Documentaries
TIFF: Anti-Netanyahu Film Premiere Goes Forward in Toronto After Court Motion Fails
After facing a failed attempt by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to block their world-premiere screening, the filmmakers behind the anti-Netanyahu documentary The Bibi Files carried on Monday night debuting their work at the Toronto International Film Festival with a mix of grim resolve and giddy triumph. Alexis Bloom’s film, which builds its case against […]
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Could Two New Docs Subtly Change the Presidential Election?
Adam Kinzinger had turned down more than a dozen requests to make a documentary. Then the director of Hot Tub Time Machine walked in. The Illinois Republican congressman who famously — and largely solitarily — turned on Donald Trump after Jan. 6 was reluctant to participate in a movie that focused on his fading hopes to retain his seat. But Steve […]
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Longtime Friends Will Ferrell and Harper Steele Grow Even Closer in ‘Will & Harper’ Trailer
Will Ferrell and Harper Steele share the sweet story of their friendship in the trailer for their upcoming Netflix documentary, Will & Harper. “A long time ago, back when I was at Saturday Night Live, I met a guy who was hired as a writer on the same week I was hired,” recalls Ferrell in […]
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Malala Yousafzai Makes Film Producer Debut With ‘Last of the Sea Women’ Trailer
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist who in 2014, at just 17, became the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has launched her film producer career with the trailer for Last of the Sea Women, which Apple TV+ dropped on Thursday. The documentary from director Sue Kim and A24 follows Korean women renowned as “haenyeo” divers for […]
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Documentary Crew Uses Venice Red Carpet to Spotlight Ukrainian Prisoners of War
A film crew took advantage of the Venice Film Festival spotlight Wednesday and wore clothing on its prestigious red carpet embroidered with the distances from the Lido to various locations where Russians are holding Ukrainian prisoners. Their documentary Songs of Slow Burning Earth, directed by Olha Zhurba, celebrated its world premiere in the Out of […]
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Soviet Cinema Legend Inspires Artist in Exile in ‘I Will Revenge This World With Love – S. Parajanov’ (Exclusive Trailer)
The legacy and inspiration of Soviet director Sergei Parajanov is at the center of I Will Revenge This World With Love – S. Parajanov, a new documentary from director Zara Jian, which premieres at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The Hollywood Reporter has gotten the exclusive first look at the trailer for the film — […]
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Telluride: Hillary Clinton Talks ‘Handmaid’s Tale’-Style Abortion Policy at Doc Premiere
Hillary Clinton encouraged a film festival audience in Telluride, Colorado, to “get back to a time when your government is not determining what your choices for your family would be, which is just so Handmaid’s Tale.” Clinton was in Telluride on Saturday for the premiere of Zurawski v Texas, a documentary she produced about a […]
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Errol Morris and NBC’s Jacob Soboroff on ‘Separated’ and the Inhumanity of U.S. Border Policy
Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris (Fog of War) and acclaimed NBC journalist NBC’s Jacob Soboroff took aim at the immigration policies of the previous administration of Donald Trump in their press conference for Separation at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday. Morris’ documentary adaptation of Soboroff’s book of the same name looks at the Trump administration’s […]
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‘Riefenstahl’ Doc Shatters Myths of Hitler’s Favorite Director
Leni Riefenstahl, who died in 2003, aged 101, remains forever Google-able as “Hitler’s favorite director” for her daringly innovative documentaries The Triumph of the Will, about the Nazi rally in Nuremberg in 1934, and Olympia, about the Berlin Olympics of 1936. Acclaimed and infamous in equal measures —was she a pioneering genius, a Nazi propagandist, […]
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Lisa Henson Says the Family Turned Down a Number of Filmmakers for a Jim Henson Documentary Until Ron Howard Came Along
When Lisa Henson first saw Jim Henson Idea Man, the Ron Howard-directed documentary about her famous puppeteer father, she instantly considered it a success. “It was wonderful to see that Ron had landed it,” Lisa tells THR. “We had hoped that in the storytelling, Ron might be able to channel some of the creativity of […]
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European Film Awards Pick 2024 Documentary Films Shortlist
The European Film Academy has unveiled its shortlist of 12 documentaries in the running for this year’s European Film Awards. The 12 feature docs include recent winners in Sundance, Berlin, and Locarno and represent a cross-section of European filmmakers. Among the more high-profile titles on the list are Mati Diop’s Dahomey, which looks at the […]
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Dawn Porter’s Biden Film Among the Cuts at DNC Night One
The first night of the DNC in Chicago had an Academy Awards feel — right down to the overruns and snubs. On a night when Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, AOC and others brought the United Center crowd to its feet with rousing podium speeches — and Kamala Harris made a raucously received surprise appearance — […]
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