Exclusive: Sandbox Films (Fire of Love) and Xtr (Ascension) have teamed to produce feature doc A Life Illuminated, exploring the life and legacy of pioneering marine biologist Edie Widder, in association with ocean exploration nonprofit OceanX.
Set to direct the pic is Tasha Van Zandt, the filmmaker behind such award-winning documentaries as After Antarctica, about legendary polar explorer Will Steger, and One Thousand Stories, about renowned artist Jr.
A Life Illuminated watches as Widder undertakes an extraordinary journey into the magical world of bioluminescence, through which she decodes the language of light that allows deep-sea life to communicate in complete darkness. It’s Widder’s unceasing need to understand and communicate with the most enigmatic forms of life on Earth that leads her to dive into the unknown, exploring the profound mysteries hidden beneath the ocean’s surface.
The film will draw upon Widder’s vast archive, from her earliest dives in deep sea submersibles,...
Set to direct the pic is Tasha Van Zandt, the filmmaker behind such award-winning documentaries as After Antarctica, about legendary polar explorer Will Steger, and One Thousand Stories, about renowned artist Jr.
A Life Illuminated watches as Widder undertakes an extraordinary journey into the magical world of bioluminescence, through which she decodes the language of light that allows deep-sea life to communicate in complete darkness. It’s Widder’s unceasing need to understand and communicate with the most enigmatic forms of life on Earth that leads her to dive into the unknown, exploring the profound mysteries hidden beneath the ocean’s surface.
The film will draw upon Widder’s vast archive, from her earliest dives in deep sea submersibles,...
- 12/19/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline 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.
2nd Chance (Ramin Bahrani)
It’s an eerie image. Richard Davis stands out in a field, wearing a kevlar vest, and points a pistol into his belly. Then he pulls the trigger, skips back a bit, and checks his red-burned skin. Over the course of his life, he would do this—shoot himself—192 times, proving the efficacy of his life-saving device in the most visceral and operatic way possible. “A lot of people think I’m stupid for doing this,” he tells the camera before one of these high-wire demonstrations, and for just a moment, an air of unpredictability hangs over this bullet-proof vest magnate’s next move. – Jake K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Devotion (J.D. Dillard)
Devotion adheres to...
2nd Chance (Ramin Bahrani)
It’s an eerie image. Richard Davis stands out in a field, wearing a kevlar vest, and points a pistol into his belly. Then he pulls the trigger, skips back a bit, and checks his red-burned skin. Over the course of his life, he would do this—shoot himself—192 times, proving the efficacy of his life-saving device in the most visceral and operatic way possible. “A lot of people think I’m stupid for doing this,” he tells the camera before one of these high-wire demonstrations, and for just a moment, an air of unpredictability hangs over this bullet-proof vest magnate’s next move. – Jake K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Devotion (J.D. Dillard)
Devotion adheres to...
- 1/13/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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.
This week’s New to Streaming column is sponsored by Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love, now streaming on Disney+, courtesy of National Geographic Documentary Films.
Fire of Love (Sara Dosa)
In a bond forged over mutual fascination (or obsession) with the mysteries of volcanoes, Katia and Maurice Krafft dedicated their lives to discovering everything they could about these natural phenomena. Forces of both awe-inspiring wonder and tragic disaster, Sara Dosa’s archival documentary Fire of Love gracefully captures this extreme dichotomy while also getting to the heart of what drove this couple to abandon a routine, domesticated lifestyle and literally sacrifice their lives in the mission to save others. In telling their devotion to one of the natural world’s most dangerous forces,...
This week’s New to Streaming column is sponsored by Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love, now streaming on Disney+, courtesy of National Geographic Documentary Films.
Fire of Love (Sara Dosa)
In a bond forged over mutual fascination (or obsession) with the mysteries of volcanoes, Katia and Maurice Krafft dedicated their lives to discovering everything they could about these natural phenomena. Forces of both awe-inspiring wonder and tragic disaster, Sara Dosa’s archival documentary Fire of Love gracefully captures this extreme dichotomy while also getting to the heart of what drove this couple to abandon a routine, domesticated lifestyle and literally sacrifice their lives in the mission to save others. In telling their devotion to one of the natural world’s most dangerous forces,...
- 11/11/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Wider availability of vintage footage and a race to relevance has inspired several film-makers to pursue similar subjects
Currently on an extended release in theatres and already earning itself awards buzz, Fire of Love, Sara Dosa’s breathtaking documentary about the relationship and career shared by French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, is the surprise independent hit of the summer. But Dosa is not the only director to be inspired by the extraordinary daring of the Kraffts.
In 2016 Werner Herzog released his documentary Into the Inferno, which sparingly included clips from preserved reels out of the couple’s extensive collection. The meat of that film followed present-day volcano expert Clive Oppenheimer, now tapped for a scientific adviser role on Fire of Love, which draws more heavily on the Krafft archive in its all-vintage-filmstrip format of storytelling. In Dosa’s film, the most intrepid home movies ever made gain fresh vitality...
Currently on an extended release in theatres and already earning itself awards buzz, Fire of Love, Sara Dosa’s breathtaking documentary about the relationship and career shared by French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, is the surprise independent hit of the summer. But Dosa is not the only director to be inspired by the extraordinary daring of the Kraffts.
In 2016 Werner Herzog released his documentary Into the Inferno, which sparingly included clips from preserved reels out of the couple’s extensive collection. The meat of that film followed present-day volcano expert Clive Oppenheimer, now tapped for a scientific adviser role on Fire of Love, which draws more heavily on the Krafft archive in its all-vintage-filmstrip format of storytelling. In Dosa’s film, the most intrepid home movies ever made gain fresh vitality...
- 8/11/2022
- by Charles Bramesco
- The Guardian - Film News
Last January, filmmaker Sara Dosa’s opening night documentary “Fire of Love” exploded out of Sundance. When the filmmakers found out — just weeks before their world premiere — that the festival was going virtual, seller Submarine mounted live screenings for buyers, who were primed to bid when notices came in. The film nabbed raves, Oscar talk, and the festival’s first big sale, to Oscar-friendly distributors NatGeo (“Free Solo”) and Neon (“Parasite”). And at festival’s end, Dosa’s third non-fiction feature film collected the Sundance Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award for U.S. Documentary.
“Fire of Love” isn’t like anything else. This quirky collage of creative documentary, love story, and science non-fiction avoids many documentary conventions as it tracks two ruddy-cheeked French volcanologists, Katia and Maurice Krafft, who are in love not only with each other, but with their work chasing erupting volcanoes around the globe. “We just made it...
“Fire of Love” isn’t like anything else. This quirky collage of creative documentary, love story, and science non-fiction avoids many documentary conventions as it tracks two ruddy-cheeked French volcanologists, Katia and Maurice Krafft, who are in love not only with each other, but with their work chasing erupting volcanoes around the globe. “We just made it...
- 7/4/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
One of the most acclaimed films to premiere at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year is Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love, which finds Miranda July narrating the life story of French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft and their pursuit to discover everything they could know about volcanoes. Picked up by National Geographic Documentary Films and Neon for a theatrical release starting July 6, followed by a nationwide roll-out and eventual debut on Disney+, the first trailer has now arrived.
I said in my Sundance review, “In a bond forged over mutual fascination (or obsession) with the mysteries of volcanoes, Katia and Maurice Krafft dedicated their lives to discovering everything they could about these natural phenomena. Forces of both awe-inspiring wonder and tragic disaster, Sara Dosa’s archival documentary Fire of Love gracefully captures this extreme dichotomy while also getting to the heart of what drove this couple to abandon a routine,...
