Jim Allison: Breakthrough is the story of Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Dr. Jim Allison, and his journey to discover how the immune system can cure cancer. Filmed before his Nobel nomination, the documentary paints a richly entertaining portrait of an unconventional, iconoclastic scientist who for decades waged an often-lonely fight to bring his revolutionary cancer therapy to patients.
DocLands Documentary Film Festival announced the five finalists for DocPitch, a program designed to connect filmmakers, with projects currently in development or post-production, to potential funders, distributors, organizations, philanthropists, fellow filmmakers, and future audiences.
Showtime is producing a four-part documentary series that will chronicle the history of the iconic L.A. club The Comedy Store, directed and executive produced by Mike Binder (Black or White) and executive produced by Oscar(R) nominee and Emmy(R) winner Mike Tollin (THE FRANCHISE). The project is expected to premiere on SHOWTIME in 2020.
In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage month, HBO will premiere three short films from the 2019 Asian Pacific American Visionaries, a short film program in its third year featuring the works of emerging Asian American directors.
Netflix released the trailer for the award winning documentary Knock Down the House that follows four women – US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez along with Amy Vilela, Cori Bush and Paula Jean Swearengin as they mount grassroots campaigns against powerful incumbents in the the 2018 midterm elections. Knock Down the House will open in select theaters and launch globally on Netflix May 1, 2019.
Barbara Rubin and The Exploding NY Underground a documentary film by award-winning filmmaker Chuck Smith, shines the spotlight on Barbara Rubin, one of the creative women in NYC’s influential avant garde scene in the 1960’s. The film which won the Metropolitan Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC will open theatrically at the IFC Center in NYC on May 24, and at Laemmle Theaters in LA and Roxie in SF on June 14. Other cities will follow.
Mark Blanchard’s award winning independent film A World Away will screen at the upcoming Myrtle Beach International Film Festival 2019 on Saturday, April 27, 2019. A World Away is Official Winner of Chicago Independent Film Festival 2019 for Best Film Feature, Best Ensemble Cast, Audience Choice For Best Film.
Director Yu Gu follows several former cheerleaders through their legal and personal journeys in a David and Goliath fight, as they fight for minimum wage and end 50 years of inequality inflicted by the NFL in her new documentary A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem. The documentary will have its World Premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, April 27, 2019.
Julian Kim and Peter S. Lee wrote and directed Happy Cleaners, a true independent film, funded via Kickstarter with the support of KoreanAmericanStory that tackles the subject of growing up in an immigrant household. Happy Cleaners, starring Charles Ryu, Hyanghwa Lim, Yeena Sung, and Yun Jeong, will have its World Premiere at the 2019 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and is also screening at the 2019 CAAMFest in San Francisco.
HBO Documentary Films is currently in production on a documentary series exploring the NXIVM organization, by Oscar(R)-nominated, Emmy(R)-winning directors Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer (“The Square,” “Control Room,” “Startup.com”).
For more than two decades Dr. Larry Nassar was the osteopathic physician for the U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics team, as well as a physician at Michigan State University (MSU). During that time, he sexually abused hundreds of female athletes.
Film Independent has selected 13 filmmakers and eight projects for its 2019 Documentary Lab, an intensive two-week program designed to help filmmakers who are currently in post-production on their feature-length documentary films.