The following conversation is an excerpted chapter from The Cutting Room, an upcoming book by documentary film editor Mary Lampson tracing the story of a woman building a life and career as an editor in an industry hostile to both women and independent filmmaking. Traveling over the decades through massive changes in documentary storytelling and filmmaking technology, the book revisits her work with some of the great talents of the documentary form while chronicling major technological changes connected directly to her brother Butler Lampson’s groundbreaking work on the development of the personal computer. In a moment when the conversation about documentary film feels all too […]
The post A Conversation with Luke Lorentzen from Mary Lampson’s The Cutting Room (A Work in Progress) first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post A Conversation with Luke Lorentzen from Mary Lampson’s The Cutting Room (A Work in Progress) first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/25/2024
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The following conversation is an excerpted chapter from The Cutting Room, an upcoming book by documentary film editor Mary Lampson tracing the story of a woman building a life and career as an editor in an industry hostile to both women and independent filmmaking. Traveling over the decades through massive changes in documentary storytelling and filmmaking technology, the book revisits her work with some of the great talents of the documentary form while chronicling major technological changes connected directly to her brother Butler Lampson’s groundbreaking work on the development of the personal computer. In a moment when the conversation about documentary film feels all too […]
The post A Conversation with Luke Lorentzen from Mary Lampson’s The Cutting Room (A Work in Progress) first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post A Conversation with Luke Lorentzen from Mary Lampson’s The Cutting Room (A Work in Progress) first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/25/2024
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
2020 still has its hold on us, and will for a long time.
Not just because Covid is still circulating, but because of the emotional fallout of that time that so few of us seem to have processed. Grief is something Americans, in particular, have a hard time with. Nations as varied as Italy, China, and Kazakhstan have had National Days of Mourning for their Covid victims. Spain had 10 days of official national mourning. Mexico, a month. The U.S. had over a million victims, and there’s been no such nationwide remembrance.
Luke Lorentzen’s documentary “A Still Small Voice” is so powerful because, even though it’s not really about Covid at all — the word is only mentioned a couple of times in its entire 93 minutes — it’s about the processing of strong emotions American culture is all too likely to avoid through denial, distraction, and workaholism. Almost therapeutic,...
Not just because Covid is still circulating, but because of the emotional fallout of that time that so few of us seem to have processed. Grief is something Americans, in particular, have a hard time with. Nations as varied as Italy, China, and Kazakhstan have had National Days of Mourning for their Covid victims. Spain had 10 days of official national mourning. Mexico, a month. The U.S. had over a million victims, and there’s been no such nationwide remembrance.
Luke Lorentzen’s documentary “A Still Small Voice” is so powerful because, even though it’s not really about Covid at all — the word is only mentioned a couple of times in its entire 93 minutes — it’s about the processing of strong emotions American culture is all too likely to avoid through denial, distraction, and workaholism. Almost therapeutic,...
- 1/11/2024
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
By Glenn Charlie Dunks
The Academy has announced the long list for this year’s Best Documentary Feature category. 168 titles have qualified for members of the doc branch to whittle down to a 15-wide shortlist and then a nominated five. That figure is higher than last year, which had 144 eligible titles and which culminated in a win for Daniel Roher’s Navalny.
If you were to ask me right now what titles I expect to find on this year’s shortlist, I might say the following: Against the Tide (Sarvnik Kaur), American Symphony (Matthew Heineman), Anonymous Sister (Jamie Boyle), The Eternal Memory (Maite Alberdi), Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania), Lakota Nation vs United States, Little Richard: I Am Everything (Lisa Cortés), The Mission, Occupied City (Steve McQueen), Silver Dollar Road (Raoul Peck), Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Anna Hints), A Still Small Voice (Luke Lorentzen), Still: A Michael J Fox Movie (Davis Guggenheim...
The Academy has announced the long list for this year’s Best Documentary Feature category. 168 titles have qualified for members of the doc branch to whittle down to a 15-wide shortlist and then a nominated five. That figure is higher than last year, which had 144 eligible titles and which culminated in a win for Daniel Roher’s Navalny.
If you were to ask me right now what titles I expect to find on this year’s shortlist, I might say the following: Against the Tide (Sarvnik Kaur), American Symphony (Matthew Heineman), Anonymous Sister (Jamie Boyle), The Eternal Memory (Maite Alberdi), Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania), Lakota Nation vs United States, Little Richard: I Am Everything (Lisa Cortés), The Mission, Occupied City (Steve McQueen), Silver Dollar Road (Raoul Peck), Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Anna Hints), A Still Small Voice (Luke Lorentzen), Still: A Michael J Fox Movie (Davis Guggenheim...
- 12/10/2023
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
The Indie Film Site Network (Ifsn) which Ioncinema.com is a part of is thrilled to announce D. Smith’s vibrant directorial debut Kokomo City as the recipient of the 2023 Ifsn Advocate Award. The recipient of the award, established to highlight one indie film each year that illuminates a humanitarian or environmental issue with a singular artistic vision, is awarded one million (1M) media impressions across the Indie Film Site Network, which represents The Film Stage, Hammer to Nail, RogerEbert.com, and Screen Anarchy. Letterboxd, the popular social network for cinephiles, is also contributing to the award.
Finalists for the 2023 Ifsn Advocate Award are another pair of films from Sundance in Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt and Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice, one from Cannes in Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies, and the other from Telluride in Pawo Choyning Dorji...
Finalists for the 2023 Ifsn Advocate Award are another pair of films from Sundance in Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt and Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice, one from Cannes in Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies, and the other from Telluride in Pawo Choyning Dorji...
- 11/16/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
As part of Indie Film Site Network (Ifsn), we’re thrilled to announce D. Smith’s vibrant directorial debut Kokomo City as the recipient of the 2023 Ifsn Advocate Award. The recipient of the award, established to highlight one indie film each year that illuminates a humanitarian or environmental issue with a singular artistic vision, is awarded one million (1M) media impressions across the Indie Film Site Network, which represents The Film Stage, Hammer to Nail, Ioncinema.com, RogerEbert.com, and Screen Anarchy. Letterboxd, the popular social network for cinephiles, is also contributing to the award.
Finalists for the 2023 Ifsn Advocate Award are Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Pawo Choyning Dorji’s The Monk and the Gun, Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies, and Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice, which will each be awarded 100K media impressions across Ifsn.
In the wildly...
Finalists for the 2023 Ifsn Advocate Award are Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Pawo Choyning Dorji’s The Monk and the Gun, Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies, and Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice, which will each be awarded 100K media impressions across Ifsn.
In the wildly...
- 11/16/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
There are so many scenes in A Still Small Voice that will stay with viewers. Or at least it feels that way. In truth, the 90-minute documentary mostly consists of a handful of powerful interactions between a hospital chaplain named Mati and her patients. Additional interactions between Mati and her administrator David are equally compelling.
With the Sundance selection now arriving in theaters, we got the chance to speak with the film’s director, Luke Lorentzen, about the long, tactful process of capturing these essential moments without ever feeling intrusive. The location (Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City) suggests privacy and care. And A Still Small Voice somehow conveys that feeling while also revealing extreme emotions in extraordinary circumstances. Lorentzen speaks to this tightrope walk of a production, and the laborious editing process that followed.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Film Stage: How do you get into that hospital?...
