Directors Guild of America today announced the five documentary films nominated for 71st Annual DGA Awards. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on Saturday, February 2, 2019 at the Hollywood and Highland Center’s Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood, California.
To mark the 20th anniversary of President Clinton’s impeachment, ABC will air “Truth and Lies: Monica,” a two-hour documentary on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, on Thursday, January 10, 2019. The Special includes new interviews with Kenneth Starr and Lucianne Goldberg, and the calls that Monica’s confidante, Linda Tripp, secretly recorded.
David Feige’s powerful and hard-hitting film UNTOUCHABLE, winner of the Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, will be released on January 15, 2019. New footage has been added to the already powerful film which frames important questions that are even more relevant in our current #MeToo era.
As he has done each year since 2015, former President Barack Obama released his favorite movies, songs, and books of the year on Facebook and Instagram. Obama’s taste in movies ranges from the popular Black Panther to some very impressive indie films including Eighth Grade, If Beale Street Could Talk, documentary films – Minding the Gap, Won’t You Be My Neighbor; and foreign films – Roma, Shoplifters.
Netflix released the trailer for the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced documentary “Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski,” which looks at the life and career of Polish painter and sculptor Stanislav Szukalski. The documentary film launches Friday, December 21 on the Netflix.
“Fyre”, Chris Smith’s highly anticipated documentary film is an exclusive behind the scenes look at the infamous unraveling of the Fyre music festival. The documentary will be released globally on Netflix on January 18, 2019.
One of the most celebrated theatrical releases of 2018, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? takes an intimate look at America’s favorite neighbor: Fred Rogers. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, the acclaimed documentary from Morgan Neville (the Oscar(R)-winning “20 Feet from Stardom”), will debut Saturday, February, 2019 9 (8:00-9:35 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO. In addition, HBO will honor Fred Rogers’ contribution and commitment to public television with a special presentation of the film on PBS’ “Independent Lens,” coinciding with the HBO debut.
Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. Bleed Out is a new documentary premiering on HBO that uses one family’s story to underscore deep flaws in America’s current healthcare system and highlights ways those problems could be fixed.
Amazing Grace, the long-awaited Aretha Franklin film which made its World Premiere at DOC NYC will get an early 2019 theatrical release by NEON, following its Oscar qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles. The film has reportedly been garnering standing ovations during its New York qualifying run.
American Dream/American Knightmare[/caption]
The new documentary film American Dream/American Knightmare, directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Southpaw), which offers an uncensored look into the life of notorious rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight, will world premiere on Friday, December 21 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on-air, on Showtime.
In American Dream/American Knightmare, critically-acclaimed director and producer Fuqua delves deep into the life and storied exploits of the iconic Death Row Records co-founder, Suge Knight, as well as the volatile and highly influential era in music that he presided over. Through a series of interviews with Knight, viewers are guided through his world as he personally reveals exactly how it all happened and why it all fell apart. Once described as the “most feared man in hip-hop,” Knight is currently in jail, sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter in a 2015 hit-and-run death.
“In this documentary – which took years of research, production and labor to complete – Suge Knight discusses for the first time his complex life in detail,” said Fuqua. “The audience will learn how he built and lost Death Row Records, and his views about the rap music scene. Suge also gives a first-person account and new details about the Las Vegas shooting that took the life of Tupac Shakur and also seriously injured him. This documentary will give viewers more access to Suge’s story than ever before. This is a cautionary tale of one man’s choices and the consequences of his decisions.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ran8XRQ9T6Y
From space, at night, Nigeria is awash in light. But the glow almost entirely flares from oil and gas wells. The country, with the world’s largest proven oil reserves, leaves half its population without electricity, and the rest with erratic service.
Take Light, the feature directorial debut from Shasha Nakhai, takes us to her hometown in the country where she grew up, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, the ironically-nicknamed “Garden City” where the skies have turned grey. There, she follows the lives of workers for PHED, the previously state-owned Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) which was privatized in 2013. If any public servants anywhere feel unappreciated, they should compare their lot with the likes of Martins, an unflaggingly upbeat and religious family-man and electrical engineer, or Deborah, a sales-representative-turned-debt-collector.
Both face anger and even mob violence on a daily basis as they cut off service to delinquent customers (most of whom have little ability to pay, in a country with 7.5 million jobless). Martins, who has miraculously survived electrocution in the past, climbs poles to cut off dangerous makeshift wiring that is used to steal power. (We also meet Godwin, an “illegal electrician,” who invariably reconnects the “People’s Power” the following night).
The powerlessness closes businesses and forces people to use generators when they can (often bringing them indoors where they often succumb to fires and carbon monoxide poisoning). Even hospitals fall prey, unable to maintain refrigeration in their morgue, forcing them to “dry embalm” corpses.
“Shasha has crafted a film with global implications while maintaining focus on the intimate humanity of the people on screen,” says Tony Piantedosi, Director of Acquisitions at Gravitas. “We are proud to be presenting this powerful documentary to US audiences.”
“This is the film I’ve always wanted to see made about the power situation in Nigeria,” says Director Nakhai, “and I’m excited to finally be able to share it widely with audiences in my hometown of Port Harcourt, Nigeria and around the world.”
“Port Harcourt is the source of my fondest childhood memories,” says Nakhai, who produced the Oscar short-listed Frame 394. “Today, however, the city is much different than what I remember. Perfectly manicured green hedges have turned to black dust—the fallout zone of a fossil-fuel economy.
“Take Light is a film about Nigeria’s energy crisis, with my hometown as the backdrop. It’s about a crisis of electrical energy, but also about other kinds of power struggles – the tensions between people, between past and present, between governments and colonial powers—and about the transformation of it all into a seething, powerful force.
“I want to show the urgency and challenges of transitioning to greener and more egalitarian economies.
“But, this is also a film about the power of hope. With people like Martins, it is about keeping the candle lit in times of darkness and despair, about fighting to remain a good person when corruption is the status-quo, and harnessing the power of humour and religion to make it through each day.”
Take Light can be found on VOD: Comcast, Cox, dish Network, Verizon, Frontier, suddenlink, Mediacom, WOW! Also on iVOD: iTunes, Google play, YouTube, vudu, primevideo, Microsoft, vimeo, redbox.
And Home Video: amazon, Barnes&Noble, Target, Walmart, Baker & Taylor, Alliance, Midwest Tape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eu1ToXEvtA