The Jewish Film Institute has named six independent films as winners of its fourth annual Jfi completion grants. The grants, totaling $85,000, are awarded to projects that underline diverse stories about Jewish identity and experience.
Grant winners were jury-selected a group of 14 finalists, narrowed down from over 100 applications. The grants, made possible by numerous individuals and foundations, “are a signature piece of Jfi’s continuum of support for filmmakers from incubation through exhibition. Emerging and established filmmakers benefit from peer-to-peer and industry-leading mentorship and workshops in Jfi’s year-long Filmmaker Residency, the only national residency of its kind, while Jfi’s vast live and online exhibition platforms, including the annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, deliver finished works to audiences throughout the Bay Area and United States,” said Jfi in a statement.
This year’s winners include Eva Brzeski’s documentary feature “Daughterland,” Mickey Rapkin’s narrative short “The Anne Frank...
Grant winners were jury-selected a group of 14 finalists, narrowed down from over 100 applications. The grants, made possible by numerous individuals and foundations, “are a signature piece of Jfi’s continuum of support for filmmakers from incubation through exhibition. Emerging and established filmmakers benefit from peer-to-peer and industry-leading mentorship and workshops in Jfi’s year-long Filmmaker Residency, the only national residency of its kind, while Jfi’s vast live and online exhibition platforms, including the annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, deliver finished works to audiences throughout the Bay Area and United States,” said Jfi in a statement.
This year’s winners include Eva Brzeski’s documentary feature “Daughterland,” Mickey Rapkin’s narrative short “The Anne Frank...
- 7/28/2023
- by Sophia Scorziello
- Variety Film + TV
A star-studded lineup led by Run-dmc, Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne, and Ice Cube will play a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY on Friday, August 11th.
Other notable artists playing include the “Queens of Hip-Hop” — Eve, Lil Kim, Remy Ma, Trina, as well as Common, Ghostface Killah, Lupe Fiasco, Slick Rick, T.I. A$AP Ferg, Epmd, DJ Kool Herc & Cindy Campbell, The Sugarhill Gang, Melle Mell, and surprise guests still to be revealed.
A Live Nation ticket pre-sale for Hip Hop 50 Live at Yankee Stadium begins Thursday, June 8th (use access code Disco), with a general on-sale scheduled for Friday, June 9th via Ticketmaster.
Early bird access to tickets will also be available via Renaissance Youth Center, New Settlement, Scan-Harbor, Madison Square Boys & Girls Club, Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, North East Bronx Ymca, Castle Hill Ymca, New York Urban League,...
Other notable artists playing include the “Queens of Hip-Hop” — Eve, Lil Kim, Remy Ma, Trina, as well as Common, Ghostface Killah, Lupe Fiasco, Slick Rick, T.I. A$AP Ferg, Epmd, DJ Kool Herc & Cindy Campbell, The Sugarhill Gang, Melle Mell, and surprise guests still to be revealed.
A Live Nation ticket pre-sale for Hip Hop 50 Live at Yankee Stadium begins Thursday, June 8th (use access code Disco), with a general on-sale scheduled for Friday, June 9th via Ticketmaster.
Early bird access to tickets will also be available via Renaissance Youth Center, New Settlement, Scan-Harbor, Madison Square Boys & Girls Club, Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, North East Bronx Ymca, Castle Hill Ymca, New York Urban League,...
- 6/5/2023
- by Alex Young
- Consequence - Music
“Seven Winters in Tehran,” about a 19-year-old Iranian woman sentenced to death for killing the man who tried to rape her, will open the 34th annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival on May 31 in New York City.
The festival, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, will feature 10 documentaries about humanitarian challenges around the world. This year’s edition spotlights themes and topics including the Ukraine conflict (“When Spring Came to Bucha”), climate gentrification and justice (“Razing Liberty Square”), women’s rights (“Draw Me Egypt”) transgender rights (“Into My Name”) freedom of the press (“The Etilaat Roz”) and access to health care in the United States (“Pay or Die”).
“From the war in Ukraine to women’s rights and bodily autonomy, to environmental gentrification and freedom of the press, these films span some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time,” says John Biaggi,...
The festival, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, will feature 10 documentaries about humanitarian challenges around the world. This year’s edition spotlights themes and topics including the Ukraine conflict (“When Spring Came to Bucha”), climate gentrification and justice (“Razing Liberty Square”), women’s rights (“Draw Me Egypt”) transgender rights (“Into My Name”) freedom of the press (“The Etilaat Roz”) and access to health care in the United States (“Pay or Die”).
“From the war in Ukraine to women’s rights and bodily autonomy, to environmental gentrification and freedom of the press, these films span some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time,” says John Biaggi,...
- 4/27/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
In the spring of 1972, seven members of the Jane Collective, an underground service in Chicago, were arrested for providing illegal abortions to women in need. The collective had been founded by Heather Booth in 1965, when a friend in need of the procedure was nearly suicidal. “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Call Jane,” read ads placed in the underground press, offering a counseling service mostly for low-income women and women of color. The Janes would refer women to abortion providers, sometimes performing abortions themselves. After the organization was discovered by the Chicago police, the seven Jane members’ lawyer successfully delayed the case’s court proceedings until the January 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which struck down federal and state abortion bans in the United States.
The release of Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ Oscar-shortlisted documentary The Janes also aligned with a major abortion ruling: Just weeks after its June 8 premiere on HBO,...
The release of Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ Oscar-shortlisted documentary The Janes also aligned with a major abortion ruling: Just weeks after its June 8 premiere on HBO,...
- 1/10/2023
- by Tyler Coates
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Sundance Institute has announced the lineup for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival Beyond Film conversations, all of which are open to the public. Made up of three series called Power of Story, Cinema Café, and The Big Conversation, Beyond Film rounds out the festival experience, providing a place for the community to engage through artist conversations, filmmaker panels, and audience discourse. Beyond Film will take place in-person from January 19–23, with the Beyond Film offerings becoming available to audiences across the country on the online festival platform starting January 24.
Beyond Film speakers will include talent from festival films, such as Barry Jenkins, Dakota Johnson, Jonathan Majors (“Magazine Dreams”), Randall Park (“Shortcomings”), Ruth Reichl (“Food and Country”), and Adrian Tomine (“Shortcomings”), as well as compelling speakers including Dr. Orna Guralnik, Marlee Matlin, and Lisa Taddeo.
More details about the lineup are below, with language courtesy of the festival.
Power Of Story
Power of Story: On Intimacy
Sunday,...
Beyond Film speakers will include talent from festival films, such as Barry Jenkins, Dakota Johnson, Jonathan Majors (“Magazine Dreams”), Randall Park (“Shortcomings”), Ruth Reichl (“Food and Country”), and Adrian Tomine (“Shortcomings”), as well as compelling speakers including Dr. Orna Guralnik, Marlee Matlin, and Lisa Taddeo.
More details about the lineup are below, with language courtesy of the festival.
Power Of Story
Power of Story: On Intimacy
Sunday,...
- 1/6/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The Sundance Institute has unveiled its lineups of Beyond Film and Partner Programming for the hybrid 2023 Sundance Film Festival, the in-person component of which is taking place in Utah from January 19-29.
The Beyond Film program consists of chats with notable creatives across three separate series: Power of Story, Cinema Café, and The Big Conversation. Some of the artists taking part this year include Barry Jenkins, Dakota Johnson, Jonathan Majors, Randall Park, Marlee Matlin and W. Kamau Bell — most of whom have films premiering at Sundance 2023. The program will take place in-person from January 19–23, with Beyond Film offerings to become available via the online Festival Platform starting on the 24th.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ryan Coogler (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and Oscar-winning Summer of Soul helmer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson are just a couple of the A-listers set for panels to be put on by Festival partners between the 19th and the 24th...
