The Danish animated documentary “Flee” has been named the best nonfiction film of 2021 at the International Documentary Association’s IDA Documentary Awards, which were streamed in a virtual ceremony on Friday night.
The film, in which director Jonas Poher Rasmussen uses animation to disguise the identity of an Afghan refugee who fled to Russian and then Denmark, scored an unprecedented trifecta when it was nominated for Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film categories.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson won the IDA award in the Best Director category for “Summer of Soul,” his directorial debut. The film also won in the Best Music Documentary and Best Editing categories, making it the only film to win more than one award at the ceremony.
Other winners included Jimmy Goldblum’s “A Broken House” in the Best Short category, the series “Independent Lens” for Best Curated Series,...
The film, in which director Jonas Poher Rasmussen uses animation to disguise the identity of an Afghan refugee who fled to Russian and then Denmark, scored an unprecedented trifecta when it was nominated for Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film categories.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson won the IDA award in the Best Director category for “Summer of Soul,” his directorial debut. The film also won in the Best Music Documentary and Best Editing categories, making it the only film to win more than one award at the ceremony.
Other winners included Jimmy Goldblum’s “A Broken House” in the Best Short category, the series “Independent Lens” for Best Curated Series,...
- 3/5/2022
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
New Indie
“Zola” (Lionsgate) is the first film based on a viral Twitter thread (and probably won’t be the last), but it’s compelling viewing for reasons that have nothing to do with its provenance. Taylour Paige (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) stars as A’Ziah “Zola” King, a waitress and sometimes stripper whose epic road trip to Florida hits one bump after another. It really is about the company you keep, and Zola is hanging out with a trouble-making dancer (Riley Keough), her hapless boyfriend (Nicholas Braun), and her enigmatic “manager” (Colman Domingo), and the twists are unpredictable, off-putting, and darkly hilarious in Janicza Bravo’s comedy.
Also available: Altered Innocence, one of the best-curated boutique labels around, delivers festival fave “A Dim Valley,” which asks the question, “What if a film about a cabin in the woods was a comedic meditation on love and not a horror movie?...
“Zola” (Lionsgate) is the first film based on a viral Twitter thread (and probably won’t be the last), but it’s compelling viewing for reasons that have nothing to do with its provenance. Taylour Paige (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) stars as A’Ziah “Zola” King, a waitress and sometimes stripper whose epic road trip to Florida hits one bump after another. It really is about the company you keep, and Zola is hanging out with a trouble-making dancer (Riley Keough), her hapless boyfriend (Nicholas Braun), and her enigmatic “manager” (Colman Domingo), and the twists are unpredictable, off-putting, and darkly hilarious in Janicza Bravo’s comedy.
Also available: Altered Innocence, one of the best-curated boutique labels around, delivers festival fave “A Dim Valley,” which asks the question, “What if a film about a cabin in the woods was a comedic meditation on love and not a horror movie?...
- 9/14/2021
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
These days, it seems like new content is being pushed out so frequently that it can be almost impossible to decide what’s worth watching. The good news is that there’s a new documentary in town that might be exactly what you’re looking for. Released in August of 2021, Whirlybird is a unique story about two Los Angeles-based journalists whose work during the 1980s and 1990s really changed the game. The documentary is a prime example of how the truth really can be stranger than fiction. Even if documentaries aren’t typically your thing, this is one project you’ll likely still enjoy.
Why You Should Check Out The Documentary “Whirlybird”...
Why You Should Check Out The Documentary “Whirlybird”...
- 8/21/2021
- by Camille Moore
- TVovermind.com
Helicopter coverage is a staple of today’s local news, but back in the ’80s and ’90s, Marika Gerrard and her then-husband Zoey (formerly Bob) Tur pioneered the newsgathering technique.
The documentary “Whirlybird,” out in theaters and on demand Friday, chronicles the family business they created together: the Los Angeles News Service.
For nearly two decades, Gerrard shot thousands of videos, ranging from raging wildfires to enraged celebrities — including Madonna and Sean Penn on their wedding day. But two of her videos — the dragging and beating of truck driver Reginald Denny after the 1992 Rodney King verdict, and the 1994 O.J. Simpson freeway chase — forever changed America … and her.
