Notizie

It’s time to put “values into action” in the documentary field, argued professor Patricia Aufderheide at Ji.hlava Film Festival.

Addressing ethical issues that doc filmmakers identify in their work, Aufderheide – who joined the conference online – offered concrete solutions, referencing Dawg’s [Documentary Accountability Working Group] framework “From Reflection to Release.”

“Integrate anti-oppression practices in your work. Be transparent in your relationships. Acknowledge your positionality. Respect the dignity and agency of the people in your film. Prioritize the needs, wellbeing and experience of the people associated with the film, treat potential audience members with dignity, care and concern.”

Aufderheide also discussed the possibility of “defraying necessary expenses,” with the participants offered location fees, if filming takes place in their homes, paid for post-release work or simply offered compensation for a day’s work lost.

“If your participant is a young Black kid who wants to play basketball, like in [Steve James’] ‘Hoop Dreams,’ you might think about defraying their costs,...

Hard hitting social issue documentaries are getting more difficult to make and sell with each passing year. But despite the market’s fondness for true crime and celebrity-driven nonfiction content, the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program (Dfp) isn’t wavering when it comes to its support of docu filmmakers telling stories dealing with social impact topics including human rights, racial justice, gender equity, democracy, LGBTQ rights, environmental sustainability, freedom of expression, and civic empowerment.

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the Dfp, which was established by the late Diane Weyermann in October 2002. In the last two decades the Dfp has supported more than 1,000 projects from all over the world via the fund and/or its Edit, Story, and Producers labs. Docus that have received financial and instructional support from the Dfp include Garrett Bradley’s “Time,” Roger Ross Williams’ “God Loves Uganda,” Kirsten Johnson’s “Cameraperson,” Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap,...

The film, which follows former Guantánamo detainees in a rehabilitation program, sparked concerns over consent and ethics. Then came the backlash

The footage is indeed remarkable. A group of former Guantánamo detainees, held captive by the US for 15 years or more, are undergoing what is described as a rehabilitation program for Islamic militants in Saudi Arabia. We watch as they learn about Freud in interpersonal skills training, draw their feelings in art therapy, swim laps in a state-of-the-art indoor pool. “Right now, you smell like sweat,” one instructor tells them in a lecture on how to find a wife. “How will she put up with you? Dress nicely for her.”

Such intimate access to men made largely invisible by America’s “war on terror” is a rare feat in journalism, especially in a secretive dictatorship like Saudi Arabia. So how did the documentary film-maker behind Jihad Rehab, since renamed The UnRedacted,...

At the Venice Film Festival last month, Brendan Fraser stood up from his seat after a screening of “The Whale” — Darren Aronofsky’s new slice of life drama in which the 53-year-old actor plays a gay, grossly overweight teacher desperately trying to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter — and basked, teary-eyed, in a six-minute standing ovation.

For an actor whose status in the industry has been teetering perilously close to has-been territory, it was an extraordinary moment. Suddenly, the one-time “Mummy” star, who had all but disappeared from the big screen over the past decade (his most noteworthy recent role was a smallish part in 2017 as a prison guard in a handful of episodes of “The Affair”), had become a front runner in this year’s Best Actor race. Even critics, who’d never been especially effusive over Fraser before, were showering him with praise.

For a brief, fleeting moment,...

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Abigail Disney’s Fork Films, the production company and funder that has backed titles including The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, Crip Camp and The Tale, has closed its doors, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

A handful of staff positions (fewer than 10) at the company, which put an emphasis on impact-driven documentary projects, have been terminated as a result of the closure. Disney first informed the staff of her decision in February, with the intention of shutting down entirely by September. Variety was the first to report the news.

“After much reflection, Abigail decided to close Fork Films,” a representative said in a statement. “Several Fork Films’ staff members will continue working on ‘The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,’ its release and impact campaign in the coming months. She plans to continue making films.”

Founded in 2007 by Disney, the granddaughter of...

Abigail Disney’s documentary and feature production company Fork Films, which is behind such projects as “Crip Camp” and her recent doc “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,” is shutting down, TheWrap has learned.

A spokesperson for the company told TheWrap that fewer than 10 roles were ultimately eliminated. However, staff was informed of the decision to shutter the company back in February and had been working to wind the company down by the end of September. Further, individual stakeholders, collaborators and filmmakers were informed of the decision as of July.

Several staffers will remain to complete working on the rollout of their most recent film “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales” over the coming months, according to the spokesperson. Disney plans to continue making films, the spokesperson adds.

Also Read:

‘The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales’ Review: Disney’s Magic Kingdom Takes a Hit in Sobering Documentary

Disney,...