I said in my Sundance review, “In a bond forged over mutual fascination (or obsession) with the mysteries of volcanoes, Katia and Maurice Krafft dedicated their lives to discovering everything they could about these natural phenomena. Forces of both awe-inspiring wonder and tragic disaster, Sara Dosa’s archival documentary Fire of Love gracefully captures this extreme dichotomy while also getting to the heart of what drove this couple to abandon a routine,...
- 6/2/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Kicking off this week at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, the 51st edition of New Directors/New Films brings together highlights from Sundance, Berlinale, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, and many more to provide an essential snapshot of new filmmaking talent. With Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion winner Happening commencing the annual festival starting Wednesday, it’s one of 12 films we can recommend as we also look forward to catching up with the rest. Check out our picks below.
The African Desperate (Martine Syms)
It’s a hot July day in upstate New York when Palace (Diamond Stingily) sits for her final art school exam, a passive-aggressive interview with an all-white faculty that leaves her with that soul-crushing question: what are you going to do next? The answer, in Martine Syms’ rollicking debut feature, is a night-long graduation party, a bacchanal that sends Syms’ friend...
The African Desperate (Martine Syms)
It’s a hot July day in upstate New York when Palace (Diamond Stingily) sits for her final art school exam, a passive-aggressive interview with an all-white faculty that leaves her with that soul-crushing question: what are you going to do next? The answer, in Martine Syms’ rollicking debut feature, is a night-long graduation party, a bacchanal that sends Syms’ friend...
- 4/19/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
In a bond forged over mutual fascination (or obsession) with the mysteries of volcanoes, Katia and Maurice Krafft dedicated their lives to discovering everything they could about these natural phenomena. Forces of both awe-inspiring wonder and tragic disaster, Sara Dosa’s archival documentary Fire of Love gracefully captures this extreme dichotomy while also getting to the heart of what drove this couple to abandon a routine, domesticated lifestyle and literally sacrifice their lives in the mission to save others. In telling their devotion to one of the natural world’s most dangerous forces, Dosa crafts a documentary that would make Herzog proud—and an ideal double feature with Into the Inferno, his collaboration with volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer, which also features the Kraffts.
Even if you’ve never heard of these volcanologists, the divulging of their death in 1991 at the base of a volcanic explosion is presented early on, layering the...
Even if you’ve never heard of these volcanologists, the divulging of their death in 1991 at the base of a volcanic explosion is presented early on, layering the...
- 1/21/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Documentary festival to take place online, with plans for physical screenings in May.
Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:Dox) has revealed the full lineup for its 2021 edition, which includes features by Werner Herzog, Spike Lee, Gianfranco Rosi and Frank Oz.
A total of 180 documentaries have been selected for the festival, which will take place virtually from April 21 to May 5. Cph:dox also plans to screen a selection of films in Copenhagen cinemas from May 6-12, if the Danish government goes ahead with its plan to reopen theatres. Those titles have yet to be revealed.
The programme includes Lee’s American Utopia,...
Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:Dox) has revealed the full lineup for its 2021 edition, which includes features by Werner Herzog, Spike Lee, Gianfranco Rosi and Frank Oz.
A total of 180 documentaries have been selected for the festival, which will take place virtually from April 21 to May 5. Cph:dox also plans to screen a selection of films in Copenhagen cinemas from May 6-12, if the Danish government goes ahead with its plan to reopen theatres. Those titles have yet to be revealed.
The programme includes Lee’s American Utopia,...
- 3/30/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
For a filmmaker whose documentary work centers on adventurous treks to remote locations and interviews with ardent outsiders, strict quarantines would seem to be anathema to Werner Herzog’s entire being. But the 78-year-old director, writer, and occasional actor, whose work spans more than 70 features and docs, remains perpetually busy. “I am writing poetry and prose texts, which doesn’t cost much money and I can do it in a reclusive environment,” he says via Zoom from his Los Angeles home. “If I had the finances ready, I could start six feature films.
- 12/9/2020
- by Jason Newman
- Rollingstone.com
Werner Herzog’s “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds” is an aptly meditative travelogue from the philosophical German director. In the last decade or so, Herzog’s documentary output has focused on, among other topics, volcanoes (“Into the Inferno”), prehistoric paintings (“Cave of Forgotten Dreams”) and Antarctica (“Encounters at the End of the World”). In “Fireball,” co-directed by Clive Oppenheimer and available now on AppleTV+, he turns his attention to meteors and comets.
Herzog and Oppenheimer jet to all corners of the globe to engage with astrologists, geologists, religious leaders, self-made scientists, space rock collectors, and people in communities living around some of the world’s largest craters.
In one of the film’s most intriguing scenes, Herzog offers a tribute to Hollywood’s contribution to the subject. He shows us a slightly abridged version of the climactic comet strike in Mimi Leder’s 1998 disaster flick “Deep Impact.”
“Deep Impact” is a movie that,...
Herzog and Oppenheimer jet to all corners of the globe to engage with astrologists, geologists, religious leaders, self-made scientists, space rock collectors, and people in communities living around some of the world’s largest craters.
In one of the film’s most intriguing scenes, Herzog offers a tribute to Hollywood’s contribution to the subject. He shows us a slightly abridged version of the climactic comet strike in Mimi Leder’s 1998 disaster flick “Deep Impact.”
“Deep Impact” is a movie that,...
- 12/4/2020
- by Joe McGovern
- The Wrap
Producers are Anonymous Content, Concordia Studio, Know Wonder.
Awkwafina has joined Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris on Apple Original Film Swan Song.
The star of The Farewell will play Kate, a close friend and confidante to Ali’s character Cameron in the drama, which is set in the near future and explores how much people will sacrifice for the ones they love.
Harris, the British actor whose credits include Moonlight and recent entries in the James Bond franchise including the upcoming No Time To Die, plays Poppy, Cameron’s wife and soulmate.
Benjamin Cleary directs Swan Song from his own screenplay.
Awkwafina has joined Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris on Apple Original Film Swan Song.
The star of The Farewell will play Kate, a close friend and confidante to Ali’s character Cameron in the drama, which is set in the near future and explores how much people will sacrifice for the ones they love.
Harris, the British actor whose credits include Moonlight and recent entries in the James Bond franchise including the upcoming No Time To Die, plays Poppy, Cameron’s wife and soulmate.
Benjamin Cleary directs Swan Song from his own screenplay.
- 11/18/2020
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Continuing his streak of emotionally intelligent globe-trotting documentaries, Werner Herzog’s “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,” which he co-directed with University of Cambridge volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer and premiered on Apple TV+, is a rich speculative examination of the role of meteorites on religion, art, and society. While the film is somewhat casual in how it jumps between ideas, Herzog and Oppenheimer show a profound curiosity about the role of otherworldly meteors in creating our planet, and its possible destruction.
Continue reading ‘Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds’: Werner Herzog’s Doc Is A Heartfelt Tribute To Scientific Exploration [Review] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds’: Werner Herzog’s Doc Is A Heartfelt Tribute To Scientific Exploration [Review] at The Playlist.
- 11/13/2020
- by Christian Gallichio
- The Playlist
As interviews go, not many are as exciting as Werner Herzog. A true icon of cinema, it was our pleasure to sit down with to discuss his latest venture, Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds. He was paired alongside co-director and frequent collaborator Clive Oppenheimer, a volcanologist (how cool is that word?) as we wanted to discuss this new project, and how they managed to succeed in ensuring it remained an entertaining, cinematic endeavour. In short – how did they make a doc about meteors not boring?
