Like a peckish panda let loose in a showroom for bamboo patio furniture, the modern audience’s craving for true-life stories is seemingly insatiable. And like said ursine gnawing greedily on a flavorful teakwood club chair, nonfiction has been steadily gobbling up narrative filmmaking, with almost every major news item of the last 40 years being dutifully reimagined as a prestige limited series. And sure, projects like HBO’s Love and Death or Hulu’s The Dropout can help fill the void abdicated by the mid-budget studio drama, but where does that leave actual documentary movies—or documentary filmmakers for that matter?
While there’s certainly not an overabundance of industry support out there for emerging nonfiction filmmakers, there is at the very least the Film Independent Documentary Lab. And today, we’re thrilled to welcome seven new Fellows and six new projects to the 2023 Doc Lab cohort. “Documentary filmmakers remain...
While there’s certainly not an overabundance of industry support out there for emerging nonfiction filmmakers, there is at the very least the Film Independent Documentary Lab. And today, we’re thrilled to welcome seven new Fellows and six new projects to the 2023 Doc Lab cohort. “Documentary filmmakers remain...
- 5/24/2023
- by Matt Warren
- Film Independent News & More
Exclusive: Film Independent on Wednesday named the filmmakers and projects selected for its 12th annual Documentary Lab, rolling out a list that includes Alina Simone & Kirstine Barfod (Black Snow), Chris Coats (Flamingo Camp), Sisa Bueno, Gabriela Díaz Arp (Matininó), Amanda Erickson (She Cried That Day) and Adina Luo (You Have the Floor).
The nonprofit behind the Independent Spirit Awards also announced Black Snow‘s Simone as the recipient of its latest Cayton-Goldrich Family Foundation Fellowship, an unrestricted $10,000 cash grant awarded to a Jewish filmmaker participating in one of its Artist Development Programs.
An intensive program providing creative feedback to filmmakers who are currently in post-production on feature-length docs, The Lab also advances their careers by introducing them to mentors, advisors and guest speakers who can advise on both the craft and business of documentary filmmaking. Chris Shellen (Mickey: The Story of a Mouse) and Ivete Lucas...
The nonprofit behind the Independent Spirit Awards also announced Black Snow‘s Simone as the recipient of its latest Cayton-Goldrich Family Foundation Fellowship, an unrestricted $10,000 cash grant awarded to a Jewish filmmaker participating in one of its Artist Development Programs.
An intensive program providing creative feedback to filmmakers who are currently in post-production on feature-length docs, The Lab also advances their careers by introducing them to mentors, advisors and guest speakers who can advise on both the craft and business of documentary filmmaking. Chris Shellen (Mickey: The Story of a Mouse) and Ivete Lucas...
- 5/24/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Art
1341 Frames of Love and War (Yes Docu)
In celebrating the work of acclaimed Israeli war photographer Micha Bar-Am, director Ran Tal’s 1341 Frames of Love and War offers a meditation on photography, political violence and identity through an exclusive (and exhaustive) deep dive into Bar-Am’s expansive artistic archives over the past five decades.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Neon)
Laura Poitras (an Oscar winner for 2014’s Citizenfour) directs this portrait of renowned photographer Nan Goldin, one that offers intimate access to her suburban upbringing and experiences living among marginalized communities and artistic scenes in New York City. It also depicts the downfall of the Sackler family, a target of Goldin’s activism and whose company Purdue Pharma created and marketed OxyContin — the root cause of the American opioid epidemic.
Art & Krimes by Krimes (MTV Documentary Films)
While serving a six-year prison sentence for drug possession,...
Art
1341 Frames of Love and War (Yes Docu)
In celebrating the work of acclaimed Israeli war photographer Micha Bar-Am, director Ran Tal’s 1341 Frames of Love and War offers a meditation on photography, political violence and identity through an exclusive (and exhaustive) deep dive into Bar-Am’s expansive artistic archives over the past five decades.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Neon)
Laura Poitras (an Oscar winner for 2014’s Citizenfour) directs this portrait of renowned photographer Nan Goldin, one that offers intimate access to her suburban upbringing and experiences living among marginalized communities and artistic scenes in New York City. It also depicts the downfall of the Sackler family, a target of Goldin’s activism and whose company Purdue Pharma created and marketed OxyContin — the root cause of the American opioid epidemic.
Art & Krimes by Krimes (MTV Documentary Films)
While serving a six-year prison sentence for drug possession,...
- 12/8/2022
- by Tyler Coates, Beatrice Verhoeven and Hilton Dresden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: WME has signed award-winning filmmaker Alysa Nahmias and her production company Ajna Films for representation.
Nahmias most recently directed the awards-contending feature documentary Art & Krimes by Krimes about Philadelphia artist Jesse Krimes, who found a way to create stunning artworks while behind bars, smuggling his large-scale artwork out of prison as a way to survive in the act of creativity. The film acquired last year by MTV Documentary Films has won numerous festival prizes. After a limited theatrical run, Art & Krimes by Krimes will launch November 29th on Paramount+.