With the Sundance selection now arriving in theaters, we got the chance to speak with the film’s director, Luke Lorentzen, about the long, tactful process of capturing these essential moments without ever feeling intrusive. The location (Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City) suggests privacy and care. And A Still Small Voice somehow conveys that feeling while also revealing extreme emotions in extraordinary circumstances. Lorentzen speaks to this tightrope walk of a production, and the laborious editing process that followed.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Film Stage: How do you get into that hospital?...
- 11/13/2023
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
A24 continues its stream of special runs opening dark comedy Dream Scenario in limited release on six screens in New York and LA. Written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli (Sick Of Myself) and produced by Ari Aster, it stars Nicolas Cage as a hapless family man whose life is turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams.
The film premiered at Toronto Film Festival to stellar reviews (see Deadline’s here). A24 had a SAG-AFTRA waiver and Cage began promoting the film at TIFF. The English-language debut for Norwegian helmer Borgli — whose satire Sick Of Myself premiered at Cannes last year — also features Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Kate Berlant, Nicholas Braun and Noah Centineo.
Opens NY at AMC Lincoln Square, Angelika, Alamo, In LA at The Grove, Century City, Burbank. Q&As with filmmaker Borgli and cast members Berlant (who plays an executive...
The film premiered at Toronto Film Festival to stellar reviews (see Deadline’s here). A24 had a SAG-AFTRA waiver and Cage began promoting the film at TIFF. The English-language debut for Norwegian helmer Borgli — whose satire Sick Of Myself premiered at Cannes last year — also features Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Kate Berlant, Nicholas Braun and Noah Centineo.
Opens NY at AMC Lincoln Square, Angelika, Alamo, In LA at The Grove, Century City, Burbank. Q&As with filmmaker Borgli and cast members Berlant (who plays an executive...
- 11/10/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
A raw and lucid observational documentary about people whose life’s work is making space for death, Luke Lorentzen’s “A Still Small Voice” watches — sometimes from a distance, and sometimes at a bracing closeness — a young Jewish chaplain-in-training named Margaret “Mati” Engel as she offers spiritual care to the sick and dying at New York City’s Mt. Sinai Hospital.
Engel’s role might seem inherently religious on paper, but she struggles to embrace a God cruel enough to allow for the Holocaust, and seldom leads a session with her faith. Instead, Engel tends to offer comfort through uncertainty. “I have no understanding of what your body is going through right now,” she tells a patient during his final hours in the film’s opening scene, “but I’m doing my best, alright?” Her job isn’t to soften the enormity of these situations, but rather to help create...
Engel’s role might seem inherently religious on paper, but she struggles to embrace a God cruel enough to allow for the Holocaust, and seldom leads a session with her faith. Instead, Engel tends to offer comfort through uncertainty. “I have no understanding of what your body is going through right now,” she tells a patient during his final hours in the film’s opening scene, “but I’m doing my best, alright?” Her job isn’t to soften the enormity of these situations, but rather to help create...
- 11/8/2023
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The subject matter and environment of Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice come with inherent stakes, so there’s no need to dress them up or stylistically telegraph themes and emotion. The documentary traces the final portion of palliative care chaplain-in-training Margaret “Mati” Engel’s yearlong residency at Mount Sinai Hospital’s spiritual care department. Scene after scene passes by with a near-total absence of orchestral score, and many of its shots keep a respectful distance from the moments where we witness Mati at work, including her first interaction with a paralyzed individual barely hanging onto consciousness.
Lorentzen and Engel engaged in a series of collaborative discussions to ensure that the documentary’s depictions of these interactions with patients were ethical and that the people shown wanted to be in the movie, which is a comfort to learn, though simply watching the scenes themselves never feels exploitative. This is...
Lorentzen and Engel engaged in a series of collaborative discussions to ensure that the documentary’s depictions of these interactions with patients were ethical and that the people shown wanted to be in the movie, which is a comfort to learn, though simply watching the scenes themselves never feels exploitative. This is...
- 11/7/2023
- by Charles Lyons-Burt
- Slant Magazine
Every year the race for the Oscar for best documentary feature gets more expensive and less inclusive.
The challenging doc marketplace favors a handful of big-name filmmakers commissioned to make one-off films or docuseries. During the last two years, directors of independently made docs, especially those tackling hard-hitting social issues, have been facing an uphill battle to secure distribution.
The major streaming services, who just a few years ago were spending millions to acquire indie fare, seem to no longer be interested in garnering titles out of festivals.
There have, of course, been exceptions. Matthew Heineman’s “American Symphony” sold to Netflix immediately after the film’s Telluride premiere in September, and HBO Documentary Films/Max picked up Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize U.S. Documentary winner “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project” eight months after it debuted in Park City. Netflix acquired Laura McGann...
The challenging doc marketplace favors a handful of big-name filmmakers commissioned to make one-off films or docuseries. During the last two years, directors of independently made docs, especially those tackling hard-hitting social issues, have been facing an uphill battle to secure distribution.
The major streaming services, who just a few years ago were spending millions to acquire indie fare, seem to no longer be interested in garnering titles out of festivals.
There have, of course, been exceptions. Matthew Heineman’s “American Symphony” sold to Netflix immediately after the film’s Telluride premiere in September, and HBO Documentary Films/Max picked up Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize U.S. Documentary winner “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project” eight months after it debuted in Park City. Netflix acquired Laura McGann...
- 11/3/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
"Deeply moving and unforgettable." Abramorama has released the official trailer for a documentary titled A Still Small Voice, from filmmaker Luke Lorentzen, who last made the acclaimed Midnight Family. This initially premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where it won the Best Director prize at the end of the fest. An aspiring hospital chaplain named Margaret (aka Mati) begins a yearlong residency in spiritual care, only to discover that to successfully tend to her patients, she must look deep within herself. Described in reviews as "one of the most profound and rewarding experiences any film offers this year." Through Mati's experiences with her patients, her struggle with professional burnout, and her own spiritual questioning, we gain new perspectives on how meaningful connection can be and how painful its absence is. As Mati and her patients take stock of their lives and experiences, space opens up to reflect on our own.
- 10/20/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
One of the most riveting, harrowing documentaries of the year finally has a home. After premiering at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where it picked up the Directing Award in its U.S. Documentary section, Luke Lorentzen’s Midnight Family follow-up A Still Small Voice will now arrive in theaters on November 10 from Abramorama. Ahead of the release, the first trailer has now arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “Director Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice follows Mati, a chaplain completing a year-long hospital residency, as she learns to provide spiritual care to people confronting profound life changes. Through Mati’s experiences with her patients, her struggle with professional burnout, and her own spiritual questioning, we gain new perspectives on how meaningful connection can be and how painful its absence is.”
Dan Mecca said in his Sundance review, “At times shockingly personal, the documentary A Still Small Voice will sneak up on most viewers.
Here’s the synopsis: “Director Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice follows Mati, a chaplain completing a year-long hospital residency, as she learns to provide spiritual care to people confronting profound life changes. Through Mati’s experiences with her patients, her struggle with professional burnout, and her own spiritual questioning, we gain new perspectives on how meaningful connection can be and how painful its absence is.”
