Documentary
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“CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT” RINGS IN SUNDANCE’S YEAR OF THE DRAGON
The Year of the Dragon calls for boldness, passion and power. What better way for Sundance to usher in the new year than a dragon dance up and down the aisles of the Yarrow Theatre? Cavorting to drums and cymbals, the dragons were introducing the world premiere of the documentary, China Heavyweight. China Heavyweight is the second feature-length doc from Montreal’s Yung Chang, who helmed the award-winning Up The Yangtze. Chang follows coach Qi Moxiang and his two boxers, Zongli He and Yunfei Miao, in southwestern China as they train for the championships. The area they come from is poor, […]
by Allan Tong on Jan 27, 2012 -
Five Questions with The Imposter Director Bart Layton
More and more often different mediums and genres of filmmaking are being meshed together and Bart Layton’s newest documentary The Imposter is no different. The film’s official synopsis declares, “Documentary meets Film Noir in this astonishing true story which has all the twists and turns of a great thriller.” But this is not just a hoax to get people into the theatre. Based on an extremely bizarre story of a young man who infiltrates a family by posing as their missing son, the film follows an intricate plot of testimonies that aim to recreate the story’s noir-ish tone. Just as […]
by Alexandra Byer on Jan 23, 2012 -
Wim Wenders, Pina
German filmmaker Wim Wenders started taking photographs at the age of seven. Over the years he has turned his attentions to medicine, philosophy, painting, and engraving, but it is his four decades directing that has most often caught the publics’ attention. I first saw and loved his films with Wings of Desire; later I could be found carrying around a copy of his book Once religiously. His new film Pina, is a loving tribute to his 20-year friendship with, and admiration of, the dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch. It is a documentary that uses new 3D technology to exquisite effect. […]
by Alix Lambert on Dec 21, 2011 -
KICKSTARTER: JANE WEINER’S “RICKY ON LEACOCK”
“In 1972, Ricky put a Super 8 synch-sound camera in my hand and said, ‘If you want to become a filmmaker, you have to shoot,’” writes filmmaker Jane Weiner on the Kickstarter page for her project, Ricky on Leacock. “Turning my lens on him, I was suddenly transported into another universe: What began as a filmic conversation developed into a filmic adventure that traces the roots of Leacock’s cinematic quest and his role in documentary-making over the last century.” Four decades later, and less than a year after Leacock passed away, Weiner is finishing her documentary on the legendary filmmaker […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 11, 2011 -
CAM ARCHER LAUNCHES CRIME DOC ON KICKSTARTER
Boundary-busting filmmaker Cam Archer — one of Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces and director of, most recently, Shit Year — is making his first doc, Criminal Thoughts. He talks about it and his career in an unguarded video for Kickstarter. In the video, Archer is up-front about the exploratory nature of his project, which appeals to me. As more and more Kickstarter campaigns seem like pre-buys for existing products/projects, Cam’s appeal to us to assist him during his creative process is striking. From the page: CRIMINAL THOUGHTS, my first feature length documentary, will be an exciting, creative departure for me. in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 9, 2011 -
Director Bram Van Paesschen on Empire of Dust
The vast wilderness of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a world away from the urban centers of China. Yet it is there that greater numbers of Chinese engineers are doing business. In the documentary Empire of Dust, featured in the “Panorama” section of this year’s International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), director Bram Van Paesschen explores the fraught relationship between the Congolese and the Chinese, as shown through their efforts to build a road between two major cities in the DRC. In 2007, China and Congo signed a massive resources-for-infrastructure deal with projected revenues of $40-$120 billion. China endeavors […]
by Daniel James Scott on Dec 4, 2011 -
GREGORY BAYNE IN FINAL KICKSTARTER HOURS
Gregory Bayne, who has contributed some of the best, most rabble-rousing recent posts to this site — including the analytics-busting “When Should You Call Bulls@&T” — is in the final hours of a Kickstarter campaign for his documentary Bloodsworth, An Innocent Man. With less than 72 hours to go, he’s about 15K shy of his 25K goal. Tough numbers, but I’ve seen other campaigns pull it out. Bayne is a tough and passionate filmmaker who has the goods, as you’ll see from this demo video. Please check it out and if it interests you, consider helping by supporting his campaign. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 2, 2011 -
ACADEMY PICKS 15 DOCUMENTARY OSCAR FINALISTS
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Documentary Branch Screening Committee has announced the 15 film shortlist for the Best Documentary Oscar. The selections were culled from a list of 124 eligible titles. Some Filmmaker favorites, including films by 25 New Face Directors Danfung Dennis (Hell and Back Again) and Marshall Curry (If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front) are in the mix, as are Wim Wender’s Pina, Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky’s Battle for Brooklyn, and Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Paradise Lost 3. I was sad to see more experimental docs like Bombay […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 18, 2011 -
Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd Talks The Hurt Locker
Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd has shot almost 50 features with numerous directors, but when it comes time to discuss his work on Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, his collaborations with two other helmers need to be referenced. The first is Ken Loach, the director Ackroyd is most associated with. The Manchester, England-born d.p. has shot many of Loach’s films, including Raining Stones, Ladybird Ladybird, Land and Freedom, the Palme d’Or-winning The Wind That Shakes the Barley, and his upcoming Looking for Eric. In these films he developed an unadorned, naturalistic camera and lighting style that gave them an almost doc-like verisimilitude. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 14, 2011 -
BUILDING COMMUNITY… ONE PROJECT AT A TIME
As the practice of ‘crowd-funding’ has come of age over the past couple years, so has the wide array of opinion about it. Some have called it a ‘game-changer’, especially when it comes to funding films, others seem to think of it as a magical place where free money simply appears from thin air, and yet others are wholly unconvinced, if not fully disdainful, of this practice of ‘organized-begging’. I can sympathize with the latter, seeing how crowd-funding has contributed to the advent of incessant self-promotion via social media sites, and the fact that you feel like everywhere you turn […]
by Gregorybayne on Nov 14, 2011