Nahmias also recently produced Amazon Studios’ celebrated documentary Wildcat from directors Trevor Frost and Melissa Lesh, which world premiered at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival. The film tells the story of the young British soldier Harry Turner, who struggles with depression and Ptsd after getting back from war in Afghanistan, finding a second chance in the Amazon rainforest when he meets an American scientist,...
Nahmias most recently directed the awards-contending feature documentary Art & Krimes by Krimes about Philadelphia artist Jesse Krimes, who found a way to create stunning artworks while behind bars, smuggling his large-scale artwork out of prison as a way to survive in the act of creativity. The film acquired last year by MTV Documentary Films has won numerous festival prizes. After a limited theatrical run, Art & Krimes by Krimes will launch November 29th on Paramount+.
Nahmias also recently produced Amazon Studios’ celebrated documentary Wildcat from directors Trevor Frost and Melissa Lesh, which world premiered at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival. The film tells the story of the young British soldier Harry Turner, who struggles with depression and Ptsd after getting back from war in Afghanistan, finding a second chance in the Amazon rainforest when he meets an American scientist,...
- 11/22/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Paramount+ has set a Nov. 29 premiere date for a slate of new titles from MTV Documentary Films.
The slate spans two feature documentaries and five documentary shorts, all of which are executive produced by Sheila Nevins, executive producer at MTV Documentary Films and the former boss of HBO Documentary Films.
The line-up spotlights the story of a family saying goodbye to their patriarch in “Dig!” director Ondi Timoner’s “Last Flight Home,” as well as the portrait of an artist working against all odds in “Art & Krimes by Krimes.”
Meanwhile, the doc shorts delve into everything from the Louisiana State Penitentiary known as Angola in “Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices From A Plantation Prison,” and the Black Sea, where a Russian activist and mother buries her child in “Anastasia.”
Also premiering is the doc short “As Far As They Can Run,” an intimate look at children with intellectual disabilities...
The slate spans two feature documentaries and five documentary shorts, all of which are executive produced by Sheila Nevins, executive producer at MTV Documentary Films and the former boss of HBO Documentary Films.
The line-up spotlights the story of a family saying goodbye to their patriarch in “Dig!” director Ondi Timoner’s “Last Flight Home,” as well as the portrait of an artist working against all odds in “Art & Krimes by Krimes.”
Meanwhile, the doc shorts delve into everything from the Louisiana State Penitentiary known as Angola in “Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices From A Plantation Prison,” and the Black Sea, where a Russian activist and mother buries her child in “Anastasia.”
Also premiering is the doc short “As Far As They Can Run,” an intimate look at children with intellectual disabilities...
- 11/21/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
When it comes to accessibility for the disabled IDFA, by its own admission, is falling short.
During a panel discussion running as part of IDFA’s Industry program on Monday, the festival’s senior editor Julia Yudelman explained that the festival had an accessibility audit done in 2019. That led to a list of recommendations on how to make IDFA and its market organizations more accessible. The fest also worked with a consultant who helped formulate a five-year plan to make the festival more inclusive both physically and virtually. But despite the efforts, Yudelman said, “We are still really behind at IDFA when it comes to accessibility.”
Industry markets like IDFA are a prime meeting ground for filmmakers when it comes to networking, knowledge-sharing and building a community. But accessibility issues faced by disabled attendees, not only at IDFA but at film festivals around the world, make it difficult, sometimes impossible,...
During a panel discussion running as part of IDFA’s Industry program on Monday, the festival’s senior editor Julia Yudelman explained that the festival had an accessibility audit done in 2019. That led to a list of recommendations on how to make IDFA and its market organizations more accessible. The fest also worked with a consultant who helped formulate a five-year plan to make the festival more inclusive both physically and virtually. But despite the efforts, Yudelman said, “We are still really behind at IDFA when it comes to accessibility.”
Industry markets like IDFA are a prime meeting ground for filmmakers when it comes to networking, knowledge-sharing and building a community. But accessibility issues faced by disabled attendees, not only at IDFA but at film festivals around the world, make it difficult, sometimes impossible,...
- 11/16/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
IDFA is going wild for Wildcat.
The documentary from Amazon Studios screened a couple of times over the weekend at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, to resounding effect, filmmakers Melissa Lesh and Trevor Frost tell Deadline. Screenings on Friday and Sunday took place at the Pathé Tuschinski Theatre, a glorious old movie palace that rivals Mann’s Chinese in splendor.
“To have two standing ovations in a theater like that,” Lesh commented at a party after Sunday’s event, “on the biggest screen we’ve screened on yet, and to have the audience so engaged and moved, I feel like it’s been our best screenings yet.”
The Pathé Tuschinski Theatre
Frost added, “When we were standing in the lobby as people were going into the movie theater, I just couldn’t believe how many people were around me. They said they had well over 450 people in the theater...
The documentary from Amazon Studios screened a couple of times over the weekend at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, to resounding effect, filmmakers Melissa Lesh and Trevor Frost tell Deadline. Screenings on Friday and Sunday took place at the Pathé Tuschinski Theatre, a glorious old movie palace that rivals Mann’s Chinese in splendor.
