Documentary

  • THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED, Assia Boundaoui’s Personal Story of FBI Surveillance, to World Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival

    The Feeling of Being Watched A personal journey that unfolds like a thriller, The Feeling of Being Watched charts journalist Assia Boundaoui’s investigation into a secret FBI counterterrorism probe of her Arab-American neighborhood outside of Chicago – code-named “Operation Vulgar Betrayal”- and its enduring impact on her family and community.  The Feeling of Being Watched will World Premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, running April 18 to 29, 2018. In the village of Bridgeview, Illinois, where director Assia Boundaoui grew up, most of her Muslim-American neighbors think they have been under surveillance for over a decade. While investigating their experiences, Assia uncovers hundreds of pages of declassified FBI documents that prove her hometown was the subject of one of the largest counterterrorism investigations ever conducted in the U.S. before 9/11. [caption id="attachment_23721" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]The Feeling of Being Watched The Feeling of Being Watched[/caption] With unprecedented access, The Feeling of Being Watched weaves the personal and the political as it follows the filmmaker’s examination of why her community—including her own family—fell under blanket government surveillance. Assia struggles to disrupt the government secrecy shrouding what happened and takes the FBI to federal court to compel them to make the records they collected about her community public. In the process, she confronts long-hidden truths about the FBI’s relationship to her community. The Feeling of Being Watched follows Assia as she pieces together this secret FBI operation, while grappling with the effects of a lifetime of surveillance on herself and her family. The Feeling of Being Watched was written and directed by Assia Boundaoui and produced by Boundaoui and Jessica Devaney. Director of photography was Shuling Yong and the film was edited by Rabab Haj Yahya with illustrations by Molly Crabapple and original music by Angélica Negrón. Executive producers are Jim Butterworth, Daniel J. Chalfen, Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Debra Mcleod, Jay K. Sears, Bill Harnisch, Ruth Ann Harnisch, Alexa Poletto, Michael D. Mann, Barry W. Rashkover, and Vijay Dewan. Assia Boundaoui is an Algerian-American journalist who has reported for the BBC, NPR, Al Jazeera, VICE, and CNN. Her debut short, a film about hijabi hair salons for the HBO Lenny documentary series, premiered at Sundance in 2018, and she has worked in an editorial capacity on the production of a number of documentaries, including HBO’s Emmy Award-winning Manhunt (2013). Assia has a Master’s degree in journalism from New York University and is fluent in Arabic. The Feeling of Being Watched is her feature debut.

    Tribeca Film Festival Screenings

    Saturday, April 21, 6:45 pm Cinepolis Chelsea 2, 260 W. 23rd St. (at 8th Ave.) Sunday, April 22, 7:30 pm Cinepolis Chelsea 3, 260 W. 23rd St. (at 8th Ave.) *A special extended Q&A panel discussion will follow the screening Wednesday, April 25, 5:45 pm Regal Battery Park 3, 102 North End Ave. (at Murray St.) Thursday, April 26, 5:00 pm Cinepolis Chelsea 6, 260 W. 23rd St. (at 8th Ave.)

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  • BEING SERENA, Intimate Documentary Series on Tennis Superstar Serena Williams, Debuts May 2 on HBO | trailer

