Directing partners Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady — selected for Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces in 2005 — first came on to the filmmaking scene with heartfelt documentaries The Boys of Baraka and Oscar-nominated Jesus Camp. In their latest documentary One of Us, currently available on Netflix and just shortlisted for the Best Documentary Academy Award, their signature cinema verite style of filmmaking unveiled a level of suspense and drama they were not expecting. Centered around three people who are attempting to leave the tight reigns of their New York-based Hasidic Jewish communities, the film goes deep inside an overly controlling, […]...
- 12/12/2017
- by Tiffany Pritchard
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Ed Burns, whose debut film The Brothers McMullen premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, was announced today as a jury member for next month’s Sundance in Park City, Utah. Burns joins documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, executive Tom Rothman and 16 others named to five juries that will award prizes at independent film’s most high-profile showcase.
Short Film Awards will be announced at a ceremony on Jan. 22, with feature film awards announced at a separate ceremony on Jan. 26. The festival runs this year from Jan. 17-27.
Click below for the entire Sundance jury list:
U.S. Documentary Jury
Liz Garbus is a prolific documentary filmmaker.
Short Film Awards will be announced at a ceremony on Jan. 22, with feature film awards announced at a separate ceremony on Jan. 26. The festival runs this year from Jan. 17-27.
Click below for the entire Sundance jury list:
U.S. Documentary Jury
Liz Garbus is a prolific documentary filmmaker.
- 12/19/2012
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
Once a bustling city and your one-stop shop for American automobile manufacturing, Detroit is now a shadow of its former, glorious self. It's broke, the former lucrative auto industry employ very few, and the neighborhoods are generally lined with empty, abandoned houses. Lifelong inhabitants retain hope and fight for the place they call home, but it seems like the area is facing a steady, unyielding decline. This locale is thrust into the spotlight for "Detropia," a documentary by "Jesus Camp" and "The Boys Of Baraka" filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. Keeping light on history lessons and going head first into Detroit's current economic climate, the two chart an assorted handful of stalwart Detroiters as they live and fight for their home sweet home. While there are some minor developments that Ewing & Grady capture (such as a government proposal to move everyone out of their homes in an attempt to...
- 9/7/2012
- by Christopher Bell
- The Playlist
Blood Runs Thicker Than Oil In The Motor City
With a resume that includes the Oscar nominated Jesus Camp, and their Emmy nominated debut, The Boys of Baraka, one could rightfully expect Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s latest film to be quite a doozy. Focusing on Detroit, the model city for crumbling American dreams, Detropia finds a metropolitan ghost town struggling to find its place where industry has packed up and left, taking the population with it. The city is in dire economic straights, and the directors, with help from local artists, administrators, bar owners, and bloggers, aim to cover as many issues as humanly possible. Though its examination bares a rich and sprawling birth, the film lays its foundation in the humanity of Motor City and the haunting abandoned architecture that has left it but a shell of its former self.
The sprawling empty factory compounds and thousands...
With a resume that includes the Oscar nominated Jesus Camp, and their Emmy nominated debut, The Boys of Baraka, one could rightfully expect Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s latest film to be quite a doozy. Focusing on Detroit, the model city for crumbling American dreams, Detropia finds a metropolitan ghost town struggling to find its place where industry has packed up and left, taking the population with it. The city is in dire economic straights, and the directors, with help from local artists, administrators, bar owners, and bloggers, aim to cover as many issues as humanly possible. Though its examination bares a rich and sprawling birth, the film lays its foundation in the humanity of Motor City and the haunting abandoned architecture that has left it but a shell of its former self.
The sprawling empty factory compounds and thousands...
- 9/6/2012
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Documentary filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing ("The Boys of Baraka," "Jesus Camp") took their latest film, "Detropia," to the Sundance Film Festival in January. When no suitable distribution deal materialized during the fest and the months afterward, the duo decided to take advantage of the Sundance Institute's brand new Artist Services program, which helps Sundance alumni (they had "12th and Delaware" at the fest in 2010) with financing, distribution and promotion for their films. Read More: 'Jesus Camp' Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady Go Diy With 'Detropia' Months ago, Grady and Ewing started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $70,000 for a self-distribution strategy that starts in theaters this week and expands to digital channels in January. They spoke to the Sundance Institute (full disclosure: the writer is my wife) about this new Diy avenue, how the Artist Services program aided the effort and the...
