Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber have always been kindred spirits, but as of this week, the indie distributors are officially strategic partners, a business relationship that has been in works for the past six months. Richard Lorber’s arthouse distribution company has formed a multi-year alliance with Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo’s Zeitgeist that will see the two companies co-acquire four to five theatrical titles per year that will be marketed and released by Zeitgeist Films, starting with the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival audience award-winner “The Divine Order.” Directed by Petra Volpe, the film tells the story of a young housewife in Switzerland in 1971 who stands up to the closed-minded villagers in her town and overthrows the status quo.
Read More: Beyond A24: How Hip New Distributors Are Targeting Millennial Tastemakers With Bold Films
“We were at Tribeca and covered every film that we could get our eyes on, but we totally missed ‘The Divine Order’ for some reason,” Lorber said. “Nancy and Emily said it was great, we committed to doing it, and two days later it won the audience prize at Tribeca.”
Founded in 1988, Zeitgeist film’s is known for having distributed early films by directors including Todd Hayes (“Poison”), Christopher Nolan (“Following”), Laura Poitras (“The Oath”) and Atom Egoyan (“Speaking Parts”), but has struggled in recent years to adapt to the changing landscape for indie distributors.
“There’s no denying the fact that the business has gotten tougher, and I think over the years Zeitgeist has maintained an almost artisanal approach, which has not always kept pace with some of the other opportunities that have been available, such as the expansion of digital and alternative venues that films can play in,” Lorber said. Going forward, Kino Lorber will become the exclusive distributor of all Zeitgeist films for the home video, educational, and digital media markets, adding Zeitgeist’s roughly 130-film library to its collection of 1,600 titles.
“Once home video sort of ended as a possibility for us, we really had to go into the digital realm, and dealing with five or six films a year, it’s difficult to really bulk up your digital [catalog] to be able to do the sort of deals that Kino Lorber is able to do,” Gerstman said. “It’s been very tough, so these are really great resources for us to be able to have.
Read More: Hybrid Distribution: One-Night-Only Screenings Could Make Your Documentary a Theatrical Hit
Kino Lorber will release two of Zeitgeist’s 2016 films, the biographical documentary “Eva Hesse” and “Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt.” Zeitgeist’s 2001 film “Nowhere in Africa” won the Academy Award for best foreign language film, taking more than $6 million at the U.S. box office. Some of the company’s most successful theatrical releases include “Bill Cunningham: New York,” “The Corporation” and “Aimee & Jaguar.”
Stay on top of the latest in gear and filmmaking news! Sign up for the Indiewire Toolkit newsletter here.
Related storiesJulian Assange and WikiLeaks Accused of Censorship by 'Risk' Documentarian Laura Poitras'Pop Aye' Trailer: A Man Finds Himself with the Help of an Elephant in Sundance Drama -- Watch'Wonderstruck' Is Cannes' First Oscar Contender and Other Revelations From Festival Press Conference...
Read More: Beyond A24: How Hip New Distributors Are Targeting Millennial Tastemakers With Bold Films
“We were at Tribeca and covered every film that we could get our eyes on, but we totally missed ‘The Divine Order’ for some reason,” Lorber said. “Nancy and Emily said it was great, we committed to doing it, and two days later it won the audience prize at Tribeca.”
Founded in 1988, Zeitgeist film’s is known for having distributed early films by directors including Todd Hayes (“Poison”), Christopher Nolan (“Following”), Laura Poitras (“The Oath”) and Atom Egoyan (“Speaking Parts”), but has struggled in recent years to adapt to the changing landscape for indie distributors.
“There’s no denying the fact that the business has gotten tougher, and I think over the years Zeitgeist has maintained an almost artisanal approach, which has not always kept pace with some of the other opportunities that have been available, such as the expansion of digital and alternative venues that films can play in,” Lorber said. Going forward, Kino Lorber will become the exclusive distributor of all Zeitgeist films for the home video, educational, and digital media markets, adding Zeitgeist’s roughly 130-film library to its collection of 1,600 titles.
“Once home video sort of ended as a possibility for us, we really had to go into the digital realm, and dealing with five or six films a year, it’s difficult to really bulk up your digital [catalog] to be able to do the sort of deals that Kino Lorber is able to do,” Gerstman said. “It’s been very tough, so these are really great resources for us to be able to have.
Read More: Hybrid Distribution: One-Night-Only Screenings Could Make Your Documentary a Theatrical Hit
Kino Lorber will release two of Zeitgeist’s 2016 films, the biographical documentary “Eva Hesse” and “Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt.” Zeitgeist’s 2001 film “Nowhere in Africa” won the Academy Award for best foreign language film, taking more than $6 million at the U.S. box office. Some of the company’s most successful theatrical releases include “Bill Cunningham: New York,” “The Corporation” and “Aimee & Jaguar.”
Stay on top of the latest in gear and filmmaking news! Sign up for the Indiewire Toolkit newsletter here.
Related storiesJulian Assange and WikiLeaks Accused of Censorship by 'Risk' Documentarian Laura Poitras'Pop Aye' Trailer: A Man Finds Himself with the Help of an Elephant in Sundance Drama -- Watch'Wonderstruck' Is Cannes' First Oscar Contender and Other Revelations From Festival Press Conference...
- 6/23/2017
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
The Oscar and Peabody award-winning documentarian will be receive the Charles Guggenheim award on June 16.
The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that AFI Docs will pay tribute to Laura Poitras.
The director of Risk and Citizenfour will be the festival’s 2017 Charles Guggenheim Symposium honouree.
The symposium will take place at the Newseum on June 16 and will include an in-depth conversation with Poitras along with clips from her films.
Poitras’ latest film Risk, a six-year project following WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was released by Neon earlier this month and will air on Showtime this summer.
Poitras’ documentary catalogue also includes The Oath, Flag Wars, which was Emmy nominated and won a Peabody Award, and My Country, My Country, which was nominated for a best documentary feature Oscar.
In 2015, Poitras won the Academy Award for Citizenfour. That same year, Poitras co-founded Field of Vision, an entity that commissions and creates original short-form nonfiction films about global events...
The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that AFI Docs will pay tribute to Laura Poitras.
The director of Risk and Citizenfour will be the festival’s 2017 Charles Guggenheim Symposium honouree.
The symposium will take place at the Newseum on June 16 and will include an in-depth conversation with Poitras along with clips from her films.
Poitras’ latest film Risk, a six-year project following WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was released by Neon earlier this month and will air on Showtime this summer.
Poitras’ documentary catalogue also includes The Oath, Flag Wars, which was Emmy nominated and won a Peabody Award, and My Country, My Country, which was nominated for a best documentary feature Oscar.
In 2015, Poitras won the Academy Award for Citizenfour. That same year, Poitras co-founded Field of Vision, an entity that commissions and creates original short-form nonfiction films about global events...
- 5/24/2017
- ScreenDaily
Laura Poitras won an Oscar for Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced AFI Docs will pay tribute to Laura Poitras — the director of Risk, about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and the Academy Award®-winning Edward Snowden portrait Citizenfour (2014) — as the festival's 2017 Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoree.
Each year, the AFI Docs Charles Guggenheim Symposium honours a master of the nonfiction art form. Taking place at the Newseum on June 16, the Symposium will include an in-depth conversation with Poitras along with clips from her work, which includes The Oath, My Country, My Country and Flag Wars.
AFI Docs director Michael Lumpkin said: "Poitras has the extraordinary instinct and ability to put her camera in the heart of history as it unfolds, regardless of the risk. Using her keen eye, Poitras reveals worlds just beyond what we can see. We are honored to celebrate her remarkable career and dedication to the documentary form.
Each year, the AFI Docs Charles Guggenheim Symposium honours a master of the nonfiction art form. Taking place at the Newseum on June 16, the Symposium will include an in-depth conversation with Poitras along with clips from her work, which includes The Oath, My Country, My Country and Flag Wars.
AFI Docs director Michael Lumpkin said: "Poitras has the extraordinary instinct and ability to put her camera in the heart of history as it unfolds, regardless of the risk. Using her keen eye, Poitras reveals worlds just beyond what we can see. We are honored to celebrate her remarkable career and dedication to the documentary form.
- 5/23/2017
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Documentarian Laura Poitras is our nonfiction poet laureate of paranoia, a vérité surveyor of the global surveillance state who feels compelled to train her cameras on what's really happening – in occupied war zones (My Country, My Country), Guantanamo P.O.W. trials (The Oath), the eye of Nsa-whistleblowing shitstorms (the Oscar-winning Citizenfour). Even when she's not earning enemy-of-the-state status via aiding and abetting Edward Snowden, there's always a sense of personal danger hovering around her films as she displeases the powers that be; any or all of her movies might plausibly be called Risk.