The Beyond Film program consists of chats with notable creatives across three separate series: Power of Story, Cinema Café, and The Big Conversation. Some of the artists taking part this year include Barry Jenkins, Dakota Johnson, Jonathan Majors, Randall Park, Marlee Matlin and W. Kamau Bell — most of whom have films premiering at Sundance 2023. The program will take place in-person from January 19–23, with Beyond Film offerings to become available via the online Festival Platform starting on the 24th.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ryan Coogler (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and Oscar-winning Summer of Soul helmer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson are just a couple of the A-listers set for panels to be put on by Festival partners between the 19th and the 24th...
- 1/6/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
On Dec. 21, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled its shortlists for the 2023 Oscars in 10 categories, which included advancing 15 documentary features to the next round. A total of 144 documentary features this year were eligible, and those that moved on include All That Breathes, Fire of Love and Moonage Daydream.
Among the more surprising omissions was Mars Rover doc Good Night Oppy. Members of the documentary branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees for documentary feature as well as documentary short (15 films were shortlisted from 98 qualified shorts).
A list of the 15 documentaries on this year’s Oscars shortlist follows.
All That Breathes
Winner of the Cannes Golden Eye and Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema Documentary), All That Breathes follows two brothers in New Delhi racing to save a bird falling from the sky. Shaunak Sen directs the HBO documentary. It premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival,...
Among the more surprising omissions was Mars Rover doc Good Night Oppy. Members of the documentary branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees for documentary feature as well as documentary short (15 films were shortlisted from 98 qualified shorts).
A list of the 15 documentaries on this year’s Oscars shortlist follows.
All That Breathes
Winner of the Cannes Golden Eye and Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema Documentary), All That Breathes follows two brothers in New Delhi racing to save a bird falling from the sky. Shaunak Sen directs the HBO documentary. It premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival,...
- 1/5/2023
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
For years HBO Documentary Films, under the stewardship of Sheila Nevins, dominated the Oscars, racking up nominations and wins left and right. But since her departure in 2018 it has faced an Oscar dry spell, at least in the documentary feature category. All that could change this year, in a major way.
HBO Documentary Films has roared into awards season with perhaps the strongest slate of contenders of any distributor, beginning with Oscar favorite All That Breathes (with theatrical partners Sideshow and Submarine Deluxe). Shaunak Sen’s lyrical film about two brothers in Delhi, India who rescue and rehabilitate injured birds of prey won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance and followed that up by winning the L’Œil d’or prize for documentary at Cannes. All That Breathes has kept the momentum going, taking top honors at the IDA Documentary Awards on Saturday and a nomination from the Cinema Eye Honors.
HBO Documentary Films has roared into awards season with perhaps the strongest slate of contenders of any distributor, beginning with Oscar favorite All That Breathes (with theatrical partners Sideshow and Submarine Deluxe). Shaunak Sen’s lyrical film about two brothers in Delhi, India who rescue and rehabilitate injured birds of prey won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance and followed that up by winning the L’Œil d’or prize for documentary at Cannes. All That Breathes has kept the momentum going, taking top honors at the IDA Documentary Awards on Saturday and a nomination from the Cinema Eye Honors.
- 12/11/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Shortly after Donald Trump became president of the United States in January 2017, he began stacking federal courts with conservative judges. Realizing what was at stake, the team behind HBO Documentary Films’ abortion documentary The Janes began crafting a story to remind the audience what happened 50 years ago when women didn’t have access to safe and legal abortions.
“It felt like the time that we needed to lift this story up,” filmmaker Emma Pildes said during a conversation at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary event. Pildes co-directed the pic with Tia Lessin.
Related: The Contenders Documentary – Deadline’s Full Coverage
Launched in Chicago in the late 1960s and early ’70s, The Jane Collective, or simply Jane, was an underground network formed to help women obtain safe abortions when the procedure was illegal.
Pildes noted that before Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion, women determined to terminate pregnancies...
“It felt like the time that we needed to lift this story up,” filmmaker Emma Pildes said during a conversation at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary event. Pildes co-directed the pic with Tia Lessin.
Related: The Contenders Documentary – Deadline’s Full Coverage
Launched in Chicago in the late 1960s and early ’70s, The Jane Collective, or simply Jane, was an underground network formed to help women obtain safe abortions when the procedure was illegal.
Pildes noted that before Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion, women determined to terminate pregnancies...
- 12/4/2022
- by Anita Bennett
- Deadline Film + TV
Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary awards-season event kicks off Sunday at 8 a.m. Pt and promises to open up distant lands and even a distant planet—no passport required.
Click her to register for and watch today’s Contenders livestream.
The terrain covered by the cast and creatives from our 20 participating films astonishes with its variety and range: an enclave of Delhi, India in All That Breathes, a remote section of Paraguay in Eami, and possibly an even more remote outpost of the Brazilian rainforest in Wildcat. Moscow is the ultimate destination of Navalny, the documentary about Russia’s imprisoned and poisoned opposition leader, and Descendant takes us to a neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama settled by survivors of the last slave ship known to have navigated U.S. waters.
About 5,600 miles separate Moscow from Mobile, mere inches apart compared to the far-flung rendezvous point of Good Night Oppy, about NASA...
Click her to register for and watch today’s Contenders livestream.
The terrain covered by the cast and creatives from our 20 participating films astonishes with its variety and range: an enclave of Delhi, India in All That Breathes, a remote section of Paraguay in Eami, and possibly an even more remote outpost of the Brazilian rainforest in Wildcat. Moscow is the ultimate destination of Navalny, the documentary about Russia’s imprisoned and poisoned opposition leader, and Descendant takes us to a neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama settled by survivors of the last slave ship known to have navigated U.S. waters.
About 5,600 miles separate Moscow from Mobile, mere inches apart compared to the far-flung rendezvous point of Good Night Oppy, about NASA...
- 12/4/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
IDFA is going wild for Wildcat.
The documentary from Amazon Studios screened a couple of times over the weekend at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, to resounding effect, filmmakers Melissa Lesh and Trevor Frost tell Deadline. Screenings on Friday and Sunday took place at the Pathé Tuschinski Theatre, a glorious old movie palace that rivals Mann’s Chinese in splendor.
“To have two standing ovations in a theater like that,” Lesh commented at a party after Sunday’s event, “on the biggest screen we’ve screened on yet, and to have the audience so engaged and moved, I feel like it’s been our best screenings yet.”
The Pathé Tuschinski Theatre
Frost added, “When we were standing in the lobby as people were going into the movie theater, I just couldn’t believe how many people were around me. They said they had well over 450 people in the theater...
The documentary from Amazon Studios screened a couple of times over the weekend at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, to resounding effect, filmmakers Melissa Lesh and Trevor Frost tell Deadline. Screenings on Friday and Sunday took place at the Pathé Tuschinski Theatre, a glorious old movie palace that rivals Mann’s Chinese in splendor.
“To have two standing ovations in a theater like that,” Lesh commented at a party after Sunday’s event, “on the biggest screen we’ve screened on yet, and to have the audience so engaged and moved, I feel like it’s been our best screenings yet.”
The Pathé Tuschinski Theatre
Frost added, “When we were standing in the lobby as people were going into the movie theater, I just couldn’t believe how many people were around me. They said they had well over 450 people in the theater...
- 11/14/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
For several years, Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams hosted an intimate IDFA paella party at his apartment in Amsterdam for attending directors, producers and editors. But in 2018, Williams and his co-host, documentary producer, and the founder of Motto Pictures, Julie Goldman (“The Velvet Underground”), realized that the annual event had transformed into an award season stop.
