While it’s hardly news that most of us are under some form of surveillance any time we’re in public, the extent of Big Brother’s activities still has the capacity to astound. That’s nowhere truer than in the People’s Republic of China, whose efforts to monitor its citizens’ every action (public or otherwise) would make Orwell blush. “One Child Nation” co-director Jialing Zhang once again turns the camera on her home country in “Total Trust,” the kind of eye-opening documentary that makes you realize you know far less about its subject than you thought you did — however bad you may think China’s surveillance state is, Zhang can assure you it’s far worse.
Taking its title from a dubious news report claiming that public trust in the government reached a staggering 98% at the height of the pandemic, the film’s very existence runs counter to that claim.
Taking its title from a dubious news report claiming that public trust in the government reached a staggering 98% at the height of the pandemic, the film’s very existence runs counter to that claim.
- 12/15/2023
- by Michael Nordine
- Variety Film + TV
The number of people credited as “Anonymous” in Jialing Zhang’s documentary “Total Trust” is chilling. Banned from China after making the documentary “One Child Nation,” Zhang relied on those in the country to help bring to life this examination of life in a surveillance state. The fear is real; in a coda at the end, we’re told that Sophia Xueqin Huang, a reporter critical of the government and one of the three women upon which the documentary focuses, was arrested on her way to study in the U.K. on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.”
In ways big and small, “Total Trust” tells audiences, the Chinese government is watching its citizens. Cc TV does its part; biometrics also plays a major role. But the true villains turn out to be the Chinese citizens who eagerly police their own neighbors.
Zhang doesn’t spend enough time on...
In ways big and small, “Total Trust” tells audiences, the Chinese government is watching its citizens. Cc TV does its part; biometrics also plays a major role. But the true villains turn out to be the Chinese citizens who eagerly police their own neighbors.
Zhang doesn’t spend enough time on...
- 12/7/2023
- by Mark Peikert
- Indiewire
After co-directing the Oscar shortlisted One Child Nation and producing In the Same Breath, Jialing Zhang is back with another documentary portrait of contemporary China, this time exploring the country’s pervasive and invasive total surveillance of its population. Total Trust, which premiered at Cph:dox and recently played at Doc NYC, will open at Film Forum on December 8 and we’re pleased to exclusively premiere the first U.S trailer.
Here’s the synopsis: “For two decades, China has implemented cutting-edge security and surveillance to monitor its citizens. In this fascinating and chilling documentary, Jialing Zhang (co-director of One Child Nation) immerses us in this daily reality: half a billion cameras pointed at the populace, invasive neighborhood watch programs (“Sharp Eyes”), employees monitored for stress levels, and a “social credit” point system that rewards for community service and penalizes perceived societal infractions. With the assistance of dozens of anonymous locals,...
Here’s the synopsis: “For two decades, China has implemented cutting-edge security and surveillance to monitor its citizens. In this fascinating and chilling documentary, Jialing Zhang (co-director of One Child Nation) immerses us in this daily reality: half a billion cameras pointed at the populace, invasive neighborhood watch programs (“Sharp Eyes”), employees monitored for stress levels, and a “social credit” point system that rewards for community service and penalizes perceived societal infractions. With the assistance of dozens of anonymous locals,...
- 11/14/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Feature will open theatrically at New York’s Film Forum on December 8.
Film Movement has acquired all North American rights to Total Trust, Zhang Jialing’s Cph-dox, Hot Docs and Sheffield selection about the Chinese surveillance state.
Total Trust’: Cph:dox Review
The distributor has set a December 8 theatrical release at New York’s Film Forum followed by home entertainment and digital platforms after president Michael Rosenberg negotiated the deal with Cinephil MD Olivier Tournaud.
Total Trust follows three women fighting for civil liberties and social justice in a country which uses high tech security and surveillance technology to monitor...
Film Movement has acquired all North American rights to Total Trust, Zhang Jialing’s Cph-dox, Hot Docs and Sheffield selection about the Chinese surveillance state.
Total Trust’: Cph:dox Review
The distributor has set a December 8 theatrical release at New York’s Film Forum followed by home entertainment and digital platforms after president Michael Rosenberg negotiated the deal with Cinephil MD Olivier Tournaud.
Total Trust follows three women fighting for civil liberties and social justice in a country which uses high tech security and surveillance technology to monitor...
- 10/20/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Feature will open theatrically at New York’s Film Forum on December 8.
Film Movement has acquired all North American rights to Total Trust, Zhang Jialing’s Cph:dox, Hot Docs and Sheffield selection about the Chinese surveillance state.
Total Trust’: Cph:dox Review
The distributor has set a December 8 theatrical release at New York’s Film Forum followed by home entertainment and digital platforms. Film Movement president Michael Rosenberg and Cinephil MD Olivier Tournaud announced the deal on Friday.
Total Trust follows three women fighting for civil liberties and social justice in a country which uses high tech security and surveillance...
Film Movement has acquired all North American rights to Total Trust, Zhang Jialing’s Cph:dox, Hot Docs and Sheffield selection about the Chinese surveillance state.
Total Trust’: Cph:dox Review
The distributor has set a December 8 theatrical release at New York’s Film Forum followed by home entertainment and digital platforms. Film Movement president Michael Rosenberg and Cinephil MD Olivier Tournaud announced the deal on Friday.
Total Trust follows three women fighting for civil liberties and social justice in a country which uses high tech security and surveillance...
- 10/20/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
The Sundance Institute has named the 2023 grantees of its Documentary Fund, supporting the work of nonfiction filmmakers from around the globe, with 23 projects being selected for unrestricted grant funding totaling just over $1M.
Six of the selected projects are in development, with 14 in production and three currently in post. Notable filmmakers recognized as part of the group include Oscar and Emmy nominee Lourdes Portillo (with Looking at Ourselves), artist and filmmaker Amy Jenkins (with Adam’s Apple), and Anayansi Prado (with Untitled Uvalde Documentary). Also represented are such sophomore filmmakers coming off strong debuts as Reid Davenport (I Didn’t See You There) with Life After, Sky Hopinka with Powwow People, and Tali Yankelevich (My Darling Supermarket) with Girl-Tubers.
Sundance Institute’s Documentary Fund prioritizes supporting and empowering historically marginalized voices and providing a platform for integral stories to be amplified. Many of the...
Six of the selected projects are in development, with 14 in production and three currently in post. Notable filmmakers recognized as part of the group include Oscar and Emmy nominee Lourdes Portillo (with Looking at Ourselves), artist and filmmaker Amy Jenkins (with Adam’s Apple), and Anayansi Prado (with Untitled Uvalde Documentary). Also represented are such sophomore filmmakers coming off strong debuts as Reid Davenport (I Didn’t See You There) with Life After, Sky Hopinka with Powwow People, and Tali Yankelevich (My Darling Supermarket) with Girl-Tubers.
Sundance Institute’s Documentary Fund prioritizes supporting and empowering historically marginalized voices and providing a platform for integral stories to be amplified. Many of the...
- 8/21/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Itvs today announced the appointment of Carrie Lozano as the organization’s new president and CEO, succeeding longtime chief Sally Jo Fifer.
Lozano, an Emmy and Peabody-winning documentary filmmaker, joins Itvs from the Sundance Institute, where she has served as director of Documentary Films and Artists Programs since 2020. Itvs, which is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, describes its mission as bringing “independently-produced, high-quality public broadcast and new media programs to local, national, and international audiences.”
In a statement, Itvs board chair Garry Denny said, “Carrie’s integrity as an investigative journalist, her leadership experience, and her fierce commitment to filmmakers and democracy will lift our field, partners and incredible staff for many years to come. The board is thrilled to welcome her to our team and to public media.”
As president and CEO, Lozano will be charged with continuing “to protect independent artists’ voices, editorial control and copyright...
