Steven Spielberg has an impressive portfolio of works in Hollywood. If fans get a closer look at his films, they can notice a pattern in them. Spielberg’s films are either great science fiction films or they’re set in the World War II period. The Jaws director once revealed the reason behind the recurring theme of World War 2 in his films.
Christian Bale as James Graham in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun | Amblin Entertainment
Fans should thank his father, Arnold Spielberg, a WWII veteran, who served as an inspiration for Spielberg’s projects like Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. Arnold Spielberg was also an Electrical Engineer, who made significant contributions to his real-time data acquisition.
Steven Spielberg’s Dad Inspired Him To Make Great War Films Former President Barack Obama visits with Steven Spielberg and his father Arnold Spielberg in Los Angeles (Official White House...
Christian Bale as James Graham in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun | Amblin Entertainment
Fans should thank his father, Arnold Spielberg, a WWII veteran, who served as an inspiration for Spielberg’s projects like Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. Arnold Spielberg was also an Electrical Engineer, who made significant contributions to his real-time data acquisition.
Steven Spielberg’s Dad Inspired Him To Make Great War Films Former President Barack Obama visits with Steven Spielberg and his father Arnold Spielberg in Los Angeles (Official White House...
- 6/9/2024
- by Hashim Asraff
- FandomWire
“Love is a gamble and I’m so glad that I’m winnin,” sings Luther Vandross in his 1981 classic “Never Too Much” song with a sentiment that has some extra significance today.
CNN Films and OWN have picked up Dawn Porter’s Sundance Film Festival-debuting Luther: Never Too Much documentary, it was announced today at the Warner Bros Discovery upfront in NYC. The 101-minute film, which counts Colin Firth among its EPs and had Sony Music Entertainment as its sales agent, is set to debut on CNN, OWN and streamer Max next year.
“I’m thrilled to partner again with CNN Films and OWN to bring this film to audiences,” said director Porter on Wednesday. “Luther’s music is timeless, his legacy is unsurpassed, and we can’t wait for all of his fans new and old to experience his brilliance.”
“CNN Films has a long history of bringing audiences...
CNN Films and OWN have picked up Dawn Porter’s Sundance Film Festival-debuting Luther: Never Too Much documentary, it was announced today at the Warner Bros Discovery upfront in NYC. The 101-minute film, which counts Colin Firth among its EPs and had Sony Music Entertainment as its sales agent, is set to debut on CNN, OWN and streamer Max next year.
“I’m thrilled to partner again with CNN Films and OWN to bring this film to audiences,” said director Porter on Wednesday. “Luther’s music is timeless, his legacy is unsurpassed, and we can’t wait for all of his fans new and old to experience his brilliance.”
“CNN Films has a long history of bringing audiences...
- 5/15/2024
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Enlightened was more than just the title of the HBO TV series Laura Dern starred in from 2011-2013. It’s also the state of being the actress and her future producing partner, Jayme Lemons, found themselves in after Dern served as an executive producer and Lemons a first-time producer on the comedy-drama.
“Once we had that experience on Enlightened, we both felt like we have all of these other passions, maybe it’s time we focus more on getting these projects done,” Dern tells The Hollywood Reporter in the conversation below.
Thus the creation of Jaywalker Pictures in 2017, Dern and Lemons’ production company whose projects span genres. From the 2020 documentary The Way I See It, about the life of former Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza; and the Academy Award-winning short If Anything Happens I Love You, about two parents grieving their daughter who was killed in a school shooting,...
“Once we had that experience on Enlightened, we both felt like we have all of these other passions, maybe it’s time we focus more on getting these projects done,” Dern tells The Hollywood Reporter in the conversation below.
Thus the creation of Jaywalker Pictures in 2017, Dern and Lemons’ production company whose projects span genres. From the 2020 documentary The Way I See It, about the life of former Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza; and the Academy Award-winning short If Anything Happens I Love You, about two parents grieving their daughter who was killed in a school shooting,...
- 3/20/2024
- by Brande Victorian
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Martha Stewart didn’t talk to CNN for a new original documentary series the news outlet has produced about her. But she’s still the star of the show.
“The Many Lives of Martha Stewart” is a four-part series produced by CNN Studios, a division devoted to longer-form and enterprise programming in the wake of a strategic decision made in 2022 to scale back big ambitions to compete in the documentary arena. Under previous leader Jeff Zucker, CNN extended its aegis to the world of film festivals and documentary series led by notables such as Anthony Bourdain, Lisa Ling and W. Kamau Bell.
A good chunk of that work was scrapped after Warner Bros. Discovery, a big player in the world of cost-conscious reality programming, took over CNN, and installed a leader, Chris Licht, who had a mandate to pare operations. Months later, CNN would win an Oscar for a documentary...
“The Many Lives of Martha Stewart” is a four-part series produced by CNN Studios, a division devoted to longer-form and enterprise programming in the wake of a strategic decision made in 2022 to scale back big ambitions to compete in the documentary arena. Under previous leader Jeff Zucker, CNN extended its aegis to the world of film festivals and documentary series led by notables such as Anthony Bourdain, Lisa Ling and W. Kamau Bell.
A good chunk of that work was scrapped after Warner Bros. Discovery, a big player in the world of cost-conscious reality programming, took over CNN, and installed a leader, Chris Licht, who had a mandate to pare operations. Months later, CNN would win an Oscar for a documentary...
- 1/3/2024
- by Brian Steinberg
- Variety Film + TV
Dawn Porter looks for stories of people who made history without asking. By following congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis in John Lewis: Good Trouble, or President Obama’s White House photographer Pete Souza in The Way I See It, she says she hopes to shade in between the lines of history.
In her most recent project, Hulu’s The Lady Bird Diaries, she fixates on Lady Bird Johnson’s life, relying largely on archival audio recordings that were released following the former first lady’s death in 2007. In...
In her most recent project, Hulu’s The Lady Bird Diaries, she fixates on Lady Bird Johnson’s life, relying largely on archival audio recordings that were released following the former first lady’s death in 2007. In...
- 12/16/2023
- by Kalia Richardson
- Rollingstone.com
The thing that strikes you first is her voice.
Lady Bird Johnson recorded 123 hours of audio tapes recounting the ins and outs of her husband Lyndon Johnson’s administration. The recordings form the spine of Dawn Porter’s illuminating new documentary, “The Lady Bird Diaries,” but they don’t just give a chronological sequence of events. These recordings are an artistic achievement in their own right, primary-source history executed with insight and wit, and as a kind of diaristic blank verse. It helps that Johnson had worked as a journalist; she has a way with words that’s deceptive because she’s not (overly) flowery, though her vocabulary is immense. Instead, she’s direct, spare in her descriptions, with her Texas drawl giving musicality to her prose. The space between the drama of her saying “I want to know what is going on, even if to know is to suffer...