“At one point, we looked around, and the whole party was filled with the international AMPAS (Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences) members,” says Goldman. “Then, the last year we had the party, someone rang the buzzer an hour before it was supposed to start. We buzzed him up, and it was this guy named Alex, and he said, ‘I was told that I have to come to this party.’”
It turned out that Alex was Alex Honnold, the subject of “Free Solo” – a film that would later win the Oscar for best feature documentary.
“At one point, we looked around, and the whole party was filled with the international AMPAS (Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences) members,” says Goldman. “Then, the last year we had the party, someone rang the buzzer an hour before it was supposed to start. We buzzed him up, and it was this guy named Alex, and he said, ‘I was told that I have to come to this party.’”
It turned out that Alex was Alex Honnold, the subject of “Free Solo” – a film that would later win the Oscar for best feature documentary.
- 11/14/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
We now have a clear picture of where the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature is headed. With Friday’s announcement of the International Documentary Association‘s (IDA) nominations, all four of the major nonfiction precursors have now weighed in. Cinema Eye Honors (Ceh) announced their nominees on November 10, Doc NYC gave us their annual shortlist on October 18, and the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards (Ccda) presented their slate on October 17. Only two films were recognized for top honors by all four of those groups: Sara Dosa‘s “Fire of Love” and Daniel Roher‘s “Navalny.”
Before we get into the full state of this year’s race, let’s understand why these four groups are so important. First off, in the last five years only one film — “The Mole Agent” (2020)– was nominated for the Academy Award without recognition from at least one of these groups first. Of the other 24 nominated films,...
Before we get into the full state of this year’s race, let’s understand why these four groups are so important. First off, in the last five years only one film — “The Mole Agent” (2020)– was nominated for the Academy Award without recognition from at least one of these groups first. Of the other 24 nominated films,...
- 11/13/2022
- by John Benutty
- Gold Derby
Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ documentary “The Janes” doesn’t talk about the rollback of abortion rights in the 21st century. This might initially seem surprising, given that the film is about and interviews extensively members of an underground abortion network — known as The Jane Collective or, more simply, Jane — active in Chicago in the late ’60s and ’70s, ending when the now-overturned Roe v. Wade decision took effect. But by focusing squarely on the forces that inspired The Jane Collective to form, the mechanics of how it operated, and its radical importance to the women who ran and used the service, Lessin and Pildes do create a charged picture of modern American politics: one that, unfortunately, says all of this has happened before and all of this will happen again.
“I mean, well before the Dobbs decision came down, well before Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed, there were increasing numbers...
“I mean, well before the Dobbs decision came down, well before Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed, there were increasing numbers...
- 11/8/2022
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
Doc NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, announced the titles of its annual Short List: Features program on October 18. The Short List represents a selection of films the festival’s programming team considers to be among the year’s top contenders for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
Launched in 2012, the Doc NYC Short List: Features selection has included the eventual Oscar winner nine of the last 10 times, including last year’s champ “Summer of Soul.” The festival also boasts that they screened 44 of the last 50 Oscar-nominated features and in 2021 screened 11 of the 15 films that were named to the academy’s pre-nominees shortlist.
Among this year’s selection is a documentary everyone is watching closely, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” by Oscar winner for “Citizenfour” Laura Poitras. That film became only the second documentary to ever win the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival and then screened...
Launched in 2012, the Doc NYC Short List: Features selection has included the eventual Oscar winner nine of the last 10 times, including last year’s champ “Summer of Soul.” The festival also boasts that they screened 44 of the last 50 Oscar-nominated features and in 2021 screened 11 of the 15 films that were named to the academy’s pre-nominees shortlist.
Among this year’s selection is a documentary everyone is watching closely, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” by Oscar winner for “Citizenfour” Laura Poitras. That film became only the second documentary to ever win the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival and then screened...
- 10/18/2022
- by John Benutty
- Gold Derby
Click here to read the full article.
Actress and Honest Company founder Jessica Alba, Crazy Rich Asians star and author Constance Wu, and Rutherford Falls writer and showrunner Sierra Teller Ornelas are among the lineup for the 2022 Makers Conference.
Additional entertainment industry talent set to appear at the global leadership event are Ms. Marvel executive producer Sana Amanat and star Iman Vellani, The Janes directors Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes, and former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Player and inspiration behind Amazon Prime Video’s A League of Their Own Maybelle Blair.
The initial list of guests, speakers and leaders set to appear at the eighth edition of the annual conference produced by Yahoo media brand Makers — a community focused on women’s equity in the workplace and beyond — was announced Monday. The conference, which is slated to return to the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California,...
Actress and Honest Company founder Jessica Alba, Crazy Rich Asians star and author Constance Wu, and Rutherford Falls writer and showrunner Sierra Teller Ornelas are among the lineup for the 2022 Makers Conference.
Additional entertainment industry talent set to appear at the global leadership event are Ms. Marvel executive producer Sana Amanat and star Iman Vellani, The Janes directors Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes, and former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Player and inspiration behind Amazon Prime Video’s A League of Their Own Maybelle Blair.
The initial list of guests, speakers and leaders set to appear at the eighth edition of the annual conference produced by Yahoo media brand Makers — a community focused on women’s equity in the workplace and beyond — was announced Monday. The conference, which is slated to return to the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California,...
- 9/19/2022
- by Abbey White
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It’s been a good year for several documentary filmmakers who sought and found distribution for independently made projects at major festivals. But for many nonfiction helmers, this year’s festival circuit hasn’t proven to be as fruitful as it once was.
Pre-pandemic, streaming services went to film fests to fill their slates, but now with media conglomerates consolidating, brands merging, and Netflix tightening its wallet, film fest documentary shopping sprees have slowed down. On top of mergers and economic unease, there’s been an increase in streamers like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Apple, and Disney either pre-buying docus or commissioning their own nonfiction projects.
Some of this year’s fest favorites were commissioned docus, including Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ ‘The Janes” (HBO), W. Kamau Bell’s “We Need to Talk About Cosby” (Showtime), Rory Kennedy’s “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing” (Netflix), and Ron Howard’s “We Feed People...
Pre-pandemic, streaming services went to film fests to fill their slates, but now with media conglomerates consolidating, brands merging, and Netflix tightening its wallet, film fest documentary shopping sprees have slowed down. On top of mergers and economic unease, there’s been an increase in streamers like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Apple, and Disney either pre-buying docus or commissioning their own nonfiction projects.
Some of this year’s fest favorites were commissioned docus, including Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ ‘The Janes” (HBO), W. Kamau Bell’s “We Need to Talk About Cosby” (Showtime), Rory Kennedy’s “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing” (Netflix), and Ron Howard’s “We Feed People...
- 9/15/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
The panels have been announced for the 2022 Gotham Week Conference, the first time the event will occur in person since 2019. The panelists include Jenny Slate and other team members behind Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, director of Bodies Bodies Bodies Halina Reijn and co-directors of The Janes Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes. Slate, who voiced the title character and co-wrote the script, will be joined by Marcel director Dean Fleischer Camp and animation director Kirsten Lepore. Other panelists at the 2022 Gotham Week Conference include Adamma and Adanne Ebo, the respective director and producer of Honk For Jesus. […]
The post Gotham Week 2022 to Feature Panels with Jenny Slate and Directors of Bodies Bodies Bodies and The Janes first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Gotham Week 2022 to Feature Panels with Jenny Slate and Directors of Bodies Bodies Bodies and The Janes first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 8/19/2022
- by Natalia Keogan
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Exclusive: Filmmakers Ricki Stern and Anne Lundberg have seen this day coming. For a long time.
