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.
The Grand Jury and Audience Awards of the 2019 Florida Film Festival were presented at the Awards Ceremony on Saturday, with the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature going to Chained for Life directed by Aaron Schimberg, and the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Roll Red Roll directed by Nancy Schwartzman.
Eleven feature films, including eight first and three second films along with fifteen short films, have been selected for the 2019 Cannes Critics’ Week. Litigante, the second film by Colombian director Franco Lolli, will open the 58th edition, which will close with the first part of a trilogy, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (Chun jiang shui nuan), the first film from the young Chinese prodigy filmmaker Gu Xiaogang.
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.
Nearly $40,000 in prizes and awards were presented to the winners of the juried Golden Gate Award (GGA) competitions at the 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival. The top prizes New Directors Award and $10,000 cash prize went to The Chambermaid, directed by Lila Avilés and Documentary Feature Award and $10,000 cash prize went to Midnight Traveler directed by Hassan Fazili.
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”).