- 5/5/2017
- Rollingstone.com
Peripatetic filmmaker Laura Poitras never imagined that “Risk,” her follow-up to the demanding Oscar-winning Edward Snowden documentary “Citizenfour,” would present another set of daunting challenges. This time she’s up close and personal with controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as he gets on the phone with a lawyer in Hillary Clinton’s State Department in 2010 to alert them of a massive dump of unredacted State Department documents on his site.
Read More: ‘Risk’ Review: Julian Assange Gets An Unflattering Closeup From A Former Friend In New Edit
Poitras and her two cinematographers catch telling details: Assange, with dyed hair, assuming a disguise, has trouble inserting his colored contact lens. Flames lick at shredded documents in a bowl. Kirsten Johnson’s camera looks down from above on Assange emerging from a London court, surrounded by photographers and supporters. (“We were thinking of Coppola’s ‘The Conversation,'” said Poitras.) The filmmaker...
Read More: ‘Risk’ Review: Julian Assange Gets An Unflattering Closeup From A Former Friend In New Edit
Poitras and her two cinematographers catch telling details: Assange, with dyed hair, assuming a disguise, has trouble inserting his colored contact lens. Flames lick at shredded documents in a bowl. Kirsten Johnson’s camera looks down from above on Assange emerging from a London court, surrounded by photographers and supporters. (“We were thinking of Coppola’s ‘The Conversation,'” said Poitras.) The filmmaker...
- 5/4/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Peripatetic filmmaker Laura Poitras never imagined that “Risk,” her follow-up to the demanding Oscar-winning Edward Snowden documentary “Citizenfour,” would present another set of daunting challenges. This time she’s up close and personal with controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as he gets on the phone with a lawyer in Hillary Clinton’s State Department in 2010 to alert them of a massive dump of unredacted State Department documents on his site.
Read More: ‘Risk’ Review: Julian Assange Gets An Unflattering Closeup From A Former Friend In New Edit
Poitras and her two cinematographers catch telling details: Assange, with dyed hair, assuming a disguise, has trouble inserting his colored contact lens. Flames lick at shredded documents in a bowl. Kirsten Johnson’s camera looks down from above on Assange emerging from a London court, surrounded by photographers and supporters. (“We were thinking of Coppola’s ‘The Conversation,'” said Poitras.) The filmmaker...
Read More: ‘Risk’ Review: Julian Assange Gets An Unflattering Closeup From A Former Friend In New Edit
Poitras and her two cinematographers catch telling details: Assange, with dyed hair, assuming a disguise, has trouble inserting his colored contact lens. Flames lick at shredded documents in a bowl. Kirsten Johnson’s camera looks down from above on Assange emerging from a London court, surrounded by photographers and supporters. (“We were thinking of Coppola’s ‘The Conversation,'” said Poitras.) The filmmaker...
- 5/4/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The Oscars can have its annual celebrity luncheon. This week, several documentarians celebrated the Cinema Eye Honors with an after-hours field trip to the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Conceived in 2008 as a bid to broaden awareness for documentary achievements, the Cinema Eyes highlight a dozen categories that range from best director to best cinematography to graphic design. However, while it began as a tonic to the five-nominee limitations that circumscribe the Oscars, the Cinema Eyes have evolved into an idiosyncratic celebration all its own. Although the awards are Wednesday night at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, the ceremony is now only the culmination of a full week of programming that includes three days of activities.
“It’s kind of like senior skip week,” said co-founder and filmmaker Aj Schnack, catching his breath on Monday night before delivering a speech to the filmmakers in attendance. “Yes,...
Conceived in 2008 as a bid to broaden awareness for documentary achievements, the Cinema Eyes highlight a dozen categories that range from best director to best cinematography to graphic design. However, while it began as a tonic to the five-nominee limitations that circumscribe the Oscars, the Cinema Eyes have evolved into an idiosyncratic celebration all its own. Although the awards are Wednesday night at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, the ceremony is now only the culmination of a full week of programming that includes three days of activities.
“It’s kind of like senior skip week,” said co-founder and filmmaker Aj Schnack, catching his breath on Monday night before delivering a speech to the filmmakers in attendance. “Yes,...
- 1/11/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Cameraperson's Kirsten Johnson on Jacques Derrida: "He is present." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Abigail Disney, director of The Armor Of Light and executive producer of Cameraperson with Gini Reticker, director of Pray The Devil Back To Hell, hosted an intimate, cosy and warm reception for Kirsten Johnson. Kirsten as cinematographer has filmed Laura Poitras's Citizenfour, Risk, and The Oath; Dawn Porter's Trapped; Kirby Dick's The Invisible War and This Film Is Not Yet Rated; Linda Hoaglund's The Wound And The Gift with Vanessa Redgrave; Amy Ziering and Dick's Derrida; Leah Wolchok's Very Semi-Serious; Johanna Hamilton's 1971; Christy Turlington's No Woman, No Cry; Catherine Gund's Born To Fly: Elizabeth Streb Vs. Gravity; Katy Chevigny's Election Day and Deadline co-directed by Kirsten.
Election Day director Katy Chevigny and Deadline co-director with Kirsten Johnson Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Cameraperson, which was featured in Doc NYC's Short List programme,...
Abigail Disney, director of The Armor Of Light and executive producer of Cameraperson with Gini Reticker, director of Pray The Devil Back To Hell, hosted an intimate, cosy and warm reception for Kirsten Johnson. Kirsten as cinematographer has filmed Laura Poitras's Citizenfour, Risk, and The Oath; Dawn Porter's Trapped; Kirby Dick's The Invisible War and This Film Is Not Yet Rated; Linda Hoaglund's The Wound And The Gift with Vanessa Redgrave; Amy Ziering and Dick's Derrida; Leah Wolchok's Very Semi-Serious; Johanna Hamilton's 1971; Christy Turlington's No Woman, No Cry; Catherine Gund's Born To Fly: Elizabeth Streb Vs. Gravity; Katy Chevigny's Election Day and Deadline co-directed by Kirsten.
Election Day director Katy Chevigny and Deadline co-director with Kirsten Johnson Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Cameraperson, which was featured in Doc NYC's Short List programme,...
- 12/18/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Cinema Eye has named 10 filmmakers and 20 films that have been voted as the top achievements in documentary filmmaking during the past 10 years. Founded in 2007 to “recognize and honor exemplary craft and innovation in nonfiction film,” Cinema Eye polled 110 members of the documentary community to determine the winning films and filmmakers just as the organization kicks off its tenth year.
Read More: Behind the Scenes of Cinema Eye’s Secret Field Trip for Nominees
Among the films chosen are Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing,” Laura Poitras’ Oscar-winning “Citizenfour” and Banksy’s “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” Poitras and Oppenheimer were both also named to the list of the top documentary filmmakers, joining Alex Gibney, Werner Herzog and Frederick Wiseman, who recently won an honorary Oscar and will be saluted at the annual Governors Awards on November 12.
“It’s fantastic that he is being recognized by the Academy for a...
Read More: Behind the Scenes of Cinema Eye’s Secret Field Trip for Nominees
Among the films chosen are Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing,” Laura Poitras’ Oscar-winning “Citizenfour” and Banksy’s “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” Poitras and Oppenheimer were both also named to the list of the top documentary filmmakers, joining Alex Gibney, Werner Herzog and Frederick Wiseman, who recently won an honorary Oscar and will be saluted at the annual Governors Awards on November 12.
“It’s fantastic that he is being recognized by the Academy for a...
- 9/21/2016
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Usually the home for the latest and greatest in classic, arthouse and foreign language film restorations, distributors Janus Films have become as much known for their painstaking work in restoring and subsequently distributing classic films as they have been for their connection to The Criterion Collection. Offering a direct route from big to small screen, Janus has also turned the rare new release acquisition into something truly special. Taking on far fewer new release films a year than even the smallest of independent distributor, the Janus stamp is one of quality and curation.
However, in the case of Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson, even that doesn’t seem to do it the justice it so rightly deserves.
Best known as a documentary cinematographer, with films like Citizenfour and Fahrenheit 9/11 to her name, Johnson has become one of non-fiction cinema’s most lauded photographers. With an uncanny ability to shoot films as...
However, in the case of Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson, even that doesn’t seem to do it the justice it so rightly deserves.
Best known as a documentary cinematographer, with films like Citizenfour and Fahrenheit 9/11 to her name, Johnson has become one of non-fiction cinema’s most lauded photographers. With an uncanny ability to shoot films as...
