“American Factory” has been named the best documentary of 2019 at the 13th annual Cinema Eye Honors ceremony, which were presented on Monday evening in New York City.
The film, executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground Productions, and distributed by Netflix, is an examination of an Ohio glass factory that was taken over by a Chinese company in an uneasy cultural alliance. It prevailed in a category in which all six nominees — “American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “For Sama,” “Honeyland,” “Midnight Family” and “One Child Nation” — are also on the Oscars shortlist for documentary features.
The “American Factory” directors, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, also won the award for Outstanding Direction. The Outstanding Production category resulted in a tie between two films set in Syria, “The Cave” and “For Sama.”
Also Read: 'For Sama' Is Named Top Doc at Ida Documentary Awards
“Honeyland” won for cinematography,...
The film, executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground Productions, and distributed by Netflix, is an examination of an Ohio glass factory that was taken over by a Chinese company in an uneasy cultural alliance. It prevailed in a category in which all six nominees — “American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “For Sama,” “Honeyland,” “Midnight Family” and “One Child Nation” — are also on the Oscars shortlist for documentary features.
The “American Factory” directors, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, also won the award for Outstanding Direction. The Outstanding Production category resulted in a tie between two films set in Syria, “The Cave” and “For Sama.”
Also Read: 'For Sama' Is Named Top Doc at Ida Documentary Awards
“Honeyland” won for cinematography,...
- 1/7/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
It’s the final month of the year and there’s no shortage of cinematic gifts. From long-awaited features from some of our favorite directors to genre-tinged delights to massive blockbusters, December is overflowing with films to see. We should note that Portrait of a Lady on Fire is an essential watch, but it’s only getting a one-week awards-qualifying run in NY/La, so we’ll wait to feature it when it opens wide this February. Check out our monthly picks below.
15. Little Joe (Jessica Hausner; Dec. 6)
After landing on our radar with the formally thrilling, adventurous Amour Fou, Jessica Hausner finally returned with Little Joe. Starring Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw, and Kerry Fox, the Cannes winner is set in the near-future where a plant is invented that begins to psychologically alter those who come in contact with it. This plays out in the story of a mother who...
15. Little Joe (Jessica Hausner; Dec. 6)
After landing on our radar with the formally thrilling, adventurous Amour Fou, Jessica Hausner finally returned with Little Joe. Starring Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw, and Kerry Fox, the Cannes winner is set in the near-future where a plant is invented that begins to psychologically alter those who come in contact with it. This plays out in the story of a mother who...
- 12/2/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"What is the point of continuing to sell our bodies without any quality or talent." Kino Lorber has debuted a new official Us trailer for the indie documentary titled The Disappearance of My Mother, which first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. We originally featured a trailer in January before the festival, now we have another trailer for the film's opening in December. An iconic fashion model in the 1960s, Benedetta Barzini became a muse to Warhol, Dali, Penn and Avedon. As a radical feminist in the 1970s, she fought for the rights and emancipation of women. But at the age of 75, she is fed up with all the roles that life has imposed upon her and decides to leave everything and everybody behind, to disappear to a place as far as possible from the gaze of the camera. Only her son Beniamino, the director, is permitted to witness her journey.
- 11/1/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Beyonce’s “Homecoming” has landed three nominations to lead all films in the first round of noms for the Cinema Eye Honors, a New York-based awards ceremony established in 2007 to honor all aspects of nonfiction filmmaking.
In an announcement made at a luncheon in downtown Los Angeles, Cinema Eye Honors organizers unveiled nominations in seven categories, including new categories for broadcast editing and cinematography. “Homecoming” received nominations in both those new categories, as well as for the outstanding broadcast film of the year.
It faces off in that last category against “Apollo: Mission to the Moon,” “At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal,” “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists,” “Leaving Neverland” and “The Sentence.”