    Serena Williams HBO Sports is teaming up agin with IMG’s Original Content group for a five-part documentary series chronicling tennis icon Serena Williams at a pivotal moment in her personal and professional life. Being Serena debuts Wednesday, May 2 (10:00-10:30 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO, followed by other new episodes subsequent Wednesdays at the same time. Being Serena will give viewers unprecedented access to Williams during her pregnancy, new motherhood and marriage, while documenting her journey back to supremacy on the court. Viewers will experience her life from every angle as the intimate first-person show delves into her landmark career, family life and expanding role as a businesswoman and investor in the worlds of tech, fashion, fitness and philanthropy. “HBO is honored to work with Serena Williams on such a personal project,” says Peter Nelson, executive vice president, HBO Sports. “Even though she has been in the spotlight since her teenage years, Serena continues to capture the imagination. With our partners at IMG, we look forward to giving viewers a revealing, behind-the-scenes portrait of her life on and off the court.” “Serena Williams is a force unlike any other,” says Mark Shapiro, co-president of WME and IMG. “Her entire life is one of the hero’s journey, and it has been a privilege to work with her as she enters this next phase. HBO was an incredible partner in developing a unique look into Serena’s world, and we look forward to sharing this all-access story with the world in May.” Serena Williams, 36, is one of the most dominant forces tennis has ever seen, with 39 Grand Slam titles, four Olympic Gold Medals and the most women’s singles match victories in Grand Slam history. Her supremacy on the court earned her Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year honors in 2015 and made her a four-time winner of the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, first in 2002 and most recently in 2015. In Jan. 2017, Williams bested her sister Venus in the final match of the Australian Open, marking her seventh time winning that singles event. Four months after her historic victory, Williams revealed that she and her fiancé, Alexis Ohanian, were expecting their first child, confirming that she was eight weeks pregnant when she won her 23rd Grand Slam singles title. On Sept. 1, Williams gave birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. Williams and Ohanian wed soon after in a stunning ceremony before family and friends in New Orleans on Nov. 16. Williams will return to the tennis circuit this spring to compete in her first Grand Slam event of the year at the French Open in late May. For more than a decade, HBO Sports has been responsible for some of the most compelling unscripted sports programming, with a stylish and contemporary approach marked by unrestricted access. “Hard Knocks,” launched in 2001 in partnership with NFL Films, has won 15 Sports Emmy(R) Awards, and the groundbreaking all-access reality franchise “24/7” has earned 18 Sports Emmy(R) Awards. Being Serena marks the third collaborative docu-series for HBO Sports and IMG. The first was 2016’s “Gonzaga: The March to Madness,” chronicling the Gonzaga men’s basketball team’s march to its 18th consecutive NCAA men’s basketball tournament berth, followed by 2017’s Primetime Emmy(R) nominee “UConn: The March to Madness,” spotlighting the powerhouse University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team as it sought a fifth consecutive national championship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udW7HcmDMJY  

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  • Documentary I AM EVIDENCE on Shocking Number of Untested Rape Kits in America, Sets HBO Premiere Date | Trailer