Dan Mecca said in his Sundance review, “At times shockingly personal, the documentary A Still Small Voice will sneak up on most viewers.
- 10/19/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
In recommending Luke Lorentzen’s “A Still Small Voice” as one of the best films of Sundance 2023, I wrote, “When’s the last time a documentary made you cry? If you’re really a cinephile, you will have an answer to that question.” Well, if you watch “A Still Small Voice” when it’s released November 10 at Dctv Firehouse in New York City, at LA’s Laemmle Royal on November 17, or in the markets to follow, it will certainly be the next doc to elicit tears. Check out the first trailer below.
Serving as the kind of cinematic catharsis that we all need after enduring the past three-plus years of the Covid-19 era, “A Still Small Voice” tackles grief as its subject head-on. It follows Mati, a chaplain-in-training at New York City’s Mt. Sinai hospital, over the course of a year as she counsels patients and their bereft family members facing terminal illness.
Serving as the kind of cinematic catharsis that we all need after enduring the past three-plus years of the Covid-19 era, “A Still Small Voice” tackles grief as its subject head-on. It follows Mati, a chaplain-in-training at New York City’s Mt. Sinai hospital, over the course of a year as she counsels patients and their bereft family members facing terminal illness.
- 10/19/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
“A Still Small Voice,” which received the Directing Award: US Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in January, has been acquired by Abramorama for North American theatrical distribution.
The film’s theatrical release will begin at Dctv’s Firehouse Cinema in New York City on Nov. 10 and will be followed by an expansion to Los Angeles and San Francisco theaters Nov. 17. After that it will open across the United States and Canada.
According to the official synopsis, the documentary “explores the world of hospital chaplains, who offer vital emotional and spiritual support to patients, families, and staff. The documentary follows Mati, a chaplain at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital, on a transformative year-long residency. Lorentzen reveals Mati’s spiritual journey and the universal quest for meaning amidst suffering and grief. Through Mati’s encounters and reflections on her own path, the film illuminates the profound impact of meaningful...
The film’s theatrical release will begin at Dctv’s Firehouse Cinema in New York City on Nov. 10 and will be followed by an expansion to Los Angeles and San Francisco theaters Nov. 17. After that it will open across the United States and Canada.
According to the official synopsis, the documentary “explores the world of hospital chaplains, who offer vital emotional and spiritual support to patients, families, and staff. The documentary follows Mati, a chaplain at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital, on a transformative year-long residency. Lorentzen reveals Mati’s spiritual journey and the universal quest for meaning amidst suffering and grief. Through Mati’s encounters and reflections on her own path, the film illuminates the profound impact of meaningful...
- 9/28/2023
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
Abramorama has acquired North American theatrical rights to Luke Lorentzen’s feature-length documentary “A Still Small Voice.”
The pact comes after the film made its world premiere earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, where Lorentzen received the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary. In 2019 Lorentzen’s “Midnight Family” made the Oscar feature doc shortlist.
The 93-minute film, which explores the world of hospital chaplains and the vital emotional and spiritual support they offer patients, families, and staff, will begin its nationwide theatrical rollout at New York City’s Dctv’s Firehouse Cinema on Nov. 10.
The movie has been a hit with audiences and critics at various film festivals across the world including Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Film Festival, DOC10 in Chicago, Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Melbourne International Film Festival.
The sale of the film to a major theatrical distributor is significant given the fact that over...
The pact comes after the film made its world premiere earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, where Lorentzen received the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary. In 2019 Lorentzen’s “Midnight Family” made the Oscar feature doc shortlist.
The 93-minute film, which explores the world of hospital chaplains and the vital emotional and spiritual support they offer patients, families, and staff, will begin its nationwide theatrical rollout at New York City’s Dctv’s Firehouse Cinema on Nov. 10.
The movie has been a hit with audiences and critics at various film festivals across the world including Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Film Festival, DOC10 in Chicago, Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Melbourne International Film Festival.
The sale of the film to a major theatrical distributor is significant given the fact that over...
- 9/28/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Six world premieres in the International feature competition.
Sarah Mallegol’s Kumva – Which Comes From Silence, is among the 10 features selected for the international competition of Germany’s Dok Leipzig festival, taking place from October 8-15.
Kumva is one of six world premieres in the section and sees children and parents who experienced the Rwandan genocide of 1994 speak about the atrocity which has traumatised generations.
Scroll down for the full list of features in competition
The film is in Kinyarwanda and French language; it is a debut feature for French director Mallegol.
The competition also includes the world premiere of Stillstand,...
Sarah Mallegol’s Kumva – Which Comes From Silence, is among the 10 features selected for the international competition of Germany’s Dok Leipzig festival, taking place from October 8-15.
Kumva is one of six world premieres in the section and sees children and parents who experienced the Rwandan genocide of 1994 speak about the atrocity which has traumatised generations.
Scroll down for the full list of features in competition
The film is in Kinyarwanda and French language; it is a debut feature for French director Mallegol.
The competition also includes the world premiere of Stillstand,...
- 9/21/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The Rockaway Film Festival announces today the full lineup for its sixth annual edition, to take place between August 19-27. The 2023 program features premieres, repertory screenings and live performances amid the sand and sea at Rockaway Beach. Screenings will be held at the festival’s flagship outdoor theater Arverne Cinema, which was constructed using pieces from the boardwalk that were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy. The opening night selection is Walt Disney’s Fantasia, with shorts by “cine-magician” Oskar Fischinger preceding the film. Other highlights of the festival include the New York premiere of Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice, which won […]
The post Rockaway Film Festival Unveils 2023 Lineup first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Rockaway Film Festival Unveils 2023 Lineup first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 8/4/2023
- by Natalia Keogan
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The Rockaway Film Festival announces today the full lineup for its sixth annual edition, to take place between August 19-27. The 2023 program features premieres, repertory screenings and live performances amid the sand and sea at Rockaway Beach. Screenings will be held at the festival’s flagship outdoor theater Arverne Cinema, which was constructed using pieces from the boardwalk that were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy. The opening night selection is Walt Disney’s Fantasia, with shorts by “cine-magician” Oskar Fischinger preceding the film. Other highlights of the festival include the New York premiere of Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice, which won […]
The post Rockaway Film Festival Unveils 2023 Lineup first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Rockaway Film Festival Unveils 2023 Lineup first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 8/4/2023
- by Natalia Keogan
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
In a city where you can discover a film festival every weekend of the year, perhaps the most unique of such offerings is located in Rockaway, Queens. Taking place just a few blocks from the beach, the 6th edition of the Rockaway Film Festival will occur August 19-August 27, and we’re pleased to exclusively debut the lineup of award-winning documentaries, premieres, live music and dance performances, shorts programmes, and rare repertory screenings.
Organized by Sam Fleischner and Courtney Muller and sponsored by Blundstone®, Istic Illic Pictures, and NYC Ferry, this year’s edition will open at their flagship outdoor theater, Arverne Cinema (constructed using scraps of boardwalk that were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy), with Disney’s famous feature masterpiece Fantasia. There will be a program of shorts preceding it by cine-magician Oskar Fishinger, whose groundbreaking animations changed the cinematic frontier. The festival will also present the New York Premiere of...