We discuss their working relationship, and also ask Herzog about his experiences as a filmmaker, and what this particular film added to what is a long list of incredible life moments, and moments we’re grateful he’s shared with us.
Watch the full interview with Werner and Clive here:
Synopsis
Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds takes viewers on an extraordinary journey to discover how shooting stars,...
We discuss their working relationship, and also ask Herzog about his experiences as a filmmaker, and what this particular film added to what is a long list of incredible life moments, and moments we’re grateful he’s shared with us.
Watch the full interview with Werner and Clive here:
Synopsis
Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds takes viewers on an extraordinary journey to discover how shooting stars,...
- 11/13/2020
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
We all know how charming Werner Herzog can be. Since he first narrated his 1974 documentary “The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner,” he has learned to put himself as a character in his films behind the camera, as probing questioner and witty commentator. More recently this led to acting jobs, including The Client in Season One of Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.”
Now, the prodigious director of some 20 fiction films, 31 documentary features (“Grizzly Man”) and 18 operas (“The Magic Flute”), has fallen in sync with a collaborator on his explorations into the awe and mystery of science, Cambridge volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer (“Eruptions That Shook the World”).
The two men first met on an Antarctica volcano during filming on Herzog’s only Oscar-nominated film, “Encounters at the End of the World” (2007), the filmmaker said during a recent video interview (below). Oppenheimer stood out among the high-tech down jackets by wearing “a tweed jacket like...
Now, the prodigious director of some 20 fiction films, 31 documentary features (“Grizzly Man”) and 18 operas (“The Magic Flute”), has fallen in sync with a collaborator on his explorations into the awe and mystery of science, Cambridge volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer (“Eruptions That Shook the World”).
The two men first met on an Antarctica volcano during filming on Herzog’s only Oscar-nominated film, “Encounters at the End of the World” (2007), the filmmaker said during a recent video interview (below). Oppenheimer stood out among the high-tech down jackets by wearing “a tweed jacket like...
- 11/13/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
We all know how charming Werner Herzog can be. Since he first narrated his 1974 documentary “The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner,” he has learned to put himself as a character in his films behind the camera, as probing questioner and witty commentator. More recently this led to acting jobs, including The Client in Season One of Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.”
Now, the prodigious director of some 20 fiction films, 31 documentary features (“Grizzly Man”) and 18 operas (“The Magic Flute”), has fallen in sync with a collaborator on his explorations into the awe and mystery of science, Cambridge volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer (“Eruptions That Shook the World”).
The two men first met on an Antarctica volcano during filming on Herzog’s only Oscar-nominated film, “Encounters at the End of the World” (2007), the filmmaker said during a recent video interview (below). Oppenheimer stood out among the high-tech down jackets by wearing “a tweed jacket like...
Now, the prodigious director of some 20 fiction films, 31 documentary features (“Grizzly Man”) and 18 operas (“The Magic Flute”), has fallen in sync with a collaborator on his explorations into the awe and mystery of science, Cambridge volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer (“Eruptions That Shook the World”).
The two men first met on an Antarctica volcano during filming on Herzog’s only Oscar-nominated film, “Encounters at the End of the World” (2007), the filmmaker said during a recent video interview (below). Oppenheimer stood out among the high-tech down jackets by wearing “a tweed jacket like...
- 11/13/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Molecular shapes collide into one another, at which point they may as well be falling from the heavens. As scientists examine their glassy, often contradictory patterns, they themselves fall eons into the past. There’s a deep relaxation in acknowledging one’s insignificance. Is this relative? Of course. But it is, in more ways than one, timeless. While the parallel between science and religion isn’t particularly new, Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds sees this serendipity sharply enough to compensate for its inconsistencies.
The camera wafts across landscapes—some familiar, some alien. Groups of researchers trek in formations which, shown from just the right angle, create the illusion of their pushing and pulling together into an almost godlike design. But again: this is relative. It’s when our eye draws out that everything seems bigger, often by way of illusion. A logical approach runs through Fireball,...
The camera wafts across landscapes—some familiar, some alien. Groups of researchers trek in formations which, shown from just the right angle, create the illusion of their pushing and pulling together into an almost godlike design. But again: this is relative. It’s when our eye draws out that everything seems bigger, often by way of illusion. A logical approach runs through Fireball,...
- 11/12/2020
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
There may be nothing more pleasing than watching a room full of scientists erupt in glee as the probe they spent hurtling into space years prior finally touches down on a moving object in the farthest reaches of space. The information and material that the probe will send back can hopefully answer questions of the universe we’ve been trying to ask since the beginning of our existence. Since before humans even walked the earth, however, the dark blanket of the sky has been depositing meteors to our world that hold important answers of the unknown.
The new Apple TV+ documentary Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds by the filmmaking team of Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer takes a look at the history of meteors falling to Earth, and the impact they have on both science and our cultural roots. We spoke with Werner and Clive to discuss the importance of...
The new Apple TV+ documentary Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds by the filmmaking team of Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer takes a look at the history of meteors falling to Earth, and the impact they have on both science and our cultural roots. We spoke with Werner and Clive to discuss the importance of...
- 11/12/2020
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
In his latest science doc, the existential film-maker considers the cataclysmic threat from space – as real now as it ever was
In 2007, Werner Herzog made a movie about Antarctica called Encounters at the End of the World, where he met the Cambridge University geographer and seismologist Clive Oppenheimer. The resulting partnership has opened up whole new adventures for Herzog in pop anthropology and the history of ideas. Together, Herzog and Oppenheimer made Into the Inferno in 2016, with Oppenheimer largely in front of the camera and Herzog behind, supplying the unmistakable rasping voiceover with its occasional flourishes of nihilist black comedy. Into the Inferno was all about how volcanos create strange belief systems and supplicant ideologies in the humans around them.
Related: Werner Herzog: 'I'm fascinated by trash TV. The poet must not avert his eyes'...
In 2007, Werner Herzog made a movie about Antarctica called Encounters at the End of the World, where he met the Cambridge University geographer and seismologist Clive Oppenheimer. The resulting partnership has opened up whole new adventures for Herzog in pop anthropology and the history of ideas. Together, Herzog and Oppenheimer made Into the Inferno in 2016, with Oppenheimer largely in front of the camera and Herzog behind, supplying the unmistakable rasping voiceover with its occasional flourishes of nihilist black comedy. Into the Inferno was all about how volcanos create strange belief systems and supplicant ideologies in the humans around them.
Related: Werner Herzog: 'I'm fascinated by trash TV. The poet must not avert his eyes'...
- 11/12/2020
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
“Crip Camp,” “Gunda” and “Time” are among the films that have made Doc NYC’s 2020 “Short List,” an annual attempt by the New York-based festival to identify the nonfiction films most likely to play a significant part in awards season.
Those three films were also included in the Critics Choice Documentary Awards nominations for Best Documentary Feature, and on the International Documentary Association’s shortlist from which the Ida chooses nominees for the Ida Documentary Awards. They are the only three movies to land on all three lists.
Nine additional films on the Doc NYC list were also singled out either by the Ida or Critics Choice: “Boys State,” “Collective,” “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” “The Fight,” “MLK/FBI,” “76 Days,” “The Social Dilemma,” “The Truffle Hunters” and “Welcome to Chechnya.”
Other films on the Doc NYC list, which is made up of 15 documentaries, are “I Am Greta,” “On the Record” and “A Thousand Cuts.