    [caption id="attachment_27791" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]I Am Evidence I Am Evidence[/caption] Produced by Mariska Hargitay, star of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and directed by Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir, I Am Evidence exposes the alarming trend of unsolved rape cases. The eye-opening documentary debuts Monday, April 16 (8:00-9:30 p.m. ET/PT), on HBO. Despite the power of DNA to solve crimes, hundreds of thousands of rape kits, containing crucial DNA evidence, are currently languishing untested in police-evidence storage rooms across the country. Behind each one of these kits is a sexual-assault survivor waiting for justice to be served, and a perpetrator potentially evading prosecution. I Am Evidence exposes the alarming trend of unsolved rape cases, revealing how a flawed system has historically mistreated sexual assault survivors and showing how victims, advocates and some forward-thinking law enforcement officials are challenging the status quo. Spotlighting four resilient women in the Detroit, Cleveland and Los Angeles areas as they trace the fates of their kits and re-engage in the criminal justice process, this powerful film also follows survivors, advocates, prosecutors and police officials who are leading the charge to work through the backlog and hold perpetrators accountable. Putting a human face on this deplorable injustice and neglected issue, I Am Evidence is a timely call to action, asserting that survivors matter. In 2009, Wayne County, Mich. Prosecutor Kym Worthy was shocked to uncover over 11,000 untested rape kits in a run-down police annex warehouse. Though the backlog was partially due to a lack of finances, reports showed that officers often didn’t believe the overwhelmingly black and poor victims. “They were violated in the most intimate of ways and nobody gave a damn,” laments Worthy. Mariska Hargitay, a longtime advocate for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, offered her support to Worthy in her efforts to end the rape kit backlog in Detroit and the state of Michigan and bring justice to survivors. Hargitay’s role as Lieutenant Olivia Benson on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” had opened her eyes to these issues and inspired her to found the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004. “I Am Evidence, literally. My name is on a box, on a shelf that’s never been tested,” says Ericka, one of thousands of women across the U.S. whose rape kits, containing DNA evidence that could identify their attackers, have never been opened. Ericka reported that she was raped on her 21st birthday, and after going through the arduous process of getting a rape kit done at a local hospital, she remembers going with her father to speak to a detective. The detective told Ericka and her father that nothing would happen with her kit, offering to show them thousands of untested kits waiting to be processed before hers. Cleveland began the long and daunting process of working up cases on its backlogged kits in 2013. As Tim McGinty, former Cuyahoga County prosecutor in Cleveland says, “These rape kits are the best bargain in the history of law enforcement. Four hundred dollars a rape kit, and one in four results in an indictment. One in four of the four is a serial rapist. I’ve never seen an opportunity like this in law enforcement.” Out of more than 5,000 tested, there have already been 1,935 DNA matches in CODIS, the national criminal database, but the challenge lies in prioritizing cases by urgency. Investigator Nicole DiSanto’s latest assignment is tracking an alleged three-time offender. (Serial rapists have made up one-third of the cases from the city’s backlogged kits.) DiSanto visits Danielle, a 1997 victim, who is easily able to identify her attacker in a photo lineup. DiSanto eventually finds the man in North Carolina, and news of his arrest gives Danielle closure. I Am Evidence reveals that he was convicted of her rape and kidnapping more than 20 years after the crime. In Los Angeles, 12,000 untested kits were unearthed (and even more destroyed, due to the LAPD’s misjudgment of the statute of limitations). Among the kits opened was Helena’s, who was abducted at a car wash and raped at age 17 in 1996. Helena spent years trying to learn what happened to her rape kit, and eventually discovered, with the help of an ex-DA, that the DNA matched Charles Courtney, a long-distance truck driver who targeted women along his route. One of his other victims, Amberly, was abducted and raped in 1998 in Fairfield, Ohio. In 2001, funding allowed police to test Amberly’s kit, which also identified Courtney, who was already in CODIS for a sex offense against his wife. He took a plea deal for 30 years in prison. Despite information provided by Fairfield police, however, Helena’s case fell through the cracks in LA and the statute of limitations expired. She was only able to obtain justice after the DA used a loophole to charge Courtney for money he’d taken from her. Police are often woefully underprepared to deal with sexual assault victims, but even when perpetrators are arrested, many prosecutors don’t aggressively pursue these cases, which Worthy admits are some of the hardest to prosecute due to “victim blaming.” Now a mother of adopted daughters, Worthy was assaulted herself when she was in law school and wants the system to be better for her children. So far, the results of Detroit’s testing have been far-reaching, linking to CODIS hits in 39 states and garnering nationwide attention. Still, it’s estimated that hundreds of thousands of untested kits remain nationally. Ericka assumed her case would never be addressed? – ?until she met Worthy. Now Ericka says she feels “very free,” and urges women in her position to “press forward because I feel strong, stronger than I’ve ever known I could feel.” I Am Evidence had its world premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and has since screened at AFI Docs Film Festival, the Hamptons International Film Festival and many other festivals. It won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Film at both the Provincetown and Traverse City festivals. Producer Mariska Hargitay, who appears in the film, won an Emmy(R) and Golden Globe for “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”; she also serves as an executive producer on the show and has directed episodes. After receiving numerous letters from survivors, she founded the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004. Its mission is to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse and its initiative, End the Backlog, aims to eliminate the backlog of hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits in the U.S. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_b1SbbSu6Y

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  • Watch First trailer for Mr. Rogers Documentary WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?

    Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Earlier this week, on the 90th birthday of Fred Rogers, Focus Features released the new trailer for “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom). “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” had its world premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and will open in theaters on June 8, 2018. A feature documentary about the lessons, ethics and legacy of iconic children’s television host, Fred Rogers. WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? looks at children’s television host Mr. Rogers’ hard-fought campaign to influence generations of kids and adults in the ways of kindness. Fred Rogers led a singular life. He was a puppeteer. A minister. A musician. An educator. A father, a husband, and a neighbor. Fred Rogers spent 50 years on children’s television beseeching us to love and to allow ourselves to be loved. With television as his pulpit, he helped transform the very concept of childhood. He used puppets and play to explore the most complicated issues of the day—race, disability, equality and tragedy. He spoke directly to children and they responded by forging a lifelong bond with him—by the millions. And yet today his impact is unclear. WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? explores the question of whether or not we have lived up to Fred’s ideal. Are we all good neighbors? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhwktRDG_aQ

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  • Air Jordan 1 Shoe Documentary ‘Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1’ to Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival | Trailer

    [caption id="attachment_27765" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]UNBANNED: THE LEGEND OF AJ1 UNBANNED: THE LEGEND OF AJ1[/caption] Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1, the documentary that tells the origin story of the Air Jordan 1 shoe, will premiere as a Special Screening at the 17th annual Tribeca Film Festival.  Directed and written by Dexton Deboree, the film follows the iconic shoe from its unlikely beginnings to its role in disrupting long-established rules of the NBA, changing the game of basketball, birthing sneaker culture and influencing a social and cultural revolution. “We are honored to premiere our film at the Tribeca Film Festival for so many reasons. Los York, many of our film’s cast members and much of the story itself, are rooted in the culture of NYC and we are proud to introduce the true story of AJ1 to one of our hometowns,” Deboree exclaims. “The film captures the raw, rebellious, eclectic and diverse spirit of culture in and around basketball and beyond, something our film has very much in common with New York City. Nothing is more fitting than to premiere with Tribeca at the historic Beacon Theatre especially, this year where the lineup celebrates American diversity,” he adds. The first feature documentary from Los York Entertainment, Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1 is the true story about the shoe that changed the world. Through interviews with Spike Lee, Chuck D, Anthony Anderson, Michael B. Jordan, Lena Waithe, Kenya Barris, DJ Khaled, Aleali May and many more including Michael Jordan himself, this film explores the power of the AJ1 across social and political spectrums and how it has broken barriers between female and male fashion, self-expression, identity, empowerment and more. Tribeca Film Festival has been the launching pad for many groundbreaking films including Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story, Nas: Time is Illmatic and most recently, Kobe Bryant’s Oscar®-Winning Animated Short Dear Basketball from acclaimed director Glen Keane. “At Tribeca we are always looking for documentaries that shift our perspectives to tell us stories in new and exciting ways,” said Cara Cusumano, Director of Programming, Tribeca Film Festival. “The enduring cultural impact of the AJ1 is an entertaining, thrilling, surprising ride, and one that we can’t wait to share with audiences at the Beacon on April 27th.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p79nXVeyj4s

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  • Edward Norton Produced ONE OCTOBER, Chronicling Clay Pigeon’s NY Street Interviews Sets Release Date | Trailer