Their 2108 Netflix documentary Reversing Roe examined how right-wing activists, politicians and jurists were steadily chipping away at abortion rights across the country, with the goal of eventually overturning Roe v. Wade. Today it happened, in a 6-3 Supreme Court decision that tossed out Roe, permitting states to ban or severely restrict abortion.
“I think there was no surprise,” Stern said in an interview with Deadline after the ruling was announced. She said she felt “just absolute sadness and just despair, truly, because it’s the beginning of many, many kinds of Supreme Court decisions that, personally, I think are going to set us back. And as the film illustrates, this is a very politically charged issue, abortion rights. This is really about power and [ignores] the lives of many women who are going to be hurt by this decision.
Their 2108 Netflix documentary Reversing Roe examined how right-wing activists, politicians and jurists were steadily chipping away at abortion rights across the country, with the goal of eventually overturning Roe v. Wade. Today it happened, in a 6-3 Supreme Court decision that tossed out Roe, permitting states to ban or severely restrict abortion.
“I think there was no surprise,” Stern said in an interview with Deadline after the ruling was announced. She said she felt “just absolute sadness and just despair, truly, because it’s the beginning of many, many kinds of Supreme Court decisions that, personally, I think are going to set us back. And as the film illustrates, this is a very politically charged issue, abortion rights. This is really about power and [ignores] the lives of many women who are going to be hurt by this decision.
- 6/25/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
It was less than four hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S., when The Hollywood Reporter talked to the directors of underground abortion network documentary The Janes, but to one of the filmmakers, Emma Pildes, that stretch felt like “a lifetime.”
“It just feels like a nightmare but also this weird dream state because I don’t think we’re surprised,” Pildes told THR by phone on Friday. “We’d been so wrapped up in the topic for so long and so hyper-aware of everything that’s going on.”
Pildes and Tia Lessin’s film The Janes, which has been streaming on HBO Max since earlier this month after premiering at Sundance, features firsthand accounts from the women at the center of Jane, a clandestine Chicago group that helped women obtain safe,...
It was less than four hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S., when The Hollywood Reporter talked to the directors of underground abortion network documentary The Janes, but to one of the filmmakers, Emma Pildes, that stretch felt like “a lifetime.”
“It just feels like a nightmare but also this weird dream state because I don’t think we’re surprised,” Pildes told THR by phone on Friday. “We’d been so wrapped up in the topic for so long and so hyper-aware of everything that’s going on.”
Pildes and Tia Lessin’s film The Janes, which has been streaming on HBO Max since earlier this month after premiering at Sundance, features firsthand accounts from the women at the center of Jane, a clandestine Chicago group that helped women obtain safe,...
- 6/24/2022
- by Hilary Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
[The following story contains spoilers from HBO doc The Janes.]
When a draft opinion from the Supreme Court leaked last month, suggesting the court could be poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the directors of underground abortion network documentary The Janes, which premiered on HBO on Wednesday night, were stunned.
The moment reflected the duality that helmers Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes have experienced as they made the film in recent years. “It’s this in-between place of being fully aware and in disbelief of everything that’s happening,” Pildes tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The Janes producer Daniel Arcana, whose mother was one of the members of the Jane Collective featured in the documentary, started developing the project shortly after former President Donald Trump was elected. “He was prescient. He saw, like so many others, that this story needs to be told,” Lessin tells THR.
Pildes, who happens to also be Arcana’s sister,...
[The following story contains spoilers from HBO doc The Janes.]
When a draft opinion from the Supreme Court leaked last month, suggesting the court could be poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the directors of underground abortion network documentary The Janes, which premiered on HBO on Wednesday night, were stunned.
The moment reflected the duality that helmers Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes have experienced as they made the film in recent years. “It’s this in-between place of being fully aware and in disbelief of everything that’s happening,” Pildes tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The Janes producer Daniel Arcana, whose mother was one of the members of the Jane Collective featured in the documentary, started developing the project shortly after former President Donald Trump was elected. “He was prescient. He saw, like so many others, that this story needs to be told,” Lessin tells THR.
Pildes, who happens to also be Arcana’s sister,...
- 6/11/2022
- by Hilary Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In May, Politico obtained a leaked draft penned by Supreme Court Justice Alito showing a majority ruling to overturn both Roe. vs. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). If the leaked documents are correct, it would set abortion rights in the United States back fifty years.
Serendipitously, two films premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival about the abortion activists known as the Jane Collective: Phyllis Nagy’s drama “Call Jane,” set for release in October, and Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ documentary “The Janes.” The collection’s direct action activism helped an estimated 11,000 women and girls, mostly low-income and women of color, receive safe and affordable abortions.
Continue reading ‘The Janes’ Review: A Bittersweet Look At Abortion Rights Issues & Setbacks at The Playlist.
Serendipitously, two films premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival about the abortion activists known as the Jane Collective: Phyllis Nagy’s drama “Call Jane,” set for release in October, and Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ documentary “The Janes.” The collection’s direct action activism helped an estimated 11,000 women and girls, mostly low-income and women of color, receive safe and affordable abortions.
Continue reading ‘The Janes’ Review: A Bittersweet Look At Abortion Rights Issues & Setbacks at The Playlist.
- 6/10/2022
- by Marya E. Gates
- The Playlist
By Glenn Dunks
If you were paying close enough attention to the ways the American political winds were blowing, you likely could have foreseen how relevant The Janes would ecome. Well, even more so than it already was. Still, even as recently as its Sundance premiere in January, it’s unlikely that filmmakers Tia Lessin (her first since 2013’s Citizen Koch) and Emma Pildes could have envisioned its release a mere few months late would coincide so frighteningly with the systematic dissolving of the rights their subjects were fighting for. Right in front of everybody’s eyes.
That The Janes is a film for this very moment isn’t what makes it so good. Although it helps...
If you were paying close enough attention to the ways the American political winds were blowing, you likely could have foreseen how relevant The Janes would ecome. Well, even more so than it already was. Still, even as recently as its Sundance premiere in January, it’s unlikely that filmmakers Tia Lessin (her first since 2013’s Citizen Koch) and Emma Pildes could have envisioned its release a mere few months late would coincide so frighteningly with the systematic dissolving of the rights their subjects were fighting for. Right in front of everybody’s eyes.
That The Janes is a film for this very moment isn’t what makes it so good. Although it helps...
- 6/9/2022
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
A HBO documentary looks to the past – a secret, women-run network of abortion providers in the late 1960s – as a window into the future of restricted reproductive rights in the US
Regardless of whether the supreme court fully overturns Roe v Wade later this month, as indicated by the majority draft opinion leaked in May, or merely allows it to be gutted at the state level, the US will continue its years-long march backwards on reproductive rights. Abortion access in the US in 2022 mirrors 1972, the year before the supreme court ensured a woman’s right to an abortion with Roe v Wade, and a time when a sparse patchwork of legalization in a few states forced many women to seek care from dubious illegal providers or dangerous at-home methods.
The Janes, a new HBO documentary on an underground network of abortion providers in Chicago in the years just before legalization,...
Regardless of whether the supreme court fully overturns Roe v Wade later this month, as indicated by the majority draft opinion leaked in May, or merely allows it to be gutted at the state level, the US will continue its years-long march backwards on reproductive rights. Abortion access in the US in 2022 mirrors 1972, the year before the supreme court ensured a woman’s right to an abortion with Roe v Wade, and a time when a sparse patchwork of legalization in a few states forced many women to seek care from dubious illegal providers or dangerous at-home methods.
The Janes, a new HBO documentary on an underground network of abortion providers in Chicago in the years just before legalization,...