Lady Bird Johnson recorded 123 hours of audio tapes recounting the ins and outs of her husband Lyndon Johnson’s administration. The recordings form the spine of Dawn Porter’s illuminating new documentary, “The Lady Bird Diaries,” but they don’t just give a chronological sequence of events. These recordings are an artistic achievement in their own right, primary-source history executed with insight and wit, and as a kind of diaristic blank verse. It helps that Johnson had worked as a journalist; she has a way with words that’s deceptive because she’s not (overly) flowery, though her vocabulary is immense. Instead, she’s direct, spare in her descriptions, with her Texas drawl giving musicality to her prose. The space between the drama of her saying “I want to know what is going on, even if to know is to suffer...
- 11/13/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
In June, Focus Features will release Oscar-nominated director Julie Cohen’s “Every Body,” a documentary about three intersex individuals.
It is estimated that up to 1.7% of the world’s population is born with intersex traits, according to the U.N.’s Human Rights Office. The term intersex is used to describe people born with physical sex characteristics that do not fit typical definitions of male or female. These traits may be evident at birth, emerge at puberty, or become apparent later in life.
Produced in partnership with NBC News Studios, “Every Body” investigates the lives of actor and screenwriter River Gallo (they/them), political consultant Alicia Roth Weigel (she/they), and Ph.D. student Sean Saifa Wall (he/him). The docu examines how all three subjects moved from childhoods marked by shame, secrecy, and non-consensual surgeries to thriving adulthoods after each set aside medical advice to keep their bodies a...
It is estimated that up to 1.7% of the world’s population is born with intersex traits, according to the U.N.’s Human Rights Office. The term intersex is used to describe people born with physical sex characteristics that do not fit typical definitions of male or female. These traits may be evident at birth, emerge at puberty, or become apparent later in life.
Produced in partnership with NBC News Studios, “Every Body” investigates the lives of actor and screenwriter River Gallo (they/them), political consultant Alicia Roth Weigel (she/they), and Ph.D. student Sean Saifa Wall (he/him). The docu examines how all three subjects moved from childhoods marked by shame, secrecy, and non-consensual surgeries to thriving adulthoods after each set aside medical advice to keep their bodies a...
- 3/9/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
MSNBC is giving cable news rival CNN increased competition in the exploding documentary arena through ramped up acquisitions by a revived arm devoted to non-fiction programming.
MSNBC Films showed the seriousness of its intent in June, when it won an intense bidding war for “Paper & Glue,” by the visual artist and prior Oscar nominee Jr, ahead of its Tribeca Film Festival premiere. “Paper & Glue” has since qualified for Academy Award consideration, and is competing against documentaries including “Julia,” backed by CNN Films and Sony Pictures Classics. MSNBC also has qualified two short documentaries – Emily L. Harrold’s “Meltdown at Dixie” and Seth Freed Wessler’s “The Facility” — for Oscar consideration
“We’re cherry-picking projects that exist in the ecosystem, whether it’s content from studios, or from an independent filmmaker, or a production company,” explains MSNBC president Rashida Jones, who brought in veteran docu producer Amanda Spain as...
MSNBC Films showed the seriousness of its intent in June, when it won an intense bidding war for “Paper & Glue,” by the visual artist and prior Oscar nominee Jr, ahead of its Tribeca Film Festival premiere. “Paper & Glue” has since qualified for Academy Award consideration, and is competing against documentaries including “Julia,” backed by CNN Films and Sony Pictures Classics. MSNBC also has qualified two short documentaries – Emily L. Harrold’s “Meltdown at Dixie” and Seth Freed Wessler’s “The Facility” — for Oscar consideration
“We’re cherry-picking projects that exist in the ecosystem, whether it’s content from studios, or from an independent filmmaker, or a production company,” explains MSNBC president Rashida Jones, who brought in veteran docu producer Amanda Spain as...
- 12/15/2021
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
NBC News is an enterprise built on 30-minute and 60-minute increments of TV journalism. Executives are starting to think about longer blocks of time.
As the Toronto International Film Festival continues into this weekend, Noah Oppenheim, president of NBC News, and Liz Cole, president of the still-young NBC News Studios, will be there. “Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11,” a documentary co-presented by the Studios unit that features dozens of recollections by people of that fateful day, will get a special screening on the tragedy’s 20th anniversary.
“We are really honored by the TIFF screening,” says Cole. “We’d like to have more like it in the future.”
NBC News’ presence at TIFF signals its growing ambitions in the documentary space after forming the Studios in early 2020. The co-production, “The Way I See It,” about White House photographer Pete Souza, “was the most watched non-news program on MSNBC in history,” says Oppenheim,...
As the Toronto International Film Festival continues into this weekend, Noah Oppenheim, president of NBC News, and Liz Cole, president of the still-young NBC News Studios, will be there. “Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11,” a documentary co-presented by the Studios unit that features dozens of recollections by people of that fateful day, will get a special screening on the tragedy’s 20th anniversary.
“We are really honored by the TIFF screening,” says Cole. “We’d like to have more like it in the future.”
NBC News’ presence at TIFF signals its growing ambitions in the documentary space after forming the Studios in early 2020. The co-production, “The Way I See It,” about White House photographer Pete Souza, “was the most watched non-news program on MSNBC in history,” says Oppenheim,...
- 9/10/2021
- by Brian Steinberg
- Variety Film + TV
“Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer” begins with workers marking off patches of green grass with orange paint. The beeps of a bulldozer sounded as excavation at the Oaklawn cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, got underway last summer. Forensic anthropologist had turned up data that suggested there might be a mass grave at the site. Director Dawn Porter’s insightful, chilling, often elegant documentary about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 and the other virulent outbursts of anti-Black violence that preceded it — making 1919 one of the deadliest for Black Americans at the hands of white mobs — premieres June 18 on National Geographic and Hulu.
“Rise Again” is a hard but welcome addition to a growing collection of movies and television series — fiction and nonfiction — that insists viewers reckon with the nation’s violent, anti-Black past, a past that has carried over into our present. That it begins streaming on Juneteenth — a complicated,...
“Rise Again” is a hard but welcome addition to a growing collection of movies and television series — fiction and nonfiction — that insists viewers reckon with the nation’s violent, anti-Black past, a past that has carried over into our present. That it begins streaming on Juneteenth — a complicated,...
- 6/17/2021
- by Lisa Kennedy
- Variety Film + TV
To mark the release of her upcoming memoir Broken Horses, singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile will be taking part in a series of conversations with everyone from Dolly Parton to Leslie Jordan as part of a virtual book tour. Other conversations will feature former White House photographer Pete Souza, authors Glennon Doyle and Tara Westover, and radio personality Hunter Kelley.
Carlile will sit down for her virtual conversation with Dolly Parton on April 8th, an event hosted by Nashville’s Parnassus Books. Tickets for the event cost $33 and include a signed copy of Carlile’s memoir.
Carlile will sit down for her virtual conversation with Dolly Parton on April 8th, an event hosted by Nashville’s Parnassus Books. Tickets for the event cost $33 and include a signed copy of Carlile’s memoir.
- 3/31/2021
- by Jonathan Bernstein
- Rollingstone.com
NBC News announced that its NBCU Academy and NBC News Studios would launch a fellowship program to award six filmmakers $270,000 in grants each year to create feature length documentaries.
