers from Tunisia, Denmark, Poland, Ukraine, Chile, Uganda, Canada, and the U.S., further evidence of the way international members of the Oscar Documentary Branch have become definitive in determining the nonfiction films that continue in the race for nominations.
Snubs and surprises abounded in the shortlist. The new episode of Doc Talk explores why legends like Errol Morris and Frederick Wiseman missed the cut.
Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast cohosts John Ridley and Matt Carey analyze the shortlist that advanced films from Oscar winners Davis Guggenheim and Roger Ross Williams, and Oscar nominees Matthew Heineman, Maite Alberdi and Kaouther Ben Hania. The shortlist brought recognition to filmmakers from Tunisia, Denmark, Poland, Ukraine, Chile, Uganda, Canada, and the U.S., further evidence of the way international members of the Oscar Documentary Branch have become definitive in determining the nonfiction films that continue in the race for nominations.
Snubs and surprises abounded in the shortlist. The new episode of Doc Talk explores why legends like Errol Morris and Frederick Wiseman missed the cut.
- 1/2/2024
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
By one measure, 2023 was a very tough year in documentary. The first indications of what lay ahead came in January at Sundance, where the usual panoply of films entered the arena in hopes of earning awards and the ultimate prize – distribution.
But streamers and other major distributors showed no inclination to loosen their purse strings and many acclaimed Sundance titles languished for months without distribution deals – King Coal, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, The Disappearance of Shere Hite among them. Bad Press never did get a distribution deal. Netflix, after spending handsomely at Sundance in recent years, didn’t buy any docs at the festival (it did acquire American Symphony at Telluride).
As the year advanced, the acquisition pace remained sluggish and smaller distributors found themselves in a buyer’s market, landing films that in previous years would have gone to bigger entities. On the continuum of feast and famine,...
But streamers and other major distributors showed no inclination to loosen their purse strings and many acclaimed Sundance titles languished for months without distribution deals – King Coal, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, The Disappearance of Shere Hite among them. Bad Press never did get a distribution deal. Netflix, after spending handsomely at Sundance in recent years, didn’t buy any docs at the festival (it did acquire American Symphony at Telluride).
As the year advanced, the acquisition pace remained sluggish and smaller distributors found themselves in a buyer’s market, landing films that in previous years would have gone to bigger entities. On the continuum of feast and famine,...
- 1/1/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
John Legend and his partners at Get Lifted Film Co. are bringing some uplift to audiences with their inspiring new HBO documentary Stand Up & Shout: Songs From a Philly High School.
The film, now streaming on Max, explores an innovative music program at Hill-Freedman World Academy in Philadelphia that pairs students with local musicians who help the kids write, produce, compose and perform original songs. It culminates in the creation of an album recorded by the students that – as HBO puts it – “captures the challenging times they’re living in and the joy that music brings.”
Emmy-winning director Amy Schatz and executive producers Mike Jackson — the Emmy- and Tony-winning co-founder of Get Lifted — and his fellow Get Lifted co-founder Legend join the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their film. Legend, whose gifts have earned him the rare Egot sweep, tells us...
The film, now streaming on Max, explores an innovative music program at Hill-Freedman World Academy in Philadelphia that pairs students with local musicians who help the kids write, produce, compose and perform original songs. It culminates in the creation of an album recorded by the students that – as HBO puts it – “captures the challenging times they’re living in and the joy that music brings.”
Emmy-winning director Amy Schatz and executive producers Mike Jackson — the Emmy- and Tony-winning co-founder of Get Lifted — and his fellow Get Lifted co-founder Legend join the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their film. Legend, whose gifts have earned him the rare Egot sweep, tells us...
- 12/19/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Over the past 40-plus years, no figure in American documentary has been more important than Sheila Nevins. She has produced or executive produced hundreds of documentaries for HBO and more recently for MTV Documentary Films. And she’s won 32 Emmys, more than any single person.
But there’s one credit that hasn’t been attached to her name, until now: director. At the age of 84, Nevins has added that title to her long list of accomplishments with The ABCs of Book Banning, an Oscar-contending short documentary about increasingly aggressive efforts by conservatives to keep certain published works out of the hands of schoolchildren.
Nevins joins the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss her directorial debut, which she explains was inspired by seeing a viral video of a 100-year-old woman taking on the Martin County School Board in Florida. Grace Linn, who has since turned 101, denounced board...
