Some apotheosis of film culture has been reached with Freddy Got Fingered‘s addition to the Criterion Channel. Three years after we interviewed Tom Green about his consummate film maudit, it’s appearing on the service’s Razzie-centered program that also includes the now-admired likes of Cruising, Heaven’s Gate, Querelle, and Ishtar; the still-due likes of Under the Cherry Moon; and the more-contested Gigli, Swept Away, and Nicolas Cage-led Wicker Man. In all cases it’s an opportunity to reconsider one of the lamest, thin-gruel entities in modern culture.
A Jane Russell retro features von Sternberg’s Macao, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Raoul Walsh’s The Tall Men and The Revolt of Mamie Stover; streaming premieres will be held for Yuen Woo-ping’s Dreadnaught, Claire Simon’s Our Body, Ellie Foumbi’s Our Father, the Devil, the recently restored Sepa: Our Lord of Miracles, and The Passion of Rememberance.
A Jane Russell retro features von Sternberg’s Macao, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Raoul Walsh’s The Tall Men and The Revolt of Mamie Stover; streaming premieres will be held for Yuen Woo-ping’s Dreadnaught, Claire Simon’s Our Body, Ellie Foumbi’s Our Father, the Devil, the recently restored Sepa: Our Lord of Miracles, and The Passion of Rememberance.
- 2/14/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
For the past decade-and-a-half, cinematographer Sean Price Williams has been a staple of the New York indie-film scene, lensing features for (naming just a handful) the Safdie brothers, Alex Ross Perry, Michael Almereyda, Robert Greene.
The Sweet East finds Williams moving to the director’s chair with a script from film critic Nick Pinkerton. Deliberately provocative and very funny, The Sweet East begins with a Pizzagate sequence that separates high-schooler Lillian from her classmates in D.C. From there she drifts throughout the Northeast, mingling with a cast of outsiders who all take a special, often sexual interest in her, among them a disorganized band of Antifa-esque punks, an over-eager filmmaking duo (Ayo Edebiri and playwright Jeremy O. Harris), and closeted Neo-Nazi academic Lawrence (Simon Rex).
Fans of Pinkerton’s film criticism and Twitter account will be pleased by the wordsmithery of his dialogue, especially Lawrence’s extended monologues on...
The Sweet East finds Williams moving to the director’s chair with a script from film critic Nick Pinkerton. Deliberately provocative and very funny, The Sweet East begins with a Pizzagate sequence that separates high-schooler Lillian from her classmates in D.C. From there she drifts throughout the Northeast, mingling with a cast of outsiders who all take a special, often sexual interest in her, among them a disorganized band of Antifa-esque punks, an over-eager filmmaking duo (Ayo Edebiri and playwright Jeremy O. Harris), and closeted Neo-Nazi academic Lawrence (Simon Rex).
Fans of Pinkerton’s film criticism and Twitter account will be pleased by the wordsmithery of his dialogue, especially Lawrence’s extended monologues on...
- 12/1/2023
- by Caleb Hammond
- The Film Stage
He might be technically retired from what we consider regular fiction filmmaking, but since his TIFF premiered Her Smell back in 2018 Alex Ross Perry‘s output has been fruitful, plentiful and now we this hybrid we can say imaginative and not trapped by conformity. Announced late last year, the project as Perry called it will be a mix of items tossed into a blender. Putting together the members of Pavement, Zoe Lister-Jones, Michael Esper and Kathryn Gallagher, the behind the line crew folk include cinematography Robert Kolodny and editor Robert Greene. Perry first visited Park City for Listen Up Philip in 2014.…...
- 11/17/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
There’s a story that Willie Pep, the protagonist of Robert Kolodny’s feature debut The Featherweight, likes to tell. It’s about a match with a kid, who, so awed by the boxing champion, asks for an autograph. The request flummoxes Willie. “I say, ‘Kid, get away from me, we’re boxing tonight. What are people going to think?’” The crowd came to see a fight, he reminds the junior. They need to put on a show.
As Willie (played by James Madio) talks about this moment, he gesticulates and pulls his audience — a small group of friends — to play supporting roles. It’s clear why the boxer likes to recount this tale. Nostalgia tempts him. It directs his moods, prompts his long monologues and drives Willie, at age 42, to stage a comeback.
The Featherweight is a fictionalized account of the real-life two-time featherweight champion’s attempts to get back in the ring.
As Willie (played by James Madio) talks about this moment, he gesticulates and pulls his audience — a small group of friends — to play supporting roles. It’s clear why the boxer likes to recount this tale. Nostalgia tempts him. It directs his moods, prompts his long monologues and drives Willie, at age 42, to stage a comeback.
The Featherweight is a fictionalized account of the real-life two-time featherweight champion’s attempts to get back in the ring.
- 9/3/2023
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This Barbie is part film programmer.
Hari Nef makes history at Mubi with the Hand-Picked by Hari Nef curated series, the first of its kind for the streaming and distribution platform.
The “Barbie” and “And Just Like That” actress selected Todd Haynes’ “Safe” and “Velvet Goldmine,” Alex Ross Perry’s “Listen Up Philip,” the fashion documentary “Martin Margiela: In His Own Words,” Jean-Luc Godard’s “La Chinoise,” the coming-of-age day-in-the-life “The African Desperate,” Maurice Pialata’s “Loulou” with Isabelle Huppert, Robert Greene’s “Actress,” Shirley Clarke’s documentary “Portrait of Jason,” and cult classic “Center Stage” from the Mubi vault for the inaugural program.
Check out Nef’s full selection, ready to stream, here.
“I was thinking about what resonates with me in film, and it starts with ideas of spectacle, performance, and queerness,” Nef said in a press statement. “I love films about performers, and the confrontation that happens between a person,...
Hari Nef makes history at Mubi with the Hand-Picked by Hari Nef curated series, the first of its kind for the streaming and distribution platform.
The “Barbie” and “And Just Like That” actress selected Todd Haynes’ “Safe” and “Velvet Goldmine,” Alex Ross Perry’s “Listen Up Philip,” the fashion documentary “Martin Margiela: In His Own Words,” Jean-Luc Godard’s “La Chinoise,” the coming-of-age day-in-the-life “The African Desperate,” Maurice Pialata’s “Loulou” with Isabelle Huppert, Robert Greene’s “Actress,” Shirley Clarke’s documentary “Portrait of Jason,” and cult classic “Center Stage” from the Mubi vault for the inaugural program.
Check out Nef’s full selection, ready to stream, here.
“I was thinking about what resonates with me in film, and it starts with ideas of spectacle, performance, and queerness,” Nef said in a press statement. “I love films about performers, and the confrontation that happens between a person,...
- 5/31/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Using actors to bring to life story elements within documentary film is becoming a more widespread practice, if one that’s still viewed with skepticism by some purists.
The films of Robert Greene spring to mind – Kate Plays Christine and Procession, for instance – and Kitty Green’s Casting JonBenet. Errol Morris cast Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Blake Nelson, Bob Balaban and other stars to dramatize extended sequences in Wormwood, and famously used actors in the critical murder scene reenactment in the The Thin Blue Line.
The technique achieves a new level of artistry and organic relevance in Kaouther Ben Hania’s documentary Four Daughters (Les Filles d’Olfa), which premiered tonight in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The Tunisian director cast actresses to play Olfa Hamrouni and her two eldest daughters, Rahma and Ghofrane, who as teenagers abruptly disappeared from the family home after becoming attached to radical Islamist ideology. Only...