Organized by Sam Fleischner and Courtney Muller and sponsored by Blundstone®, Istic Illic Pictures, and NYC Ferry, this year’s edition will open at their flagship outdoor theater, Arverne Cinema (constructed using scraps of boardwalk that were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy), with Disney’s famous feature masterpiece Fantasia. There will be a program of shorts preceding it by cine-magician Oskar Fishinger, whose groundbreaking animations changed the cinematic frontier. The festival will also present the New York Premiere of...
- 8/4/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
In early summer, the still-slim Oscar conversation around documentary contenders got an unexpected bump: from an Emmy contender.
When the team behind AppleTV+’s “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” realized that the field of Oscar contenders was thinner than usual, the Davis Guggenheim-directed doc entered the fray. Right now, the film about the hugely popular TV and film star fighting off the vicissitudes of Parkinson’s and reflecting on his past looks good not only for an Emmy nomination, but Oscar rules make it possible to double dip and also pick up an Oscar nod.
But it doesn’t work the other way. Only if a movie does not land an Oscar nomination can it then submit for the Emmy race, as Brett Morgen’s “Jane” did in 2017. But given the weak Oscar competition this year, “Still,” with superb reviews for its innovative filmmaking — which elevates it beyond...
When the team behind AppleTV+’s “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” realized that the field of Oscar contenders was thinner than usual, the Davis Guggenheim-directed doc entered the fray. Right now, the film about the hugely popular TV and film star fighting off the vicissitudes of Parkinson’s and reflecting on his past looks good not only for an Emmy nomination, but Oscar rules make it possible to double dip and also pick up an Oscar nod.
But it doesn’t work the other way. Only if a movie does not land an Oscar nomination can it then submit for the Emmy race, as Brett Morgen’s “Jane” did in 2017. But given the weak Oscar competition this year, “Still,” with superb reviews for its innovative filmmaking — which elevates it beyond...
- 6/14/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Sterling K. Brown and the cast of “The Blackening” have been added to the lineup at CultureCon Los Angeles 2023. The festival kicks off on Saturday, June 17 at Rolling Greens Mateo, making it the first-ever full CultureCon summit to take place in L.A.
The festival is presented by Max and will be hosted by comedian Jay Pharoah and Emmy-winning journalist Francesca Amiker. Also slated to appear is singer-songwriter Victoria Monét, rapper Lakeyah and “The Blackening” director Tim Story and stars Dewayne Perkins and X Mayo, who’ll discuss the horror-comedy with Pharoah.
Festival partners Cîroc, Sephora, My Black is Beautiful, Prime Video, McDonald’s, Coca Cola and others will be hosting panels and activities for festival goers. In addition, CultureCon will be filled with skill-building workshops, activations and numerous Black-owned small businesses to shop from.
“When it comes to real community work in the East, CultureCon has held it down bar for bar,...
The festival is presented by Max and will be hosted by comedian Jay Pharoah and Emmy-winning journalist Francesca Amiker. Also slated to appear is singer-songwriter Victoria Monét, rapper Lakeyah and “The Blackening” director Tim Story and stars Dewayne Perkins and X Mayo, who’ll discuss the horror-comedy with Pharoah.
Festival partners Cîroc, Sephora, My Black is Beautiful, Prime Video, McDonald’s, Coca Cola and others will be hosting panels and activities for festival goers. In addition, CultureCon will be filled with skill-building workshops, activations and numerous Black-owned small businesses to shop from.
“When it comes to real community work in the East, CultureCon has held it down bar for bar,...
- 6/2/2023
- by Jazz Tangcay, Sophia Scorziello and Charna Flam
- Variety Film + TV
Jewish Story Partners (Jsp), a Los Angeles-based nonprofit film funding organization, has announced its new slate of grants to 19 documentary film projects.
The org, which was launched in April 2021 with support from Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation, will distribute $490,000 among these independent films, all of which explore the vast and vibrant terrain of the Jewish storytelling space. The announcement coincides with Jewish American Heritage Month and a commitment from President Joe Biden’s White House administration to develop a national strategy to counter antisemitism and “address increasing awareness and understanding of both antisemitism and Jewish American heritage.”
Since its inception, Jsp has disbursed $2 million in funding to 72 documentaries telling diverse Jewish stories.
On the heels of previous Jsp-funded films that have premiered at Sundance — including Paula Eiselt’s “Under G-d,” Luke Lorentzen’s “A Still Small Voice” and Ondi Timoner’s Oscar-shortlisted and Emmy contender “Last Flight Home...
The org, which was launched in April 2021 with support from Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation, will distribute $490,000 among these independent films, all of which explore the vast and vibrant terrain of the Jewish storytelling space. The announcement coincides with Jewish American Heritage Month and a commitment from President Joe Biden’s White House administration to develop a national strategy to counter antisemitism and “address increasing awareness and understanding of both antisemitism and Jewish American heritage.”
Since its inception, Jsp has disbursed $2 million in funding to 72 documentaries telling diverse Jewish stories.
On the heels of previous Jsp-funded films that have premiered at Sundance — including Paula Eiselt’s “Under G-d,” Luke Lorentzen’s “A Still Small Voice” and Ondi Timoner’s Oscar-shortlisted and Emmy contender “Last Flight Home...
- 5/23/2023
- by Malina Saval
- Variety Film + TV
Despite a dismal documentary distribution landscape, hundreds of nonfiction filmmakers are heading to Toronto for the 30th edition of Hot Docs Canadian Intl. Documentary Festival determined to sell their independently made docus.
This year, Hot Docs’ programming director Shane Smith selected 214 films from 2848 submissions to screen in-person and online beginning April 27. The slate of nonfiction films from 72 countries will be spread across 13 programs and will feature 70 world and 33 international premieres.
“Part of our value proposition is really mining all of the corners and shining a light in all of the corners of the documentary landscape,” Smith tells Variety. “Kanopy and Tenk are going to be here as well as the bigger players like Netflix. So, we are looking to be a valuable resource for the entire landscape of documentary. Not every film is one that the streamers are going to acquire, but there’s a home for every doc that we show in the festival.
This year, Hot Docs’ programming director Shane Smith selected 214 films from 2848 submissions to screen in-person and online beginning April 27. The slate of nonfiction films from 72 countries will be spread across 13 programs and will feature 70 world and 33 international premieres.
“Part of our value proposition is really mining all of the corners and shining a light in all of the corners of the documentary landscape,” Smith tells Variety. “Kanopy and Tenk are going to be here as well as the bigger players like Netflix. So, we are looking to be a valuable resource for the entire landscape of documentary. Not every film is one that the streamers are going to acquire, but there’s a home for every doc that we show in the festival.
- 4/27/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Davis Guggenheim’s “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” will open the eighth edition of Chicago’s Doc10 documentary film festival on May 4.
About Fox’s life, career and work as a public advocate for Parkinson’s research, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” debuted at Sundance in January. Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “An Inconvenient Truth” will be at Doc10 to participate in a post-screening conversation.
Doc10, a four-day fest running May 4-7, features a selection of 10 of this year’s most acclaimed documentaries and a package of prestigious doc shorts. Dedicated to supporting social-impact documentary films, the fest is hosted by Chicago Media Project, a company that raises funds for and produces docus including “Crip Camp” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
In addition to “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” Doc10 will screen: Penny Lane’s “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” Nicole Newnham’s “The Disappearance of the Shere Hite,...
About Fox’s life, career and work as a public advocate for Parkinson’s research, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” debuted at Sundance in January. Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “An Inconvenient Truth” will be at Doc10 to participate in a post-screening conversation.
Doc10, a four-day fest running May 4-7, features a selection of 10 of this year’s most acclaimed documentaries and a package of prestigious doc shorts. Dedicated to supporting social-impact documentary films, the fest is hosted by Chicago Media Project, a company that raises funds for and produces docus including “Crip Camp” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
In addition to “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” Doc10 will screen: Penny Lane’s “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” Nicole Newnham’s “The Disappearance of the Shere Hite,...
- 3/27/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
As the market for independently made documentaries continues to dry up, regional film festivals have become essential to filmmakers hoping to sell their docs.
At this year’s Sarasota Film Festival, which kicks off on March 25, 36 documentaries are part of the lineup. Over 25 of them are seeking distribution. They include Luke Lorentzen’s “A Still Small Voice,” Alexandria Bombach’s “It’s Only Life After All” about the Indigo Girls, Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto “Aum: The Cult at the End of the World” and Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng’s “Invisible Beauty.” All four films premiered at Sundance in January.
“From Submarine’s point of view, we’ve always encouraged great regional festivals like Sarasota, the Berkshires, Woodstock and the Hamptons partially because there is the possibility that awards voters are there,” says Submarine Entertainment sales agent Josh Braun, who reps both “Aum: The Cult at the End of the World” and “Invisible Beauty.
At this year’s Sarasota Film Festival, which kicks off on March 25, 36 documentaries are part of the lineup. Over 25 of them are seeking distribution. They include Luke Lorentzen’s “A Still Small Voice,” Alexandria Bombach’s “It’s Only Life After All” about the Indigo Girls, Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto “Aum: The Cult at the End of the World” and Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng’s “Invisible Beauty.” All four films premiered at Sundance in January.
“From Submarine’s point of view, we’ve always encouraged great regional festivals like Sarasota, the Berkshires, Woodstock and the Hamptons partially because there is the possibility that awards voters are there,” says Submarine Entertainment sales agent Josh Braun, who reps both “Aum: The Cult at the End of the World” and “Invisible Beauty.
- 3/25/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- 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.
Jackass Forever (Jeff Tremaine)
Jackass has been in our lives for more than two decades. Since October 2000, when the original show premiered on MTV, Johnny Knoxville and his gaggle of goofballs have appealed to lowest-common-denominator comedic impulses. They’ve slammed their testicles into things and had them slammed into by other things. They’ve gleefully dove into danger and gotten legitimately hurt. They’ve aggravated and disturbed an entire generation of people who got Reagan and Clinton elected. But then, for another generation, they brought laughter and some earnest sense of camaraderie. Since the halcyon days of the show (which Knoxville quickly ended himself after the ire of a boomer nation called for censorship), Jackass has endured in cinematic form. The first...
Jackass Forever (Jeff Tremaine)
Jackass has been in our lives for more than two decades. Since October 2000, when the original show premiered on MTV, Johnny Knoxville and his gaggle of goofballs have appealed to lowest-common-denominator comedic impulses. They’ve slammed their testicles into things and had them slammed into by other things. They’ve gleefully dove into danger and gotten legitimately hurt. They’ve aggravated and disturbed an entire generation of people who got Reagan and Clinton elected. But then, for another generation, they brought laughter and some earnest sense of camaraderie. Since the halcyon days of the show (which Knoxville quickly ended himself after the ire of a boomer nation called for censorship), Jackass has endured in cinematic form. The first...
- 3/10/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Here’re the charts and segmentations of the cameras that shot the Sundance 2023’s documentary films. It proves once again that documentary filmmakers use different tools as compared to their narrative colleagues. Not surprisingly, Canon leads the way as the most trusted camera company among documentary filmmakers. Gladly, we see here Blackmagic, Sony mirrorless, and even iPhone. Furthermore, high-end cinema cameras are located at the bottom of the chart.
Sundance 2023’s Documentaries – Camera manufacturers Chart. Credit: Y.M.Cinema Magazine Sundance Film Festival 2023: The cameras that shot the docus
Thankfully, IndieWire reached out to the documentary filmmakers that were super lucky for their docus to be screened at the prestige film festival and asked about the cameras they used. Based on that data, Y.M. Cinema Magazine has built the camera charts in order to explore tendency — an inclination toward particular cameras. That may help us understand, what is...
Sundance 2023’s Documentaries – Camera manufacturers Chart. Credit: Y.M.Cinema Magazine Sundance Film Festival 2023: The cameras that shot the docus
Thankfully, IndieWire reached out to the documentary filmmakers that were super lucky for their docus to be screened at the prestige film festival and asked about the cameras they used. Based on that data, Y.M. Cinema Magazine has built the camera charts in order to explore tendency — an inclination toward particular cameras. That may help us understand, what is...
- 2/14/2023
- by Yossy Mendelovich
- YMCinema
An aspiring chaplain must complete her yearlong residency at NYC’s Mount Sinai Hospital during a particularly dark period for public health in A Still Small Voice, the latest from doc filmmaker Luke Lorentzen. Between 2020 and 2021, Mati conducts visits as part of the hospital’s spiritual care department, navigating the grief, trauma and uncertainly that weighs heavily on these patients—and herself. Lorentzen, who acted as director, cinematographer and editor, discusses his experience cutting the film, which he describes as his “favorite part of the filmmaking process.” See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did […]
The post “Each Film I Make Will Require New and Different Ways of Thinking”: Editor Luke Lorentzen on A Still Small Voice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “Each Film I Make Will Require New and Different Ways of Thinking”: Editor Luke Lorentzen on A Still Small Voice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/31/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
An aspiring chaplain must complete her yearlong residency at NYC’s Mount Sinai Hospital during a particularly dark period for public health in A Still Small Voice, the latest from doc filmmaker Luke Lorentzen. Between 2020 and 2021, Mati conducts visits as part of the hospital’s spiritual care department, navigating the grief, trauma and uncertainly that weighs heavily on these patients—and herself. Lorentzen, who acted as director, cinematographer and editor, discusses his experience cutting the film, which he describes as his “favorite part of the filmmaking process.” See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did […]
The post “Each Film I Make Will Require New and Different Ways of Thinking”: Editor Luke Lorentzen on A Still Small Voice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “Each Film I Make Will Require New and Different Ways of Thinking”: Editor Luke Lorentzen on A Still Small Voice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/31/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
An aspiring chaplain named Mati navigates tragedy, grief and her own bandwidth for handling the incalculable loss of the pandemic in A Still Small Voice, the latest from documentary filmmaker Luke Lorentzen. Finishing her yearlong residency at the spiritual care department in New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital, Lorentzen captures Mati and her supervisor Rev. David’s fight to maintain hope and warmth between 2020 and 2021, two of the deadliest years in U.S. history. Lorentzen, who directed, shot and edited the film, discusses how his one-person shoot allowed him to blend into the doc’s setting—and gain the trust of subjects—more […]
The post “I Had To Shoot This Film as a One-Person Crew”: Dp Luke Lorentzen on A Still Small Voice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Had To Shoot This Film as a One-Person Crew”: Dp Luke Lorentzen on A Still Small Voice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/31/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
An aspiring chaplain named Mati navigates tragedy, grief and her own bandwidth for handling the incalculable loss of the pandemic in A Still Small Voice, the latest from documentary filmmaker Luke Lorentzen. Finishing her yearlong residency at the spiritual care department in New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital, Lorentzen captures Mati and her supervisor Rev. David’s fight to maintain hope and warmth between 2020 and 2021, two of the deadliest years in U.S. history. Lorentzen, who directed, shot and edited the film, discusses how his one-person shoot allowed him to blend into the doc’s setting—and gain the trust of subjects—more […]
The post “I Had To Shoot This Film as a One-Person Crew”: Dp Luke Lorentzen on A Still Small Voice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Had To Shoot This Film as a One-Person Crew”: Dp Luke Lorentzen on A Still Small Voice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/31/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Most Oscar documentary nominees launch at Sundance. There are exceptions, like winners “Citizenfour,” “Free Solo,” and “My Octopus Teacher,” but it remains the festival of choice for non-fiction films.