But there’s one credit that hasn’t been attached to her name, until now: director. At the age of 84, Nevins has added that title to her long list of accomplishments with The ABCs of Book Banning, an Oscar-contending short documentary about increasingly aggressive efforts by conservatives to keep certain published works out of the hands of schoolchildren.
Nevins joins the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss her directorial debut, which she explains was inspired by seeing a viral video of a 100-year-old woman taking on the Martin County School Board in Florida. Grace Linn, who has since turned 101, denounced board...
- 12/12/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Bad Press, King Coal, Joonam and Fantastic Machine are all award-winning documentaries, yet in the race for Oscar recognition, they’re underdogs. Despite the many honors they have collected at festivals around the world, each of these exceptional films has struggled to land distribution, complicating efforts to get attention from Academy voters.
Instead of throwing up their hands and leaving things to fate, the teams behind the four documentaries have taken the remarkable step of banding together to launch a joint For Your Consideration campaign, Do It Yourself fashion. Oscar-winning King Coal producer Diane Becker, Joonam producer Keith Wilson, and Bad Press co-director Joe Peeler join the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to talk about their groundbreaking venture.
Typically, these films would consider themselves rivals, pitted against each other...
Instead of throwing up their hands and leaving things to fate, the teams behind the four documentaries have taken the remarkable step of banding together to launch a joint For Your Consideration campaign, Do It Yourself fashion. Oscar-winning King Coal producer Diane Becker, Joonam producer Keith Wilson, and Bad Press co-director Joe Peeler join the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to talk about their groundbreaking venture.
Typically, these films would consider themselves rivals, pitted against each other...
- 12/5/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
In a sense, Central Appalachia is as threatened by climate change as much as any other place on Earth.
Since the 1970s alone, 2 billion tons of coal have been extracted from the region, providing fuel for a highly industrialized nation and jobs for thousands in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and surrounding areas. But as the single biggest contributor to rising global temperatures, the energy source is being phased out, and with it an entire way of life.
The impact of coal on Central Appalachia – the economy, the people, the culture – is explored in King Coal, directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon, a native of the region. She appears on the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss her feature documentary, winner of awards at film festivals across the country. The film is produced by McMillion Sheldon, Peggy Drexler, and Shane Boris and Diane Becker, two of the Oscar-winning producers of Navalny.
Since the 1970s alone, 2 billion tons of coal have been extracted from the region, providing fuel for a highly industrialized nation and jobs for thousands in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and surrounding areas. But as the single biggest contributor to rising global temperatures, the energy source is being phased out, and with it an entire way of life.
The impact of coal on Central Appalachia – the economy, the people, the culture – is explored in King Coal, directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon, a native of the region. She appears on the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss her feature documentary, winner of awards at film festivals across the country. The film is produced by McMillion Sheldon, Peggy Drexler, and Shane Boris and Diane Becker, two of the Oscar-winning producers of Navalny.
- 11/28/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
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.
In a special edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we report on the festival from Amsterdam, speaking on the ground with five notable filmmakers, including Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams, who came to IDFA for the European premiere of his new Netflix documentary Stamped From the Beginning, an examination of how racist ideas have permeated American culture.
Sex researcher Shere Hite
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nicole Newnham tells us how European audiences reacted to her award-winning documentary The Disappearance of Shere Hite, about the titular American sex researcher who became a sensation after the publication of her book The Hite Report in the 1970s,...
In a special edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we report on the festival from Amsterdam, speaking on the ground with five notable filmmakers, including Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams, who came to IDFA for the European premiere of his new Netflix documentary Stamped From the Beginning, an examination of how racist ideas have permeated American culture.
Sex researcher Shere Hite
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nicole Newnham tells us how European audiences reacted to her award-winning documentary The Disappearance of Shere Hite, about the titular American sex researcher who became a sensation after the publication of her book The Hite Report in the 1970s,...
- 11/21/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s unlikely the U.S. Supreme Court would have adopted a code of ethics, as it did this week, without a series of revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas and his appetite for first-class vacations paid for by a wealthy Republican friend. Consider it another example of Thomas’ influence on the Court.
Thomas and his wife Ginni are the subject of the Frontline documentary Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court, directed by Michael Kirk. The multiple Emmy-winning filmmaker is our guest on the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast.
