Latest in Documentary

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory; Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile; Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich) has partnered with RadicalMedia and The Atlantic on a new conspiracy theory docuseries Shadowland. Shadowland is a recurring timely docuseries based on…

CNN Films has come aboard Dreamland: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street, the documentary about the 1921 Tulsa race riot from LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Entertainment. The project, announced earlier this summer, is now in production, the companies said Monday, with Salima Koroma directing and…

Starz said Monday that it has acquired rights to With Drawn Arms, the documentary about Olympian Tommie Smith who reflects on his iconic fist-thrust silent protest on the medal stand during the national anthem at the 1968 Summer Games. The cable network has set a premiere date for November 2 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, when it…

In what is signaling a very good year for documentaries, the Critics’ Choice Association on Monday announced its list of nominations for the fifth annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, and if the past is any clue it could be an indicator of what to expect from the Oscars next spring. With an inclusive list, to…

EXCLUSIVE: ID Films has acquired The Witmans, a documentary feature that tells the tragic story of a Pennsylvania couple whose teenage son was convicted to life without parole for the killing of his younger brother. The film will air on Investigation Discovery on Tuesday, December 1 at 9 PM, a week after its premiere…

For at least some of us who lived through the counter-culture/psychedelic era of the late '60s and early '70s, Timothy Leary was one of the most annoying or, at least, equivocal figures of a time that hardly lacked for colorful characters. The most famous utterance of this often articulate, madly attention-seeking…

It's the rare documentary film premiere that triggers worldwide headlines, but that's what has happened with Evgeny Afineevsky's Francesco. The film about Pope Francis debuted at the Rome Film Festival today and first the Catholic press and then secular media picked up on something the pope told Afineevsky in the…

Apple has landed rights to The Velvet Underground, a new feature documentary from director Todd Haynes and Polygram Entertainment. The Velvet Underground, fronted by Lou Reed, created a new sound that changed the world of music in the mid-1960s, cementing its place as one of rock and roll's most revered bands. The doc…

Documentary Hold Your Fire directed by Stefan Forbes (Boogie Man, The Lee Atwater Story) has nabbed the second annual Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, a $200,000 finishing grant for a filmmaker who uses original research and compelling narrative to tell stories that touch on an aspect of American…

Two of the most engaging and beguiling talkers—and, oh yes, two of the better writers—of the last century share the spotlight in Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation. Good friends in real life—both were from the South and gay, had difficult upbringings, made it big with early works that were made into popular…

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Smerconish – Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Talking, a feature-length filmed version of the radio and TV host’s stage performance, has been acquired by Virgil Films. The film will hit virtual cinemas October 30 and on VOD and DVD on December 8. Smerconish, who has worked for 30 years in talk…

EXCLUSIVE: World of Wonder (WOW), the company behind the Emmy-winning RuPaul’s Drag Race, has launched its own documentary division, WOW Docs with unscripted executive Jim Fraenkel leading the charge. The news was announced after  DOC NYC unveiled their lineup. Fraenkel has been with WOW since 2018. Prior to WOW…