In Vice's continued quest for media domination, the alternative news company has launched a feature documentary division.
Vice Documentary Films is a division of Vice's film division, which is the production arm of Vice Media. It will focus on the production of nonfiction storytelling from both established and up-and-coming filmmakers.
The new venture will be headed by the founding Vice News Editor-in-Chief Jason Mojica and Brendan Fitzgerald, the head of development who helped launch the Viceland cable channel.
Vice is no stranger to documentary filmmaking, having produced several doc features since 2007, including Heavy Metal in Baghdad and the Snoop Dogg-centric...
Vice Documentary Films is a division of Vice's film division, which is the production arm of Vice Media. It will focus on the production of nonfiction storytelling from both established and up-and-coming filmmakers.
The new venture will be headed by the founding Vice News Editor-in-Chief Jason Mojica and Brendan Fitzgerald, the head of development who helped launch the Viceland cable channel.
Vice is no stranger to documentary filmmaking, having produced several doc features since 2007, including Heavy Metal in Baghdad and the Snoop Dogg-centric...
- 1/13/2017
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Continuing their strides to create and tell compelling real-life stories, Vice Media has announced the launch of Vice Documentary Films, a new division of Vice Films that will produce feature-length documentaries from both established and up-and-coming directors around the world.
Expanding on the adventurous storytelling that the company is known for, the new projects will focus on character-driven stories about rebels, radicals and people on the margins of society. The new division will be led by Jason Mojica, who previously served as Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer of Vice News, and Brendan Fitzgerald, who helped launch the Viceland cable channel as its Head of Development.
“You hear a lot of people saying that there’s never been a better time for documentaries, and it turns out that’s true,” said Mojica, Executive Producer of Vice Documentary Films. “Audiences are more interested than ever in non-fiction storytelling and there are more and more platforms serving it up.
Expanding on the adventurous storytelling that the company is known for, the new projects will focus on character-driven stories about rebels, radicals and people on the margins of society. The new division will be led by Jason Mojica, who previously served as Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer of Vice News, and Brendan Fitzgerald, who helped launch the Viceland cable channel as its Head of Development.
“You hear a lot of people saying that there’s never been a better time for documentaries, and it turns out that’s true,” said Mojica, Executive Producer of Vice Documentary Films. “Audiences are more interested than ever in non-fiction storytelling and there are more and more platforms serving it up.
- 1/13/2017
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
Since its inception as a government-funded rag meant to promote community service called Voice of Montreal, Vice magazine has endured almost 20 years at the cutting edge of pop culture by changing with the times. The founders dropped the "o" and then the Canadianness, expanding the publication into one of the cornerstones of hipster culture. Before being in the periodicals business became such a dire place, Vice was already expanding into music and film ("Heavy Metal in Baghdad," "White Lightnin'" and the upcoming "Reincarnated") as well as, perhaps most successfully, online video via first the Spike Jonze-led Vbs.tv and now YouTube. More importantly, Vice has gotten serious, which is why its new, sort of grown-up HBO show, premiering tonight, April 5, at 11pm, exists. Over the last few years, the company has expanded into a kind of international journalism-meets-adventure tourism that was first laid out in a web series called...
- 4/5/2013
- by Alison Willmore
- Indiewire
Last month at Caribana, the rapper formerly known as Snoop Dogg made his live debut as the Rastafarian reggae artist Snoop Lion. This week, Reincarnated, the film that documents his recent visit to Jamaica and the Dogg-to-Lion transformation it inspired, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Officially, it's merely a coincidence that both events are taking place in the same city, but Reincarnated director Andy Capper isn't ruling out a more grandiose explanation.
"There's been so many mystical coincidences in this. I'll wait and see what happens," Capper tells Huffington Post Canada Music. "Wherever this journey takes us, I'm willing to go on it because it's been a great adventure so far."
For Capper, who has also directed music videos for the likes of Vybz Kartel and A$AP Rocky and produced the fascinating and harrowing Vice Guide to Liberia, the journey started when Snoop's...
Officially, it's merely a coincidence that both events are taking place in the same city, but Reincarnated director Andy Capper isn't ruling out a more grandiose explanation.
"There's been so many mystical coincidences in this. I'll wait and see what happens," Capper tells Huffington Post Canada Music. "Wherever this journey takes us, I'm willing to go on it because it's been a great adventure so far."
For Capper, who has also directed music videos for the likes of Vybz Kartel and A$AP Rocky and produced the fascinating and harrowing Vice Guide to Liberia, the journey started when Snoop's...