- 6/8/2022
- by Adrian Horton
- The Guardian - Film News
This review of “The Janes” was first published Jan. 24, 2022, after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
They had names like Heather, Martha, Marie, Jody and Judith. But they called themselves the Janes. And between 1968 and 1973, they performed approximately 11,000 underground abortions in Chicago. Their stories, which they share in Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ powerfully forthright documentary, “The Janes,” remain stunning five decades later. (The group also inspired a fictional movie that premiered at Sundance this year titled “Call Jane.”)
They weren’t medical professionals, and their work was flatly illegal. But the alternatives for women who wanted an abortion were to go to the mob and assume they might be sexually assaulted before or after a procedure, or to try to end a pregnancy alone, at home. The situation was so grim, in fact, that one local hospital had a septic ward designed purely for those who came to...
They had names like Heather, Martha, Marie, Jody and Judith. But they called themselves the Janes. And between 1968 and 1973, they performed approximately 11,000 underground abortions in Chicago. Their stories, which they share in Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ powerfully forthright documentary, “The Janes,” remain stunning five decades later. (The group also inspired a fictional movie that premiered at Sundance this year titled “Call Jane.”)
They weren’t medical professionals, and their work was flatly illegal. But the alternatives for women who wanted an abortion were to go to the mob and assume they might be sexually assaulted before or after a procedure, or to try to end a pregnancy alone, at home. The situation was so grim, in fact, that one local hospital had a septic ward designed purely for those who came to...
- 6/7/2022
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
It is a grim coincidence that the same week that HBO premieres the The Janes — a documentary about the young women who established an underground network to provide women with affordable and safe abortion care in the years before Roe v. Wade — the current Supreme Court may actually overturn that very decision that rendered the Janes services largely unnecessary nearly 50 years ago.
The Janes, which debuts on Wed., June 8, has the colorful characters, quick pacing, and twists and turns of a heist film. The directors, Oscar-nominee Tia Lessin (Trouble the...
The Janes, which debuts on Wed., June 8, has the colorful characters, quick pacing, and twists and turns of a heist film. The directors, Oscar-nominee Tia Lessin (Trouble the...
- 6/7/2022
- by Lisa Tozzi
- Rollingstone.com
Well, we survived the great content crush of spring 2022. Now we can just sit back, take a nice little breather and … wait, what’s that you say? There’s still tons of great television, streaming every week, including this week which contains the return of “For All Mankind,” the launch of a terrific Marvel Studios series on Disney+ and a new Adam Sandler sports drama on Netflix? All the better! May the content crush never end!
On with the television!
“For All Mankind”
Friday, June 10, Apple TV+
Apple TV+
“For All Mankind” has been heralded as one of the greatest shows on TV. And that isn’t an unfair assessment. It’s an alternate history look at the space race. Instead of beating Russia to the moon, the U.S. followed them. Real-life heroes are dramatized alongside wholly made-up characters. And everything is rendered in such vivid detail, both conceptually and emotionally,...
On with the television!
“For All Mankind”
Friday, June 10, Apple TV+
Apple TV+
“For All Mankind” has been heralded as one of the greatest shows on TV. And that isn’t an unfair assessment. It’s an alternate history look at the space race. Instead of beating Russia to the moon, the U.S. followed them. Real-life heroes are dramatized alongside wholly made-up characters. And everything is rendered in such vivid detail, both conceptually and emotionally,...
- 6/4/2022
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
The Janes HBO Documentary Films Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Tia Lessin, Emma Pildes Screenwriter: Tia Lessin, Emma Pildes Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/20/22 Opens: June 8, 2022 Nebraska’s governor announced in May that he will sign a bill to make abortion illegal even if the […]
The post The Janes Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post The Janes Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 6/2/2022
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
The Janes, which closes this year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival in-person May 26, followed by an HBO premiere June 8, is one woefully prescient walk down pre-Roe memory lane. Directed by Academy Award nominee Tia Lessin and Emmy nominee Emma Pildes, the doc tells the illicit tale of the titular underground network of college-age activists who defied the law and male expectations to provide women in Chicago with safe, shame-free […]
The post “The Way the Janes Approached This, One Woman at a Time, Helped 11,000 Women Get Safe Abortion Care”: Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes on “The Janes” first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “The Way the Janes Approached This, One Woman at a Time, Helped 11,000 Women Get Safe Abortion Care”: Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes on “The Janes” first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/25/2022
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The Janes, which closes this year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival in-person May 26, followed by an HBO premiere June 8, is one woefully prescient walk down pre-Roe memory lane. Directed by Academy Award nominee Tia Lessin and Emmy nominee Emma Pildes, the doc tells the illicit tale of the titular underground network of college-age activists who defied the law and male expectations to provide women in Chicago with safe, shame-free […]
The post “The Way the Janes Approached This, One Woman at a Time, Helped 11,000 Women Get Safe Abortion Care”: Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes on “The Janes” first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “The Way the Janes Approached This, One Woman at a Time, Helped 11,000 Women Get Safe Abortion Care”: Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes on “The Janes” first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/25/2022
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Following Doc10 Film Festival’s opening night screening of “The Janes” on May 19, several original members The Jane Collective — an underground abortion clinic led by women in the pre-Roe v. Wade era — urged audience members to take to the streets and get focused on protecting women’s reproductive rights, now believed to be at risk with a new Supreme Court ruling in the works.
“The fight is not over,” said Marie Leaner, a former Jane. “It’s only just begun.”
“The Janes” is one of 10 docus that will screen during the four-day Chicago-based festival. The Doc10 screening of “The Janes,” which will debut on HBO June 8, drew more than 250 people — the festival’s largest crowd in its seven-year history. Ten former Janes were in attendance alongside the doc’s directors, Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes. The screening occurred just 17 days after a leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting that Roe v.
“The fight is not over,” said Marie Leaner, a former Jane. “It’s only just begun.”
“The Janes” is one of 10 docus that will screen during the four-day Chicago-based festival. The Doc10 screening of “The Janes,” which will debut on HBO June 8, drew more than 250 people — the festival’s largest crowd in its seven-year history. Ten former Janes were in attendance alongside the doc’s directors, Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes. The screening occurred just 17 days after a leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting that Roe v.
- 5/20/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Chicago – Doc10, the annual Chicago ten-film-documentary festival, opens on May 19th, 2022, with a ripped-from-the-headlines event. “The Janes” is the story of a Chicago collective from the late 1960s to early ‘70s that provided abortions in the pre-Roe v. Wade era. Click DOC10 for details and the complete list of films.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
”The Janes” concern The Jane Collective of Chicago, operating from 1968 through 1973. The feminist group began setting up safe and available abortions for women through underground channels, during a period of time when the procedure was illegal in Illinois (and most of America until Roe v Wade), through laws determined by the patriarchy. Using a male practitioner, and then learning to do abortions themselves, the former “Janes” tell the story of a period for woman’s health that now seems stone age … except when looking at the repressive laws against women being perpetuated Again by the patriarchy. The issue is...
Rating: 4.5/5.0
”The Janes” concern The Jane Collective of Chicago, operating from 1968 through 1973. The feminist group began setting up safe and available abortions for women through underground channels, during a period of time when the procedure was illegal in Illinois (and most of America until Roe v Wade), through laws determined by the patriarchy. Using a male practitioner, and then learning to do abortions themselves, the former “Janes” tell the story of a period for woman’s health that now seems stone age … except when looking at the repressive laws against women being perpetuated Again by the patriarchy. The issue is...
- 5/18/2022
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes were devastated to learn that the Supreme Court may soon overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling legalizing abortion. The filmmakers had just screened “The Janes,” their documentary about abortion activists in the pre-Roe v. Wade era, at the San Francisco Intl. Film Festival when they learned about the leaked majority opinion that would turn back the clock on women’s reproductive rights nearly 50 years.
