I Heard Her Call My Name upcoming event: Lucy Sante with Griffin Hansbury at Rizzoli in New York on February 12.
In the first instalment with author, critic, and artist Lucy Sante, music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman joined us. In this second instalment we discuss Lucy coming from Belgium as a young boy to New Jersey; fighting to survive school in Manhattan, dandyism, and the unattractive prospect of masculinity; her book Nineteen Reservoirs: On Their Creation And The Promise Of Water for New York City (published by Experiment in 2022), and touch upon Nancy Buirski’s documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy and Jon Voight’s boyishness as Joe Buck in John Schlesinger’s film.
Lucy Sante with Anne-Katrin Titze on going to an all-boys Jesuit high school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan: “I really did not fit in.”
Lucy Sante is...
In the first instalment with author, critic, and artist Lucy Sante, music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman joined us. In this second instalment we discuss Lucy coming from Belgium as a young boy to New Jersey; fighting to survive school in Manhattan, dandyism, and the unattractive prospect of masculinity; her book Nineteen Reservoirs: On Their Creation And The Promise Of Water for New York City (published by Experiment in 2022), and touch upon Nancy Buirski’s documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy and Jon Voight’s boyishness as Joe Buck in John Schlesinger’s film.
Lucy Sante with Anne-Katrin Titze on going to an all-boys Jesuit high school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan: “I really did not fit in.”
Lucy Sante is...
- 2/8/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Exclusive: Cineflix Productions, the company behind Nancy Buirski’s Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Midnight Cowboy feature doc, has new representation.
The company has signed with Gersh. The deal includes unscripted programming and selected scripted projects. Cineflix was previously repped by APA.
The agency will work closely with J.C. Mills, President and Head of Content at Cineflix Productions, who joined the company in 2020.
The signing comes less than a month after Gersh bolstered its nonfiction credentials after acquiring the alternative and digital departments of A3.
Cineflix is behind series such as Air Crash Investigation for National Geographic International and Smithsonian, which is now in its 24th season and American Pickers for History, which will be celebrating its 400th episode. Cineflix was also the original producer behind HGTV’s Property Brothers.
Its recent push into feature docs started with Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Midnight Cowboy, which screened at...
The company has signed with Gersh. The deal includes unscripted programming and selected scripted projects. Cineflix was previously repped by APA.
The agency will work closely with J.C. Mills, President and Head of Content at Cineflix Productions, who joined the company in 2020.
The signing comes less than a month after Gersh bolstered its nonfiction credentials after acquiring the alternative and digital departments of A3.
Cineflix is behind series such as Air Crash Investigation for National Geographic International and Smithsonian, which is now in its 24th season and American Pickers for History, which will be celebrating its 400th episode. Cineflix was also the original producer behind HGTV’s Property Brothers.
Its recent push into feature docs started with Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Midnight Cowboy, which screened at...
- 1/29/2024
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Kino Lorber Chief Strategy Officer Ed Carroll has been named President, Kino Lorber Media Group, reporting to chairman-ceo Richard Lorber.
Carroll, the 30+-year veteran and former COO of AMC Networks left the company in 2021, and joined Kino Lorber a year ago as chief strategy officer helping oversee its expansion into digital, including the acquisition of MHz Choice SVOD and creating a joint venture that includes the Topic streaming service. Last fall, Kino launched a new SVOD service, Kino Film Collection, on Amazon Prime Video Channels.
Kino Lorber has been layering streaming and digital alongside its core theatrical and home entertainment releases. Two from 2023 were shortlisted for Academy Awards – Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters in both the Best International Feature and Best Documentary Feature; and Nancy Buirski’s Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy in Best Documentary Feature. Recent theatrical acquisitions include Agnieszka Holland’s Venice award-winner Green Border,...
Carroll, the 30+-year veteran and former COO of AMC Networks left the company in 2021, and joined Kino Lorber a year ago as chief strategy officer helping oversee its expansion into digital, including the acquisition of MHz Choice SVOD and creating a joint venture that includes the Topic streaming service. Last fall, Kino launched a new SVOD service, Kino Film Collection, on Amazon Prime Video Channels.
Kino Lorber has been layering streaming and digital alongside its core theatrical and home entertainment releases. Two from 2023 were shortlisted for Academy Awards – Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters in both the Best International Feature and Best Documentary Feature; and Nancy Buirski’s Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy in Best Documentary Feature. Recent theatrical acquisitions include Agnieszka Holland’s Venice award-winner Green Border,...
- 1/11/2024
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Executive joined as Chief Strategy Officer one year ago.
Kino Lorber Chief Strategy Officer Ed Carroll has been appointed to president of Kino Lorber Media Group.
Richard Lorber, who remains chairman and CEO and to whom Carroll will report, made the announcement on Thursday.
Reporting to Carroll will be COO Martha Benyam, who will oversee the MHz Choice and Topic SVoDs and the home entertainment group; chief revenue officer Lisa Schwartz, formerly president of IFC Films, who will oversee content sales and platform distribution as well as Kino Lorber’s film division, which includes the Kino Film Collection SVoD; and Judy Silverman,...
Kino Lorber Chief Strategy Officer Ed Carroll has been appointed to president of Kino Lorber Media Group.
Richard Lorber, who remains chairman and CEO and to whom Carroll will report, made the announcement on Thursday.
Reporting to Carroll will be COO Martha Benyam, who will oversee the MHz Choice and Topic SVoDs and the home entertainment group; chief revenue officer Lisa Schwartz, formerly president of IFC Films, who will oversee content sales and platform distribution as well as Kino Lorber’s film division, which includes the Kino Film Collection SVoD; and Judy Silverman,...
- 1/11/2024
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Updated 12/22/2023 with details on shortlisted A Still Small Voice. Updated with quotes, 1:37 Pm: American Symphony, the Obamas-executive produced documentary about Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste, scored a remarkable hat trick today as the Oscar shortlists were revealed, but a couple of documentary icons were left on the bench.
In more headlines from the announcement, a beloved documentary filmmaker who died unexpectedly in August earned a place on the nonfiction feature shortlist. And the film about cherished actor Michael J. Fox, directed by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim, made the list. Two films earned double recognition – making shortlists for doc feature and International Feature Film. [See full shortlists for doc feature and doc short below].
Suleika Jouad and Jon Batiste in ‘American Symphony’
The most eye-popping takeaway is the recognition for American Symphony, the Netflix film directed by Oscar nominee Matthew Heineman and produced by Higher Ground, the production company of former President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. It made the...
In more headlines from the announcement, a beloved documentary filmmaker who died unexpectedly in August earned a place on the nonfiction feature shortlist. And the film about cherished actor Michael J. Fox, directed by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim, made the list. Two films earned double recognition – making shortlists for doc feature and International Feature Film. [See full shortlists for doc feature and doc short below].
Suleika Jouad and Jon Batiste in ‘American Symphony’
The most eye-popping takeaway is the recognition for American Symphony, the Netflix film directed by Oscar nominee Matthew Heineman and produced by Higher Ground, the production company of former President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. It made the...
- 12/21/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the winners in 18 categories at the 39th annual IDA Awards Show on December 12, 2023, which live premiered on IDA’s YouTube channel. A record number of IDA members cast votes for this year’s Best Feature Documentary and Best Short Documentary nominees. Independent judging committees selected winners in all other categories.
The Best Feature Documentary Award went to NatGeo’s “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” which follows Uganda’s 2021 presidential election and music star, activist, and opposition leader Bobi Wine. “The awareness this film has brought to world audiences,” said co-director Moses Bwayo, “has arguably kept Bobi Wine alive and out of prison for now.”
This year’s Best Director was Moroccan Asmae ElMoudir, who won for innovative hybrid documentary and Moroccan Oscar submission “The Mother of All Lies,” in which ElMoudir uses clay puppets fashioned by her father to recreate incidents from her family’s past in Casablanca.
The Best Feature Documentary Award went to NatGeo’s “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” which follows Uganda’s 2021 presidential election and music star, activist, and opposition leader Bobi Wine. “The awareness this film has brought to world audiences,” said co-director Moses Bwayo, “has arguably kept Bobi Wine alive and out of prison for now.”