The films of Robert Greene spring to mind – Kate Plays Christine and Procession, for instance – and Kitty Green’s Casting JonBenet. Errol Morris cast Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Blake Nelson, Bob Balaban and other stars to dramatize extended sequences in Wormwood, and famously used actors in the critical murder scene reenactment in the The Thin Blue Line.
The technique achieves a new level of artistry and organic relevance in Kaouther Ben Hania’s documentary Four Daughters (Les Filles d’Olfa), which premiered tonight in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The Tunisian director cast actresses to play Olfa Hamrouni and her two eldest daughters, Rahma and Ghofrane, who as teenagers abruptly disappeared from the family home after becoming attached to radical Islamist ideology. Only...
- 5/19/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Kaouther Ben Hania’s heartbreaking Four Daughters (Les filles d’Olfa) pulls you in with a question: Who is Olfa Hamrouni?
She rose to international fame in 2016 when she criticized the Tunisian government for not preventing her daughters from joining the Islamic State in Libya. In interviews from those years, Hamrouni is a bereaved mother. Her voice aches with pain as she recounts the loss of her two eldest daughters, and it shakes with anger when she speaks of the government’s listless response.
The Olfa of Ben Hania’s docu-fiction strikes a more relaxed pose. She has traded her pink hijabs for a black scarf, tightly woven around her head. She’s freer with her laughs and more pointed with her asides. Grief still undergirds her anecdotes, but so does a palpable willingness to share. She eagerly explains how she believes a movie about her life will help spread an...
She rose to international fame in 2016 when she criticized the Tunisian government for not preventing her daughters from joining the Islamic State in Libya. In interviews from those years, Hamrouni is a bereaved mother. Her voice aches with pain as she recounts the loss of her two eldest daughters, and it shakes with anger when she speaks of the government’s listless response.
The Olfa of Ben Hania’s docu-fiction strikes a more relaxed pose. She has traded her pink hijabs for a black scarf, tightly woven around her head. She’s freer with her laughs and more pointed with her asides. Grief still undergirds her anecdotes, but so does a palpable willingness to share. She eagerly explains how she believes a movie about her life will help spread an...
- 5/19/2023
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Oscar-winning filmmaker Tom McCarthy’s production company Slow Pony has inked an exclusive first-look film deal with Concordia Studio, the talent-first studio whose most recent production, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, world premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will bow on Apple TV+ on May 12.
McCarthy comes to the deal after numerous successful collaborations with Concordia co-founder Jonathan King, who exec produced his Best Picture Oscar winner Spotlight during his tenure as President of Narrative Film and Television at Participant. King also produced McCarthy’s recent Cannes-premiering Matt Damon starrer Stillwater for Focus Features, as well as his 2007 drama The Visitor, which brought Richard Jenkins his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.
The filmmaker will look to build out a diverse slate of features under the Concordia deal, all of which will be in the narrative space, helping the studio to expand in that area after...
McCarthy comes to the deal after numerous successful collaborations with Concordia co-founder Jonathan King, who exec produced his Best Picture Oscar winner Spotlight during his tenure as President of Narrative Film and Television at Participant. King also produced McCarthy’s recent Cannes-premiering Matt Damon starrer Stillwater for Focus Features, as well as his 2007 drama The Visitor, which brought Richard Jenkins his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.
The filmmaker will look to build out a diverse slate of features under the Concordia deal, all of which will be in the narrative space, helping the studio to expand in that area after...
- 4/10/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
New York City’s fabled movie rental chain, Kim’s Video, shuttered its downtown locations throughout the early-to-mid aughts, offering an early warning sign that the cinema as we once knew it was dying, or at least migrating to other formats.
The chain’s disappearance left an open wound among lower Manhattan film buffs, stranding Kim’s hundreds of thousands of members without a good place — any place, actually — to rent movies, while leaving behind a collection of 55,000 VHS tapes and DVDs that encompassed everything from horror flicks like C.H.U.D. to the complete works of Paul Morrissey to bootleg copies of Jean-Luc Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma.
What happened to Kim’s treasure trove of films remained a mystery for quite some time, with occasional stories popping up — including a long-form Village Voice piece by movie critic and podcaster Karina Longworth (You Must Remember This) — explaining...
The chain’s disappearance left an open wound among lower Manhattan film buffs, stranding Kim’s hundreds of thousands of members without a good place — any place, actually — to rent movies, while leaving behind a collection of 55,000 VHS tapes and DVDs that encompassed everything from horror flicks like C.H.U.D. to the complete works of Paul Morrissey to bootleg copies of Jean-Luc Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma.
What happened to Kim’s treasure trove of films remained a mystery for quite some time, with occasional stories popping up — including a long-form Village Voice piece by movie critic and podcaster Karina Longworth (You Must Remember This) — explaining...
- 1/20/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It was the spring of 2007 — the height of the DVD boom — and I struggled to choose between the only two colleges that wanted me. Both were in Manhattan, but only one had a Kim’s Video within a one-block radius of the freshman dorms. I’m not saying that was the deciding factor, but I’m not not saying that was a deciding factor.
As an aspiring movie addict with a new driver’s license and nowhere to go, I’d spent an ungodly number of teenage weekends loitering around the Tower Records that sat at the corner of a strip mall a few towns over from my parents’ house. It was the kind of brick-and-mortar Brigadoon that corporate seemed to have semi-forgotten about, and the store’s irregular hours — combined with its ghostly lack of foot traffic — often left me with the feeling that it was only there on...
As an aspiring movie addict with a new driver’s license and nowhere to go, I’d spent an ungodly number of teenage weekends loitering around the Tower Records that sat at the corner of a strip mall a few towns over from my parents’ house. It was the kind of brick-and-mortar Brigadoon that corporate seemed to have semi-forgotten about, and the store’s irregular hours — combined with its ghostly lack of foot traffic — often left me with the feeling that it was only there on...
- 1/20/2023
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
More than just a documentary detailing the circumstances surrounding Rickey Jackson’s 1975 conviction for a murder he did not commit, Matt Waldeck’s Lovely Jackson is a memoir granting its subject ability to exorcize his demons through a first-hand, in-his-own-words reckoning with the experience. The result creates an emotional juxtaposition that goes beyond simply narrating reenactments—it enlists Rickey to both play himself and stand watch as Mario Beverly plays the memory of the 18-year-old man he was upon entering Mansfield Reformatory, the actual prison he inhabited before he was sent to death row for eight months. The exercise thus exists somewhere between your conventional true-crime drama dissecting facts via interview and the heightened, visceral approach of Robert Greene’s Procession.
This approach is a necessary one, considering Jackson spent 39 years behind bars. 39 years surviving day-by-day as each night brought both the sobering realization of everything he lost and the...
This approach is a necessary one, considering Jackson spent 39 years behind bars. 39 years surviving day-by-day as each night brought both the sobering realization of everything he lost and the...