Kirk’s investigative documentary explores what many consider to be Thomas’ questionable ethics – he did not report on federal disclosure forms that Republican activist Harlan Crow footed the bill for fancy holidays enjoyed by Thomas and his wife, or that Thomas sold a house to Crow in Savannah, Ga, where the Justice’s mother, Leola Williams,...
Thomas and his wife Ginni are the subject of the Frontline documentary Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court, directed by Michael Kirk. The multiple Emmy-winning filmmaker is our guest on the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast.
Kirk’s investigative documentary explores what many consider to be Thomas’ questionable ethics – he did not report on federal disclosure forms that Republican activist Harlan Crow footed the bill for fancy holidays enjoyed by Thomas and his wife, or that Thomas sold a house to Crow in Savannah, Ga, where the Justice’s mother, Leola Williams,...
- 11/14/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
NBCUniversal has acquired Commitment to Life, a documentary about the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The film from Emmy Award-winning documentarian Jeffrey Schwarz (Vito) will premiere on Peacock on Dec. 1, designated as World AIDS Day. Its cable network debut will be in early 2024 on MSNBC.
When AIDS first emerged in the United States in the early 1980s, Los Angeles became one of the cities immediately impacted. The documentary shows how L.A.’s gay community and allies mobilized to fight the disease despite a lack of funding, intense fear about AIDS, and an administration in Washington that would not confront the epidemic for political reasons.
The film had its world premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Watch the trailer above.
Matt Carey contributed to this report.
When AIDS first emerged in the United States in the early 1980s, Los Angeles became one of the cities immediately impacted. The documentary shows how L.A.’s gay community and allies mobilized to fight the disease despite a lack of funding, intense fear about AIDS, and an administration in Washington that would not confront the epidemic for political reasons.
The film had its world premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Watch the trailer above.
Matt Carey contributed to this report.
- 11/11/2023
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
At 1 First Street in Northeast Washington stands the columned U.S. Supreme Court building, an imposing marble edifice where the most essential constitutional questions are adjudicated. Across generations, Americans held the institution in the highest regard. But not anymore.
Now, according to polls, perceptions of the Court have shifted drastically — from revered redoubt of impartial justice to just another political forum where ideological battles are waged.
Filmmaker Dawn Porter, a Georgetown Law School graduate, examines the Court as it faces an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy in her Showtime documentary series Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court. Porter is our guest on the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, discussing how the nation’s highest tribunal evolved in recent decades from protector of minority rights to, arguably, a protector of minority rule.
Porter explains how a “40-year grudge match” waged by GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell created the recent...
Now, according to polls, perceptions of the Court have shifted drastically — from revered redoubt of impartial justice to just another political forum where ideological battles are waged.
Filmmaker Dawn Porter, a Georgetown Law School graduate, examines the Court as it faces an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy in her Showtime documentary series Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court. Porter is our guest on the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, discussing how the nation’s highest tribunal evolved in recent decades from protector of minority rights to, arguably, a protector of minority rule.
Porter explains how a “40-year grudge match” waged by GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell created the recent...
- 11/7/2023
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
North Korea. Your house is on fire. What do you try to rescue first? Your kids? Your pet? No, the first thing you reach for is the portrait of the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-un and his father and grandfather that is hanging on your wall, as mandated by the authoritarian government. Everything else can wait.
Such is the bizarre and grim reality of North Korea that emerges in Beyond Utopia, the award-winning documentary directed by Madeleine Gavin. She obtained remarkable footage surreptitiously recorded in the secretive, isolated state that shows what life is truly like for ordinary people – people told from birth that their leader is a human god who demands and deserves total fealty.
Despite the North Korean regime’s attempts to brainwash the populace into believing they live in an earthly paradise, over a period of years hundreds of thousands of people have risked death to try to escape.
Such is the bizarre and grim reality of North Korea that emerges in Beyond Utopia, the award-winning documentary directed by Madeleine Gavin. She obtained remarkable footage surreptitiously recorded in the secretive, isolated state that shows what life is truly like for ordinary people – people told from birth that their leader is a human god who demands and deserves total fealty.
Despite the North Korean regime’s attempts to brainwash the populace into believing they live in an earthly paradise, over a period of years hundreds of thousands of people have risked death to try to escape.
