France’s Mediawan has acquired Germany’s Leonine Studios.
The deal, financial terms of which were not revealed, has been bubbling since November last year. Call My Agent maker Mediawan has owned a 25% stake in the business since 2020.
The all-stock deal will see the two companies move even closer together and forms a major European indie studio with 85 labels operating across 13 countries and revenues of more than €1B ($1.1B).
Leonine was founded in 2019 by Fred Kogel with financial support from Kkr — a Mediawan backer — and Atwater Capital through acquiring and merging Tmg, Universum Film, i&u TV and Wiedemann & Berg Film, and then W&b Television, Seo Entertainment, Hyperbole, BeetzBros Film Production and Toon2Tango.
Productions from within the group include The Lives of Others, School of Magical Animals, Dark, The Gryphon, Crooks, Juan Carlos – Downfall of The King, and The Cleaners. It also has certain rights to blockbuster titles such as the John Wick franchise,...
The deal, financial terms of which were not revealed, has been bubbling since November last year. Call My Agent maker Mediawan has owned a 25% stake in the business since 2020.
The all-stock deal will see the two companies move even closer together and forms a major European indie studio with 85 labels operating across 13 countries and revenues of more than €1B ($1.1B).
Leonine was founded in 2019 by Fred Kogel with financial support from Kkr — a Mediawan backer — and Atwater Capital through acquiring and merging Tmg, Universum Film, i&u TV and Wiedemann & Berg Film, and then W&b Television, Seo Entertainment, Hyperbole, BeetzBros Film Production and Toon2Tango.
Productions from within the group include The Lives of Others, School of Magical Animals, Dark, The Gryphon, Crooks, Juan Carlos – Downfall of The King, and The Cleaners. It also has certain rights to blockbuster titles such as the John Wick franchise,...
- 4/28/2024
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
European powerhouse Mediawan has acquired Leonine, a leading production and distribution group active in German-speaking markets.
With the acquisition of Leonine, Mediawan will boast a portfolio of 85 labels, a catalogue spanning 30,000 hours of premium content and revenues exceeding €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion). Mediawan’s worth is now believed to be in the $2-billion range. The deal is an all-stock transaction; both companies have the same shareholder, the U.S. private equity fund Kkr whose stake in Mediawan will still be below 50%, according to a source close to the company.
Mediawan now has a significant footprint in all major European markets, including German-speaking territories which represent the continent’s second largest TV market. The pact positions Mediawan as one of the world’s biggest super indies with a large proportion of scripted business across prestige series and movies. Mediawan now spans 13 countries including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Benelux and the U.K.
With the acquisition of Leonine, Mediawan will boast a portfolio of 85 labels, a catalogue spanning 30,000 hours of premium content and revenues exceeding €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion). Mediawan’s worth is now believed to be in the $2-billion range. The deal is an all-stock transaction; both companies have the same shareholder, the U.S. private equity fund Kkr whose stake in Mediawan will still be below 50%, according to a source close to the company.
Mediawan now has a significant footprint in all major European markets, including German-speaking territories which represent the continent’s second largest TV market. The pact positions Mediawan as one of the world’s biggest super indies with a large proportion of scripted business across prestige series and movies. Mediawan now spans 13 countries including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Benelux and the U.K.
- 4/28/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: London-based Dogwoof has locked a series of international deals on Eternal You, a documentary about AI startups set to screen at this month’s Hot Docs Fest following a debut bow at Sundance.
The doc has been picked up by Film Movement (USA), BBC Storyville (UK TV), Movistar (Spain), Canal+ (Poland), and Vertigo (Hungary). Dogwoof will release the pic theatrically in the UK and Ireland on 28 June. A release in Germany via farbfilm verleih will follow at the end of May after a premiere screening at Dok Fest Munich.
The plot of Eternal You delves into the world of startups using AI to create avatars of the deceased. Synopsis reads: Eternal You is a film about what might become one of the greatest human experiments of our time. Examining the story of people who live on as digital replicants in the pockets of their loved ones, with the help...