- 9/9/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
For a quarter of a century, cinematographer Kirsten Johnson has hauled her camera through global danger zones, abortion-clinic doctor's offices and the District of Columbia. She's filmed graveyards in Sarajevo, boxers in Brooklyn and her own mother lost in the haze of Alzheimer's disease. You may not know her name, but if you've watched a documentary in the past 25 years — Citizenfour, Fahrenheit 9/11, The Oath, Derrida — you've definitely seen her work. And as this cinememoir, described by Johnson as a collection of "images that have marked me and leave me wondering still,...
- 9/9/2016
- Rollingstone.com
All this week, IndieWire will be rolling out our annual Fall Preview, including offerings that span genres, a close examination of some of the year’s biggest breakouts, all the awards contenders you need to know about now and special attention to all the new movies you need to get through a jam-packed fall movie-going season. Check back every day for a new look at the best the season has to offer, and clear your schedule, because we’re going to fill it right up.
“White Girl,” September 2
Writer-director Elizabeth Wood exploded onto the filmmaking scene when her controversial debut “White Girl” shocked audiences at the Sundance Film Festival. A fearless portrait of young female sexuality, the film stars “Homeland’s” Morgan Saylor as Leah, a college student who becomes involved with a young drug dealer during the last two weeks of summer in New York City. When the cops...
“White Girl,” September 2
Writer-director Elizabeth Wood exploded onto the filmmaking scene when her controversial debut “White Girl” shocked audiences at the Sundance Film Festival. A fearless portrait of young female sexuality, the film stars “Homeland’s” Morgan Saylor as Leah, a college student who becomes involved with a young drug dealer during the last two weeks of summer in New York City. When the cops...
- 8/17/2016
- by Kate Erbland, David Ehrlich, Graham Winfrey, Steve Greene, Chris O'Falt and Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
The Julian Assange documentary “Risk,” which came to the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors Fortnight section on Thursday, was supposed to be the end of director Laura Poitras’ trilogy about the aftermath of 9/11. The trilogy began with “My Country, My Country” in 2006, and also included “The Oath” four years later. But along the way, Poitras got sidetracked: Her contact with National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, which took place while she was making “Risk,” sent her on a detour that resulted in the Oscar-winning documentary “Citizenfour” and put the Assange project on temporary hold. Since then she has gone back.
- 5/19/2016
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Laura Poitras, best known for her documentary trilogy delving into the post-9/11 war on terror—My Country, My Country (2006), The Oath (2010) and Citizenfour (2014)—sees her first solo exhibition open at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York tomorrow. "Laura Poitras: Astro Noise," on view through May 1, incorporates images from files leaked to Poitras by Edward Snowden as well as documentary footage, primary documents and architectural interventions, all laid out in a deliberate narrative structure. » - David Hudson...
- 2/4/2016
- Keyframe
Laura Poitras, best known for her documentary trilogy delving into the post-9/11 war on terror—My Country, My Country (2006), The Oath (2010) and Citizenfour (2014)—sees her first solo exhibition open at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York tomorrow. "Laura Poitras: Astro Noise," on view through May 1, incorporates images from files leaked to Poitras by Edward Snowden as well as documentary footage, primary documents and architectural interventions, all laid out in a deliberate narrative structure. » - David Hudson...
- 2/4/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Documentary Dp Kirsten Johnson is probably best known for her work with Laura Poitras (The Oath, Citizenfour), but she’s been shooting for years. Out of her experience comes Cameraperson, an essay film assembled from mostly unused footage shot for many projects. Each segment is labeled by place rather than the project it came from. In eschewing voiceover, the chain of argumentation can be a little heavy-handed for my taste — i.e., cutting from someone talking about death to someone giving birth in a hospital — but the overall effect is constantly surprising and stimulating. The film begins by reminding us that even the […]...
- 1/26/2016
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Documentary Dp Kirsten Johnson is probably best known for her work with Laura Poitras (The Oath, Citizenfour), but she’s been shooting for years. Out of her experience comes Cameraperson, an essay film assembled from mostly unused footage shot for many projects. Each segment is labeled by place rather than the project it came from. In eschewing voiceover, the chain of argumentation can be a little heavy-handed for my taste — i.e., cutting from someone talking about death to someone giving birth in a hospital — but the overall effect is constantly surprising and stimulating. The film begins by reminding us that even the […]...
- 1/26/2016
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Read More: 'Citizenfour' Team Edward Snowden and Laura Poitras Talk to the Late David Carr Laura Poitras, the Oscar-winning documentarian behind "Citizenfour" and "The Oath," is launching a new documentary unit alongside Aj Schnack and Charlotte Cook, announced Variety earlier today. Named Field of Vision, the unit is being developed in collaboration with First Look Media and journalism website The Intercept and looks to commission 40-50 short-form docs each year. The unit will launch their debut project at the New York Film Festival in the form of Poitras' "Asylum," a short-form series tracking Julian Assange as he publishes diplomatic cables and seeks asylum in London's Ecuadorian embassy. The official first season of episodes will debut September 29 on The Intercept, with a second season already being planned for early 2016. New works from Kirsten Johnson, Michael Moore, Shola Lynch, Beau Willimon, Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de...
- 9/9/2015
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Laura Poitras' acclaimed Edward Snowden documentary "Citizenfour" swept the 8th annual Cinema Eye Honors tonight at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, picking up four awards including Outstanding Nonfiction Feature and Outstanding Direction. This marks the second time in Cinema Eye history that a film won four awards. The first film to do so was Ari Folman's "Waltz With Bashir." Poitras also made Cinema Eye history as the first person to win the Outstanding Direction award twice. She previously won for "The Oath" in 2011. The Nick Cave documentary "20,000 Days on Earth" followed with two wins for Outstanding Cinematography and Musical Score. Alan Hicks' "Keep On Keepin' On" won the Audience Choice Prize, and the Nonfiction Short Film award went to Lucy Walker's "The Lions Mouth Open." Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sam Green hosted this year's event, with an audio assist from "Serial" podcast host Sarah.
- 1/8/2015
- by Nigel M Smith
- Indiewire
One of this year's must see documentaries is Citizenfour, directed by Laura Poitras, an inside look at the story of whistblower Edward Snowden. Poitras was contacted by Snowden early on and was right there with him, filming the entire event, as he leaked the information from Hong Kong about the Nsa's spying program that stunned the world in May of 2013. Poitras has made two other provocative docs previously, The Oath and Flag Wars, and she's back with another one that is a bit more intimate, but still as powerful. I raved about Citizenfour after catching its premiere at the New York Film Festival, and I met up with Laura for an interview in New York City. What follows is a fascinating discussion about the power of storytelling. I wrote in my Nyff review, "The film exceeds on all levels because it is so expertly made by a filmmaker who can...
- 12/19/2014
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Other leading nominees are Life Itself and 20,000 Days on Earth.
Laura Poitras’ Citizenfour, about Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden, leads the pack at the Cinema Eye Awards nominations, with six nods.
Steve James’ Life Itself about Roger Ebert and Iain Forsythe and Jane Pollard’s 20,000 Days on Earth about Nick Cave followed close behind with five nominations each.
The nominees for the awards, which recognise exemplary craft and innovation in nonfiction film, were announced last night at an industry party at Cph: Dox in Copenhagen.
In addition to those three, the other nominations for the Nonfiction Feature Film were Jesse Moss’ The Overnighters and Orlando von Einsiedel’s Virunga.
Poitras and James are also nominated in the Direction category, and each has previously won that Cinema Eye prize, Poitras with The Oath in 2011 and James in 2012 with The Interrupters. Poitras becomes the most nominated filmmaker in Cinema Eye history with nine nominations.
Other films nominated...
Laura Poitras’ Citizenfour, about Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden, leads the pack at the Cinema Eye Awards nominations, with six nods.
Steve James’ Life Itself about Roger Ebert and Iain Forsythe and Jane Pollard’s 20,000 Days on Earth about Nick Cave followed close behind with five nominations each.
The nominees for the awards, which recognise exemplary craft and innovation in nonfiction film, were announced last night at an industry party at Cph: Dox in Copenhagen.
In addition to those three, the other nominations for the Nonfiction Feature Film were Jesse Moss’ The Overnighters and Orlando von Einsiedel’s Virunga.
Poitras and James are also nominated in the Direction category, and each has previously won that Cinema Eye prize, Poitras with The Oath in 2011 and James in 2012 with The Interrupters. Poitras becomes the most nominated filmmaker in Cinema Eye history with nine nominations.
Other films nominated...
- 11/13/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
“This will not be a waste of your time,” wrote an anonymous man in an encrypted email to documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras. The person sending her the message had liked her prior documentaries, My Country, My Country and The Oath, about the state of post-9/11 American life, and could trust that Poitras would keep his messages confidential and not reveal them to the authorities – especially since the director had been placed on a watch list as a result of her earlier, critical films. The person sending her messages also turns out to be a soft-spoken twenty-something from a North Carolina military family named Edward Snowden. Although he prefers it if you call him Ed.
