Category Archives: Documentary

Lou Ye’s Docufiction AN UNFINISHED FILM + Four Ye Features | Opening March 14 at Film Forum

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an-unfinished-filmFilm Forum has announce the US theatrical premiere of Lou Ye’s AN UNFINISHED FILM on Friday, March 14.

Using outtakes and on-set footage from SUZHOU RIVER and other films (SPRING FEVER, MYSTERY, THE SHADOW PLAY), and casting real actors from these films to play themselves, Lou creates an intense yet playful catharsis for filmmakers, artists, and, ultimately, all of us — a chance to revisit that time, and to heal.

In this enthralling, poignant docufiction, director Lou Ye (SUZHOU RIVER) and his crew reunite in Wuhan in January 2020 to complete a film started a decade earlier. When the first wave of COVID precipitates lockdown and fear, this story of revived artistic vision pivots to a thriller-paced account of the early spread of the virus — both the devastation and the deep connections borne of shared isolation.

AN UNFINISHED FILM had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the Special Screenings section and was an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival, MoMA Doc Fortnight, and more.


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Theatrical Release of the Cannes Doc “The Falling Sky”

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the-falling-skyKimStim has announced the North American theatrical release of The Falling Sky (A Queda do Céu), the immersive and lyrical Brazilian documentary co-directed by acclaimed documentarian Eryk Rocha (Cinema Novo) and first-time director Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha.

Inspired by the 2010 book of the same name by Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa—who serves as both protagonist and narrator—and French anthropologist Bruce Albert, this breathtaking and collaborative film gives voice to the remote Yanomami and Watoriki communities as they issue a dire warning to the world: environmental catastrophe is imminent, driven by the greed of industrialized nations.

A standout at major international festivals—including Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, DOC NYC, and Doclisboa—this powerful and award-winning portrait of Indigenous resilience will open with a one-week theatrical engagement at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City on Friday, March 7, followed by a theatrical release at Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles beginning Friday, April 2, with additional cities to be announced.
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“Documentary Feature Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between the Lines” Debuts on Knowledge Network

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Arthur-Erickson-Beauty-Between-the-LinesBlack Rhino Creative has announced that the documentary feature Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between the Lines from Vancouver-based directors Ryan Mah and Danny Berish will premiere on Knowledge Network Tuesday, February 25th at 9pm and will be available to viewers across Canada for the first time online through Knowledge Network’s streaming service and apps.

Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between the Lines, which has been held over in Vancouver at the VIFF Centre for fourteen weeks, delves into the personal life and work of Arthur Erickson, a visionary architect first in Canada and ultimately across the globe. The film was made with unprecedented access to the Erickson archives and with the full cooperation of the Erickson family making this a “definitive” film about a truly exceptional man. With intimate interviews, unseen archival footage, and an exploration of his architectural masterpieces, the film weaves together the complexities of Erickson’s personal life, his sexuality and his public-facing professional life.

It reveals a man who transcended traditional boundaries, who fused art, culture, and nature and in the process, redefined modern architecture. Beauty Between the Lines explores the impact his relationships had on his work.

Danny Berish and Ryan Mah are award-winning documentary film directors whose credits include the one-hour documentary film for TELUS Outside In, the 6-part series Red Chef Revival, Nude to Me a documentary selected by the Hot Docs Film Festival in 2020, and House Special, a 5-part documentary series. Danny and Ryan are also in their third season of directing the travel series Postcards from… for AMI. Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between the Lines is their first feature documentary. The film will continue its festival run before its broadcast on Knowledge Network February 25th.
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Sundance News: Documentary “The Librarian” To Receive Subject Matter Grant At Sundance Film Festival

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thelibrarianSubject Matter announced their first grants of 2025 today, awarding $25,000 to Kim A. Snyder’s film The Librarians which will world premiere in the Premieres category at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. In addition, a $25,000 grant will go to PEN America, a 103-year-old writers’ organization that defends free expression.

As an unprecedented wave of book banning is sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians under siege join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy in Kim A. Snyder’s The Librarians.

PEN America has documented the rise of book bans and educational gag orders erasing subject matter in public schools since 2021. The organization has documented more than 15,000 instances of book bans during these years, censorship not seen since the Red Scare period of the 1950s. The most frequently targeted books are those that have long fought for a place on shelves–books by authors of color, LGBTQ+ authors, and women, which examine racism, sexuality, gender, and the history of marginalized groups. PEN America has mobilized the public against this censorship and the intolerance and exclusion that undergird it.

Subject Matter’s grant will help PEN America leverage its expertise to connect, support, and protect brave librarians fighting for intellectual freedom.

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Sundance 2025: “Hold Me Close” Documentary Short Film by Aurora Brachman & LaTajh Simmons-Weaver

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“Hold Me Close” will have its world premiere in the Documentary Short Film category at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Directed by Emmy Award-winner Aurora Brachman (2020 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship) & LaTajh Simmons-Weaver, Hold Me Close is “a chronicle of the power and complexity of the relationship between Corinne and Tiana, two Queer Black womxn who experience cycles of life’s joys and pains together in the home they share”

Watch the “Meet The Artist” feature below:

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“Becoming Led Zeppelin” IMAX Release Date and Full-Length Trailer

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Becoming-Led-ZeppelinBecoming Led Zeppelin, the highly-anticipated documentary about rock legends Led Zeppelin’s early years, is set for release in February.