Lozano, an Emmy and Peabody-winning documentary filmmaker, joins Itvs from the Sundance Institute, where she has served as director of Documentary Films and Artists Programs since 2020. Itvs, which is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, describes its mission as bringing “independently-produced, high-quality public broadcast and new media programs to local, national, and international audiences.”
In a statement, Itvs board chair Garry Denny said, “Carrie’s integrity as an investigative journalist, her leadership experience, and her fierce commitment to filmmakers and democracy will lift our field, partners and incredible staff for many years to come. The board is thrilled to welcome her to our team and to public media.”
As president and CEO, Lozano will be charged with continuing “to protect independent artists’ voices, editorial control and copyright...
- 6/7/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The Independent Television Service (Itvs) has tapped Carrie Lozano as its president and CEO following the announcement of Sally Jo Fifer’s departure in January. The Itvs board selected Lozano after working with executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates.
Leading the organization, Lozano will work to “protect independent artists’ voices, editorial control and copyright while elevating nonfiction storytelling as an essential strategy for public media to reach new and diverse audiences.” She will enter the role on August 7. The Itvs board worked with the executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates to recruit its fourth President & CEO since the organization’s founding.
Lozano joins Itvs after most recently serving as director of documentary film and artist programs at the Sundance Institute. There, she and her team created programs to provide funding, creative labs, fellowships, and intensive artist support, and forged partnerships with Gucci, the Asian American Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation.
Leading the organization, Lozano will work to “protect independent artists’ voices, editorial control and copyright while elevating nonfiction storytelling as an essential strategy for public media to reach new and diverse audiences.” She will enter the role on August 7. The Itvs board worked with the executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates to recruit its fourth President & CEO since the organization’s founding.
Lozano joins Itvs after most recently serving as director of documentary film and artist programs at the Sundance Institute. There, she and her team created programs to provide funding, creative labs, fellowships, and intensive artist support, and forged partnerships with Gucci, the Asian American Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation.
- 6/7/2023
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
Carrie Lozano was named Itvs president and CEO Wednesday to succeed Sally Jo Fifer, who had held the position for 22 years.
Lozano joins from the Sundance Institute, where she previously served as director of documentary film and artist programs. At Itvs, she will continue to protect independent artists’ voices, editorial control and copyright, while elevating nonfiction storytelling as an essential strategy for public media to reach new and diverse audiences.
“Carrie’s integrity as an investigative journalist, her leadership experience, and her fierce commitment to filmmakers and democracy will lift our field, partners and incredible staff for many years to come,” said Itvs board chair Garry Denny. “The board is thrilled to welcome her to our team and to public media.”
While at Sundance, beginning in October 2020, Lozano and her team created programs to supply funding, creative labs, fellowships and support. She helped forge partnerships with Gucci, the Asian American...
Lozano joins from the Sundance Institute, where she previously served as director of documentary film and artist programs. At Itvs, she will continue to protect independent artists’ voices, editorial control and copyright, while elevating nonfiction storytelling as an essential strategy for public media to reach new and diverse audiences.
“Carrie’s integrity as an investigative journalist, her leadership experience, and her fierce commitment to filmmakers and democracy will lift our field, partners and incredible staff for many years to come,” said Itvs board chair Garry Denny. “The board is thrilled to welcome her to our team and to public media.”
While at Sundance, beginning in October 2020, Lozano and her team created programs to supply funding, creative labs, fellowships and support. She helped forge partnerships with Gucci, the Asian American...
- 6/7/2023
- by Scott Mendelson
- The Wrap
“Seven Winters in Tehran,” about a 19-year-old Iranian woman sentenced to death for killing the man who tried to rape her, will open the 34th annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival on May 31 in New York City.
The festival, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, will feature 10 documentaries about humanitarian challenges around the world. This year’s edition spotlights themes and topics including the Ukraine conflict (“When Spring Came to Bucha”), climate gentrification and justice (“Razing Liberty Square”), women’s rights (“Draw Me Egypt”) transgender rights (“Into My Name”) freedom of the press (“The Etilaat Roz”) and access to health care in the United States (“Pay or Die”).
“From the war in Ukraine to women’s rights and bodily autonomy, to environmental gentrification and freedom of the press, these films span some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time,” says John Biaggi,...
The festival, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, will feature 10 documentaries about humanitarian challenges around the world. This year’s edition spotlights themes and topics including the Ukraine conflict (“When Spring Came to Bucha”), climate gentrification and justice (“Razing Liberty Square”), women’s rights (“Draw Me Egypt”) transgender rights (“Into My Name”) freedom of the press (“The Etilaat Roz”) and access to health care in the United States (“Pay or Die”).
“From the war in Ukraine to women’s rights and bodily autonomy, to environmental gentrification and freedom of the press, these films span some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time,” says John Biaggi,...
- 4/27/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Documentary filmmaker Jialing Zhang, who was nominated for an Emmy for “One Child Nation,” spoke to Variety about her latest film, “Total Trust,” which is running in the main competition at Cph:dox, the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Festival.
It tells the chilling story of three women and their families fighting for their human rights in China, where state control is ubiquitous thanks to high technology surveillance, such as facial recognition, big data analysis and points systems that mean citizens gain or lose points depending on their behavior.
Zhang’s intimate footage offers unprecedented access to the impact of this all-controlling system on the protagonists’ everyday lives.
“We didn’t just want to do a film about surveillance but about the people living in this kind of society. We wanted to reach a certain emotional depth and complexity – to try to grasp the anger, the horror, but also the hope, through the...
It tells the chilling story of three women and their families fighting for their human rights in China, where state control is ubiquitous thanks to high technology surveillance, such as facial recognition, big data analysis and points systems that mean citizens gain or lose points depending on their behavior.
Zhang’s intimate footage offers unprecedented access to the impact of this all-controlling system on the protagonists’ everyday lives.
“We didn’t just want to do a film about surveillance but about the people living in this kind of society. We wanted to reach a certain emotional depth and complexity – to try to grasp the anger, the horror, but also the hope, through the...
- 3/17/2023
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix and Chicken & Egg Pictures have teamed up on a new $450,000 documentary fund to support seasoned women and non-binary filmmakers working on their next feature-length project. Up to 30 filmmaking teams will receive either a $10,000 research grant or a $20,000 development grant to use towards a docu project.
Recipients of the Chicken & Egg Pictures research and development grant will also have access to peer support, mentorship, and relationship-building within the documentary filmmaking community.
Applications are currently being accepted for the new grant. The deadline for submission is April 24 and recipients will be announced this summer. To be eligible for the new grant, projects must be a feature-length film that is either in the research or the development stage. Additionally, the project must be directed or co-directed by an experienced woman or non-binary filmmaker who has directed at least two feature-length documentary films. Docus covering all types of topics and artistic approaches are welcome to apply.
Recipients of the Chicken & Egg Pictures research and development grant will also have access to peer support, mentorship, and relationship-building within the documentary filmmaking community.
Applications are currently being accepted for the new grant. The deadline for submission is April 24 and recipients will be announced this summer. To be eligible for the new grant, projects must be a feature-length film that is either in the research or the development stage. Additionally, the project must be directed or co-directed by an experienced woman or non-binary filmmaker who has directed at least two feature-length documentary films. Docus covering all types of topics and artistic approaches are welcome to apply.
- 3/16/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
The Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, also known as Cph:dox, has unveiled the full program of its 20th edition, which includes 200 new films, more than half of which are world premieres, sealing Cph:dox’s reputation as one of the leading events of its kind in Europe.
For the first time, all 13 films competing for the top Dox:Award are world premieres.