Snowden signed these emails Citizenfour, which is also the title of Poitras’s new documentary. Many years from now, Americans curious enough to peer back to this era of paranoia will be thrilled to have a film like Citizenfour available,...
Snowden signed these emails Citizenfour, which is also the title of Poitras’s new documentary. Many years from now, Americans curious enough to peer back to this era of paranoia will be thrilled to have a film like Citizenfour available,...
- 11/5/2014
- by Jordan Adler
- We Got This Covered
The fifth annual Doc NYC, running from November 13-20, will showcase 153 films and events, including screenings of 91 feature-length films, 37 shorts, and 24 doc-related panel discussions and master classes. Chris Hegedus (Kings Of Pastry), D.A. Pennebaker (David) and Albert Maysles (Salesman) will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Mami Sunada's The Kingdom Of Dreams And Madness on Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki (The Wind Rises - Kaze Tachinu) and Isao Takahata (Grave Of The Fireflies - Hotaru No Haka) - An Open Secret by Amy Berg (Every Secret Thing) - Gracie Otto's portrait of Michael White The Last Impresario - Citizenfour directed by Laura Poitras (The Oath) are four highlights of Doc NYC 2014.
The Last Impresario - Michael White with Kate Moss
The Last Impresario
Gracie Otto's captivatingly energetic The Last Impresario bursts at the seams with interviews from prominent friends and collaborators of one-of-a-kind London artistic power player Michael White,...
Mami Sunada's The Kingdom Of Dreams And Madness on Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki (The Wind Rises - Kaze Tachinu) and Isao Takahata (Grave Of The Fireflies - Hotaru No Haka) - An Open Secret by Amy Berg (Every Secret Thing) - Gracie Otto's portrait of Michael White The Last Impresario - Citizenfour directed by Laura Poitras (The Oath) are four highlights of Doc NYC 2014.
The Last Impresario - Michael White with Kate Moss
The Last Impresario
Gracie Otto's captivatingly energetic The Last Impresario bursts at the seams with interviews from prominent friends and collaborators of one-of-a-kind London artistic power player Michael White,...
- 11/4/2014
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
It was just over two weeks ago that Laura Poitras’s Citizenfour, a you-are-there documentary about Nsa whistle-blower Edward Snowden, had its seismic premiere at the New York Film Festival to standing ovations and terrified, appreciative audiences. The film opened in limited release this weekend. Poitras, an acclaimed filmmaker whose previous works My Country, My Country and The Oath have tackled various aspects of the post-9/11 world, has been involved with the Snowden story since the very beginning: Indeed, she was the one the former Nsa contractor reached out to anonymously with his initial information. And she was there, in the Hong Kong hotel room where Snowden met her and journalist Glenn Greenwald, filming Snowden’s first revelations, and then continuing to film him as those revelations broke across the world’s headlines. That made the director not just a chronicler and observer, but also part of the story as...
- 10/27/2014
- by Bilge Ebiri
- Vulture
Last year, RADiUS scored at the box office and in Awards Season with its documentary 20 Feet From Stardom (nearly $4.95 million and Best Documentary Feature Oscar win). This year, it may have another non-fiction awards behemoth, hitting theaters this weekend.
Citizenfour, directed by journalist and filmmaker Laura Poitras, tells the story of Nsa leaker Edward Snowden as he disclosed massive domestic U.S. government spying. The film unfolds in real time as Poitras and Guardian colleague Glenn Greenwald, working on a long-term project about government surveillance, were contacted online by a mysterious source calling himself “Citizenfour.” The film, completed in secret while Poitras was in self-imposed virtual exile, alleges even more Nsa overreaching at home and abroad than just what came out of the massive pile of U.S. documents Snowden leaked.
Another potential awards contender also arrives in U.S. theaters this weekend: Sweden’s entry for Foreign Language Oscar,...
Citizenfour, directed by journalist and filmmaker Laura Poitras, tells the story of Nsa leaker Edward Snowden as he disclosed massive domestic U.S. government spying. The film unfolds in real time as Poitras and Guardian colleague Glenn Greenwald, working on a long-term project about government surveillance, were contacted online by a mysterious source calling himself “Citizenfour.” The film, completed in secret while Poitras was in self-imposed virtual exile, alleges even more Nsa overreaching at home and abroad than just what came out of the massive pile of U.S. documents Snowden leaked.
Another potential awards contender also arrives in U.S. theaters this weekend: Sweden’s entry for Foreign Language Oscar,...
- 10/23/2014
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline
Edward Snowden speaks. Buy a ticket to this film… and use your credit card, so the Nsa knows you care about this stuff. I’m “biast” (pro): I’m a big fan of the work of Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, and a supporter of Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
If “Citizenfour” sounds like something out of 1984 or The Prisoner, well, it’s even worse. It’s the pseudonym Edward Snowden used when he first approached, over the Internet, documentary filmmaker and muckraking journalist Laura Poitras, hoping to find someone trustworthy and with a pulpit who could share with the world what he’d discovered about the outrageous mass surveillance the Nsa is engaged in. He’d chosen her based on her previous work — films including My Country, My Country and The Oath, which are...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
If “Citizenfour” sounds like something out of 1984 or The Prisoner, well, it’s even worse. It’s the pseudonym Edward Snowden used when he first approached, over the Internet, documentary filmmaker and muckraking journalist Laura Poitras, hoping to find someone trustworthy and with a pulpit who could share with the world what he’d discovered about the outrageous mass surveillance the Nsa is engaged in. He’d chosen her based on her previous work — films including My Country, My Country and The Oath, which are...
- 10/23/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Laura Poitras’ “Citizen Four” is bound to be either inspiring or infuriating depending on your perspective on the actions taken by its protagonist, Edward Snowden. It’s a sinewy portrait of the man behind last year’s remarkable series of revelations about the breadth of the U.S. government’s surveillance programs, enacted with the support of some of the world’s largest telecommunications and internet companies (read our review). The film, which premiered recently at the New York Film Festival before its October 24th release stateside, is the final part of director Poitras’ trilogy of documentaries that unearth the chilling ambiguities beneath Washington’s official line on the status of the Iraq War (the Oscar-nominated “My Country, My Country,” from 2005), the mindset of the men they claim to defend the American public from (2010’s haunting “The Oath”), and, in her newest film, the means that they are using to do so.
- 10/22/2014
- by Brandon Harris
- The Playlist
With the first two documentaries in her post–9-11 trilogy -- My Country, My Country, a portrait of Iraq under American occupation, and The Oath, which focused on two Guantánamo Bay prisoners -- Laura Poitras seemed to be making a bid for the title of film's most vigilant observer of American foreign-policy excesses. An Academy Award nomination and a MacArthur “Genius” grant later, she seems to have comfortably assumed that mantle -- but her third film on the subject resonates far beyond the scope of America’s military interventions in the Middle East. A meditation on how technology can be abused by power, a diagram of how power enacts itself through structures, and a sketch of one individual willing to throw himself into the cogs of said stru...
- 10/22/2014
- Village Voice
In 2012, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras went public with her Homeland Security troubles. The director of two highly regarded documentaries concerning the War on Terror, one focusing on an Iraqi doctor (2006’s My Country, My Country) and the other on two former Al-Qaeda functionaries (2010’s The Oath), Poitras apparently worried the American government enough to be detained at airports on several dozen occasions. Wary of jeopardizing the integrity of her subjects and footage, Poitras relocated to Berlin. Even knowing this, it was still a little jolting to see her name attached to the video interview with Edward Snowden that surfaced a few days after journalist Glen Greenwald began reporting stories based on the former Nsa contractor’s incendiary leak. After years exploring the consequences of America’s drive for “national security,” here Poitras was at the very heart of revelations about the fate of civil liberties after 9/11. She had initially planned...
- 10/20/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
In 2012, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras went public with her Homeland Security troubles. The director of two highly regarded documentaries concerning the War on Terror, one focusing on an Iraqi doctor (2006’s My Country, My Country) and the other on two former Al-Qaeda functionaries (2010’s The Oath), Poitras apparently worried the American government enough to be detained at airports on several dozen occasions. Wary of jeopardizing the integrity of her subjects and footage, Poitras relocated to Berlin. Even knowing this, it was still a little jolting to see her name attached to the video interview with Edward Snowden that surfaced a few days after journalist Glen Greenwald began reporting stories based on the former Nsa contractor’s incendiary leak. After years exploring the consequences of America’s drive for “national security,” here Poitras was at the very heart of revelations about the fate of civil liberties after 9/11. She had initially planned...