The program, Original Voices, will allocate $45,000 each to fund the documentary projects, in all stages of production, that will highlight social issues and identities. The fellows will get access to NBC News Studios and expertise in areas like story and editing, marketing and festival distribution. They also will be able to consult and partner with journalists and executives at NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo.
NBC News Studios said that it identified 50 filmmakers to apply for the fellowships, with an emphasis on diversity, including Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Black, Indigenous and tribal populations, LGBTQ+, women or people with disabilities. No distribution rights are attached for NBC.
Winners will be announced at the end of February 2021. Three documentary filmmakers will...
The program, Original Voices, will allocate $45,000 each to fund the documentary projects, in all stages of production, that will highlight social issues and identities. The fellows will get access to NBC News Studios and expertise in areas like story and editing, marketing and festival distribution. They also will be able to consult and partner with journalists and executives at NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo.
NBC News Studios said that it identified 50 filmmakers to apply for the fellowships, with an emphasis on diversity, including Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Black, Indigenous and tribal populations, LGBTQ+, women or people with disabilities. No distribution rights are attached for NBC.
Winners will be announced at the end of February 2021. Three documentary filmmakers will...
- 2/2/2021
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Pete Souza, chief official White House photographer under presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, was a reluctant star of Dawn Porter’s documentary The Way I See It. “Pete is very private,” Porter says during Deadline’s Contenders Documentary award-season event. “He said ‘no’ multiple times.”
Producers Laura Dern and Jayme Lemons eventually persuaded Souza to say yes, allowing for a cinematic portrait of a man who gained a unique vantage point on the corridors of presidential power.
“There’s such a curiosity about what happens in the White House. There’s a mythology about it, there’s a fantasy about what’s happening in those rooms,” Porter says. “I think what Pete’s showing is, yes, there’s pomp and circumstance and there’s grandiosity but there’s also something really basic that’s happening, which is people doing really hard work in service of others. And that’s...
Producers Laura Dern and Jayme Lemons eventually persuaded Souza to say yes, allowing for a cinematic portrait of a man who gained a unique vantage point on the corridors of presidential power.
“There’s such a curiosity about what happens in the White House. There’s a mythology about it, there’s a fantasy about what’s happening in those rooms,” Porter says. “I think what Pete’s showing is, yes, there’s pomp and circumstance and there’s grandiosity but there’s also something really basic that’s happening, which is people doing really hard work in service of others. And that’s...
- 1/10/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
“The Way I See It,” the new documentary about White House photographer Pete Souza, is starting off award season with a pair of victories. The film just won the Critics’ Choice Documentary Award for Best Score, which was written by Marco Beltrami, Brandon Roberts and Buck Sanders, and the organization’s non-competitive Most Compelling Living Subjects of a Documentary award. It was also nominated for Best Political Documentary.
Directed by Dawn Porter, who also helmed another acclaimed political doc this year, “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” “The Way I See It” goes through Souza’s life as a photographer for the Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama presidencies. The film predominantly centers on the Obama years, as we see such iconic photographs as the Situation Room, taken on the night that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, and “Hair Like Mine,” in which a young Black boy touches the president’s hair.
Directed by Dawn Porter, who also helmed another acclaimed political doc this year, “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” “The Way I See It” goes through Souza’s life as a photographer for the Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama presidencies. The film predominantly centers on the Obama years, as we see such iconic photographs as the Situation Room, taken on the night that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, and “Hair Like Mine,” in which a young Black boy touches the president’s hair.
- 11/29/2020
- by Kevin Jacobsen
- Gold Derby
A super-crowded documentary field means that many are called and few are chosen. And critics carry more sway than ever in this pandemic year, helping to cull the long list of would-be awards contenders. Every win from whatever source helps to turn a movie into a must-see.
Thus Monday’s fifth annual Critics Choice Documentary Award winners — which recognize the year’s achievements in documentaries released in theaters, on TV and on digital platforms, for which I voted in several categories — push Best Documentary Feature “Dick Johnson Is Dead” (Netflix) and its Best Director Kirsten Johnson into the lead for the Oscar shortlist of 15, which the Academy will announce on February 9, 2021.
Netflix dominated the field with six wins, including “Dick Johnson is Dead,” popular hit “My Octopus Teacher,” which took home Best Cinematography and Best Science/Nature Documentary, Best Narration winner “David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet,” and, with “Athlete A,...
Thus Monday’s fifth annual Critics Choice Documentary Award winners — which recognize the year’s achievements in documentaries released in theaters, on TV and on digital platforms, for which I voted in several categories — push Best Documentary Feature “Dick Johnson Is Dead” (Netflix) and its Best Director Kirsten Johnson into the lead for the Oscar shortlist of 15, which the Academy will announce on February 9, 2021.
Netflix dominated the field with six wins, including “Dick Johnson is Dead,” popular hit “My Octopus Teacher,” which took home Best Cinematography and Best Science/Nature Documentary, Best Narration winner “David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet,” and, with “Athlete A,...
- 11/16/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Dick Johnson Is Dead, Netflix’s personal documentary exploring a daughter’s look into the decline of her aging father, took top honors from the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards for Best Documentary Feature as well as Best Director for Kirsten Johnson.
The awards, which were spread out among several winners, saw no single docu dominate, and in fact another Netflix film, My Octopus Teacher, was the only other film to win more than one trophy, taking Best Science/Nature Docu and Best Cinematography.
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution and Gunda had led nominations with five each but were shut out. Mr. Soul! which also had five noms, did take Best First Documentary Feature. Among other significant winners were John Lewis: Good Trouble for Best Historical/Biographical docu, and Apple TV+’s Boys State as Best Political Documentary.
“We couldn’t be more excited about being able to celebrate such a...
The awards, which were spread out among several winners, saw no single docu dominate, and in fact another Netflix film, My Octopus Teacher, was the only other film to win more than one trophy, taking Best Science/Nature Docu and Best Cinematography.
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution and Gunda had led nominations with five each but were shut out. Mr. Soul! which also had five noms, did take Best First Documentary Feature. Among other significant winners were John Lewis: Good Trouble for Best Historical/Biographical docu, and Apple TV+’s Boys State as Best Political Documentary.
“We couldn’t be more excited about being able to celebrate such a...
- 11/16/2020
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
The fifth annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards announced the 2020 winners Monday morning, honoring “Dick Johnson Is Dead” for best documentary feature as well as the film’s Kirsten Johnson for best director.
The film focuses on Richard Johnson, the director’s father, who suffers from dementia and imagines different ways in which he could die with a darkly comedic tone. The film premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and won the special jury award for innovation in non-fiction storytelling.
“My Octopus Teacher” took home two awards for best cinematography and best science/nature documentary.
Like most award shows this year, the Critics Choice Doc Awards had to go virtual due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We couldn’t be more excited about being able to celebrate such a diverse group of films and filmmakers and subjects this year of all years, on the fifth occasion of the CCDAs, and with 2020 being what it is,...