These include “A Storm Foretold,” the long-awaited doc on Donald Trump’s former adviser Roger Stone by Danish political journalist Christopher Guldbrandsen; established filmmaker Margreth Olin’s highly anticipated epic film “Songs of the Earth”; “A Tiger in Paradise,” a surreal journey into Swedish singer José González’ inner world by Ruben Östlund’s regular creative partners Mikel Cee Karlsson and Erik Hemmendorff; and “Total Trust” by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), described as “the first major film about the Chinese surveillance state (…) – a disturbing tale of technology, (self-) censorship and...
For the first time, all 13 films competing for the top Dox:Award are world premieres.
These include “A Storm Foretold,” the long-awaited doc on Donald Trump’s former adviser Roger Stone by Danish political journalist Christopher Guldbrandsen; established filmmaker Margreth Olin’s highly anticipated epic film “Songs of the Earth”; “A Tiger in Paradise,” a surreal journey into Swedish singer José González’ inner world by Ruben Östlund’s regular creative partners Mikel Cee Karlsson and Erik Hemmendorff; and “Total Trust” by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), described as “the first major film about the Chinese surveillance state (…) – a disturbing tale of technology, (self-) censorship and...
- 2/21/2023
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Chinese director reveals the challenges of making the Winter Games documentary.
Amsterdam and Beijing-based Fortissimo Films has scored international rights to Lu Chuan’s Olympics documentary Beijing 2022 and is launching sales at the European Film Market.
Shot over more than two years, the official film of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing goes behind the scenes to share the stories of international and Chinese athletes, volunteers, medical personnel and officials – against the backdrop of a global pandemic.
An international team extended coverage to the US, France, Belgium, Austria and beyond to record the preparation of athletes. More than 1,200 hours...
Amsterdam and Beijing-based Fortissimo Films has scored international rights to Lu Chuan’s Olympics documentary Beijing 2022 and is launching sales at the European Film Market.
Shot over more than two years, the official film of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing goes behind the scenes to share the stories of international and Chinese athletes, volunteers, medical personnel and officials – against the backdrop of a global pandemic.
An international team extended coverage to the US, France, Belgium, Austria and beyond to record the preparation of athletes. More than 1,200 hours...
- 2/18/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
For the first time, all 13 titles in the festival’s main competition are world premieres.
Cph:dox has selected 13 titles for its main Dox:Award competition, including the world premiere of Christoffer Guldbrandsen’s A Storm Foretold, about Roger Stone, former advisor to Donald Trump.
For the first time, all 13 titles in the Dox:Award selection will have their world debuts in Copenhagen.
Scroll down for the full list of Dox:Award titles
Written and directed by Guldbrandsen, A Storm Foretold takes Stone as its central character in documenting how Trump’s presidential period reached a logical conclusion with the attack on the US...
Cph:dox has selected 13 titles for its main Dox:Award competition, including the world premiere of Christoffer Guldbrandsen’s A Storm Foretold, about Roger Stone, former advisor to Donald Trump.
For the first time, all 13 titles in the Dox:Award selection will have their world debuts in Copenhagen.
Scroll down for the full list of Dox:Award titles
Written and directed by Guldbrandsen, A Storm Foretold takes Stone as its central character in documenting how Trump’s presidential period reached a logical conclusion with the attack on the US...
- 2/15/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Oscar winning filmmakers Asif Kapadia (“Amy”) and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (“Free Solo”), Oscar nominees Maite Alberdi (“The Mole Agent”) and Jessica Kingdon (“Ascension”), and Emmy nominee Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”) are among the lineup of speakers at Cph:conference, which runs during Cph:dox, Copenhagen’s documentary film festival.
The discussion program, which runs under the banner “Future at Our Fingertips,” also features Veronika Châtelain from Open Society Foundation and Anadil Hossain from Unhcr.
Cph:conference, which is curated in partnership with the training initiative Documentary Campus, has unveiled the full lineup of events (see here). The conference organizers said this year’s edition is aiming to “gather the international non-fiction community to collectively envision the future of the industry, discover and unlock the currently available resources, possible solutions, and transformative potential of the industry of tomorrow.”
The mornings are dedicated to the art of filmmaking and the creative challenges it brings.
The discussion program, which runs under the banner “Future at Our Fingertips,” also features Veronika Châtelain from Open Society Foundation and Anadil Hossain from Unhcr.
Cph:conference, which is curated in partnership with the training initiative Documentary Campus, has unveiled the full lineup of events (see here). The conference organizers said this year’s edition is aiming to “gather the international non-fiction community to collectively envision the future of the industry, discover and unlock the currently available resources, possible solutions, and transformative potential of the industry of tomorrow.”
The mornings are dedicated to the art of filmmaking and the creative challenges it brings.
- 2/6/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
This year, women directors – and their women-centric subjects – swept the awards at Sundance Film Festival. Three women directors – Madeleine Gavin, Maryam Keshavarz, and Noora Niasari – won Audience Awards for their films on North Korea (“Beyond Utopia”), intergenerational motherhood (“The Persian Version”), and custody in diaspora (“Shayda”). Portraits of masculinity were also celebrated as well. First-time feature filmmaker Sing J. Lee won the Directing Award for his touching portrait of masculinity and fatherhood in “The Accidental Getaway Driver,” while Sauvnik Kaur’s intimate documentary on brotherhood “Against The Tide” took home a Special Jury Award. After two years of isolation and virtual festival-ing, it seems that stories of tenderness appealed over aggressive storytelling at Park City this year.
“This year’s Festival has been an extraordinary experience,” said Joana Vicente, Sundance Institute CEO. “The artists that comprise the 2023 Sundance Film Festival have demonstrated a sense of urgency and dedication to excellence in independent film.
“This year’s Festival has been an extraordinary experience,” said Joana Vicente, Sundance Institute CEO. “The artists that comprise the 2023 Sundance Film Festival have demonstrated a sense of urgency and dedication to excellence in independent film.
- 2/1/2023
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
When PBS announced in 2017 that vaunted documentarian Ken Burns was hard at work on a four-part docuseries about Muhammad Ali, to debut in 2021, the news was greeted with much anticipation: one of the film world’s greats on the Greatest. The only hint of criticism came from some who thought Ali’s life was already well-trod territory. But four years later — in the wake of a racial reckoning in America that had the film industry, like so many others, reevaluating its commitment to diversity — the docu community had become considerably less welcoming of the project. With public chatter about a lack of representation and opportunity for people of color reaching a peak, a coalition of 140 documentary filmmakers sent an open letter to PBS in March 2021, slamming the choice of Burns to helm what was being positioned as the definitive doc on Ali.
“Your commitment to diversity at PBS is not borne out by the evidence,...
“Your commitment to diversity at PBS is not borne out by the evidence,...
- 9/16/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Acclaimed filmmaker Nanfu Wang’s new docuseries, “Mind Over Murder,” will premiere June 20 at 10 p.m. Pt on HBO Max.
Produced by Vox Media Studios, the six-part show will explore the complicated nature of memory, as told through the 1985 Nebraska murder case featuring the “Beatrice Six.”
Wang — whose “Hooligan Sparrow” was shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature at the 2017 Oscars — will use the case to shed light on the fallibility of police confessions and how recovered memories can inadvertently induce false ones, which in tandem produce wrongful convictions. The docuseries will feature previously unavailable archival footage, including the original interrogation videos, as well as interviews with the family members of the victim and the Beatrice Six and former government officials involved in the case.
Also Read:
TheWrap-Up Podcast: Nanfu Wang and Megan Mylan On Their Powerful Oscar Shortlisted Documentaries
“Mind Over Murder” unravels the complex story of six people who were...
Produced by Vox Media Studios, the six-part show will explore the complicated nature of memory, as told through the 1985 Nebraska murder case featuring the “Beatrice Six.”
Wang — whose “Hooligan Sparrow” was shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature at the 2017 Oscars — will use the case to shed light on the fallibility of police confessions and how recovered memories can inadvertently induce false ones, which in tandem produce wrongful convictions. The docuseries will feature previously unavailable archival footage, including the original interrogation videos, as well as interviews with the family members of the victim and the Beatrice Six and former government officials involved in the case.