“I burst into tears when I found out” says Lessin, who with Pildes has been screening “The Janes” around the country since its Sundance premiere. “While I expected some sort of erosion of Roe and some people were even expecting the overturning of Roe, this decision was pretty shocking even to people who were in the know.”
The documentary, which will debut on HBO June 8, revolves around the Jane Collective, an underground organization that provided illegal abortion services in Chicago...
“I burst into tears when I found out” says Lessin, who with Pildes has been screening “The Janes” around the country since its Sundance premiere. “While I expected some sort of erosion of Roe and some people were even expecting the overturning of Roe, this decision was pretty shocking even to people who were in the know.”
The documentary, which will debut on HBO June 8, revolves around the Jane Collective, an underground organization that provided illegal abortion services in Chicago...
- 5/10/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Emma Pildes, the co-director of the upcoming 1970s abortion documentary “The Janes,” got a call from co-director Tia Lessin on Monday night in which she was in “floods of tears” after learning about the leaked draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the pivotal abortion decision Roe v. Wade.
That’s because both Lessin and Pildes in making their film “The Janes” know all too well of the shocking past, often disturbing present and even scarier future for what an America would look like should Roe v. Wade officially be struck down by the court. They warn that much of what is depicted in their film from 50 years ago could come racing back, immediately threatening the health and lives of women but also laying the ground work to potentially strip women of other rights and have numerous ripple effects.
“We’ve been so steeped in the realities of what this...
That’s because both Lessin and Pildes in making their film “The Janes” know all too well of the shocking past, often disturbing present and even scarier future for what an America would look like should Roe v. Wade officially be struck down by the court. They warn that much of what is depicted in their film from 50 years ago could come racing back, immediately threatening the health and lives of women but also laying the ground work to potentially strip women of other rights and have numerous ripple effects.
“We’ve been so steeped in the realities of what this...
- 5/3/2022
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Summer is around the corner, which means Rooftop Films is almost back. New York cinephiles can look forward to another season of film screenings from the longtime nonprofit, which screens independent films in a variety of outdoor locations throughout New York City. Over time, Rooftop Films has become an essential institution in the indie film world, helping top directors get their work seen while connecting undiscovered artists to the resources that they need.
Notable films on the year’s lineup include Chloe Okuno’s “Watcher,” a Sundance horror hit in the tradition of paranoid classics like “Rosemary’s Baby;” James Morosini’s “I Love My Dad,” a comedy that took the top prizes in the Narrative category at SXSW; and Andrew Semans’ “Resurrection,” a psychological thriller that earned high marks from critics and fans alike at Sundance this year.
Tickets for select upcoming screenings are on sale now via the Rooftop Films website,...
Notable films on the year’s lineup include Chloe Okuno’s “Watcher,” a Sundance horror hit in the tradition of paranoid classics like “Rosemary’s Baby;” James Morosini’s “I Love My Dad,” a comedy that took the top prizes in the Narrative category at SXSW; and Andrew Semans’ “Resurrection,” a psychological thriller that earned high marks from critics and fans alike at Sundance this year.
Tickets for select upcoming screenings are on sale now via the Rooftop Films website,...
- 5/2/2022
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
“Fahrenheit 11/9” producers and Academy Award nominees Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (“Trouble the Water”) are developing a documentary that explores the world of climate profiteering and how the planet’s wealthiest are planning to weather the uncertain century ahead.
The duo will be pitching their project during Cph:forum, the international financing and co-production event held during the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox), which runs March 21-April 3.
“Sink or $wim” is inspired by journalist McKenzie Funk’s bestseller “Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming,” which details how a growing legion of corporations, high-stakes gamblers and entrepreneurs are cashing in on the climate crisis.
“We’ve all seen a lot of movies about climate change. And there are a lot of movies that offer solutions,” Deal tells Variety. “We think it’s time to tell a new kind of climate story, to take an audience on a rollicking journey...
The duo will be pitching their project during Cph:forum, the international financing and co-production event held during the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox), which runs March 21-April 3.
“Sink or $wim” is inspired by journalist McKenzie Funk’s bestseller “Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming,” which details how a growing legion of corporations, high-stakes gamblers and entrepreneurs are cashing in on the climate crisis.
“We’ve all seen a lot of movies about climate change. And there are a lot of movies that offer solutions,” Deal tells Variety. “We think it’s time to tell a new kind of climate story, to take an audience on a rollicking journey...
- 3/24/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, which runs March 21-April 3, has revealed the lineup for its international financing and co-production event Cph:forum.
Women are taking central stage in the lineup both as characters and storytellers, and the Forum will feature new projects by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), Ilinca Calugareanu (“Chuck Norris vs. Communism”), Tova Mozard (“Psychic”), Elizabeth Lo (“Stray”) and Lana Wilson (“Miss Americana”) among others.
The selection of 30 projects in this year’s Cph:forum represents a variety of topics, genres and artistic approaches from a diverse group of filmmakers. According to the festival, “Seeking to demonstrate the richness and heterogeneity of the documentary genre, Cph:forum presents a curated slate of films that speak to the major issues of the world we live in.”
Topics of race, equity and colonial legacy connect a personal film of Barbadian filmmaker Jason Fitzroy Jeffers (“Papa Machete”), and the newest project of the Dutch...
Women are taking central stage in the lineup both as characters and storytellers, and the Forum will feature new projects by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), Ilinca Calugareanu (“Chuck Norris vs. Communism”), Tova Mozard (“Psychic”), Elizabeth Lo (“Stray”) and Lana Wilson (“Miss Americana”) among others.
The selection of 30 projects in this year’s Cph:forum represents a variety of topics, genres and artistic approaches from a diverse group of filmmakers. According to the festival, “Seeking to demonstrate the richness and heterogeneity of the documentary genre, Cph:forum presents a curated slate of films that speak to the major issues of the world we live in.”
Topics of race, equity and colonial legacy connect a personal film of Barbadian filmmaker Jason Fitzroy Jeffers (“Papa Machete”), and the newest project of the Dutch...
- 2/10/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
There are 30 projects in first physical event since 2019.
New works from One Child Nation director Jialing Zhang and Chuck Norris vs. Communism filmmaker Ilinca Calugareanu are among the 30 projects participating in Cph:forum, the financing and co-production market of Cph:dox film festival.
The Forum will run from March 28-31, and will be the first in-person edition since 2019.
Scroll down for the full list of titles
Massachusetts-based Chinese filmmaker Zhang is participating with German-Dutch co-production The Total Trust (working title), produced by Knut Jager through Germany’s Filmtank. The documentary will examine the growth of surveillance culture in China, from cameras to AI profiling.
New works from One Child Nation director Jialing Zhang and Chuck Norris vs. Communism filmmaker Ilinca Calugareanu are among the 30 projects participating in Cph:forum, the financing and co-production market of Cph:dox film festival.
The Forum will run from March 28-31, and will be the first in-person edition since 2019.
Scroll down for the full list of titles
Massachusetts-based Chinese filmmaker Zhang is participating with German-Dutch co-production The Total Trust (working title), produced by Knut Jager through Germany’s Filmtank. The documentary will examine the growth of surveillance culture in China, from cameras to AI profiling.
- 2/10/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Roadside Attractions is taking U.S. distribution rights to Oscar-Nominee Phyllis Nagy’s theatrical feature directorial debut, Call Jane. A theatrical release is planned for the film this year.