The film focuses on Richard Johnson, the director’s father, who suffers from dementia and imagines different ways in which he could die with a darkly comedic tone. The film premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and won the special jury award for innovation in non-fiction storytelling.
“My Octopus Teacher” took home two awards for best cinematography and best science/nature documentary.
Like most award shows this year, the Critics Choice Doc Awards had to go virtual due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We couldn’t be more excited about being able to celebrate such a diverse group of films and filmmakers and subjects this year of all years, on the fifth occasion of the CCDAs, and with 2020 being what it is,...
- 11/16/2020
- by Jordan Moreau
- Variety Film + TV
Kirsten Johnson’s playful “Dick Johnson Is Dead” has been named the best nonfiction film of 2020 at the fifth annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards, which were announced on Monday morning.
Johnson also won the Best Director award for her Netflix film, in which she deals with the impending death of her father by staging his death in a variety of ways.
Melissa Haizlip won the Best First Documentary Feature award for “Mr. Soul!,” while other awards went to “My Octopus Teacher” for cinematography, “Totally Under Control” for editing, “The Way I See It” for music and “David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet” for narration.
“MLK/FBI” was named Best Archival Documentary, “John Lewis: Good Trouble” Best Historical/Biographical Documentary, “Boys State” Best Political Documentary” and “My Octopus Teacher” Best Science/Nature Documentary.
There were two ties: “Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes” and “Athlete A” tied in the Best Sports Documentary category,...
Johnson also won the Best Director award for her Netflix film, in which she deals with the impending death of her father by staging his death in a variety of ways.
Melissa Haizlip won the Best First Documentary Feature award for “Mr. Soul!,” while other awards went to “My Octopus Teacher” for cinematography, “Totally Under Control” for editing, “The Way I See It” for music and “David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet” for narration.
“MLK/FBI” was named Best Archival Documentary, “John Lewis: Good Trouble” Best Historical/Biographical Documentary, “Boys State” Best Political Documentary” and “My Octopus Teacher” Best Science/Nature Documentary.
There were two ties: “Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes” and “Athlete A” tied in the Best Sports Documentary category,...
- 11/16/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Director Dawn Porter is responsible for two of the more notable political documentaries of the year: “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” about the late Georgia congressman John Lewis, and “The Way I See It,” the story of White House photographer Pete Souza. The director was about two-thirds into production on “Good Trouble” before taking on “The Way I See It,” and she was struck by how much the two films feel of a piece. “The movies speak to each other for me,” says Porter in a new interview with Gold Derby. “John Lewis was saying, ‘Say something. Get in the way,’ and that’s exactly what Pete was doing. It just really felt like such a natural transition.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
It wasn’t always easy to get Congressman Lewis to provide meaningful reflections on his life’s work in between meetings or in his free time at home.
It wasn’t always easy to get Congressman Lewis to provide meaningful reflections on his life’s work in between meetings or in his free time at home.
- 11/13/2020
- by Kevin Jacobsen
- Gold Derby
“I look at myself as a historian with a camera,” proclaims photographer Pete Souza early in Focus Features’ documentary “The Way I See It,” directed by Dawn Porter (“John Lewis: Good Trouble”). As the official photographer during the presidential administrations of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, Souza made it a mission to document the smallest exchanges and moments alongside the most significant ones to paint a picture of what both presidents were like behind closed doors. The film not only serves as a documentation of Souza’s work as a presidential photographer but draws a stark contrast with the current occupant of the White House.
See ‘On the Record’ documentary from HBO Max gives a platform to Black women’s experiences in music industry
While “The Way I See It” devotes a solid amount of time to Souza’s work with Reagan, the bulk of the documentary is about his years working for Obama,...
See ‘On the Record’ documentary from HBO Max gives a platform to Black women’s experiences in music industry
While “The Way I See It” devotes a solid amount of time to Souza’s work with Reagan, the bulk of the documentary is about his years working for Obama,...
- 10/23/2020
- by Kevin Jacobsen
- Gold Derby
It was when Laura Dern saw photographs of President Obama in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, consoling families involved in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, that she first became aware of the work of Pete Souza. “The sensitivity, the compassion, the invisibility that it takes to capture those stories—that was where I really understood the gift of the White House photographer,” Dern says.
Souza, who photographed both the Obama and the Reagan presidencies, is the subject of a new documentary directed by Dawn Porter, The Way I See It, which Dern and her business partner, Jayme Lemons, produced under ...
Souza, who photographed both the Obama and the Reagan presidencies, is the subject of a new documentary directed by Dawn Porter, The Way I See It, which Dern and her business partner, Jayme Lemons, produced under ...
- 10/16/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
It was when Laura Dern saw photographs of President Obama in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, consoling families involved in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, that she first became aware of the work of Pete Souza. “The sensitivity, the compassion, the invisibility that it takes to capture those stories—that was where I really understood the gift of the White House photographer,” Dern says.
Souza, who photographed both the Obama and the Reagan presidencies, is the subject of a new documentary directed by Dawn Porter, The Way I See It, which Dern and her business partner, Jayme Lemons, produced under ...
Souza, who photographed both the Obama and the Reagan presidencies, is the subject of a new documentary directed by Dawn Porter, The Way I See It, which Dern and her business partner, Jayme Lemons, produced under ...
- 10/16/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
As the official White House photographer, Pete Souza had an unprecedented view of President Reagan and President Obama. Souza was everywhere, but it wasn’t until 2017 that he started sharing his work through Instagram and providing a window into the Oval Office and how Obama led the country. He provided perspective.
In a new documentary, “The Way I See It,” (airing on MSNBC on Oct. 16.) filmmaker Dawn Porter brings Souza’s work to life, drawing a line from his days capturing Reagan to following Obama, reminding us of the dignity and grace that once served 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Porter was still working on “John Lewis: Good Trouble” as the call for the Souza doc came. With John Lewis’ death earlier this year, she notes how her work and the subjects are tied together, “John’s message was, “Speak up, speak out and say something,” and that’s what Pete is doing...
In a new documentary, “The Way I See It,” (airing on MSNBC on Oct. 16.) filmmaker Dawn Porter brings Souza’s work to life, drawing a line from his days capturing Reagan to following Obama, reminding us of the dignity and grace that once served 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Porter was still working on “John Lewis: Good Trouble” as the call for the Souza doc came. With John Lewis’ death earlier this year, she notes how her work and the subjects are tied together, “John’s message was, “Speak up, speak out and say something,” and that’s what Pete is doing...
- 10/16/2020
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Wherever President Barack Obama went, Pete Souza was right there with him.
For eight years, the White House photographer was a fly-on-the-wall as the president and his team made consequential, world-altering decisions about bailing out the auto industry or raiding Osama Bin Laden’s compound. Souza and his camera also captured the quiet moments — taking photographs of the commander-in-chief relaxing with his wife and children. He played a similar role as official photographer to the Reagan White House.