- 10/20/2014
- Keyframe
Laura Poitras doesn't like being the center of attention. But even though the inconspicuous, soft-spoken, camera-shy 52-year-old journalist and filmmaker does her work from behind a computer and a camera, she has become just that. Poitras' profile has skyrocketed over the past decade. In 2007, she landed an Oscar nomination for the first feature-length film that she ever solely directed, the documentary My Country, My Country, a film that raised serious questions about America's involvement in Iraq. Four years after that film's release, she directed another doc, The Oath, which focused a critical eye on
read more...
read more...
- 10/14/2014
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
With only a few months left in 2014, there’s not much time left for impactful new documentaries to leave a mark on the critical community, but one in particular stands to make quite a dent indeed. Laura Poitras, the politically-minded filmmaker behind the award-winning The Oath, has just brought Citizenfour, her doc about hyper-controversial Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden, to Nyff, where it has already received breathless advance raves. Over the weekend, a teaser debuted, showcasing the sort of acute paranoia and high stakes inherent in the subject matter, and if Poitras’ pedigree is any indication, the film should be a political firebrand to watch out for. The teaser is streamable below; keep your ear to the ground on the doc’s eventual release strategy.
The post Edward Snowden doc ‘Citizenfour’ gets a teaser trailer appeared first on Sound On Sight.
The post Edward Snowden doc ‘Citizenfour’ gets a teaser trailer appeared first on Sound On Sight.
- 10/13/2014
- by Simon Howell
- SoundOnSight
Seamless and as darkly riveting as any John le Carré or Graham Greene thriller, Laura Poitras’ Citizenfour puts an indelibly human face on Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden, while ripping away any mask of pretense that the most massive and sophisticated breach of privacy in American history had grounding in reality, let alone the law.
Almost defiantly avoiding most of the technological gimcrackery we’ve come to expect in advocacy filmmaking, and rushed to completion (though never looking it) in time for its world premiere last night at the 52nd New York Film Festival, Citizenfour is likely to open the eyes — not to say change the minds — of doubters who would like to see Snowden tried for treason.
It’s a devastating account of how 9/11 was used to justify the abrogation of civil liberties on an unimaginable, even global scale as the National Security Agency spread a metastasizing net to intercept...
Almost defiantly avoiding most of the technological gimcrackery we’ve come to expect in advocacy filmmaking, and rushed to completion (though never looking it) in time for its world premiere last night at the 52nd New York Film Festival, Citizenfour is likely to open the eyes — not to say change the minds — of doubters who would like to see Snowden tried for treason.
It’s a devastating account of how 9/11 was used to justify the abrogation of civil liberties on an unimaginable, even global scale as the National Security Agency spread a metastasizing net to intercept...
- 10/11/2014
- by Jeremy Gerard
- Deadline
More than 80 documentaries to receive world premieres.
The line-up for the 27th Idfa (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam) has been unveiled.
A total of 298 titles, selected from 3,200 submissions, will be screened from Nov 19-30 in Amsterdam - of which 81 will receive their world premiere.
This year, a special themed programme, titled The Female Gaze, is dedicated to the role of women in documentary.
Another strand, Of Media and Men, will focus on how opinions are shaped within a democracy through the media.
This year’s Top 10 is provided by Heddy Honigmann, and a retrospective of her work will also be screening. Her film, Around the World in 50 Concerts, opens this year’s Idfa and also plays in Competition.
Idfa and Eye, the Netherlands national museum for film, will be present a joint themed programme concentrating on hybrid film: Framing Reality.
The festival’s main locations will once again be Pathé Tuschinski, Pathé de Munt...
The line-up for the 27th Idfa (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam) has been unveiled.
A total of 298 titles, selected from 3,200 submissions, will be screened from Nov 19-30 in Amsterdam - of which 81 will receive their world premiere.
This year, a special themed programme, titled The Female Gaze, is dedicated to the role of women in documentary.
Another strand, Of Media and Men, will focus on how opinions are shaped within a democracy through the media.
This year’s Top 10 is provided by Heddy Honigmann, and a retrospective of her work will also be screening. Her film, Around the World in 50 Concerts, opens this year’s Idfa and also plays in Competition.
Idfa and Eye, the Netherlands national museum for film, will be present a joint themed programme concentrating on hybrid film: Framing Reality.
The festival’s main locations will once again be Pathé Tuschinski, Pathé de Munt...
- 10/10/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The New York Film Festival told us its main slate. We believed it. But it was hiding something. Revealed in an official press release (by an Nyff whistleblower??), Oscar-nominated documentarian Laura Poitras’s Edward Snowden documentary “Citizenfour” has been added to the festival's Main Slate line-up. The hush-hush film will have its world premiere Friday, October 10. The general public won't have to wait long to get its hands on the document: RADiUS, in association with Participant Media and HBO Films, will release the film on Oct. 24. According to the festival's update, Poitras was in-deep on a film about national security abuse in post-9/11 America when she was contacted via encrypted e-mails by “citizen four,” an Nsa insider aiming to blow the lid off the government agency's covert surveillance program. She took the message seriously. Five months later, Poitras and "The Guardian" reporter Glenn Greenwald were sitting in Hong Kong, chatting with "citizen four" a.
- 9/17/2014
- by Matt Patches
- Hitfix
Documentary from filmmaker Laura Poitras, who met Snowden and reported on Nsa leaks, to receive UK premiere in London.
Citizenfour, Laura Poitras’ previously top secret documentary about Edward Snowden and the Nsa, is to receive its UK premiere at the 58th BFI London Film Festival (Oct 8-19).
The film, executive produced by Steven Soderbergh, will screen as a Documentary Special Presentation at this year’s Lff, screening on Oct 17 and Oct 18 - just a week after its world premiere at the New York Film Festival, announced yesterday.
Citizenfour is described as a docu-thriller that resulted from a series of interviews conducted in Hong Kong by Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald with Snowden, the former Nsa contractor whose leaks shed light on covert surveillance operations by Us intelligence agencies.
The title derives from the name Snowden used to identify himself in a series of encrypted e-mails sent to Poitras in 2013, who at the time was working on a film...
Citizenfour, Laura Poitras’ previously top secret documentary about Edward Snowden and the Nsa, is to receive its UK premiere at the 58th BFI London Film Festival (Oct 8-19).
The film, executive produced by Steven Soderbergh, will screen as a Documentary Special Presentation at this year’s Lff, screening on Oct 17 and Oct 18 - just a week after its world premiere at the New York Film Festival, announced yesterday.
Citizenfour is described as a docu-thriller that resulted from a series of interviews conducted in Hong Kong by Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald with Snowden, the former Nsa contractor whose leaks shed light on covert surveillance operations by Us intelligence agencies.
The title derives from the name Snowden used to identify himself in a series of encrypted e-mails sent to Poitras in 2013, who at the time was working on a film...
- 9/17/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Laura Poitras’s long-anticipated third film in her trilogy dealing with post-9/11 foreign policies and the security state, Citizenfour, will world premiere in the Main Selection of the 2014 New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced. Poitras had been working on the film following her Oscar-nominated The Oath when she was contacted by a mysterious whistleblower, who later revealed himself to be Edward Snowden. That encounter changed the course of her film, to say nothing of our national dialogue concerning the limits of our freedom in the internet age. From the Film Society of Lincoln Center: […]...
- 9/16/2014
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Laura Poitras’s long-anticipated third film in her trilogy dealing with post-9/11 foreign policies and the security state, Citizenfour, will world premiere in the Main Selection of the 2014 New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced. Poitras had been working on the film following her Oscar-nominated The Oath when she was contacted by a mysterious whistleblower, who later revealed himself to be Edward Snowden. That encounter changed the course of her film, to say nothing of our national dialogue concerning the limits of our freedom in the internet age. From the Film Society of Lincoln Center: […]...
- 9/16/2014
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
In an unprecedented addition to the programme, a special presentation of Laura Poitras’ hitherto top secret Citizenfour has been slotted into the New York Film Festival and will screen on October 10.
The film will open theatrically on October 24 through RADiUS and is presented in association with Participant Media and HBO Documentary Films.
Citizenfour is described as a docu-thriller that resulted from a series of interviews conducted in Hong Kong by Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald with Snowden, the former Nsa contractor whose leaks shed light on covert surveillance operations by Us intelligence agencies.
The title derives from the name Snowden used to identify himself in a series of encrypted e-mails sent to Poitras in 2013, who at the time was working on a film about abuses of national security in post-9/11.
The film marks the finals in Poitras’ 9/11 trilogy after My Country, My Country and The Oath. Poitras will participate in a free HBO Directors Dialogues conversation on October...
The film will open theatrically on October 24 through RADiUS and is presented in association with Participant Media and HBO Documentary Films.