- 9/7/2012
- by Joshua Ostroff
- Huffington Post
Grolsch Film Works have sent over this rather interesting press release and a couple of behind the scenes images from the film of their brand new feature film along with announcing three new directors who have signed up to come on board. These three directors are Harmony Korine, Jan Kwiecinski and Alexei Fedorchenko with each director filming a 30 minute short film in their own country of America, Russia and Poland.
Each Director worked from the same brief which Grolsch Film Works have shared with us:
“The (Filmic) Fourth Dimension”
Creative Brief
Written by Eddy Moretti
Dear Director from another land, here are your instructions…
This film must be the best film you have ever made.
It should blur the line between what is real and what is fake.
We must never know “the truth.”
We need to be shown things we have never been shown before.
We need to go...
Each Director worked from the same brief which Grolsch Film Works have shared with us:
“The (Filmic) Fourth Dimension”
Creative Brief
Written by Eddy Moretti
Dear Director from another land, here are your instructions…
This film must be the best film you have ever made.
It should blur the line between what is real and what is fake.
We must never know “the truth.”
We need to be shown things we have never been shown before.
We need to go...
- 9/21/2011
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
SnagFilms, which distributes ad-supported indie documentaries online, announced Thursday a new iPad application that will users to stream more than 50 docs, many of them festival winners – including “Super Size Me,” “Trembling Before G-d” and “Heavy Metal in Baghdad” – for free. SnagFilms said it plans to regularly refresh the slate of films available on the app -- sponsored by American Express’ Members Project -- from its relatively extensive library (the company already offers more than 1,800 films for streaming online). "So you want full length movies on your iPad, but...
- 1/6/2011
- by Dylan Stableford
- The Wrap
Vbs TV has released some great programming, including a cool documentary on José Mojica Marins (aka Coffin Joe). Now, in association with Vice Magazine, Vbs TV is premiering the Vice Guide to Film, an online series which purports to cover "underground film industries involving cocaine-bankrolled flicks in Mexico City, seedy Tokyo sex dens, and fat Russian men eating brains." The six-part series debuts an episode on "narco-cinema" from Mexico. Intrigued? Check out the full press release and the links provided below.
Vice & Vbs.TV Announce The U.S. Premiere Of The Vice Guide To Film
Series features Vice Founder Shane Smith Exploring the World's Most Bizarre and Freakish Film Industries.
Episodes Investigate Coke-Fueled Narco-Cinema in Mexico City, Gay Male Zombie Flicks in Russia, and the Dark Sex Clubs of Tokyo
New York, N.Y. (March 30, 2010) - Vice and Vbs.TV announces the U.S. premiere of The Vice Guide to Film.
Vice & Vbs.TV Announce The U.S. Premiere Of The Vice Guide To Film
Series features Vice Founder Shane Smith Exploring the World's Most Bizarre and Freakish Film Industries.
Episodes Investigate Coke-Fueled Narco-Cinema in Mexico City, Gay Male Zombie Flicks in Russia, and the Dark Sex Clubs of Tokyo
New York, N.Y. (March 30, 2010) - Vice and Vbs.TV announces the U.S. premiere of The Vice Guide to Film.
- 3/31/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Bad Lit was painfully disappointed that neither The Hurt Locker nor its director, Kathryn Bigelow, won a Golden Globe the other night. We can only hope that the film fares better — way better — on Oscar night.
Other than that Golden Globe, so far the film has been racking up all kinds of awards, particularly from critics’ associations such as the Austin Film Critics Association, Boston Society of Film Critics and the Chicago Film Critics Association; plus, it won two awards from Ifp’s Gotham Independent Film Awards.
The Hurt Locker made only a modest sum at the box office, but hopefully the award season accolades its been receiving will encourage a larger audience to find it on DVD (Amazon | Netflix).
For those who have seen and enjoyed the film and would like to watch another Iraq-based film, I’ve compiled a short list of great overlooked documentaries to check out.
Other than that Golden Globe, so far the film has been racking up all kinds of awards, particularly from critics’ associations such as the Austin Film Critics Association, Boston Society of Film Critics and the Chicago Film Critics Association; plus, it won two awards from Ifp’s Gotham Independent Film Awards.
The Hurt Locker made only a modest sum at the box office, but hopefully the award season accolades its been receiving will encourage a larger audience to find it on DVD (Amazon | Netflix).