Since Obama left the White House, Souza has had a second-act as a social media sensation. On Instagram and Twitter, Souza shares photos of his time shadowing the 44th president, offering up images of presidential behavior that’s far removed from President Donald Trump’s more free-wheeling approach to the office. Often those photos are accompanied by a caption that criticizes Trump. Souza’s career and time as a member of the...
For eight years, the White House photographer was a fly-on-the-wall as the president and his team made consequential, world-altering decisions about bailing out the auto industry or raiding Osama Bin Laden’s compound. Souza and his camera also captured the quiet moments — taking photographs of the commander-in-chief relaxing with his wife and children. He played a similar role as official photographer to the Reagan White House.
Since Obama left the White House, Souza has had a second-act as a social media sensation. On Instagram and Twitter, Souza shares photos of his time shadowing the 44th president, offering up images of presidential behavior that’s far removed from President Donald Trump’s more free-wheeling approach to the office. Often those photos are accompanied by a caption that criticizes Trump. Souza’s career and time as a member of the...
- 10/15/2020
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Documentary The Way I See It recalls the Obama years with warm nostalgia through the lens of former White House photographer and unlikely Instagram star Pete Souza
For eight years, as the official White House photographer for Barack Obama, Pete Souza acted as a fly on the wall. Slyly observant, always in the room where it happened, Souza captured nearly two million images of a president upholding the gravity of the office, hundreds of which course through The Way I See It, a new documentary directed by Dawn Porter, who recently made John Lewis: Good Trouble. Obama in cabinet meetings, gathering himself on the couch, embracing Michelle backstage, bowing to let a young African American child feel hair just like his – Souza’s images often speak for themselves. So it’s perhaps surprising that in the years since Obama left office, the once-reticent Souza’s words, in the form of...
For eight years, as the official White House photographer for Barack Obama, Pete Souza acted as a fly on the wall. Slyly observant, always in the room where it happened, Souza captured nearly two million images of a president upholding the gravity of the office, hundreds of which course through The Way I See It, a new documentary directed by Dawn Porter, who recently made John Lewis: Good Trouble. Obama in cabinet meetings, gathering himself on the couch, embracing Michelle backstage, bowing to let a young African American child feel hair just like his – Souza’s images often speak for themselves. So it’s perhaps surprising that in the years since Obama left office, the once-reticent Souza’s words, in the form of...
- 10/15/2020
- by Adrian Horton
- The Guardian - Film News
Like tumbling autumn leaves, fall film festivals in Toronto, New York and more have added to the pile of must-see documentaries that could figure in the 2021 Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature.
Possible contenders include Oscar winner Errol Morris‘s yet-untitled doc for Showtime about LSD advocate Timothy Leary. Also, Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus‘s voter suppression film, “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” zeroes in on Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election and the continued threat to our elections; it just dropped on Amazon Prime. Oscar-nominated “Fire at Sea” director Gianfranco Rosi showed his latest effort, “Notturno,” in Venice and Toronto; shot across three years in Middle East locales near war zones, the doc focuses on how people from the region try to reclaim their everyday lives. It lacks a U.S. distributor.
Sam Pollard showed his IFC Films release “MLK/ FBI”in Toronto and New York, chronicling...
Possible contenders include Oscar winner Errol Morris‘s yet-untitled doc for Showtime about LSD advocate Timothy Leary. Also, Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus‘s voter suppression film, “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” zeroes in on Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election and the continued threat to our elections; it just dropped on Amazon Prime. Oscar-nominated “Fire at Sea” director Gianfranco Rosi showed his latest effort, “Notturno,” in Venice and Toronto; shot across three years in Middle East locales near war zones, the doc focuses on how people from the region try to reclaim their everyday lives. It lacks a U.S. distributor.
Sam Pollard showed his IFC Films release “MLK/ FBI”in Toronto and New York, chronicling...
- 10/5/2020
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
“The Way I See It” director and producer Dawn Porter says the documentary about former Chief Official White House photographer Pete Souza is not subtle about criticizing Donald Trump’s administration.
“In some years you want to be subtle and this is not a subtle year,” she told TheWrap’s Steve Pond during the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. “We are hopefully in a once-in-a-lifetime situation where the current occupant in the White House is just unsuited to the job.”
The film follows the life of Pete Souza, who photographed President Barack Obama and his administration. It had its world premiere at TIFF and was then released by Focus Features, and will be broadcast on MSNBC on Oct. 9.
It’s not an easy feat to turn a photography book into a movie, but Jaywalker Pictures’ Jayme Lemons, whose producing partner is Laura Dern, knew that there was something special about these photographs.
“In some years you want to be subtle and this is not a subtle year,” she told TheWrap’s Steve Pond during the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. “We are hopefully in a once-in-a-lifetime situation where the current occupant in the White House is just unsuited to the job.”
The film follows the life of Pete Souza, who photographed President Barack Obama and his administration. It had its world premiere at TIFF and was then released by Focus Features, and will be broadcast on MSNBC on Oct. 9.
It’s not an easy feat to turn a photography book into a movie, but Jaywalker Pictures’ Jayme Lemons, whose producing partner is Laura Dern, knew that there was something special about these photographs.
- 10/2/2020
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
What’s left for the Oscars? The telecast will proceed, two months late, on April 25, but as to what might qualify — the only definitive answer will come when we reach the February 28 submission deadline. As a canary in a coal mine, “Tenet” failed to reignite audiences; instead, it revealed the hazards of theatrical play. With theaters in New York and Los Angeles still closed, many North American moviegoers are not yet ready to support a wide, expensive indoor release.
Hollywood waits to hear the fate of the next James Bond movie (is the UK ready for a wide opening in November?), Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic “Dune”, and Paul Greengrass’ Tom Hanks Christmas movie “News of the World,” which has been compared to Oscar-contender “True Grit.”
And then there’s Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch.” The high-profile Searchlight title was noticeably absent from Disney’s latest announcement of releases...
Hollywood waits to hear the fate of the next James Bond movie (is the UK ready for a wide opening in November?), Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic “Dune”, and Paul Greengrass’ Tom Hanks Christmas movie “News of the World,” which has been compared to Oscar-contender “True Grit.”
And then there’s Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch.” The high-profile Searchlight title was noticeably absent from Disney’s latest announcement of releases...
- 9/24/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
What’s left for the Oscars? The telecast will proceed, two months late, on April 25, but as to what might qualify — the only definitive answer will come when we reach the February 28 submission deadline. As a canary in a coal mine, “Tenet” failed to reignite audiences; instead, it revealed the hazards of theatrical play. With theaters in New York and Los Angeles still closed, many North American moviegoers are not yet ready to support a wide, expensive indoor release.
Hollywood waits to hear the fate of the next James Bond movie (is the UK ready for a wide opening in November?), Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic “Dune”, and Paul Greengrass’ Tom Hanks Christmas movie “News of the World,” which has been compared to Oscar-contender “True Grit.”
And then there’s Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch.” The high-profile Searchlight title was noticeably absent from Disney’s latest announcement of releases...
Hollywood waits to hear the fate of the next James Bond movie (is the UK ready for a wide opening in November?), Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic “Dune”, and Paul Greengrass’ Tom Hanks Christmas movie “News of the World,” which has been compared to Oscar-contender “True Grit.”