A Sundance award doesn’t hurt, either: The 2022 documentary Oscar winner, Questlove’s “Summer of Soul,” began its journey as a 2021 Sundance double winner with an Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize. This year, the Oscar nominees include “Navalny” (U.S. Documentary audience and Festival Favorite award), “Fire of Love” (editing award), “All that Breathes,” (Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary), and “House Made of Splinters” (World Cinema Documentary Directing Award).
This year’s Sundance crop, sampled by those in Park City theaters as well as online, is just as impressive. Jury prizes didn’t always go to the buzziest titles, but Sundance award-winners get a lift toward getting seen and often acquired.
Sheila Nevins’ MTV Documentary Films grabbed Chilean...
A Sundance award doesn’t hurt, either: The 2022 documentary Oscar winner, Questlove’s “Summer of Soul,” began its journey as a 2021 Sundance double winner with an Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize. This year, the Oscar nominees include “Navalny” (U.S. Documentary audience and Festival Favorite award), “Fire of Love” (editing award), “All that Breathes,” (Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary), and “House Made of Splinters” (World Cinema Documentary Directing Award).
This year’s Sundance crop, sampled by those in Park City theaters as well as online, is just as impressive. Jury prizes didn’t always go to the buzziest titles, but Sundance award-winners get a lift toward getting seen and often acquired.
Sheila Nevins’ MTV Documentary Films grabbed Chilean...
- 1/29/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The 2023 Sundance Film Festival, the festival’s first in-person competition since 2020, has revealed its award winners.
The big winners included Maryam Keshavarz‘s The Persian Version, which earned both the Audience Award and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, and A.V. Rockwell‘s A Thousand and One, which took home the Grand Jury Prize in the same category.
The Persian Version explores an Iranian-American family’s past as its patriarch gets a heart transplant while A Thousand and One centers around a mother who kidnaps her son from the foster care system in order to find a path toward redemption.
Other winners include Festival Favorite Radical directed by Christopher Zalla and Grand Jury Prize winner for U.S. Documentary, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.
The festival has highlighted 101 different features and 64 shorts. These films were selected from a total of 15,856 submissions. Most of...
The big winners included Maryam Keshavarz‘s The Persian Version, which earned both the Audience Award and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, and A.V. Rockwell‘s A Thousand and One, which took home the Grand Jury Prize in the same category.
The Persian Version explores an Iranian-American family’s past as its patriarch gets a heart transplant while A Thousand and One centers around a mother who kidnaps her son from the foster care system in order to find a path toward redemption.
Other winners include Festival Favorite Radical directed by Christopher Zalla and Grand Jury Prize winner for U.S. Documentary, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.
The festival has highlighted 101 different features and 64 shorts. These films were selected from a total of 15,856 submissions. Most of...
- 1/28/2023
- by Alex Nguyen
- Uinterview
Festival runs through January 29.
A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand And One took the 2023 Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic prize and Charlotte Regan’s UK entry Scrapper earned the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2023 Sundance awards ceremony on Friday.
Audience award winners included Maryam Keshavarz’s The Persian Version in U.S. Dramatic Competition, Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia in U.S. Documentary, Mstylav Chernov’s 20 Days In Mariupol in World Cinema Documentary, and Noora Niasari’s Shayda in World Cinema Dramatic.
Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente said the selection “demonstrated a sense of...
A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand And One took the 2023 Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic prize and Charlotte Regan’s UK entry Scrapper earned the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2023 Sundance awards ceremony on Friday.
Audience award winners included Maryam Keshavarz’s The Persian Version in U.S. Dramatic Competition, Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia in U.S. Documentary, Mstylav Chernov’s 20 Days In Mariupol in World Cinema Documentary, and Noora Niasari’s Shayda in World Cinema Dramatic.
Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente said the selection “demonstrated a sense of...
- 1/27/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
A Thousand and One took the jury prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, with Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project taking the top prize in the U.S. Documentary Competition section.
A Thousand and One is directed by A.V. Rockwell and follows a mother who kidnaps her six-year-old son Terry from the foster care system, a secret that threatens their way of life as Terry gets older. The Focus Features title stars Teyana Taylor, Josiah Cross and Will Catlett.
“When I was writing this film, I was thinking about mother and son relationships. I was thinking about Black women and Black men relationships. I was thinking about marginalized people and their relationship to their homes,” said Rockwell, accepting the award. “Thank you to everyone for seeing all of those groups and for seeing me.” A tearful Jeremy O. Harris, who was a part of the dramatic jury,...
A Thousand and One is directed by A.V. Rockwell and follows a mother who kidnaps her six-year-old son Terry from the foster care system, a secret that threatens their way of life as Terry gets older. The Focus Features title stars Teyana Taylor, Josiah Cross and Will Catlett.
“When I was writing this film, I was thinking about mother and son relationships. I was thinking about Black women and Black men relationships. I was thinking about marginalized people and their relationship to their homes,” said Rockwell, accepting the award. “Thank you to everyone for seeing all of those groups and for seeing me.” A tearful Jeremy O. Harris, who was a part of the dramatic jury,...
- 1/27/2023
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A Thousand and OneU.S. – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeA Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell)Directing PrizeSing J. Lee (The Accidental Getaway Driver)Audience Award The Persian Version (Maryam Keshavarz)Special Jury Award: ActingLio Mehiel (Mutt)Special Jury Award: Creative VisionMagazine Dreams (Elijah Bynum)Special Jury Award: Ensemble CastTheater Camp (Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman)Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardMaryam Keshavarz (The Persian Version)
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson)Directing Prize Luke Lorentzen (A Still Small Voice) Audience Award Beyond Utopia (Madeleine Gavin)Jonathan Oppenheim Editing AwardDaniela I. Quiroz (Going Varsity in Mariachi)Special Jury Award for Freedom of ExpressionBad Press (Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler)Special Jury Award: Clarity of VisionThe Stroll (Kristen Lovell, Zackary Drucker)
ScrapperWORLD Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury Prize Scrapper (Charlotte Regan)Directing Prize Marija Kavtaradze (Slow)Audience AwardShayda (Noora Niasari)Special Jury...