- 10/18/2022
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Actor / Filmmaker Alex Winter joins Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss movies featuring a cog in the machine – the individual struggling to exist within the system.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s Bill and Ted character power rankings
Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)
Bill And Ted Face The Music (2020)
The Game (1997)
Showbiz Kids (2020)
The Panama Papers (2018)
Zappa (2020)
200 Motels (1971)
Modern Times (1936)
Metropolis (1927) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Avatar (2009)
Things To Come (1936) – Jesus Trevino’s trailer commentary
M (1931)
M (1951)
The Last Laugh (1924) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Brazil (1985)
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness
City Lights (1931)
Goin’ Down The Road (1970)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Young And The Damned (1950)
Shock Corridor (1963) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary
The Naked Kiss (1964)
Stroszek (1977)
Even Dwarves Started Small (1970)
Ikiru (1952) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s Bill and Ted character power rankings
Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)
Bill And Ted Face The Music (2020)
The Game (1997)
Showbiz Kids (2020)
The Panama Papers (2018)
Zappa (2020)
200 Motels (1971)
Modern Times (1936)
Metropolis (1927) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Avatar (2009)
Things To Come (1936) – Jesus Trevino’s trailer commentary
M (1931)
M (1951)
The Last Laugh (1924) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Brazil (1985)
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness
City Lights (1931)
Goin’ Down The Road (1970)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Young And The Damned (1950)
Shock Corridor (1963) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary
The Naked Kiss (1964)
Stroszek (1977)
Even Dwarves Started Small (1970)
Ikiru (1952) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer...
- 10/11/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
The Telluride Film Festival’s emphasis on documentary has not wavered in recent years. But the prominence of nonfiction fare at the 49th edition has arguably made this year’s Telluride the autumn Sundance, where some of the biggest buzz is for docs.
The lineup, kept under wraps until the eve of the fest’s opening on Sept. 2, includes 16 docs from novice and veteran documentarians, including Steve James (“A Compassionate Spy”), Matthew Heineman (“Retrograde”), Chris Smith (“Sr.”) Ondi Timoner (“Last Flight Home”) and Ryan White (“Good Night Oppy”). (Additional “secret” screenings have yet to be announced.)
The rising level of documentaries at the Colorado fest is largely due to the influence of Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger.
“This year, there is almost parity with the narrative features in the [main feature] program,” says Huntsinger, who co-directs Telluride with Tom Luddy. “It’s not us actively seeking it. For lack of a better word,...
The lineup, kept under wraps until the eve of the fest’s opening on Sept. 2, includes 16 docs from novice and veteran documentarians, including Steve James (“A Compassionate Spy”), Matthew Heineman (“Retrograde”), Chris Smith (“Sr.”) Ondi Timoner (“Last Flight Home”) and Ryan White (“Good Night Oppy”). (Additional “secret” screenings have yet to be announced.)
The rising level of documentaries at the Colorado fest is largely due to the influence of Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger.
“This year, there is almost parity with the narrative features in the [main feature] program,” says Huntsinger, who co-directs Telluride with Tom Luddy. “It’s not us actively seeking it. For lack of a better word,...
- 9/2/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of Indie Film Site Network (Ifsn), a collaboration between well-respected media outlets covering the most essential developments in independent and international cinema. Ifsn, which represents The Film Stage, Hammer to Nail, Ioncinema.com, RogerEbert.com, and Screen Anarchy, was created with a mission to support film criticism and foster an ever-growing community of indie film lovers.
In the evolving landscape of filmmaking and film criticism, the very definition of “independent” is shifting and it is our mission to work with sites and distributors that still retain that singular focus on the best in cinema. With Indie Film Site Network, we’re delighted to offer a destination for distributors and filmmakers where they know they will truly be reaching the most passionate fans of independent movies.
Through reviews, interviews, podcasts, news, special features, and extensive coverage from film festivals across the world to theatrical,...
In the evolving landscape of filmmaking and film criticism, the very definition of “independent” is shifting and it is our mission to work with sites and distributors that still retain that singular focus on the best in cinema. With Indie Film Site Network, we’re delighted to offer a destination for distributors and filmmakers where they know they will truly be reaching the most passionate fans of independent movies.
Through reviews, interviews, podcasts, news, special features, and extensive coverage from film festivals across the world to theatrical,...
- 8/31/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Click here to read the full article.
Documentary filmmaking the process of being a subject of a documentary have long amounted to a type of performative therapy, the camera acting as a sort of hybrid therapist/priest/judge.
An interesting spin on that theme, in recent years, has been the rise of performative therapy as documentary. Robert Greene (Procession, Bisbee ’17 and Kate Plays Christine) and Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence) are among the leading figures in this subgenre, in which filmmakers observe or sometimes orchestrate artistic exercises as a way of helping people confront psychological wounds and maybe reach catharsis, rather than simply making a film about the psychological wounds themselves.
Pushing the form to docuseries length is HBO’s Mind Over Murder from director Nanfu Wang (One Child Nation). A feature documentary absolutely could be made exclusively about the six people convicted and...
Documentary filmmaking the process of being a subject of a documentary have long amounted to a type of performative therapy, the camera acting as a sort of hybrid therapist/priest/judge.
An interesting spin on that theme, in recent years, has been the rise of performative therapy as documentary. Robert Greene (Procession, Bisbee ’17 and Kate Plays Christine) and Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence) are among the leading figures in this subgenre, in which filmmakers observe or sometimes orchestrate artistic exercises as a way of helping people confront psychological wounds and maybe reach catharsis, rather than simply making a film about the psychological wounds themselves.
Pushing the form to docuseries length is HBO’s Mind Over Murder from director Nanfu Wang (One Child Nation). A feature documentary absolutely could be made exclusively about the six people convicted and...
- 6/21/2022
- by Daniel Fienberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Reconstruction in documentary filmmaking is an eternally divisive technique: What some deem vivid and immediate, others find distancing and artificial, cloaking and blurring reality in the language of fiction cinema. Yet what if the reconstructions don’t just feature the documentary’s real-life subjects, but are expressly conceived and realized by them — not recreating reality so much as their lingering, haunted memories thereof? That’s a different proposition entirely, as is “Procession,” a risky, wrenching film in which celebrated docmaker Robert Greene frequently surrenders the directorial reins to his subjects and collaborators: six middle-aged, middle-American men living with the trauma of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic Church priests and clergymen.
With each of these survivors given the means and support to make an interpretive short film rooted in their decades-old experience, “Procession” is intricately woven from the amateur filmmakers’ original work, alongside Greene’s patient, empathetic observation of their creative process.
With each of these survivors given the means and support to make an interpretive short film rooted in their decades-old experience, “Procession” is intricately woven from the amateur filmmakers’ original work, alongside Greene’s patient, empathetic observation of their creative process.
- 2/8/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The 11th annual First Look festival at the Museum of the Moving Image released its star-studded lineup February 7.
The festival, which is set to take place March 16–20 at the MoMI museum in Astoria, Queens, will open with the New York City premiere of Camera d’Or winner “Murina.” Director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović was honored with the title at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival for Best First Feature, and the film is executive produced by Martin Scorsese.
“Murina” is a coming-of-age story set in a scenic coastal Croatian town. Also on March 16, Tsai Ming-Liang’s ode to Hong Kong, “The Night,” will host its New York premiere. Closing Night selection and 2021 Locarno Grand Prix winner “The Balcony Movie” finishes off the festival.
The First Look festival features “new and innovative international cinema.” Spotlight screenings include the New York premiere of “Zero Fucks Given,” starring Adèle Exarchopoulos as a flight attendant in crisis,...