“To have two standing ovations in a theater like that,” Lesh commented at a party after Sunday’s event, “on the biggest screen we’ve screened on yet, and to have the audience so engaged and moved, I feel like it’s been our best screenings yet.”
The Pathé Tuschinski Theatre
Frost added, “When we were standing in the lobby as people were going into the movie theater, I just couldn’t believe how many people were around me. They said they had well over 450 people in the theater...
- 11/14/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Amazon Prime Video is pushing new wildlife documentary “Wildcat” — from directors Melissa Lesh and Trevor Frost and producers Joshua Altman and Alysa Nahmias — into the busy nonfiction fall fray. This powerful documentary, made at the intersection of military Ptsd and animal conservation, debuted at the Telluride Film Festival this past summer to strong notices. Prime Video will now release the film in theaters on December 21 and on the streaming platform on December 30. Watch the trailer exclusively on IndieWire below.
Per the official synopsis, “Wildcat” follows the inspiring story of young veteran Harry Turner on his journey into the Amazon. Once there, he meets Ph.D. candidate Samantha Zwicker, who is running a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center, and his life finds new meaning as he is entrusted with the life of an orphaned baby ocelot. What was meant to be an attempt to escape from life turns out to be an unexpected journey of love,...
Per the official synopsis, “Wildcat” follows the inspiring story of young veteran Harry Turner on his journey into the Amazon. Once there, he meets Ph.D. candidate Samantha Zwicker, who is running a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center, and his life finds new meaning as he is entrusted with the life of an orphaned baby ocelot. What was meant to be an attempt to escape from life turns out to be an unexpected journey of love,...
- 11/2/2022
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The final frame of “Art & Krimes by Krimes,” after the credits roll, is packed with logos from foundations, associations and institutions. It’s a fitting end to such a thoughtfully composed work about the place of art in a broken culture.
It feels optimistic that a gifted female filmmaker like Alysa Nahmias (“The New Bauhaus”) received support from a range of organizations for a documentary about marginalized creators. But as the movie itself makes clear, the struggle is immense and remains overwhelmingly pervasive.
Her subject is Jesse Krimes, who began life as the fatherless son of a teenage mother, losing his stepfather to a drug-related suicide as a child, and then arrested for selling drugs in his teens. He was incarcerated for six years, and spent most of that time escaping into art. After studying as much as he could about other creators and philosophers, Krimes began his own projects,...
It feels optimistic that a gifted female filmmaker like Alysa Nahmias (“The New Bauhaus”) received support from a range of organizations for a documentary about marginalized creators. But as the movie itself makes clear, the struggle is immense and remains overwhelmingly pervasive.
Her subject is Jesse Krimes, who began life as the fatherless son of a teenage mother, losing his stepfather to a drug-related suicide as a child, and then arrested for selling drugs in his teens. He was incarcerated for six years, and spent most of that time escaping into art. After studying as much as he could about other creators and philosophers, Krimes began his own projects,...
- 9/29/2022
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
MTV Documentary Films has boarded new projects about an all-girl Afghan robotics team, a #MeToo crime story, an imprisoned mural artist and a community of disabled children in Pakistan. The documentaries join a slate that includes Ondi Timoner’s Sundance title “Last Flight Home,” which will be screening at Telluride this week in a rare double festival act.
The fledgling division, which was Oscar-nominated for the film “Ascension” earlier this year, was set up in 2019 by legendary HBO Documentary Films boss Sheila Nevins, and ViacomCBS executives Liza Burnett Fefferman and Nina L. Diaz. Nevins was at HBO for 38 years and won 34 Emmys in that period. Her credits include “Citizenfour,” “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” and “Paradise Lost.”
The slate spans four feature-length documentaries and six short films (full details below), with Timoner’s “Last Flight Home” serving as a centrepiece.
The “Dig!” director’s acclaimed film follows...
The fledgling division, which was Oscar-nominated for the film “Ascension” earlier this year, was set up in 2019 by legendary HBO Documentary Films boss Sheila Nevins, and ViacomCBS executives Liza Burnett Fefferman and Nina L. Diaz. Nevins was at HBO for 38 years and won 34 Emmys in that period. Her credits include “Citizenfour,” “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” and “Paradise Lost.”
The slate spans four feature-length documentaries and six short films (full details below), with Timoner’s “Last Flight Home” serving as a centrepiece.
The “Dig!” director’s acclaimed film follows...
- 9/2/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: When you’re an artist incarcerated in a penitentiary, it’s not as if the warden will provide whatever you need to paint, like, “Grab all the pigment and palette knives you want.”
Jesse Krimes, while serving time in federal prison, not only devised a way to secretly make art using available materials like hair gel and bedsheets, but managed to sneak his artworks outside the walls. His remarkable story is told in the film Art & Krimes by Krimes, which MTV Documentary Films will release in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on September 30. Alysa Nahmias directed the film, which is expected to get a major awards push.
