This year’s Spotlight on Documentary section of the 57th New York Film Festival (September 27–October 13) features incisive portraits of iconic figures, intimate reports from inside the American prison system, New York stories both personal and political, and much more.
The award-winning documentary DON’T BE NICE directed by Max Powers chronicles the upstart Bowery Slam Poetry Team, made up of five African-American, Afro-Hispanic and queer poets in their 20s, preparing for the national championships.
Film at Lincoln Center announced its holiday series, a career-spanning retrospective of Agnès Varda, the most comprehensive survey to date of the late filmmaker’s vast canon, opening December 20 and presented in partnership with Janus Films.
With support from Sundance Institute’s Creative Distribution Fellowship, Tell It Media, Multitude Films and Fourth Act will distribute Jacqueline Olive’s award winning documentary Always in Season, winner of a Special Jury Prize for Moral Urgency at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The documentary film will open in New York City on Friday, September 20th at The Metrograph, followed by runs in Los Angeles and select American Multi-Cinema Inc (AMC) theaters across the country. The broadcast premiere will air and stream on Independent Lens on PBS Winter 2020.
SCANDALOUS, a new documentary directed by Mark Landsman (THUNDER SOUL, LOS JETS) that leads viewers on a wild ride through the larger-than-life pages of the National Enquirer, highlighting the publication’s impact on journalism, business, culture and politics has been acquired by Magnolia Picture for release in US. Magnolia is planning a November 15 theatrical release. CNN Films will have North American broadcast rights, while AGC International will oversee international distribution rights.
Lifetime greenlights two Beyond the Headlines companion documentaries, with award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author Gretchen Carlson, to join the network’s upcoming Ripped from the Headlines slate. Following the movie premieres of Escaping the NXIVM Cult: A Mother’s Fight to Save Her Daughter and The College Admissions Scandal, the new one-hour documentaries produced by A+E Originals, will offer provocative insights and an in-depth look at the people and stories behind the news which captivated the nation. This marks Carlson’s second collaboration with Lifetime, as she executive produced and reported on workplace sexual harassment in the documentary Gretchen Carlson: Breaking the Silence.
The documentary I’m Leaving Now (Ya me voy), a searing and intimate portrait of one undocumented worker on the margins, directed by Lindsey Cordero and Armando Croda, will open on Friday, September 6 at the Maysles Cinema in New York, followed by other cities.
Laura Fairrie is directing LADY BOSS: THE JACKIE COLLINS STORY, the “truth-is-stranger-than-fiction” documentary about best-selling author, rebel, actress, millionaire Hollywood chronicler, mother, sister, survivor, and unlikely feminist, Jackie Collins.
The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled its lineup of 25 documentary films covering high-profile figures including Truman Capote, Merce Cunningham, Ron Howard, Bikram Choudhury, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Imelda Marcos; as well as a broad range of themes, including journalism, immigration, global politics, environmentalism, capitalism, and racism.
Emmy winning director Lauren Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles), latest film The Kingmaker, will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this August. The documentary centers on the indomitable character and controversial political career of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines whose behind-the-scenes influence of her husband Ferdinand’s presidency rocketed her to the global political stage.
GIFT is a tribute to something that can’t be measured or counted, bought or sold. Exploring the parallels between artists’ work and a gift economy, it’s a reflection on the creative process, the reasons we “labour in service of our gifts.”