The festival, which is set to take place March 16–20 at the MoMI museum in Astoria, Queens, will open with the New York City premiere of Camera d’Or winner “Murina.” Director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović was honored with the title at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival for Best First Feature, and the film is executive produced by Martin Scorsese.
“Murina” is a coming-of-age story set in a scenic coastal Croatian town. Also on March 16, Tsai Ming-Liang’s ode to Hong Kong, “The Night,” will host its New York premiere. Closing Night selection and 2021 Locarno Grand Prix winner “The Balcony Movie” finishes off the festival.
The First Look festival features “new and innovative international cinema.” Spotlight screenings include the New York premiere of “Zero Fucks Given,” starring Adèle Exarchopoulos as a flight attendant in crisis,...
- 2/7/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Exclusive: New York’s Museum of the Moving Image announced the full lineup today for the 11th edition of First Look, its annual festival showcasing adventurous cinema from around the world.
The in-person festival, running March 16-20 at MoMI in Astoria, Queens, will kick off with Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s Murina, a “simmering, sexually charged coming-of-age tale set in scenic coastal Croatia,” executive produced by Martin Scorsese. Murina won the Caméra d’Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, an award for Best First Feature.
First Look set The Balcony Movie as its closing night film, a documentary that director Pawel Lozinski shot entirely from the balcony of his apartment in Warsaw, Poland. The film, which MoMI calls “delightful and insightful,” won the Grand Prix at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival’s Critics Week.
In all, 38 films will screen at First Look [see full lineup below], a combination of features, shorts, fiction and nonfiction, “as well...
The in-person festival, running March 16-20 at MoMI in Astoria, Queens, will kick off with Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s Murina, a “simmering, sexually charged coming-of-age tale set in scenic coastal Croatia,” executive produced by Martin Scorsese. Murina won the Caméra d’Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, an award for Best First Feature.
First Look set The Balcony Movie as its closing night film, a documentary that director Pawel Lozinski shot entirely from the balcony of his apartment in Warsaw, Poland. The film, which MoMI calls “delightful and insightful,” won the Grand Prix at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival’s Critics Week.
In all, 38 films will screen at First Look [see full lineup below], a combination of features, shorts, fiction and nonfiction, “as well...
- 2/7/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Predicting the winner of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar became a lot easier on December 21 when the academy announced the 15 films that made the shortlist. Those semi-finalists are culled from the 138 titles that qualified this year for consideration. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2022 Oscars predictions for Best Documentary Feature.)
To winnow these down to a manageable number, the academy adds newly eligible documentary feature to a virtual screening room available to all 500 plus members of the documentary branch. While all members are encouraged to watch as many of these as they can, one-fifth of the voters are assigned each title. In the new year, each branch member will submit a preferential ballot listing their top 15 choices.
All of these ballots were collated to determine the 15 semi-finalists. Branch members were encouraged to watch those films on this list that they haven’t seen yet before casting another preferential ballot on...
To winnow these down to a manageable number, the academy adds newly eligible documentary feature to a virtual screening room available to all 500 plus members of the documentary branch. While all members are encouraged to watch as many of these as they can, one-fifth of the voters are assigned each title. In the new year, each branch member will submit a preferential ballot listing their top 15 choices.
All of these ballots were collated to determine the 15 semi-finalists. Branch members were encouraged to watch those films on this list that they haven’t seen yet before casting another preferential ballot on...
- 1/24/2022
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
A total of 15 documentaries were shortlisted for a 2022 Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature and the subjects documented in them range in topics all over the documentary spectrum. Five of those filmmakers joined our recent Meet the Experts panel, with subjects such as America’s most infamous prison riot, the rise of a young female singer who becomes one of the biggest stars on the planet, how a group of adult survivors of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church use drama therapy to process their trauma, how a bunch of recreational divers pulled off an incredible rescue mission in Thailand and the stories of five families that have been displaced by a perilous civil war.
In our roundtable conversation, we hear what the directors behind these highlighted docs think about making the shortlist for this year’s Academy Awards. Gold Derby recently discussed this and more with Stanley Nelson...
In our roundtable conversation, we hear what the directors behind these highlighted docs think about making the shortlist for this year’s Academy Awards. Gold Derby recently discussed this and more with Stanley Nelson...
- 1/23/2022
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
Developing “Procession” came in two parts for Robert Greene. First was the discovery of how trauma can be dealt with. “I read a book about how trauma is stored in the body and the muscles and talk therapy has only so much of an effect. Drama therapy is one method for working through trauma and effectively,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent Meet the Experts: Film Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video above). At the same time he was reading this, by chance, he came upon the people that would be the subjects for his documentary. “Right when I was having this knowledge, I saw the press conference that opens ‘Procession’ with the six men that we ultimately ended up working with.”
“Procession,” which is currently streaming on Netflix, looks at six adult survivors of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and an attempt to use drama therapy...
“Procession,” which is currently streaming on Netflix, looks at six adult survivors of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and an attempt to use drama therapy...
- 1/23/2022
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
In the past decade, the inclusion of streaming services in the documentary market has made it increasingly harder for smaller docus struggling with funding to break into the nonfiction feature Oscar race. But in spite of the deep pockets they are up against, a number of cash-strapped docs inevitably make it onto the shortlist every year. This year was no exception.
Jessica Beshir’s “Faya Dayi”, Camilla Nielsson’s “President” (Greenwich Entertainment) and Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas’ “Writing with Fire” (Music Box Films) are three films on this year’s feature doc shortlist that are up against competitors with multi-million-dollar campaign budgets being paid by media and tech conglomerates including Apple, Netflix, ViacomCBS, the Walt Disney Co. and WarnerMedia.
As the field narrows and lobbying and marketing takeover, it’s clear that money and brand recognition are key factors in the race for Oscar gold, which makes “Faya Dayi,...
Jessica Beshir’s “Faya Dayi”, Camilla Nielsson’s “President” (Greenwich Entertainment) and Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas’ “Writing with Fire” (Music Box Films) are three films on this year’s feature doc shortlist that are up against competitors with multi-million-dollar campaign budgets being paid by media and tech conglomerates including Apple, Netflix, ViacomCBS, the Walt Disney Co. and WarnerMedia.
As the field narrows and lobbying and marketing takeover, it’s clear that money and brand recognition are key factors in the race for Oscar gold, which makes “Faya Dayi,...
- 1/20/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Seven top documentary filmmakers will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022 Academy Awards and guild contenders. Each person from these films is now on the Oscar shortlist. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Wednesday, January 19, at 6:00 p.m. Pt; 9:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our contributing editor Charles Bright and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.
RSVP today to this specific event by clicking here to book your reservation. Or click here to RSVP for our entire ongoing panel series throughout January and February. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.
This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2022 awards contenders:
“Attica:” Traci Curry, Stanley Nelson
Synopsis: Shedding new light on the enduring violence and racism of the prison system,...
RSVP today to this specific event by clicking here to book your reservation. Or click here to RSVP for our entire ongoing panel series throughout January and February. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.
This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2022 awards contenders:
“Attica:” Traci Curry, Stanley Nelson
Synopsis: Shedding new light on the enduring violence and racism of the prison system,...