TheWrap’s Lawrence Yee caught with Gerrard and Matt Yoka, the director of “Whirlybird,” to talk about the impact of these two events on Gerrard. “Whirlybird” largely centers on how the Denny footage negatively affected Tur, who was battling gender dysphoria-driven depression...
The documentary “Whirlybird,” out in theaters and on demand Friday, chronicles the family business they created together: the Los Angeles News Service.
For nearly two decades, Gerrard shot thousands of videos, ranging from raging wildfires to enraged celebrities — including Madonna and Sean Penn on their wedding day. But two of her videos — the dragging and beating of truck driver Reginald Denny after the 1992 Rodney King verdict, and the 1994 O.J. Simpson freeway chase — forever changed America … and her.
TheWrap’s Lawrence Yee caught with Gerrard and Matt Yoka, the director of “Whirlybird,” to talk about the impact of these two events on Gerrard. “Whirlybird” largely centers on how the Denny footage negatively affected Tur, who was battling gender dysphoria-driven depression...
- 8/6/2021
- by Lawrence Yee
- The Wrap
By Glenn Dunks
There is a shot about 30 minutes in Matt Yoka’s Whirlybird that made me gasp. Not necessarily because of how shocking or surprising it is, but because of the decision-making process that must have occurred to choose to include it. It took what was up until that point a nice trip through Los Angeles news history and made me view the rest of this documentary through different eyes. The shot in question is live news footage taken from a helicopter over L.A. with a network chyron that reads "Rock Hudson Battles AIDS” while footage shows the actor being transported to hospital surrounded by medical staff.
It is hardly surprising that anybody would film this. What is surprising is that Yoka’s film doesn’t seem all that fussed about addressing it. In fact, at one point news camera hounding of Madonna and Sean Penn is used...
There is a shot about 30 minutes in Matt Yoka’s Whirlybird that made me gasp. Not necessarily because of how shocking or surprising it is, but because of the decision-making process that must have occurred to choose to include it. It took what was up until that point a nice trip through Los Angeles news history and made me view the rest of this documentary through different eyes. The shot in question is live news footage taken from a helicopter over L.A. with a network chyron that reads "Rock Hudson Battles AIDS” while footage shows the actor being transported to hospital surrounded by medical staff.
It is hardly surprising that anybody would film this. What is surprising is that Yoka’s film doesn’t seem all that fussed about addressing it. In fact, at one point news camera hounding of Madonna and Sean Penn is used...
- 8/6/2021
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
This review of “Whirlybird” was first published on January 26, 2020, after the film’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
There are quite a few stories swirling around “Whirlybird,” Matt Yoka’s promising debut documentary. Since most of them are memorable, the rough edges don’t matter much.
The central focus of “Whirlybird” is the relationship between two journalists — Bob Tur and Marika Gerrard — who fell in love while chasing news as stringers in 1980s LA. As Yoka takes us back to those long-ago days via interviews and old footage, we see immediately that Bob has always been the one with the burning drive. Marika, as gentle and easygoing as her new boyfriend is competitive, really just wants to hang out with him. You can hardly blame her: even as a student Bob has the energy of five people. He’s focused and passionate and lives on the edge, eager to...
There are quite a few stories swirling around “Whirlybird,” Matt Yoka’s promising debut documentary. Since most of them are memorable, the rough edges don’t matter much.
The central focus of “Whirlybird” is the relationship between two journalists — Bob Tur and Marika Gerrard — who fell in love while chasing news as stringers in 1980s LA. As Yoka takes us back to those long-ago days via interviews and old footage, we see immediately that Bob has always been the one with the burning drive. Marika, as gentle and easygoing as her new boyfriend is competitive, really just wants to hang out with him. You can hardly blame her: even as a student Bob has the energy of five people. He’s focused and passionate and lives on the edge, eager to...