The doc has been picked up by Film Movement (USA), BBC Storyville (UK TV), Movistar (Spain), Canal+ (Poland), and Vertigo (Hungary). Dogwoof will release the pic theatrically in the UK and Ireland on 28 June. A release in Germany via farbfilm verleih will follow at the end of May after a premiere screening at Dok Fest Munich.
The plot of Eternal You delves into the world of startups using AI to create avatars of the deceased. Synopsis reads: Eternal You is a film about what might become one of the greatest human experiments of our time. Examining the story of people who live on as digital replicants in the pockets of their loved ones, with the help...
- 4/18/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: When Emmy-nominated EP Christian Beetz set out to explore the story of disgraced former Spanish King Juan Carlos I, he could never have imagined the “nightmare trip” that followed.
As Sky and NBCUniversal Global Distribution prepare to unveil Juan Carlos: Downfall of the King at Mip TV, Beetz revealed to Deadline that he believed he and his production team were being followed and their conversations listened to during the making of the four-parter last year.
“After doing our first round of interviews with journalists we got an anonymous call saying ‘Be careful what you’re doing here’,” he told us. “This was the start of a nightmare trip.”
Beetz believes his emails were being read and phone was being tapped, and his team started taking precautions, including placing their phones in the fridge – a move made famous by Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden.
“When these things are happening you know...
As Sky and NBCUniversal Global Distribution prepare to unveil Juan Carlos: Downfall of the King at Mip TV, Beetz revealed to Deadline that he believed he and his production team were being followed and their conversations listened to during the making of the four-parter last year.
“After doing our first round of interviews with journalists we got an anonymous call saying ‘Be careful what you’re doing here’,” he told us. “This was the start of a nightmare trip.”
Beetz believes his emails were being read and phone was being tapped, and his team started taking precautions, including placing their phones in the fridge – a move made famous by Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden.
“When these things are happening you know...
- 4/16/2023
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
After a seemingly successful debut with “Carnival Row” on Amazon, it appears that star Orlando Bloom is ready to make TV his home yet again for another series on the streaming service, titled “The Cleaners.” But those worried he is about to star in a show about vacuums and disinfectant, don’t fret. “The Cleaners” is a sci-fi tale that has very little to do with cleanliness and more to do about human feelings and memories.
Continue reading ‘The Cleaners’: Orlando Bloom To Star In Amazon’s Sci-Fi Series From ‘The Oa’ & ‘Mindhunter’ Writer at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The Cleaners’: Orlando Bloom To Star In Amazon’s Sci-Fi Series From ‘The Oa’ & ‘Mindhunter’ Writer at The Playlist.
- 10/7/2020
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Exclusive: A sci-fi short story, written by Ken Liu, is being developed as a television series for Amazon by The OA writer Dominic Orlando with Orlando Bloom as exec producer.
The Cleaners tells how, in the near future, inanimate objects carry the memories of people’s experiences, and a certain number of the population have the ability to relive those memories by touch. Cleaners are specialists hired to sanitize the objects and relieve emotional burdens these memories may hold. At the center of this story is a young man who inherits his family’s cleaning business, and takes on a mysterious new commission.
The story, which is loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Princess and The Pea, is part of Faraway, a collection of retold fairy tales that is set to be published on December 15 from Amazon Original Stories.
The series is produced by Amazon Studios in association...
The Cleaners tells how, in the near future, inanimate objects carry the memories of people’s experiences, and a certain number of the population have the ability to relive those memories by touch. Cleaners are specialists hired to sanitize the objects and relieve emotional burdens these memories may hold. At the center of this story is a young man who inherits his family’s cleaning business, and takes on a mysterious new commission.
The story, which is loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Princess and The Pea, is part of Faraway, a collection of retold fairy tales that is set to be published on December 15 from Amazon Original Stories.
The series is produced by Amazon Studios in association...
- 10/6/2020
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
A total of 166 films have been submitted for consideration in the documentary feature category for the 91st Academy Awards.
Notable titles up for the gold include “Rbg,” “Three Identical Strangers,” “Free Solo” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” — which have performed strongly at the box office. Fred Rogers documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” has grossed $22.6 million domestically.