Also Read:
TheWrap-Up Podcast: Nanfu Wang and Megan Mylan On Their Powerful Oscar Shortlisted Documentaries
“Mind Over Murder” unravels the complex story of six people who were...
- 6/1/2022
- by Natalie Oganesyan
- The Wrap
Among the filmmakers taking center stage at the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival’s financing and co-production platform, Cph:forum, is China’s Jialing Zhang with her new project “The Total Trust” (a working title).
Her previous doc, “One Child Nation” (pictured), which she produced and co-directed with Nanfu Wang, picked up the Grand Jury Prize in Sundance in 2019.
Shot in China, “The Total Trust” explores the Chinese government’s digital social control system – the most sophisticated in the world – and the effect it is having on the population.
Its producers say most of the filming is complete and they will be seeking to fill the €350,000 funding gap out of the film’s total budget of €1 million ($1.1 million) at Cph:forum.
Described by its makers as “a cautionary tale of technology in the hands of unchecked power,” the film lends a voice to those who stand in defiance of it.
“It’s...
Her previous doc, “One Child Nation” (pictured), which she produced and co-directed with Nanfu Wang, picked up the Grand Jury Prize in Sundance in 2019.
Shot in China, “The Total Trust” explores the Chinese government’s digital social control system – the most sophisticated in the world – and the effect it is having on the population.
Its producers say most of the filming is complete and they will be seeking to fill the €350,000 funding gap out of the film’s total budget of €1 million ($1.1 million) at Cph:forum.
Described by its makers as “a cautionary tale of technology in the hands of unchecked power,” the film lends a voice to those who stand in defiance of it.
“It’s...
- 3/25/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, which runs March 21-April 3, has revealed the lineup for its international financing and co-production event Cph:forum.
Women are taking central stage in the lineup both as characters and storytellers, and the Forum will feature new projects by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), Ilinca Calugareanu (“Chuck Norris vs. Communism”), Tova Mozard (“Psychic”), Elizabeth Lo (“Stray”) and Lana Wilson (“Miss Americana”) among others.
The selection of 30 projects in this year’s Cph:forum represents a variety of topics, genres and artistic approaches from a diverse group of filmmakers. According to the festival, “Seeking to demonstrate the richness and heterogeneity of the documentary genre, Cph:forum presents a curated slate of films that speak to the major issues of the world we live in.”
Topics of race, equity and colonial legacy connect a personal film of Barbadian filmmaker Jason Fitzroy Jeffers (“Papa Machete”), and the newest project of the Dutch...
Women are taking central stage in the lineup both as characters and storytellers, and the Forum will feature new projects by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), Ilinca Calugareanu (“Chuck Norris vs. Communism”), Tova Mozard (“Psychic”), Elizabeth Lo (“Stray”) and Lana Wilson (“Miss Americana”) among others.
The selection of 30 projects in this year’s Cph:forum represents a variety of topics, genres and artistic approaches from a diverse group of filmmakers. According to the festival, “Seeking to demonstrate the richness and heterogeneity of the documentary genre, Cph:forum presents a curated slate of films that speak to the major issues of the world we live in.”
Topics of race, equity and colonial legacy connect a personal film of Barbadian filmmaker Jason Fitzroy Jeffers (“Papa Machete”), and the newest project of the Dutch...
- 2/10/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
There are 30 projects in first physical event since 2019.
New works from One Child Nation director Jialing Zhang and Chuck Norris vs. Communism filmmaker Ilinca Calugareanu are among the 30 projects participating in Cph:forum, the financing and co-production market of Cph:dox film festival.
The Forum will run from March 28-31, and will be the first in-person edition since 2019.
Scroll down for the full list of titles
Massachusetts-based Chinese filmmaker Zhang is participating with German-Dutch co-production The Total Trust (working title), produced by Knut Jager through Germany’s Filmtank. The documentary will examine the growth of surveillance culture in China, from cameras to AI profiling.
New works from One Child Nation director Jialing Zhang and Chuck Norris vs. Communism filmmaker Ilinca Calugareanu are among the 30 projects participating in Cph:forum, the financing and co-production market of Cph:dox film festival.
The Forum will run from March 28-31, and will be the first in-person edition since 2019.
Scroll down for the full list of titles
Massachusetts-based Chinese filmmaker Zhang is participating with German-Dutch co-production The Total Trust (working title), produced by Knut Jager through Germany’s Filmtank. The documentary will examine the growth of surveillance culture in China, from cameras to AI profiling.
- 2/10/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
China Media Group has launched CCTV-8K, an 8K ultra-high-definition TV channel, to broadcast the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, state-owned news agency Xinhua reports.
To deliver the channel, Cmg had to accelerate development of its nascent 8K production, broadcasting and transmission operations, said the Asian Broadcasting Union.
Cmg has started to install giant 8K screens in public places across the country, starting with four railway stations in Beijing and Olympic venue Zhangjiakou.
Other media novelties this year include Kuaishou, a short video and live-streaming platform, being set as an official broadcast partner. Kuaishou claims more than a billion downloads of its app and to be catching fierce rival Bytedance (which owns both TikTok and its Chinese equivalent Douyin.)
Along with streaming platform Tencent Video, Kuaishou sub-licensed the China rights to last year’s Tokyo summer games and the 2022 Beijing Olympics from China Central Television.
The games are set to go...
To deliver the channel, Cmg had to accelerate development of its nascent 8K production, broadcasting and transmission operations, said the Asian Broadcasting Union.
Cmg has started to install giant 8K screens in public places across the country, starting with four railway stations in Beijing and Olympic venue Zhangjiakou.
Other media novelties this year include Kuaishou, a short video and live-streaming platform, being set as an official broadcast partner. Kuaishou claims more than a billion downloads of its app and to be catching fierce rival Bytedance (which owns both TikTok and its Chinese equivalent Douyin.)
Along with streaming platform Tencent Video, Kuaishou sub-licensed the China rights to last year’s Tokyo summer games and the 2022 Beijing Olympics from China Central Television.
The games are set to go...
- 1/28/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 94th Oscars ceremony.
The shortlist voting concluded on Dec. 15, and the remaining ones will move on to the official phase one voting. Nominations voting begins on Thursday, Jan. 27, and ends on Tuesday, Feb. 1. The official credits and nominees for all the films will be announced, with the rest of the Oscar nominations on Tuesday, Feb. 8.
Check out the list of the films and categories below:
Original Song
“So May We Start?” from “Annette” (Amazon Studios)
Ron Mael, Russell Mael (Sparks) “Down To Joy” from “Belfast” (Focus Features)
Van Morrison “Right Where I Belong” from “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road” (Screen Media Films)
Brian Wilson, Jim James “Automatic Woman” from “Bruised” (Netflix)
H.E.R. (other songwriters to be added) “Dream Girl” from “Cinderella” (Amazon Studios)
Idina Menzel, Laura Veltz “Beyond The Shore” from...
The shortlist voting concluded on Dec. 15, and the remaining ones will move on to the official phase one voting. Nominations voting begins on Thursday, Jan. 27, and ends on Tuesday, Feb. 1. The official credits and nominees for all the films will be announced, with the rest of the Oscar nominations on Tuesday, Feb. 8.
Check out the list of the films and categories below:
Original Song
“So May We Start?” from “Annette” (Amazon Studios)
Ron Mael, Russell Mael (Sparks) “Down To Joy” from “Belfast” (Focus Features)
Van Morrison “Right Where I Belong” from “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road” (Screen Media Films)
Brian Wilson, Jim James “Automatic Woman” from “Bruised” (Netflix)
H.E.R. (other songwriters to be added) “Dream Girl” from “Cinderella” (Amazon Studios)
Idina Menzel, Laura Veltz “Beyond The Shore” from...