- 10/31/2023
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
Pop star Bobi Wine had it made. Beautiful wife and kids, thriving music career. The Ugandan singer could have stayed in his lane, cruising through Kampala without a care. But as the award-winning documentary Bobi Wine: The People’s President shows, he gave up the easy life for something far more dangerous: attempting through the democratic process to unseat his country’s dictator, Gen. Yoweri Museveni.
Wine and the directors of the documentary, Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, join us on the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss the film and the intriguing question of why Wine entered the political arena when his only guarantee was that doing so would expose him to great peril.
Wine explains why he allowed the filmmakers to observe every aspect of his life, and the only thing he asked them not to show – a plea the directors ignored.
Bwayo and Sharp...
Wine and the directors of the documentary, Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, join us on the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss the film and the intriguing question of why Wine entered the political arena when his only guarantee was that doing so would expose him to great peril.
Wine explains why he allowed the filmmakers to observe every aspect of his life, and the only thing he asked them not to show – a plea the directors ignored.
Bwayo and Sharp...
- 10/24/2023
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
Documentary filmmaking legend Errol Morris has built his extraordinary reputation on two principle foundations: what might be called dramatizations (he rejects the terms reenactments or recreations) and interviews of incredible insight and verve. He has conversed with a fascinating array of people — Robert McNamara, Donald Rumsfeld, Steve Bannon, owners of pet cemeteries, a woman accused of kidnapping and raping a Mormon missionary, to name a few.
Now, on Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, it’s our turn to interview Morris, about his latest documentary, The Pigeon Tunnel. In the film, which is about to premiere on Apple TV+, the director trains his lens on perhaps his most elusive subject yet – the spy-turned-novelist David Cornwell, known to the world by his pen name, John le Carré.
Morris tells Doc Talk why his encounter with Cornwell made him question the very nature of documentary interviews. And he gets into whether any person...
Now, on Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, it’s our turn to interview Morris, about his latest documentary, The Pigeon Tunnel. In the film, which is about to premiere on Apple TV+, the director trains his lens on perhaps his most elusive subject yet – the spy-turned-novelist David Cornwell, known to the world by his pen name, John le Carré.
Morris tells Doc Talk why his encounter with Cornwell made him question the very nature of documentary interviews. And he gets into whether any person...
- 10/17/2023
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
John Chau’s death in 2018 made headlines around the world: an evangelical young man killed on an island in the Andaman Sea inhabited by an isolated Indigenous group. Chau came to North Sentinel Island bearing a waterproof Bible and dreams of converting the North Sentinelese to Christianity, but his ill-fated mission ended in a hail of sharpened arrows.
Five years after Chau’s fatal endeavor, National Geographic is releasing The Mission, a documentary about Chau’s life, violent death and the ethical questions raised by his attempt to Christianize a people well known for repelling attempts by outsiders to contact them. Emmy-winning directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss join Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their film, which premiered in late August at the Telluride Film Festival.
“[John Chau] was living his faith in a very radical way,” Moss tells Doc Talk. “He trained for 10 years to get to North Sentinel Island.
Five years after Chau’s fatal endeavor, National Geographic is releasing The Mission, a documentary about Chau’s life, violent death and the ethical questions raised by his attempt to Christianize a people well known for repelling attempts by outsiders to contact them. Emmy-winning directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss join Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their film, which premiered in late August at the Telluride Film Festival.
“[John Chau] was living his faith in a very radical way,” Moss tells Doc Talk. “He trained for 10 years to get to North Sentinel Island.
- 10/10/2023
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…,” Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities. The same phrase could describe the state of the documentary industry.
More independent documentary films and series of exceptional quality are being made than ever before, yet there is an existential dilemma facing the field: how to get that remarkable work to viewers. Distribution opportunities have dried up in the past year – buyers aren’t buying, at least at the pace they used to – provoking deep anxiety among nonfiction filmmakers.
We dig into these vital concerns with Thom Powers, documentary programmer at the Toronto Film Festival, in Episode 2 of Doc Talk. Our podcast hosted by filmmaker John Ridley and Deadline’s documentary editor Matt Carey is produced by Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios and presented in partnership with National Geographic Documentary Films.
Powers, one of the most respected figures in documentary,...