Nine of the 10 titles named as finalists for the International Documentary Association’s top feature are on the list, including “Crime + Punishment,” “Dark Money,” “Free Solo,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” “Minding the Gap,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” “The Silence of Others,” “United Skates” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences noted that several of the 166 films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying runs. A shortlist of 15 movies will be announced on Dec. 17.
Nominations...
Notable titles up for the gold include “Rbg,” “Three Identical Strangers,” “Free Solo” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” — which have performed strongly at the box office. Fred Rogers documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” has grossed $22.6 million domestically.
Nine of the 10 titles named as finalists for the International Documentary Association’s top feature are on the list, including “Crime + Punishment,” “Dark Money,” “Free Solo,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” “Minding the Gap,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” “The Silence of Others,” “United Skates” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences noted that several of the 166 films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying runs. A shortlist of 15 movies will be announced on Dec. 17.
Nominations...
- 11/8/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Last year, the Academy documentary branch had to grapple with a record 170 documentary feature submissions for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. This year, it’s not so bad: only 166 were entered. The short list of 15 will be announced, along with eight others for the first time on a single date this year: December 17.
All year, branch members have been getting lists of secure online screeners available to watch on the Academy website, increasing in volume until last month, when they received a batch of 77, with more to come. It’s a burden to watch them all, so the ones with the most attention move to the top of the much-watch list. Give the advantage to early box office hits that were made available in the summer such as “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” “Rbg,” and “Three Identical Strangers,” as well as September’s list including critically hailed “Dark Money,...
All year, branch members have been getting lists of secure online screeners available to watch on the Academy website, increasing in volume until last month, when they received a batch of 77, with more to come. It’s a burden to watch them all, so the ones with the most attention move to the top of the much-watch list. Give the advantage to early box office hits that were made available in the summer such as “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” “Rbg,” and “Three Identical Strangers,” as well as September’s list including critically hailed “Dark Money,...
- 11/8/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Last year, the Academy documentary branch had to grapple with a record 170 documentary feature submissions for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. This year, it’s not so bad: only 166 were entered. The short list of 15 will be announced, along with eight others for the first time on a single date this year: December 17.
All year, branch members have been getting lists of secure online screeners available to watch on the Academy website, increasing in volume until last month, when they received a batch of 77, with more to come. It’s a burden to watch them all, so the ones with the most attention move to the top of the much-watch list. Give the advantage to early box office hits that were made available in the summer such as “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” “Rbg,” and “Three Identical Strangers,” as well as September’s list including critically hailed “Dark Money,...
All year, branch members have been getting lists of secure online screeners available to watch on the Academy website, increasing in volume until last month, when they received a batch of 77, with more to come. It’s a burden to watch them all, so the ones with the most attention move to the top of the much-watch list. Give the advantage to early box office hits that were made available in the summer such as “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” “Rbg,” and “Three Identical Strangers,” as well as September’s list including critically hailed “Dark Money,...
- 11/8/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
A whopping 166 documentary features have been submitted to the academy for consideration at the 2019 Oscars. That is down by four from last year’s record 170 submissions. Among these contenders are all of the highest grossing documentaries of the year including “Free Solo,” “Rbg” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
To winnow the entries down to the 15 semi-finalists that will be announced on December 17, the academy is sending monthly packages of the newly eligible documentary feature screeners to all 400 or so 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 late November, each branch member will submit a preferential ballot listing their top 15 choices.
See 2019 Oscars: Foreign-language film entries from A (Afghanistan) to Y (Yemen)
All of these ballots will be collated to determine the 15 semi-finalists. Branch members will then be...
To winnow the entries down to the 15 semi-finalists that will be announced on December 17, the academy is sending monthly packages of the newly eligible documentary feature screeners to all 400 or so 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 late November, each branch member will submit a preferential ballot listing their top 15 choices.
See 2019 Oscars: Foreign-language film entries from A (Afghanistan) to Y (Yemen)
All of these ballots will be collated to determine the 15 semi-finalists. Branch members will then be...