“Art & Krimes by Krimes is a portrait of an artist,” Nahmias wrote in a director’s statement, “but more than that, it is a distillation of my years-long dialogue with Jesse about his commitment to self-reflection, to discovering and believing...
Jesse Krimes, while serving time in federal prison, not only devised a way to secretly make art using available materials like hair gel and bedsheets, but managed to sneak his artworks outside the walls. His remarkable story is told in the film Art & Krimes by Krimes, which MTV Documentary Films will release in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on September 30. Alysa Nahmias directed the film, which is expected to get a major awards push.
“Art & Krimes by Krimes is a portrait of an artist,” Nahmias wrote in a director’s statement, “but more than that, it is a distillation of my years-long dialogue with Jesse about his commitment to self-reflection, to discovering and believing...
- 8/9/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Activists Demand UCLA Amend Hollywood Diversity Report to Document Disabled, Lgbtqia+ Representation
UCLA’s latest Hollywood Diversity Report found some improvement in 2022 in regards to hiring women and people of color, but activist group Fwd-Doc is demanding that UCLA address other overlooked groups such as Lgbtqia+ individuals and the “invisible minority” — disabled people — in the industry.
Jim LeBrecht, co-founder of Fwd-Doc and co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary “Crip Camp” (2020), states, “UCLA’s report that stands for promoting diversity is an egregious case of exclusion and perpetuates the misconception that people with disabilities do not exist in the entertainment industry. In light of ‘Coda’s’ three Oscar wins at the recent 94th Academy Awards ceremony, this oversight reinforces Fwd-Doc’s assertion that this report is incomplete and not comprehensive.”
He adds that other groups have been under-represented, such as Lgbtqia+ people, but were ignored in the study.
The ninth annual report, from UCLA’s Division of Social Sciences, covers the top 200 theatrical English-language...
Jim LeBrecht, co-founder of Fwd-Doc and co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary “Crip Camp” (2020), states, “UCLA’s report that stands for promoting diversity is an egregious case of exclusion and perpetuates the misconception that people with disabilities do not exist in the entertainment industry. In light of ‘Coda’s’ three Oscar wins at the recent 94th Academy Awards ceremony, this oversight reinforces Fwd-Doc’s assertion that this report is incomplete and not comprehensive.”
He adds that other groups have been under-represented, such as Lgbtqia+ people, but were ignored in the study.
The ninth annual report, from UCLA’s Division of Social Sciences, covers the top 200 theatrical English-language...
- 4/2/2022
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
MTV Documentary Films has acquired worldwide rights to “Krimes,” the new non-fiction feature by award-winning filmmaker Alysa Nahmias. The deal comes before the film’s screening at Doc NYC on Sunday.
“Krimes” had its world premiere at the Heartland Film Festival. It chronicles the story of a clandestine masterpiece by an incarcerated artist. Isolated in a segregated environment where personal expression is verboten, 26 year-old artist Jesse Krimes covertly creates conceptual art during his six-year prison sentence. His work includes a large-scale mural made out of bed sheets, newspaper and hair gel. Jesse’s detailed crafting of this artwork provides a mental escape from the dehumanizing surroundings, while inspiring connections in unexpected places. With the help of fellow artists, he smuggles out individual panels of his work piece-by-piece to avoid being caught with contraband, only seeing his artwork in totality after coming home. His creations, Apokaluptein: 16389067 and Purgatory, mark his experience...
“Krimes” had its world premiere at the Heartland Film Festival. It chronicles the story of a clandestine masterpiece by an incarcerated artist. Isolated in a segregated environment where personal expression is verboten, 26 year-old artist Jesse Krimes covertly creates conceptual art during his six-year prison sentence. His work includes a large-scale mural made out of bed sheets, newspaper and hair gel. Jesse’s detailed crafting of this artwork provides a mental escape from the dehumanizing surroundings, while inspiring connections in unexpected places. With the help of fellow artists, he smuggles out individual panels of his work piece-by-piece to avoid being caught with contraband, only seeing his artwork in totality after coming home. His creations, Apokaluptein: 16389067 and Purgatory, mark his experience...
- 11/12/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: A feature documentary about an orphaned wildcat cub proved to be irresistible catnip to streamers. In a just concluded auction, Amazon Studios acquired the untitled documentary from 30West and directors Melissa Lesh & Trevor Frost. Price I’m hearing is around $20 million, a near record for a docu. The film is about a young British soldier who returns from Afghanistan suffering from depression and Ptsd. He heads to the Amazon with thoughts of ending his life. He finds a reason to live when he arrives there. The man, who’s named Harry, finds himself teaming with a woman he meets, named Samantha, to become the caregivers to an injured baby ocelot wildcat.
The docu was shopped in the form of a promo by the first time filmmakers. It was developed by 30West, which financed and was executive producer on the Netflix zeitgeist smash hit series Tiger King, as well as Fyre,...
