In the opening scene of Netflix’s new documentary, Pamela, a Love Story, the Playboy icon and movie star Pamela Anderson sifts through the storage of her rustic home in Ladysmith, British Columbia. Among chirping birds and rolling waves from the nearby Pacific Ocean, she pops a VR tape into an old Toshiba monitor, a 90s…
Nothing Compares, Kathryn Ferguson’s new documentary that reexamines the life and career of disgraced alt-pop superstar Sinéad O’Connor, opens in familiar territory. It’s the evening of October 16th, 1992, and Madison Square Garden is a packed house. Fans have filled every seat in the New York City landmark arena for Bob Dylan’s 30th Anniversary Concert…
Wischful Thinking Productions recently released the documentary, THE ART OF MAKING IT, a revealing exploration into what it takes to succeed as a young artist in today's tumultuous art world. The film is a feature-length debut by filmmaker Kelcey Edwards and is produced by Debi Wisch. It features renowned artists (as subjects) such as Jenna Gribbon,…
When celebrities attempt to defy artistic boundaries it can result in a wide variety of successes and failures. Scrutiny from critics is to be expected, especially when the jump is as wide as a music artist becoming a film director. Prince, Madonna, and Bob Dylan all tried their hands at narrative features, with little success.…
https://youtu.be/heq9rdWjfec Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, is a vibrant and colorful portrait of the life and work of Pop Art icon Kenny Scharf. Filmed over the course of 11 years by the artist's daughter Malia Scharf and Max Basch, the documentary features interviews with Kenny Scharf himself, as well as Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JaGmaiKRLA During a 2017 interview with Berlinale Talents, 40-year-old writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, The Bad Batch) described the year after she had graduated from UCLA as disempowering. Amirpour was married at the time (i.e., 2009). She had written a script. She had landed an agent and a manager, both…
Examples of trans representation, most often negative ones, are more common in mainstream media than one might first guess. Think of how many times you’ve seen a man dress up as a woman onscreen for comedic effect. Cross-dressing is a ubiquitous trope in American comedies, from Some Like it Hot to The Jeffersons to How…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_esvGJf7fIU The nineteenth annual Tribeca Film Festival will open April 15 with the world premiere of Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President from award-winning director Mary Wharton. The film catalogues the role of popular music in helping to propel a peanut farmer from Georgia all the way to the White House and features rare archival…
Artist Ai Weiwei is known to resist injustice and inequality through his various art forms and activism. In his newest film that just premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Human Flow, he does just that. Following, interacting, and interviewing the refugees from various locations from all over the world, Ai documents the turmoil that refugees…
"In the midst of this very scary time in America politics, here’s an American story that gay and non-gay people, in fact anyone who believes in equal rights and a constitutional democracy, can all take pride in." - Eddie Rosenstein Releasing digitally on June 6, the civil rights documentary “The Freedom to Marry” follows attorneys Evan Wolfson…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wx-Qh4Vczc Patricia Arquette accepting her 2015 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award While you may know Patricia Arquette from movie roles ranging from A Nightmare of Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, released in 1987, to Holes, released in 2003, it was her role in Boyhood that put her upon the Academy Award stage. Filmed from…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc6zT4mVVuc For International Women's Day on March 8th, The Untitled Magazine sponsored a viewing of the documentary film "She's Beautiful When She's Angry." A group of excited women (mostly) and confident men (a few) entered The Anthology Film Archives in New York City and chose to learn about women's fight for equality and the second-wave feminism of…
The Tribeca Film Festival is coming to New York for it's fifteenth year this April. Scheduled for the 13th through the 24th, the festival provides one-of-a-kind storytelling from filmmakers for viewers. This year, the Tribeca Film Festival boats something that the Oscar's couldn't dare say for themselves: diversity. Of the features that will debut at the…
The anticipated Amy Winehouse documentary, self-titled AMY, will premiere in the UK this summer. Directed by Asif Kapida, who also directed Senna, this film is also making its debut at the Cannes Film Festival. This documentary is to portray the life of the late singer, who died in 2011 of alcohol poisoning at the young…
Robert Durst is a complicated man. He was accused of three murders in the past three decades but convicted of none, and is the son of a New York billionaire real estate mogul. Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki 's career has been encompassed by the man for nearly a decade. Shortly before the premiere of Jarecki's fictionalized account…
Documentary Fortnight MoMA, 1 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019 February 13 through 27, 2015 Documentary Fortnight 2015: MoMA's International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media, is the 14th annual showcase of recent documentary film that examines the relationship between contemporary art and nonfiction practices and reflects on new areas of documentary filmmaking. The two-week…
The Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, is the annual gathering place for all serious film lovers. Founded by Robert Redford, the festival is meant to promote the art of film more than its commercial successes. Awards are given in categories of U.S. Dramatic Film, U.S. Documentary Film, World Dramatic Film, and World Documentary…
"The world's best cardmen practice the moves until they do them right. Richard Turner practices the moves until he can't do them wrong." - Bruce T, Gambling Regulator, 2006. Texas resident Richard Turner was born in California on June 16th, 1954, which was quite fatefully dubbed “the year of the full deck.” Growing up in an…
Banksy … what a prankster. To hear some people tell it, he’s either a genius or a poseur, a messiah or a screw. Banksy’s derivative and he’s decadent. He’s totally unsanctioned, hullabaloo. He’s a lark and a goof, a social satirist and a crock. He’s a solo act; no, part of a collective. He’s a…
DOC NYC, America's largest documentary festival announced the full line-up for its fifth edition, running November 13-20 at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village and Chelsea's SVA Theatre and Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas. Representing a dramatic growth from last year's edition, the 2014 festival will showcase 153 films and events, with over 200 documentary makers and…