And then there’s Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch.” The high-profile Searchlight title was noticeably absent from Disney’s latest announcement of releases...
- 9/24/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
If there is a presidential election on the horizon, it means its documentary time. There are many pertaining to the last four years of the current inhabitant of the White House. An era that is captured in Liz Garbus’ “All In: The Fight For Democracy” which tackles modern-day voter suppression, currently available on Prime Video, or “Agents of Chaos,” a doc series on HBO centered on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Continue reading ‘The Way I See It’ Exclusive Clip: Pete Souza On Chronicling Barack Obama As A “Human Being” at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The Way I See It’ Exclusive Clip: Pete Souza On Chronicling Barack Obama As A “Human Being” at The Playlist.
- 9/24/2020
- by Gregory Ellwood
- The Playlist
Those active in a certain sector of American liberalism will have quickly become familiar with the name Pete Souza over the last few years. The former official photographer for the Obama White House has made quite a name for himself by posting pictures of the 44th president with captions that draw a sharp contrast between […]
The post ‘The Way I See It’ Movie Review: Pete Souza Doc Shows Obama’s Gentle Side, Not Much Else appeared first on uInterview.
The post ‘The Way I See It’ Movie Review: Pete Souza Doc Shows Obama’s Gentle Side, Not Much Else appeared first on uInterview.
- 9/21/2020
- by Harrison Whitaker
- Uinterview
‘The Secrets We Keep’, ‘The Nest’, ‘The Way I See It’ And ‘Alone’ Bring Life To Specialty Box Office
The majority of the specialty box office has shifted to virtual debut, streaming and digital-only since theaters have shuttered due to the pandemic, but as physical theaters begin to open their doors, titles have returned to the big screen, slowly pumping life into the long-dormant specialty space.
Bleecker Street’s post-wwii thriller The Secrets We Keep opened September 16 and played in 471 theaters this weekend to the tune of $89,955 with a per-theater average of $191. Its five-day total amounted to a strong $114,722. Directed by Yuval Adler, the film stars Noomi Rapace as a woman who kidnaps a man (Joel Kinnaman) who she thinks committed war crimes and killed her sister, keeping him prisoner in her suburban home. The film is slated to hit VOD on October 16.
IFC Films’ Sundance pic The Nest starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon debuted in 301 theaters across the country, banking an estimated $62,000 with a per-theater average of $206. The film,...
Bleecker Street’s post-wwii thriller The Secrets We Keep opened September 16 and played in 471 theaters this weekend to the tune of $89,955 with a per-theater average of $191. Its five-day total amounted to a strong $114,722. Directed by Yuval Adler, the film stars Noomi Rapace as a woman who kidnaps a man (Joel Kinnaman) who she thinks committed war crimes and killed her sister, keeping him prisoner in her suburban home. The film is slated to hit VOD on October 16.
IFC Films’ Sundance pic The Nest starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon debuted in 301 theaters across the country, banking an estimated $62,000 with a per-theater average of $206. The film,...
- 9/20/2020
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” hit an important milestone, crossing the $250 million mark at the global box office.
That benchmark is bolstered by international revenues, where the sci-fi thriller has surpassed $200 million in ticket sales. But in the U.S., “Tenet” is still struggling to attract audiences. The movie earned $4.7 million in its third weekend, bringing North American grosses to an underwhelming $36.1 million.
As the first major film to release in theaters since the pandemic, “Tenet” has boldly tested the waters to see how willing people would be to return to the movies during a global heath crisis. Warner Bros., the studio behind the $200 million-budgeted film, again stressed that “Tenet’s” theatrical run will be “a marathon, not a sprint.” The hope is that without much competition in terms of new Hollywood tentpoles, “Tenet” will steadily draw crowds for weeks to come.
It’s not just “Tenet” having trouble generating traction among ticket buyers.
That benchmark is bolstered by international revenues, where the sci-fi thriller has surpassed $200 million in ticket sales. But in the U.S., “Tenet” is still struggling to attract audiences. The movie earned $4.7 million in its third weekend, bringing North American grosses to an underwhelming $36.1 million.
As the first major film to release in theaters since the pandemic, “Tenet” has boldly tested the waters to see how willing people would be to return to the movies during a global heath crisis. Warner Bros., the studio behind the $200 million-budgeted film, again stressed that “Tenet’s” theatrical run will be “a marathon, not a sprint.” The hope is that without much competition in terms of new Hollywood tentpoles, “Tenet” will steadily draw crowds for weeks to come.
It’s not just “Tenet” having trouble generating traction among ticket buyers.
- 9/20/2020
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
The captivating new documentary, The Way I See It, chronicles the years that photographer Pete Souza spent as the White House Staff Photographer—first, briefly under Ronald Reagan, and then Barack Obama (though it mostly focuses on the Obama years)—and then on a tour promoting his bestselling book from 2018, Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents.
Following the Obama presidency, Souza became a celebrity on his own when his Instagram page became a stark critique of Obama’s successor. That outspoken voice is what fuels the trajectory of the film, giving it a bite that few documentaries possess. While it may fall into the category of biased filmmaking to some, there is no shortage of an attempt at balanced presentation. Such as when the current decorating scheme of the oval office is contrasted with that of the Obama administration with the simple statement, “I kinda like the old curtains better.
Following the Obama presidency, Souza became a celebrity on his own when his Instagram page became a stark critique of Obama’s successor. That outspoken voice is what fuels the trajectory of the film, giving it a bite that few documentaries possess. While it may fall into the category of biased filmmaking to some, there is no shortage of an attempt at balanced presentation. Such as when the current decorating scheme of the oval office is contrasted with that of the Obama administration with the simple statement, “I kinda like the old curtains better.
- 9/19/2020
- by Mike Tyrkus
- CinemaNerdz
Four years ago, only a few Obamaphiles knew who Pete Souza, then the senior White House photographer, was. With a career that began before Ronald Reagan arrived in the People’s House, through an extended stint as White House photographer under Reagan, through an assignment covering Senator-Elect Barack Obama and his family’s first year in D.C., through, of course, his eight-year run in the Obama White House, Souza chronicled Obama, his family, and his White House during the most intimate and personal of times, but also through the most public and world-changing of times. Souza saw himself as a chronicler, as a photojournalist, and ultimately, a first-draft historian, not the potential subject of Dawn Porter’s (Good Trouble) poignant, if uncritical, documentary, The Way I See It....
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 9/19/2020
- Screen Anarchy
Distributors keep changing their minds right up until the day before their movies are supposed to open in one of the wildest release eras in memory, making it nearly impossible for moviegoers to keep track of what’s opening when, and where, and how.
This week’s biggest theatrical opening is a Jim Caviezel movie called “Infidel,” although the distribution company Cloudburst Entertainment never responded to requests for review, so we couldn’t do our jobs on that one without driving to the nearest city where theaters are open, so investigate at your own risk.