- 1/12/2022
- by Chris Beachum and Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
Voting has only just begun for select nominees at the 2022 WGA Awards. Drama series, comedy series and new series votes will be taken until Jan. 5, while voting doesn’t even open for original and adapted screenplays until Jan. 12 (with a deadline of Jan. 26). Nominations for the television categories, as well as new media, news, radio/audio and promotional writing awards will be announced on Jan. 13, with screenplay nominations announced Jan. 27. Final voting for all takes place between Feb. 2 and Feb. 16, with the winners being announced at the 74th annual ceremony on March 20.
Although it is still very early days for some of these categories, Variety breaks down where select series, scripts and categories stand so far.
Original Screenplay
The contenders in the original screenplay field are dominated by repeat WGA and Academy Award nominees with a few breakthrough tyro scribes in the mix. “King Richard,” penned by Zach Baylin (who...
Although it is still very early days for some of these categories, Variety breaks down where select series, scripts and categories stand so far.
Original Screenplay
The contenders in the original screenplay field are dominated by repeat WGA and Academy Award nominees with a few breakthrough tyro scribes in the mix. “King Richard,” penned by Zach Baylin (who...
- 12/30/2021
- by Danielle Turchiano and Malina Saval
- Variety Film + TV
This year’s 10 Oscar shortlists are voted on by six branches of the Academy — Music, Documentary, Animation and Shorts, VFX, Makeup and Hairstyling and, for the first time, Sound — as well as willing members from all over the world able to watch a minimum of a dozen qualifying international features. Parsing these shortlists reveals the strengths and weaknesses of Oscar contenders heading into the final round of voting for the final five nominations, which begins on Thursday, January 27, 2022, and ends on February 1, 2022. Nominations are announced on Tuesday, February 8, 2022.
With the calendar back to normal, more Oscar voters went out to screenings and theaters, although many made their selection from a wide range of movies available on the Academy portal. Back in the mix were such postponed movies as Denis Villeneuve’s day-and-date success “Dune” and Steven Spielberg’s success d’estime “West Side Story,” along with a smattering of arthouse and streaming fare.
With the calendar back to normal, more Oscar voters went out to screenings and theaters, although many made their selection from a wide range of movies available on the Academy portal. Back in the mix were such postponed movies as Denis Villeneuve’s day-and-date success “Dune” and Steven Spielberg’s success d’estime “West Side Story,” along with a smattering of arthouse and streaming fare.
- 12/21/2021
- by Anne Thompson and Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
This year’s 10 Oscar shortlists are voted on by six branches of the Academy — Music, Documentary, Animation and Shorts, VFX, Makeup and Hairstyling and, for the first time, Sound — as well as willing members from all over the world able to watch a minimum of a dozen qualifying international features. Parsing these shortlists reveals the strengths and weaknesses of Oscar contenders heading into the final round of voting for the final five nominations, which begins on Thursday, January 27, 2022, and ends on February 1, 2022. Nominations are announced on Tuesday, February 8, 2022.
With the calendar back to normal, more Oscar voters went out to screenings and theaters, although many made their selection from a wide range of movies available on the Academy portal. Back in the mix were such postponed movies as Denis Villeneuve’s day-and-date success “Dune” and Steven Spielberg’s success d’estime “West Side Story,” along with a smattering of arthouse and streaming fare.
With the calendar back to normal, more Oscar voters went out to screenings and theaters, although many made their selection from a wide range of movies available on the Academy portal. Back in the mix were such postponed movies as Denis Villeneuve’s day-and-date success “Dune” and Steven Spielberg’s success d’estime “West Side Story,” along with a smattering of arthouse and streaming fare.
- 12/21/2021
- by Anne Thompson and Bill Desowitz
- Thompson on Hollywood
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 94th Oscars ceremony.
The shortlist voting concluded on Dec. 15, and the remaining ones will move on to the official phase one voting. Nominations voting begins on Thursday, Jan. 27, and ends on Tuesday, Feb. 1. The official credits and nominees for all the films will be announced, with the rest of the Oscar nominations on Tuesday, Feb. 8.
Check out the list of the films and categories below:
Original Song
“So May We Start?” from “Annette” (Amazon Studios)
Ron Mael, Russell Mael (Sparks) “Down To Joy” from “Belfast” (Focus Features)
Van Morrison “Right Where I Belong” from “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road” (Screen Media Films)
Brian Wilson, Jim James “Automatic Woman” from “Bruised” (Netflix)
H.E.R. (other songwriters to be added) “Dream Girl” from “Cinderella” (Amazon Studios)
Idina Menzel, Laura Veltz “Beyond The Shore” from...
The shortlist voting concluded on Dec. 15, and the remaining ones will move on to the official phase one voting. Nominations voting begins on Thursday, Jan. 27, and ends on Tuesday, Feb. 1. The official credits and nominees for all the films will be announced, with the rest of the Oscar nominations on Tuesday, Feb. 8.
Check out the list of the films and categories below:
Original Song
“So May We Start?” from “Annette” (Amazon Studios)
Ron Mael, Russell Mael (Sparks) “Down To Joy” from “Belfast” (Focus Features)
Van Morrison “Right Where I Belong” from “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road” (Screen Media Films)
Brian Wilson, Jim James “Automatic Woman” from “Bruised” (Netflix)
H.E.R. (other songwriters to be added) “Dream Girl” from “Cinderella” (Amazon Studios)
Idina Menzel, Laura Veltz “Beyond The Shore” from...
- 12/21/2021
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
A24 is the leading film distributor with 13 nominations, followed by Neon and Netflix on nine.
Janicza Bravo’s Zola led the Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations with seven nods, followed by Lauren Hadaway’s The Novice with five and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter on four.
All three are competing for best feature and best director, with Ninja Thyberg for Pleasure and Mike Mills for C’mon C’mon rounding out the latter category. It’s the second year in a row that four women have been nominated for best director.
The other best feature nominees are C’mon C’mon...
Janicza Bravo’s Zola led the Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations with seven nods, followed by Lauren Hadaway’s The Novice with five and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter on four.
All three are competing for best feature and best director, with Ninja Thyberg for Pleasure and Mike Mills for C’mon C’mon rounding out the latter category. It’s the second year in a row that four women have been nominated for best director.
The other best feature nominees are C’mon C’mon...
- 12/14/2021
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Last year, IndieWire’s annual critics survey was a squeaker, with two equally beloved films vying neck-and-neck for the top spot. In 2021, though, the final result has been anything but a photo finish. With 187 critics and journalists voting on the best films and performances in this year’s survey, Jane Campion’s Western character study “The Power of the Dog” was the landslide victor, winning Best Film, Best Director, Best Performance (for Benedict Cumberbatch), and Best Cinematography. It’s the second time in the history of this poll, and the second year in a row following “Nomadland,” that a film directed by a woman topped the list, and it also topped IndieWire’s own staff list of the The Best Movies of 2021. Staffers from IndieWire, Variety, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and Entertainment Weekly voted, as well as freelance and staff writers for newspapers, websites, radio, and TV from across Europe,...
- 12/13/2021
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
“And the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature goes to… My Octopus Teacher… to American Factory… to Icarus.”
The Motion Picture Academy has enveloped Netflix nonfiction features with love again and again in recent years, rewarding the streamer with three trophies since 2018, not to mention half a dozen nominations overall.
But the story this year seems less Netflix and more National Geographic.