- 12/21/2021
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced the eight nominees for its 2022 Best Documentary award on Friday, December 10. The winner will be revealed at the 33rd Annual PGA Awards which will take place on Saturday, February 26, 2022. The remaining Producers Guild Awards nominations, including those for the Oscar bellwether Best Picture, will be unveiled on Thursday, January 27, 2022. The eight documentary features in the running are:
Ascension
The First Wave
Flee
In The Same Breath
The Rescue
Simple As Water
Summer Of Soul
Writing With Fire
The PGA nomination is an important step on the path to Oscar glory. Five of the last six eventual Oscar champs for Best Documentary Feature were nominated first by the producers guild, including last year’s “My Octopus Teacher,” which took home both prizes. The PGA win was the film’s first major accolade after missing nominations from prestigious non-fiction bellwethers Cinema Eye Honors and the International Documentary Association.
Ascension
The First Wave
Flee
In The Same Breath
The Rescue
Simple As Water
Summer Of Soul
Writing With Fire
The PGA nomination is an important step on the path to Oscar glory. Five of the last six eventual Oscar champs for Best Documentary Feature were nominated first by the producers guild, including last year’s “My Octopus Teacher,” which took home both prizes. The PGA win was the film’s first major accolade after missing nominations from prestigious non-fiction bellwethers Cinema Eye Honors and the International Documentary Association.
- 12/12/2021
- by John Benutty
- Gold Derby
Nanfu Wang has had to deal with Chinese authorities targeting her family for several years, but the work she’s done for “In the Same Breath” has lead to the most serious instance of this intimidation. “This one was the most serious because three of my family members in different places were taken to police stations,” she tells us during our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video interview above). Authorities from the Chinese Communist Party have interrogated her mother and other family members due to her other documentaries about China, but the danger posed this time was on another level. “This one, the threats were if I were to ever make a film about China again, they would arrest my brother and my uncle.”
“In the Same Breath,” which is currently streaming on HBO Max, examines the government response to the Covid-19 pandemic in both China and the United States.
“In the Same Breath,” which is currently streaming on HBO Max, examines the government response to the Covid-19 pandemic in both China and the United States.
- 12/10/2021
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
When “One Child Nation” director Nanfu Wang flew to China in early January of last year to see her mother and drop off her young son for a visit, little did she know at the time that the entire world was about to change. But by January 23, 2020, the Chinese government had locked down the city of Wuhan in what became a futile effort to stop the spread of Covid-19 from quickly moving around the globe and plunging society into its worst health crisis in a century.
Featuring incredible and clandestine footage recorded by Chinese citizens as well as heartbreaking interviews with American health care workers left without equipment or guidance on how to handle the coronavirus outbreak, Wang turned her personal brush with Covid-19 into the new film “In the Same Breath.” The documentary — an almost real-time history of the pandemic’s origins that dates back to December of 2019 — premieres...
Featuring incredible and clandestine footage recorded by Chinese citizens as well as heartbreaking interviews with American health care workers left without equipment or guidance on how to handle the coronavirus outbreak, Wang turned her personal brush with Covid-19 into the new film “In the Same Breath.” The documentary — an almost real-time history of the pandemic’s origins that dates back to December of 2019 — premieres...
- 12/6/2021
- by Christopher Rosen
- Gold Derby
Fork Films, a New York production company co-founded by Abigail Disney, has announced 11 grantees for its 2021 round of documentary funding. Topics explored in the slate of films include social justice, the impact of the pandemic on historically marginalized communities, climate gentrification and maternal mortality.
The company has funded over 100 projects over 14 years, adding up to over $4.5 million in documentary grants and support. With an aim to elevate justice-driven filmmakers, Fork Films has funded critically acclaimed projects in the past such as “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen,” “One Child Nation,” “Cameraperson,” “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,” “Strong Island,” “The Square” and “The Invisible War.”
This year, along with financial support, Fork Films is offering grantees the opportunity to participate in workshops titled Collective Lens: An Impact Roadmap led by nonprofit organization Peace is Loud. The workshops will cover impact producing strategies, building campaigns and designing distribution plans with impact in mind...
The company has funded over 100 projects over 14 years, adding up to over $4.5 million in documentary grants and support. With an aim to elevate justice-driven filmmakers, Fork Films has funded critically acclaimed projects in the past such as “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen,” “One Child Nation,” “Cameraperson,” “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,” “Strong Island,” “The Square” and “The Invisible War.”
This year, along with financial support, Fork Films is offering grantees the opportunity to participate in workshops titled Collective Lens: An Impact Roadmap led by nonprofit organization Peace is Loud. The workshops will cover impact producing strategies, building campaigns and designing distribution plans with impact in mind...
- 11/22/2021
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program has set its latest cohort of 20 films receiving Documentary Fund Grants, doling out a total of $600,000 in unrestricted support to projects in varying stages of production and distribution, including eight in development, eight in production, three in post-production, and one in post-production and impact.
Grantees currently at the development stage include Aída Bueno Sarduy’s Anna Borges do Sacramento, Ricardo Ruales’ The Broken R, Damon Davis’ Chain of Rocks, Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig’s Colors of White Rock, Gerardo del Valle’s The Past is Waiting Up Ahead, Set Hernandez Rongkilyo’s unseen, and Farid Ahmad’s Waiting For Winter.
Recipients at the production stage include Pascale Appora-Gnekindy and Ningyi Sun’s Eat Bitter, Chan Hau Chun and Chui Chi Yin’s Heatroom, Basel Al Adarra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Balal, and Rachel Shor’s No Other Land, Kit Vincent’s Red Herring (working title), Weichao Xu...
Grantees currently at the development stage include Aída Bueno Sarduy’s Anna Borges do Sacramento, Ricardo Ruales’ The Broken R, Damon Davis’ Chain of Rocks, Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig’s Colors of White Rock, Gerardo del Valle’s The Past is Waiting Up Ahead, Set Hernandez Rongkilyo’s unseen, and Farid Ahmad’s Waiting For Winter.
Recipients at the production stage include Pascale Appora-Gnekindy and Ningyi Sun’s Eat Bitter, Chan Hau Chun and Chui Chi Yin’s Heatroom, Basel Al Adarra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Balal, and Rachel Shor’s No Other Land, Kit Vincent’s Red Herring (working title), Weichao Xu...
- 10/27/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 17 winners of the 48th Student Academy Awards competition.
This year’s winners were voted on from a group of 1,404 submissions from 210 domestic and 126 international colleges and universities. Previous Student Academy Award winners include Patricia Cardoso, Cary Fukunaga, Spike Lee, Patricia Riggen and Robert Zemeckis.
The gold, silver and bronze awards across the seven categories will be presented by directors Pete Docter, Asghar Farhadi, Marielle Heller and Nanfu Wang. The Academy will hold a virtual program to honor the winners. Amandla Stenberg will host.
All Student Academy Award-winning films are eligible to compete for Oscars in the best animated short film, best live action short film and best documentary short subject categories.
Here is the full list of winners.
Alternative/Experimental (Domestic and International Film Schools)
Gold: “Frozen Out,” Hao Zhou, University of Iowa
Animation (Domestic Film Schools)
Gold: “Unforgotten,...
This year’s winners were voted on from a group of 1,404 submissions from 210 domestic and 126 international colleges and universities. Previous Student Academy Award winners include Patricia Cardoso, Cary Fukunaga, Spike Lee, Patricia Riggen and Robert Zemeckis.
The gold, silver and bronze awards across the seven categories will be presented by directors Pete Docter, Asghar Farhadi, Marielle Heller and Nanfu Wang. The Academy will hold a virtual program to honor the winners. Amandla Stenberg will host.
All Student Academy Award-winning films are eligible to compete for Oscars in the best animated short film, best live action short film and best documentary short subject categories.
Here is the full list of winners.
