Authors — Paula Bernstein
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Watch: Barbara Kopple’s New Short Documentary for Free
Fortune has partnered with WorkingNation to distribute four episodes of “FutureWork,” a series of digital shorts by award-winning director Barbara Kopple. The first of the films, A Story of Yesterday & Today, which explores the demise of the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY, and the impact it has had on local families, is available for free now. You can watch it above. It is also available at Fortune.com, Time.com and WorkingNation.com. WorkingNation is a new not-for-profit national campaign dedicated to raising awareness of the looming unemployment crisis and skills gap in the United States. The series consists of four 10-minute […]
by Paula Bernstein on Oct 19, 2016 -
The Year’s Most Unforgettable Documentary Subjects
Cinema Eye, the organization that recognizes outstanding accomplishments in nonfiction filmmaking, today announced their annual list of The Unforgettables, the most memorable nonfiction film subjects. The list, which features 18 individuals from 15 films, was determined by Cinema Eye’s nominations committee, which is comprised of some of the world’s top documentary film programmers and curators, as well as the 2016 filmmakers in the running for this year’s awards. “For the fourth year, we are proud to celebrate the collaborative process of documentary filmmaking by acknowledging the role that subjects play in creating many of the year’s best films,” said Cinema Eye Managing Director […]
by Paula Bernstein on Oct 19, 2016 -
Trailer Watch: Sophia Takal’s Award-Winning Always Shine
In Sophia Takal’s Always Shine, two actress friends (Halt and Catch Fire’s Mackenzie Davis and Masters of Sex’s Caitlin FitzGerald), leave Los Angeles for a weekend getaway in hopes of reconnecting. But as the two women’s suppressed jealousies and deep-seated resentments bubble to the surface, they lose grasp not only of their relationship, but also of their own identities. Check out the trailer to the film, which earned Davis the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival award for Best Actress, above. Always Shine will hit theaters on December 2.
by Paula Bernstein on Oct 19, 2016 -
A Disturbing Trend: Documentary Filmmakers Arrested for Doing Their Job
On Monday, October 17, a North Dakota judge dismissed the criminal charges that had been filed against journalist Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now, over her reporting on a protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Judge John Grinsteiner ruled there was no probable cause to support the allegations, and therefore, he dismissed the case. Of course, this is good news. But the dangerous reality is that journalistic freedom is still under threat as arresting journalists and filmmakers who are reporting on citizen protests has become a bonafide trend. On Tuesday, October 11, Deia Schlosberg, producer of the 2016 documentary How […]
by Paula Bernstein on Oct 18, 2016 -
Watch: Great TV is Cannibalizing the Indie Film Audience
“It’s harder and harder to get audiences to see independent films because I think there are other entities fighting for their entertainment hours,” said Michael Barker, co-president/co-founder, Sony Pictures Classics. “For my money, the best independent films being made today are things like The Night Of or Fargo on FX. It’s taking the audience to a certain extent.” In the above exclusive video from Sundance Institute’s Creative Producing Summit, Barker chats with Len Amato, President, HBO Films, about how The Wire lured indie film audiences to TV, what films work better on TV, and more.
by Paula Bernstein on Oct 18, 2016 -
Trailer Watch: Werner Herzog’s Into the Inferno
In Werner Herzog’s latest film, Into the Inferno, the renowned auteur delves into some of the world’s most active volcanoes. The documentary, which will open in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, and launch globally on Netflix on October 28, just got its first trailer (above). “It is a fire that wants to burst forth and it could not care less about what we are doing up here,” notes Herzog about volcanoes in the trailer. Maybe so, but viewers will be curious to see what Herzog and volcanologist and co-director Clive Oppenheimer discover on their journey to visit the world’s […]
by Paula Bernstein on Oct 17, 2016 -
Trailer Watch: Jim Jarmusch’s The Stooges Documentary Gimme Danger
“Iggy and The Stooges reinvented music as we know it,” says Danny Fields, former Stooges manager, in the trailer for Jim Jarmusch’s documentary about the band (above). Relying on archival clips, interviews, and animation, the film traces the hard rocking history of the proto-punk band from its inception in late ’60s Michigan through the ups and downs of stardom (and drug addiction). Gimme Danger had its world premiere in the Midnight Screenings section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival before screening at The Toronto International Film Festival and The New York Film Festival. The film is scheduled to be released on October 28, 2016, by Amazon […]
by Paula Bernstein on Oct 17, 2016 -
Watch: Jim Jarmusch on Cinema and His Influences
Director Jim Jarmusch sat down with New York Film Festival Director Kent Jones for this year’s On Cinema master class, to discuss some of his favorite films and directors, including Samuel Fuller, Abbas Kiarostami, Aki Kaurismäki, Robert Wise, Nicholas Ray, and others. You can watch the entire one-hour conversation in the video above. Jarmusch had two films at the 54th New York Film Festival: Main Slate selection Paterson starring Adam Driver, and Gimme Danger, a documentary on Iggy Pop and the Stooges, which will open at the Film Society of Lincoln Center on October 28.
by Paula Bernstein on Oct 14, 2016 -
Kelly Reichardt on Shooting Certain Women on 16mm, the Ugliness of the Day, and Making the Space Tell the Story
In the more than two decades since her stunning debut film River of Grass premiered at Sundance in 1994, Kelly Reichardt has managed to carve out a unique niche for herself in the independent film world. Her distinctive and uncompromising body of work includes Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, Night Moves, and her latest, Certain Women, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Written and directed by Reichardt and based on the short stories of Maile Meloy, Certain Women stars Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams, James Le Gros, Jared Harris, Lily Gladstone and René Auberjonois. Shot by frequent collaborator, DP […]
by Paula Bernstein on Oct 14, 2016 -
DOC NYC Announces Full Lineup for 2016 Festival
DOC NYC has announced the full lineup for its seventh edition, which runs from November 10-17 in Manhattan. The 2016 festival, held at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village and Chelsea’s SVA Theatre and Cinepolis Chelsea, includes 110 feature-length documentaries (44% directed/co-directed by women) and over 250 films and events overall. World premieres at the festival include City of Joy, about a women’s leadership community in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo; the new Netflix series Captive, about stories of hostage-taking; HBO’s Every Brilliant Thing, directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, capturing the poignant and funny one-man show by Jonny Donahoe; and Rikers, a searing indictment of the New York […]
by Paula Bernstein on Oct 13, 2016
