DOCUMENTARIES WITH A POINT OF VIEW
What We're Watching, What We're Reading
Watching
ESPN presents the documentary Black Magic, the story of basketball players at historically black colleges and universities during the Civil Rights Era.
Jessica Yu's (In the Realm of the Unreal, P.O.V. 2005) Protagonist.
Alive in Baghdad, a weekly news program by Iraqi journalists distributed online.
Hard Road Home on PBS's Independent Lens.
Reading
"Sister Dorothy" and "Wellness" Big Winners at SXSW From indieWire
The Maysles Maze: Documentarian's Daughter Searches for Dad
Tom Roston talks to Celia Maysles about Wild Blue Yonder, her new film about documentary legend David Maysles. From The Observer
Chicago 10 Director Brett Morgen
Morgen talks to indieWire about his film, which revisits the events of the 1968 Democratic Convention.
Top 25 Festivals for Documentaries
Filmmaker and blogger AJ Schnack surveys the best festivals that showcase nonfiction film.
Cinema Eye Honors: Audience Choice Award
Vote for your favorite documentary of 2007 from nine nominees.
Watching
Big Think
"YouTube for smart people" (via Utne Reader Blog)
The Future of Documentary
Pat Aufderheide talks with WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi (starts at 4 minute mark)
Reading
Documentary Shorts Are Seeing New Opportunities For Life
indieWire reports on new distribution models for short films.
Documentary filmmakers, Michael Moore is here to save you!
Moore announces new foundation that will subsidize theaters to screen indie films. (via Steady Diet of Film)
Is PBS Still Necessary?
New York Times article about whether public television is still needed in today's cable TV landscape.
Watching
For the Bible Tells Me So, directed by Daniel Karslake, is now available on DVD.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. hosts African American Lives 2 on PBS.
Reading
The Color of Politics
New Yorker article about Cory Booker, a "mayor of the post-racial generation" and the history of Newark politics.
Variety reports that Agnes Varda is working on a new "autobiographical docu feature", Les Places d'Agnes, that will be ready for Cannes later this year.
SXSW Film Festival announces 2008 documentary line-up
WATCHING
MediaStorm presents Rape of a Nation, Marcus Bleasdale's photos from the D.R.C.
Growing Up Online Is the Internet changing the experience of childhood? Frontline looks at the way kids are spending their time online..
READING
Pirates of Sundance: Columbia Law prof Tim Wu recommends indie filmmakers look to BitTorrent for distribution. Via Slate.com
Rabbi "live-blogs" the PBS documentary The Jewish Americans on his blog The Unorthodox Rabbi (from PBS Engage)
AJ Schnack reflects on some of the music documentaries he saw at Sundance, including Patti Smith: Dream of Life.
WATCHING
Patti Smith talks about the new film Patti Smith: Dream of Life by Stephen Sebring (via Salon.com).
Classic moments from the Sundance Film Festival (via The Sundance Channel).
READING
Salon.com film critic Andrew O'Heir writes about his favorite narrative and documentary films from Sundance.
Michael Moore wants multiplexes to air more documentaries and foreign films. (from The Hollywood Reporter, via Cinematical)
Artists Telling Artists' Stories: Doc Makers Stretch the Limits of Non-Fiction (from sundance.org)
Cinematical's thorough coverage of Sundance includes reviews, news and on-the-ground tidbits.
WATCHING
Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita Frontline looks at the stem cell research debate.
Comedian Mark Malkoff lived in an IKEA store for six days and six nights.
READING
Sundance 2008 Deals
Frequently updated list of films that have found distribution at Sundance (From Spout blog)
P.O.V. alum Alex Rivera (The Sixth Section, 2003) is one of Variety's 10 Directors to Watch.
Taxi To the Dark Side director Alex Gibney talks to The Reeler about his film, which looks at the U.S. military's use of torture.
Sundance shrinks from the web as online video explodes (from Wired)
WATCHING
Howard Rheingold, Web guru, launched a new video blog this month (from BoingBoing)
Blue Vinyl
P.O.V. alum Judith Helfand's 2002 doc aired on the Sundance Channel this month.
New Hampshire Primary 2008
GuardianFilms' documentary team reports from the U.S.
READING
Robert Redford talks about the Sundance Film Festival's longstanding commitment to documentary film.
Oprah Winfrey To Form Television Network With Discovery Communications (from The New York Times)
WATCHING
e2
A PBS series about the economics of being environmentally conscious.
Beyond the Multiplex: The Year's Best Docs
Critics from Salon.com and IFC take a look at Oscar-worthy documentaries.
READING
The 100 Greatest Websites EW lists their favorite movie and TV websites
Nerakhoon: The Betrayal Director Ellen Kuras
indieWire interviews veteran DP and first-time director Ellen Kuras about her new documentary film.