Citizenfour is described as a docu-thriller that resulted from a series of interviews conducted in Hong Kong by Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald with Snowden, the former Nsa contractor whose leaks shed light on covert surveillance operations by Us intelligence agencies.
The title derives from the name Snowden used to identify himself in a series of encrypted e-mails sent to Poitras in 2013, who at the time was working on a film about abuses of national security in post-9/11.
The film marks the finals in Poitras’ 9/11 trilogy after My Country, My Country and The Oath. Poitras will participate in a free HBO Directors Dialogues conversation on October...
- 9/16/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
In an unprecedented addition to the programme, a special presentation of Laura Poitras’ hitherto top secret Citizenfour has been slotted into the New York Film Festival and will screen on October 10.
The film will open theatrically on October 24 through RADiUS and is presented in association with Participant Media and HBO Documentary Films.
Citizenfour is described as a docu-thriller that resulted from a series of interviews conducted in Hong Kong by Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald with Snowden, the former Nsa contractor whose leaks shed light on covert surveillance operations by Us intelligence agencies.
The title derives from the name Snowden used to identify himself in a series of encrypted e-mails sent to Poitras in 2013, who at the time was working on a film about abuses of national security in post-9/11.
The film marks the finals in Poitras’ 9/11 trilogy after My Country, My Country and The Oath. Poitras will participate in a free HBO Directors Dialogues conversation on October...
The film will open theatrically on October 24 through RADiUS and is presented in association with Participant Media and HBO Documentary Films.
Citizenfour is described as a docu-thriller that resulted from a series of interviews conducted in Hong Kong by Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald with Snowden, the former Nsa contractor whose leaks shed light on covert surveillance operations by Us intelligence agencies.
The title derives from the name Snowden used to identify himself in a series of encrypted e-mails sent to Poitras in 2013, who at the time was working on a film about abuses of national security in post-9/11.
The film marks the finals in Poitras’ 9/11 trilogy after My Country, My Country and The Oath. Poitras will participate in a free HBO Directors Dialogues conversation on October...
- 9/16/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Ifp announced its 2014 slate of 133 new films in development and works in progress selected for its esteemed Project Forum at Independent Film Week. This one-of-a-kind event brings the international film and media community to New York City to advance new projects by nurturing the work of both emerging and established independent artists and filmmakers. Through the Project Forum, creatives connect with financiers, executives, influencers and decision-makers in film, television, new media and cross-platform storytelling that can help them complete their latest works and connect with audiences. Under the curatorial leadership of Deputy Director/Head of Programming Amy Dotson & Senior Director of Programming Milton Tabbot, this one-of-a-kind event takes place September 14-18, 2014 at Lincoln Center supporting bold new content from a wide variety of domestic and international artists.
“As we set to embark on our 36th Independent Film Week, we are impressed by the outstanding slate of both U.S. and international projects selected for this year’s Project Forum,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of Ifp. “We know that the industry will be as excited as we are with the accomplished storytellers and their diverse and boundary pushing films.”
Featured works at the 2014 Independent Film Week include filmmakers and content creators from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. From documentarians Tony Gerber ("Full Battle Rattle"), Pamela Yates ("Granito: How To Nail A Dictator"), and Penny Lane ("Our Nixon") to Michelangelo Frammartino ("Quattro Volte") and Alexis Dos Santos ("Unmade Beds"), as well as new work from critically acclaimed artists and directors Aurora Guerrero ("Mosquita y Mari"), Barry Jenkins ("Medicine for Melancholy"), Travis Matthews ("Interior. Leather. Bar") and Yen Tan ("Pit Stop").
Independent Film Week brings the international film and media community to New York City to advance new documentary and narrative works-in-progress and support the future of storytelling. The program nurtures the work of both emerging and established independent artists and filmmakers through the facilitation of over 3,500+ custom, one-to-one meetings with the financiers, executives, influencers and decision-makers in film, television, new media and cross-platform storytelling that can help them complete their latest works and connect with audiences. In recent years, it has also played a vital role in launching the first films of many of today’s rising stars on the independent scene including Rama Burshtein ("Fill The Void"), Derek Cianfrance ("Blue Valentine"), Marshall Curry ("If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth LIberation Front"), Laura Poitras ("The Oath"), Denis Villeneuve ("Incendies") and Benh Zeitlin ("Beasts of the Southern Wild").
For the full 2014 Project Forum slate visit Here
New For 2014
Evenly split between documentary and narrative features, selected projects hail from throughout the U.S., Europe and Canada, as well Africa, Asia, South America, and the Middle East. New this year, Ifp will be including web series in it programming, as well as spotlighting Latin & Central American artists and content with 15 projects featured across all programs in the Forum.
In a joint effort to recognize the importance of career and creative sustainability, Ifp and Durga Entertainment have partnered on a new $20,000 filmmaker grant for an alumnus of Ifp. The grant is intended for active, working filmmakers who are also balancing a filmmaking career with parenting. The grant provides a $20,000 unrestricted prize to encourage the recipient to continue on her or his career path of making quality independent films. American directors or screenwriters working in narrative film who have participated in the Ifp Filmmaker Labs or Ifp Independent Film Week's Emerging Storytellers or No-Borders International Co-Production market are encouraged to apply by the deadline of August 8, 2014.
Narrative Feature Highlights
Narrative features and webseries in Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers and No Borders International Co-Production Market sections highlight new work from top emerging and established creative visionaries on the U.S. and international independent scene.
This year’s slate includes new feature scripts featuring directors Dev Benegal ("Road, Movie"), Alexis Dos Santos ("Unmade Beds"), Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin ("Now, Forager"), Michelangelo Frammartino ("Le Quattro Volte"),Terry George ("Hotel Rwanda"), Rashaad Ernesto Green ("Gun Hill Road"), Aurora Guerrero ("Mosquita Y Mari"), Barry Jenkins ("Medicine for Melancholy"),Alison Klayman ("Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry"), Travis Mathews ("Interior. Leather Bar"), Stacie Passon ("Concussion"), Yen Tan ("Pit Stop"), as well as up-an-coming actor/directors Karrie Crouse ("Land Ho!") and Peter Vack ("Fort Tilden""I Believe in Unicorns").
Producers and executive producers of note attached to participating projects include Jennifer Dubin and Cora Olson ("Good Dick"), Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams ("Hellion"),Laura Heberton ("Gayby"), Dan Janvey ("Beasts of the Southern Wild"), Kishori Rajan ("Gimme the Loot"), Adele Romanski ("The Myth of the American Sleepover"), Kim Sherman ("A Teacher"), Susan Stover ("High Art"), and Alicia Van Couvering ("Tiny Furniture").
Web Storytellers Highlights
For the first time this year, Ifp presents a dedicated spotlight within the Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers program for creators developing episodic content for digital platforms. The inaugural slate for the Web Storytellers spotlight includes new works from filmmakers Desiree Akhavan ("Appropriate Behavior", HBO’s Girls), Calvin Reeder ("The Rambler"), and Gregory Bayne ("Person of Interest"), as well as producers Elisabeth Holm ("Obvious Child"), Susan Leber ( "Down to the Bone"), and Amanda Warman ("The Outs,"Whatever This Is"). Two of the series participating are currently in post-production, and will be making their online debut in the coming months – Rachel Morgan’s Middle Americans, starring Scott Thompson, Carlen Altman, and Alex Rennie, and Daniel Zimbler and Elisabeth Gray’s Understudies, starring Richard Kind and David Rasche. [p Spotlight On Documentaries Highlights
The documentary selection includes new work from seasoned non-fiction directors such as Emmy winners Robert Bahar andAlmudena Carracedo ("Made in La"), Pamela Yates ("Granito: How to Nail a Dictator"),Ramona Diaz ("Imelda," "Don’t Stop Believin’") Gini Reticker ("Pray the Devil Back to Hell") Tony Gerber ("Full Battle Rattle"); from producers such as Court 13’s Benh Zeitlin and Dan Janvey ("Beasts of the Southern Wild"), Liran Atzmor ("The Law in These Parts"), Tim Williams ("Once In A Lifetime") and Hilla Medalia ("Web Junkie"), and follow-up second features from recent doc world “breakouts”Steve Hoover ("Blood Brother") Penny Lane ("Our Nixon"), Michael Collins ("Give Up Tomorrow"), and Michael Nichols and Christopher Walker ("Flex is Kings").
Exciting new work from debut documentary directors previously known for fiction films include Alex Sichel ("All over Me") with her personal doc The Movie about Anna, Lisa Cortés (producer, "Precious") with "Mothership: The Untold Story of Women and Hip Hop," and Daniel Patrick Carbone ("Hide Your Smiling Faces") with Phantom Cowboys.