    One October Nicole One October, the documentary chronicling radio host Clay Pigeon as he talks to a diverse cross-section of people throughout New York city, exploring a microcosm of themes and issues including race, religion, economics, politics and culture, will be released nationally starting Friday, May 11. Filmed entirely in October of 2008, a time when gentrification is rapidly displacing the working and middle classes, Wall Street is plummeting, and then-Senator Barack Obama is making his first presidential bid, One October is a lyrical time capsule that captures the heart and spirit of New York. When seen from our current vantage point, the film foreshadows the roiling political upheaval spreading across the country today in 2018. Directed by Rachel Shuman and executive produced by three-time Academy Award® nominee Edward Norton (“Primal Fear,” “American History X” and “Birdman”), this captivating feature documentary, which had its World Premiere at the 2017 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, chronicles intrepid radio host Clay Pigeon as he talks to a beautifully diverse cross-section of people throughout the city, exploring a microcosm of themes and issues including race, religion, economics, politics and culture. With today’s news filled with ratings-hungry, sensationalist headlines and political pundits yelling over one another, Pigeon is quite the antithesis with his man-on-the-street style interviews, offering an authentic, warm-hearted and more humanitarian approach to journalism. Maysles Cinema in Harlem, NYC, where several of the scenes in the documentary were filmed, will host a week-long theatrical release of One October, screening along with the short documentary THE MONOLITH, directed by Angelo J. Guglielmo, Jr., about pioneering NYC artist Gwyneth Leech, starting Friday, May 11. One October will also be released nationally on VOD on May 11 via Passion River Films on iTunes, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Microsoft XBOX and other digital platforms. The film will also screen nationwide in select cities. One October Mark One October begins with Pigeon, a radio host from WFMU in Jersey City, NJ, who takes to the streets of New York City to talk to everyday citizens about their lives, their dreams and their relationships in the face of uncertain change in a transforming city. As part of what he calls a “radio experiment,” this transplanted Iowan roams the streets bearing a handheld recorder and a kindly probing nature: “Has he popped the question?” “When is the last time you’ve had a regular roof over your head?” “Do you love America?” These revealing interviews are woven between vivid scenes of New York’s eccentric byways, which together reveal a city—and a nation—at a crossroads. During his neighborhood rambles, Pigeon meets people like Kristin, an optimistic young woman who has just arrived from the Midwest; Mark, a union construction worker still dusty from his workday and deeply in debt; Nicole, a transgender woman looking for an accepting community; and Stacie, a single mother in Harlem worried about gentrification. Pigeon’s encounters interweave with observational passages that poignantly reveal urbanist and author Jane Jacobs’s (The Death and Life of Great American Cities) idea of the “ballet of the good city sidewalk”: rollerskaters wind their way through Central Park, city dwellers seek blessings for a motley group of pets on St. Francis Day, observant Jews toss breadcrumbs into the Hudson River on Rosh Hashanah, and Muslims mark the end of their Ramadan fast with Eid al-Fitr prayers and expressions of forgiveness. Amid these celebrations of daily life we see the shifting landscape of the city: big-box stores and mega-chains rapidly replace independent businesses, giant glass buildings are erected where flea markets once stood, and luxury condos loom over small brick tenements. Nuanced, cinematic and often humorous, One October charts the chasm between one’s desires and one’s means, explores the urgent need to conserve the old amid the glorification of the new, and affirms the notion that a varied streetscape is essential to the health of a dynamic metropolis. https://vimeo.com/260800683   “I wanted to make a film in response to the homogenization and hypergentrification of neighborhoods in New York City and chose to set it in October 2008, a tumultuous moment when the housing market collapse was becoming a worldwide economic crisis and much of the country was swept up in Obama’s presidential campaign,” said One October director Rachel Shuman. “In retrospect, almost exactly a decade later now, I am releasing the film in another period of change in our country, and I hope that it will present a story of diversity and resiliency that unites people.” Edward Norton is an environmental, social and civic activist who has substantially contributed to the development of the cultural and civic life of the city. When asked why he wanted to become involved in this film, Norton stated, “Like E.B. White’s classic ‘Here is New York,’ One October captures the complexity of our culture at a moment in time and distills the zeitgeist of optimism and hope surrounding the election of Barack Obama. Viewed today, it’s especially poignant and inspiring.”

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  • 9 Indie Filmmakers with 6 Documentary Films Selected for Film Independent’s 2018 Documentary Lab

