It is one thing to climb up a 3,000-foot-expanse of solid of rock with no tools, safety gear or rope beyond hands and feet. It’s another for married documentarians to collaborate on a feature about a daredevil sport that requires nerves of steel, an addiction to adrenaline rushes and being able to deal with the knowledge that the activity far too often ends in death.
But Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi — husband-and-wife co-directors of “Free Solo” that is currently the favorite (although “Rbg” is creeping up) to win, according to Gold Derby’s combined odds — and their camera team and crew show no fear as they tag along with free-climber Alex Honnold as he attempts to be the first human to claw his way up Yosemite’s daunting El Capitan.
One of the things that drew me to “Free Solo” is how it examines what sort of person...
But Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi — husband-and-wife co-directors of “Free Solo” that is currently the favorite (although “Rbg” is creeping up) to win, according to Gold Derby’s combined odds — and their camera team and crew show no fear as they tag along with free-climber Alex Honnold as he attempts to be the first human to claw his way up Yosemite’s daunting El Capitan.
One of the things that drew me to “Free Solo” is how it examines what sort of person...
- 2/21/2019
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
By Patrick Shanley
Managing Editor
This year’s best documentary feature nominees continues a long trend of music docs being recognized by the Academy, as two music-related films have earned nominations at this year’s Oscars.
Amy, which tells the story of late songstress Amy Winehouse in her own words through never-before-seen archival footage and unreleased tracks and is nominated for best doc this year, earned nominations for the Queer Palm and Golden Eye awards at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for director Asif Kapadia.
Filmmaker Liz Garbus earned the second nomination of her career with the Netflix documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone? The film focuses on the life of iconic R&B singer Nina Simone and her life as a singer, mother, and civil rights activist. Garbus earned her first Oscar nomination in 1998 for her documentary The Farm: Angola, USA.
Music-related docs have been a hot topic for the Academy in years past,...
Managing Editor
This year’s best documentary feature nominees continues a long trend of music docs being recognized by the Academy, as two music-related films have earned nominations at this year’s Oscars.
Amy, which tells the story of late songstress Amy Winehouse in her own words through never-before-seen archival footage and unreleased tracks and is nominated for best doc this year, earned nominations for the Queer Palm and Golden Eye awards at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for director Asif Kapadia.
Filmmaker Liz Garbus earned the second nomination of her career with the Netflix documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone? The film focuses on the life of iconic R&B singer Nina Simone and her life as a singer, mother, and civil rights activist. Garbus earned her first Oscar nomination in 1998 for her documentary The Farm: Angola, USA.
Music-related docs have been a hot topic for the Academy in years past,...
- 1/22/2016
- by Patrick Shanley
- Scott Feinberg
By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
Keep on Keepin’ On, director Alan Hicks’ debut film, follows four years of the friendship and mentorship between jazz legend and trumpeter Clark Terry, who played with Count Basie and Duke Ellington and taught a young Quincy Jones how to play, and Justin Kauflin, a talented 23-year-old blind pianist. The two musicians support each other as Terry begins to lose his eyesight due to health issues and as Kauflin deals with stage fright as a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. The film is one of 15 films on the Oscar documentary shortlist, five of which will be nominated on Jan. 15.
The Academy is particularly fond of music-related documentaries, nominating 17 since 1942, with eight winning. Keep on Keepin’ On could join the following Oscar-nominated films:
Festival (1967)
Director Murray Lerner’s black-and-white documentary offers a glimpse into three years (1963-1966) of the Newport Folk Festival, which...
Managing Editor
Keep on Keepin’ On, director Alan Hicks’ debut film, follows four years of the friendship and mentorship between jazz legend and trumpeter Clark Terry, who played with Count Basie and Duke Ellington and taught a young Quincy Jones how to play, and Justin Kauflin, a talented 23-year-old blind pianist. The two musicians support each other as Terry begins to lose his eyesight due to health issues and as Kauflin deals with stage fright as a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. The film is one of 15 films on the Oscar documentary shortlist, five of which will be nominated on Jan. 15.
The Academy is particularly fond of music-related documentaries, nominating 17 since 1942, with eight winning. Keep on Keepin’ On could join the following Oscar-nominated films:
Festival (1967)
Director Murray Lerner’s black-and-white documentary offers a glimpse into three years (1963-1966) of the Newport Folk Festival, which...
- 1/8/2015
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
Irving Saraf, an Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentary film director, editor, cinematographer and producer, died Saturday at his home in San Francisco. He was 80 years old and had been battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Als) for three years. Saraf helped start the Special Projects department at San Francisco public television station Kqed and was tapped by Saul Zaentz to help form Fantasy Films. With his wife, Allie Light (photo), he made the Academy Award winning documentary, "In The Shadow of the Stars," and the Emmy Award-winning, "Dialogues With Mad Women." Also read: Notable Celebrity...