This year’s Best Director was Moroccan Asmae ElMoudir, who won for innovative hybrid documentary and Moroccan Oscar submission “The Mother of All Lies,” in which ElMoudir uses clay puppets fashioned by her father to recreate incidents from her family’s past in Casablanca.
- 12/13/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Aka Mr. Chow
(HBO Documentary Films)
This portrait directed by Nick Hooker follows the life and career of painter turned restaurateur Michael Chow, the owner of the Mr Chow restaurant chain, as he returns to the art world with his first solo show in nearly 60 years.
American Symphony
(Netflix)
Matthew Heineman switches gears from following the front lines of the Mexican drug war (the Oscar-nominated Cartel Land) and the early days of the Covid crisis in New York City (The First Wave), this time helming an intimate profile of Late Night With Stephen Colbert bandleader Jon Batiste as he balances an incredible year of professional success while aiding his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, through her battle with a rare form of cancer.
Anonymous Sister
(Long Shot Factory/Gravitas Ventures)
Emmy Award-winning director Jamie Boyle chronicles her family’s collision with the opioid epidemic. The film, currently holding a 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes,...
(HBO Documentary Films)
This portrait directed by Nick Hooker follows the life and career of painter turned restaurateur Michael Chow, the owner of the Mr Chow restaurant chain, as he returns to the art world with his first solo show in nearly 60 years.
American Symphony
(Netflix)
Matthew Heineman switches gears from following the front lines of the Mexican drug war (the Oscar-nominated Cartel Land) and the early days of the Covid crisis in New York City (The First Wave), this time helming an intimate profile of Late Night With Stephen Colbert bandleader Jon Batiste as he balances an incredible year of professional success while aiding his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, through her battle with a rare form of cancer.
Anonymous Sister
(Long Shot Factory/Gravitas Ventures)
Emmy Award-winning director Jamie Boyle chronicles her family’s collision with the opioid epidemic. The film, currently holding a 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes,...
- 12/8/2023
- by Tyler Coates and Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Oscar-nominated director Matthew Heineman and late filmmaker Nancy Buirski will be honored at the Hamptons Doc Fest in New York next month.
Heineman, whose latest film, American Symphony, premiered to acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival, will receive the prestigious Pennebaker Career Achievement Award, named for the legendary filmmaker and pioneer of “direct cinema” D.A. Pennebaker. Heineman is expected to be on hand to receive the honor, which has previously gone to Richard Leacock, Susan Lacy, Barbara Kopple, Stanley Nelson Jr., Alex Gibney, Liz Garbus, Sheila Nevins, Frederick Wiseman, Dawn Porter, Sam Pollard, and to Pennebaker and and his wife and filmmaking partner Chris Hegedus.
Jon Batiste in ‘American Symphony’
Hamptons Doc Fest will screen American Symphony, which has been acquired by the Obamas’ production company Higher Ground through the former first couple’s deal with Netflix. The documentary about Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste and his wife, the musician Suleika Jaouad,...
Heineman, whose latest film, American Symphony, premiered to acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival, will receive the prestigious Pennebaker Career Achievement Award, named for the legendary filmmaker and pioneer of “direct cinema” D.A. Pennebaker. Heineman is expected to be on hand to receive the honor, which has previously gone to Richard Leacock, Susan Lacy, Barbara Kopple, Stanley Nelson Jr., Alex Gibney, Liz Garbus, Sheila Nevins, Frederick Wiseman, Dawn Porter, Sam Pollard, and to Pennebaker and and his wife and filmmaking partner Chris Hegedus.
Jon Batiste in ‘American Symphony’
Hamptons Doc Fest will screen American Symphony, which has been acquired by the Obamas’ production company Higher Ground through the former first couple’s deal with Netflix. The documentary about Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste and his wife, the musician Suleika Jaouad,...
- 10/21/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Above: first US teaser poster for Poor Things. Design by Vasilis Marmatakis.I don’t know whether it’s because of the power of Yorgos Lanthimos, or the popularity of Emma Stone, or the sheer genius of designer Vasilis Marmatakis, or a combination of all of them, but three out of the four most liked posters on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram over the past six months have all been posters for Lanthimos’s latest, Poor Things. The teaser above is now the most liked poster ever on my feed.Breaking up the Poor Things monopoly at number two is Polish designer Maks Bereski’s fan-art design for Ridley Scott’s yet-to-be-released Napoleon, which also went through the roof with over 4,000 likes when I posted it in June in conjunction with my article on Bereski and his favorite movie posters. Instagram likes are a fickle thing but it...
- 10/12/2023
- MUBI
Writer-director Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders,” with Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy, made a splash with festival-goers at the recent Telluride Film Festival. 20th Century Studios has revealed to Variety exclusively that the film will be campaigned for best original screenplay for the upcoming awards season, despite being inspired by the 1968 photo and interview book of the same name.
“The Bikeriders” movie tells a fictional story inspired by the Midwestern motorcycle club in the book’s photos, seen through its members’ lives over a decade. First published in 1968, the book by Danny Lyon explores his firsthand accounts of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Featuring black-and-white photographs and transcribed interviews conducted by Lyon from 1963 to 1967, the WGA has classified it as an original work rather than adapted.
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.
“This is the most complex script I’ve ever written,...
“The Bikeriders” movie tells a fictional story inspired by the Midwestern motorcycle club in the book’s photos, seen through its members’ lives over a decade. First published in 1968, the book by Danny Lyon explores his firsthand accounts of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Featuring black-and-white photographs and transcribed interviews conducted by Lyon from 1963 to 1967, the WGA has classified it as an original work rather than adapted.
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.
“This is the most complex script I’ve ever written,...
- 9/28/2023
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
The Adults (Dustin Guy Defa)
Six years after directing his last feature, Dustin Guy Defa returns with The Adults, a film of complicated shared histories and gradually revealing inner lives. With his relatively sprawling Person to Person, Defa followed a wide array of characters over five interweaving storylines. This time he focuses on one family and, closer still, on an unmistakable feeling: that of moving out and growing up, only to return home and realize all that delicately assembled adulthood was merely a façade. Playing out across a leafy town in upstate New York, The Adults follows a trio of siblings as they reunite: the brother who went away and the sisters who did not. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream:...
The Adults (Dustin Guy Defa)
Six years after directing his last feature, Dustin Guy Defa returns with The Adults, a film of complicated shared histories and gradually revealing inner lives. With his relatively sprawling Person to Person, Defa followed a wide array of characters over five interweaving storylines. This time he focuses on one family and, closer still, on an unmistakable feeling: that of moving out and growing up, only to return home and realize all that delicately assembled adulthood was merely a façade. Playing out across a leafy town in upstate New York, The Adults follows a trio of siblings as they reunite: the brother who went away and the sisters who did not. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream:...
- 9/8/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Nancy Buirski, a PGA Award winner who produced the 2016 film Loving that was inspired by her documentary, directed several films including last year’s Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy and founded the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, died August 29. Her company Augusta Films announced the news but did not provide details.
Buirski began her career as photographer and photo editor for The New York Times and in 1998 founded the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, which she would lead for a decade. Her first directing job was on The Loving Story (2011), a documentary about Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who married in 1958 without knowing their union was illegal in Virginia, where they lived and went on to face an ultimately successful legal journey that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967 as Loving v Virginia.
The film was shortlisted for...
Buirski began her career as photographer and photo editor for The New York Times and in 1998 founded the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, which she would lead for a decade. Her first directing job was on The Loving Story (2011), a documentary about Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who married in 1958 without knowing their union was illegal in Virginia, where they lived and went on to face an ultimately successful legal journey that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967 as Loving v Virginia.
The film was shortlisted for...
- 8/31/2023
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Documentarian Nancy Buirski has died at age 78, as IndieWire can confirm with Augusta Films.
Buirski founded the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and her most recent film, “Desperate Souls, Dark City, and the Legend of the Midnight Cowboy” premiered at the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals in 2022.