Alternative/Experimental (Domestic and International Film Schools)
Gold: “Frozen Out,” Hao Zhou, University of Iowa
Animation (Domestic Film Schools)
Gold: “Unforgotten,...
- 10/21/2021
- by J. Kim Murphy
- Variety Film + TV
Like the terror attacks on Sept.11, 2001, Covid-19 is a topic that will inevitably become the subject matter of hundreds, if not thousands, of documentaries over the next several decades.
Even now, just 18 months after the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. began and during a time when the delta variant is making Covid cases surge across the country, there are a handful of pandemic-focused docus available for viewing. Each film explores the virus’ origins as well as the long-term ramifications on the world, emotionally, societally and politically.
But the question for some of the filmmakers and distributors is this: How much appetite is there for these documentaries at a time when the delta variant is surging?
HBO Documentary Films’ “In the Same Breath,” debuting Aug. 18 on HBO and HBO Max, is the latest to test that appetite. Directed by Nanfu Wang, a Chinese émigré who was Emmy-nominated last year for “One Child Nation,...
Even now, just 18 months after the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. began and during a time when the delta variant is making Covid cases surge across the country, there are a handful of pandemic-focused docus available for viewing. Each film explores the virus’ origins as well as the long-term ramifications on the world, emotionally, societally and politically.
But the question for some of the filmmakers and distributors is this: How much appetite is there for these documentaries at a time when the delta variant is surging?
HBO Documentary Films’ “In the Same Breath,” debuting Aug. 18 on HBO and HBO Max, is the latest to test that appetite. Directed by Nanfu Wang, a Chinese émigré who was Emmy-nominated last year for “One Child Nation,...
- 8/18/2021
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
This review of “In the Same Breath” was first published after the film’s premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.
Already one of the most audacious voices in nonfiction storytelling, director Nanfu Wang has made a career exploring dark passages in the recent history of her native China. So when her homeland became the epicenter of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, she threw herself into a new project under less-than-optimal production conditions.
Premiering at Sundance, the outcome of her meticulous, risky investigation is the incendiary documentary “In the Same Breath,” whose clever title alludes to the botched response to the crisis in both the Asian nation and the United States, while referencing the respiratory malaise the virus causes.
To begin her detailed timeline, Wang turns the dazzling lights of the 2020 New Year’s celebration in Wuhan, the city of about 11 million people where the outbreak began, into an ominous sight. Those...
Already one of the most audacious voices in nonfiction storytelling, director Nanfu Wang has made a career exploring dark passages in the recent history of her native China. So when her homeland became the epicenter of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, she threw herself into a new project under less-than-optimal production conditions.
Premiering at Sundance, the outcome of her meticulous, risky investigation is the incendiary documentary “In the Same Breath,” whose clever title alludes to the botched response to the crisis in both the Asian nation and the United States, while referencing the respiratory malaise the virus causes.
To begin her detailed timeline, Wang turns the dazzling lights of the 2020 New Year’s celebration in Wuhan, the city of about 11 million people where the outbreak began, into an ominous sight. Those...
- 8/18/2021
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
This year’s batch of Emmy nominated filmmakers for both documentary and nonfiction encompass a wide spectrum that include veterans who have greatly influenced the genre and younger creatives getting their first dose of wide exposure. In getting to talk with them, it was incredible to hear them not only talk about the works that influenced their decision to go into nonfiction storytelling, but also the nonfiction works that have stood out to them in more recent years. Gold Derby recently had these discussions with Kirby Dick (“Allen v. Farrow”), Amanda McBaine (“Boys State”), Steve James (“City So Real”), Tom Campbell (“RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked”) and Jeff Orlowski (“The Social Dilemma”) during our recent “Meet the Experts” panel.
You can watch the documentary and nonfiction group panel above with these five creative helmers. Click on each person’s name above to be taken to their individual interview.
See Watch...
You can watch the documentary and nonfiction group panel above with these five creative helmers. Click on each person’s name above to be taken to their individual interview.
See Watch...
- 8/10/2021
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
Following up her Sundance winner One Child Nation, filmmaker Nanfu Wang has returned with In The Same Breath, a look inside the early days of the pandemic and specifically the spread of misinformation and the toll it caused. Ahead of a theatrical release in LA this week and NY next week, as well as an HBO Max bow on August 18, the first trailer has arrived.
David Katz said in his Sundance review, “The film’s early narrative beats introduce Wang’s main focus: the scourge of wilful misinformation and fake news that contributed in its own way to the loss of life. On New Year’s Day 2020, shown in tandem with General Secretary Xi Jinping’s optimistic public address, is a news bulletin that eight people were arrested for spreading ‘false rumors’ about an unknown pneumonia. As January unfolds, local hospitals start to dangerously overfill but the state brass are...
David Katz said in his Sundance review, “The film’s early narrative beats introduce Wang’s main focus: the scourge of wilful misinformation and fake news that contributed in its own way to the loss of life. On New Year’s Day 2020, shown in tandem with General Secretary Xi Jinping’s optimistic public address, is a news bulletin that eight people were arrested for spreading ‘false rumors’ about an unknown pneumonia. As January unfolds, local hospitals start to dangerously overfill but the state brass are...
- 8/10/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
‘In the Same Breath’ Trailer: Nanfu Wang Examines Devastating Toll of Misinformation in the Pandemic
Award-winning “One Child Nation” filmmaker Nanfu Wang takes a close look at the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in the upcoming documentary “In the Same Breath,” coming to HBO and HBO Max on August 18. “In the Same Breath” first premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival to positive reviews.
Here’s the synopsis from HBO: “‘In the Same Breath’ recounts the experiences of people on the ground in the earliest days of the novel coronavirus and the way two countries dealt with its initial spread, from the first days of the outbreak in Wuhan to its rampage across the United States. Directed with a deeply personal approach by Wang, who was born in China and now lives in the United States, the film explores the early confusion and parallel campaigns by authorities to try to contain the virus as well as shape the public narrative through misinformation, resulting in a...
Here’s the synopsis from HBO: “‘In the Same Breath’ recounts the experiences of people on the ground in the earliest days of the novel coronavirus and the way two countries dealt with its initial spread, from the first days of the outbreak in Wuhan to its rampage across the United States. Directed with a deeply personal approach by Wang, who was born in China and now lives in the United States, the film explores the early confusion and parallel campaigns by authorities to try to contain the virus as well as shape the public narrative through misinformation, resulting in a...
- 8/7/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
After the excellent “One Child Nation” that dealt with the particular Chinese policy, Nanfu Wang decided to tackle the most timely issue of our days, the virus outbreak in Wuhan, in a documentary that takes a much more personal approach this time, since she experienced the events quite closely. While she was at Sundance as a member of the World Cinema Documentary jury, her 2-year-old son stayed with her mother in China to prepare for the New Year celebrations. As the threat of Covid-19 grew more urgent by the day, her husband traveled to the Wang family’s remote village to safely retrieve their child. Soon, she would scuttle her plans to convene with them in Asia after wrapping things up in Park City, and start doing everything she could to coordinate the emergency return of her loved ones from a viral hotspot.(source: theguardian.com).
“In the Same Breath...
“In the Same Breath...
- 6/28/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
For the second year running, Sheffield DocFest’s flagship pitching forum MeetMarket is taking place virtually. That’s not holding back the number of projects applying: MeetMarket has had more than 550 applications this year. From these, MeetMarket has selected 55 projects, which will have the chance to present to more than 300 international funders, broadcasters, distributors, festival programmers and exhibitors.
They will be seeking to follow in the footsteps of high-profile documentaries that have previously come through MeetMarket while looking for funding or partners, including Malik Bendjelloul’s “Searching for Sugarman,” Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing” and Nanfu Wang’s “One Child Nation.”