- 12/30/2012
- by Todd Cunningham
- The Wrap
Academy award winning filmmaker Irving Saraf died December 26 at his home in San Francisco. Saraf, 80, succumbed to Als, which he battled for the last three years. He is the father of Peter Saraf, producer of such films as Little Miss Sunshine and partner with Marc Turtletaub in the film financier/production company Big Beach. Irving Saraf was a long time fixture in the Bay Area film community. After helping to start the Special Projects department at San Francisco public television station Kqed, Saraf formed Fantasy Films for Saul Zaentz. With his second wife, Allie Light, Saraf made the Academy Award winning docu, In The Shadow of the Stars and the Emmy award winning Dialogues With Mad Women. Born Ignatz Szcharfertz in Lodz Poland in 1932, Saraf and family fled the Nazis in 1939 when he was 7. The family eventually settled in Palestine, where Saraf took the Hebrew first name of Itzhac. He...
- 12/30/2012
- by MIKE FLEMING JR.
- Deadline
Even if you can't afford the back issues Film Comment's offering, the shop's a great browse.
The new issue of kolik.film (in German) features dossiers on Chantal Akerman, films from Iran and Austria and the state of cinephilia. And you can bet I'm going to go ahead and mention that I've been interviewed for the issue as well.
This evening in San Francisco: "Essential Sf is an ongoing compendium of the Bay Area film community's most vital figures and institutions. Veteran visionaries Allie Light, Irving Saraf, Joshua Grannell, Susan Gerhard, Karen Larsen, Canyon Cinema, Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman and others will be feted at this short ceremony." Read profiles of all the honorees here.
DVD. The "superbly assembled" Laurel and Hardy: The Essential Collection boasts over 32 hours of material on ten discs, including "several foreign-language versions of the shorts, which were made in the days before dubbing was perfected...
The new issue of kolik.film (in German) features dossiers on Chantal Akerman, films from Iran and Austria and the state of cinephilia. And you can bet I'm going to go ahead and mention that I've been interviewed for the issue as well.
This evening in San Francisco: "Essential Sf is an ongoing compendium of the Bay Area film community's most vital figures and institutions. Veteran visionaries Allie Light, Irving Saraf, Joshua Grannell, Susan Gerhard, Karen Larsen, Canyon Cinema, Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman and others will be feted at this short ceremony." Read profiles of all the honorees here.
DVD. The "superbly assembled" Laurel and Hardy: The Essential Collection boasts over 32 hours of material on ten discs, including "several foreign-language versions of the shorts, which were made in the days before dubbing was perfected...
- 11/6/2011
- MUBI
Battle for Terra
USA, 2007, 100 minutes
Director: Aristomenis Tsirbas
Featuring posh animation hard to believe was funded and produced independently, it’s the story that eventually wins over this sci-fi war movie. It translates the complexity and sacrifice of war into an understandable narrative without compromising the horror—Battlestar Galactica for kids, essentially.
Dividing equal sympathies for both humans and aliens, the film could almost go either way. An all-star voice cast compliment rather than distract; showing the big studios how it’s done.
Details
Adoration
Canada/France, 2008, 100 minutes
Director: Atom Egoyan
Powerful and packed with profound ideas, Adoration is an ode to the budding 21st century. Our identities continue to shift as the world continues its culture fusion, now more than ever in a terrorism-obsessed Post-9/11 world.
These characters’ lives are intertwined on a personal level to contrast technology’s ability to globally connect us all, perfectly visualized in the...
USA, 2007, 100 minutes
Director: Aristomenis Tsirbas
Featuring posh animation hard to believe was funded and produced independently, it’s the story that eventually wins over this sci-fi war movie. It translates the complexity and sacrifice of war into an understandable narrative without compromising the horror—Battlestar Galactica for kids, essentially.
Dividing equal sympathies for both humans and aliens, the film could almost go either way. An all-star voice cast compliment rather than distract; showing the big studios how it’s done.
Details
Adoration
Canada/France, 2008, 100 minutes
Director: Atom Egoyan
Powerful and packed with profound ideas, Adoration is an ode to the budding 21st century. Our identities continue to shift as the world continues its culture fusion, now more than ever in a terrorism-obsessed Post-9/11 world.
These characters’ lives are intertwined on a personal level to contrast technology’s ability to globally connect us all, perfectly visualized in the...
- 4/25/2009
- by Arya Ponto
- JustPressPlay.net
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