- 8/5/2021
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
Maybe it's my life-long fascination with helicopters, or that Los Angeles is my hometown, or maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic for my younger years, but I find the trailer Whirlybird to be insanely, irrationally appealing. Heading for release in select U.S. theaters and various Video On Demand platforms this Friday, August 6, director Matt Yoka's Whirlybird looks back at the 1980s and the 1990s, when news coverage from the air first took off. (?!) As it happens, John Badham's Blue Thunder hit theaters in 1983, which followed a "sinister" and "experimental" police helicopter that flew over Los Angeles. What timing! The following year, I flew in a helicopter for the first time, a short hop from my home in the San Fernando Valley to Los...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 8/3/2021
- Screen Anarchy
O. J.Marika Gerrard, Zoey Tur, Katy Tur, Jamie Tur, Lawrence Welk III. Simpson’s Bronco chase. Madonna flipping off paparazzi on her wedding day to Sean Penn. Michael Jackson’s sequined glove wanly waving as the pop star was wheeled to a burn unit. Whenever a big breaking news story overtook the Los Angeles TV airwaves in the ’80s and ’90s, viewers expected to hear a sign-off from married helicopter reporters Bob Tur and Marika Gerrard who spent the best — and worst — years of their relationship high in the sky. Tur was a literal news junkie, an adrenaline addict who’d emotionally crash at the end of each pursuit. “There was never a movie date with Bob,” Gerrard reflects. “It was a car crash or an air crash or a fire tape.”
“Whirlybird,” by director Matt Yoka, is the compelling story of the thrill-seeking couple’s rise and descent...
“Whirlybird,” by director Matt Yoka, is the compelling story of the thrill-seeking couple’s rise and descent...
- 8/3/2021
- by Amy Nicholson
- Variety Film + TV
"I loved the thrill of the chase." Greenwich Entertainment is soon releasing this fascinating documentary film titled Whirlybird, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Matt Yoka. Set in 80s and 90s Los Angeles, a couple revolutionized breaking news with their brazen helicopter reporting. Culled from the duo's video archive is an L.A. story of a family in turbulence hovering over a city unhinged. However, it's not just a film about a helicopter news crew, it's about so much more. It covers topics including the grittiness and reality of Los Angeles, the good and bad sides of it. How the media evolved into focusing on death and hate because it brought them more attention and money. And finally, one of the pilots transitioned later in life to a woman, which is also part of the story as well. They covered some of the city’s most dramatic events and changed breaking news forever.
- 7/13/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
It is extremely rare for a man to take an honest accounting of their own toxic masculinity, especially those who have actively participated in harassment and abuse. Fortunately for the makers of “Whirlybird,” a gripping documentary about an unconventional family business that captured some of the first helicopter news footage, Zoey Tur is not a man.
Tur came out publicly as transgender in 2013, making her a far more sympathetic and candid interviewee than her aggressively ambitious shadow self, Bob Tur, might have been. That’s a crucial piece of this fascinating historical snapshot, because the archival news footage with which filmmaker Matt Yoka weaves his yarn includes dozens of instances of Tur’s verbal and sometimes physical abuse towards her camera operator and former partner, Marika Gerrard. It’s uncomfortable to witness, but in Tur’s emotional final interview, she most certainly does not let herself off the hook. Her...
Tur came out publicly as transgender in 2013, making her a far more sympathetic and candid interviewee than her aggressively ambitious shadow self, Bob Tur, might have been. That’s a crucial piece of this fascinating historical snapshot, because the archival news footage with which filmmaker Matt Yoka weaves his yarn includes dozens of instances of Tur’s verbal and sometimes physical abuse towards her camera operator and former partner, Marika Gerrard. It’s uncomfortable to witness, but in Tur’s emotional final interview, she most certainly does not let herself off the hook. Her...
- 1/29/2020
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
“Oh! Oh! Oh!” a voice keeps screaming. There’s a man flowing from a side channel into a main canal during a flood, and he breaks past a wall of white rapids. Now he’s floating away as a rescuer catches up to him, and during this matter of life or death, the narration continues: “30 feet! 20 feet! 10 feet! Five feet!” The rescuer grabs him by the torso, and the static rises: “And he’s got him!”
The voice belongs to a person who at the time identified as Bob Tur, founder of Los Angeles News Service. He was as ambitious as he was reviled; a real-life caricature of a newscaster on the field and a family man at home. Well, he tried to be both. He met his wife, Marika Gerrard, in the late ‘70s while she worked at a movie theater in Westwood. He asked her on a date...
The voice belongs to a person who at the time identified as Bob Tur, founder of Los Angeles News Service. He was as ambitious as he was reviled; a real-life caricature of a newscaster on the field and a family man at home. Well, he tried to be both. He met his wife, Marika Gerrard, in the late ‘70s while she worked at a movie theater in Westwood. He asked her on a date...
- 1/28/2020
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
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