Chicago, 1968. As the city and the nation are poised on the brink of political upheaval, suburban housewife Joy (Elizabeth Banks) leads an ordinary life with her husband and daughter. When Joy’s pregnancy leads to a life-threatening heart condition, she must navigate an all-male medical establishment unwilling to terminate her pregnancy in order to save her life. Her journey for a solution leads her to Virginia (Sigourney Weaver), an independent visionary fiercely committed to women’s health, and Gwen (Wunmi Mosaku), an activist who dreams of a day when all women will have access to abortion, regardless of their ability to pay. Joy is so inspired by their work, she decides to join forces with them, putting every aspect of her life on the line.
Chicago, 1968. As the city and the nation are poised on the brink of political upheaval, suburban housewife Joy (Elizabeth Banks) leads an ordinary life with her husband and daughter. When Joy’s pregnancy leads to a life-threatening heart condition, she must navigate an all-male medical establishment unwilling to terminate her pregnancy in order to save her life. Her journey for a solution leads her to Virginia (Sigourney Weaver), an independent visionary fiercely committed to women’s health, and Gwen (Wunmi Mosaku), an activist who dreams of a day when all women will have access to abortion, regardless of their ability to pay. Joy is so inspired by their work, she decides to join forces with them, putting every aspect of her life on the line.
- 2/4/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
by Eurocheese
"The Janes" are a popular topic at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and given the way women’s rights are under attack in the US today, their story remains relevant. Earlier in the festival, the fictional Call Jane highlighted one woman’s story when she became involved with this group. In The Janes, documentarians Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes show the real women who lived this history, detailing the backstory of this group and showing us what a future with restricted women’s rights might look like...
"The Janes" are a popular topic at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and given the way women’s rights are under attack in the US today, their story remains relevant. Earlier in the festival, the fictional Call Jane highlighted one woman’s story when she became involved with this group. In The Janes, documentarians Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes show the real women who lived this history, detailing the backstory of this group and showing us what a future with restricted women’s rights might look like...
- 1/26/2022
- by eurocheese
- FilmExperience
If the Jane Collective has gone under-credited in American women’s rights history over the last half-century, independent cinema is doing its best to make up for lost time. Right on the heels of Phyllis Nagy’s colorful fictionalized drama “Call Jane,” “The Janes” is the second film at this year’s Sundance festival dedicated to the female-staffed, Chicago-based underground service that provided over 11,000 illegal abortions to women in need between 1968 and 1973, at which point Roe v. Wade rendered their work triumphantly obsolete. Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ documentary is the more straight-and-sober account of the Janes’ work and legacy, though in sticking to the facts, it remains plenty rousing. Its inspiring arc may be unavoidably undercut by our knowledge of Roe v. Wade’s imperiled status in current American law, but if anything, that unspoken contemporary context underlines the need to amplify this history: A brace of Jane films couldn’t be better timed.
- 1/25/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The women at Sundance are screaming at the tops of their lungs. They are saying: Why are you taking our rights away? Why are you turning the clock back 50 years?
As Roe v. Wade hits its 49-year anniversary this weekend with a near-assurance that it will never reach the 50-year landmark, multiple films at the Sundance Film Festival are reminding us what it was like when women did not have the right to choose an abortion.
“Call Jane” stars Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver in the story of a suburban housewife named Joy (Banks) who sets out to get an abortion in Chicago in 1968, when the practice was illegal. Joy stumbles into an underground network of women (led by Weaver), known as The Jane Collective, who performed surreptitious abortions for women, illegally, until the Supreme Court legalized the terminations in 1973.
The feature is rooted in history and captures the second-class status that women endured,...
As Roe v. Wade hits its 49-year anniversary this weekend with a near-assurance that it will never reach the 50-year landmark, multiple films at the Sundance Film Festival are reminding us what it was like when women did not have the right to choose an abortion.
“Call Jane” stars Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver in the story of a suburban housewife named Joy (Banks) who sets out to get an abortion in Chicago in 1968, when the practice was illegal. Joy stumbles into an underground network of women (led by Weaver), known as The Jane Collective, who performed surreptitious abortions for women, illegally, until the Supreme Court legalized the terminations in 1973.
The feature is rooted in history and captures the second-class status that women endured,...
- 1/24/2022
- by Sharon Waxman
- The Wrap
“Let’s keep moving forward,” Sundance Film Festival director Tabitha Jackson said Thursday in the middle of the virtual opening-day virtual press conference for the near-40-year-old event.
The expression was meant as a segue, but organically took on a greater meaning for the premier global indie festival, which was forced to cancel its live Park City portion 15 days ago due to the Omicron surge: Let’s deal with the now, and continue to wave the flag for independent cinema.
With an introduction made by new Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente, Jackson was joined by her fellow programmers — Director Kim Yutani; Chief Curator, New Frontier Shari Frilot; and Senior Programmer and Director of Strategic Initiatives, John Nein — the gist of the 2022 presser was to convey that there’s only one way forward as the festival settles into being online for a second consecutive year. And that is through.
“’Pivot’ is...
The expression was meant as a segue, but organically took on a greater meaning for the premier global indie festival, which was forced to cancel its live Park City portion 15 days ago due to the Omicron surge: Let’s deal with the now, and continue to wave the flag for independent cinema.
With an introduction made by new Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente, Jackson was joined by her fellow programmers — Director Kim Yutani; Chief Curator, New Frontier Shari Frilot; and Senior Programmer and Director of Strategic Initiatives, John Nein — the gist of the 2022 presser was to convey that there’s only one way forward as the festival settles into being online for a second consecutive year. And that is through.
“’Pivot’ is...
- 1/20/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Racism and women’s rights are two timely, urgent issues that numerous directors with films at Sundance tackle via fictional or documentary films.
Mariama Diallo’s “Master” and Carey Williams’ “Emergency” are two examples of narrative features heading to the fest that address the issue of race and racism in America. While Diallo’s “Master” portrays racism in an academic setting, Williams’ “Emergency” follows a group of Black and Latino college students who weigh the pros and cons of calling the police when faced with an emergency situation.
“As always, our program is a reflection of artists’ response to the times we live in,” says Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival’s director of programming.
“We are very aware that this festival comes after a year of serious and much-needed racial reckoning in the U.S. The work speaks to that and brings insight and nuance to this complex conversation.”
Racial...
Mariama Diallo’s “Master” and Carey Williams’ “Emergency” are two examples of narrative features heading to the fest that address the issue of race and racism in America. While Diallo’s “Master” portrays racism in an academic setting, Williams’ “Emergency” follows a group of Black and Latino college students who weigh the pros and cons of calling the police when faced with an emergency situation.
“As always, our program is a reflection of artists’ response to the times we live in,” says Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival’s director of programming.
“We are very aware that this festival comes after a year of serious and much-needed racial reckoning in the U.S. The work speaks to that and brings insight and nuance to this complex conversation.”
Racial...
- 1/20/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
The 35 feature documentaries heading to this year’s Sundance Film Festival address a wide array of issues, including the U.S. maternal-mortality crisis (Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s “Aftershock”); the battle over control of women’s bodies (Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ “The Janes”); corporate greed (Rory Kennedy’s “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing”); and climate change (Rachel Lears’ “To the End”).
But this year’s nonfiction lineup also includes several portrait documentaries: Kanye West (“jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy”), Bill Cosby (“We Need to Talk About Cosby”), Sinéad O’Connor (“Nothing Compares”) and Princess Diana (“The Princess”) are among the many famous and infamous figures being explored.
Clarence “Coodie” Simmons and Chike Ozah’s “jeen-yuhs” is arguably the most anticipated doc heading to Park City. The three-parter boasts 21 years of never-before-seen footage from the rapper. Simmons says after meeting West 20-some years ago, he realized that “this dude was...
But this year’s nonfiction lineup also includes several portrait documentaries: Kanye West (“jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy”), Bill Cosby (“We Need to Talk About Cosby”), Sinéad O’Connor (“Nothing Compares”) and Princess Diana (“The Princess”) are among the many famous and infamous figures being explored.