More independent documentary films and series of exceptional quality are being made than ever before, yet there is an existential dilemma facing the field: how to get that remarkable work to viewers. Distribution opportunities have dried up in the past year – buyers aren’t buying, at least at the pace they used to – provoking deep anxiety among nonfiction filmmakers.
We dig into these vital concerns with Thom Powers, documentary programmer at the Toronto Film Festival, in Episode 2 of Doc Talk. Our podcast hosted by filmmaker John Ridley and Deadline’s documentary editor Matt Carey is produced by Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios and presented in partnership with National Geographic Documentary Films.
Powers, one of the most respected figures in documentary,...
- 9/20/2023
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
Welcome to the premiere episode of Doc Talk, our new podcast hosted by Oscar-winning writer-director John Ridley and Deadline’s documentary editor Matt Carey. We’re kicking off with a deep dive into a signature power of documentary: The capacity to right a grave wrong in the criminal justice system by freeing a wrongfully convicted prisoner. Only a handful of major nonfiction filmmakers has achieved this extraordinary feat, springing men and women who faced Death Row or life sentences.
We talk with Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line), Joe Berlinger (the Paradise Lost trilogy), Amy Berg (The Case Against Adnan Syed and West of Memphis), and Deborah Esquenazi (Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four).
Morris shares his theory of why Randall Dale Adams — the man who almost certainly would have been put to death by the state of Texas if not for The Thin Blue Line — turned around and sued him.
We talk with Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line), Joe Berlinger (the Paradise Lost trilogy), Amy Berg (The Case Against Adnan Syed and West of Memphis), and Deborah Esquenazi (Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four).
Morris shares his theory of why Randall Dale Adams — the man who almost certainly would have been put to death by the state of Texas if not for The Thin Blue Line — turned around and sued him.
- 9/12/2023
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
Wang Bing’s Youth (Spring), one of two documentaries in the main Cannes Film Festival competition in nearly 20 years, takes an interesting stance in its portrayal of the garment workers living in harsh conditions in China’s clothing capital of Zhili City.
In fact the docu, as Deadline’s Matt Carey says in his review, has a spice-of-life approach in showing the hustle and bustle of how these rural denizens find their way to the more economically vibrant areas along the Blue River delta and build lives together in harsh living conditions. Yet, the docu’s intent isn’t to expose abuse.
Related: Full List Of Cannes Palme d’Or Winners Through The Years: Photo Gallery
“I’m someone who doesn’t get moved very easily,” Wang said Friday at the press conference for the film when asked about whether he was emotionally affected by the garment workers’ situation. “I...
In fact the docu, as Deadline’s Matt Carey says in his review, has a spice-of-life approach in showing the hustle and bustle of how these rural denizens find their way to the more economically vibrant areas along the Blue River delta and build lives together in harsh living conditions. Yet, the docu’s intent isn’t to expose abuse.
Related: Full List Of Cannes Palme d’Or Winners Through The Years: Photo Gallery
“I’m someone who doesn’t get moved very easily,” Wang said Friday at the press conference for the film when asked about whether he was emotionally affected by the garment workers’ situation. “I...
- 5/19/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
“Murf the Surf,” a four-part docuseries, based on the infamous jewel thief Jack Roland Murphy, will premiere February 5, 2023 on MGM+. It’s written and directed by two-time Emmy winner R.J. Cutler and executive produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard.
At a recent screening for the documentary held at The Aster in Los Angeles, Cutler spoke with Deadline’s Matt Carey about the project. “I got a call asking if I had seen an article written in the New York Times,” the director explained. “It was tied to the renovation that was going on to the Museum of Natural History in New York. It told the story of this jewel heist that had taken place in the 1960s, in the wake of the Kennedy assassination. These surfer-dude jewel thieves had captured the public imagination and became nightly news fodder. Americans gathered around the TV to see what was going on with the case.
At a recent screening for the documentary held at The Aster in Los Angeles, Cutler spoke with Deadline’s Matt Carey about the project. “I got a call asking if I had seen an article written in the New York Times,” the director explained. “It was tied to the renovation that was going on to the Museum of Natural History in New York. It told the story of this jewel heist that had taken place in the 1960s, in the wake of the Kennedy assassination. These surfer-dude jewel thieves had captured the public imagination and became nightly news fodder. Americans gathered around the TV to see what was going on with the case.
- 2/1/2023
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
Spectacular.
