When making a documentary out in nature, sometimes the story will find the filmmakers along the way. Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble spent four years solidly with a small team on the African savanna following an elephant pack led by a female named Athena for their new documentary, “The Elephant Queen,” but they always wanted to do it their own way, and not have financiers dictating the direction of ... more >
INTERVIEWS
TALKING WITH Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble, co-filmmakers of “The Elephant Queen”
Film will play in select theaters on October 18th and begin streaming on November 1st
IN CONVERSATION with THE LAUNDROMAT’S Scott Z. Burns and Jake Bernstein
The Panama Papers investigation revisited for the screen
The scandal surrounding the revelations contained in the Panama Papers is labyrinthine. So complex, in fact, that Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Jake Bernstein spent years unearthing the intricacies of the enmeshment of the financial system and Russian interests for his book, “Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite,” ... more >
TALKING with Lisa Cholodenko and Susannah Grant of “Unbelievable,” which premieres tomorrow on Netflix
Making sense of the trauma of rape in a post-truth world
Marie Adler’s story about an intruder raping her in the middle of the night seemed incredible. So impossible, in fact, that she later retracted her story, earning her the enmity of police, her friends and the entire community. The thing was, Marie wasn’t lying. The teen had, in fact, been violated in her own home by a man who bound her and took photos of her body amidst hours of torture. But so ... more >
INTERVIEW with “American Factory” (premieres on Netflix today) filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar
Will America become more like China or the other way around?
Distributed by Netflix
Filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar have watched as the industrial Midwest has cratered around them. High-paying factory jobs once stretched from western Pennsylvania to Michigan, providing a comfortable working-class living enabling workers to buy a home, two cars and send their children off to college. All of that changed as plants closed and jobs outsourced to Mexico and China. Those ... more >
TRIAL BY FIRE, our interview with Edward Zwick
"I’m seeing people come out of this almost transcendent"
Given his background in journalism, it’s little wonder that director Edward Zwick turned to an investigative reporter’s work as the basis for his latest film, “Trial by Fire.” The film is based on an article of the same name by David Grann published in the New Yorker in 2009 about a Texas man who was almost certainly wrongfully executed for the murder of his three children; DNA evidence exonerated ... more >
Six minutes into the future: a conversation with Karim Huu Do, director
"I have this Westernized mind, and at the same time, I have roots that are not coming from here. All this stuff mixed together creates something interesting"
What would it be like if you existed six minutes in the future, ahead of everyone? Things around you look familiar, being young is still cool and institutional repression hasn’t caught on with your latest act of rebellion. This is the world of Karim Huu Do, director. Some of the most esthetically-intense, visually-rousing short films come from advertising work. And some of the most ... more >
TALK: Jonathan Levine opens up about “Long Shot”
"It was important to us to make something kind of joyous at the end of the day"
Charlize Theron, Seth Rogen and June Diane Raphael
Directed by Jonathan Levine
Filmmaker Jonathan Levine stood in front of a packed theater in Washington, D.C., Wednesday evening to introduce a screening of his new film, “Long Shot,” a political comedy. He opined that it was somewhat of a challenge, in such surreal times as now, to make a comedy that satirizes politics. Nonetheless, he felt the time was right for such a rib-tickler like his new film. “We started making ... more >