AFI Docs, the American Film Institute's annual documentary celebration will once again offer an opportunity for movie fans to view documentary films online and anticipate welcoming a limited number of festivalgoers back to the storied AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland for in-person screenings. Now in its 19th year, the festival will be held June 22-27.
The Tribeca Film Festival has selected the Latin American documentary Primera to participate in the 20th anniversary of the international film festival. This year's festival, to be held June 9-20 offers a hybrid of in-person events and Tribeca at Home, the festival’s exclusive online premiere screenings and virtual events. Primera, which will premiere at the festival, was selected among foreign films and documentaries due to its vibrant Latin American production quality, story, and vision.
Event cinema distributor Abramorama’s documentary Long Live Rock … Celebrate the Chaos is now streaming on The Coda Collection.
CineLife Entertainment, a division of Spotlight Cinema Networks, today announced that it is releasing Chicago: America’s Hidden War to theatres across the U.S. May 12 through June 15. The revealing documentary dives into Chicago’s street violence and its effect on the community, presenting viewers with a path towards change.
On May 13 event cinema distributor Abramorama, in collaboration with Qobuz, is partnering with 88.5-FM radio, Southern California’s leading adult album alternative rock station to premiere the music documentary Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm with a nostalgic drive-in movie experience at the Regency 16 Theaters in Van Nuys.
New York Women in Film & Television has named Lisa Denker the winner of the Loreen Arbus Disability Awareness Grant for her documentary feature Still Judy. The first-ever Honorable Mention award was given to Alyscia Cunningham for her documentary feature I Am More Than My Hair. The film completion grant, now in its 14th year, is provided through the generosity of longtime disability rights advocate Loreen Arbus and awards $7,500 to a woman filmmaker for a film on physical or developmental disability issues; the Honorable Mention winner receives $1,500.
Goldcrest Post has added colorist Steve Beganyi to its team of senior artists. Bringing more than 20 years of post-production experience, much of it centering on documentary films and television series, Beganyi joins a department dedicated to sound and picture finishing for docs. His recent credits include Jerusalem: City of Faith and Fury for CNN and My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman for Netflix.
The Digital Cinema Society has completed a short documentary entitled Getting Safely Back to Work in the Age of COVID. The program is dedicated to the memory of the association’s friend and longtime DCS member, Allen Daviau, ASC, an early victim of the disease.
Claudia Raschke is an award-winning New York City based cinematographer best known for such films as Oscar-nominated and Emmy winning RBG (Magnolia/ Participant/ CNN), Oscar-nominated God is Bigger Than Elvis (HBO), Peabody Award-winning Black Magic (ESPN), Oscar short-listed Mad Hot Ballroom (Paramount), Particle Fever (Bond), Atomic Homefront (HBO), and The Freedom to Marry (Argot Pictures). Her latest film, which screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is My Name is Pauli Murray. Fifteen years before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat, and a full decade before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned separate-but-equal legislation, Pauli Murray was already knee-deep fighting for social justice. A pioneering attorney, activist and dedicated memoirist, Murray shaped landmark litigation—and consciousness— around race and gender equity. As an African American youth raised in the segregated South—who was also wrestling with broader notions of gender identity—Murray understood, intrinsically, what it was to exist beyond previously accepted categories and cultural norms. The film was made by the same team that made RBG including directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West, producer Talleah Bridges McMahon and editor Cinque Northern. My conversation with Raschke, via email, began with that team.
Award-winning filmmaker Ky Dickens is joining Yard Dog for advertising projects originating on the West and East coasts. Based in Los Angeles, Dickens has earned wide acclaim for her documentaries and for work for agencies and brands, which often involves real people and heartfelt subject matter. Her clients include Tylenol, Hershey’s, McDonald’s, Koehler, Purina, Huggies, Hallmark and Kellogg’s.