The following open letter was submitted to IndieWire by the consortium of filmmakers outlined below. The letter has been written in response to the Sundance Film Festival’s decision to program the film “Jihad Rehab” at this year’s festival. The film, which is focused on former Guantanamo Bay prisoners detained by a Saudi Arabian rehab facility, instigated a divisive response in the weeks leading up to its premiere and in the aftermath. The festival addressed those concerns in a statement released last month.

To the Sundance Institute Leadership:

What is the curatorial vision of the Sundance Film Festival? Who does the Sundance Film Festival serve? What are the guiding values of the Sundance Institute? And to whom is the Institute accountable?

We are a group of Muslim, and Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian (Menasa) filmmakers, supported by allies across the film, journalism, and human rights fields, writing to demand deeper conversation and,...

After weeks of turmoil that culminated in the resignations of two staff members, the Sundance Film Festival has spoken publicly about the controversy caused by the film “Jihad Rehab.” Meg Smaker’s documentary about former Guantanamo Bay prisoners being held in a Saudi Arabian rehab facility has attracted controversy from the moment it was selected for Sundance. Criticisms of the film ranged from accusations that it did little to help offensive stereotypes about Muslim men to more serious charges that the documentary placed its subjects in danger.

IndieWire’s Eric Kohn summarized the film community’s grievances with the movie, writing “among the many problems with director Meg Smaker’s look at a Saudi Arabian institution designed to help former Guantanamo Bay prisoners reintegrate into society: There’s the title, which reinforces the most negative connotations of the term ‘jihad’; the positioning of the subjects as ominous Muslim stereotypes; and...

Two Sundance Institute employees have resigned in response to the hot-button documentary “Jihad Rehab” that played at last month’s Sundance Film Festival, a Sundance representative confirmed.

Brenda Coughlin, director of Impact, Engagement and Advocacy with the Sundance Institute, and Karim Ahmad, director of the Outreach & Inclusion Program, both resigned following the festival in the wake of criticism that “Jihad Rehab” is Islamophobic and promotes jingoism and other stereotypes. And some associated with the movie have sought to distance themselves from their involvement via social media.

As first reported by IndieWire, Coughlin and Ahmad were each tagged on an email sent to the festival’s directors in which a group of Muslim filmmakers voiced their concerns over the documentary. However, neither participated in a Zoom follow-up meeting that staffers had with the authors of the letter to address their concerns.

“We would like to extend our gratitude to both Brenda...

Two senior staffers at the Sundance Institute have resigned from their positions in response to the decision to program the documentary “Jihad Rehab,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month. Brenda Coughlin, director of Impact and Strategy, and Karim Ahmad, director of the Outreach & Inclusion Program, tendered their resignations last month. Both will continue to work at the Institute through February.

As IndieWire previously reported, in January a group of Muslim American filmmakers submitted a letter to Sundance voicing their concerns about the movie, which was part of the U.S. Documentary Competition. Coughlin and Ahmad were among the Sundance staffers copied on the email, along with festival director Tabitha Jackson and director of programming Kim Yutani, but neither Coughlin nor Ahmad participated in a follow-up meeting with the letter’s authors over Zoom.

In addition to taking issue with the movie’s title, which misappropriates the term...

For those of us who spent the last two weeks of January in Sundance mode — my final count came just shy of 40 features, thank you very much — there’s no doubt that its program will resonate in the year ahead. The lineup launched exciting new genre filmmakers, gave jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny a voice with his own thrilling documentary, and led to some serious marketplace activity.

Even as the Sundance 2022 news cycle moves on, a sore spot remains with “Jihad Rehab.” Among the many problems with director Meg Smaker’s look at a Saudi Arabian institution designed to help former Guantanamo Bay prisoners reintegrate into society: There’s the title, which reinforces the most negative connotations of the term “jihad”; the positioning of the subjects as ominous Muslim stereotypes; and an ethically dubious approach to labeling men as “terrorists” who haven’t been accused of actual crimes.

As Documentary magazine reported earlier this week,...

American firefighter-turned-filmmaker Megan Smaker, whose recent documentary “Jihad Rehab” drew fierce criticism at its 2022 Sundance Film Festival screening, addressed the critics and presented her side along with executive producer Mohamed Aabas to ‘Variety’. The film documents the life of Yemeni men who faced unlawful detention for 15 years at Guantanamo Bay, before being relocated […]...

For better or worse, one of the most talked about movies at Sundance is “Jihad Rehab.” The documentary from American filmmaker Meg Smaker follows three Yemeni men who were recently released from Guantanamo Bay following 15 years of unlawful detainment. Before rejoining society, they spend time at a “rehabilitation center” in Saudi Arabia. Smaker was granted exclusive access to the facility, and spent five years making a documentary that she hoped would to “pull back that curtain of Oz. And just see the human behind that curtain.”

However, some early responses to the film have argued that “Jihad Rehab” perpetuates harmful stereotypes about Muslim men and potentially places the subjects in danger.