Sheffield DocFest head of industry Patrick Hurley says there were concerns about the number and nature of projects that might apply this year, given the background of the pandemic. Would the wheels still be turning on projects preparing to pitch? Would they qualitatively be different because of travel bans and restrictions?...
They will be seeking to follow in the footsteps of high-profile documentaries that have previously come through MeetMarket while looking for funding or partners, including Malik Bendjelloul’s “Searching for Sugarman,” Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing” and Nanfu Wang’s “One Child Nation.”
Sheffield DocFest head of industry Patrick Hurley says there were concerns about the number and nature of projects that might apply this year, given the background of the pandemic. Would the wheels still be turning on projects preparing to pitch? Would they qualitatively be different because of travel bans and restrictions?...
- 6/1/2021
- by Tim Dams
- Variety Film + TV
Mandy Chang exits after four years to become global head of documentaries.
BBC Storyville commissioner Mandy Chang is to step down after four years and join Fremantle as global head of documentaries.
In the newly-created role, Chang is tasked with setting the strategy and overseeing the production of high-end factual programming at the super-indie. She will take up the post in August, reporting to Fremantle chief operating officer Andrea Scrosati.
The hire follows an increase in documentary investment by Fremantle, which has set up a new global factual division which Chang will lead.
The move comes six months after Storyville was folded into BBC Film.
BBC Storyville commissioner Mandy Chang is to step down after four years and join Fremantle as global head of documentaries.
In the newly-created role, Chang is tasked with setting the strategy and overseeing the production of high-end factual programming at the super-indie. She will take up the post in August, reporting to Fremantle chief operating officer Andrea Scrosati.
The hire follows an increase in documentary investment by Fremantle, which has set up a new global factual division which Chang will lead.
The move comes six months after Storyville was folded into BBC Film.
- 5/10/2021
- by Hannah Bowler Broadcast
- ScreenDaily
Mandy Chang, the head of BBC documentary strand Storyville, is stepping down after four years in the role to join super-indie Fremantle as global head of factual.
Chang, whose role was officially commissioning editor of Storyville and acquisitions, will stay in the post until August, though recruitment for the role will begin in due course. The former Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) arts boss boarded the Beeb in 2017, taking over for Kate Townsend, who left the public broadcaster to join Netflix’s documentary team.
At Fremantle, Chang will oversee the strategy and creation of Fremantle’s new factual arm, reporting into group COO Andrea Scrosati. The super-indie has been investing heavily in unscripted in recent years, launching shows such as Samuel L. Jackson’s “Enslaved” as well as documentary series “Punk.”
At Storyville, Chang helped to deliver more than 85 feature docs, including “The Fourth Estate,” “Maiden,” “The Cleaners,” “The Mole: Infiltrating North Korea,...
Chang, whose role was officially commissioning editor of Storyville and acquisitions, will stay in the post until August, though recruitment for the role will begin in due course. The former Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) arts boss boarded the Beeb in 2017, taking over for Kate Townsend, who left the public broadcaster to join Netflix’s documentary team.
At Fremantle, Chang will oversee the strategy and creation of Fremantle’s new factual arm, reporting into group COO Andrea Scrosati. The super-indie has been investing heavily in unscripted in recent years, launching shows such as Samuel L. Jackson’s “Enslaved” as well as documentary series “Punk.”
At Storyville, Chang helped to deliver more than 85 feature docs, including “The Fourth Estate,” “Maiden,” “The Cleaners,” “The Mole: Infiltrating North Korea,...
- 5/10/2021
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Fremantle has bolstered its push into factual with the hiring of BBC Storyville commissioning editor Mandy Chang as its global head of documentaries.
Chang — a hugely respected name in the doc world who has produced features such as The Fourth Estate, Welcome to Chechnya, Collective, One Child Nation and The Mole Agent — will report to Fremantle’s group COO Andrea Scrosati and will oversee the strategy and creation of the TV giant’s new factual divison.
“Leading BBC Storyville and international acquisitions to bring hundreds of hours of the best international documentaries and factual programming to the BBC’s platforms has been deeply fulfilling ...
Chang — a hugely respected name in the doc world who has produced features such as The Fourth Estate, Welcome to Chechnya, Collective, One Child Nation and The Mole Agent — will report to Fremantle’s group COO Andrea Scrosati and will oversee the strategy and creation of the TV giant’s new factual divison.
“Leading BBC Storyville and international acquisitions to bring hundreds of hours of the best international documentaries and factual programming to the BBC’s platforms has been deeply fulfilling ...
- 5/10/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Fremantle has bolstered its push into factual with the hiring of BBC Storyville commissioning editor Mandy Chang as its global head of documentaries.
Chang — a hugely respected name in the doc world who has produced features such as The Fourth Estate, Welcome to Chechnya, Collective, One Child Nation and The Mole Agent — will report to Fremantle’s group COO Andrea Scrosati and will oversee the strategy and creation of the TV giant’s new factual divison.
“Leading BBC Storyville and international acquisitions to bring hundreds of hours of the best international documentaries and factual programming to the BBC’s platforms has been deeply fulfilling ...
Chang — a hugely respected name in the doc world who has produced features such as The Fourth Estate, Welcome to Chechnya, Collective, One Child Nation and The Mole Agent — will report to Fremantle’s group COO Andrea Scrosati and will oversee the strategy and creation of the TV giant’s new factual divison.
“Leading BBC Storyville and international acquisitions to bring hundreds of hours of the best international documentaries and factual programming to the BBC’s platforms has been deeply fulfilling ...
- 5/10/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The new entries include In The Same Breath, from One Child Nation director Nanfu Wang.
Hot Docs has revealed an additional 13 documentary features set to screen in the Special Presentations section of this year’s festival.
Among films that will get their international premieres in the section are In the Same Breath, director Nanfu Wang’s investigation (which had its world premiere at Sundance) into Covid-19 and the global health crisis it sparked; Homeroom, director and cinematographer Peter Nicks’ look at the anxieties and stress of a senior high school class; Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, about the creators,...
Hot Docs has revealed an additional 13 documentary features set to screen in the Special Presentations section of this year’s festival.
Among films that will get their international premieres in the section are In the Same Breath, director Nanfu Wang’s investigation (which had its world premiere at Sundance) into Covid-19 and the global health crisis it sparked; Homeroom, director and cinematographer Peter Nicks’ look at the anxieties and stress of a senior high school class; Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, about the creators,...
- 3/16/2021
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
Zhang Zhao, the former CEO and chairman of Le Chuang Entertainment, previously known as Le Vision Pictures, died of cancer on Wednesday. He was 58.
Known as a businessman with an artist’s temperament, Zhang was one of the most film influential execs thanks to a storied career in which he laid the foundation for much of China’s industry as it stands today. He successively founded Enlight Pictures in 2006 and Le Vision Pictures in 2011, going on to sign a roster of big-name directors to the latter that included Zhang Yimou, Lu Chuan, Tsui Hark and Guo Jingming.
As a producer, he was best known for his work on Zhang Yimou’s Matt Damon-starring US-China co-production “The Great Wall,” family drama “Coming Home,” and arthouse actioner “Shadow,” as well as Guo’s infamous, lucrative saga of the young and beautiful, “Tiny Times.”
“In his life and his career, Zhang Zhao embodied,...
Known as a businessman with an artist’s temperament, Zhang was one of the most film influential execs thanks to a storied career in which he laid the foundation for much of China’s industry as it stands today. He successively founded Enlight Pictures in 2006 and Le Vision Pictures in 2011, going on to sign a roster of big-name directors to the latter that included Zhang Yimou, Lu Chuan, Tsui Hark and Guo Jingming.
As a producer, he was best known for his work on Zhang Yimou’s Matt Damon-starring US-China co-production “The Great Wall,” family drama “Coming Home,” and arthouse actioner “Shadow,” as well as Guo’s infamous, lucrative saga of the young and beautiful, “Tiny Times.”
