Thompson on Hollywood

Watch and Listen to Ravishing Trailer for Indie Spirit Doc Nominee 'Leviathan'

Video

Cinema Guild has released the trailer for Lucien Castaing-Taylor ("Sweetgrass") and Verena Paravel's ("Foreign Parts") festival favorite doc "Leviathan." The film is nominated for the Indie Spirit's Truer Than Fiction award and will be released theatrically March 1 at NYC's IFC Center, followed by a national rollout.

By Sophia Savage
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February 7, 2013 2:18 PM
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Oscar Watch 'How to Survive a Plague': From a Tale of Disease, a Primer for Empowerment

Features

David France didn't set out to make a film about the AIDS crisis. He didn't even set out to be a filmmaker. Speaking to me from Los Angeles on the afternoon before the Directors Guild of America Awards—for which he was nominated for his first documentary, "How to Survive a Plague"—France told me that the project (also nominated for the documentary feature Oscar) grew out of his feeling that a crucial chapter of the history of AIDS in America had been lost. That story, he knew from personal experience, was one of activism and empowerment, one that had changed the United States forever. France wanted to bring it back.

By Jacob Combs
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February 6, 2013 2:53 PM
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Now and Then: 'Side by Side,' I'll Still Take Film Over Digital

Reviews

Smart, wide-ranging, and informative, "Side by Side" may be a postcard from the future of movies, but it's still intoxicated by the past. Its dreamiest moment comes at the outset, a montage of clips from the first century of cinema: Eadweard Muybridge's horses to "Do the Right Thing."

By Matt Brennan
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February 5, 2013 1:29 PM
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Oscar Watch: 'The Gatekeepers' Pops the Lid Off the Israeli/Arab Conflict, Dror Moreh Q & A (VIDEO)

Interviews

Things aren't getting any easier in the Middle East. Filmmaker Dror Moreh decided to look at the Israeli/Palestine conflict from another angle. He went to the six living men who have run Shin Bet, Israel's Secret Service, from 1980 through 2011. Backed by Israel, France, Germany and Belgium, "The Gatekeepers" was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics and has been a hit on the festival circuit.

By Anne Thompson
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January 31, 2013 1:57 PM
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Watch: Trailer for Girl Empowerment Doc 'Girl Rising,' Narrated by Streep, Blanchett, Hathaway, Hayek, Moretz, Neeson & More

Video

"Girl Rising" is a new film directed by Richard E. Robbins that is at the center of 10x10, a worldwide campaign to help educate and empower girls. The film previewed at the Sundance Film Festival in conjunction with the release of its trailer, shown below.

By Sophia Savage
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January 22, 2013 1:18 PM
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Sundance Review: Nick Ryan's Riveting Doc 'The Summit' Shows Death and Heroism on K2

Festivals

Only at Sundance would a 9 AM Egyptian screening of a climbing doc --Nick Ryan's "The Summit"-- fill to capacity, bulging with some 80 press, estimated one theater manager. It shows the power of a trusted critic who tips Sundance goers via early reviews, in this case a rave from the LAT's Ken Turan. The crowd was riveted by the unfolding mystery of how 11 climbers perished on their way down from a successful ascent to the summit of K2, the victims of bad luck, poorly executed planning, and avalanches.

By Anne Thompson
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January 18, 2013 3:59 PM
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Kirby Dick Talks Oscar-Nominated 'Invisible War,' Re-releasing This Weekend in NY and LA [UPDATE]

Interviews

Kirby Dick's "The Invisible War" has snagged one of the coveted five competing spots for the Academy's Best Documentary Oscar, and will be released January 18 at the Film Society at Lincoln Center and at Laemmle's Santa Monica, Pasadena and Claremont theaters January 19...

By Anne Thompson
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January 18, 2013 2:07 PM
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DigiNext In-Venue Film Festival and Sexual Abuse Doc 'Standing Silent'

News

The DigiNext In-Venue Film Festival, a partnership between Digital Cinema Destinations Corp. and Nehst, aims to provide emerging filmmakers with the chance to reach targeted audiences. They have 74 digital screens across the country, included six in Southern California.

By Sophia Savage
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January 18, 2013 1:00 PM
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Now and Then: In Must-See 'Detropia,' the Many Lives of an American City

Reviews

It is a story we think we know already. Unions weaken. Corporations outsource. Politicians waver. The economy collapses. Public resources shrivel. A city dies. But that's only the bird's-eye view: in Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's powerful document of an age of grief, "Detropia" is the way we live now.

By Matt Brennan
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January 14, 2013 12:55 PM
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HBO Announces Documentary Film Lineup for 2013, including 'Mea Maxima Culpa' and 'Life and Times of Tim Hetherington'

Awards

HBO announces their documentary lineup for the first half of 2013, including Alex Gibney's "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God," Sebastian Junger's "Which Way is the Front Line from Here?: The Life and Times of Tim Hetherington" and Steven Pressman's "50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus."