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Knowing When to End It: Our Doc On a Knife Edge Took Seven Years to Make. Here’s What We Learned on the Way
For several years, our documentary On a Knife Edge had a great beginning and a wonderful...
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Unsung Film Heroes: Daniel Raim’s Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story Shines a Light on Two Cinematic Artists
Harold and Lillian Michelson are two unrecognized pillars of the American film industry whose contributions to...
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Life After Provocation: Burden Documentarians Tim Marrinan and Richard Dewey on Meeting the Real Chris Burden
As if on a pilgrimage, scores of tourists and, on occasion, locals have taken advantage of...
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Mixed Media: How Documentary God Knows Where I Am Used 35mm, 16mm, Super-16 and Digital For Its Haunting Story
When Linda Bishop’s body was found in an empty farmhouse in New Hampshire, her death seemed...
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Looking for the Silver Lining: Ferne Pearlstein’s The Last Laugh Takes Audiences on a Novel Journey to a Dark Time
In his memorable book The Life of Reason, philosopher George Santayana wrote, “Those who don’t remember...
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The Cat Documentary Taking NYC By Storm: Ceyda Torun and Charlie Wuppermann on Their Gorgeous Film KEDi
“People who don’t love animals don’t love people either.” So says a fishmonger in Istanbul in...
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Turning the Tide: With Over 60 Million Views, Fisher Stevens’ Before the Flood Warms New Generations to Environmentalism
He was, like the rest of us who count ourselves among the environmental community, still emotionally...
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Why Vérité Moviemaking is the Holy Grail of Documentary: An Essay by the Directors of The Bad Kids
Principal Vonda Viland runs Black Rock Continuation High School in the Mojave Desert, a school for...
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Foreign Contenders: Ukrainian Sheriffs is a Buddy Cop Doc Set Against the Annexation of Crimea
MovieMaker‘s weekly series “Foreign Contenders” features interviews with the heavyweight helmers behind their respective countries’ entries for...
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This Land is Moore’s Land: Michael Moore in Trumpland is a New Kind of “Political Theater”
There are many things one can say about Michael Moore, his films and his views, but...
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Between a Doc and a Hard Place: What Docs Can Teach Narrative and What Narrative Can Teach Docs
A recent podcast we went on to be interviewed about our film Limo Ride opened with...
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Weighty Responsibility: Kim A. Snyder on Making Newtown, a Documentary Centered on Terrible Tragedy
It’s almost been four years since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, which took 20 kids,...
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Kim Jong-il Productions: Ross Adam and Robert Cannan on a Tyrant’s Love of Cinema in The Lovers and the Despot
History has repeatedly shown that tyrants are often some of the most avid art collectors and supporters,...
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Ken Burns: Netflix is Skywriting, Making a Doc is Like Making Maple Syrup, Human History Will Repeat Itself
The Ken Burns effect, says Artemis Joukowsky, isn’t just an editing feature. “It’s the whole way...
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Getting Access, No Matter the Cost: How Director Mike Nicoll Infiltrated AAU Basketball to Make At All Costs
AAU basketball is an exclusive world that most people don’t know very much about. It’s structured...
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Subjective Nonfiction: Jeff Feuerzeig on New Journalism, Punk Rock and Author: The JT LeRoy Story
“If you’re purely after facts, please buy yourself the phone directory of Manhattan. It has four...
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The Desire to Be Seen: How Robert Greene Used Performance to Investigate Tragedy in Kate Plays Christine
Transformation, whether physical or internalized, is the essence of all performance. Performance is product of research,...
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On Access and Articulation: Clay Tweel Talks Tackling ALS and Documentary Ethics in Gleason
Even when reality seems bleak, adversity can fuel the human spirit to strive beyond hopelessness. For...
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A Diet of Myth and Fable: Roger Ross Williams’ Life, Animated is a Hopeful Reminder of the Power of Movies
Quoting from a favorite scene, empathizing with a character’s dilemma, adopting the philosophies of fictional societies—anyone...
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All Due Respect: With Documentary Art Bastard, Robert Cenedella Hopes to Go Direct-to-Audience
Unafraid to share his sharp, often unpopular, views on the elitist financial formulae by which so-called...
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How My Day Job Launched My Moviemaking Career: From Barista to Documentarian with Queen Mimi
My advice to indie moviemakers: Pick your day job wisely. Ironically, it was my day job...
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