The docu was shopped in the form of a promo by the first time filmmakers. It was developed by 30West, which financed and was executive producer on the Netflix zeitgeist smash hit series Tiger King, as well as Fyre,...
- 10/19/2021
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
The International Documentary Association on Friday announced its latest round of grant funding. It’s providing a total of $245,000 out of two funds for 15 films, many of which are investigative works. The organization also announced its first class of Documentary magazine editorial fellows for a program meant to enhance opportunities for writers from underserved and underrepresented communities.
This year, 10 projects are set to receive $15,000 each from the Ida Enterprise Documentary Fund, which supports in-depth explorations of contemporary stories that into journalistic practice into filmmaking. The fund is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation.
Among them is “11 Questions,” the working title of the project from director-producer Cassandra Herrman, which is also getting funding from “Frontline.” This marks the first-ever joint-funding collaboration between Ida and the prestigious PBS series.
Herrman has been nominated for three News & Documentary Emmy Awards, most recently for...
This year, 10 projects are set to receive $15,000 each from the Ida Enterprise Documentary Fund, which supports in-depth explorations of contemporary stories that into journalistic practice into filmmaking. The fund is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation.
Among them is “11 Questions,” the working title of the project from director-producer Cassandra Herrman, which is also getting funding from “Frontline.” This marks the first-ever joint-funding collaboration between Ida and the prestigious PBS series.
Herrman has been nominated for three News & Documentary Emmy Awards, most recently for...
- 2/21/2020
- by Chris Lindahl
- Indiewire
Previous | Image 1 of 19 | NextGigi Pritzker, Producer of Opening Night film ‘Motherless Brooklyn.’
Chicago – That’s a wrap! The 55th Chicago International Film Festival, which concluded on Sunday, October 27th, brought glam and excitement to a high energy audience of Windy City film buffs. And they brought the star power to the Red Carpet, including Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne, WWE legend C.M. Punk, “Knives Out” and “Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson, Chicago Executive Producer Gigi Pritzker, civil rights icon Jesse Jackson and Blues legend Buddy Guy.
The hardest working man in the celebrity photo business, HollywoodChicago.com photographer Joe Arce, attended those Red Carpets – from Opening Night with Gigi Pritzker to Closing Night with Buddy Guy – and shot these Exclusive Portraits from the 55th Chicago International Film Festival. Click “Next” and “Previous” to scan through the slideshow or jump directly to individual photos with the captioned links below. All photos © Joe...
Chicago – That’s a wrap! The 55th Chicago International Film Festival, which concluded on Sunday, October 27th, brought glam and excitement to a high energy audience of Windy City film buffs. And they brought the star power to the Red Carpet, including Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne, WWE legend C.M. Punk, “Knives Out” and “Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson, Chicago Executive Producer Gigi Pritzker, civil rights icon Jesse Jackson and Blues legend Buddy Guy.
The hardest working man in the celebrity photo business, HollywoodChicago.com photographer Joe Arce, attended those Red Carpets – from Opening Night with Gigi Pritzker to Closing Night with Buddy Guy – and shot these Exclusive Portraits from the 55th Chicago International Film Festival. Click “Next” and “Previous” to scan through the slideshow or jump directly to individual photos with the captioned links below. All photos © Joe...
- 10/30/2019
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Inclusion initiative designed to take participants to next career level across features, TV and Vr.
Sundance Institute has unveiled the eight members of the inaugural class of the Momentum Fellowship, a year-long support programme for writers, directors, and producers from underrepresented communities.
The Momentum Fellowship covers documentary and feature filmmaking, episodic content, and Vr and evolved from the former Women at Sundance Fellowship.
Eligible fellows are artists who identify as women, non-binary, and/or transgender, artists of colour, and artists with disabilities.
The 2019 Momentum Fellows are: Alexandria Bombach, Amber Fares, Josh Feldman, Yance Ford, Ro Haber, Megha Kadakia, Alysa Nahmias,...
Sundance Institute has unveiled the eight members of the inaugural class of the Momentum Fellowship, a year-long support programme for writers, directors, and producers from underrepresented communities.
The Momentum Fellowship covers documentary and feature filmmaking, episodic content, and Vr and evolved from the former Women at Sundance Fellowship.
Eligible fellows are artists who identify as women, non-binary, and/or transgender, artists of colour, and artists with disabilities.
The 2019 Momentum Fellows are: Alexandria Bombach, Amber Fares, Josh Feldman, Yance Ford, Ro Haber, Megha Kadakia, Alysa Nahmias,...
- 11/21/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Shooting a feature film in Cuba comes with a unique set of challenges that make the usual logistical hurdles of filmmaking seem like nothing. Still, those who have had the opportunity to shoot in the socialist country say they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. As the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba comes to an end, film production in the country is expected to ramp up.
While Hollywood studio productions like “Fast 8” and “Transformers: The Last Knight” claimed to be “making history” earlier this year by being the first American films to shoot in Havana in half a century, two American directors had already shot independent films in Cuba on the heels of the relaxed travel restrictions by the United States government: Bob Yari’s “Papa Hemingway in Cuba” and Ben Chace’s “Sin Alas” (“Without Wings”).