Audiences willing to brave cinemas will find some reliable options in more limited theatrical release, including “Martha Marcy May Marlene” director Sean Durkin’s latest, “The Nest,” which is the sort of slow-burn psychological drama that benefits from your undivided attention. Meanwhile, for those seeking from-the-nest streaming options, Durkin’s longtime partner in crime, fellow Borderline filmmaker Antonio Campos,...
This week’s biggest theatrical opening is a Jim Caviezel movie called “Infidel,” although the distribution company Cloudburst Entertainment never responded to requests for review, so we couldn’t do our jobs on that one without driving to the nearest city where theaters are open, so investigate at your own risk.
Audiences willing to brave cinemas will find some reliable options in more limited theatrical release, including “Martha Marcy May Marlene” director Sean Durkin’s latest, “The Nest,” which is the sort of slow-burn psychological drama that benefits from your undivided attention. Meanwhile, for those seeking from-the-nest streaming options, Durkin’s longtime partner in crime, fellow Borderline filmmaker Antonio Campos,...
- 9/18/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Tenet’s lukewarm second weekend is a sign that the domestic box office still has a long way to go before things get back to normal, especially as New York and Los Angeles theaters remain shuttered.
In the wake of Tenet’s second weekend box office performance, release dates have been shuffled yet again. Warner Bros’ push of Wonder Woman 1984 from October 2 to Christmas gives Tenet a longer competition-free run. Candyman left its October 16 release date and is now expected to be released in 2021. STX Entertainment’s Greenland, which stars Gerard Butler and made $11.5 million internationally, was pushed from its September 25 release to an undecided date later this year. The one move up in the release schedule came from Universal, moving The Croods: A New Age from December 23 to November 25.
This week’s only wide release is the Jim Caviezel starrer Infidel, which opens on 1,724 screens. It is the first release from Cloudburst Entertainment,...
In the wake of Tenet’s second weekend box office performance, release dates have been shuffled yet again. Warner Bros’ push of Wonder Woman 1984 from October 2 to Christmas gives Tenet a longer competition-free run. Candyman left its October 16 release date and is now expected to be released in 2021. STX Entertainment’s Greenland, which stars Gerard Butler and made $11.5 million internationally, was pushed from its September 25 release to an undecided date later this year. The one move up in the release schedule came from Universal, moving The Croods: A New Age from December 23 to November 25.
This week’s only wide release is the Jim Caviezel starrer Infidel, which opens on 1,724 screens. It is the first release from Cloudburst Entertainment,...
- 9/18/2020
- by Sam Mendelsohn <mail@boxofficemojo.com>
- Box Office Mojo
As box offices start to test the waters, Roger Michell’s family drama Blackbird starring Susan Sarandon is set to open in theaters and on demand starting today.
Known for My Cousin Rachel and Notting Hill, Michell directs a script by Christian Torpe, who wrote the 2014 Danish film, Silent Heart on which the family drama is based. In it, Sarandon plays Lily who, along with Paul (Sam Neil) invite their loved ones to their beach house for one final gathering after Lily decides to end her long battle with Als on her own terms. The weekend starts as a loving weekend with holiday tradition but as things unfold, unresolved issues between Lily and her daughters Jennifer (Kate Winslet) and Anna (Mia Wasikowska) come into the forefront. Rainn Wilson, Lindsay Duncan, Bex Taylor-Klaus and Anson Boon join the all-star roster in this ensemble drama.
The film made its world premiere last...
Known for My Cousin Rachel and Notting Hill, Michell directs a script by Christian Torpe, who wrote the 2014 Danish film, Silent Heart on which the family drama is based. In it, Sarandon plays Lily who, along with Paul (Sam Neil) invite their loved ones to their beach house for one final gathering after Lily decides to end her long battle with Als on her own terms. The weekend starts as a loving weekend with holiday tradition but as things unfold, unresolved issues between Lily and her daughters Jennifer (Kate Winslet) and Anna (Mia Wasikowska) come into the forefront. Rainn Wilson, Lindsay Duncan, Bex Taylor-Klaus and Anson Boon join the all-star roster in this ensemble drama.
The film made its world premiere last...
- 9/18/2020
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
‘The Way I See It’ Review: A Love Letter to Obama Through White House Photographer Pete Souza’s Lens
Every four years, a few months before the presidential election, a batch of strategically timed movies materialize in hopes of engaging voters and influencing the outcome. Some are merely opportunistic, others downright propagandistic, but few have a shelf life past that first Tuesday in November. A warm, softball profile of Pete Souza, who had the unusual honor of serving as official White House photographer for two presidents of opposite parties, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, “The Way I See It” feels like it could carry on being relevant to audiences for decades to come.
Saving its political agenda for the end, the documentary — which is told through a mix of voiceover, video footage and iconic stills from Souza’s copious photo archives — opens with the image maker’s memories of Obama’s last hours in office. He explains how the transition of power and witnessing the inauguration felt from where he stood,...
Saving its political agenda for the end, the documentary — which is told through a mix of voiceover, video footage and iconic stills from Souza’s copious photo archives — opens with the image maker’s memories of Obama’s last hours in office. He explains how the transition of power and witnessing the inauguration felt from where he stood,...
- 9/18/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
No one had a better front-row seat to the historic presidency of Barack Obama than Pete Souza. The chief official White House photographer, Souza traveled everywhere Obama went to document both terms of America’s first black president. Given extensive access to the public and private lives of the Obamas, he captured photos of the president and his family standing in Nelson Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island, an intimate exchange between the newly elected president and first lady on inauguration night 2009, and the now-iconic image of five-year-old Jacob...
- 9/17/2020
- by Andy Kroll
- Rollingstone.com
Pete Souza was the Chief Official White House Photographer during the Obama administration. Since leaving that post, he’s turned his lens toward everyday America, charting the country’s path with his photography. Academy Award winner Laura Dern’s production company decided to follow Souza on his quest to understand the state of the States. The result is [...]
The post Laura Dern’s Documentary Sees America Through A Bipartisan Lens appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
The post Laura Dern’s Documentary Sees America Through A Bipartisan Lens appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
- 9/16/2020
- by Hollywood Outbreak
- HollywoodOutbreak.com
Photographing a President is about as apolitical a job as it gets. At least, that’s how it traditionally was. For Pete Souza, he was simply a photojournalist, albeit one of the most respected ones in the political sphere, until the most recent election, that is. This transformation, as well as the remarkable images and stories he found himself capturing, make up the terrific new documentary The Way I See It. Getting released in theaters on Friday, it will also be able to be seen on October 9th over on MSNBC. No matter where you watch it (though ideally go see it this weekend), it’s a must see. The documentary is a look at both how photographer Pete Souza captured images from two very different Presidents, but also how the current occupant of the Oval Office has driven him to speak up like never before. Based in part on...
- 9/15/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
The slickest, most polished commercial for a photo collection book the world has ever seen, “The Way I See It” is less a documentary and more of a sales pitch. An assemblage of interviews and speaking engagement clips, on its surface the film is a meditation on presidential temperament as seen through the eyes of Obama’s official White House photographer, Pete Souza. There is nothing especially revelatory here, however, and rather than probe at difficult questions or unexplored avenues of consideration, the documentary contents itself with a book report approach whose conclusions are known from the jump.