Those three films were also included in the Critics Choice Documentary Awards nominations for Best Documentary Feature, and on the International Documentary Association’s shortlist from which the Ida chooses nominees for the Ida Documentary Awards. They are the only three movies to land on all three lists.
Nine additional films on the Doc NYC list were also singled out either by the Ida or Critics Choice: “Boys State,” “Collective,” “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” “The Fight,” “MLK/FBI,” “76 Days,” “The Social Dilemma,” “The Truffle Hunters” and “Welcome to Chechnya.”
Other films on the Doc NYC list, which is made up of 15 documentaries, are “I Am Greta,” “On the Record” and “A Thousand Cuts.
- 11/9/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
This strange year is now winding down, and while for much of the month all eyes will be turned towards the U.S. election and its aftermath, as we take a glance at the film offerings, there’s no shortage of worthwhile releases.
From the first batch of five new Steve McQueen films to David Fincher’s first feature in six years to new work by Werner Herzog, Clea DuVall, Gabriel Mascaro, Francis Lee, and more, it’s a stellar line-up as we enter into the final stretch of 2020.
We should also note that some theatrical-only releases earlier this fall are making their digital debuts, such as The Nest and Possessor, so be sure to follow our streaming column for weekly updates.
15. The Giant (David Raboy; Nov. 13)
A highlight at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, David Raboy’s directorial debut The Giant––which follows a young woman who...
From the first batch of five new Steve McQueen films to David Fincher’s first feature in six years to new work by Werner Herzog, Clea DuVall, Gabriel Mascaro, Francis Lee, and more, it’s a stellar line-up as we enter into the final stretch of 2020.
We should also note that some theatrical-only releases earlier this fall are making their digital debuts, such as The Nest and Possessor, so be sure to follow our streaming column for weekly updates.
15. The Giant (David Raboy; Nov. 13)
A highlight at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, David Raboy’s directorial debut The Giant––which follows a young woman who...
- 11/2/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe prolific Rhonda Fleming, a "movie star made for Technicolor" who shone in films like Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past, and especially Allan Dwan's Slightly Scarlet and Tennessee's Partner, has died at 97. Recommended VIEWINGBarry Jenkins has released a "preamble" for his upcoming Amazon series The Underground Railroad, based on the novel by Colson Whitehead. The series follows two slaves who escape a Georgia plantation by following the Underground Railroad. The trailer for Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer's Apple TV+ documentary, Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds, which focuses on the impact of meteorites on our planet. Roni Moore and James Blagden's Midnight in Paris follows a group of teenagers in Flint, Michigan, during the lead-up to their senior prom. The film will have its online...
- 10/26/2020
- MUBI
Apple TV Plus has scored worldwide distribution rights to “The Velvet Underground,” a new documentary from Oscar-nominated director Todd Haynes.
Haynes tackles the hugely influential 1960s avant-garde group, at one time managed by Andy Warhol and considered the “house band” of his iconic workspace The Factory.
Haynes’ film aims to prove how the group became a cultural touchstone representing a range of contradictions: timely yet timeless; literary yet realistic; rooted in high art and street culture. The film will feature a trove of never-before-seen performances, studio recordings, Warhol movies, and other experimental art that underscores what founding member John Cale called the band’s creative ethos: “how to be elegant and how to be brutal.”
The group, which counted Lou Reed among its ranks, was largely considered a commercial flop during its run, but has proven hugely formative in the music landscape in the decades that followed.
Filmmakers include Haynes...
Haynes tackles the hugely influential 1960s avant-garde group, at one time managed by Andy Warhol and considered the “house band” of his iconic workspace The Factory.
Haynes’ film aims to prove how the group became a cultural touchstone representing a range of contradictions: timely yet timeless; literary yet realistic; rooted in high art and street culture. The film will feature a trove of never-before-seen performances, studio recordings, Warhol movies, and other experimental art that underscores what founding member John Cale called the band’s creative ethos: “how to be elegant and how to be brutal.”
The group, which counted Lou Reed among its ranks, was largely considered a commercial flop during its run, but has proven hugely formative in the music landscape in the decades that followed.
Filmmakers include Haynes...
- 10/21/2020
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
Chicago – One of the most influential documentary makers in film history is Chicagoan Steve James of Kartemquin Films. His lens has commented upon not only the seminal “Hoop Dreams” (1994), but “Stevie” (2002), “The Interrupters” (2011), the Roger Ebert bio doc “Life Itself” (2014) and the recent “America to Me.”
His latest, debuting at the 56th Chicago International Film Festival (and October 29th on the National Geographic Channel), is “City So Real,” a searing inside look at the 2018 Chicago mayoral campaign. One of the subjects of that doc was the young and dynamic outlier candidate Neal Sáles Griffin, who talked issues within the film with HollywoodChicago.com.
Bound to become a defining miniseries (in five parts) on the continuing mystery that is the City of Chicago, director Steve James and Chicago’s Kartemquin Films explores the 2018-19 mayoral campaign during the upheaval of Rahm Emanuel’s decision not to seek another term. Exploring the...
His latest, debuting at the 56th Chicago International Film Festival (and October 29th on the National Geographic Channel), is “City So Real,” a searing inside look at the 2018 Chicago mayoral campaign. One of the subjects of that doc was the young and dynamic outlier candidate Neal Sáles Griffin, who talked issues within the film with HollywoodChicago.com.
Bound to become a defining miniseries (in five parts) on the continuing mystery that is the City of Chicago, director Steve James and Chicago’s Kartemquin Films explores the 2018-19 mayoral campaign during the upheaval of Rahm Emanuel’s decision not to seek another term. Exploring the...
- 10/20/2020
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Werner Herzog has always thirsted for the uncanny. It’s there in the primal awe he imparted to a grizzly bear in “Grizzly Man,” the cracked rapture of Klaus Kinski’s glowering megalomaniacal conquistador in “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” and the mysteriously intoxicating natural ice-sculpture formations of “Encounters at the End of the World.”
In his new documentary, “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,” Herzog hits us with an image in the first two minutes that’s as jaw-droppingly whoa! as any footage you’ve ever seen of a UFO that convinced you, for just a moment, that it was a genuine alien visitation. We see dash cam footage, shot on a highway in Chelyabinsk, Siberia, in 2013, of a fire-light meteor streaking across the sky and plunging toward earth, like an airliner crashing right before our eyes. We witness the fireball photographed from assorted locations and angles — roadways, a public square — as Herzog,...
In his new documentary, “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,” Herzog hits us with an image in the first two minutes that’s as jaw-droppingly whoa! as any footage you’ve ever seen of a UFO that convinced you, for just a moment, that it was a genuine alien visitation. We see dash cam footage, shot on a highway in Chelyabinsk, Siberia, in 2013, of a fire-light meteor streaking across the sky and plunging toward earth, like an airliner crashing right before our eyes. We witness the fireball photographed from assorted locations and angles — roadways, a public square — as Herzog,...
- 10/20/2020
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
After going Into the Inferno with Clive Oppenheimer, the duo will look to the skies for their next cinematic exploration. Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds finds them exploring sites that may yield insight into comets and meteorites, helping them understand what they can tell us about the origins of life on Earth.
Following a premiere at Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, the documentary will arrive on Apple TV+ next month and now the first trailer and poster have landed. Guided by Herzog’s ever-curious voice, the preview shows how meteorites have greatly influenced cultures and religions, with no shortage of epic, globe-spanning footage.
See the trailer below.
Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds arrives on Apple TV+ on November 13.