Sponsors
Independent Film Week’s Premier sponsors are Royal Bank of Canada (Rbc) and HBO. Gold sponsors are A&E IndieFilms and SAGIndie. Silver sponsors are Durga Entertainment, Eastman Kodak Company, National Film & Video Foundation of South Africa and Telefilm Canada. Official Independent Film Week Partner is Film Society of Lincoln Center. Independent Film Week is supported, in part, by funds provided by the Ford Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council for the Arts and Time Warner Foundation.
About Ifp
The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) champions the future of storytelling by connecting artists with essential resources at all stages of development and distribution. The organization fosters a vibrant and sustainable independent storytelling community through its year-round programs, which include Independent Film Week, Filmmaker Magazine, the Gotham Independent Film Awards and the Made in NY Media Center by Ifp, a new incubator space developed with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. Ifp represents a growing network of 10,000 storytellers around the world, and plays a key role in developing 350 new feature and documentary works each year. During its 35-year history, Ifp has supported over 8,000 projects and offered resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers, including Debra Granik, Miranda July, Michael Moore, Dee Rees, and Benh Zeitlin. More info at www.ifp.org.
“As we set to embark on our 36th Independent Film Week, we are impressed by the outstanding slate of both U.S. and international projects selected for this year’s Project Forum,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of Ifp. “We know that the industry will be as excited as we are with the accomplished storytellers and their diverse and boundary pushing films.”
Featured works at the 2014 Independent Film Week include filmmakers and content creators from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. From documentarians Tony Gerber ("Full Battle Rattle"), Pamela Yates ("Granito: How To Nail A Dictator"), and Penny Lane ("Our Nixon") to Michelangelo Frammartino ("Quattro Volte") and Alexis Dos Santos ("Unmade Beds"), as well as new work from critically acclaimed artists and directors Aurora Guerrero ("Mosquita y Mari"), Barry Jenkins ("Medicine for Melancholy"), Travis Matthews ("Interior. Leather. Bar") and Yen Tan ("Pit Stop").
Independent Film Week brings the international film and media community to New York City to advance new documentary and narrative works-in-progress and support the future of storytelling. The program nurtures the work of both emerging and established independent artists and filmmakers through the facilitation of over 3,500+ custom, one-to-one meetings with the financiers, executives, influencers and decision-makers in film, television, new media and cross-platform storytelling that can help them complete their latest works and connect with audiences. In recent years, it has also played a vital role in launching the first films of many of today’s rising stars on the independent scene including Rama Burshtein ("Fill The Void"), Derek Cianfrance ("Blue Valentine"), Marshall Curry ("If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth LIberation Front"), Laura Poitras ("The Oath"), Denis Villeneuve ("Incendies") and Benh Zeitlin ("Beasts of the Southern Wild").
For the full 2014 Project Forum slate visit Here
New For 2014
Evenly split between documentary and narrative features, selected projects hail from throughout the U.S., Europe and Canada, as well Africa, Asia, South America, and the Middle East. New this year, Ifp will be including web series in it programming, as well as spotlighting Latin & Central American artists and content with 15 projects featured across all programs in the Forum.
In a joint effort to recognize the importance of career and creative sustainability, Ifp and Durga Entertainment have partnered on a new $20,000 filmmaker grant for an alumnus of Ifp. The grant is intended for active, working filmmakers who are also balancing a filmmaking career with parenting. The grant provides a $20,000 unrestricted prize to encourage the recipient to continue on her or his career path of making quality independent films. American directors or screenwriters working in narrative film who have participated in the Ifp Filmmaker Labs or Ifp Independent Film Week's Emerging Storytellers or No-Borders International Co-Production market are encouraged to apply by the deadline of August 8, 2014.
Narrative Feature Highlights
Narrative features and webseries in Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers and No Borders International Co-Production Market sections highlight new work from top emerging and established creative visionaries on the U.S. and international independent scene.
This year’s slate includes new feature scripts featuring directors Dev Benegal ("Road, Movie"), Alexis Dos Santos ("Unmade Beds"), Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin ("Now, Forager"), Michelangelo Frammartino ("Le Quattro Volte"),Terry George ("Hotel Rwanda"), Rashaad Ernesto Green ("Gun Hill Road"), Aurora Guerrero ("Mosquita Y Mari"), Barry Jenkins ("Medicine for Melancholy"),Alison Klayman ("Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry"), Travis Mathews ("Interior. Leather Bar"), Stacie Passon ("Concussion"), Yen Tan ("Pit Stop"), as well as up-an-coming actor/directors Karrie Crouse ("Land Ho!") and Peter Vack ("Fort Tilden""I Believe in Unicorns").
Producers and executive producers of note attached to participating projects include Jennifer Dubin and Cora Olson ("Good Dick"), Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams ("Hellion"),Laura Heberton ("Gayby"), Dan Janvey ("Beasts of the Southern Wild"), Kishori Rajan ("Gimme the Loot"), Adele Romanski ("The Myth of the American Sleepover"), Kim Sherman ("A Teacher"), Susan Stover ("High Art"), and Alicia Van Couvering ("Tiny Furniture").
Web Storytellers Highlights
For the first time this year, Ifp presents a dedicated spotlight within the Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers program for creators developing episodic content for digital platforms. The inaugural slate for the Web Storytellers spotlight includes new works from filmmakers Desiree Akhavan ("Appropriate Behavior", HBO’s Girls), Calvin Reeder ("The Rambler"), and Gregory Bayne ("Person of Interest"), as well as producers Elisabeth Holm ("Obvious Child"), Susan Leber ( "Down to the Bone"), and Amanda Warman ("The Outs,"Whatever This Is"). Two of the series participating are currently in post-production, and will be making their online debut in the coming months – Rachel Morgan’s Middle Americans, starring Scott Thompson, Carlen Altman, and Alex Rennie, and Daniel Zimbler and Elisabeth Gray’s Understudies, starring Richard Kind and David Rasche. [p Spotlight On Documentaries Highlights
The documentary selection includes new work from seasoned non-fiction directors such as Emmy winners Robert Bahar andAlmudena Carracedo ("Made in La"), Pamela Yates ("Granito: How to Nail a Dictator"),Ramona Diaz ("Imelda," "Don’t Stop Believin’") Gini Reticker ("Pray the Devil Back to Hell") Tony Gerber ("Full Battle Rattle"); from producers such as Court 13’s Benh Zeitlin and Dan Janvey ("Beasts of the Southern Wild"), Liran Atzmor ("The Law in These Parts"), Tim Williams ("Once In A Lifetime") and Hilla Medalia ("Web Junkie"), and follow-up second features from recent doc world “breakouts”Steve Hoover ("Blood Brother") Penny Lane ("Our Nixon"), Michael Collins ("Give Up Tomorrow"), and Michael Nichols and Christopher Walker ("Flex is Kings").
Exciting new work from debut documentary directors previously known for fiction films include Alex Sichel ("All over Me") with her personal doc The Movie about Anna, Lisa Cortés (producer, "Precious") with "Mothership: The Untold Story of Women and Hip Hop," and Daniel Patrick Carbone ("Hide Your Smiling Faces") with Phantom Cowboys.
Sponsors
Independent Film Week’s Premier sponsors are Royal Bank of Canada (Rbc) and HBO. Gold sponsors are A&E IndieFilms and SAGIndie. Silver sponsors are Durga Entertainment, Eastman Kodak Company, National Film & Video Foundation of South Africa and Telefilm Canada. Official Independent Film Week Partner is Film Society of Lincoln Center. Independent Film Week is supported, in part, by funds provided by the Ford Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council for the Arts and Time Warner Foundation.
About Ifp
The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) champions the future of storytelling by connecting artists with essential resources at all stages of development and distribution. The organization fosters a vibrant and sustainable independent storytelling community through its year-round programs, which include Independent Film Week, Filmmaker Magazine, the Gotham Independent Film Awards and the Made in NY Media Center by Ifp, a new incubator space developed with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. Ifp represents a growing network of 10,000 storytellers around the world, and plays a key role in developing 350 new feature and documentary works each year. During its 35-year history, Ifp has supported over 8,000 projects and offered resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers, including Debra Granik, Miranda July, Michael Moore, Dee Rees, and Benh Zeitlin. More info at www.ifp.org.