In a typical year, Netflix might easily boast five contenders. But this time around it’s Nat Geo with a quintet of competitors: Torn, The First Wave, Playing with Sharks, The Rescue—directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin—and Becoming Cousteau, the film about celebrated French marine explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau directed by two-time Oscar nominee Liz Garbus.
“Nat Geo has taken the scene by storm,” Garbus concurs. “The films are really, one and all, so different and so beautiful.”
When Disney acquired most of the Fox assets...
The Motion Picture Academy has enveloped Netflix nonfiction features with love again and again in recent years, rewarding the streamer with three trophies since 2018, not to mention half a dozen nominations overall.
But the story this year seems less Netflix and more National Geographic.
In a typical year, Netflix might easily boast five contenders. But this time around it’s Nat Geo with a quintet of competitors: Torn, The First Wave, Playing with Sharks, The Rescue—directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin—and Becoming Cousteau, the film about celebrated French marine explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau directed by two-time Oscar nominee Liz Garbus.
“Nat Geo has taken the scene by storm,” Garbus concurs. “The films are really, one and all, so different and so beautiful.”
When Disney acquired most of the Fox assets...
- 12/9/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s IndieWire’s now-familiar – and still very true – reframe: anyone who thinks this year (read: any year) has been bad for movies simply hasn’t seen enough of them. While the 2021 landscape looked a fair bit different than that of 2020 – for one thing, in-person festival attendance and theater-going returned, if cautiously and with plenty of new protocols – the ability to see films beyond the big screen has only continued apace. And while many might bemoan the degradation of the “movie-going experience,” no matter how you saw the best of this year’s beefy batch, it was worth it.
Look no further than our top two films, both new offerings from some of contemporary cinema’s most enduring and exciting auteurs, for proof that the delivery service is hardly as important as the art being, well, delivered. Jane Campion’s masterful, menacing “The Power of the Dog” premiered at Venice,...
Look no further than our top two films, both new offerings from some of contemporary cinema’s most enduring and exciting auteurs, for proof that the delivery service is hardly as important as the art being, well, delivered. Jane Campion’s masterful, menacing “The Power of the Dog” premiered at Venice,...
- 12/2/2021
- by David Ehrlich, Kate Erbland and Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
In the middle of an extraordinary year — 2020 — they were at work on films that charted other resonant histories. In Becoming Cousteau, Liz Garbus, 51, chronicles an emerging environmentalist; in Summer of Soul, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, 50, confronts the erasure of Black stories; in The Rescue, which he directed with Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, 48, depicts the challenge faced by a group of unlikely heroes; in The Velvet Underground, Todd Haynes, 60, chronicles a literal band of outsiders; in Procession, Robert Greene, 45, enables a group of trauma survivors to reenvision their own backstories; in Flee, Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 40, animates a refugee’s tale; and in Julia and My Name Is Pauli Murray, both of which she directed with Julie Cohen, Betsy West,...
- 12/2/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
In the middle of an extraordinary year — 2020 — they were at work on films that charted other resonant histories. In Becoming Cousteau, Liz Garbus, 51, chronicles an emerging environmentalist; in Summer of Soul, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, 50, confronts the erasure of Black stories; in The Rescue, which he directed with Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, 48, depicts the challenge faced by a group of unlikely heroes; in The Velvet Underground, Todd Haynes, 60, chronicles a literal band of outsiders; in Procession, Robert Greene, 45, enables a group of trauma survivors to reenvision their own backstories; in Flee, Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 40, animates a refugee’s tale; and in Julia and My Name Is Pauli Murray, both of which she directed with Julie Cohen, Betsy West,...
- 12/2/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Everyone thinks they know, generally, what a director does, but what is something that’s part of the job that that people might not be aware of? For one, what a group effort making a film is, regardless if it’s a narrative feature, animated film or documentary, Matthew Heineman (“The First Wave”), Mike Rianda (“The Mitchells vs. the Machines”), Robert Greene (“Procession”) and Liesl Tommy (“Respect”) share during our Meet the Experts: Film Directors panel. Watch the exclusive group roundtable video above. Click each name to watch that person’s individual interview.
“I think people think, like, Walt Disney just sort of popped up and was like, ‘I got an idea for a picture. It’s ‘Bambi.’ And here’s the beginning, the middle and the end. I did it. Goodbye! I’m Walt Disney,'” Rianda quips. “And the movies end up being so wonderfully collaborative where I...
“I think people think, like, Walt Disney just sort of popped up and was like, ‘I got an idea for a picture. It’s ‘Bambi.’ And here’s the beginning, the middle and the end. I did it. Goodbye! I’m Walt Disney,'” Rianda quips. “And the movies end up being so wonderfully collaborative where I...
- 11/30/2021
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
“Procession,” the Netflix documentary directed and edited by Robert Greene, focuses on six men who were abused by Catholic priests who are now trying to heal from their trauma. But instead recounting their stories in a standard talking-head style format, the men reenact their trauma through scripted short films as a form of drama therapy. It’s a unique form of therapy that Greene himself wasn’t sure they would all be on board with — and he was ready to wrap at any point in the process.
“The first meeting you see in the film when we’re talking through ideas, it’s not just like, ‘Hey, I have an idea and would like to do this.’ It was very much, ‘Should we do this?'” Greene tells Gold Derby at our Meet the Experts: Film Directors panel (watch above). “We were prepared that that was going to be the...
“The first meeting you see in the film when we’re talking through ideas, it’s not just like, ‘Hey, I have an idea and would like to do this.’ It was very much, ‘Should we do this?'” Greene tells Gold Derby at our Meet the Experts: Film Directors panel (watch above). “We were prepared that that was going to be the...
- 11/30/2021
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
By Glenn Dunks
It’s become somewhat predictable that a new Robert Greene will challenge an audience as much as it enthrals. He doesn’t exactly pick the most digestible of subject matter, but the way he comes at them is always so interesting and refreshingly unique that it becomes more than just a dour excursion into humanity’s darkest corners. While some may question his tactics, often interpolating traditional non-fiction form with performance and scripted drama, there is nonetheless a quality to his works that poke and prod at the most sensitive parts of a viewer’s brain.
His latest, the Netflix-distributed Catholic Church abuse drama Procession is no different. More so, it’s the best documentary of the year.
It’s become somewhat predictable that a new Robert Greene will challenge an audience as much as it enthrals. He doesn’t exactly pick the most digestible of subject matter, but the way he comes at them is always so interesting and refreshingly unique that it becomes more than just a dour excursion into humanity’s darkest corners. While some may question his tactics, often interpolating traditional non-fiction form with performance and scripted drama, there is nonetheless a quality to his works that poke and prod at the most sensitive parts of a viewer’s brain.
His latest, the Netflix-distributed Catholic Church abuse drama Procession is no different. More so, it’s the best documentary of the year.
- 11/25/2021
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
Multiple award-winning documentaries have been made about the child sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, including Amy Berg’s Deliver Us From Evil, Alex Gibney’s Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, and Kirby Dick’s Twist of Faith.
But there’s never been a documentary like Robert Greene’s Procession.
The film, newly-arrived on Netflix, revolves around six men who as boys were sexually assaulted by priests connected with the Kansas City Diocese. But in working with the survivors, Greene doesn’t adopt a typical, “Sit down and tell me what happened to you” approach.