“It is with great sadness that Augusta Films announces the death of award-winning documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski,” the official statement reads. “Nancy’s extensive and rich body of work delved into a wide range of social, cultural and historical issues with keen insight, humanity and above all, artistry. The film and creative community mourns this great loss and will remember her indefatigable energy, optimism, passion, and her devotion to her art, family, friends, and collaborators.”
Buirski began her career as a photographer and editor at The New York Times and Magnum. Her 1994 photography collection “Earth Angels: Migrant Children in America” was critically acclaimed...
Buirski founded the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and her most recent film, “Desperate Souls, Dark City, and the Legend of the Midnight Cowboy” premiered at the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals in 2022.
“It is with great sadness that Augusta Films announces the death of award-winning documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski,” the official statement reads. “Nancy’s extensive and rich body of work delved into a wide range of social, cultural and historical issues with keen insight, humanity and above all, artistry. The film and creative community mourns this great loss and will remember her indefatigable energy, optimism, passion, and her devotion to her art, family, friends, and collaborators.”
Buirski began her career as a photographer and editor at The New York Times and Magnum. Her 1994 photography collection “Earth Angels: Migrant Children in America” was critically acclaimed...
- 8/31/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Nancy Buirski, the acclaimed and award winning documentary filmmaker behind “The Loving Story” and the cofounder of the Full Frame festival, died Wednesday, her production company, Augusta Films announced. She was 78.
Buirski’s cause of death was not disclosed; her representatives told TheWrap they did not know her age.
“The field has lost a giant today. Nancy was a completely original thinker and a visionary. With every film she pushed the limits of the art form with her kaleidoscopic, unique approach to storytelling. She was an exceptionally generous supporter of other artists in the field, and will be mourned by so many. We are devastated by this loss,” Buirski’s frequent collaborator, Susan Margolin, said in a statement.
Born in New York, Buirski began her career as a photographer, eventually working as a photo editor for the New York Times, where her work won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. In 1998 she...
Buirski’s cause of death was not disclosed; her representatives told TheWrap they did not know her age.
“The field has lost a giant today. Nancy was a completely original thinker and a visionary. With every film she pushed the limits of the art form with her kaleidoscopic, unique approach to storytelling. She was an exceptionally generous supporter of other artists in the field, and will be mourned by so many. We are devastated by this loss,” Buirski’s frequent collaborator, Susan Margolin, said in a statement.
Born in New York, Buirski began her career as a photographer, eventually working as a photo editor for the New York Times, where her work won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. In 1998 she...
- 8/31/2023
- by Ross A. Lincoln
- The Wrap
Nancy Buirski, the award-winning documentary filmmaker known for “The Loving Story” and “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy,” has died.
Her production company Augusta Films shared the news of her death on Wednesday in a statement, writing, “Nancy’s extensive and rich body of work delved into a wide range of social, cultural and historical issues with keen insight, humanity and above all, artistry.”
Buirski directed 2011’s “The Loving Story,” a documentary about the Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia, which led to the landmark civil rights decision that struck down state laws banning interracial marriage. She received a News & Documentary Emmy for outstanding historical programming, long form, as well as a Peabody Award.
In 1998, Buirski founded the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, which spotlights independent documentary filmmakers from around the world. She served as director of the festival until 2008.
Buirski’s most recent documentary,...
Her production company Augusta Films shared the news of her death on Wednesday in a statement, writing, “Nancy’s extensive and rich body of work delved into a wide range of social, cultural and historical issues with keen insight, humanity and above all, artistry.”
Buirski directed 2011’s “The Loving Story,” a documentary about the Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia, which led to the landmark civil rights decision that struck down state laws banning interracial marriage. She received a News & Documentary Emmy for outstanding historical programming, long form, as well as a Peabody Award.
In 1998, Buirski founded the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, which spotlights independent documentary filmmakers from around the world. She served as director of the festival until 2008.
Buirski’s most recent documentary,...
- 8/31/2023
- by Michaela Zee
- Variety Film + TV
Paulina Urrutia with Augusto Góngora in Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory: “Raul Ruiz and Augusto are alive in the film. So the film is resurrecting them, too. Cinema as a way of resurrection.”
The first time I spoke with Maite Alberdi was in 2021 on Zoom from Santiago, Chile for a conversation on The Mole Agent, so I was happy to meet her in person last week at the Crosby Street Hotel invited screening of her latest film, The Eternal Memory, as Nancy Buirski’s plus-one. Following the Q&a, moderated with great flair by Kirsten Johnson, Maite and I had the chance to reconnect at the reception.
Maite Alberdi with Anne-Katrin Titze on the No poster: “It’s the same graphics that Pablo Larrain used for his film.”
Augusto Góngora, famous for his television culture program and during the Pinochet regime, his clandestine work to archive what was really going on in Chile,...
The first time I spoke with Maite Alberdi was in 2021 on Zoom from Santiago, Chile for a conversation on The Mole Agent, so I was happy to meet her in person last week at the Crosby Street Hotel invited screening of her latest film, The Eternal Memory, as Nancy Buirski’s plus-one. Following the Q&a, moderated with great flair by Kirsten Johnson, Maite and I had the chance to reconnect at the reception.
Maite Alberdi with Anne-Katrin Titze on the No poster: “It’s the same graphics that Pablo Larrain used for his film.”
Augusto Góngora, famous for his television culture program and during the Pinochet regime, his clandestine work to archive what was really going on in Chile,...
- 8/20/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Jules director Marc Turtletaub with Anne-Katrin Titze on Ben Kingsley: “This is not a way we’ve ever seen Sir Ben before.”
Marc Turtletaub’s otherworldly Jules, written by Gavin Steckler, shot by Christopher Norr and scored by Volker Bertelmann (Oscar for Best Original Score of Edward Berger’s All Quiet On The Western Front), stars Ben Kingsley with Harriet Sansom Harris, Jane Curtin, Zoë Winters, and Jade Quon as the title character. The first time I spoke with Marc Turtletaub he was with Kelly Macdonald, star of his Puzzle (screenplay co-written by Oren Moverman) at Sony Pictures Classics. His producer credits include Jeff Nichols’ Loving (based in part on Nancy Buirski's The Loving Story), Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, Davy Rothbart’s 17 Blocks, as executive producer Robin Wright’s Land, and an Oscar nomination for Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton’s Little Miss Sunshine.
Marc Turtletaub’s otherworldly Jules, written by Gavin Steckler, shot by Christopher Norr and scored by Volker Bertelmann (Oscar for Best Original Score of Edward Berger’s All Quiet On The Western Front), stars Ben Kingsley with Harriet Sansom Harris, Jane Curtin, Zoë Winters, and Jade Quon as the title character. The first time I spoke with Marc Turtletaub he was with Kelly Macdonald, star of his Puzzle (screenplay co-written by Oren Moverman) at Sony Pictures Classics. His producer credits include Jeff Nichols’ Loving (based in part on Nancy Buirski's The Loving Story), Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, Davy Rothbart’s 17 Blocks, as executive producer Robin Wright’s Land, and an Oscar nomination for Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton’s Little Miss Sunshine.
- 8/7/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Joe Buck (Jon Voight) with Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) in John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy
In the second instalment with Nancy Buirski on Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy (special advisor Martin Scorsese) we discuss Jon Voight as Joe Buck with the little girl reading a Wonder Woman comic, Jennifer Salt’s Crazy Annie and Sylvia Miles’s Cass in Midnight Cowboy. John Schlesinger with Dp Adam Holender showing New York the way it really was, a Roberta Flack song and William Wyler’s adaption of Lilian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour, starring Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn, Nancy’s longtime cinematographer Rex Miller, Far From The Madding Crowd and Vietnam, Brian De Palma on Dennis Hopper and the “international invasion”, and screenwriter Waldo Salt also came up.
Nancy Buirski on Crazy Annie (Jennifer Salt) with Joe Buck (Jon Voight): “Many of the women in...
In the second instalment with Nancy Buirski on Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy (special advisor Martin Scorsese) we discuss Jon Voight as Joe Buck with the little girl reading a Wonder Woman comic, Jennifer Salt’s Crazy Annie and Sylvia Miles’s Cass in Midnight Cowboy. John Schlesinger with Dp Adam Holender showing New York the way it really was, a Roberta Flack song and William Wyler’s adaption of Lilian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour, starring Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn, Nancy’s longtime cinematographer Rex Miller, Far From The Madding Crowd and Vietnam, Brian De Palma on Dennis Hopper and the “international invasion”, and screenwriter Waldo Salt also came up.
Nancy Buirski on Crazy Annie (Jennifer Salt) with Joe Buck (Jon Voight): “Many of the women in...
- 7/13/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
When Midnight Cowboy came out in 1969, Miami Herald critic John Huddy heralded its arrival with a string of superlatives: “Staggering, shattering, heartbreaking, hilarious, tragic, raw and absurd.”
Over the years, the ranks of its admirers has only grown, among them documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski.
“I remember feeling that it was a really radical film,” recalls Buirski, who first saw Midnight Cowboy sometime after its original release. “It felt different from anything I had seen… It was like a gut punch.”
Director Nancy Buirski
Buirski’s documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, now playing in limited release in New York, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Detroit and other cities, digs into the loam that produced such a bleak yet beautiful flower of a film. Midnight Cowboy hit theaters the same year as Hello, Dolly! and Paint Your Wagon but unlike those celluloid larks, John Schlesinger’s film...
Over the years, the ranks of its admirers has only grown, among them documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski.
“I remember feeling that it was a really radical film,” recalls Buirski, who first saw Midnight Cowboy sometime after its original release. “It felt different from anything I had seen… It was like a gut punch.”
Director Nancy Buirski
Buirski’s documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, now playing in limited release in New York, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Detroit and other cities, digs into the loam that produced such a bleak yet beautiful flower of a film. Midnight Cowboy hit theaters the same year as Hello, Dolly! and Paint Your Wagon but unlike those celluloid larks, John Schlesinger’s film...
- 6/30/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Footage of late Sixties New York City seamlessly sways into Dustin Hoffman’s Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy stealing a handful of plum tomatoes and a coconut from a fruit stand with help from his new sidekick Joe Buck (Jon Voight). “These Eyes” sing Guess Who, and Lucy Sante comments that the film “could be an advertisement for anti-glamour and yet by doing this it manages to express the zeitgeist.”
Nancy Buirski’s masterful Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, edited with Anthony Ripoli is much more than a documentary on John Schlesinger’s multiple Oscar-winning film. Based on James Leo Herlihy’s novel, adapted by Waldo Salt, shot by Adam Holender, with costumes by Ann Roth, Midnight Cowboy features an impressive supporting cast, including Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, Jennifer Salt, and...
Nancy Buirski’s masterful Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, edited with Anthony Ripoli is much more than a documentary on John Schlesinger’s multiple Oscar-winning film. Based on James Leo Herlihy’s novel, adapted by Waldo Salt, shot by Adam Holender, with costumes by Ann Roth, Midnight Cowboy features an impressive supporting cast, including Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, Jennifer Salt, and...
- 6/29/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Desperate Souls, Dark City and The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy director Nancy Buirski on Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo: “They become appealing because of these wonderful performances by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.”
Nancy Buirski’s masterpiece is much more than a documentary on John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy, screenplay by Waldo Salt, shot by Adam Holender, costumes by Ann Roth, and starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman with Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, Jennifer Salt, and Bob Balaban. Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, edited by Anthony Ripoli, features on-camera interviews shot by Rex Miller with Lucy Sante, Brian De Palma, Edmund White, Michael Childers, Charles Kaiser, Jim Hoberman, Ian Buruma, Voight, Vaccaro, Balaban, Holender, and Jennifer Salt.
Brenda Vaccaro with John Schlesinger: “Ann Roth saved my life,” says Vaccaro, “by putting me in that fur coat.”
The evocative, wide-ranging, and evermore timely documentary drops us...
Nancy Buirski’s masterpiece is much more than a documentary on John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy, screenplay by Waldo Salt, shot by Adam Holender, costumes by Ann Roth, and starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman with Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, Jennifer Salt, and Bob Balaban. Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, edited by Anthony Ripoli, features on-camera interviews shot by Rex Miller with Lucy Sante, Brian De Palma, Edmund White, Michael Childers, Charles Kaiser, Jim Hoberman, Ian Buruma, Voight, Vaccaro, Balaban, Holender, and Jennifer Salt.
Brenda Vaccaro with John Schlesinger: “Ann Roth saved my life,” says Vaccaro, “by putting me in that fur coat.”
The evocative, wide-ranging, and evermore timely documentary drops us...
- 6/26/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Two of the most successful specialty films of the year expand this weekend and a handful of others jump into an arthouse market that’s seen few new entrants in recent weeks as wide release piled on wide release.
Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City jumps from a blockbuster six-theater opening ($800k over three days) last weekend for Focus Features to 1,675 locations today. A24’s Past Lives by Celine Song, which debuted in early June on four screens, expands to 296. They’re joined by a documentary on epic cyclist Greg LeMond ahead of the Tour De France, and the first theatrical release by Wayward Entertainment, launched in late 2021 by former Revolution Studios CEO Vince Totino and former Orion Pictures President John Hegeman and focusing on genre titles.
Wayward is opening God Is A Bullet, directed and written by Nick Cassavetes, on 375 screens. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau stars as a detective whose ex-wife is...
Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City jumps from a blockbuster six-theater opening ($800k over three days) last weekend for Focus Features to 1,675 locations today. A24’s Past Lives by Celine Song, which debuted in early June on four screens, expands to 296. They’re joined by a documentary on epic cyclist Greg LeMond ahead of the Tour De France, and the first theatrical release by Wayward Entertainment, launched in late 2021 by former Revolution Studios CEO Vince Totino and former Orion Pictures President John Hegeman and focusing on genre titles.
Wayward is opening God Is A Bullet, directed and written by Nick Cassavetes, on 375 screens. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau stars as a detective whose ex-wife is...
- 6/23/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
A movie, good, bad or indifferent, is always “about” something. But some movies are about more things than others, and as you watch “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy,” Nancy Buirski’s rapt, incisive, and beautifully exploratory making-of-a-movie documentary, what comes into focus is that “Midnight Cowboy” was about so many things that audiences could sink into the film as if it were a piece of their own lives.
The movie was about loneliness. It was about dreams, sunny yet broken. It was about gay male sexuality and the shock of really seeing it, for the first time, in a major motion picture. It was about the crush and alienation of New York City: the godless concrete carnival wasteland, which had never been captured onscreen with the telephoto authenticity it had here. The movie was also about the larger sexual revolution — what the scuzziness of “free love” really looked like,...
The movie was about loneliness. It was about dreams, sunny yet broken. It was about gay male sexuality and the shock of really seeing it, for the first time, in a major motion picture. It was about the crush and alienation of New York City: the godless concrete carnival wasteland, which had never been captured onscreen with the telephoto authenticity it had here. The movie was also about the larger sexual revolution — what the scuzziness of “free love” really looked like,...
- 6/23/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy professes to be something more than just a documentary about the making of Midnight Cowboy: an extremely ambitious film attempting to navigate the impact and cultural presence of John Schlesinger’s masterpiece while also exploring the history of American queer cinema, the death of the Western in the mainstream, and the counter-culture of the ’60s transforming into the nihilism of the 1970s. Packing so much information and so many perspectives into 101 minutes occasionally comes across as overstuffed. But Desperate Souls’ sheer enthusiasm for Midnight Cowboy and the cultural period is infectious, a vibe that compensates for certain faults holding it back from becoming a truly great documentary.
While structurally ambitious in its approach to montage, the precise cutting is flawed and fragmented. Transitions between interviews and archival footage are often awkward and lackluster, and editing plays slightly rushed during...
While structurally ambitious in its approach to montage, the precise cutting is flawed and fragmented. Transitions between interviews and archival footage are often awkward and lackluster, and editing plays slightly rushed during...
- 6/23/2023
- by Logan Kenny
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is developing a docuseries about pioneering Black basketball players including Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd and Nat Clifton.