Read More: ‘Sin Alas’ – First American Film Shot in Cuba...
While Hollywood studio productions like “Fast 8” and “Transformers: The Last Knight” claimed to be “making history” earlier this year by being the first American films to shoot in Havana in half a century, two American directors had already shot independent films in Cuba on the heels of the relaxed travel restrictions by the United States government: Bob Yari’s “Papa Hemingway in Cuba” and Ben Chace’s “Sin Alas” (“Without Wings”).
Read More: ‘Sin Alas’ – First American Film Shot in Cuba...
- 6/23/2016
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
The Film Independent Spirit Awards take place each year right off the ocean in sunny Santa Monica, Calif., the day before the Academy Awards. The attire is beachy and casual, and so is the mood. Guests drink heavily (for the past three years, Jameson has been a main sponsor) and mingle inside the tent, where -- while food is served and seats are assigned -- it's more common to mill around, chat and reconnect with some of the biggest players in Hollywood.
There is a real community vibe at the Indie Spirit Awards and it feels like a camp reunion of sorts -- except with more booze and lots of cigarettes. There is very little competition and mostly hugs, laughs, smiles and sunglasses as actors, directors, producers and agents alike all toast the best independent films of the year.
This year, many of the films on deck for Sunday's Academy...
There is a real community vibe at the Indie Spirit Awards and it feels like a camp reunion of sorts -- except with more booze and lots of cigarettes. There is very little competition and mostly hugs, laughs, smiles and sunglasses as actors, directors, producers and agents alike all toast the best independent films of the year.
This year, many of the films on deck for Sunday's Academy...
- 2/26/2012
- by Sasha Bronner
- Huffington Post
Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, handed out top honors to The Artist, The Descendants and Margin Call at this afternoon’s 27th Film Independent Spirit Awards. My Week With Marilyn, Beginners, 50/50, A Separation and The Interrupters also received awards at the ceremony, held in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica.
Tune in to IFC tonight at 10:00 pm Et/Pt to catch all the action at the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards, with actor, writer and producer Seth Rogen hosting. Highlights include: John Waters as the Voice of God, musical performances by My Morning Jacket and K’Naan.
The Spirit Awards was the first event to exclusively honor independent film, and over the past 27 years, has become the premier awards show for the independent film community, celebrating films made by filmmakers who embody independence and originality. Artists...
Tune in to IFC tonight at 10:00 pm Et/Pt to catch all the action at the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards, with actor, writer and producer Seth Rogen hosting. Highlights include: John Waters as the Voice of God, musical performances by My Morning Jacket and K’Naan.
The Spirit Awards was the first event to exclusively honor independent film, and over the past 27 years, has become the premier awards show for the independent film community, celebrating films made by filmmakers who embody independence and originality. Artists...
- 2/26/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
DocHouse Thursdays brings the best in documentary filmmaking from around the world to UK audiences, presenting an intriguing variety of untold stories that rarely make the headlines, and the recent screenings of Ariel Nasr's The Boxing Girls of Kabul, Juila Meltzer and Laura Nix's The Light in Her Eyes and Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray's Unfinished Spaces were no exception.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 2/24/2012
- by CineVue
- CineVue
The Sundance Institute's Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue initiative kicks off February 27 in Tucson and Sells, Arizona. Six films will screen: Ali Samadi Ahadi's "The Green Wave," Andrew Okpeaha MacLean's "On the Ice," Mike Mills' "Beginners," Jasmila Zbanic's "Grbavica," Linda Goldstein Knowlton's "Somewhere Between" and Benjamin Murray & Alysa Nahmias' "Unfinished Spaces." Three of the films' directors (Ahadi, Maclean, Mills) will attend and participate in Q & A's, workshops, discussions and meet-and-greets. Sundance's Keri Putnam hopes that "this collection of films...
- 2/14/2012
- Thompson on Hollywood
Congratulations to Without writer/director Mark Jackson (one of Filmmaker‘s 2012 25 New Faces), producer Sophia Lin (Take Shelter), director Heather Courtney (Where Soldiers Come From) and directors Benjamin Murray and Alysa Nahmias (Unfinished Spaces) for winning Spirit Awards today at the event’s nominee brunch in Los Angeles. Jackson, Lin and Courtney received unrestricted grants of $25,000 from, respectively, Audi, Nokia and Piaget, while Murray and Nahmias received a $40,000 marketing and distribution grant that will go towards the release of their feature. (Note: I served on the jury for the Jameson grant.)
The complete press release follows.
Los Angeles (January 14, 2012) – Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced the winners of its four Spirit Awards filmmaker grants today at its annual Spirit Awards Nominee Brunch held at Boa Steakhouse in West Hollywood. Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson hosted the casual event and handed out the honors.
The complete press release follows.
Los Angeles (January 14, 2012) – Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced the winners of its four Spirit Awards filmmaker grants today at its annual Spirit Awards Nominee Brunch held at Boa Steakhouse in West Hollywood. Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson hosted the casual event and handed out the honors.