    [caption id="attachment_27705" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]Unapologetic Unapologetic[/caption] Nine filmmakers and six projects have been selected for Film Independent’s 2018 Documentary Lab, an intensive five-week program designed to help filmmakers who are currently in post-production on their feature-length documentary films. This year’s projects span the globe – from a film about undocumented youth in the US, to an indigenous family in the Andes standing up to one of the largest gold producers in the world, to an unexpected environmental film about invisible elves, the free market and the surprising power of belief told through an Icelandic grandmother’s quest to save a threatened landscape. “We’re delighted to welcome this talented group of filmmakers who will be joining us for the eighth year of the Documentary Lab from diverse regions across the US and as far away as Egypt,” said Jennifer Kushner, Director of Artist Development. “Through mentorship, career development and a lively collaborative work environment, the Lab provides support to filmmakers as they work to bring these meaningful nonfiction stories to audiences.” Through a series of meetings and workshops, the Documentary Lab provides creative feedback and story notes to participating filmmakers, while helping them strategize for the completion, distribution and marketing of their films. Additionally, the program serves to advance the careers of its Fellows by making introductions to film professionals who can advise on both the craft and business of documentary filmmaking. Lab Fellows attend multiple guest speaker and workshopping sessions with established documentary directors, institutional funders, legal professionals, festival programmers and distributors, and each is paired with an experienced Creative Advisor who provides one-on-one support and insight as the Fellows ready their projects for release. This year’s Documentary Lab Advisors and Guest Speakers include Ramona S. Diaz (Motherland), Greg Finton (Editor, A River Runs Through It, Dazed and Confused), Amy Halpin of the International Documentary Association, Alexandra Johnes (The Square), Senain Kheshgi of Majority Film, Jeff Malmberg (Spettacolo, Marwencol), Marjan Safinia (But You Speak Such Good English), Chris Shellen (Spettacolo, Marwencol) and Rahdi Taylor of Concordia Films (Blue Note). Notable past Documentary Lab projects include Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palmero’s Rich Hill; Marah Strauch’s Sunshine Superman; Sarita Khurana and Smriti Mundhra’s A Suitable Girl; Dustin Nakao Haider, Daniel Dewes and Derek Doneen’s Shot in the Dark; and Bing Liu and Diane Quon’s Minding the Gap, winner of the 2018 US Documentary Competition Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking at Sundance. Film Independent Artist Development promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work through its Filmmaker Labs (Directing, Documentary, Episodic, Producing and Screenwriting), Grants Program which awards over $800K annually to filmmakers, the Fast Track finance market, Fiscal Sponsorship and Project Involve, celebrating 25 years of mentoring the next generation of visual storytellers and working toward an inclusive industry. The 2018 Documentary Lab projects and Fellows are: Title: I am a Script Girl Director/Producer: Mina Nabil Logline: I Am a Script Girl is an up close and personal examination of the life, challenges and career of the unstoppable Sylvette Baudrot who at 89-years old recounts her journey from Egypt to Paris where she became a trusted confidant to the great auteurs of 20th century cinema. Title: Pathways Director: Florencia Krochik Logline: Pathways tells the stories of six “DACA-mented” & undocumented youth and the struggles they face pursuing higher education. The film weaves together their captivating stories and explores the crippled US immigration policies that have led to the hardships they and their families face. Title: Sage Country Director: Yuri Chicovsky Producer: Lauren Blair Logline: A Colorado sheep rancher who inherits a beloved piece of land and way of life must come to terms with his legacy and his life’s dream. Title: The Seer and the Unseen Director/Producer: Sara Dosa Producer: Shane Boris Logline: The Seer and the Unseen is an unexpected environmental film about invisible elves, the free market and the surprising power of belief told through an Icelandic grandmother’s quest to save a threatened landscape – and the beloved home her family has lived in for generations. Title: Unapologetic Director: Ashley O’Shay Logline: After two Black Chicagoans are murdered by the police, young Black citizens begin challenging the city’s corrupt policies while redefining the meaning of community organizing. Unapologetic goes behind the veil with two Black, queer women, providing an intimate peek into the personal lives that sustain a movement. Title: Untitled Claudia Sparrow Documentary Director: Claudia Sparrow Producer: Ryan Schwartz Logline: An indigenous family from the Andes stands up to one of the largest gold producers in the world defending their right to live off their land and protect natural resources from devastating corporate greed.

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  • Faith-Based Documentary “Fragments of Truth” in Theaters One Night Only – April 24 | Trailer