“I’ve heard hours and hours and hours and hours of the most horrible things that these abusers put my friends—these men who are now my friends—through. Almost none of it is actually in the film,” Greene tells Deadline. “It wasn’t about recounting those stories. It was...
But there’s never been a documentary like Robert Greene’s Procession.
The film, newly-arrived on Netflix, revolves around six men who as boys were sexually assaulted by priests connected with the Kansas City Diocese. But in working with the survivors, Greene doesn’t adopt a typical, “Sit down and tell me what happened to you” approach.
“I’ve heard hours and hours and hours and hours of the most horrible things that these abusers put my friends—these men who are now my friends—through. Almost none of it is actually in the film,” Greene tells Deadline. “It wasn’t about recounting those stories. It was...
- 11/24/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
At the root of the word “procession” is “process” — really a fitting description for any Robert Greene film. But the title of the nonfiction veteran’s latest foray into character-collaborative doc-making has other meanings. It nods specifically to the Holy Spirit’s procession and also to the dictionary definition of people moving forward, a march that includes the risk-taking filmmaker himself. Procession (which premiered at Telluride and just hit Netflix November 19) is perhaps Greene’s boldest cinematic move yet. Once again the director (and “filmmaker-in-chief” at the University of Missouri’s Murray Center for Documentary Journalism) blurs the lines between narrative and nonfiction, […]
The post “We Found Ways to Combine Drama Therapy with Filmmaking into Something New”: Director Robert Greene on the Netflix Documentary Procession first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “We Found Ways to Combine Drama Therapy with Filmmaking into Something New”: Director Robert Greene on the Netflix Documentary Procession first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 11/22/2021
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Procession director Robert Greene said he would have stopped filming at any point if it was harming his subjects. He followed six survivors of sexual abuse by Kansas City priests as they re-created scenes of their experiences in the church. Greene spoke at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary about the Netflix movie.
“Basically, the first day of filming, which you see in the film, that could’ve been the last day of filming,” Greene said. “We started the meeting saying: ‘Today isn’t about what we’re going to do. Today is about whether we should do it.’ ”
A drama therapist, Monica Phinney, was involved in helping the men re-create the scenes in a healthy way. Procession technically wasn’t drama therapy, but Greene felt a responsibility to consult professionals throughout the process.
“We thought that doing these staged scenes that come from the guys, that come from the guys...
“Basically, the first day of filming, which you see in the film, that could’ve been the last day of filming,” Greene said. “We started the meeting saying: ‘Today isn’t about what we’re going to do. Today is about whether we should do it.’ ”
A drama therapist, Monica Phinney, was involved in helping the men re-create the scenes in a healthy way. Procession technically wasn’t drama therapy, but Greene felt a responsibility to consult professionals throughout the process.
“We thought that doing these staged scenes that come from the guys, that come from the guys...
- 11/21/2021
- by Fred Topel
- Deadline Film + TV
When Robert Greene began work on “Procession” – screening this week at documentary festival IDFA in the market section – the director wanted to upend long standing documentary models on the project, which follows six middle-aged survivors of abuse as they work together to reenact their traumatic memories on film.
“I didn’t want to have a traditional film where you put the camera in someone’s face, they feel a lot of stuff, you edit it into something powerful, and they feel left out,” Greene tells Variety. “Throughout the making, the more power we gave [the film’s six leads], the more cathartic and beautiful the experience was, and somewhere along the way I realized that every step of [the filmmaking and promotional process] could be part of that therapy.”
On paper that meant splitting up the “film by” credit, sharing it with the full cast and crew. In practice that meant breaking down certain divisions between pre-production, production and release,...
“I didn’t want to have a traditional film where you put the camera in someone’s face, they feel a lot of stuff, you edit it into something powerful, and they feel left out,” Greene tells Variety. “Throughout the making, the more power we gave [the film’s six leads], the more cathartic and beautiful the experience was, and somewhere along the way I realized that every step of [the filmmaking and promotional process] could be part of that therapy.”
On paper that meant splitting up the “film by” credit, sharing it with the full cast and crew. In practice that meant breaking down certain divisions between pre-production, production and release,...
- 11/21/2021
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Robert Greene had an idea. The filmmaker behind such blurred-line experimental documentaries as Kate Plays Christine (2016) and Bisbee ’17 (2018) had seen a Kansas City press conference, in which an attorney named Rebecca Randles and her clients — four men who’d been abused by Catholic priests as kids — were demanding that the authorities in Kansas and Missouri begin criminal investigations into the incidents. Never mind the statute of limitations; after discovering that more than 230 priests “that we know of” in the area who’d been actively abusive over several decades, it was...
- 11/19/2021
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Four top film directors will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022 Oscar and guild contenders. Each person from these films will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Monday, November 22, at 5:00 p.m. Pt; 8:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Joyce Eng and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.
RSVP today to this specific event by clicking here to book your reservation. Or click here to RSVP for our entire ongoing panel series of 17 panels in November and December. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.
This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2022 awards contenders:
“The First Wave”: Matthew Heineman
Synopsis: A documentary following nurses, doctors, and administrators as they respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.
RSVP today to this specific event by clicking here to book your reservation. Or click here to RSVP for our entire ongoing panel series of 17 panels in November and December. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.
This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2022 awards contenders:
“The First Wave”: Matthew Heineman
Synopsis: A documentary following nurses, doctors, and administrators as they respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- 11/16/2021
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
There have been many movies about victims telling their stories for the first time, but “Procession” is one of the few to put survivors in control of the narrative itself. Filmmaker Robert Greene’s boundary-pushing documentary explores the experiences of six adult men who suffered sexual abuse from Catholic priests and clergy, but rather than simply asking them to recall their harrowing experiences, the movie finds them collaborating on reenactments as a form of drama therapy.
This risky gamble tracks with Greene’s other experimental approaches to teasing out the boundaries of fiction and non-fiction, but it also introduces a more holistic qualify to the approach. The six victims at the center of “Procession” — Joe Eldred, Mike Foreman, Ed Gavagan, Dan Laurine, Michael Sandridge, and Tom Viviano — work together throughout the movie to develop scenes that capture the power dynamic behind the abuse they suffered. They also revisit locations where...
This risky gamble tracks with Greene’s other experimental approaches to teasing out the boundaries of fiction and non-fiction, but it also introduces a more holistic qualify to the approach. The six victims at the center of “Procession” — Joe Eldred, Mike Foreman, Ed Gavagan, Dan Laurine, Michael Sandridge, and Tom Viviano — work together throughout the movie to develop scenes that capture the power dynamic behind the abuse they suffered. They also revisit locations where...
- 11/15/2021
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Bisbee ’17 (Robert Greene)
Over the past decade, Robert Greene has carved out a place as one of the most vital American documentarians working today, and with Bisbee ’17, he has produced perhaps his most accomplished work to date. A chronicle of the centennial reenactment of the forced deportation of mining workers that occurred in the eponymous Arizona town, the film emerges as a clear-eyed, blistering look into contemporary political divisions through an entire spectrum of viewpoints, while still possessing some of the most lucid and impressive filmmaking of 2018. – Ryan S.
Where to Stream: Mubi (free for 30 days)
The Evening Hour (Braden King)
Has there been a great feature made about the opioid crisis in America? Director Braden King is determined to answer the...