Clarence “Coodie” Simmons and Chike Ozah’s “jeen-yuhs” is arguably the most anticipated doc heading to Park City. The three-parter boasts 21 years of never-before-seen footage from the rapper. Simmons says after meeting West 20-some years ago, he realized that “this dude was...
- 1/19/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
More than half of 82-strong feature roster directed by filmmakers who identify as women.
The hybrid 2022 Sundance Film Festival has announced a roster of 82 features that include world premieres for Sophie Hyde’s comedy drama Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, Michel Hazanavicius’s zombie comedy Final Cut, and Lena Dunham’s drama Sharp Stick as well as new work from John Boyega, Noomi Rapace and Julianne Moore.
Features, New Frontiers selections and shorts (the latter will be announced on Friday) will screen from January 20-30 2022 in person in the Utah hubs of Park City and Salt Lake City as...
The hybrid 2022 Sundance Film Festival has announced a roster of 82 features that include world premieres for Sophie Hyde’s comedy drama Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, Michel Hazanavicius’s zombie comedy Final Cut, and Lena Dunham’s drama Sharp Stick as well as new work from John Boyega, Noomi Rapace and Julianne Moore.
Features, New Frontiers selections and shorts (the latter will be announced on Friday) will screen from January 20-30 2022 in person in the Utah hubs of Park City and Salt Lake City as...
- 12/9/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
“Tyrant. Liar. Racist. A Hole In One.” The poster for Michael Moore’s upcoming Fahrenheit 11/9 doesn’t mince words – or visuals. (See the full poster below).
The photo illustration featured in the new poster depicts President Donald Trump, from behind, in khakis, polo shirt, red Maga hat and finishing up a golf swing on the White House’s beautifully manicured front lawn. Just behind the White House itself is a big ol’ mushroom cloud.
The documentary Sept. 21 release – just in time for midterms – following a world premiere at next month’s 2018 Toronto Film Festival.
Moore’s latest carries this logline: “a provocative and comedic look at the times in which we live. It will explore the two most important questions of the Trump Era: How the f**k did we get here, and how the f**k do we get out? It’s the film to see before it’s too late.
The photo illustration featured in the new poster depicts President Donald Trump, from behind, in khakis, polo shirt, red Maga hat and finishing up a golf swing on the White House’s beautifully manicured front lawn. Just behind the White House itself is a big ol’ mushroom cloud.
The documentary Sept. 21 release – just in time for midterms – following a world premiere at next month’s 2018 Toronto Film Festival.
Moore’s latest carries this logline: “a provocative and comedic look at the times in which we live. It will explore the two most important questions of the Trump Era: How the f**k did we get here, and how the f**k do we get out? It’s the film to see before it’s too late.
- 8/15/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Michael Moore has never shied away from delivering politically hard-hitting documentarys. Following up on his highly successful 2004 doc, Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore delves into the Trump catastrophe that threatens America in new doc Fahrenheit 11/9.
The trailer below follows a frustrated Moore around the Us as he sheds light on the Flint Water disaster, the insurgence of the Ku Klux Klan at the hands of Trump and how the American dream is going up in flames under his ill-gotten reign.
The Oscar-nominated documentary directors/producers Meghan O’Hara, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal teamed up with Moore on the project which was shot under a strict cloak of secrecy.
Also in trailers – There’s something ominous lurking the school halls in trailer for Slaughterhouse Rulez
The documentary is set to hit cinemas on September 21st.
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 Official Synopsis
Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 11/9” is a provocative and comedic look at the times in which we live.
The trailer below follows a frustrated Moore around the Us as he sheds light on the Flint Water disaster, the insurgence of the Ku Klux Klan at the hands of Trump and how the American dream is going up in flames under his ill-gotten reign.
The Oscar-nominated documentary directors/producers Meghan O’Hara, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal teamed up with Moore on the project which was shot under a strict cloak of secrecy.
Also in trailers – There’s something ominous lurking the school halls in trailer for Slaughterhouse Rulez
The documentary is set to hit cinemas on September 21st.
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 Official Synopsis
Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 11/9” is a provocative and comedic look at the times in which we live.
- 8/13/2018
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Documentarian takes aim at Donald Trump veneer of invincibility: ‘That all ends with this movie.’
Bob and Harvey Weinstein through their Fellowship Adventure Group anounced in Cannes they have reunited with Michael Moore on the surprise Donald Trump exposé documentary Fahrenheit 11/9.
The Weinsteins have personally secured worldwide rights to the film – named after the day Trump was elected Us president on November 9, 2016, which Moore has planned for months and is currently directing.
Moore has teamed up with the Oscar-nominated documentary director-producers Meghan O’Hara, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal with whom he collaborated on Fahrenheit 9/11 – the highest grossing documentary in history on $222m worldwide.
It remains the highest grossing winner of the Palme d’Or in the history of Cannes.
“No matter what you throw at him, it hasn’t worked, Moore said of the White House incumbent. “No matter what is revealed, he remains standing. Facts, reality, brains cannot defeat him. Even when he...
Bob and Harvey Weinstein through their Fellowship Adventure Group anounced in Cannes they have reunited with Michael Moore on the surprise Donald Trump exposé documentary Fahrenheit 11/9.
The Weinsteins have personally secured worldwide rights to the film – named after the day Trump was elected Us president on November 9, 2016, which Moore has planned for months and is currently directing.
Moore has teamed up with the Oscar-nominated documentary director-producers Meghan O’Hara, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal with whom he collaborated on Fahrenheit 9/11 – the highest grossing documentary in history on $222m worldwide.
It remains the highest grossing winner of the Palme d’Or in the history of Cannes.
“No matter what you throw at him, it hasn’t worked, Moore said of the White House incumbent. “No matter what is revealed, he remains standing. Facts, reality, brains cannot defeat him. Even when he...
- 5/16/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Documentary-maker takes aim at Donald Trump veneer of invincibility: ‘That all ends with this movie.’
Bob and Harvey Weinstein through their Fellowship Adventure Group anounced in Cannes they have reunited with Michael Moore on the Donald Trump exposé documentary Fahrenheit 11/9.
The Weinsteins have secured worldwide rights to the film – named after the day Trump was elected Us president on November 9, 2016, and shot in secrecy over the past few months.
Moore has teamed up with the Oscar-nominated documentary director-producers Meghan O’Hara, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal with whom he collaborated on Fahrenheit 9/11 – the highest grossing documentary in history on $222m worldwide.
It remains the highest grossing winner of the Palme d’Or in the history of Cannes.
“No matter what you throw at him, it hasn’t worked, Moore said of the White House incumbent. “No matter what is revealed, he remains standing. Facts, reality, brains cannot defeat him. Even when he commits a self-inflicted wound, he gets...
Bob and Harvey Weinstein through their Fellowship Adventure Group anounced in Cannes they have reunited with Michael Moore on the Donald Trump exposé documentary Fahrenheit 11/9.
The Weinsteins have secured worldwide rights to the film – named after the day Trump was elected Us president on November 9, 2016, and shot in secrecy over the past few months.
Moore has teamed up with the Oscar-nominated documentary director-producers Meghan O’Hara, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal with whom he collaborated on Fahrenheit 9/11 – the highest grossing documentary in history on $222m worldwide.
It remains the highest grossing winner of the Palme d’Or in the history of Cannes.
“No matter what you throw at him, it hasn’t worked, Moore said of the White House incumbent. “No matter what is revealed, he remains standing. Facts, reality, brains cannot defeat him. Even when he commits a self-inflicted wound, he gets...
- 5/16/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
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