The post Werner Herzog Looks to the Skies in First Trailer for Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds first appeared on The Film Stage.
Following a premiere at Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, the documentary will arrive on Apple TV+ next month and now the first trailer and poster have landed. Guided by Herzog’s ever-curious voice, the preview shows how meteorites have greatly influenced cultures and religions, with no shortage of epic, globe-spanning footage.
See the trailer below.
Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds arrives on Apple TV+ on November 13.
The post Werner Herzog Looks to the Skies in First Trailer for Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds first appeared on The Film Stage.
- 10/17/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"Each one of these stones from darker worlds has its own story. And the bigger ones have changed entire landscapes." Apple has unveiled the first official trailer for Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds, the latest documentary made by Werner Herzog, and co-directed by volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer (also seen in Into the Inferno). This recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival (where I saw it - it's good!), and will be available streaming on Apple TV+ in November to watch this fall. Fireball is a new documentary from the legendary Werner Herzog all about meteors and comets and their influence on ancient religions and other cultural and physical impacts they've had on Earth. It's a fun 97 minute journey through the world of meteors and down into various-sized craters on planet Earth to explore their impact on humanity. If you are like me, and enjoy watching every Herzog documentary, this is another...
- 10/16/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
“Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds,” the upcoming documentary from acclaimed film director Werner Herzog, is set to premiere on Apple TV+ on November 13. The streaming service revealed the trailer for the project on Friday morning.
Per Apple, “Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds” takes viewers on an extraordinary journey to discover how shooting stars, meteorites, and deep impacts have focused the human imagination on other realms and worlds, and on our past and our future. The upcoming documentary hails from Herzog and volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer, who previously appeared in Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World” and “Into the Inferno.”
Although IndieWire’s David Ehrlich had mixed feelings about “Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds” in his grade B- review of the documentary in September, he nonetheless praised Herzog’s work on the project.
“If you learn anything from this documentary, it will be that nukes would be more effective...
Per Apple, “Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds” takes viewers on an extraordinary journey to discover how shooting stars, meteorites, and deep impacts have focused the human imagination on other realms and worlds, and on our past and our future. The upcoming documentary hails from Herzog and volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer, who previously appeared in Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World” and “Into the Inferno.”
Although IndieWire’s David Ehrlich had mixed feelings about “Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds” in his grade B- review of the documentary in September, he nonetheless praised Herzog’s work on the project.
“If you learn anything from this documentary, it will be that nukes would be more effective...
- 10/16/2020
- by Tyler Hersko
- Indiewire
In the first trailer for Werner Herzog’s latest documentary film “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,” he explains that meteorites aren’t just cool space rocks; they’re the stuff of legend and miracles.
Herzog’s documentary “Fireball” with scientist Clive Oppenheimer examines how meteorites have shaped cultures, religions and landscapes on Earth across millennia. They’re objects that have traveled from across the galaxy to land here, and when you hold one, there is literally nothing else in the world that’s older than the object you have in your hand.
“Each one of these stones from darker worlds has its own story, and the bigger ones have changed entire landscapes,” Herzog says in the trailer. “We do not know what in the future is coming for us, but untold numbers of these voyagers from afar are still on the way.”
“Fireball” is a visually stunning, globe-trotting documentary that...
Herzog’s documentary “Fireball” with scientist Clive Oppenheimer examines how meteorites have shaped cultures, religions and landscapes on Earth across millennia. They’re objects that have traveled from across the galaxy to land here, and when you hold one, there is literally nothing else in the world that’s older than the object you have in your hand.
“Each one of these stones from darker worlds has its own story, and the bigger ones have changed entire landscapes,” Herzog says in the trailer. “We do not know what in the future is coming for us, but untold numbers of these voyagers from afar are still on the way.”
“Fireball” is a visually stunning, globe-trotting documentary that...
- 10/16/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Haydn Keenan’s Smart Street Films has optioned Geoffrey Robertson’s book which argues that treasures that were forcefully or lawlessly acquired over centuries should be returned to their rightful owners.
Keenan and British/Australian executive producer Amanda Groom are planning an international docuseries as a co-production with the UK’s Spring Films, an Oscar nominated, Emmy Award winning production company specialising in high-end feature and television documentaries.
Headed by André Singer, Spring Films’ credits include Meeting Gorbachev, co-directed by Werner Herzog and Singer; the Channel 4 trilogy Prison, set in women’s prison Foston Hall; and Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds, co-directed by Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer.
Robertson’s Who Owns History?: Elgin’s Loot and the Case for Returning Plundered Treasure makes the case for returning the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum to Athens.
Fronted by Robertson and to be shot in Australia, China, West Africa and the Middle East,...
Keenan and British/Australian executive producer Amanda Groom are planning an international docuseries as a co-production with the UK’s Spring Films, an Oscar nominated, Emmy Award winning production company specialising in high-end feature and television documentaries.
Headed by André Singer, Spring Films’ credits include Meeting Gorbachev, co-directed by Werner Herzog and Singer; the Channel 4 trilogy Prison, set in women’s prison Foston Hall; and Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds, co-directed by Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer.
Robertson’s Who Owns History?: Elgin’s Loot and the Case for Returning Plundered Treasure makes the case for returning the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum to Athens.
Fronted by Robertson and to be shot in Australia, China, West Africa and the Middle East,...
- 10/11/2020
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
The American Film Institute has unveiled its lineup of 124 films, adding notable titles including the documentaries “Belushi,” “Citizen Penn” and “Hopper/Welles” and the Albert and Allen Hughes thriller “Dead Presidents.”
AFI Fest, which is going virtual this year without the usual glitzy Hollywood premieres at the Tcl Chinese Theatre, had announced previously that Rachel Brosnahan’s crime drama “I’m Your Woman” had been selected as its opening night title on Oct. 15. The festival also announced last month that it would close Oct. 22 with “My Psychedelic Love Story,” and host the world premieres of Kelly Oxford’s “Pink Skies Ahead” and Angel Kristi Williams’ “Really Love,” in addition to special presentations of Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s “Fireball” and Mira Nair’s “A Suitable Boy.”
“Belushi” is directed by R.J. Cutler and features interviews with John Belushi, Jim Belushi, Chevy Chase, Carrie Fisher, Dan Aykroyd and Penny Marshall.
AFI Fest, which is going virtual this year without the usual glitzy Hollywood premieres at the Tcl Chinese Theatre, had announced previously that Rachel Brosnahan’s crime drama “I’m Your Woman” had been selected as its opening night title on Oct. 15. The festival also announced last month that it would close Oct. 22 with “My Psychedelic Love Story,” and host the world premieres of Kelly Oxford’s “Pink Skies Ahead” and Angel Kristi Williams’ “Really Love,” in addition to special presentations of Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s “Fireball” and Mira Nair’s “A Suitable Boy.”
“Belushi” is directed by R.J. Cutler and features interviews with John Belushi, Jim Belushi, Chevy Chase, Carrie Fisher, Dan Aykroyd and Penny Marshall.
- 10/6/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
The American Film Institute (AFI) has today announced the full lineup of this year’s AFI Fest, including the World Cinema, New Auteurs, and Documentary sections. These titles, including buzzy festival features like “I Carry You with Me,” “Shadow in the Cloud,” “Jumbo,” “Farewell Amor,” “Wander Darkly,” “Tragic Jungle,” “Sound of Metal,” “Wolfwalkers,” “New Order,” and “Hopper/Welles,” join previously announced films, including Julia Hart’s “I’m Your Woman,” which will open the festival, and Errol Morris’ “My Psychedelic Love Story,” which will close it.