Bisbee ’17 (Robert Greene)
Over the past decade, Robert Greene has carved out a place as one of the most vital American documentarians working today, and with Bisbee ’17, he has produced perhaps his most accomplished work to date. A chronicle of the centennial reenactment of the forced deportation of mining workers that occurred in the eponymous Arizona town, the film emerges as a clear-eyed, blistering look into contemporary political divisions through an entire spectrum of viewpoints, while still possessing some of the most lucid and impressive filmmaking of 2018. – Ryan S.
Where to Stream: Mubi (free for 30 days)
The Evening Hour (Braden King)
Has there been a great feature made about the opioid crisis in America? Director Braden King is determined to answer the...
- 9/10/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Bisbee’ 17, Kate Plays Christine, and Actress (Robert Greene)
Every two years or so, there comes a new Robert Greene film whose beautiful images, fascinating subjects, and thorough investigation of both immediate and surrounding concepts become overrun by the true-false question––what control Greene wields, where the spontaneous and constructed do or don’t collide. His latest, Bisbee ’17, sometimes plays like a provocation towards those assumptions, heavily relying on the reenactment of a horrific, little-known strike against working-class citizens (as our admiring review handily summarizes), parlaying the filmmaker’s strengths for documentary portrait and narrative whats-it into what may be his densest work to date. – Nick N. (full interview)
Where...
Bisbee’ 17, Kate Plays Christine, and Actress (Robert Greene)
Every two years or so, there comes a new Robert Greene film whose beautiful images, fascinating subjects, and thorough investigation of both immediate and surrounding concepts become overrun by the true-false question––what control Greene wields, where the spontaneous and constructed do or don’t collide. His latest, Bisbee ’17, sometimes plays like a provocation towards those assumptions, heavily relying on the reenactment of a horrific, little-known strike against working-class citizens (as our admiring review handily summarizes), parlaying the filmmaker’s strengths for documentary portrait and narrative whats-it into what may be his densest work to date. – Nick N. (full interview)
Where...
- 9/11/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Phillip Youmans’ “Burning Cane” took home the Founders Award for best narrative feature at the 18th annual Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday, with star Wendell Pierce earning Best Actor.
Youmans, a 19-year-old freshman at NYU, is the first African-American director to win the Founders Award and the youngest director to have a feature in Tribeca — he was just 17 when he wrote, directed and shot the film, about the fractious relationship between a mother and son in rural Louisiana.
Korean director Bora Kim’s “House of Hummingbird” won for best international narrative feature, and Ji-hu Park won best international actress.
In addition, Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin won for their documentary feature “Scheme Birds.”
Here’s the complete list of winners.
Also Read: 'Xy Chelsea' Film Review: Doc Tackles Chelsea Manning's Very In-Progress Story
U.S. Narrative Competition Categories:
The jurors for the 2019 U.S. Narrative Competition were Lucy Alibar,...
Youmans, a 19-year-old freshman at NYU, is the first African-American director to win the Founders Award and the youngest director to have a feature in Tribeca — he was just 17 when he wrote, directed and shot the film, about the fractious relationship between a mother and son in rural Louisiana.
Korean director Bora Kim’s “House of Hummingbird” won for best international narrative feature, and Ji-hu Park won best international actress.
In addition, Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin won for their documentary feature “Scheme Birds.”
Here’s the complete list of winners.
Also Read: 'Xy Chelsea' Film Review: Doc Tackles Chelsea Manning's Very In-Progress Story
U.S. Narrative Competition Categories:
The jurors for the 2019 U.S. Narrative Competition were Lucy Alibar,...
- 5/2/2019
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
Binary StarsWhen I was in college, I learned a particular story about the concept of the aesthetic. It was a drama that featured a lot of now-familiar players: Kant, Hegel, and Marx; Nietzsche and Heidegger; Benjamin and Adorno; Jameson and Eagleton; Kristeva and Derrida. Despite the myriad ups and downs of the very concept of art, its relative or absolute autonomy, or its capacity or incapacity for social critique, there remained a general set of constants. One of them was the idea that art, as a space somewhat set apart from the needful things of daily life and especially the instrumentalist thinking of the marketplace, might offer, if not a possible glimpse of a future utopia, at least a clearing for contemplation. Today, an aesthetician is not necessarily a theorist. He or she is also someone who specializes in the treatment of skin. This may seem somehow frivolous, but the connection is real,...
- 1/5/2019
- MUBI
Ifp, Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced the nominations for its 2018 Ifp Gotham Awards this morning. The two top films, receiving three nominations each, were something of a surprise: Yorgos Lanthimos’s period Fox Searchlight drama, The Favourite, and Paul Schrader’s anthropocene-set drama of faith, First Reformed. Both films compete for Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Other best picture nominees include Barry Jenkins’s If Beale St. Could Talk, Chloe Zhao’s The Rider and Josephine Decker’s Madeline’s Madeline. Best Documentary nods went to Robert Greene’s Bisbee ’17, RaMell Ross’s Hale County, This Morning, This Evening, Bing Liu’s Minding the Gap, Sandi Tan’s Shirkers […]...
- 10/18/2018
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Ifp, Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced the nominations for its 2018 Ifp Gotham Awards this morning. The two top films, receiving three nominations each, were something of a surprise: Yorgos Lanthimos’s period Fox Searchlight drama, The Favourite, and Paul Schrader’s anthropocene-set drama of faith, First Reformed. Both films compete for Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Other best picture nominees include Barry Jenkins’s If Beale St. Could Talk, Chloe Zhao’s The Rider and Josephine Decker’s Madeline’s Madeline. Best Documentary nods went to Robert Greene’s Bisbee ’17, RaMell Ross’s Hale County, This Morning, This Evening, Bing Liu’s Minding the Gap, Sandi Tan’s Shirkers […]...
- 10/18/2018
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
We may still have two months left in the year, but considering nearly all independent films have already made their debuts, it’s time for the 2018 Gotham Awards to reveal their nominations. Leading the pack are Paul Schrader’s First Reformed and Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite, both picked up a trio of nominations.
Rounding out the Best Feature nominations are Madeline’s Madeline, If Beale Street Could Talk, and The Rider. Other highlights include Minding the Gap, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, and Bisbee ’17 earning Best Documentary nominations, while Roma‘s Yalitza Aparicio, Sorry to Bother You‘s Lakeith Stanfield, Support the Girl‘s Regina Hall, Hereditary‘s Toni Collette, and more.
Presented by the Independent Filmmaker Project, the 2018 Gotham Awards will take place on November 26. See the nominations below.
Best Feature
“The Favourite”
Yorgos Lanthimos, director; Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, Yorgos Lanthimos, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
“First Reformed”
Paul Schrader,...
Rounding out the Best Feature nominations are Madeline’s Madeline, If Beale Street Could Talk, and The Rider. Other highlights include Minding the Gap, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, and Bisbee ’17 earning Best Documentary nominations, while Roma‘s Yalitza Aparicio, Sorry to Bother You‘s Lakeith Stanfield, Support the Girl‘s Regina Hall, Hereditary‘s Toni Collette, and more.
Presented by the Independent Filmmaker Project, the 2018 Gotham Awards will take place on November 26. See the nominations below.
Best Feature
“The Favourite”
Yorgos Lanthimos, director; Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, Yorgos Lanthimos, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
“First Reformed”
Paul Schrader,...
- 10/18/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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