CHICAGO -- The five feature-length documentaries nominated for an Oscar this year grapple with such topics as a terrifying family unease (Capturing the Friedmans, My Architect), a dominating historical personality (The Fog of War) and a profound social disruption (Balseros). But the fifth work, Sam Green and Bill Siegel's The Weather Underground, arguably suggests an interlocking of all those subjects. The film encompasses family discord, engaging personalities and historical tumult. Made over a five-year period, the low-budget film documents the revolutionary anarchist group of the 1970s whose members plotted the violent overthrow of the American government. The Weather Underground premiered in competition at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and was released in the summer by small Maine-based distributor Shadow Distribution. It has played in 150 markets and generated boxoffice receipts of more than $521,000, Shadow executive Ken Eisen said. Its Oscar nomination has revived the movie's theatrical prospects, leading to return engagements in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
- 2/26/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- HBO has acquired Ferry Tales, a documentary that goes behind the doors of the women's bathroom on the Staten Island Ferry in New York. Created by independent filmmaker Katja Esson (Vertical Traveler), Ferry is expected to air on HBO or sister cable channel Cinemax in 2005. Like other HBO-acquired documentaries, including Spellbound and Balseros, the film could be treated to a brief, limited theatrical run before coming to cable. Ferry, which is making its way along the festival circuit, examines a diverse group of women who congregate in the powder room aboard the commuter vessel each day. The documentary next appears at the InFACT Theatrical Documentary Showcase in Hollywood, which runs Aug. 22-28. HBO declined comment.
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