This year’s complete AFI Fest program includes 124 titles of which 53 percent are directed by women, 39 percent are directed by Bipoc, and 17 percent are directed by Lbgtq+.
“AFI Fest is committed to supporting diverse perspectives and new voices in cinema and this year is no different,” said Sarah Harris, Director of Programming, AFI Festivals, in an official statement. “While we wish we were able to be together in Hollywood,...
This year’s complete AFI Fest program includes 124 titles of which 53 percent are directed by women, 39 percent are directed by Bipoc, and 17 percent are directed by Lbgtq+.
“AFI Fest is committed to supporting diverse perspectives and new voices in cinema and this year is no different,” said Sarah Harris, Director of Programming, AFI Festivals, in an official statement. “While we wish we were able to be together in Hollywood,...
- 10/6/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Like tumbling autumn leaves, fall film festivals in Toronto, New York and more have added to the pile of must-see documentaries that could figure in the 2021 Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature.
Possible contenders include Oscar winner Errol Morris‘s yet-untitled doc for Showtime about LSD advocate Timothy Leary. Also, Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus‘s voter suppression film, “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” zeroes in on Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election and the continued threat to our elections; it just dropped on Amazon Prime. Oscar-nominated “Fire at Sea” director Gianfranco Rosi showed his latest effort, “Notturno,” in Venice and Toronto; shot across three years in Middle East locales near war zones, the doc focuses on how people from the region try to reclaim their everyday lives. It lacks a U.S. distributor.
Sam Pollard showed his IFC Films release “MLK/ FBI”in Toronto and New York, chronicling...
Possible contenders include Oscar winner Errol Morris‘s yet-untitled doc for Showtime about LSD advocate Timothy Leary. Also, Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus‘s voter suppression film, “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” zeroes in on Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election and the continued threat to our elections; it just dropped on Amazon Prime. Oscar-nominated “Fire at Sea” director Gianfranco Rosi showed his latest effort, “Notturno,” in Venice and Toronto; shot across three years in Middle East locales near war zones, the doc focuses on how people from the region try to reclaim their everyday lives. It lacks a U.S. distributor.
Sam Pollard showed his IFC Films release “MLK/ FBI”in Toronto and New York, chronicling...
- 10/5/2020
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
Why ‘Fireball’ Producer Sandbox Films Doesn’t Need Talking Heads to Make Smart Science Documentaries
In Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,” the directors show you gloriously colorful images of meteorites containing atomic particles of five-fold symmetry, a geometric shape thought to be impossible in nature. It’s a beautiful sight, but the German auteur concedes that he “won’t torture you” with more testimony from a bespectacled professor about how the math works. That line captures the ethos for the new production company Sandbox Films, which produced “Fireball” and launched last month at TIFF with a lineup of other science-based documentary films all in development. Sandbox Films’ founders, Greg Boustead and Jessica Harrop, are determined to make informative, intelligent documentary films about science, but they want to do so with a sense of real beauty, artistry and experimental creativity all driven from filmmakers. Essentially, science can be awesome, and they don’t want to bore you. “Science television is great,...
- 10/5/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Festival to go ahead as a physical event with guests including Thomas Vinterberg and Francois Ozon.
Rome Film Fest has revealed the programme and plans for its 15th edition, which is set to go ahead as a physical event with digital elements from October 15-25.
A total of 24 films and documentaries will comprise the official selection, most of which have proved critically-acclaimed at festivals such as Toronto, with nine having previously received a Cannes 2020 label.
Scroll down for line-up
These include three titles from Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology: Mangrove; Lovers Rock; and Red, White And Blue. The...
Rome Film Fest has revealed the programme and plans for its 15th edition, which is set to go ahead as a physical event with digital elements from October 15-25.
A total of 24 films and documentaries will comprise the official selection, most of which have proved critically-acclaimed at festivals such as Toronto, with nine having previously received a Cannes 2020 label.
Scroll down for line-up
These include three titles from Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology: Mangrove; Lovers Rock; and Red, White And Blue. The...
- 10/5/2020
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
There are few things more soothing and sardonic than hearing Werner Herzog opine about an impending apocalypse. Along with collaborator and co-director Clive Oppenheimer, the filmmakers provide a science-rich documentary freed from the didacticism of the genre, reveling instead in the true wonder and weirdness of our existence. Their previous film, Into the Inferno, gazed […]
The post ‘Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds’ Review: Werner Herzog Explores How Meteors Have Changed the World [TIFF] appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds’ Review: Werner Herzog Explores How Meteors Have Changed the World [TIFF] appeared first on /Film.
- 9/28/2020
- by Jason Gorber
- Slash Film
The 2020 AFI Fest will close with Errol Morris’ documentary “My Psychedelic Love Story,” the American Film Institute announced on Monday.
“My Psychedelic Love Story” explores the dark side of Timothy Leary, High Priest of LSD, who was known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs, and his doomed relationship with British socialite Joanna Harcourt-Smith.
AFI also announced the lineup for the Special Presentations section, which will include the world premieres of “Pink Skiews Ahead” (Kelly Oxford), “The Reagans” (Matt Tyrnauer), “Really Love” (Angel Kristi Williams), “The Father” (Florian Zeller), “Fireball” (Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer) and “A Suitable Boy” (Mira Nair).
“Celebrating the diversity of great cinematic storytelling, our Special Presentations offer our audience the opportunity to experience new stories and new voices at this year’s AFI Fest,” Michael Lumpkin, Director of AFI Festivals, said in a statement. “From first-time directors and established masters to fiction and nonfiction to series,...
“My Psychedelic Love Story” explores the dark side of Timothy Leary, High Priest of LSD, who was known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs, and his doomed relationship with British socialite Joanna Harcourt-Smith.
AFI also announced the lineup for the Special Presentations section, which will include the world premieres of “Pink Skiews Ahead” (Kelly Oxford), “The Reagans” (Matt Tyrnauer), “Really Love” (Angel Kristi Williams), “The Father” (Florian Zeller), “Fireball” (Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer) and “A Suitable Boy” (Mira Nair).
“Celebrating the diversity of great cinematic storytelling, our Special Presentations offer our audience the opportunity to experience new stories and new voices at this year’s AFI Fest,” Michael Lumpkin, Director of AFI Festivals, said in a statement. “From first-time directors and established masters to fiction and nonfiction to series,...
- 9/21/2020
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
AFI Fest will close its 34th edition on Oct. 22 with the world premiere of Showtime’s Timothy Leary documentary “My Psychedelic Love Story,” directed by Errol Morris.
The film explores the dark side of the Leary saga and how his doomed relationship with his former partner Joanna Harcourt-Smith served as the final nail in the coffin for the counterculture of the 1960s and ’70s.
AFI Fest, which is going virtual this year without the usual glitzy Hollywood premieres at the Tcl Chinese Theatre, announced last week that Rachel Brosnahan’s crime drama “I’m Your Woman” had been selected as its opening night title. The festival said Monday that it will host the world premieres of Kelly Oxford’s “Pink Skies Ahead” and Angel Kristi Williams’ “Really Love” in addition to special presentations of Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s “Fireball” and Mira Nair’s “A Suitable Boy.
The film explores the dark side of the Leary saga and how his doomed relationship with his former partner Joanna Harcourt-Smith served as the final nail in the coffin for the counterculture of the 1960s and ’70s.
