There’s something that irks me when I see these giant full-page ads in The New York Times like the recent ones that have been promoting the Rolling Stones, Martin Scorsese, and the recent rock doc, Shine a Light. When big-time feature directors make docs, the amount of attention they get is just a little bit
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Independent journalist Tom Roston checks in and writes about the world of documentaries in his column, Doc Soup.You can follow Tom on Twitter @DocSoupMan.
Doc Soup: April Docs
The hot theatrical doc season begins! The month of April sees two much-anticipated documentaries being released, Errol Morris‘ Standard Operating Procedure (on April 25) and Morgan Spurlock‘s Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (on April 18). Although both of these are from A-list filmmakers, these two documentaries have a lot stacked against them
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: IMAX & Docs on the Big, Big Screen
Last week, Regal Cinemas announced that the chain will double the number of IMAX theaters that it runs nationwide, adding another 31 large-format screens by 2010. That will bring the total of IMAX screens in Regal theaters to 52. The IMAX format is mostly known for its sometimes cheesy fare, space and oceanic adventures, and
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Telling the Truth in Film and in Print
One of my favorite bands in the 1980s, Depeche Mode, used to sing: “get the balance right.” I might be the first person to quote David Gahan in defense of the mission of the nonfiction writer (what a way to hack at my own credibility), but that’s the state I’m in. I have always tried
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: What Not to Watch?
As promised last week, I bring you the worst documentaries of all time! It’s really hard to imagine such a list could be cobbled together, but after I perused the top-rated documentaries based on the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes, I was curious to see what would show up at the bottom. So, here’s the
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Best Reviewed Docs from Rottentomatoes.com
Are you as much of a Rotten Tomatoes junkie as I am? I’ve always enjoyed perusing the site’s compilations of critical reactions to a film. It’s about as indispensable to me as imdb.com, the Internet Movie Database, where you can get information about the producers, cast, release dates and more on a film. Well, last
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Cinematic Poetry
This weekend, the documentary The Unforeseen will begin trickling into theaters. On the surface, it’s about urban sprawl in Austin, Texas. It traces the history of the booming growth of that city, and the tensions that arose between developers and environmentalists trying to protect a natural spring-fed watering hole called Barton Springs. As a piece
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Looking into Oscar’s Crystal Ball
The Oscars are taking place this Sunday, so I’ll do my best to break down who has the best shot at winning in the Documentary Feature category. First, let’s just do away with Operation Homecoming and War/Dance. You know it hurts me to say it, after having advocated so strongly for both films, but their
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Top 10 Sexiest Documentaries
And now for something completely inappropriate… I know many will think ill of me for degrading/simplifying the non-fiction filmmaking genre with the following list. But I can’t help myself. I recently got to wondering: why shouldn’t we have fun with the genre we love so much? Isn’t a new way to look at/debate documentaries a
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Do Docs Hurt the Worker Bees to Get at the Queen?
I’ve got collateral damage on my mind. And I’m not thinking about what’s happening in Iraq — what’s bothering me is the potential path of hurt that documentary films themselves might leave behind in their wake. Believe me, I know that documentaries do the world good. Through their social activism, political advocacy and plain ol’
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Granito: How to Nail a Dictator
May 30, 2012
5:30 pm
Portland, Maine
Join the Portland Public Library as they continue their Summer Documentary Film Series with Granito: How to Nail a Dictator. For more information, call 207-871-1700.
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