- 7/25/2014
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
The Sundance Institute today revealed the eight documentary projects chosen to participate in their 2014 Documentary Edit and Story Labs. 20 Fellows have been selected in total to take part. Editors serving as Creative Advisors for the sessions include Joelle Alexis ("The Green Prince"), Lewis Erskine ("Freedom Riders"), Mary Lampson ("Harlan County USA"), Jonathan Oppenheim ("The Oath"), Kate Amend ("The Case Against 8"), Joe Bini ("We Need to Talk About Kevin"), Pedro Kos ("The Square"). Directors serving as Creative Advisors are Ra'anan Alexandrowicz ("The Law In These Parts"), Jon Else ("Sing Faster!") and Jesse Moss ("The Overnighters"). Tabitha Jackson, Director of the Documentary Film Program, said in a statement, "This year's Fellows reflect a range of artistry, perspective and experience that is part of a vibrant contemporary dialogue about nonfiction storytelling. It is our hope that this rigorous lab environment strengthens each project and...
- 6/19/2014
- by Nigel M Smith
- Indiewire
Not all docu films that make the cut into the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Edit and Story Labs are fortunate enough to then land a coveted spot at the festival (recent examples include Roger Ross Williams’ God Loves Uganda and Tracy Draz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo’s Rich Hill) but some fresh air and supportive pounding from the Institute’s Advisors surely contributes to the realization of passion projects that are buckets filled in blood, sweat and tears. Among the press release mentions below, we’ll surely be discussing them in Park City setting in a January to too far off from now. Here are the selection of 20 Fellows representing eight documentary film projects to participate in the 2014 Documentary Edit and Story Labs, June 20-28 and July 4-12 at Sundance Resort in Sundance, Utah.
Artists and projects selected for the June 20-28 Documentary Edit and Story Lab:
A Flickering...
Artists and projects selected for the June 20-28 Documentary Edit and Story Lab:
A Flickering...
- 6/19/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Sundance Institute has unveiled the 20 fellows, and their eight documentary film projects, who will participate in this Summer's 2014 Documentary Edit and Story Labs. The labs run June 20-28, and July 4-12, at Sundance Resort in Utah. Based on Sundance's immersive Lab model launched by Robert Redford in 1981, each session of Documentary Edit and Story unites directors and editors with world-class doc filmmakers. Creative advisors in June include editors Jonathan Oppenheim ("The Oath") and Mary Lampson ("Harlan County USA"), and directors Jesse Moss (this year's breakout "The Overnighters") and Jon Else ("Sing Faster!"). In July, editors Kate Amen ("The Case Against 8") and Joe Bini ("We Need to Talk About Kevin"), and directors Ross McElwee ("Photographic Memory") and Rob Epstein ("Howl") are among those onboard as creative advisors. Artists and projects selected for the June 20-28 Documentary Edit and Story Lab: "A Flickering Truth" Director: Pietra Brettkelly Editor: Jacob...
- 6/19/2014
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
The 2014 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced today. Among the winners was work led by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Laura Poitras, who worked with both winning publications, The Washington Post and The Guardian, for their stories on Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden, who leaked the documents that proved that the Nsa was collecting phone and data records from telephone and internet companies for the past several years. Poitras was one of the first journalists to meet with Snowden in Hong Kong, where she shot her video interview with the whistleblower for The Guardian. Since then she has reported on Snowden's Nsa disclosures for news outlets including Der Spiegel and The New York Times. The documentarian, best known for the Oscar-nominated Iraq War doc "My Country, My Country" and the Sundance winner "The Oath," is currently editing a film focused on the Nsa. For the full list of Pulitzer Prize winners go here.
- 4/14/2014
- by Nigel M Smith
- Indiewire
Director: Laura Poitras
Writer: Laura Poitras
Producer: Laura Poitras
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
We wonder if Laura Poitras ever gets any quality shut eye as the documentarian and journalist not only works the docu-form but has become a school of hard knocks reporter recently joining the non-film project in the brand-new online media journal, The Intercept. She’ll likely be covering all bases for the final installment in her proposed “New American Century” trilogy; the currently untitled docu on surveillance would follow My Country, My Country and The Oath.
Gist: The third part will focus on how the War on Terror increasingly focuses on Americans through surveillance, covert activities and attacks on whistleblowers.
Release Date: We were thinking that this might break into the Sundance/Berlin line-up and while that didn’t materialize, Poitras has been active elsewhere.
More Top 200 Most Anticipated Films of 2014 Top 200 Most Anticipated Films for...
Writer: Laura Poitras
Producer: Laura Poitras
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
We wonder if Laura Poitras ever gets any quality shut eye as the documentarian and journalist not only works the docu-form but has become a school of hard knocks reporter recently joining the non-film project in the brand-new online media journal, The Intercept. She’ll likely be covering all bases for the final installment in her proposed “New American Century” trilogy; the currently untitled docu on surveillance would follow My Country, My Country and The Oath.
Gist: The third part will focus on how the War on Terror increasingly focuses on Americans through surveillance, covert activities and attacks on whistleblowers.
Release Date: We were thinking that this might break into the Sundance/Berlin line-up and while that didn’t materialize, Poitras has been active elsewhere.
More Top 200 Most Anticipated Films of 2014 Top 200 Most Anticipated Films for...
- 2/26/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
X-Men franchise director Bryan Singer, whose first two features debuted at the Sundance Film Festival — including The Usual Suspects in 1995 — was one of the industry figures named to the Sundance juries that will judge this year’s films when the festival begins next week. Singer, who has X-Men: Days of Future Past due in May, will be one of five members of the U.S. Dramatic Jury. Other members of the juries include Tracy Chapman, Lone Scherfig, Leonard Maltin, and screenwriter Jon Spaihts (Prometheus). A complete list of the juries, courtesy of the Sundance Film Festival, can be viewed after the jump.
- 1/9/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
The International Documentary Association’s 2013 Ida Documentary Awards honoured Jehane Noujaim’s Egyptian activism story The Square with the best feature award on Friday night (December 6) in Los Angeles.
The best short award went to Josh Izenberg’s Slomo, about neurologist turned rollerblader Dr John Kitchin.
The Ida’s Career Achievement Award was presented to Alex Gibney, currently in awards contention with The Armstrong Lie.
The Ida Amicus Award went to Impact Partners co-founder Geralyn Dreyfous, who also founded the Utah Film Center. Dreyfous’ executive producer credits include The Square, Born Into Brothels, The Invisible War and The Crash Reel.
Laura Poitras received Ida’s Courage Under Fire Award in recognition of “conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth.” Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, broke the story of National Security Agency (Nsa) whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealing the Prism programme in the process.
Poitras is currently in Berlin editing a film about Nsa surveillance, the third of...
The best short award went to Josh Izenberg’s Slomo, about neurologist turned rollerblader Dr John Kitchin.
The Ida’s Career Achievement Award was presented to Alex Gibney, currently in awards contention with The Armstrong Lie.
The Ida Amicus Award went to Impact Partners co-founder Geralyn Dreyfous, who also founded the Utah Film Center. Dreyfous’ executive producer credits include The Square, Born Into Brothels, The Invisible War and The Crash Reel.
Laura Poitras received Ida’s Courage Under Fire Award in recognition of “conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth.” Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, broke the story of National Security Agency (Nsa) whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealing the Prism programme in the process.
Poitras is currently in Berlin editing a film about Nsa surveillance, the third of...
- 12/7/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The fourth annual Doc NYC, New York's documentary festival, just wrapped. The festival winners were announced and the festival reported a 25% increase in ticket sales, with more than 36 sold out screenings and close to 20,000 attendees. In addition to the 73 feature-length documentaries screened, there were 39 short films and 20 panels and masterclasses. In case you weren't able to attend, we've got you covered here with 10 tips for filmmakers from this year's Doc NYC panels: 1. There's a precise dance -- or is it a kind of yoga? -- that all documentary cinematographers should develop. Speaking at Doc NYC's Cinematography panel, Kirsten Johnson (who shot Laura Poitras's "The Oath" as well as Kirby Dick's "The Invisible War") discussed the ways that cinematographers need to be simultaneously invisible or unobtrusive as well as flexible, mobile, and vigilant. It's hard to convey Johnson's movement exercises in words, but one thing was clear: ...
- 11/22/2013
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
Traction and the kernel of the idea on this third, and final installment technically began when the filmmaker herself became a “subject” to domestic airport interrogations following the release of the Sundance Institute (Academy Award nommed) My Country, My Country. Currently in the editing stages, it’s been hard not to notice the updates on Laura Poitras’ currently untitled documentary on surveillance, there was the NYTimes piece (coincidentally details that a new site in Utah will be the largest data collection on personal electronic data) which sort of acts as an advanced clip, and then came the spaghetti incident where she was contacted by Nsa contractor Edward Snowden to disclose what his eyes only saw: details on the U.S. mass surveillance program. Poitras’ The Oath was a winner for Excellence in Cinematography Award for U.S. Documentary at the fest back in ’10 – but unfortunately, due to the sensitive nature...
- 11/22/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.