The NBA legend has teamed up with Cineflix Productions, the company behind Nancy Buirski’s recent feature doc Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, and his longtime business partner Deborah Morales, who runs Iconomy Multi-Media & Entertainment, on The Pioneers.
The four-part series, which is out to broadcasters and streamers, will tell the story of the players who paved the way toward integrating the sport.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Dan Winters)
It will tell the complete off-the-court story behind basketball’s racial integration, beginning with the Boston Celtics’ surprising second-round selection of Cooper during the 1950 NBA draft. Breaking the color barrier, Cooper’s pick was met with severe pushback during a harsh racial climate, but it would also open doors for other Black players to make the league,...
The NBA legend has teamed up with Cineflix Productions, the company behind Nancy Buirski’s recent feature doc Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, and his longtime business partner Deborah Morales, who runs Iconomy Multi-Media & Entertainment, on The Pioneers.
The four-part series, which is out to broadcasters and streamers, will tell the story of the players who paved the way toward integrating the sport.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Dan Winters)
It will tell the complete off-the-court story behind basketball’s racial integration, beginning with the Boston Celtics’ surprising second-round selection of Cooper during the 1950 NBA draft. Breaking the color barrier, Cooper’s pick was met with severe pushback during a harsh racial climate, but it would also open doors for other Black players to make the league,...
- 6/20/2023
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
By Glenn Charlie Dunks
“When in doubt, make a western.” – John Ford.
This quote stuck out to me in the opening of The Taking, the latest film about film from Swiss director Alexandre O. Philippe. Like ford, director John Schlesinger made a western himself after an early-career stumble. The films of John Ford and Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy aren’t linked too much; at least not on the surface. But with two new documentaries, they are given visual deep-dives that tie them together as logical ends of a spectrum that used images to sell America as a hard land or hard men.
Both Philippe’s The Taking and Nancy Buirski’s Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy err on the side of cinematic essays than traditional behind-the-scenes making-of documentaries. Each offer their subjects’ take on the (quote unquote) western as both of their time and in many ways timeless.
“When in doubt, make a western.” – John Ford.
This quote stuck out to me in the opening of The Taking, the latest film about film from Swiss director Alexandre O. Philippe. Like ford, director John Schlesinger made a western himself after an early-career stumble. The films of John Ford and Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy aren’t linked too much; at least not on the surface. But with two new documentaries, they are given visual deep-dives that tie them together as logical ends of a spectrum that used images to sell America as a hard land or hard men.
Both Philippe’s The Taking and Nancy Buirski’s Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy err on the side of cinematic essays than traditional behind-the-scenes making-of documentaries. Each offer their subjects’ take on the (quote unquote) western as both of their time and in many ways timeless.
- 6/17/2023
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
The new documentary feature "Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy", directed by Nancy Buirski , "...is not a documentary about the making of 'Midnight Cowboy'. It is about the deeply gifted and flawed people behind a dark and difficult masterpiece...", releasing June 23, 2023 in theaters:
".... a half century after its release, 'Midnight Cowboy' remains one of the most original and groundbreaking movies of the modern era.
"With performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman as two loners who join forces out of desperation, blacklist survivor Waldo Salt's screenplay and John Schlesinger's direction...
"...the 1969 film became the only X- rated film to ever win the 'Academy Award' for 'Best Picture'.
"Its vivid and compassionate depiction of a more realistic, unsanitized New York City and its inhabitants...
"...paved the way for a generation’s worth of gritty movies with complex characters and adult themes.
".... a half century after its release, 'Midnight Cowboy' remains one of the most original and groundbreaking movies of the modern era.
"With performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman as two loners who join forces out of desperation, blacklist survivor Waldo Salt's screenplay and John Schlesinger's direction...
"...the 1969 film became the only X- rated film to ever win the 'Academy Award' for 'Best Picture'.
"Its vivid and compassionate depiction of a more realistic, unsanitized New York City and its inhabitants...
"...paved the way for a generation’s worth of gritty movies with complex characters and adult themes.
- 5/31/2023
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Exclusive: Mvd Entertainment Group has claimed North American rights to the darkly comedic thriller Wrong Reasons, marking the feature debut of writer-director Josh Roush. The film, executive produced by and featuring Kevin Smith, is slated for release on digital, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD on August 15.
Hailing from AntiCurrent Productions, Wrong Reasons watches as an ambiguously intentioned masked man (James Parks) kidnaps a drug addicted punk rock singer (Liv Roush) and triggers a police investigation headed by Detective Charles Dobson (Ralph Garman) as well as a media circus. The film also starring Teresa Ruiz, David Koechner, Daniel Roebuck, Smith and Keith Coogan boasts a punk rock soundtrack with music by Tim Armstrong, L7, Black Flag, The Wipers, Channel 3, William Elliott Whitmore, The Unseen, Bi-Product and more.
After world premiering at Smith’s first annual Smodcastle Film Festival in the fall of 2022, the Liv Roush-produced film...
Hailing from AntiCurrent Productions, Wrong Reasons watches as an ambiguously intentioned masked man (James Parks) kidnaps a drug addicted punk rock singer (Liv Roush) and triggers a police investigation headed by Detective Charles Dobson (Ralph Garman) as well as a media circus. The film also starring Teresa Ruiz, David Koechner, Daniel Roebuck, Smith and Keith Coogan boasts a punk rock soundtrack with music by Tim Armstrong, L7, Black Flag, The Wipers, Channel 3, William Elliott Whitmore, The Unseen, Bi-Product and more.
After world premiering at Smith’s first annual Smodcastle Film Festival in the fall of 2022, the Liv Roush-produced film...
- 4/21/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist Films have picked up North American rights to Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy — a new documentary on the making of the iconic John Schlesinger film, from acclaimed documentarian Nancy Buirski (The Loving Story).
Related Story 1091 Pictures Acquires Domestic Distribution Rights To Romantic Drama ‘Under My Skin’ Related Story Locarno Film Festival War Drama 'Tommy Guns' Gets North American Deal Related Story Ralph Fiennes' 'Four Quartets' Gets North American Distribution Deal Ahead Of Stateside Bow At Santa Barbara
Zeitgeist will open the film in North American theaters beginning at New York’s Film Forum in late June and take it nationwide from there, with a digital, educational and home video release on all major platforms via Kino Lorber to follow.
Inspired by Glen Frankel’s 2021 book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic, Desperate...
Related Story 1091 Pictures Acquires Domestic Distribution Rights To Romantic Drama ‘Under My Skin’ Related Story Locarno Film Festival War Drama 'Tommy Guns' Gets North American Deal Related Story Ralph Fiennes' 'Four Quartets' Gets North American Distribution Deal Ahead Of Stateside Bow At Santa Barbara
Zeitgeist will open the film in North American theaters beginning at New York’s Film Forum in late June and take it nationwide from there, with a digital, educational and home video release on all major platforms via Kino Lorber to follow.
Inspired by Glen Frankel’s 2021 book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic, Desperate...
- 3/22/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Anthony Rapp, the Star Trek: Discovery actor who accused Kevin Spacey of making unwanted sexual advances, is prepping a docuseries about abuse in Hollywood.
Rapp, who also starred in Rent, has teamed with Cineflix Productions, the company behind Nancy Buirski’s recent feature film Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, on Surviving Hollywood.
The series will explore abuse, injustice and trauma within the entertainment business and investigate how and when Hollywood’s toxic culture originated and why it continues to persist today.
It comes after Spacey was found not liable for battery in a civil case brought by Rapp, who accused Spacey of climbing on top of him and making a sexual advance more than 30 years ago when Rapp was 14.
Rapp will act as Surviving Hollywood’s on-air guide, breaking down the hostile underbelly of power dynamics, abuse, discrimination, corruption, and misogyny that’s permeated...
Rapp, who also starred in Rent, has teamed with Cineflix Productions, the company behind Nancy Buirski’s recent feature film Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, on Surviving Hollywood.
The series will explore abuse, injustice and trauma within the entertainment business and investigate how and when Hollywood’s toxic culture originated and why it continues to persist today.
It comes after Spacey was found not liable for battery in a civil case brought by Rapp, who accused Spacey of climbing on top of him and making a sexual advance more than 30 years ago when Rapp was 14.