AFI Fest, which is going virtual this year without the usual glitzy Hollywood premieres at the Tcl Chinese Theatre, announced last week that Rachel Brosnahan’s crime drama “I’m Your Woman” had been selected as its opening night title. The festival said Monday that it will host the world premieres of Kelly Oxford’s “Pink Skies Ahead” and Angel Kristi Williams’ “Really Love” in addition to special presentations of Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s “Fireball” and Mira Nair’s “A Suitable Boy.
- 9/21/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
The 34th annual AFI Fest said Monday that Showtime’s Errol Morris-directed documentary My Psychedelic Love Story will close the festival next month.
The movie follows LSD high priest Timothy Leary and how he became a narc in 1974 and abandoned the millions he urged to turn on, tune in and drop out. Was his “perfect love” Joanna Harcourt-Smith a government pawn, as suggested by Allen Ginsberg? Morris and Harcourt-Smith reexamine the Leary saga: his period of exile, reimprisonment and subsequent cooperation with the authorities.
The docu is inspired by Harcourt-Smith’s memoir Tripping the Bardo With Timothy Leary: My Psychedelic Love Story.
In addition, AFI today unveiled the festival’s Special Presentations section offering an array of non-fiction and fiction features including the world debuts of Kelly Oxford’s comedy-drama Pink Skies Ahead, Matt Tyrnauer’s Showtime docu series The Reagans, and Angel Kristi Williams’ drama Really Love. Also...
The movie follows LSD high priest Timothy Leary and how he became a narc in 1974 and abandoned the millions he urged to turn on, tune in and drop out. Was his “perfect love” Joanna Harcourt-Smith a government pawn, as suggested by Allen Ginsberg? Morris and Harcourt-Smith reexamine the Leary saga: his period of exile, reimprisonment and subsequent cooperation with the authorities.
The docu is inspired by Harcourt-Smith’s memoir Tripping the Bardo With Timothy Leary: My Psychedelic Love Story.
In addition, AFI today unveiled the festival’s Special Presentations section offering an array of non-fiction and fiction features including the world debuts of Kelly Oxford’s comedy-drama Pink Skies Ahead, Matt Tyrnauer’s Showtime docu series The Reagans, and Angel Kristi Williams’ drama Really Love. Also...
- 9/21/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
In keeping with the festival’s continuing tradition of showcasing television, AFI Fest has added filmmaker Errol Morris’ Showtime Documentary Films feature “My Psychedelic Love Story” as the virtual event’s closing night world premiere. The film explores the underbelly of LSD through the saga of Timothy Leary, and how his doomed relationship with Joanna Harcourt-Smith helped collapse the 1960s counterculture.
On the TV side, AFI also added the world premiere of Showtime’s “The Reagans,” a four-part documentary series directed by Matt Tyrnauer about President Ronald Reagan’s time in the Oval Office, and director Mira Nair’s BBC drama miniseries “A Suitable Boy,” which recently screened at TIFF and will bow on Netflix this year.
Additional world premieres will include Kelly Oxford’s mental health chronicle “Pink Skies Ahead” and Angel Kristi Williams’ romance “Really Love.” Read synopses provided by the festival below. As part of the Special Presentations lineup,...
On the TV side, AFI also added the world premiere of Showtime’s “The Reagans,” a four-part documentary series directed by Matt Tyrnauer about President Ronald Reagan’s time in the Oval Office, and director Mira Nair’s BBC drama miniseries “A Suitable Boy,” which recently screened at TIFF and will bow on Netflix this year.
Additional world premieres will include Kelly Oxford’s mental health chronicle “Pink Skies Ahead” and Angel Kristi Williams’ romance “Really Love.” Read synopses provided by the festival below. As part of the Special Presentations lineup,...
- 9/21/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Online event to open with world premiere of Julia Hart’s I’m Your Woman.
The world premiere of Errol Morris’ documentary My Psychedelic Love Story will close the 34th edition of AFI Fest.
The non-fiction maestro’s latest film explores the dark side of the Timothy Leary saga, and how his doomed relationship with Joanna Harcourt-Smith extinguished 1960s counterculture.
Festival heads also announced on Monday (September 21) world premieres of Kelly Oxford’s Pink Skies Ahead, Matt Tyrnauer’s The Reagans, and Angel Kristi Williams’ Really Love.
Florian Zeller’s The Father, Fireball from Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer, and...
The world premiere of Errol Morris’ documentary My Psychedelic Love Story will close the 34th edition of AFI Fest.
The non-fiction maestro’s latest film explores the dark side of the Timothy Leary saga, and how his doomed relationship with Joanna Harcourt-Smith extinguished 1960s counterculture.
Festival heads also announced on Monday (September 21) world premieres of Kelly Oxford’s Pink Skies Ahead, Matt Tyrnauer’s The Reagans, and Angel Kristi Williams’ Really Love.
Florian Zeller’s The Father, Fireball from Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer, and...
- 9/21/2020
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
By my reckoning, Werner Herzog became the first feature director to have shot films on all seven continents when he made it to Antarctica in 2009 for Encounters at the End of the World. He’s back there again, and to nearly every other continent as well, for his latest documentary, Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds, a consideration of what will happen when (as the director considers inevitable) Earth is struck by a giant meteor the likes of which wiped out the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago. Despite its heavy, apocalyptic concerns, the new film is relatively lightweight by Herzog’s standards, as it’s basically a series of chats with scientists and specialists laying out the history of asteroids smacking the planet and speculating about future collisions and they would mean for the world. Apple TV+ has acquired broadcast rights.
By the director’s vaunted and idiosyncratic standards, Fireball is relatively conventional,...
By the director’s vaunted and idiosyncratic standards, Fireball is relatively conventional,...
- 9/17/2020
- by Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
Werner Herzog says in his new film “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds” that to be a scientist you need a sense of wonder. That’s a quality that’s been true of just about all of Herzog’s documentaries, and in researching the science of meteorites with Clive Oppenheimer, he aimed to capture the beauty that scientists feel when exploring the unknown.
“Fireball” melds the science and mathematics of meteorites and asteroids with the culture, religion and mythologies that have grown over millennia out of this fascination with these ancient objects from outer space. And by teaming up with Oppenheimer as they did on “Encounters at the End of the World,” Herzog asks bigger, more spiritual questions than just wondering where space rocks came from.
“Clive never has a boring moment in him, and it was very visual, very beautiful, but I knew it had to do with science, but with the awe of discovery,...
“Fireball” melds the science and mathematics of meteorites and asteroids with the culture, religion and mythologies that have grown over millennia out of this fascination with these ancient objects from outer space. And by teaming up with Oppenheimer as they did on “Encounters at the End of the World,” Herzog asks bigger, more spiritual questions than just wondering where space rocks came from.
“Clive never has a boring moment in him, and it was very visual, very beautiful, but I knew it had to do with science, but with the awe of discovery,...
- 9/16/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
By Glenn Dunks
We're not covering TIFF more broadly this year, but I was lucky to snag a screener or two so we'll be writing about them in a couple of additional Doc Corner columns.
One of my favourite bits of movie trivia is that Werner Herzog is the only filmmaker to have ever directed feature-length films on every single continent. He completed that unique party trick with his 2007 Oscar-nominated documentary Encounters at the End of the World. I’m sure that if he could, he would make a movie in space. For now, however, his latest feature doc about the elements of space will have to suffice.
Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds begins in the terrestrial outback of Australia and ends in the shimmering blue plateaus of Antarctica with just about every other continent in between (he just can’t help himself). Herzog traces the history of meteorites with...