That’s the word to describe the year in documentary film, a span that witnessed the emergence of fresh talent and the return of seasoned nonfiction filmmakers at the top of their form. It all made for the single best year for feature documentaries that I can remember.
With so many remarkable films to consider, it becomes exceptionally difficult to narrow the list to a top 10. Easily 20-25 merit high praise. But with the caveat that such a list inevitably omits many worthy contenders, this is my choice of the best documentaries of 2022, in alphabetical order:
All That Breathes Birds aloft over Delhi in ‘All That Breathes’
This cinematic marvel from director Shaunak Sen descended from the skies of Delhi, India to the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary. With a mastery of image, sound and poetic language, the film illustrates...
That’s the word to describe the year in documentary film, a span that witnessed the emergence of fresh talent and the return of seasoned nonfiction filmmakers at the top of their form. It all made for the single best year for feature documentaries that I can remember.
With so many remarkable films to consider, it becomes exceptionally difficult to narrow the list to a top 10. Easily 20-25 merit high praise. But with the caveat that such a list inevitably omits many worthy contenders, this is my choice of the best documentaries of 2022, in alphabetical order:
All That Breathes Birds aloft over Delhi in ‘All That Breathes’
This cinematic marvel from director Shaunak Sen descended from the skies of Delhi, India to the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary. With a mastery of image, sound and poetic language, the film illustrates...
- 12/29/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
It has been apparent in talking to Oscar voters across many branches that the one title that keeps coming up at the top of their lists is Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front, which is the German entry for International Feature Film. That it has strength across the board though is borne out with the Oscar shortlists in 10 categories released Wednesday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Netflix’s ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’
All Quiet was named on five of them — in every category it could have been eligible, and is tied with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to lead the lists.
From director Edward Berger, the German film is the first major theatrical featureof the Erich Maria Remarque World War I classic since Lewis Milestone’s 1930 Best Picture Oscar winner. Based on the...
Netflix’s ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’
All Quiet was named on five of them — in every category it could have been eligible, and is tied with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to lead the lists.
From director Edward Berger, the German film is the first major theatrical featureof the Erich Maria Remarque World War I classic since Lewis Milestone’s 1930 Best Picture Oscar winner. Based on the...
- 12/21/2022
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
The 2014 French drama La Famille Bélier centered on a young woman growing up in a family with deaf parents, but for the most part the filmmakers cast hearing actors to play the deaf roles. Writer-director Siân Heder was determined not to take that same approach when she set about making Coda, her award-winning adaptation of the French film, and thus began her collaboration with actress Marlee Matlin. Heder cast the Oscar winner as mom Jackie Rossi, along with fellow deaf actors Troy Kotsur as husband Frank, and Daniel Durant as son Leo, while hearing actress Emilia Jones plays Ruby Rossi, the titular ‘Coda’—an acronym for Child of Deaf Adults.
In conversation with Matt Carey, Heder and Matlin discuss how they set about telling an authentic and moving story in a film that sold in a record-breaking deal out of Sundance.
Deadline: Siân, describe your thought process as you went about casting the film.
In conversation with Matt Carey, Heder and Matlin discuss how they set about telling an authentic and moving story in a film that sold in a record-breaking deal out of Sundance.
Deadline: Siân, describe your thought process as you went about casting the film.
- 12/1/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Following the movie’s TIFF premiere, Relativity Media will open Justine Bateman’s feature directorial debut Violet on Oct. 29 in NY and LA with an expansion to follow on Nov. 5.
The pic will also hit in home demand on Nov. 9.
Relativity, as we first told you, picked up Violet after its world premiere at SXSW.
The pic follows Violet Calder (Olivia Munn) as she realizes that she can no longer ignore the daily barrage of self-criticisms (voiced by Justin Theroux) that clouds her life. These self-criticism cause her to make fear-based decisions and hold her back from the kind of professional, personal, and romantic life she knows she wants. Unsure how to live a life free of that self-doubt, like her childhood friend Red (Luke Bracey), Violet realizes she has no choice but to travel the road that is more frightening to her than the fear that holds her back: Doing everything differently.
The pic will also hit in home demand on Nov. 9.
Relativity, as we first told you, picked up Violet after its world premiere at SXSW.