Rapp will act as Surviving Hollywood’s on-air guide, breaking down the hostile underbelly of power dynamics, abuse, discrimination, corruption, and misogyny that’s permeated...
- 1/19/2023
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Gladys Knight, the Empress of Soul who recorded hits such as “Midnight Train to Georgia” and “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” is gearing up for a scripted mini-series about her life.
Knight has teamed up with Cineflix Productions to develop the series and she will exec produce through her Empress of Soul Productions banner.
It’s suggested that the project could run similar to The Crown, taking on different periods of Knight’s life.
If the project progresses, Knight would become the latest soul legend to have a series set around her; Cynthia Erivo starred as Aretha Franklin in the third iteration of Nat Geo’s Genius anthology last year.
Cineflix Productions is coming off the success of feature doc Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, from Nancy Buirski, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
The company previously worked with another Motown legend,...
Knight has teamed up with Cineflix Productions to develop the series and she will exec produce through her Empress of Soul Productions banner.
It’s suggested that the project could run similar to The Crown, taking on different periods of Knight’s life.
If the project progresses, Knight would become the latest soul legend to have a series set around her; Cynthia Erivo starred as Aretha Franklin in the third iteration of Nat Geo’s Genius anthology last year.
Cineflix Productions is coming off the success of feature doc Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, from Nancy Buirski, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
The company previously worked with another Motown legend,...
- 11/30/2022
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Poland’s American Film Festival readies for its — lucky — 13th edition, unspooling Nov. 8-13 in Wrocław.
The fest, which will open with “Bones and All” and close with Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” will once again combine classics with contemporary titles, for instance pairing Nancy Buirski’s doc “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy” with John Schlesinger’s Oscar-winner, or introducing retrospectives dedicated to Robert Altman and Nina Menkes.
Menkes — behind “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power” — will also get Aff’s Indie Star Award. Previous recipients include Todd Solondz, David Gordon Green, Hal Hartley, Whit Stillman, Rosanna Arquette and John Waters, who came to Poland last year.
“It was amazing,” Waters tells Variety, and he was “pleasantly surprised and flattered” by the local audience’s knowledge of his work.
“They really knew who I was! My favorite thing happened during a Q&a, when this man, who looked like an old Communist,...
The fest, which will open with “Bones and All” and close with Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” will once again combine classics with contemporary titles, for instance pairing Nancy Buirski’s doc “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy” with John Schlesinger’s Oscar-winner, or introducing retrospectives dedicated to Robert Altman and Nina Menkes.
Menkes — behind “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power” — will also get Aff’s Indie Star Award. Previous recipients include Todd Solondz, David Gordon Green, Hal Hartley, Whit Stillman, Rosanna Arquette and John Waters, who came to Poland last year.
“It was amazing,” Waters tells Variety, and he was “pleasantly surprised and flattered” by the local audience’s knowledge of his work.
“They really knew who I was! My favorite thing happened during a Q&a, when this man, who looked like an old Communist,...
- 11/3/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Updated: Sarah Polley’s Women Talking has been selected as the Centerpiece screening at the Hamptons Film Festival, which unspools its 30th edition October 7-16.
Based on Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel, Women Talking had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and will hit theaters December 2 via Orion and MGM. Read Deadline’s review here.
The festival also said it will close with Chris Smith’s Sr, a look at the life and career of Robert Downey Sr., and that its annual “Rowdy Talks” program will be highlighted by Chris Columbus. It also revealed additional Spotlight selections and its Views From Long Island; Conflict and Resolution; Air, Land & Sea; and Compassion, Justice & Animal Rights lineups.
Previously, August 12: The Hamptons Film Festival will screen Cannes Jury Prize Winner Eo by Jerzy Skolimowski, Phyllis Nagy’s Call Jane, and Decision to Leave by Cannes Best Director winner Park Chan-wook among others...
Based on Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel, Women Talking had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and will hit theaters December 2 via Orion and MGM. Read Deadline’s review here.
The festival also said it will close with Chris Smith’s Sr, a look at the life and career of Robert Downey Sr., and that its annual “Rowdy Talks” program will be highlighted by Chris Columbus. It also revealed additional Spotlight selections and its Views From Long Island; Conflict and Resolution; Air, Land & Sea; and Compassion, Justice & Animal Rights lineups.
Previously, August 12: The Hamptons Film Festival will screen Cannes Jury Prize Winner Eo by Jerzy Skolimowski, Phyllis Nagy’s Call Jane, and Decision to Leave by Cannes Best Director winner Park Chan-wook among others...
- 9/16/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Nancy Buirski, director of feature doc Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, which just premiered at the Venice Film Festival, has signed a development deal with Cineflix Productions.
It comes after Buirski teamed with the production company on the doc, which explores the complex social and political history of John Schlesinger’s 1969 classic Midnight Cowboy.
The doc, which debuted on the Lido in the Venice Classics section, is produced by Buirski alongside Simon Kilmurry and Susan Margolin in association With Cineflix Productions and Foothill Productions.
It explores the people behind the classic film and its role as an inflection point in both cinema and society. Following its Venice debut, it is screening at the Telluride Film Festival.
Cineflix Productions’ President and Head of Content J.C. Mills and Cineflix Media’s co-founder and CEO Glen Salzman are among the executive producers.
Following this, the new pact,...
It comes after Buirski teamed with the production company on the doc, which explores the complex social and political history of John Schlesinger’s 1969 classic Midnight Cowboy.
The doc, which debuted on the Lido in the Venice Classics section, is produced by Buirski alongside Simon Kilmurry and Susan Margolin in association With Cineflix Productions and Foothill Productions.
It explores the people behind the classic film and its role as an inflection point in both cinema and society. Following its Venice debut, it is screening at the Telluride Film Festival.
Cineflix Productions’ President and Head of Content J.C. Mills and Cineflix Media’s co-founder and CEO Glen Salzman are among the executive producers.
Following this, the new pact,...
- 9/6/2022
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
A hot trend in publishing these days is to write an entire book about the making of one seminal movie. In the last few years there have been books about West Side Story (the 1961 Oscar winner, not the Spielberg remake), The Wild Bunch, Chinatown and The Godfather, to name a few. Glenn Frankel, who wrote earlier books about the making of High Noon and The Searchers, followed up last year with Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic. Now that book has in turn inspired a new documentary by Nancy Buirski, which is playing in both Venice and Tellurida.
Although a 101-minute movie will never have the breadth or depth of a 340-page book, Buirski’s film does have the advantage of providing revealing on-camera interviews with several of the movie’s principals, including actors Jon Voight,...
A hot trend in publishing these days is to write an entire book about the making of one seminal movie. In the last few years there have been books about West Side Story (the 1961 Oscar winner, not the Spielberg remake), The Wild Bunch, Chinatown and The Godfather, to name a few. Glenn Frankel, who wrote earlier books about the making of High Noon and The Searchers, followed up last year with Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic. Now that book has in turn inspired a new documentary by Nancy Buirski, which is playing in both Venice and Tellurida.
Although a 101-minute movie will never have the breadth or depth of a 340-page book, Buirski’s film does have the advantage of providing revealing on-camera interviews with several of the movie’s principals, including actors Jon Voight,...
- 9/2/2022
- by Stephen Farber
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber releases the film in select theaters on Friday, June 23.
Perhaps the most explicit and emotionally intense film of the New Hollywood era — and yet in its “Odd Couple” theme and wistful sensibility a profoundly Old Hollywood film, too — “Midnight Cowboy” remains littered with contradictions. Gay and tender, its representation of sex is vile. It’s nostalgic and hopeless; a celebration of the counter-culture and, seemingly, an indictment of its decadence. All that makes Nancy Buirski’s new documentary about its production and legacy more interesting.
Not that “Midnight Cowboy” isn’t already fruitful subject matter. James Leo Herlihy’s radical 1965 novel was picked up by British kitchen sink filmmaker John Schlesinger, who related to its themes of repressed homosexuality, loneliness, victimhood and how our identities are, in truth, whatever we want them to be.