- 11/8/2018
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
In a year that has seen multiple documentaries find mainstream success, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the list of 166 docs that have been submitted for Oscar consideration this year.
Among the films on the list are Michael Moore’s anti-Trump polemic “Fahrenheit 11/9,” as well as CNN Films’ Ruth Bader Ginsburg biography “Rbg” and Focus’ Mister Rogers retrospective “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
Other films considered frontrunners include “Three Identical Strangers,” the wild story of triplets who were separated at birth by a bizarre experiment, “Free Solo,” which documents the first ever attempt to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan without any climbing gear, and “Dark Money,” an investigative report into the influence of billionaires on American democracy through the lens of a Montana congressional race.
Also Read: Sorry, Oscar Documentary Voters: Your Workload Just Doubled
The contender field is slightly less than last year’s record field of 170 but does include,...
Among the films on the list are Michael Moore’s anti-Trump polemic “Fahrenheit 11/9,” as well as CNN Films’ Ruth Bader Ginsburg biography “Rbg” and Focus’ Mister Rogers retrospective “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
Other films considered frontrunners include “Three Identical Strangers,” the wild story of triplets who were separated at birth by a bizarre experiment, “Free Solo,” which documents the first ever attempt to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan without any climbing gear, and “Dark Money,” an investigative report into the influence of billionaires on American democracy through the lens of a Montana congressional race.
Also Read: Sorry, Oscar Documentary Voters: Your Workload Just Doubled
The contender field is slightly less than last year’s record field of 170 but does include,...
- 11/8/2018
- by Jeremy Fuster
- The Wrap
Members of the Academy’s documentary branch received a generous gift from AMPAS on Friday: 77 new films that had qualified in this year’s Best Documentary Feature category.
And it turned what had been a modest year for docs — with a total of 83 films included in June, July, August and September groups — into one in which the number of eligible films that voters would need to watch nearly doubled.
The Academy also promised voters in the branch to expect a final batch of films in early November — which, if it hits double digits, will set a new record in the category.
Also Read: 'Free Solo' Leads Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Nominations
The previous high, set last year, was 170 films. With 160 already on the Oscar eligibility list and one additional (though likely small) batch yet to come, this year’s crop will give voters a lot of work to do before...
And it turned what had been a modest year for docs — with a total of 83 films included in June, July, August and September groups — into one in which the number of eligible films that voters would need to watch nearly doubled.
The Academy also promised voters in the branch to expect a final batch of films in early November — which, if it hits double digits, will set a new record in the category.
Also Read: 'Free Solo' Leads Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Nominations
The previous high, set last year, was 170 films. With 160 already on the Oscar eligibility list and one additional (though likely small) batch yet to come, this year’s crop will give voters a lot of work to do before...
- 10/27/2018
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Kamila Andini.
There’s an Australian connection among each of the competition winning films at this year’s Adelaide Film Festival.
The prizes for the best fiction feature, documentary and Vr films were presented yesterday evening at the festival, ahead of the Australian premiere of Felix Van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy.
Indonesian writer-director Kamila Andini’s The Seen and Unseen, a co-production between Indonesia, the Netherlands, Australia and Qatar, took out the $20,000 prize for International Feature Fiction Competition. Set in Bali, the film follows a young girl who seeks out imaginative ways to cope with the death of her twin brother, and it has also won 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Youth Feature and the Crystal Bear in Berlin.
The award was presented by director Scott Hicks, on behalf of the International Jury, which also comprised of Paolo Bertolin, filmmaker and selector for Venice and selection committee for Cannes Directors Fortnight,...
There’s an Australian connection among each of the competition winning films at this year’s Adelaide Film Festival.
The prizes for the best fiction feature, documentary and Vr films were presented yesterday evening at the festival, ahead of the Australian premiere of Felix Van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy.
Indonesian writer-director Kamila Andini’s The Seen and Unseen, a co-production between Indonesia, the Netherlands, Australia and Qatar, took out the $20,000 prize for International Feature Fiction Competition. Set in Bali, the film follows a young girl who seeks out imaginative ways to cope with the death of her twin brother, and it has also won 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Youth Feature and the Crystal Bear in Berlin.
