Documentary

Sundance Selects announced yesterday that the company is acquiring North American rights to Errol Morris’ highly acclaimed documentary TABLOID.  The dark, funny and altogether surreal film was one of the standout hits at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival winning indieWIRE’s critics poll for Best Documentary.   The film was produced by Morris regular collaborators Julie Bilson Ahlberg (THE FOG OF WAR, STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE), and Mark Lipson, (THE THIN BLUE LINE, co-produced FAST, CHEAP AND OUT OF CONTROL). The company plans to play the critically acclaimed film at key film festivals before aggressively rolling it out theatrically and on their video on-demand platform in the summer of 2011.

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Peter D. Richardson’s new feature documentary, “How to Die in Oregon”, will premiere in competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and will have its broadcast premiere on HBO in 2011.

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In the wake of the moderate success of fashion films “Valentino The Last Emperor” and “The September Issue,” IFC Films announced that the company is acquiring the U.S. rights to Pierre Thorentton’s French documentary “Yves Saint Laurent: L’Amour Fou.”

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After applying her Midas touch to the book publishing world with her book club, talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey is looking to do the same to the film world with a documentary club. OWN:Oprah Winfrey Network has announced it has acquired three films, “One Lucky Elephant,” “65_RedRoses” and “Most Valuable Players,” that will join the upcoming monthly documentary film club lineup

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Documentary film “The Human Experience” produced by Grassroots Films of Brooklyn, New York, is getting some marketing help from some local Catholic organizations in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Six screenings of the film are planned for next week in Kalamazoo as part of a “Welcome Home for Christmas” campaign aimed at lapsed , said Steve Goffeney, executive director of the organization planning it, Newman’s Bookshoppe: The Catholic Information Center of Southwestern Michigan.

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Audience members participating in a panel discussion about Shlomi Eldar’s documentary “Precious Life,” the closing night film of the 25th Annual Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles, received a surprise when the subjects of the film video-conferenced in from Gaza to participate in the talk. Palestinian mother Ra’ida Abu Mustaffa, her husband Faozi and son Muhammad, who is now three, participated in a discussion with Israeli television correspondent Shlomi Eldar, film producer Ehud Bleiberg and moderator Sharon Waxman to talk about their reactions to the film. Ra’ida did note that her son’s health was “not good,” but she had hope for the future.

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Eliot Spitzer recently spoke with CNN about why he participated in the new documentary, “Client No. 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer” opening Friday in limited release.  The film is directed by Alex Gibney, whose work has included acclaimed documentaries “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”and the anti-war documentary “Taxi to the Dark Side.”

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IFC Films has acquired rights to “Shoah.” Directed by Claude Lanzmann, the nine-and-a-half hour documentary received almost universal critical acclaim for its look at Holocaust survivors when it premiered in 1985.

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The documentary Reel Injun, by Canadian filmmaker Neil Diamond, won the Canada Award for best documentary at the first of two 2010 Gemini Awards Industry Galas.

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Select programming from the PBS Emmy® Award-winning weekly documentary series “Independent Lens” are nowl be available for purchase on iTunes. “The Parking Lot Movie,” directed by Meghan Eckman, will be the first film available from the 2010 Fall season of Independent Lens for purchase.

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Ripple Effect Films and Argot Pictures  present the US Theatrical release of SAINT MISBEHAVIN’: THE WAVY GRAVY MOVIE, a documentary by Michelle Esrick.  Official selection at SXSW, Mill Valley, Maui and numerous other festivals, SAINT MISBEHAVIN’ will open in San Francisco and Bay Area on Friday, December 3, and at the IFC Center in New York on Wednesday, December 8.  Other cities will follow.

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