Perhaps the most explicit and emotionally intense film of the New Hollywood era — and yet in its “Odd Couple” theme and wistful sensibility a profoundly Old Hollywood film, too — “Midnight Cowboy” remains littered with contradictions. Gay and tender, its representation of sex is vile. It’s nostalgic and hopeless; a celebration of the counter-culture and, seemingly, an indictment of its decadence. All that makes Nancy Buirski’s new documentary about its production and legacy more interesting.
Not that “Midnight Cowboy” isn’t already fruitful subject matter. James Leo Herlihy’s radical 1965 novel was picked up by British kitchen sink filmmaker John Schlesinger, who related to its themes of repressed homosexuality, loneliness, victimhood and how our identities are, in truth, whatever we want them to be.
- 9/1/2022
- by Adam Solomons
- Indiewire
Though you might think Midnight Cowboy’s main claim to fame is one of the most famous improvised lines in screen history (“I’m walkin’ here!”), Nancy Buirski’s fascinating and really quite hypnotic documentary will introduce more thoughts and perspectives on a truly underrated Hollywood milestone. Directed by John Schlesinger in 1969, Buirski’s subject film has the rare distinction of being the only X-rated movie to win the Best Picture Oscar, although that claim is put to the test here, opening up a whole other can of worms in the process.
Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, world premiering in the Venice Film Festival’s Classics section, is more of a mosaic or essay film than a forensic dissection, but here that phrase does a disservice, since it gets into ideas and themes in ways traditional docs can’t (notably an especially brilliant musical sequence...
Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, world premiering in the Venice Film Festival’s Classics section, is more of a mosaic or essay film than a forensic dissection, but here that phrase does a disservice, since it gets into ideas and themes in ways traditional docs can’t (notably an especially brilliant musical sequence...
- 9/1/2022
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
The 49th Telluride Film Festival opens Friday in a much-awaited edition that is set to feature world premieres of Searchlight’s Oscar hopeful Empire of Light from director Sam Mendes, starring Olivia Coleman and Colin Firth; Women Talking from director Sarah Polley, starring Rooney Mara and Frances McDormand in the ensemble; Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh; and Sony/Netflix’s sizzling new version of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover with Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell; among other films.
Considered a must stop on the awards circuit, Telluride also will feature Silver Medallion tributes to Cate Blanchett, docu filmmaker Mark Cousins and Polley. Netflix, Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics, Amazon and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are among those also throwing dinners and parties over the Labor Day weekend event, which runs September 2-5 in the Colorado Rockies town.
In addition to the world premieres,...
Considered a must stop on the awards circuit, Telluride also will feature Silver Medallion tributes to Cate Blanchett, docu filmmaker Mark Cousins and Polley. Netflix, Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics, Amazon and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are among those also throwing dinners and parties over the Labor Day weekend event, which runs September 2-5 in the Colorado Rockies town.
In addition to the world premieres,...
- 9/1/2022
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
The 2022 Hamptons International Film Festival has unveiled its lineup of films.
The 30th anniversary of Hiff kicks off October 7 with five world-premiere screenings including locally shot “Who Invited Charlie?” directed by Xavier Manrique, screening as both a Spotlight selection and as part of the Signature Program Views from Long Island section, supported by Suffolk County Film Commission. Jordana Brewster, Adam Pally, and Reid Scott lead the film about a Hamptons-based family who are forced to come to terms with their past after a mysterious Charlie unexpectedly shows up. The festival runs October 7 through 16.
Discovery+’s “January 6th” documentary, directed by Jules and Gédéon Naudet, also makes its world premiere as part of the World Cinema Documentary section. The film examines the January 6 insurrection from the unique perspective of the heroes, first responders, and survivors of the attack as they reveal their first-hand experience of the stand. “Pinball – The Man Who Saved the Game,...
The 30th anniversary of Hiff kicks off October 7 with five world-premiere screenings including locally shot “Who Invited Charlie?” directed by Xavier Manrique, screening as both a Spotlight selection and as part of the Signature Program Views from Long Island section, supported by Suffolk County Film Commission. Jordana Brewster, Adam Pally, and Reid Scott lead the film about a Hamptons-based family who are forced to come to terms with their past after a mysterious Charlie unexpectedly shows up. The festival runs October 7 through 16.
Discovery+’s “January 6th” documentary, directed by Jules and Gédéon Naudet, also makes its world premiere as part of the World Cinema Documentary section. The film examines the January 6 insurrection from the unique perspective of the heroes, first responders, and survivors of the attack as they reveal their first-hand experience of the stand. “Pinball – The Man Who Saved the Game,...
- 8/12/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
The recent centenary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, which was marked by a number of new documentary features among other tributes, struck many in large part because such a major event had been so successfully erased from U.S. history. Nancy Buirski’s “A Crime on the Bayou” shows the change it took nearly 50 more years to orchestrate, focusing on another instance of grave racially motivated injustice that, far from being buried, instead was loudly fought all the way to the Supreme Court.
With several major participants still alive to be interviewed, the documentary pays vivid testimony to the long-term impact this case had in forcing Southern states out of a Jim Crow era they’d clung to despite new federal laws. But in some ways, the film’s biggest strength is its use of archival materials. They’re woven together to provide an unusually palpable sense of just how...
With several major participants still alive to be interviewed, the documentary pays vivid testimony to the long-term impact this case had in forcing Southern states out of a Jim Crow era they’d clung to despite new federal laws. But in some ways, the film’s biggest strength is its use of archival materials. They’re woven together to provide an unusually palpable sense of just how...
- 6/17/2021
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
In October 1966, two weeks after schools were desegregated in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, a teenage shrimp fisherman called Gary Duncan was driving down the highway when he happened to catch sight of his two young cousins surrounded by a group of white boys. Stopping the car, he approached the boys to break up what he saw as am impending fight. Throughout his life he has maintained that he was not aggressive himself; he maintains it here, in Nancy Buirski's documentary. Arrested that same evening, he was accused of delivering a hard slap to one of the white boys, though the black people present agreed that all he did was to touch him on the arm to turn him aside. Buirski aims to explain how, in the context of the South at the time, for a black youth to touch a white one was still shocking behaviour, and why the state.
- 6/15/2021
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
More than 50 years after it hit theaters and ushered in a new and more sexually daring style of on-screen entertainment, “Midnight Cowboy” continues to rank among the greatest American films ever made. It’s still the first and only best picture winner at the Oscars to be rated X, an indication of just how barrier-breaking the movie was when it debuted.
Now, a new documentary from Nancy Buirski will explore the behind-the-scenes odyssey to get the story of two small-time grifters produced, as well as the tumultuous era in which the movie was released and embraced. Glenn Frankel’s acclaimed book, “Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic,” will be the basis of the untitled film. “Midnight Cowboy” was directed by John Schlesinger and starred Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. It focused on Ratso Rizzo, a tubercular con man, and Joe Buck, a wannabe street hustler,...
Now, a new documentary from Nancy Buirski will explore the behind-the-scenes odyssey to get the story of two small-time grifters produced, as well as the tumultuous era in which the movie was released and embraced. Glenn Frankel’s acclaimed book, “Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic,” will be the basis of the untitled film. “Midnight Cowboy” was directed by John Schlesinger and starred Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. It focused on Ratso Rizzo, a tubercular con man, and Joe Buck, a wannabe street hustler,...
- 5/6/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Over the course of her legendary career, Alice Lee “Boaty” Boatwright has cast iconic movies, served as a studio exec and repped starry talent including Joan Didion, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Reflecting on it today, she says her career really took off after a pivotal encounter at Sardi’s restaurant more than 60 years ago. Sitting with her friend Sue Mengers, not yet the legendary agent she would become, Boatwright jumped out of her seat and grabbed Alan Pakula, whom she had never met.
“I have to find you Scout,” Boatwright, then a young publicist at Universal, informed Pakula. She knew that he and Robert Mulligan had recently secured the film rights to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” for the studio.
The following day, after a conversation with her boss, Boatwright had lunch with Pakula and Mulligan. Her Southern background and charm won the producing-directing duo over, and...
“I have to find you Scout,” Boatwright, then a young publicist at Universal, informed Pakula. She knew that he and Robert Mulligan had recently secured the film rights to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” for the studio.