Documentarian Julia Bacha described the film as “dangerous orientalist gaze and really poor filmmaking. I fear for the safety of protagonists who weren’t given the chance to see it.” Letta Tayler of Human Rights Watch wrote that “Smaker...

One of the most controversial movies to emerge from this year’s Sundance Film Festival is a documentary called “Jihad Rehab,” which follows a group of former Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Directed by American filmmaker Megan Smaker — a former California firefighter who spent five years in Yemen — the film follows several Yemeni men who were unlawfully detained for 15 years in the U.S.-run detention camp, before being relocated to Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Nayef Centre for Counselling and Care — a so-called “rehabilitation center” for extremists who must graduate the program before they’re allowed to rejoin society.

The film tracks Ali, Nadir and Mohammed’s turbulent journey over three years as they try to come to grips with their trauma and navigate an uneasy future in Saudi Arabia, where it’s illegal for them, as Yemenis, to leave.

While “Jihad Rehab” isn’t the first film in the grisly orbit of Guantanamo,...

A Sundance documentarian is pushing back against accusations of Islamophobia leveled against her film, “Jihad Rehab,” which centers on former Islamic radicals who undergo rehabilitation in a Saudi center meant to help them move back into mainstream society.

“What we intended in the film was that these three guys’ personal journeys are going to challenge audiences’ stereotypes about who these men actually are,” filmmaker Meg Smaker told TheWrap in response to the criticism, largely expressed on social media. “Hopefully it takes away the simplistic stereotyping and gives their lives value that they haven’t seemed to have before in our national narrative.”

“Jihad Rehab” was widely praised by movie critics (including here at TheWrap), but has drawn fire on social media for the fact that the film calls the men “terrorists” and because Smaker herself is not Muslim.

One typical tweet by writer Jude Chehab of Turkish news website Trt World says: “When I,...

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‘Jihad Rehab’ Review: A Provocative Look Inside the Spa-Like Saudi Facility that Tries to Re-Educate Terrorists

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‘The American Dream and...

Somewhere in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh there is a prison facility called the Mohammed bin Nayef Counseling and Care Center. If not for the large sign above the front entrance, it would be easy to confuse the place for a spa in Palm Springs: the walls are low, the colors are warm, and the small buildings inside the compound are separated by lush patches of grass that people traverse on golf carts. Inside there’s a sauna, a lane pool, and several longtime friends who greet each other with love. Not even those famous Norwegian jails match the calm and comfort found at Mohammed bin Nayef, a minimum-security institution where all of the residents have been accused of the same maximum-security offense as the inmates at Guantanamo Bay: jihad.

In fact, all of the men at the heart of Meg Smaker’s “Jihad Rehab” were inmates at Guantanamo...

“Are you a good person or a bad person?” This is the question that documentarian Meg Smaker poses to one of her subjects in a quietly reflective moment of “Jihad Rehab,” her thought-provoking film about Saudi Arabia’s controversial rehabilitation center for radicalized extremists. “I don’t know,” comes the response, from a man with a hefty résumé of terrorist activities. “That’s your job to figure out.”

But Smaker is on a different mission in her searing film, the very existence of which often feels like a miracle and an interrogative act of defiance. Not seeking clear-cut answers about what separates good from evil, “Jihad Rehab” is more interested in the why of things, asking questions and soberly, searchingly assembling its discoveries through unprecedented access. That doesn’t mean Smaker absolves anyone of the crimes they’ve committed — that’s not really her job. But as a former firefighter...

The mere idea of a center to help reform terrorists will already anger certain segments of the population, so a documentary about it should absolutely piss them off. For those open to finding out why some individuals turned to terrorism, “Jihad Rehab” will be riveting viewing.

To get to that point, however, requires an open mind, and for American viewers, in particular, to let go of what they think they know about Al Qaeda and other similar factions. Given the emotional toll of 9/11 that still hangs over this country, that’s a big ask. Knowing that filmmaker Meg Smaker, who wrote and directed “Jihad Rehab,” is a former firefighter herself might help ease doubts regarding her motivation.

It’s a story, however, that cannot be told without talking about the United States, particularly the Guantanamo Bay detention camp where the men interviewed were held — not for a few hours, a...

“Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Before 9/11, six-foot firefighter Meg Smaker was happily following in her fire captain father’s footsteps. After 9/11, her world turned over. She watched her South Bay Area firehouse transform overnight “from this place of love and support and family to a place of fear and hatred,” she said in a Zoom interview. “It was unrecognizable to me. And I was young. So at that age it shook me to my core.”

And the simple good vs. evil tropes in the popular media didn’t satisfy her drive to understand what happened that day. Six months after 9/11, as Allied forces were launching bombing raids and ground operations in Afghanistan, the 20-year-old flew into the country and stayed with a family in the remote Northern province of Balkh. “I was immediately humbled by my own ignorance of the world,...