As much as we’re all enjoying summer movie season, the true superheroes are right around the corner. The approaching fall festival season promises may hot documentaries about timely subjects and memorable characters. Our team is busy previewing documentaries that will pop up on the circuit starting in September and speaking with filmmakers behind them. Our next print issue is underway with stories in the works to give POV readers first looks at some of the hottest documentaries coming soon to festivals, theatres, and streamers near you, along with longer reads, essays, and deep dives that pair perfectly with a morning coffee and hopefully inspire some readers to seek out a few great docs. Subscribe today to be on the list when POV #124 hits the mail in September.
Here’s an early taste of what’s in the issue!
-First looks at several documentaries on the festival circuit exploring stories of music, food, family, philosophy, and more from veteran Canadian filmmakers and emerging talents.
-Before the return of Spinal Tap cranks fall movie season up to 11, we look back at mockumentaries that helped shape the genre, including a few classics and hidden gems.
-Spike Lee often receives a name-check as one of America’s top directors, but critics almost exclusively cite his dramatic films even through his documentary work is equally significant. Films like When the Levees Broke, 4 Little Girls, and David Byrne’s American Utopia receive a new appraisal.
-Another day, another celebrity doc! Just when it seems that every star, “star,” or musical act is getting the doc treatment, we look at the many forms that nipped and tucked celebrity bios take from the new Pee-Wee Herman doc that scored a bunch of Emmy nominations to some vanity projects that make us cringe.
-When streamers seem inundated with formulaic celebrity docs and cookie cutter true crime series, Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal defies categorization with its ingenious exploration of semi-scripted/unscripted non-fiction-ish comedy.
-The art of protest assumes radically different forms in Payal Kapadia’s A Night of Knowing Nothing and Michael T. Workman and Kei Pritsker’s The Encampments, but these portraits of student activism reveal the awakening of a new generation in the face of authoritarianism.
-Photos from the Vietnam War helped usher turning points in protest and public opinion on the war. Iconic photos helped expose the atrocities of war and are now receiving new appraisals in documentaries, including reconsideration of authorship as seen in The Stringer.
-Veteran filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal offers a personal reflection upon mentorship and what it means to pay it forward.
-And more!
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