    Fragments of Truth The debate over the reliability of the New Testament changes in “Fragments of Truth,” coming to U.S. movie theaters this April for a special one-night event. Famed evangelical New Testament scholar and author Dr. Craig Evans discusses new evidence concerning Gospel manuscripts that allegedly reinforce the New Testament’s authenticity. The feature content will be followed by an exclusive Q&A with director Reuben Evans and Dr. Craig Evans. Fathom Events and Faithlife Films partner to present “Fragments of Truth” in nearly 750 U.S. movie theaters on Tuesday, April 24 at 7:00 p.m. local time, through Fathom’s Digital Broadcast Network (DBN). For a complete list of theater locations, visit the Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change). Is the Bible trustworthy? In this new documentary from Faithlife Films, narrated by actor John Rhys-Davies (“Indiana Jones,” “Lord of the Rings”), Dr. Craig Evans takes this question head on, traveling the globe to track down the most ancient New Testament manuscripts. Along the way, he highlights groundbreaking new evidence that is changing the debate. Audiences will hear from scholars who have devoted their lives to learning and discovering how the evidence for the reliability of the New Testament manuscripts is stronger than ever. “Questions regarding the reliability of the Bible have been debated by scholars worldwide for centuries,” Fathom Events CEO Ray Nutt said. “‘Fragments of Truth’ will give audiences of all ages new understanding on the power of the New Testament and ultimately help strengthen their faith.” “The challenges to the reliability of the Gospels have never been greater,” said director Reuben Evans. “But when we heard about the latest research Dr. Craig Evans published, we knew this was a story that we had to tell.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GZrU7NT210

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  • “St Pete Unfiltered” Documentary Examines St. Petersburg, Florida Sewage Cover-up | Trailer

    St Pete Unfiltered The documentary St Pete Unfiltered examines the city of St. Petersburg’s chronic and continued dumping and spilling of raw and partially treated wastewater into Tampa Bay, its surrounding surface waters, and the Florida Aquifer.  The film makes its world premiere at the Gasparilla International Film Festival at the AMC Centro Ybor March 24, 2018 at 1p.m. “Most shocking to me is the city’s negligence and the fact that citizens either aren’t aware of the dumps or they believe that they have been resolved,” says executive producer Caroline Smith. “Not only does the city continue spilling wastewater, our beaches regularly fail routine water tests and this administration focuses its energy and its resources perpetuating a cover up.” St Pete Unfiltered In April 2015 St. Petersburg shuttered one of its four water reclamation facilities, decreasing sewage treatment capacity by 25%. Over the next two years, a series of rain events caused the city to illegally and willfully dump 200-million gallons of raw sewage into Tampa Bay. In addition, the city continued pumping over 800-million gallons of partially treated sewage into the bay, the aquifer, and the area’s surrounding surface waters. “For a city that claims to be the greenest in the state, St. Petersburg has a problem actually living up to that moniker,” says producer and writer Brandon D. Shuler. “St. Pete has a greenwashing habit where they like to brush over the real issues that they are polluting our environment and threatening our drinking waters with its weak solutions. The current administration is covering up the threats they are exposing their citizens to.” Under a self-defined consent order with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, St. Petersburg has adopted the use of underground injection wells to pump its partially treated waste water into the Florida Aquifer. Following the idea that all waters are connected through the significant nexus, the use of injection wells merely gets waste pollution out of sight and mind while threating the integrity of the region’s drinking waters. St Pete Unfiltered exposes the city’s perpetration of the worst sewage spill in Florida’s history. The documentary premieres March 24, 2018 at 1p.m. at the AMC Centro Ybor. https://vimeo.com/254616947   https://vimeo.com/259796484

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  • Music Documentary “Elvis Presley: The Searcher” Debuts April 14 on HBO | Trailer

    “Elvis Presley: The Searcher,” the two-part music documentary chronicling his creative journey from childhood through the final 1976 Jungle Room recording sessions, will debut Saturday, April 14 (8:00-11:30 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO. The documentary includes stunning atmospheric shots taken inside Graceland, Elvis’ iconic home, and features more than 20 new, primary source interviews with session players, producers, engineers, directors and other artists who knew him or who were profoundly influenced by him. It also features never-before-seen photos and footage from private collections worldwide, and an original score by Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready. Among those offering insights into Elvis are: Priscilla Presley, Elvis’ ex-wife; his guitarist, Scotty Moore; childhood friend Red West; historians Bill Ferris, Bill Malone and Portia Maultsby; writers Alan Light, Preston Lauterbach, Nik Cohn and Warren Zanes; music executives John Jackson, David Porter, Ernst Jorgensen and Bones Howe; and musicians Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris and Robbie Robertson. The first part details: Elvis’ early life in Tupelo, Miss., where he soaked up both black and white gospel music, and Memphis, where he sought out rhythm and blues and country music; his initial encounter with Sun Records producer Sam Phillips, who teamed him with Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black to record the seminal hit “That’s All Right”; his early years of touring, mostly in the South, which burnished his reputation as a rising star; and his decision to sign with a national label, RCA Records, after his manager, Col. Tom Parker, bought out his Sun contract. Also featured in part one: his unprecedented rise to fame over a single year, 1956, with a string of hit records and memorable TV performances, beginning with his electrifying performances on the Dorsey Brothers and Milton Berle shows, and capped by “The Ed Sullivan Show”; his long-held desire to break into movies, and success in early films like “Love Me Tender” and “Jailhouse Rock”; the death of his beloved mother, Gladys, just after he had purchased Graceland, a Memphis estate; and his two-year Army stint in Germany (1958-1960), during which he met his future wife, Priscilla Beaulieu. The second part includes: Elvis’ return home after his Army discharge, when he was still a huge star and making hit records like “It’s Now or Never,” but facing a rapidly changing pop-music scene; Col. Parker’s efforts to pair Elvis with the likes of Frank Sinatra on TV to ensure a long and lucrative mainstream career; a seven-year period making an endless string of lightweight, music-infused movies, which stunted his musical growth and alienated many fans; and his triumphant TV comeback in 1968, a tumultuous year marked by social unrest and the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, which troubled Elvis deeply. Also featured in part two: his commitment, orchestrated by Col. Parker, to an extended Las Vegas residency punctuated by over-the-top concerts featuring dozens of musicians and singers (The Sweet Inspirations, The Jordanaires); the Aloha from Hawaii concert, which reached billions via satellite, and was Parker’s response to Elvis’ repeated pleas to tour internationally, which he never did; his declining health in the 1970s, brought on by a grueling schedule of more than 100 concerts annually and an increased reliance on prescription drugs; his emotional recording of “Separate Ways,” which preceded his 1973 divorce from Priscilla; and his decision in 1976 to stage a marathon recording session in Graceland’s Jungle Room, where he cut dozens of songs, including the memorable “Hurt.” After the Jungle Room sessions, Elvis went back on tour, a shell of his former self. He died at Graceland on Aug. 16, 1977. RCA/Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release “Elvis Presley: The Searcher”, the musical companion to the documentary, on Friday, April 6. It will be available in digital and physical configurations. Director Thom Zimny’s previous HBO credits include the Bruce Springsteen documentaries “The Ties That Bind,” “Bruce Springsteen’s High Hopes” and “The Promise: The Making of ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qULBo4iPV8M

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  • MOUNTAIN Narrated by Willem Dafoe Opens May 18th | Trailer

    Mountain directed by Jennifer Peedom, and narrated by Willem Dafoe Mountain directed by Jennifer Peedom, and narrated by Willem Dafoe is a unique documentary that explores our fascination with mountains, and accompanied by a classical score from the Australian Chamber Orchestra.  The film will open theatrically on May 18th, 2018. Only three centuries ago, setting out to climb a mountain would have been considered close to lunacy. Mountains were places of peril, not beauty, an upper world to be shunned, not sought out. Why do mountains now hold us spellbound, drawing us into their dominion, often at the cost of our lives? From Tibet to Australia, Alaska to Norway armed with drones, Go-Pros and helicopters, director Jennifer Peedom has fashioned an astonishing symphony of mountaineers, ice climbers, free soloists, heliskiers, snowboarders, wingsuiters and parachuting mountain bikers. Willem Dafoe provides a narration sampled from British mountaineer Robert Macfarlane’s acclaimed memoir Mountains of the Mind , and a classical score from the Australian Chamber Orchestra accompanies this majestic cinematic experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxtWMOAHoiI

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  • Watch Trailer for Wim Wenders’ Documentary “Pope Francis – A Man of His Word”

    Pope Francis - A Man of His Word
    Pope Francis – A Man of His Word (Focus Features / screenshot)

    Focus Features has released the official trailer for Wim Wenders’  Pope Francis – A Man of His Word, the new documentary feature with Pope Francis.

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