- 1/15/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Sundance Institute announced the renewal of its program-Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue initiative which was introduced last year. The program with travel to India apart from China, Morocco, Columbia and France this year.
Film Forward connects contemporary U.S. and international films and filmmakers with diverse global audiences and features documentary and narrative films.
The films selected for the second year of the Film Forward program are: Another Earth, by Mike Cahill; Beginners, by Mike Mills; Bran Nue Dae, by Rachel Perkins; Buck, by Cindy Meehl;Grbavica, by Jasmila Zbanic; The Green Wave, by Ali Samadi Ahadi; On The Ice, by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean; Senna, by Asif Kapadia; Somewhere Between, by Linda Goldstein Knowlton; and Unfinished Spaces, by Benjamin Murray and Alysa Nahmias.
Film Forward filmmakers will travel with the initiative to present their work and participate in master classes, discussion panels, Q&As and other engagements with audiences.
“Film...
Film Forward connects contemporary U.S. and international films and filmmakers with diverse global audiences and features documentary and narrative films.
The films selected for the second year of the Film Forward program are: Another Earth, by Mike Cahill; Beginners, by Mike Mills; Bran Nue Dae, by Rachel Perkins; Buck, by Cindy Meehl;Grbavica, by Jasmila Zbanic; The Green Wave, by Ali Samadi Ahadi; On The Ice, by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean; Senna, by Asif Kapadia; Somewhere Between, by Linda Goldstein Knowlton; and Unfinished Spaces, by Benjamin Murray and Alysa Nahmias.
Film Forward filmmakers will travel with the initiative to present their work and participate in master classes, discussion panels, Q&As and other engagements with audiences.
“Film...
- 11/11/2011
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Texas is known for some great film festivals. apart from SXSW and Fantastic Fest, both held in Austin – Houston also hosts some wonderful events. Among them is the Cinema Arts Festival. This year’s line-up is extremely strong, with titles that include Pina, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, The Artist and the World Premiere of Art Car: The Movie. Sadly we do not have any contributors over in Houston, but I did feel the need to quickly promote the festival. Here is the press release.
Houston – Now in its third year, Cinema Arts Festival Houston, which runs from November 9 to 13, 2011 will bring an ambitious program of films by and about artists to the vibrant Texas city known internationally for its dynamic art scene. From painting and dance to classical music and multimedia work, this edition will also include appearances by directors, actors, musicians, and special tributes to Ethan Hawke and documentary master Patricio Guzman.
Houston – Now in its third year, Cinema Arts Festival Houston, which runs from November 9 to 13, 2011 will bring an ambitious program of films by and about artists to the vibrant Texas city known internationally for its dynamic art scene. From painting and dance to classical music and multimedia work, this edition will also include appearances by directors, actors, musicians, and special tributes to Ethan Hawke and documentary master Patricio Guzman.
- 10/31/2011
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Updated through 6/27.
This year's Los Angeles Film Festival, running through June 26, opens tonight with the latest from Richard Linklater, and Steven Zeitchik talks with him for the Los Angeles Times: "'It was my most difficult one to get made,' he said flatly. 'It took 12 years to happen, and even then it was tough. People can say shooting in 22 days makes a movie better. It doesn't.' … Bernie is a shaggy, idiosyncratic work, possibly the strangest yet in a career full of strangeness. Set in the small town of Carthage, Texas, it tells of an effeminate, musical-loving mortician named Bernie Tiede [Jack Black] who befriends and then commits a horrible crime against a repressed wealthy matriarch [Shirley MacLaine], leaving him to face the wrath of a local prosecutor [Matthew McConaughey]. The movie is a dramatization of an actual case — the script was based on a 1998 Texas Monthly article about Tiede, and Linklater, who attended Tiede's trial,...
This year's Los Angeles Film Festival, running through June 26, opens tonight with the latest from Richard Linklater, and Steven Zeitchik talks with him for the Los Angeles Times: "'It was my most difficult one to get made,' he said flatly. 'It took 12 years to happen, and even then it was tough. People can say shooting in 22 days makes a movie better. It doesn't.' … Bernie is a shaggy, idiosyncratic work, possibly the strangest yet in a career full of strangeness. Set in the small town of Carthage, Texas, it tells of an effeminate, musical-loving mortician named Bernie Tiede [Jack Black] who befriends and then commits a horrible crime against a repressed wealthy matriarch [Shirley MacLaine], leaving him to face the wrath of a local prosecutor [Matthew McConaughey]. The movie is a dramatization of an actual case — the script was based on a 1998 Texas Monthly article about Tiede, and Linklater, who attended Tiede's trial,...
- 6/27/2011
- MUBI
Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(June 2011, screening at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Directed by: Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray
Featuring: Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti and Roberto Gottardi
Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray’s documentary deposits us into gently undulating art school buildings in Havana, Cuba, that have been abandoned, are desolate and overgrown, and are, most certainly, unfinished. Juxtaposing 1959 footage of Castro overthrowing Batista and other images of the passion and spirit of that revolution with interviews with Cuban artists, “Unfinished Spaces” measures the unrealized potential of the revolution on the art scene and, in particular, the art schools of Cuba.