The following day, after a conversation with her boss, Boatwright had lunch with Pakula and Mulligan. Her Southern background and charm won the producing-directing duo over, and...
- 5/5/2021
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
"Suddenly the forces of Civil Rights had allies." Shout Factory has unveiled the official US trailer for an acclaimed documentary film titled A Crime on the Bayou, which first premiered at last year's Doc NYC and New Orleans Film Festivals. Directed by doc filmmaker Nancy Buirski, A Crime on the Bayou is the third film in director's trilogy (after the films The Loving Story & The Rape of Recy Taylor) profiling brave individuals who fought for justice in and around the Civil Rights era. A Black teenager bravely challenges the most powerful white supremacist in 1960s Louisiana with the help of a young Jewish attorney. Systemic racism meets its match in decisive courtroom battles, including eventually the U.S. Supreme Court, and a lifelong friendship is born. A poignant yet inspiring story about allyship, justice and how groups of activists from disparate backgrounds have worked together in the quest to dismantle institutional racism.
- 5/2/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Exclusive: Shout! Studios has acquired worldwide rights to Emmy-winning director Nancy Buirski’s documentary A Crime on the Bayou, the third in her trilogy of films that explore vital stories from the Civil Rights era.
Shout! Studios, the distribution and production arm of Shout! Factory, plans a theatrical release for A Crime on the Bayou later this year, followed by a rollout on VOD, digital, broadcast and home entertainment. Egot-winner John Legend is an executive producer of the film that revisits the case of Gary Duncan, who as a Black teenager in 1966 was arrested in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana in a racially-charged incident.
Duncan’s “crime” was to break up a fight between white and Black youths outside a newly-integrated school, during which he “gently [laid] his hand on a white boy’s arm,” setting in motion a prosecution for assault on a minor. Duncan was defended by Richard Sobol, a young Jewish attorney,...
Shout! Studios, the distribution and production arm of Shout! Factory, plans a theatrical release for A Crime on the Bayou later this year, followed by a rollout on VOD, digital, broadcast and home entertainment. Egot-winner John Legend is an executive producer of the film that revisits the case of Gary Duncan, who as a Black teenager in 1966 was arrested in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana in a racially-charged incident.
Duncan’s “crime” was to break up a fight between white and Black youths outside a newly-integrated school, during which he “gently [laid] his hand on a white boy’s arm,” setting in motion a prosecution for assault on a minor. Duncan was defended by Richard Sobol, a young Jewish attorney,...
- 4/1/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The History Channel is building out its plans to move back into the miniseries space with two new scripted projects – a drama about the London plague from Vikings creator Michael Hirst and a series about the Donner Party from documentary filmmaker Ric Burns.
The A+E Networks-owned cable channel is developing The Plague Year through A+E Studios, its in-house production division, and The Donner Party (w/t) from Cineflix Media, Steeplechase Films and Augusta Films.
The network is looking to build on its legacy of miniseries such as Hatfields & McCoys, starring Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton, which was a huge hit when it launched in 2012.
This comes after Rob Sharenow, President of Programming at A+E Networks, told Deadline earlier this summer that it was focusing on miniseries, including titles centered around Alcatraz and the Roman Empire, rather than returnable scripted series, which he called a “fraught path” for...
The A+E Networks-owned cable channel is developing The Plague Year through A+E Studios, its in-house production division, and The Donner Party (w/t) from Cineflix Media, Steeplechase Films and Augusta Films.
The network is looking to build on its legacy of miniseries such as Hatfields & McCoys, starring Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton, which was a huge hit when it launched in 2012.
This comes after Rob Sharenow, President of Programming at A+E Networks, told Deadline earlier this summer that it was focusing on miniseries, including titles centered around Alcatraz and the Roman Empire, rather than returnable scripted series, which he called a “fraught path” for...
- 11/30/2020
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Just what we need, another reminder about the coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, History Channel ordered two new scripted miniseries as part of its move back to limited series, and one of them focuses on the Bubonic Plague breakout in 1665 London. The other is about the Donner Party, which didn’t go much better.
“The Plague Year” hails from A+E Studios and is being written by Coleman Herbert and executive produced by Michael Hirst, who has a “Vikings” connection with History. “The Donner Party” is written by Ric Burns, who will executive produce alongside Nancy Buirski.
Both projects are part of History Channel’s shift back to miniseries and away from ongoing dramas. It follows a George Washington miniseries and another about Alcatraz.
“History’s scripted programming in development embraces our roots with premium historical miniseries that resonate with our audience and complement our event megadoc content centered on big moments throughout our history.
“The Plague Year” hails from A+E Studios and is being written by Coleman Herbert and executive produced by Michael Hirst, who has a “Vikings” connection with History. “The Donner Party” is written by Ric Burns, who will executive produce alongside Nancy Buirski.
Both projects are part of History Channel’s shift back to miniseries and away from ongoing dramas. It follows a George Washington miniseries and another about Alcatraz.
“History’s scripted programming in development embraces our roots with premium historical miniseries that resonate with our audience and complement our event megadoc content centered on big moments throughout our history.
- 11/30/2020
- by Tony Maglio
- The Wrap
History Channel is developing a pair of drama miniseries, including one executive produced by “Vikings” creator Michael Hirst.
The first is titled “The Plague Year,” which hails from writer Coleman Herbert with Hirst executive producing. The series is described as a portrait of 1665 London, during one of the all-time worst outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague. As Londoners of all stripes flee in droves, those who remain in the city, whether by choice or by fate, find their resolves tested and old wounds reopened, as they are faced with an impossible question: how do you keep going when everything around you has fallen to pieces? A+E Studios will produce.
“History’s scripted programming in development embraces our roots with premium historical miniseries that resonate with our audience and complement our event megadoc content centered on big moments throughout our history,” said Eli Lehrer, executive vice president and general manager for The History Channel.
The first is titled “The Plague Year,” which hails from writer Coleman Herbert with Hirst executive producing. The series is described as a portrait of 1665 London, during one of the all-time worst outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague. As Londoners of all stripes flee in droves, those who remain in the city, whether by choice or by fate, find their resolves tested and old wounds reopened, as they are faced with an impossible question: how do you keep going when everything around you has fallen to pieces? A+E Studios will produce.
“History’s scripted programming in development embraces our roots with premium historical miniseries that resonate with our audience and complement our event megadoc content centered on big moments throughout our history,” said Eli Lehrer, executive vice president and general manager for The History Channel.
- 11/30/2020
- by Joe Otterson
- Variety Film + TV
When Gary Duncan was arrested on trumped-up charges, essentially for being Black, his situation was hardly unique. But his readiness to fight the bogus case was nothing short of heroic, especially in 1966 Plaquemines Parish, near New Orleans, part of a region that one of the interviewees in Nancy Buirski’s film calls a “totalitarian nation.”
The word “totalitarian” is uttered several times in A Crime on the Bayou, and on the evidence of this real-life drama, it isn’t hyperbole. The Deep South’s Jim Crow legal system was openly racist and tyrannical, and anyone who dared ...
The word “totalitarian” is uttered several times in A Crime on the Bayou, and on the evidence of this real-life drama, it isn’t hyperbole. The Deep South’s Jim Crow legal system was openly racist and tyrannical, and anyone who dared ...
- 11/18/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
When Gary Duncan was arrested on trumped-up charges, essentially for being Black, his situation was hardly unique. But his readiness to fight the bogus case was nothing short of heroic, especially in 1966 Plaquemines Parish, near New Orleans, part of a region that one of the interviewees in Nancy Buirski’s film calls a “totalitarian nation.”
The word “totalitarian” is uttered several times in A Crime on the Bayou, and on the evidence of this real-life drama, it isn’t hyperbole. The Deep South’s Jim Crow legal system was openly racist and tyrannical, and anyone who dared ...
The word “totalitarian” is uttered several times in A Crime on the Bayou, and on the evidence of this real-life drama, it isn’t hyperbole. The Deep South’s Jim Crow legal system was openly racist and tyrannical, and anyone who dared ...
- 11/18/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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