Also Read: 'Homecoming' Film Review: Beyoncé's Powerful Documentary Captures Her Once-in-a-Lifetime Coachella Triumph
Other shows with multiple nominations were the broadcast series “Salt Fat Acid Heat” and “Tricky Dick,” which received two each.
In an announcement made at a luncheon in downtown Los Angeles, Cinema Eye Honors organizers unveiled nominations in seven categories, including new categories for broadcast editing and cinematography. “Homecoming” received nominations in both those new categories, as well as for the outstanding broadcast film of the year.
It faces off in that last category against “Apollo: Mission to the Moon,” “At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal,” “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists,” “Leaving Neverland” and “The Sentence.”
Also Read: 'Homecoming' Film Review: Beyoncé's Powerful Documentary Captures Her Once-in-a-Lifetime Coachella Triumph
Other shows with multiple nominations were the broadcast series “Salt Fat Acid Heat” and “Tricky Dick,” which received two each.
- 10/24/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Kino Lorber, in association with blockchain-powered Tvod platform Breaker, has acquired North American rights to Beniamino Barrese’s documentary “The Disappearance of My Mother,” which had its world premiere at the Sundance Festival earlier this year, Variety has learned exclusively.
The deal was announced Monday at the Hot Docs Canadian Intl. Documentary Film Festival. It was negotiated by Kino Lorber Svp Wendy Lidell and Autlook Film Sales North American sales and acquisitions representative Ania Trzebiatowska.
“The Disappearance of My Mother” follows iconic ‘60s fashion model turned activist Benedetta Barzini, a muse to artists and image-makers like Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. For four decades Barzini has fought for the rights and emancipation of women, as a professor, journalist and radical feminist. Now facing an existential crisis at the age of 75, she decides that she wants to leave everything and everyone behind, even as her son – director Beniamino Barrese,...
The deal was announced Monday at the Hot Docs Canadian Intl. Documentary Film Festival. It was negotiated by Kino Lorber Svp Wendy Lidell and Autlook Film Sales North American sales and acquisitions representative Ania Trzebiatowska.
“The Disappearance of My Mother” follows iconic ‘60s fashion model turned activist Benedetta Barzini, a muse to artists and image-makers like Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. For four decades Barzini has fought for the rights and emancipation of women, as a professor, journalist and radical feminist. Now facing an existential crisis at the age of 75, she decides that she wants to leave everything and everyone behind, even as her son – director Beniamino Barrese,...
- 4/29/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
In the age of Instagram, it may be hard for many to grasp that others might still treasure their privacy, to the point of actually loathing the camera. Beniamino Barrese’s first feature is an interesting exercise in cinema-as-weapon, even if it probably wasn’t originally intended as such. The director is a photographer whose mother, Benedetta Barzini, was an early supermodel, her face all over magazine covers in the 1960s. Today she abhors the invasiveness of being reduced to an image — yet her son keeps sticking that lens in her face.
“The Disappearance of My Mother” is a successful piece of documentary filmmaking inasmuch as it’s entertaining and dextrously crafted. But its precise intent is unclear. Seldom has a movie’s subject so frequently told its creator to f— off. As far as we can tell, she’s right to do so; surely there’s a point at...
“The Disappearance of My Mother” is a successful piece of documentary filmmaking inasmuch as it’s entertaining and dextrously crafted. But its precise intent is unclear. Seldom has a movie’s subject so frequently told its creator to f— off. As far as we can tell, she’s right to do so; surely there’s a point at...
- 2/9/2019
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
When aspiring indie filmmakers first turn their lens on their family, often they’re met with a certain amount of reluctance. For his directorial debut The Disappearance of My Mother, Italian cinematographer Beniamino Barrese captures his mother, Benedetta Barzini, a once-iconic model who left the profession to become an outspoken advocate in the late 1970s. At age 75 she still teaches and is celebrated for her academic work and occasional modeling when invited to London’s Fashion Week.
Opening with a device that’s compelling even if it feels out of place in a mostly observant portrait, director Barrese aims to recreate the essence of his mother with an international set of young models all with Barzini’s signature beauty mark painted on. What begins as an inquiry in the film’s early passages slowly turns into a catharsis as the models read aloud from Barzini’s own writings; a young...