Castro commissioned the schools with the goal of transforming what was once a bourgeois golf course into a collection of the best art buildings in the world. Given two months to finish the drafting, architects came together with students and unleashed unbridled enthusiasm into expressions of modernism and...
(June 2011, screening at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Directed by: Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray
Featuring: Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti and Roberto Gottardi
Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray’s documentary deposits us into gently undulating art school buildings in Havana, Cuba, that have been abandoned, are desolate and overgrown, and are, most certainly, unfinished. Juxtaposing 1959 footage of Castro overthrowing Batista and other images of the passion and spirit of that revolution with interviews with Cuban artists, “Unfinished Spaces” measures the unrealized potential of the revolution on the art scene and, in particular, the art schools of Cuba.
Castro commissioned the schools with the goal of transforming what was once a bourgeois golf course into a collection of the best art buildings in the world. Given two months to finish the drafting, architects came together with students and unleashed unbridled enthusiasm into expressions of modernism and...
- 6/19/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(June 2011, screening at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Directed by: Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray
Featuring: Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti and Roberto Gottardi
Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray’s documentary deposits us into gently undulating art school buildings in Havana, Cuba, that have been abandoned, are desolate and overgrown, and are, most certainly, unfinished. Juxtaposing 1959 footage of Castro overthrowing Batista and other images of the passion and spirit of that revolution with interviews with Cuban artists, “Unfinished Spaces” measures the unrealized potential of the revolution on the art scene and, in particular, the art schools of Cuba.
Castro commissioned the schools with the goal of transforming what was once a bourgeois golf course into a collection of the best art buildings in the world. Given two months to finish the drafting, architects came together with students and unleashed unbridled enthusiasm into expressions of modernism and...
(June 2011, screening at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Directed by: Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray
Featuring: Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti and Roberto Gottardi
Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray’s documentary deposits us into gently undulating art school buildings in Havana, Cuba, that have been abandoned, are desolate and overgrown, and are, most certainly, unfinished. Juxtaposing 1959 footage of Castro overthrowing Batista and other images of the passion and spirit of that revolution with interviews with Cuban artists, “Unfinished Spaces” measures the unrealized potential of the revolution on the art scene and, in particular, the art schools of Cuba.
Castro commissioned the schools with the goal of transforming what was once a bourgeois golf course into a collection of the best art buildings in the world. Given two months to finish the drafting, architects came together with students and unleashed unbridled enthusiasm into expressions of modernism and...
- 6/19/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
Making its world premiere at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival, “Unfinished Spaces” visits Cuba’s National Art Schools, visionary buildings constructed during the heady first days of the Cuban Revolution. The campus lies in ruins now, though art students still study there. Here, documentarians Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray write for Moving Pictures about meeting the architects behind the project and the opportunity to restore their utopia.
By Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray (directors of “Unfinished Spaces”)
(from the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Alysa Nahmias
“Unfinished Spaces” is as much about nature and human nature as it is about architecture. It depicts the organic aging and inevitable decay of all people, places and politics over time.
In spring 2001 in Havana, we first had the opportunity to visit the National Art Schools — organic, modern brick buildings, now in ruins but still home to Cuba’s best and brightest art students. After touring the campus,...
By Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray (directors of “Unfinished Spaces”)
(from the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Alysa Nahmias
“Unfinished Spaces” is as much about nature and human nature as it is about architecture. It depicts the organic aging and inevitable decay of all people, places and politics over time.
In spring 2001 in Havana, we first had the opportunity to visit the National Art Schools — organic, modern brick buildings, now in ruins but still home to Cuba’s best and brightest art students. After touring the campus,...
- 6/19/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Making its world premiere at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival, “Unfinished Spaces” visits Cuba’s National Art Schools, visionary buildings constructed during the heady first days of the Cuban Revolution. The campus lies in ruins now, though art students still study there. Here, documentarians Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray write for Moving Pictures about meeting the architects behind the project and the opportunity to restore their utopia.
By Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray (directors of “Unfinished Spaces”)
(from the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Alysa Nahmias
“Unfinished Spaces” is as much about nature and human nature as it is about architecture. It depicts the organic aging and inevitable decay of all people, places and politics over time.
In spring 2001 in Havana, we first had the opportunity to visit the National Art Schools — organic, modern brick buildings, now in ruins but still home to Cuba’s best and brightest art students. After touring the campus,...
By Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray (directors of “Unfinished Spaces”)
(from the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Alysa Nahmias
“Unfinished Spaces” is as much about nature and human nature as it is about architecture. It depicts the organic aging and inevitable decay of all people, places and politics over time.
In spring 2001 in Havana, we first had the opportunity to visit the National Art Schools — organic, modern brick buildings, now in ruins but still home to Cuba’s best and brightest art students. After touring the campus,...
- 6/19/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
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