We're not covering TIFF more broadly this year, but I was lucky to snag a screener or two so we'll be writing about them in a couple of additional Doc Corner columns.
One of my favourite bits of movie trivia is that Werner Herzog is the only filmmaker to have ever directed feature-length films on every single continent. He completed that unique party trick with his 2007 Oscar-nominated documentary Encounters at the End of the World. I’m sure that if he could, he would make a movie in space. For now, however, his latest feature doc about the elements of space will have to suffice.
Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds begins in the terrestrial outback of Australia and ends in the shimmering blue plateaus of Antarctica with just about every other continent in between (he just can’t help himself). Herzog traces the history of meteorites with...
- 9/13/2020
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart’s “Wolfwalkers” is set in a very specific time period – 1650 in Kilkenny, Ireland. It was a very important town for Oliver Cromwell’s English troops to take over, and the film opens with an English soldier and his daughter, Robyn, settling into their house in town. It’s clear that the English Lord Protector and his soldiers are oppressing the Irish of Kilkenny, and the Lord Protector is determined to kill all the wolves in the forest outside the town walls. Robyn is determined to have adventures killing wolves, like her father, but instead encounters Mebh, a young wolfwalker her own age, and discovers the truth about the wolf pack and the magic of the forest — and she herself transforms into a wolfwalker — but not first without tense clashes with the Lord Protector and English troops that threaten the wolves, forest and Mebh’s wolfwalker mother.
- 9/12/2020
- by Carole Horst
- Variety Film + TV
In the world of nonfiction filmmaking, few things are as simultaneously comforting and provocative as the voice of Werner Herzog philosophizing and rhapsodizing about the implications of one thing or another. He’s been doing it for decades now in his documentaries, and in recent years he’s specialized in musings about the wonders of science and the natural world: caves in “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” volcanoes in “Into the Inferno,” Antarctica in “Encounters at the End of the World.”
Herzog’s new film, “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,” fits right into that continuum – and like “Into the Inferno,” it’s co-directed with Clive Oppenheimer, a Cambridge professor and scientist who in many ways serves as Herzog’s tour guide into this world. The new film has a bit of the feel of “Werner Herzog’s Greatest Hits” to it, because it goes back into caves and to a volcanic...
Herzog’s new film, “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,” fits right into that continuum – and like “Into the Inferno,” it’s co-directed with Clive Oppenheimer, a Cambridge professor and scientist who in many ways serves as Herzog’s tour guide into this world. The new film has a bit of the feel of “Werner Herzog’s Greatest Hits” to it, because it goes back into caves and to a volcanic...
- 9/10/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
A consummate showman who would happily bungee jump into Hell with a camera in his hands just for the joy of narrating that footage, Werner Herzog was a legendary filmmaker long before the breakout success of “Grizzly Man” saw him reborn as a living meme — as a morbidly hilarious mouthpiece for the savagery of a world that doesn’t think you’re special. Somewhere between pulling Joaquin Phoenix from a car wreck, brushing off a bullet wound in the middle of an on-camera interview, and coming to the deadpan conclusion that Timothy Treadwell was eaten alive by his bear friends because “the common denominator of the universe is chaos, hostility, and murder,” this titan of New German Cinema became a human version of the “this is fine” dog.
Not that Herzog seemed to mind. Not only did the new cachet make it possible for him to be more prolific than ever before,...
Not that Herzog seemed to mind. Not only did the new cachet make it possible for him to be more prolific than ever before,...
- 9/10/2020
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Sandbox Films, a new production company that will back documentary films about scientific inquiry, is launching at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival.
The company is on hand (virtually) for the world premiere of its inaugural effort, “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,” a new non-fiction effort from Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer the explores the science, history and mythology around meteors that fell to Earth.
In addition to “Fireball,” Sandbox Films has signed onto executive produce three upcoming documentaries with filmmakers Ondi Timoner, Penny Lane and Theo Anthony (“Rat Film”).
“There is really a hole in the documentary space in terms of commissioning films like these,” said Greg Boustead, who will serve as director and executive producer of Sandbox Films. “Outside of Nat Geo, Discovery and ‘Nova,’ there are not a lot of places where independent filmmakers can go to get resources to tell stories about science.”
The goal, Boustead said,...
The company is on hand (virtually) for the world premiere of its inaugural effort, “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,” a new non-fiction effort from Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer the explores the science, history and mythology around meteors that fell to Earth.
In addition to “Fireball,” Sandbox Films has signed onto executive produce three upcoming documentaries with filmmakers Ondi Timoner, Penny Lane and Theo Anthony (“Rat Film”).
“There is really a hole in the documentary space in terms of commissioning films like these,” said Greg Boustead, who will serve as director and executive producer of Sandbox Films. “Outside of Nat Geo, Discovery and ‘Nova,’ there are not a lot of places where independent filmmakers can go to get resources to tell stories about science.”
The goal, Boustead said,...
- 9/10/2020
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Ewan McGregor has been motorcycling down and around the world for years, but now it’s time to go up. Apple TV+ has unveiled “Long Way Up,” McGregor’s third motorcycle series with Charley Boorman.
Per Apple, “Long Way Up” will reunite best friends after more than a decade since their last motorbike adventure around the world. The show will cover 13,000 miles over 100 days through 16 border crossings and 13 countries, starting from the city of Ushuaia at the tip of South America. The series promises to tour “glorious and underexposed landscapes” in South and Central America as the duo undertake their most challenging expedition to date. McGregor and Boorman will journey through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and up through Colombia, Central America, and Mexico. They’ll be joined by directors David Alexanian and Russ Malkin, longtime collaborators with the duo, via their electric Rivians.
The first three episodes of “Long...
Per Apple, “Long Way Up” will reunite best friends after more than a decade since their last motorbike adventure around the world. The show will cover 13,000 miles over 100 days through 16 border crossings and 13 countries, starting from the city of Ushuaia at the tip of South America. The series promises to tour “glorious and underexposed landscapes” in South and Central America as the duo undertake their most challenging expedition to date. McGregor and Boorman will journey through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and up through Colombia, Central America, and Mexico. They’ll be joined by directors David Alexanian and Russ Malkin, longtime collaborators with the duo, via their electric Rivians.
The first three episodes of “Long...
- 8/4/2020
- by Tyler Hersko
- Indiewire
Three weeks after a spike in coronavirus cases forced the Telluride Film Festival team to cancel its 2020 event, organizers have announced the lineup that would have been.
“The Show,” as the festival refers to its annual feature program, planned to include “Ammonite,” a love story co-starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; “The Rider” director Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland”; contemporary Western “Concrete Cowboy” with Idris Elba; and Roger Michell’s heist movie “The Duke,” with Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent — all four of which will make their premieres at Venice or Toronto instead.
But many of the films in the documentary-heavy lineup were not selected for either of those festivals, which explains why Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger felt it was important to share their selections. The Telluride team typically keeps their selections secret until the day before the festival, which takes place over Labor Day weekend in the small Colorado community.
“The Show,” as the festival refers to its annual feature program, planned to include “Ammonite,” a love story co-starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; “The Rider” director Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland”; contemporary Western “Concrete Cowboy” with Idris Elba; and Roger Michell’s heist movie “The Duke,” with Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent — all four of which will make their premieres at Venice or Toronto instead.
But many of the films in the documentary-heavy lineup were not selected for either of those festivals, which explains why Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger felt it was important to share their selections. The Telluride team typically keeps their selections secret until the day before the festival, which takes place over Labor Day weekend in the small Colorado community.
- 8/3/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
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