Opening with a device that’s compelling even if it feels out of place in a mostly observant portrait, director Barrese aims to recreate the essence of his mother with an international set of young models all with Barzini’s signature beauty mark painted on. What begins as an inquiry in the film’s early passages slowly turns into a catharsis as the models read aloud from Barzini’s own writings; a young...
- 1/31/2019
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
Beniamino Barrese’s mother, Benedetta Barzini, was a famous Italian model from her discovery in 1963 to her retirement a decade later. Her photographers included Richard Avedon, and her career led her to spend time as part of Warhol’s Factory scene. Barrese’s The Disappearance of My Mother begins as Barzini tells her son she intends to disappear from the material world. Alarmed, Barrese’s response was to use the camera to both capture his mother and try to reconcile her tangled relationship with the power of imagery, acting as his own Dp. Barrese answered questions via email about integrating 16 and 35mm and throwing […]...
- 1/30/2019
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Beniamino Barrese’s mother, Benedetta Barzini, was a famous Italian model from her discovery in 1963 to her retirement a decade later. Her photographers included Richard Avedon, and her career led her to spend time as part of Warhol’s Factory scene. Barrese’s The Disappearance of My Mother begins as Barzini tells her son she intends to disappear from the material world. Alarmed, Barrese’s response was to use the camera to both capture his mother and try to reconcile her tangled relationship with the power of imagery, acting as his own Dp. Barrese answered questions via email about integrating 16 and 35mm and throwing […]...
- 1/30/2019
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Being a parent means having a child who knows exactly what buttons to push. So it makes painfully poetic sense that Italian fashion model and feminist intellectual Benedetta Barzini — no stranger to the frequently cruel, cold gaze of a camera and the people wielding it — would have a son, filmmaker Beniamino Barrese, whose compulsion is to incessantly photograph his mother. That's the universe having a laugh, though the humor in The Disappearance of My Mother, Barrese's affectionate, often uncomfortably intimate feature-length debut, tends to be of a more apprehensive sort.
At the age of 20, Barzini was ...
At the age of 20, Barzini was ...
- 1/25/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Being a parent means having a child who knows exactly what buttons to push. So it makes painfully poetic sense that Italian fashion model and feminist intellectual Benedetta Barzini — no stranger to the frequently cruel, cold gaze of a camera and the people wielding it — would have a son, filmmaker Beniamino Barrese, whose compulsion is to incessantly photograph his mother. That's the universe having a laugh, though the humor in The Disappearance of My Mother, Barrese's affectionate, often uncomfortably intimate feature-length debut, tends to be of a more apprehensive sort.
At the age of 20, Barzini was ...
At the age of 20, Barzini was ...
- 1/25/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Not many filmmakers have a mom who’s an iconic model from the ’60s, photographed by the likes of Irving Penn and Richard Avedon, a muse to Warhol and Dali. Far fewer have one that kept that past hidden. Indeed, it wasn’t until director/cinematographer Beniamino Barrese made a youthful discovery — a stash of portfolios containing Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar covers tucked away inside a locked wardrobe — that he got an inkling that Benedetta Barzini was more than just the radical, outspoken, intellectual mother he’d been filming since he got his first camera at seven. And with The Disappearance of […]...
- 1/25/2019
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Not many filmmakers have a mom who’s an iconic model from the ’60s, photographed by the likes of Irving Penn and Richard Avedon, a muse to Warhol and Dali. Far fewer have one that kept that past hidden. Indeed, it wasn’t until director/cinematographer Beniamino Barrese made a youthful discovery — a stash of portfolios containing Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar covers tucked away inside a locked wardrobe — that he got an inkling that Benedetta Barzini was more than just the radical, outspoken, intellectual mother he’d been filming since he got his first camera at seven. And with The Disappearance of […]...
- 1/25/2019
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
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