Continue reading ‘The Way I See It’: Candid Reflections From Obama’s Photographer Don’t Offer Many New Insights [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The Way I See It’: Candid Reflections From Obama’s Photographer Don’t Offer Many New Insights [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.
- 9/10/2020
- by Warren Cantrell
- The Playlist
There’s a cruel irony to the way Dawn Porter’s “The Way I See It” unfolds: this documentary about presidential photographer Pete Souza, who served as the official shutterbug for both the Reagan and Obama administrations, never quite knows where to focus. The problem is not that Porter, who this year has already given us “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” is unclear on the power of the images she’s following, but that Souza’s work has already filled seven books, innumerable newspaper pages, and one very popular Instagram account, a single film doesn’t seem fit to do it justice. That Souza’s legacy is so caught up in that of Obama’s doesn’t help matters either, and if both Souza and Porter are prone to turning “The Way I See It” into a doc about the former president, well, it’s understandable. It’s not entirely forgivable,...
- 9/10/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
In these dystopian times, anyone who yearns for the Obama years — and who doesn’t? — may find some solace in the stirring documentary about White House photographer Pete Souza, The Way I See It. The film will have virtual festival screenings before a release by Focus Features this month. Director Dawn Porter, who also made the recent doc John Lewis: Good Trouble, packs a one-two punch with these compelling political films.
Souza actually has something of a two-party history. He was also official photographer during the final year of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. He admits in the film that he was no ...
Souza actually has something of a two-party history. He was also official photographer during the final year of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. He admits in the film that he was no ...
- 9/10/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
In these dystopian times, anyone who yearns for the Obama years — and who doesn’t? — may find some solace in the stirring documentary about White House photographer Pete Souza, The Way I See It. The film will have virtual festival screenings before a release by Focus Features this month. Director Dawn Porter, who also made the recent doc John Lewis: Good Trouble, packs a one-two punch with these compelling political films.
Souza actually has something of a two-party history. He was also official photographer during the final year of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. He admits in the film that he was no ...
Souza actually has something of a two-party history. He was also official photographer during the final year of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. He admits in the film that he was no ...
- 9/10/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Pete Souza was the Chief Official White House Photographer for President Ronald Reagan and President Barack Obama, and he’s now the subject of a new documentary called The Way I See It, which is directed by Dawn Porter and produced by Laura Dern. Focus Features is giving the movie a limited theatrical release that begins […]
The post ‘The Way I See It’, a Documentary About the White House Photographer Under Reagan and Obama, Will Hit Cable Before the Election appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘The Way I See It’, a Documentary About the White House Photographer Under Reagan and Obama, Will Hit Cable Before the Election appeared first on /Film.
- 9/2/2020
- by Ben Pearson
- Slash Film
MSNBC dishes up dozens of short news segments to its viewers over the course of a single day. Now the network may have a chance to go long.
The cable-news outlet will air “The Way I See It,” a documentary about former White House photographer Pete Souza, on Friday, October 9 at 10 p.m. eastern, after Rachel Maddow’s broadcast that night. The film, from corporate sibling Focus Features, will first be released in theaters on September 18, and will be co-presented by MSNBC Films – a revived moniker that spotlights some of NBCUniversal’s growing ambitions in the long-form space.
Executives see MSNBC Films as a place for top filmmakers to collaborate on “in-depth storytelling about important events,” says Liz Cole, president of NBC News Studios, the production unit of NBC News, in an interview. “High-stakes drama, humor, insight into the country’s cultural divide, iconic personalities, economic ups and downs – these...
The cable-news outlet will air “The Way I See It,” a documentary about former White House photographer Pete Souza, on Friday, October 9 at 10 p.m. eastern, after Rachel Maddow’s broadcast that night. The film, from corporate sibling Focus Features, will first be released in theaters on September 18, and will be co-presented by MSNBC Films – a revived moniker that spotlights some of NBCUniversal’s growing ambitions in the long-form space.
Executives see MSNBC Films as a place for top filmmakers to collaborate on “in-depth storytelling about important events,” says Liz Cole, president of NBC News Studios, the production unit of NBC News, in an interview. “High-stakes drama, humor, insight into the country’s cultural divide, iconic personalities, economic ups and downs – these...
- 9/1/2020
- by Brian Steinberg
- Variety Film + TV
“The Way I See It,” a documentary about former White House photographer Pete Souza, will release in theaters on Sept. 18 before premiering on MSNBC three weeks later on Oct. 9.
The Focus Features documentary follows the life of Souza, who captured the presidencies of Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan. It will air on MSNBC, which co-produced the film, Friday at 10 p.m. Et following Rachel Maddow’s show. The network plans to re-air “The Way I See It” several times ahead of the November election.
“Unlike his predecessor, Mr. Trump does not allow his staff photographer to capture photographs of life and work inside the White House,” Souza narrates in the trailer. “Reagan and Obama respect the dignity of the office. The presidency is a serious job. And I was going to do everything I could to make sure people didn’t forget that.
Dawn Porter directed and produced the doc,...
The Focus Features documentary follows the life of Souza, who captured the presidencies of Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan. It will air on MSNBC, which co-produced the film, Friday at 10 p.m. Et following Rachel Maddow’s show. The network plans to re-air “The Way I See It” several times ahead of the November election.
“Unlike his predecessor, Mr. Trump does not allow his staff photographer to capture photographs of life and work inside the White House,” Souza narrates in the trailer. “Reagan and Obama respect the dignity of the office. The presidency is a serious job. And I was going to do everything I could to make sure people didn’t forget that.
Dawn Porter directed and produced the doc,...
- 9/1/2020
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Focus Features’ Dawn Porter-directed documentary The Way I See It, about former Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza, will premiere on MSNBC on October 9 following The Rachel Maddow Show, three weeks after the pic’s September 18 theatrical release.
The doc, which Focus is co-presenting with MSNBC Films, will re-air several times ahead of the November elections.
As Chief Official White House Photographer, Souza had a first-person point of view and unprecedented access to the intimate behind-the-scenes gravitas of Potus, photographing Presidents Obama and Reagan. It was a job that gave him a unique vantage point on the nation’s political landscapes. The doc will track Souza’s journey as a person with top-secret clearance and total access to the President to a person who now uses his art as commentary on the current state of the nation.
His past published works of photographs, Obama: An Intimate Portrait, and Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents,...
The doc, which Focus is co-presenting with MSNBC Films, will re-air several times ahead of the November elections.
As Chief Official White House Photographer, Souza had a first-person point of view and unprecedented access to the intimate behind-the-scenes gravitas of Potus, photographing Presidents Obama and Reagan. It was a job that gave him a unique vantage point on the nation’s political landscapes. The doc will track Souza’s journey as a person with top-secret clearance and total access to the President to a person who now uses his art as commentary on the current state of the nation.
His past published works of photographs, Obama: An Intimate Portrait, and Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents,...
- 9/1/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
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