The award was presented by director Scott Hicks, on behalf of the International Jury, which also comprised of Paolo Bertolin, filmmaker and selector for Venice and selection committee for Cannes Directors Fortnight,...
- 10/16/2018
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
‘Emu Runner’, which debuted at Tiff, will screen as part of Adelaide’s feature competition.
Adelaide Film Festival launched its full program today, including a variety of highlights direct from Venice, Toronto and Telluride.
Among the films announced today are Venice’s Golden Lion winner Roma, from director Alfonso Cuarón; the Coen Brothers’ best screenplay winner The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate, for which Willem Dafoe won best actor.
Overall this year’s program includes more than 130 features, documentaries, shorts, virtual reality and installation works, including 17 world premieres and 30 Australian premieres.
Almost 45 per cent of the films in the line-up are Australian. They include, as previously announced, some of the most anticipated local films of the year, such as Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale, which just won Venice’s Special Jury Prize and the Marcello Mastroianni award for star Baykali Ganambarr; Anthony Maras...
Adelaide Film Festival launched its full program today, including a variety of highlights direct from Venice, Toronto and Telluride.
Among the films announced today are Venice’s Golden Lion winner Roma, from director Alfonso Cuarón; the Coen Brothers’ best screenplay winner The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate, for which Willem Dafoe won best actor.
Overall this year’s program includes more than 130 features, documentaries, shorts, virtual reality and installation works, including 17 world premieres and 30 Australian premieres.
Almost 45 per cent of the films in the line-up are Australian. They include, as previously announced, some of the most anticipated local films of the year, such as Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale, which just won Venice’s Special Jury Prize and the Marcello Mastroianni award for star Baykali Ganambarr; Anthony Maras...
- 9/12/2018
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
Lois Vossen, longtime exec producer of PBS’ documentary series “Independent Lens,” says she wasn’t surprised when “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” began to dominate the indie box office, receiving critical acclaim and pulling in more than $8 million from theaters across the country.
“Fred Rogers is beloved, and at a time when there is so much divisiveness, when there is a film about this person who stood for inclusiveness, love, tolerance, I think people are desperately hungry,” Vossen said in an interview with TheWrap.
In her 22 years at the Independent Television Service, and her 16 years overseeing the Emmy award-winning “Independent Lens,” Vossen said she’s developed a deep understanding of the power of documentary films and public media. And as part of the “Independent Lens” team that co-presented the Fred Rogers biopic, she envisioned its potential for success long before it hit theaters.
Also Read: Ed Schultz, Former MSNBC Host,...
“Fred Rogers is beloved, and at a time when there is so much divisiveness, when there is a film about this person who stood for inclusiveness, love, tolerance, I think people are desperately hungry,” Vossen said in an interview with TheWrap.
In her 22 years at the Independent Television Service, and her 16 years overseeing the Emmy award-winning “Independent Lens,” Vossen said she’s developed a deep understanding of the power of documentary films and public media. And as part of the “Independent Lens” team that co-presented the Fred Rogers biopic, she envisioned its potential for success long before it hit theaters.
Also Read: Ed Schultz, Former MSNBC Host,...
- 7/6/2018
- by Juliette Verlaque
- The Wrap
The BBC is going inside the Bank of England and exploring gun crime in Britain in a series of factual commissions. The public broadcaster has also picked up feature doc Under The Wire, which tells the story of Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin and photographer Paul Conroy’s mission to Syria.
The shows were revealed at the Sheffield Doc/Fest by Alison Kirkham, Controller BBC Factual Commissioning.
Inside The Bank of England (w/t) lets cameras inside the financial institution throughout 2018 as Governor Mark Carney and his staff try to revive the UK economy. The two-part series, which will air on BBC Two, will look at how the bank’s decisions impact people’s lives and aims to demystify central banking and explores the gold and incredible architecture of the fortress-like Threadneedle Street building. The series is produced by Gold Rush producer Raw and was commissioned by BBC Two Controller Patrick Holland,...
The shows were revealed at the Sheffield Doc/Fest by Alison Kirkham, Controller BBC Factual Commissioning.