- 8/29/2012
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- Indiewire
Last week, I went into New York for a 30-minute chat with Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, the young documentary filmmaking team responsible for several of the most acclaimed docs of the 21st century: The Boys of Baraka (2005), which follows inner-city American schoolchildren who wind up at a boarding school in Kenya; Jesus Camp (2006), which is about the instructors and kids at a summer camp for Evangelical children and was nominated for the best documentary feature Oscar; Freakonomics (2010), which is an adaptation of the popular book of the same title about human behavior; 12th and
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- 8/24/2012
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Detropia opens on an abandoned residence being demolished as a wax-faced local reporter stands by, reporting on what most people in his audience already know – Detroit is an emptying, broken city, and it’s hard to imagine that will change any time soon. Detroit was once America’s most thriving city, a sprawling metropolis that was home to America’s most bankable manufacturing system, automobiles. But these days, the giant city (Detroit itself is a stunning 139 square miles) is home to something very different – a giant unemployment rate, a fractured citizenship, and the very real possibility that it will go bankrupt. Documentary directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp, The Boys of Baraka) attempt to tackle the many issues facing Detroit in their film, drawing from different perspectives to form a complete and complex picture of why Detroit is, as one of their subjects grimly announces, “never coming back.” With...
- 1/22/2012
- by Kate Erbland
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
I hope that headline got your attention, because basically there are no celebrities involved with Freakonomics as far as most moviegoers are concerned (unlike that blockbuster Darfur Now, which featured George Clooney, Don Cheadle and Arnold Schwarzenegger). However, to documentary aficionados this anthology film is an all-star collaboration, including segments helmed by acclaimed directors Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room; Taxi to the Dark Side), Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me: Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?), Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight; The Trials of Henry Kissinger) and Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady (The Boys of Baraka, Jesus Camp), as well as connective interludes from Seth Gordon (The King of Kong; umm, Four Christmases).
As Monika wrote way back in 2007, all these segments will represent and adapt from different sections of the 2005 non-fiction best seller Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything,...
As Monika wrote way back in 2007, all these segments will represent and adapt from different sections of the 2005 non-fiction best seller Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything,...
- 4/5/2010
- by Christopher Campbell
- Cinematical
Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, following up on their Oscar-nominated 2006 doc “Jesus Camp” and the hugely popular lost boys doc “The Boys of Baraka,” with an investigation of American religious life. This time, they shift from the evangelical youth camp to a corner of a small town in Florida, one in which the nation’s battle over abortion rights is being waged in a very unusual way. On an unassuming corner …...
- 1/12/2010
- indieWIRE - People
Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, following up on their Oscar-nominated 2006 doc “Jesus Camp” and the hugely popular lost boys doc “The Boys of Baraka,” with an investigation of American religious life. This time, they shift from the evangelical youth camp to a corner of a small town in Florida, one in which the nation’s battle over abortion rights is being waged in a very unusual way. On an unassuming corner …...
- 1/12/2010
- Indiewire
The indie blockbuster March of the Penguins is among the 15 documentaries that have made the cut for consideration for the best feature documentary Oscar at the 78th annual Academy Awards. The short-listed candidates -- drawn from 82 films that were eligible -- include After Innocence, The Boys of Baraka, Darwin's Nightmare, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Favela Rising, Mad Hot Ballroom, March of the Penguins, Murderball, Occupation: Dreamland, On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report, Rize, Street Fight, 39 Pounds of Love and Unknown White Male, the Academy said Tuesday. Eligible documentaries were screened by the documentary branch screening committee, made up of members of the branch who serve on a volunteer basis. The above films were chosen after a preliminary round of screenings. The nominated films will be announced along with nominations in 24 other categories on Jan. 31. The Academy Awards will be presented March 5 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland, televised live by ABC.