For those who have seen and enjoyed the film and would like to watch another Iraq-based film, I’ve compiled a short list of great overlooked documentaries to check out.
- 1/19/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
With the recent success of such docs as Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, Heavy Metal in Baghdad and Anvil! The Story of Anvil, it seems that heavy metal is a pretty popular topic in the world of non-fiction right now. In Sam Dunn’s Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, one of the most fascinating (and creepy) segments was the stuff involving the Norwegian Black Metal bands, who were also featured in a short doc that was included on the DVD release of the film. Well, if you wanted to know more about this disturbing and violent subculture of musicians who supposedly burn churches and commit murder in the name of their music, you probably should check out Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell’s feature-length film Until The Light Takes Us. The filmmakers supposedly moved to Norway and lived with the various band members for several years in order to gain...
- 10/26/2009
- by Sean
- FilmJunk
In anticipation of this weekend's release of Where The Wild Things Are, the Museum of Modern Art in New York has created the first ever retrospective of Spike Jonze's work. Spike Jonze: The First 80 Years. MoMA's Department of Film has a hip series called Filmmakers in Focus, and last week director Spike Jonze attended the opening for his first-ever career retrospective. The October 8 opener included a conversation with Jonze, organized by MoMA's Associate Curator in their Department of Film, Joshua Siegel. Also present for this discussion was beloved Where The Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak. This seemingly whimsical opening night featured In Cahoots, a collection of several short films that the two made together during shooting for Where The Wild Things Are. Much of the retrospective centers around Jonze's influences and bevy of artistic expressions, as well as his big three films: Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Where the Wild Things Are (2009). If you're...
- 10/13/2009
- by Bethany Perryman
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Filmmaker Spike Jonze has always flirted around at the outskirts of the mainstream. Ehhhh... maybe more like the mainstream's suburbs. He made an effortless transition from music videos -- including Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" and Weezer's "Buddy Holly" -- to Hollywood features like "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation." He was also a writer and producer on the "Jackass" TV series and subsequent movies. For all of that, Jonze has never quite breached into "household name" territory.
This fall's re-envisioning of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" could very well change all of that. That's probably why Jonze will be honored by New York City's Museum of Modern Art in a 10 day career retrospective, ending just two days after "Wild Things" hits theaters. The exhibit will showcase "Malkovich," "Adaptation," "Jackass: The Movie," the documentary "Heavy Metal in Baghdad" and a range of music videos and short films.
This fall's re-envisioning of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" could very well change all of that. That's probably why Jonze will be honored by New York City's Museum of Modern Art in a 10 day career retrospective, ending just two days after "Wild Things" hits theaters. The exhibit will showcase "Malkovich," "Adaptation," "Jackass: The Movie," the documentary "Heavy Metal in Baghdad" and a range of music videos and short films.
- 8/28/2009
- by Adam Rosenberg
- MTV Movies Blog
By Michael Atkinson
To each fiery cinema individualist his own honorial DVD box set: here we have a reacquaintance . or initiation, for the babies of the Reagan/Thatcher era . with the unique howl of Derek Jarman, dead in 1994 from AIDS at the age of 52, a career attenuated by the very same fate that ended up giving it such amperage. You'd never know it, but there was a time when British filmmakers, emboldened by punk culture, fueled by hatred for Thatcherite conservatism, and funded by the BFI and the new Channel Four, made outrageous, experimental, high culture vs. low culture collision movies, doped on structuralism and gender-bending and period-picture mockery. Jarman was the moment's jester prince; he never made a film you'd mistake for the work of another, or a film that doesn't manifest on the screen as an unpredictably impish riff on serious matters, Art-making and Sex and Death. Not to mention,...
To each fiery cinema individualist his own honorial DVD box set: here we have a reacquaintance . or initiation, for the babies of the Reagan/Thatcher era . with the unique howl of Derek Jarman, dead in 1994 from AIDS at the age of 52, a career attenuated by the very same fate that ended up giving it such amperage. You'd never know it, but there was a time when British filmmakers, emboldened by punk culture, fueled by hatred for Thatcherite conservatism, and funded by the BFI and the new Channel Four, made outrageous, experimental, high culture vs. low culture collision movies, doped on structuralism and gender-bending and period-picture mockery. Jarman was the moment's jester prince; he never made a film you'd mistake for the work of another, or a film that doesn't manifest on the screen as an unpredictably impish riff on serious matters, Art-making and Sex and Death. Not to mention,...
