With the “golden age” of documentary filmmaking still upon us, there’s no shortage of doc fests to attend throughout the year (especially around November, when it often feels like a nonfiction pileup). The Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, however, knows how to set itself apart from the pack. Besides now taking place in March (and thus not needing to fight with IDFA over eyeballs and premieres), CPH:DOX strives to be “the best festival in and for the world.” What this means in concrete terms is that, though CPH:DOX showcases everything from cinematic art pieces to true-crime thrillers, it’s forever rooted […]
by Lauren Wissot on Mar 19, 2019At YouVisit Studios in midtown Manhattan, Ben Leonberg, Scott Riehs and Alice Shindelar, three recent graduates of the film MFA program at Columbia, bring their education to bear in rather unexpected ways. They are still, in a sense, filmmakers — Leonberg a creative director, Shindelar a writer/director and Riehs a creative producer, each aspiring to one day make a feature. But as their day job they practice filmmaking of a very different type: together they conceive, write and shoot commercial content that YouVisit calls “interactive virtual experiences.” They work in 360-degree video and with virtual-reality headsets. They experiment with new […]
by Calum Marsh on Jun 16, 2017Now entering its tenth year, Cinema Eye, the organization that recognizes outstanding work in nonfiction film, today announced the ten films that have been named as semifinalists for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Filmmaking for Television. Films eligible for this award must have aired or broadcast between June 1, 2015 and May 31, 2016, which explains why O.J.: Made in America, Ezra Edelman’s stunning five-part documentary series for ESPN, which premiered June 11, didn’t make the list. Among the documentaries recognized this year are HBO Documentary Films’ Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures by documentary veterans Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, A&E’s Happy Valley, […]
by Paula Bernstein on Jun 20, 2016