The pic follows Violet Calder (Olivia Munn) as she realizes that she can no longer ignore the daily barrage of self-criticisms (voiced by Justin Theroux) that clouds her life. These self-criticism cause her to make fear-based decisions and hold her back from the kind of professional, personal, and romantic life she knows she wants. Unsure how to live a life free of that self-doubt, like her childhood friend Red (Luke Bracey), Violet realizes she has no choice but to travel the road that is more frightening to her than the fear that holds her back: Doing everything differently.
- 9/17/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Padma Lakshmi, the Queer Eye hosts, Stephen Colbert and Demi Lovato are just of the few of the top tiers names joining Deadline’s Contenders Television Documentary + Unscripted event on May 1.
The day-long livestreamed celebration starts at 8 a.m. Pt on Saturday, as the Oscars are in the rearview mirror and awards season puts pedal to the small screen metal.
Along with the Taste the Nation host and the Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself executive producer, this newest addition to our Contenders events will see Demi Lovato, Michael D. Ratner, Derek DelGaudio himself, Frank Oz, Amy Schumer, Malcolm Spellman, Jameela Jamil, Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish will be among participants from the nearly 40 shows from 18 outlets at the virtual event.
Queer Eye’s Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness will also be there, as will Nicole Byer, a double dipping Ken Jeong, Rachel Brosnahan,...
The day-long livestreamed celebration starts at 8 a.m. Pt on Saturday, as the Oscars are in the rearview mirror and awards season puts pedal to the small screen metal.
Along with the Taste the Nation host and the Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself executive producer, this newest addition to our Contenders events will see Demi Lovato, Michael D. Ratner, Derek DelGaudio himself, Frank Oz, Amy Schumer, Malcolm Spellman, Jameela Jamil, Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish will be among participants from the nearly 40 shows from 18 outlets at the virtual event.
Queer Eye’s Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness will also be there, as will Nicole Byer, a double dipping Ken Jeong, Rachel Brosnahan,...
- 4/28/2021
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
This very unusual eight-month movie-awards season is winding down as BAFTA and DGA virtual ceremonies take place this weekend and Oscar final voting is set to begin Thursday. What better time for Deadline’s first-ever Contenders Film: The Nominees to take place? The final countdown starts here beginning at 10 a.m. Pt with a total of 18 films from 11 studios featuring 45 nominated filmmakers and stars, all giving us the lowdown on the movies that are bringing them all to the end of a long journey that culminates on Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, April 25 (the latest date ever for an Academy Award show).
To watch the livestream of today’s event, click here.
In January, over the course of two weekends, we presented separate Contenders Film events for Documentary, International and then a big two-day look at all the movie hopefuls in this pandemic-affected year. Now, for the first time,...
To watch the livestream of today’s event, click here.
In January, over the course of two weekends, we presented separate Contenders Film events for Documentary, International and then a big two-day look at all the movie hopefuls in this pandemic-affected year. Now, for the first time,...
- 4/10/2021
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
A sterling final lineup of talent, filmmakers and stars will be participating in Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees virtual event on Saturday. Among nominated actors appearing are Leslie Odom Jr., Riz Ahmed, Paul Raci, Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova, Carey Mulligan, Andra Day, Amanda Seyfried, BAFTA nominee Mads Mikkelsen, as well as stars from International Film contender The Man Who Sold His Skin including Monica Bellucci, Yahya, Mahayni and Dea Liane.
Filmmakers include all five directors of the International Film nominees, Kemp Powers, Darius Marder, Garrett Bradley, Tomm Moore, Maite Alberdi, Alexander Nanau, Skye Fitzgerald, Aaron Sorkin, Emerald Fennell, Thomas Vinterberg and many other artisans poised to possibly receive the film industry’s highest honors.
A total of 18 Oscar-nominated films from 11 studios and distributors will be highlighted in Deadline’s first-ever nominees Contenders Film for the movie awards season. The all-day livestreamed event is Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.
Filmmakers include all five directors of the International Film nominees, Kemp Powers, Darius Marder, Garrett Bradley, Tomm Moore, Maite Alberdi, Alexander Nanau, Skye Fitzgerald, Aaron Sorkin, Emerald Fennell, Thomas Vinterberg and many other artisans poised to possibly receive the film industry’s highest honors.
A total of 18 Oscar-nominated films from 11 studios and distributors will be highlighted in Deadline’s first-ever nominees Contenders Film for the movie awards season. The all-day livestreamed event is Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.
- 4/6/2021
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
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