What's in a Font?
The Atlantic interviews Gary Hustwit, director of Helvetica, about his film on the ubiquitous typeface.
Watching
The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965
P.O.V. Film Screenings
Next week: Waging a Living in Burtonsville, Maryland.
New Yorker: Naked Campaign Shorts
Illustrator Steve Brodner draws the candidates.
Reading
A New Award for Nonfiction
Filmmaker and blogger AJ Schnack announces the birth of a new award for docs.
Patti Smith: Dream of Life Director Steven Sebring
indieWire interviews the first time documentary filmmaker.
WATCHING
Current TV: Rebuilding Hope
An excerpt from a new documentary about South Sudan.
Steep
The story of big mountain skiing.
READING
Nancy Buirski Departs from Full Frame
After 10 years as the creative leader of Durham, North Carolina's Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Nancy Buirski is stepping down. (from Still in Motion)
Liberals, Conservatives United in Hate For MPAA
Nice round-up of blogger reactions to the Taxi to the Dark Side poster controversy. (from Spoutblog)
Where 'California' Bubbled Up
Pumping Iron director Jerome Gary plans on documenting 60s East-meets-West mecca Esalen. (from the Economist)
The Year in Indie Films, 2007
Monk documentaries are "hot, hot, hot." (from Salon)
WATCHING
Afropop TV
A thrilling compilation of films on African life and culture.
Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars released on DVD. Good stocking stuffer.
An Unreasonable Man Doc about crusader Ralph Nader on PBS's Independent Lens Tuesday night.
Indie Lens Short Film Festival
Eclectic mix of stories and storytelling
18 in '08
Nonpartisan doc and movement targeting youth voting in their first presidential election in 2008.
READING
Rotten Tomatoes
Meet critic Roger Ebert in this email interview.
WATCHING
Indie Lens Short Film Festival
An eclectic mix of stories and storytelling with this batch of winning shorts. View. Vote. Download.
18 in '08
Nonpartisan doc and movement targeting today's 17- to 24-year-olds, many of whom will be voting in their first presidential election in 2008. Watch trailer.
Frederick Wiseman
Many of Wiseman's documentaries are finally available on DVD for the home market.
YouTube: The Gilmour Boys
What happens when novelist David Gilmour lets his 15-year-old son drop out of school on the condition that they watch three movies a week together? (Via Paper Cuts)
Independent Lens: Sisters in Law In a small courthouse in Cameroon, a tough-minded state prosecutor and court president help women in their village fight abuse.
READING
WireTap: Brother Outsider
Filmmakers talk about how the once untold story of Bayard Rustin is making waves among a new generation of organizers.
Each week, we'll highlight links from the "Watching" and "Reading" sidebars on the right side of the page.
WATCHING
9500 Liberty
Thanks to the Utne Reader blog for pointing out this extraordinary interactive documentary that truly "elevates the immigration debate." Watch videos.
Frontline
Examine why the 2000 Oslo Accords almost succeeded, and ultimately failed in "Shattered Dreams of Peace."
Mortal Kombat
MIT academic Henry Jenkins weighs in on the controversial new documentary about violence and video games that is roiling gamers.
READING
IndieWire
P.O.V. alumna Jessica Yu (In the Realms of the Unreal, P.O.V. 2006) talks about her latest documentary project, Protagonist, which opened in New York City on November 30.
Each week, we'll highlight links from the "Watching" and "Reading" sidebars on the right side of the page.
WATCHING
Michael Moore's Sicko named Best Documentary at the 17th annual Gotham Awards on Tuesday night.
The Webby Awards name 12 "most influential online videos of all time."
Watch daily reports from the International Documentary Film Festival going on this week in Amsterdam, as well as trailers and shorts on IDFA TV.
Check out Wholphin, the new DVD magazine of rare and unseen short films from McSweeney's.
A new documentary about crusader Ralph Nader comes to PBS's Independent Lens in December. Watch the trailer.
READING
University of Florida Blog: This week, the Documentary Institute hosts P.O.V. producer Yance Ford.
Each week, we'll highlight links from the "Watching" and "Reading" sidebars on the right side of the page.
WATCHING
Independent Lens' Please Vote For Me, about children competing to be class monitor in China, made the shortlist for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Lumo (P.O.V. 2007) filmmakers Nelson Walker III and Louis Abelman talked about the problem of rape as a weapon of war in the Congo on CNN's Inside Africa.
King Corn examines the mysteries of corn in its many guises, and IndieWire interviewed filmmakers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis.
READING
AJ Schnack blogged about the small box-office returns of recent documentaries and the possible over-saturation of the doc market.