- 11/15/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The indie blockbuster March of the Penguins is among the 15 documentaries that have made the cut for consideration for the best feature documentary Oscar at the 78th annual Academy Awards. The short-listed candidates -- drawn from 82 films that were eligible -- include After Innocence, The Boys of Baraka, Darwin's Nightmare, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Favela Rising, Mad Hot Ballroom, March of the Penguins, Murderball, Occupation: Dreamland, On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report, Rize, Street Fight, 39 Pounds of Love and Unknown White Male, the Academy said Tuesday. Eligible documentaries were screened by the documentary branch screening committee, made up of members of the branch who serve on a volunteer basis. The above films were chosen after a preliminary round of screenings. The nominated films will be announced along with nominations in 24 other categories on Jan. 31. The Academy Awards will be presented March 5 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland, televised live by ABC.
- 11/15/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- ThinkFilm has nabbed all North American theatrical and home video rights to The Boys of Baraka, head of U.S. theatrical Mark Urman said Monday. The documentary from producer-directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady follows four black junior high school students from the Baltimore ghetto to a private boarding school in rural Kenya, contrasting the boys' underprivileged life at home with what they experience in Africa. "We pride ourselves on finding the best documentaries with the strongest combination of head and heart," Urman said.
- 11/14/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
SAN FRANCISCO -- It doesn't seem like a lot to ask for: freedom from violence, parents who aren't addicts or criminals and a safe place to learn and play. For the black boys growing up on the rough streets of inner-city Baltimore, those wishes are as unlikely as a trip to another galaxy. For a happy few, though, a visit to a faraway planet arrives in the form of a chance to attend the Baraka School in Kenya. Each year, the school offers a select group of at-risk junior high school kids things they can't find at home.
For the first 20 minutes, The Boys of Baraka, a thoroughly engaging documentary by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, plays like a segment of 60 Minutes. Then it reels you in and holds you, primarily because of the boys. The docu is not visually innovative, but the content more than makes up for what it lacks in style. Funded by ITVS, it will most likely find an appreciative audience on public TV.
Just shy of full-blown adolescence, these kids are already old souls and understand the odds are stacked against them. "I'm going there so when I grow up I gonna be somebody," says Romesh, while visiting his dad in jail. When they arrive in Africa, many are homesick, but they flourish with the attention and discipline they receive in the strict and academically demanding school.
When the plug is suddenly pulled on the program, the boys and their parents are devastated. One of the saddest moments comes when the boys express their sober assessment of what awaits them out in the wider world.
The filmmakers get in close to their subjects and clearly earned the trust of the boys and their families. We feel the rhythm of their lives: boredom punctuated with bursts of violence, the chaos of under funded classrooms and strapped households, the desperation of parents who don't see any way out. What's missing is background on the school, why and how it was established and funded. In the end, the boys carry the day.
For the first 20 minutes, The Boys of Baraka, a thoroughly engaging documentary by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, plays like a segment of 60 Minutes. Then it reels you in and holds you, primarily because of the boys. The docu is not visually innovative, but the content more than makes up for what it lacks in style. Funded by ITVS, it will most likely find an appreciative audience on public TV.
Just shy of full-blown adolescence, these kids are already old souls and understand the odds are stacked against them. "I'm going there so when I grow up I gonna be somebody," says Romesh, while visiting his dad in jail. When they arrive in Africa, many are homesick, but they flourish with the attention and discipline they receive in the strict and academically demanding school.
When the plug is suddenly pulled on the program, the boys and their parents are devastated. One of the saddest moments comes when the boys express their sober assessment of what awaits them out in the wider world.
The filmmakers get in close to their subjects and clearly earned the trust of the boys and their families. We feel the rhythm of their lives: boredom punctuated with bursts of violence, the chaos of under funded classrooms and strapped households, the desperation of parents who don't see any way out. What's missing is background on the school, why and how it was established and funded. In the end, the boys carry the day.
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