- 6/24/2008
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
Heavy Metal in Baghdad
Panorama Documentary
BERLIN -- The fate of four would-be head-bangers in the crazy world of Iraq might not add up to a hill of beans, but it's fodder for an engaging documentary by Canadian filmmakers Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi titled Heavy Metal in Baghdad.
It should play well at festivals and be a collectors item on DVD.
Tipped off by a magazine article about a band called Acrassicauda (Black Scorpion) attempting to play heavy metal concerts in the war-torn capital, Moretti and Alvi tracked them down and helped stage a ragged concert before a small group of dedicated fans.
All hell broke loose after that and they lost touch, but the film shows their attempts a year later to track down the four young men who want to be like their heroes in Metallica, Slayer and Slipknot.
What the band lacks in musical talent it more than makes up for in enthusiasm, though the film wisely keeps their playing to a minimum. Moretti handles the camera while Alvi asks the questions onscreen, and it probably helps that his manner is jaunty as the places they visit in shell-shocked Baghdad are very scary.
The city's terrifying lack of security and the awful existence that Iraqis of all creeds are suffering become abundantly clear even after the foursome make their way to Damascus in Syria.
Their thoughts and observations about life in Iraq today are expressed in near-perfect American accents with endearing obscenities and mistakes in syntax. They seem much closer to the spirit of rock 'n' roll than The Rolling Stones in Martin Scorsese's Shine a Light.
BERLIN -- The fate of four would-be head-bangers in the crazy world of Iraq might not add up to a hill of beans, but it's fodder for an engaging documentary by Canadian filmmakers Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi titled Heavy Metal in Baghdad.
It should play well at festivals and be a collectors item on DVD.
Tipped off by a magazine article about a band called Acrassicauda (Black Scorpion) attempting to play heavy metal concerts in the war-torn capital, Moretti and Alvi tracked them down and helped stage a ragged concert before a small group of dedicated fans.
All hell broke loose after that and they lost touch, but the film shows their attempts a year later to track down the four young men who want to be like their heroes in Metallica, Slayer and Slipknot.
What the band lacks in musical talent it more than makes up for in enthusiasm, though the film wisely keeps their playing to a minimum. Moretti handles the camera while Alvi asks the questions onscreen, and it probably helps that his manner is jaunty as the places they visit in shell-shocked Baghdad are very scary.
The city's terrifying lack of security and the awful existence that Iraqis of all creeds are suffering become abundantly clear even after the foursome make their way to Damascus in Syria.
Their thoughts and observations about life in Iraq today are expressed in near-perfect American accents with endearing obscenities and mistakes in syntax. They seem much closer to the spirit of rock 'n' roll than The Rolling Stones in Martin Scorsese's Shine a Light.
- 2/12/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rockers, hoops on way
Iraqi headbangers could go up against Jewish basketballers on theater screens this year.
Arts Alliance America picked up all North American and U.K. rights to Heavy Metal in Baghdad, a portrait of Muslim rockers in war-torn Iraq and one of the most talked-about docus at September's Toronto International Film Festival.
Separately, Laemmle/Zeller Films has acquired all North American rights to The First Basket.
Baghdad follows Acrassicauda, an Iraqi heavy metal band whose young members have struggled to survive, both as a band and as residents of Baghdad, since the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The film was directed by Eddy Morretti, VBS.TV & Vice Films head, and Suroosh Alvi, founder of Vice Magazine. It's set to hit theaters in spring, followed by a DVD release.
Basket examines basketball's impact on Jewish culture since the early 20th century and its role in Jewish assimilation. The docu also highlights the Jewish professionals of the sport, including Red Auerbach and Ossie Schectman.
Arts Alliance America picked up all North American and U.K. rights to Heavy Metal in Baghdad, a portrait of Muslim rockers in war-torn Iraq and one of the most talked-about docus at September's Toronto International Film Festival.
Separately, Laemmle/Zeller Films has acquired all North American rights to The First Basket.
Baghdad follows Acrassicauda, an Iraqi heavy metal band whose young members have struggled to survive, both as a band and as residents of Baghdad, since the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The film was directed by Eddy Morretti, VBS.TV & Vice Films head, and Suroosh Alvi, founder of Vice Magazine. It's set to hit theaters in spring, followed by a DVD release.
Basket examines basketball's impact on Jewish culture since the early 20th century and its role in Jewish assimilation. The docu also highlights the Jewish professionals of the sport, including Red Auerbach and Ossie Schectman.
- 1/10/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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