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson)Directing Prize Luke Lorentzen (A Still Small Voice) Audience Award Beyond Utopia (Madeleine Gavin)Jonathan Oppenheim Editing AwardDaniela I. Quiroz (Going Varsity in Mariachi)Special Jury Award for Freedom of ExpressionBad Press (Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler)Special Jury Award: Clarity of VisionThe Stroll (Kristen Lovell, Zackary Drucker)
ScrapperWORLD Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury Prize Scrapper (Charlotte Regan)Directing Prize Marija Kavtaradze (Slow)Audience AwardShayda (Noora Niasari)Special Jury...
- 1/27/2023
- MUBI
Back in Park City, Utah, for the first time since 2020, the Sundance Film Festival concluded with an in-person awards show. The U.S. dramatic grand jury prize went to the Focus Features release “A Thousand and One,” from debut writer-director A.V. Rockwell, one of eight women in this year’s female-led competition.
Jeremy O. Harris, a member of the three-person U.S. dramatic jury at Sundance, choked back tears as he presented the award to Rockwell, admitting that he left the director’s premiere screening and cried on the street, as the film unearthed “all the feelings I’ve learned to mask in public spaces.”
Rockwell’s film is set in an unforgiving New York City in the late ’90s, where a single mother moving from shelter to shelter kidnaps her 6-year-old son from foster care. As they improbably forge a life and bond, their darkest secret threatens to disrupt what they’ve built.
Jeremy O. Harris, a member of the three-person U.S. dramatic jury at Sundance, choked back tears as he presented the award to Rockwell, admitting that he left the director’s premiere screening and cried on the street, as the film unearthed “all the feelings I’ve learned to mask in public spaces.”
Rockwell’s film is set in an unforgiving New York City in the late ’90s, where a single mother moving from shelter to shelter kidnaps her 6-year-old son from foster care. As they improbably forge a life and bond, their darkest secret threatens to disrupt what they’ve built.
- 1/27/2023
- by Matt Donnelly and Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
As the first in-person Sundance Film Festival since 2020 draws to a close, it’s time to see which films are taking home the festival’s most coveted awards. While there are many ways to measure success at Sundance — and many filmmakers are certainly more interested in a big sale than a trophy — the awards are nevertheless an important way of measuring which films resonated with the Park City crowd.
Friday’s award ceremony is the culmination of what has already been a very eventful festival. Despite the multitude of changes that the independent film world and the streaming industry are currently undergoing, this year’s festival still featured its share of buzzy premieres and splashy acquisitions. One of the most talked about movies in Park City has been Chloe Domont’s erotic thriller “Fair Play,” which sold to Netflix for a reported price of 20 million. The festival also featured some...
Friday’s award ceremony is the culmination of what has already been a very eventful festival. Despite the multitude of changes that the independent film world and the streaming industry are currently undergoing, this year’s festival still featured its share of buzzy premieres and splashy acquisitions. One of the most talked about movies in Park City has been Chloe Domont’s erotic thriller “Fair Play,” which sold to Netflix for a reported price of 20 million. The festival also featured some...
- 1/27/2023
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Documentarian Luke Lorentzen returns to the Sundance Film Festival with "A Still Small Voice," an intimate and earnest look at the spiritual care department at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The film follows Mati, who is completing her chaplain residence in 2020 to 2021 — right when America is grappling with its deadliest disease in generations. This woman is remarkable: at the beginning of the documentary, she displays a seemingly endless capacity for kindness and comfort, despite her being relatively new to the position. Yet, as the film continues, Lorentzen peels back the layers and shows the raw, painful underside of doing this work. Like the coronavirus itself, anguish is infectious, silently ravaging all those touched by grief.
"A Still Small Voice" is quiet, almost passive in its engagement: audiences are welcome to view these very personal, very fraught interactions from inside the conversation. The cinematography is beautifully balanced between long,...
"A Still Small Voice" is quiet, almost passive in its engagement: audiences are welcome to view these very personal, very fraught interactions from inside the conversation. The cinematography is beautifully balanced between long,...
- 1/26/2023
- by Sarah Milner
- Slash Film
Midnight Family, Luke Lorentzen’s debut feature, was adeptly shot in widescreen by the director/cinematographer/editor, as is follow-up A Still Small Voice, which represents the inverse of its predecessor in several ways. The Midnight Family were a clan of private ambulance drivers in Mexico City, filling in a public healthcare gap for profit, albeit not much of one—chasing patients for payment, eating junk food because that’s all they can afford to fuel shifts on the nocturnal streets of Mexico City, which are obviously more likely to produce memorable images than a hospital’s perpetual faux-daylight. And while Lorentzen’s main subject, Mati Engel, certainly experiences […]
The post Sundance 2023: A Still Small Voice, La Pecera, Against the Tide first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Sundance 2023: A Still Small Voice, La Pecera, Against the Tide first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/23/2023
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Midnight Family, Luke Lorentzen’s debut feature, was adeptly shot in widescreen by the director/cinematographer/editor, as is follow-up A Still Small Voice, which represents the inverse of its predecessor in several ways. The Midnight Family were a clan of private ambulance drivers in Mexico City, filling in a public healthcare gap for profit, albeit not much of one—chasing patients for payment, eating junk food because that’s all they can afford to fuel shifts on the nocturnal streets of Mexico City, which are obviously more likely to produce memorable images than a hospital’s perpetual faux-daylight. And while Lorentzen’s main subject, Mati Engel, certainly experiences […]
The post Sundance 2023: A Still Small Voice, La Pecera, Against the Tide first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Sundance 2023: A Still Small Voice, La Pecera, Against the Tide first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/23/2023
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
‘A Still Small Voice’ Review: Compelling Profiles in the Spiritual Nitty-Gritty of Illness and Grief
When Ziki Hexum’s score begins its woodwind lament over the closing credits of A Still Small Voice, it’s a kind of sigh, a letting go. For the preceding 90 minutes we’ve been invited into intimate, searching conversations and profound silences in the offices and inpatient rooms of a New York hospital. Within the discussions observed by filmmaker Luke Lorentzen, it’s hard to find a comment that isn’t packed with complex questions and spiritual longing as humans grapple with the intertwined journeys of body and soul.
The conversations that unfold in this challenging and sometimes wrenching documentary are the ones that few doctors have with their patients and few people have with their family, particularly in a culture as unwilling to look illness and death in the eye as the American one is. Lorentzen, who offered an intense ride-along portrait of Mexico City emergency medical workers in Midnight Family,...
The conversations that unfold in this challenging and sometimes wrenching documentary are the ones that few doctors have with their patients and few people have with their family, particularly in a culture as unwilling to look illness and death in the eye as the American one is. Lorentzen, who offered an intense ride-along portrait of Mexico City emergency medical workers in Midnight Family,...
