truefilm

I’m a sucker for docs on unpromising subjects. For example,
Tetris: From Russia With Love, a BBC4 doc from 2004, uncovers the political and business intrigue behind the 1980s shape-sorting computer game created by a scientist in the Soviet Union. The BBC website has an interview with the film’s director, Magnus Temple, and links to more […]

Mary Milliken of Reuters writes that, “after the high-altitude soiree ends, directors of even the best documentaries find it hard to keep breathing as commercial distribution opportunities are few and far between.” HBO’s Sheila Nevins is quoted saying, “not that many people go to see documentaries at the box office, and I don’t think that […]

Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, co-directors for Jesus Camp, were flying from New York to California Tuesday morning. The AP story quotes Grady: “We brought a note to the captain asking him to check when the nominations were announced. The captain announced an hour later that he had really good news: ‘The women in row […]

The Rev. Becky Fischer, who’s Pentacostal summer camp for kids is the focus of Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Oscar-nominated film, Jesus Camp, tells the AP, “I’m happy for the filmmakers but I don’t know how to feel about it, honestly.” Fischer says the film has resulted in praise, hate mail, and also vandalism to […]

Nominated for Documentary Feature: Deliver Us From Evil, An Inconvenient Truth, Iraq in Fragments, Jesus Camp, and My Country, My Country. Nominated for Documentary Short: Th Blood of Yingzhou District, Recycled Life, Rehearsing a Dream, and Two Hands. A web page with the complete list of Oscar nominees includes links to sub-pages that provide a […]

This 6-minute clip about David Bowie’s teeth was posted on YouTube back in May, 2006, but it just showed up in one of my news filters today. At first, the clip seems like a fun and frivolous segment from some UK TV show. And it is. Then I found this forum entry by Chris Charlesworth, […]

At the opening Sundance press conference Robert Redford “said he wanted this year’s festival to fulfill Sundance’s original goal of putting docus on the same level as features” according to this report on Variety.com. As you might expect from Variety, the story quickly shifts to discussing deals already or potentially completed in Park City.
In other […]

MediaRights started a new column called Shortlist where “intellectual, artistic, and activist leaders” will catalog films that inspired them. They start off the series with a list from Albert Maysles (who’s work makes a good Shortlist of its own). At least this first installment has little commentary about or by the contributor, but Maysles’s list […]

And it sounds pretty interesting. Gary Hustwit’s upcoming doc, Helvetica, “is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface…as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.” The film’s release coincides with the 50th anniversary of Helvetica’s introduction. Can’t […]

View and schmooze the Sundance Film Fest (SFF) from the comfort of your own computer. Not directly doc related, but Sundance Channel’s YouTube page will feature, amongst other offerings, a daily video blog from the directors of the fiction film Four Eyed Monsters. They plan to interview filmmakers, and cover the parties and panels at […]

Directors Guild of America president Michael Apted, who knows a thing or two about documentary film, announced the nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary. The nominees are: Amy Berg for Deliver Us From Evil, Michael Glawogger for Workingman’s Death, James Longley for Iraq in Fragments, Arunas Matelis for Before Flying […]

Bill Moyers has a new public-affairs series coming to PBS with the same name as his 1970s series, Bill Moyers Journal. The press release says “Moyers is re-inventing the broadcast for the 21st century” which appears to mean there’s a podcast and a Web forum. We’ll find out Friday nights starting in April. The premiere, […]

Many doc, fiction, and animation shorts from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival will be available on the Apple, Inc. iTunes download service, starting Jan 22. The films each cost $1.99 USD with the filmmaker reportedly earning $1.33 per download. Filmmakers were not required to participate in the program, and Sundance’s John Cooper says some didn’t […]

In separate articles, Nick Broomfield (Kurt and Courtney, Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer) and Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September, Touching the Void) discuss how their experiences making documentary films shaped the direction of their recent fiction films. Broomfield talks about casting illegal immigrants and filming undercover to make Ghosts, his fiction […]

Last year Albert Maysles, who really doesn’t need an introductory clause, set up shop in a Harlem brownstone. In the summer he and his son launched a program that teaches documentary filmmaking to disadvantaged kids. They hope to expand the program this year, and also plan to open a 75-seat theater showing rep and noncommercial […]

Classical music label Naxos is releasing a NTSC DVD containing two historic documentaries from Pare Lorentz. “The Plow that Broke the Plains” (1936) looks at the causes of the 1930’s Dust Bowl drought in the US, and was produced by the US Government. “The River” (1938) examines flood control on the Mississippi River. Though the […]

Current published their annual survey of what producers have in the works for PBS. Info on America at a Crossroads, Ken Burns’ film about WWII, Frederick Wiseman’s new film, and much much more. The very long list is here.

PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler offers a New Year’s resolution for the US public-television network: “Be more aggressive. I don’t mean aggressive as in hostile or combative, but rather as in energetic and enterprising…. public television and its 350 independent but affiliated stations may be able to play a special role, both in making lots of […]

That’s the headline on the Edmonton Sun website. “Although she’s never actually seen a sasquatch… [Michelle] Baril has been asked to lead [History Channel] producers to locations noted in some of the two dozen Interlake area sasquatch stories she’s heard over the past 25 years….Baril believes the fact the creatures’ bodies have yet to be […]

Michael Getler, the PBS Ombudsman, examines in excruciating detail concerns over the historical accuracy of a 2003 PBS documentary and accompanying website about Mileva Maric, Albert Einstein’s first wife. Getler suggests, “shutting down the Web site until errors or statements that could be misleading are dealt with and greater context is provided. I don’t know […]