My dancing days are done! I’m back home from Sundance, and well-satiated by a great dose of documentaries. It’s been a pretty remarkable festival for docs. Despite some pre-festival chatter that docs might get a cold reception, the films at Sundance showed a real diversity of subject matter and accomplishments in craft — and ranged
Continue reading this entry »Tom Roston
Doc Soup: More From Sundance, and the Cinema Eye Honors
I’m writing this post while waiting on line for Morgan Spurlock‘s latest doc, the much anticipated Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (Sample chatter from other people waiting in the queue: “I love Morgan.” “Me too, but I was still thinking of going to eat at McDonald’s before this.”) Things have been busy
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: ‘American Teen’ at Sundance
The first screening I attend at Sundance is a real happening. Saturday afternoon’s premiere of American Teen is filmmaker Nanette Burstein‘s return to Sundance after six years. (Burstein had previously produced The Kid Stays in the Picture, about Paramount producer Robert Evans, which was at Sundance in 2002.) For American Teen, Burstein spent a year
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Docs Hit the Ground Running at Sundance
They should call it the Sundoc Film Festival. I get on my flight to Salt Lake City yesterday, and the guy in the row in front of me is wearing a baseball cap and sweatshirt that both say, “Bigger, Stronger, Faster,” aka the title of Christopher Bell‘s documentary about America’s win-at-all-costs pressures, as told through
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Doing the ‘Dance
Hey, so enough talk about 2007, the year that was (or wasn’t, depending on your perspective): The 2008 documentary season really begins this week with the Sundance Film Festival, which kicked off yesterday. With no less than forty documentaries in the fest this year, it’s a documentary-lovers dream. The only danger is to overindulge. I’m
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: A New Award for Documentaries
Ah, the doc world never sleeps. There I was, slowly plotting my next blog post about the January 12 deadline for submitting Oscar nomination ballots: I was going to make an 11th hour pitch for Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, the fantastic doc based on writings by U.S. soldiers in Iraq by Richard Robbins.
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Changing the World Through Docs
Made any good docs lately? I just recently sat down with director Jehane Noujaim (Startup.com, Control Room), and she told me about an impressive project she’s working on. First, let me ask how many filmmakers under the age of 35 (Jehane is 33) have managed to knock out two great, successful, critically-praised, culturally-significant docs? Jehane
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Overlooked Docs of 2007
Ah, the flush feeling of having a documentary that receives high accolades and big box office returns! As I mentioned last week, not many doc filmmakers have felt that way this year, which puts Charles Ferguson among the elite few. I was at a fancy screening and reception this week for his film No End
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: A Whimper at the Box Office for Docs in 2007
As the curtain rises on another entry into the blogosphere, let me quickly introduce myself: My name is Tom Roston, and I was a Senior Editor at Premiere magazine — where I covered movies 24/7 for ten years — until that publication folded this year. I have always been a passionate fan of documentaries, particularly
Continue reading this entry »Upcoming Events
Señorita Extraviada
May 22, 2013
7:00 pm
Irvine, California
Phi Lambda Rho is pleased to host their first annual Semana De La Mujer, a week-long event on the University of California, Irvine campus celebrating the complex and unique identity of Latinas. Through a series of events, including a screening of Señorita Extraviada, they hope to inform students about the issues affecting Latina students on campus, as well as issues affecting the Latina/o community as a whole. For more information, call (323) 246-8437.
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