- 1/22/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
At times shockingly personal, the documentary A Still Small Voice will sneak up on most viewers. It follows both Margaret “Mati” Engel, a chaplain-in-training at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, and Reverend David Fleenor, Director of Education at Mount Sinai and Mati’s direct supervisor. As Mati navigates both her faith and job while comforting patients daily, David struggles to maintain the passion for his work while doing his best to offer guidance to residents.
There are bracing scenes throughout, director Luke Lorentzen capturing moments of drama inside the hospital that often feel like they should not be allowed. Its title refers to something one of Mati’s patients listens for: a voice that tells her what’s right. “I’ll know when I hear it,” she says. It’s a very clear through-line for the whole of the picture. And from every angle. Whether it’s Mati...
There are bracing scenes throughout, director Luke Lorentzen capturing moments of drama inside the hospital that often feel like they should not be allowed. Its title refers to something one of Mati’s patients listens for: a voice that tells her what’s right. “I’ll know when I hear it,” she says. It’s a very clear through-line for the whole of the picture. And from every angle. Whether it’s Mati...
- 1/21/2023
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
“A Still Small Voice” is both universally relevant and as niche as a film can be; only those willing to descend into the depths of grief will seek it out, though it holds wisdom enough to apply to us all.
Documentarian Luke Lorentzen (“Midnight Family”) follows Mati, a charismatic young chaplain in training, whose hospital residency happens to coincide with the earliest days of the Covid pandemic. Traveling from floor to floor at New York City’s Mount Sinai, she offers terminally-ill patients both gentle guidance and an accepting place to unburden.
Lorentzen wants to show us all aspects of Mati’s labor, and perhaps surprisingly, given the bureaucratic setting, these include on-the-clock hours for play, reflection, and relaxation. She’ll stand in a hallway offering Kind bars, essential oils and empathy to physically and emotionally overworked nurses one hour, and quietly assess her response with her boss, Reverend David,...
Documentarian Luke Lorentzen (“Midnight Family”) follows Mati, a charismatic young chaplain in training, whose hospital residency happens to coincide with the earliest days of the Covid pandemic. Traveling from floor to floor at New York City’s Mount Sinai, she offers terminally-ill patients both gentle guidance and an accepting place to unburden.
Lorentzen wants to show us all aspects of Mati’s labor, and perhaps surprisingly, given the bureaucratic setting, these include on-the-clock hours for play, reflection, and relaxation. She’ll stand in a hallway offering Kind bars, essential oils and empathy to physically and emotionally overworked nurses one hour, and quietly assess her response with her boss, Reverend David,...
- 1/21/2023
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? I started this project interested in further developing my ability to connect and build trust with the people I film. But it became clear that the depth, connection and intimacy that I felt would be central to this story could only happen if participants (chaplains and patients alike) felt safe and comfortable sharing deeply personal moments in front of the […]
The post “Offering Participants the Option to Request Changes or Even Remove Themselves Entirely” | Luke Lorentzen, A Still Small Voice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “Offering Participants the Option to Request Changes or Even Remove Themselves Entirely” | Luke Lorentzen, A Still Small Voice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/21/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? I started this project interested in further developing my ability to connect and build trust with the people I film. But it became clear that the depth, connection and intimacy that I felt would be central to this story could only happen if participants (chaplains and patients alike) felt safe and comfortable sharing deeply personal moments in front of the […]
The post “Offering Participants the Option to Request Changes or Even Remove Themselves Entirely” | Luke Lorentzen, A Still Small Voice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “Offering Participants the Option to Request Changes or Even Remove Themselves Entirely” | Luke Lorentzen, A Still Small Voice first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/21/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Before Covid upended the film festival scene, Sundance premieres were a hotbed of drama as studio chiefs and streaming executives staked out the best seats in the theater and then beat a path for the exits as soon as the credits rolled in the hopes of outmaneuvering each other for the hottest films. After two years of going virtual, Sundance is back in-person. However, it’s unclear if the all-night bidding wars that were such a staple of past festivals will also return in force. At a time of cost-cutting and box office struggles for indie movies, a new era of fiscal restraint may be the order of the day.
But Sundance’s thin mountain air could cause all that economizing to evaporate. And if it does, here are 13 films that could have buyers writing big checks.
Drift
Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Alia Shawkat
Director: Anthony Chen
Sales Agent: UTA
Why...
But Sundance’s thin mountain air could cause all that economizing to evaporate. And if it does, here are 13 films that could have buyers writing big checks.
Drift
Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Alia Shawkat
Director: Anthony Chen
Sales Agent: UTA
Why...
- 1/17/2023
- by Brent Lang and Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
The premiere of Alfonso Cuarón's 2018 drama "Roma" completely transformed the life of the film's lead actress, Yalitza Aparicio, known now for her Oscar-nominated role as Cleo. It would make her not only the second Mexican actress to land an Oscar nomination but the first Indigenous woman ever. It's a record she by no means takes for granted. She would also go on to be included in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people. But while the film fast-tracked Aparicio to stardom in a way she likely never anticipated, it would be years before viewers would see the actress star in anything again. After playing the role of a white Mexican family's housekeeper and nanny, inspired by director Cuarón's nanny growing up in Mexico City, Aparicio has been very intentional about the roles she chooses to take and turns down. With the severe lack of Indigenous representation that exists...
- 9/28/2022
- by Johanna Ferreira
- Popsugar.com
The Venice premiere of Alfonso Cuarón’s 2018 drama “Roma” made an overnight star of Yalitza Aparicio, whose memorable performance as family nanny Cleo kicked off a three-month whirlwind that culminated with her becoming the first Indigenous Mexican to receive an Oscar nomination for best actress.
The Venice premiere of Alfonso Cuarón’s 2018 drama “Roma” made an overnight star of Yalitza Aparicio, whose memorable performance as family nanny Cleo kicked off a three-month whirlwind that culminated with her becoming the first Indigenous Mexican to receive an Oscar nomination for best actress.
Four years on, little has been seen of her. This week, however, Aparicio returns to the screen via a decidedly more low-key premiere, playing a supporting role in Luis Mandoki’s modest horror film “Presencias,” which TelevisaUnivision-owned ViX+ is screening for buyers in Toronto.
Talking via Zoom from Mexico, Aparicio appears both nervous and excited about her return to the spotlight,...
The Venice premiere of Alfonso Cuarón’s 2018 drama “Roma” made an overnight star of Yalitza Aparicio, whose memorable performance as family nanny Cleo kicked off a three-month whirlwind that culminated with her becoming the first Indigenous Mexican to receive an Oscar nomination for best actress.
Four years on, little has been seen of her. This week, however, Aparicio returns to the screen via a decidedly more low-key premiere, playing a supporting role in Luis Mandoki’s modest horror film “Presencias,” which TelevisaUnivision-owned ViX+ is screening for buyers in Toronto.
Talking via Zoom from Mexico, Aparicio appears both nervous and excited about her return to the spotlight,...
- 9/12/2022
- by Adam Benzine
- Variety Film + TV
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