AFI DOCS 2020 concluded its five-day online festival with the Audience Award for Best Feature going to TRANSHOOD, directed by Sharon Liese and the Audience Award for Best Short going to BLACKFEET BOXING: NOT INVISIBLE, directed by Kristen Lappas and Tom Rinaldi.
OYA Media Group’s Mr. Jane and Finch documentary, which was directed, co-produced and co-written by Ngardy Conteh George and co-produced and co-written by Alison Duke, won two 2020 Canadian Screen Awards: the ‘Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary and Best Writing in a Documentary. The Canadian Screen Awards are a celebration of Canadian visual storytelling and the people who bring these stories to life. The CSAs recognize and champion the authentic voices and universal themes that resonate in Canada and beyond.
Queer Cantopop icon and Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Denise Ho is the subject of the new documentary Denise Ho – Becoming the Song directed by Sue Williams. The documentary will world premiere on June 26 at Frameline Film Festival and open July 1 in multiple virtual cinemas.
Kandoo Films, the Los Angeles based full-service production and distribution company that focuses on emerging new artists will release two new indie films for first-time film directors – Michael Leoni (American Street Kid) and Drew Hale (Cut and Chop), as part of his Emerging Artist program.
And She Could Be Next, a two-part documentary series, chronicles the story of a defiant movement of Latinx women, including Los Angeles-based Maria Elena Durazo and El Paso-based Veronica Escobar, along with other women of color who are transforming American politics from the ground up.
The life and legacy of the late Tony® Award-Winning playwright and LGBTQ activist Terrence McNally who passed away from COVID-19 complications on March 24, 2020, will be celebrated through the award-winning American Masters documentary Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life, streaming on pbs.org/americanmasters from June 15 – August 31, 2020. In addition, special virtual online discussions and talkbacks with some of Broadway’s brightest stars will take place beginning June 17 as they remember and honor the legendary McNally.
CNN Films has acquired North American broadcast rights to the documentary film Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President. The documentary was created by the award-winning director Mary Wharton, producer Chris Farrell, and writer Bill Flanagan. Originally set to open the 19th annual Tribeca Film Festival in April, the feature will now be the closing film for AFI DOCS film festival on June 21st.
The Peabody Awards recognized 30 programs including documentary films Apollo 11, For Sama, Hale County, This Morning This Evening and The Edge of Democracy as the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and digital media during 2019. Actress Cicely Tyson was named winner of the Peabody Career Achievement Award.
Jack & Yaya, the acclaimed documentary from filmmakers Jennifer Bagley and Mary Hewey, will be available On Demand June 19th from Freedom Cinema LLC.
Ahead of the world premiere as part of Sheffield Doc/Fest’s Digital Edition in the Ghosts and Apparitions selection, the documentary Me and the Cult Leader debuted the new trailer. In the film, director Atsushi Sakahara chronicles his intimate journey of confronting the doomsday cult behind the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo metro system on March 20th, 1995.
From veteran award-winning filmmakers Albert Nerenberg (You Are What You Act, Laughology) and Nik Sheehan (FLicKeR, No Sad Songs), Who Farted? takes audiences on a rollicking ride into understanding human emissions of all kinds – and also provides some possible answers to the climate crisis.
Emmy-winning documentarian Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders, The Murder of Emmett Till) will direct a new documentary titled Attica, that details the five-day prison rebellion that transpired in the fall of 1971 in upstate New York and still stands as the largest and deadliest the country has ever witnessed. The film is set to premiere on Showtime in 2021, the 50th anniversary of the uprising.