Inside The Bank of England (w/t) lets cameras inside the financial institution throughout 2018 as Governor Mark Carney and his staff try to revive the UK economy. The two-part series, which will air on BBC Two, will look at how the bank’s decisions impact people’s lives and aims to demystify central banking and explores the gold and incredible architecture of the fortress-like Threadneedle Street building. The series is produced by Gold Rush producer Raw and was commissioned by BBC Two Controller Patrick Holland,...
- 6/11/2018
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
“Searching,” from director Aneesh Chaganty and starring John Cho and Debra Messing, won the audience award for North American narrative film at the 34th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. The thriller will open nationally in August in theaters through Screen Gems.
The documentary “Minding the Gap,” directed by Bing Liu, won the audience award for documentary feature, and also was given the special jury prize for best director.
The festival gives out awards in both North American and international categories. For international narrative feature divisions, “In the Life of Music,” directed by Caylee So and Visal Sok, was a double winner, with both the audience award and special jury prize.
The international documentary-feature audience award was given to “Late Life: The Chien-Ming Wang Story,” directed by Frank W. Chen.
Other winners: “Call Her Ganda,” directed by Pj Raval, grand jury prize for North American docu feature; “Anote’s Ark” from director Matthieu Rytz,...
The documentary “Minding the Gap,” directed by Bing Liu, won the audience award for documentary feature, and also was given the special jury prize for best director.
The festival gives out awards in both North American and international categories. For international narrative feature divisions, “In the Life of Music,” directed by Caylee So and Visal Sok, was a double winner, with both the audience award and special jury prize.
The international documentary-feature audience award was given to “Late Life: The Chien-Ming Wang Story,” directed by Frank W. Chen.
Other winners: “Call Her Ganda,” directed by Pj Raval, grand jury prize for North American docu feature; “Anote’s Ark” from director Matthieu Rytz,...
- 5/19/2018
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Every minute, hundreds of hours of video are uploaded to YouTube and novels’ worth of words are posted on Facebook and Twitter. Who sorts through all this content to find violent, pornographic, or otherwise questionable images? The Cleaners introduces us to the employees of companies to which social media platforms outsource their moderation. Along the way, it explores not just their job, but also the disquieting degree to which a handful of corporations now control the global flow of information.
The film switches between interviewing a handful of moderators working out of the Philippines and examining wider issues around internet censorship. Like a lot of internet-related drudge work, content moderation is too complex for an algorithm (at this point, at least), considered unskilled labor, and in need of great masses of workers. In the tech age, that’s a combination that’ll get a position outsourced to a “third-world” country in less than a minute.
The film switches between interviewing a handful of moderators working out of the Philippines and examining wider issues around internet censorship. Like a lot of internet-related drudge work, content moderation is too complex for an algorithm (at this point, at least), considered unskilled labor, and in need of great masses of workers. In the tech age, that’s a combination that’ll get a position outsourced to a “third-world” country in less than a minute.
- 1/28/2018
- by Daniel Schindel
- The Film Stage
German editor Philipp Gromov has cut 11 documentary features, series and shorts since 2010. He began his career on The Other Chelsea: A Story from Donetsk, which tells the story of a small mining town in Ukraine. His latest feature, The Cleaners, premieres in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The film offers a rare glimpse into the lives of digital “cleaners”: anonymous people contracted by Silicon Valley companies to scrub the internet of content deemed “inappropriate.” Gromov spoke with Filmmaker about cutting the film and why The Cleaners has inspired him to cut his own use of social media. Filmmaker: How […]...
- 1/25/2018
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
One of 12 films to compete in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at Sundance this year, The Cleaners tells the story of so-called “digital scavengers.” These are individuals outsourced by Silicon Valley companies to delete supposedly inappropriate content from the internet. The Cleaners takes place in a nocturnal Manila designed to evoke Blade Runner and Gotham City. The film’s cinematographers – Axel Schneppat and Max Preiss – spoke with Filmmaker before the film’s five showings at Sundance. Below they discuss the cinematic challenge of shedding “light on an industry virtually kept in the dark.” Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]...
- 1/22/2018
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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