Powered by awe-inspiring, psychedelic, never-before-seen footage, performances, and music, Bernard MacMahon’s experiential cinematic odyssey explores Led Zeppelin’s creative, musical, and personal origin story. The film is told in Led Zeppelin’s own words and is the first officially sanctioned film on the group.

Directed by Bernard MacMahon and produced by writer-producer Allison McGourty, Sony Pictures Classics is set to release the documentary on February 07, 2025 on Imax.

Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty wrote the screenplay.

See the trailer below for “Becoming Led Zeppelin” and find a showing near you at Imax.com.

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New Trailer For Philip Gelatt’s “First Word On Horror”

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FIRST-WORD-ON-HORRORETCH announced today the upcoming release of their documentary series FIRST WORD ON HORROR, which will be available exclusively via Substack on February 7, 2025, featuring Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay, Elizabeth Hand, Laird Barron, and Mariana Enriquez.

This will be the first project from the independent animation and production company run by the award-winning trio of Philip Gelatt, Will Battersby and Morgan Galen King.

FIRST WORD ON HORROR is a fifteen-part documentary series that profiles five of the finest horror writers working today.

Across multiple episodes, each author discusses their life, their inspirations, their philosophies, and their writing techniques while reading one of their short stories. As fact and fiction blend, secrets are revealed and the delicate alchemy that turns human experience into creative expression begins to emerge.

The series is a love letter to writers of all ilk, to the primacy of the human experience, and to the simple act of reading a damned good story.

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2025 PGA Awards Announce Documentary Motion Pictures Nominees

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SuperMan--The-Christopher-Reeve-Story-The Producers Guild of America has released its 2025 PGA Awards nominees for the category of Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures.

The nominees were announced on December 10, 2024. The ceremony is set take place on February 8, 2025 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, California.

The films nominated for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures are listed below in alphabetical order:

  • Gaucho Gaucho
  • Mediha
  • Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa
  • Porcelain War
  • Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
  • We Will Dance Again

These films are in the process of being vetted for individual producer eligibility.

“The Producers Guild Awards honors excellence in motion picture, television and emerging media productions, as well as the most notable names in the industry shaping the producing profession. Honorees this year include Chris Meledandri (David O. Selznick Achievement Award) and Dana Walden (Milestone Award).”

Last year, producers Lauren Domino, Matthew Heineman and Joedan Okun were honored with the award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Picture for “American Symphony.”

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Award-Winning Doc Feature “Fairy Creek” to Debut at WFF

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fairy-creekFairy Creek documents the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history; a blockade which made international headlines and broke records with nearly 1200 people arrested for protesting to protect BC’s last old-growth forests

Understory Films’ documentary feature film FAIRY CREEK will screen for audiences at home in BC for the first time at the Whistler Film Festival on December 7, 2024, 2024 at 3:45pm at the Village 8 Cinemas in Whistler. It was also recently announced that Cinema Politica boarded the film as distributor ahead of the film’s world premiere at Planet in Focus, where the film took home the Best Canadian Feature Award.

In FAIRY CREEK, director Jen Muranetz documents the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, creating a searing portrait of contemporary environmental activism, bearing witness to the lengths activists are willing to go to protect British Columbia’s last old growth forests. With unique insider access, the team behind FAIRY CREEK follows the Ada’itsx (Fairy Creek) blockade from its early inception to its bittersweet ending through the lens of an ensemble cast of blockade vanguards and those who oppose them. Employing in-the-trenches cinema vérité, the film introduces spirited environmentalists embroiled in a series of often violent altercations with loggers and RCMP, all while trying to stop old-growth logging in the untouched Fairy Creek valley. The activists show unwavering dedication to their cause, while having compelling internal debates about whose voices are prioritized in the movement. By documenting this significant and contentious juncture in time, FAIRY CREEK calls attention to a much larger conversation: what does it take to find common ground in the fight for a climate-just future?
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Water Crisis Doc “Lead & Copper”

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lead-and-copperFlint isn’t America’s first major lead crisis, and it will not be the last.

On April 24th, 2014, Flint, Michigan switched water sources to the Flint River, a cost-saving measure enacted by former Governor Rick Snyder and his appointed Emergency Manager. This decision poisoned a city that had already been neglected for decades.

Over the course of 8 years, through interviews of members of Congress, local officials, environmental and engineering scientists, former EPA employees, and the families affected by lead poisoning, LEAD & COPPER investigates how city, state, and federal policies contributed to environmental crises like those experienced in Flint, Newark, and Washington, D.C.

LEAD & COPPER is directed by William Hart. Produced by Patrick Letterii and Alex Olsen. Editing and Cinematography by Hart. Composed by Jacob Bloomfield-Misrach and William Sammons. A Vehicle City Films production.

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