“In his life and his career, Zhang Zhao embodied,...
- 2/3/2021
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
NBC News announced that its NBCU Academy and NBC News Studios would launch a fellowship program to award six filmmakers $270,000 in grants each year to create feature length documentaries.
The program, Original Voices, will allocate $45,000 each to fund the documentary projects, in all stages of production, that will highlight social issues and identities. The fellows will get access to NBC News Studios and expertise in areas like story and editing, marketing and festival distribution. They also will be able to consult and partner with journalists and executives at NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo.
NBC News Studios said that it identified 50 filmmakers to apply for the fellowships, with an emphasis on diversity, including Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Black, Indigenous and tribal populations, LGBTQ+, women or people with disabilities. No distribution rights are attached for NBC.
Winners will be announced at the end of February 2021. Three documentary filmmakers will...
The program, Original Voices, will allocate $45,000 each to fund the documentary projects, in all stages of production, that will highlight social issues and identities. The fellows will get access to NBC News Studios and expertise in areas like story and editing, marketing and festival distribution. They also will be able to consult and partner with journalists and executives at NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo.
NBC News Studios said that it identified 50 filmmakers to apply for the fellowships, with an emphasis on diversity, including Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Black, Indigenous and tribal populations, LGBTQ+, women or people with disabilities. No distribution rights are attached for NBC.
Winners will be announced at the end of February 2021. Three documentary filmmakers will...
- 2/2/2021
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Any newly-released film, book, or piece of media that begins its story in the latter months of 2019 is signifying something very clear: trouble like we’ve never known is afoot. Nanfu Wang’s new documentary In the Same Breath opens on the 2019 New Year’s Eve celebrations in none other than Wuhan, in the Hubei province of China, where the first cases of the novel coronavirus spread from. With the morass of revelers filling out the city’s skyscraper-laden main square, an awful feeling hits the gut: the reminder that we’ve added another year to the calendar, and still the pandemic dominates our lives and fortunes.
Although many of us have lived through the last year on an endless diet of pandemic current affairs updates, In the Same Breath still offers a useful recap of this stricken period. Chinese-American director Nanfu Wang, following up her 2019 Sundance winner One Child Nation,...
Although many of us have lived through the last year on an endless diet of pandemic current affairs updates, In the Same Breath still offers a useful recap of this stricken period. Chinese-American director Nanfu Wang, following up her 2019 Sundance winner One Child Nation,...
- 1/30/2021
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
The One Child Nation film-maker has assembled an impressive, infuriating film flipping between China and America throughout the last chaotic year
While life ground to a halt for just about everyone in 2020, Nanfu Wang had a most eventful year. Exactly 12 months ago, the Chinese-born film-maker was at the Sundance Film Festival to sit on the World Cinema Documentary jury while her two-year-old son stayed with her mother in China to prep for the New Year celebrations. But as the threat of Covid-19 grew more urgent by the day, her husband traveled to the Wang family’s remote village to safely retrieve their child. Soon, she would scuttle her plans to convene with them in Asia after wrapping things up in Park City, and start doing everything she could to coordinate the emergency return of her loved ones from a viral hotspot.
Wise enough to recognize a rich, important subject when it fell into her lap,...
While life ground to a halt for just about everyone in 2020, Nanfu Wang had a most eventful year. Exactly 12 months ago, the Chinese-born film-maker was at the Sundance Film Festival to sit on the World Cinema Documentary jury while her two-year-old son stayed with her mother in China to prep for the New Year celebrations. But as the threat of Covid-19 grew more urgent by the day, her husband traveled to the Wang family’s remote village to safely retrieve their child. Soon, she would scuttle her plans to convene with them in Asia after wrapping things up in Park City, and start doing everything she could to coordinate the emergency return of her loved ones from a viral hotspot.
Wise enough to recognize a rich, important subject when it fell into her lap,...
- 1/29/2021
- by Charles Bramesco
- The Guardian - Film News
Director Nanfu Wang proved adept at using her own personal story as a jumping off point for wider documentary considerations in Hooligan Sparrow and One Child Nation (co-directed with Jialing Zhang) and she employs the technique again with her latest, In The Same Breath, to help us to step into the world of Wuhan's Covid pandemic.
As Wang pointed out yesterday, ahead of her film's world premiere at Sundance Film Festival, last year, the news that Wuhan was locking down broke on the eve of the event - when she was in Utah with her husband, ready for jury duty, and her young son was having a holiday with his gran in Wuhan. This small story - which ended with her husband fetching their son home quite quickly - is just one of many, much more tragic, experiences related here but it's the reason why this film became a personal project.
As Wang pointed out yesterday, ahead of her film's world premiere at Sundance Film Festival, last year, the news that Wuhan was locking down broke on the eve of the event - when she was in Utah with her husband, ready for jury duty, and her young son was having a holiday with his gran in Wuhan. This small story - which ended with her husband fetching their son home quite quickly - is just one of many, much more tragic, experiences related here but it's the reason why this film became a personal project.
- 1/29/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Now that we’re a year into the pandemic (and have a presidential administration that’s forging a sane response to it), the time feels right for taking stock — for looking back, in a big-picture way, at how the crisis unfolded, the ways it was mismanaged, and how we can learn from the vast pileup of mistakes and corruption. Nanfu Wang, the director of the wounding and disturbing Sundance documentary “In the Same Breath,” has made exactly that kind of movie. But Wang, the Chinese-American director of “One Child Nation,” “I Am Another You,” and “Hooligan Sparrow,” doesn’t work in the detached “objective” mode of a “Frontline” documentary or an investigative newspaper report. Her approach has always been insistently personal and anecdotal, and “In the Same Breath” is her up-close, eye-opening diary of the early days of the pandemic, as it took root in Wuhan and New York City.
- 1/29/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
It’s no surprise that many of the Covid-themed documentaries rushed out since the pandemic started lead to where the damage lies — overflowing hospital corridors and rampant governmental dysfunction. Even as Nanfu Wang’s “In the Same Breath” visits those same sore points, it foregrounds one more crucial factor with infuriating detail: disinformation.
Wang’s absorbing first-person account of the coronavirus outbreak initially seems like it’s treading familiar ground, tracking the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan and government propaganda efforts to pretend it’s under control. With time, however, Wang turns the tables on her Western audience, illustrating how those same lies emanated from American airwaves months later.
The result is aabout the way the dangers of disinformation spread across the planet just in time to do serious damage. Like Wang’s previous effort, the masterful “One Child Nation,” the filmmaker blends insightful observations with a vast sociopolitical canvas.
Wang’s absorbing first-person account of the coronavirus outbreak initially seems like it’s treading familiar ground, tracking the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan and government propaganda efforts to pretend it’s under control. With time, however, Wang turns the tables on her Western audience, illustrating how those same lies emanated from American airwaves months later.
The result is aabout the way the dangers of disinformation spread across the planet just in time to do serious damage. Like Wang’s previous effort, the masterful “One Child Nation,” the filmmaker blends insightful observations with a vast sociopolitical canvas.
- 1/29/2021
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Netflix’s natural history push continues – setting a feature-doc about kangaroos as its latest trip into the wild.
Deadline understands that the streamer has ordered 90-minute doc Kangaroos from Ample Nature, the nascent natural history division of the 9 Months with Courteney Cox producer.
The film has started production in Australia and it will film down under over a lengthy period of time, as is usual with all major wildlife projects.
It is Netflix’s latest natural history project, having launched Our Planet, its David Attenborough-narrated series from Silverback Films, in 2019, as well as Night on Earth, the Samira Wiley-narrated series from Plimsoll Productions, and Absurd Planet from Conde Nast Entertainment and Love Productions USA.
The streamer has also ordered Oceans from Freeborne Media, the production company set up by Blue Planet II creator James Honeyborne, as part of an overall deal.
It marks the first commission for Ample Nature,...
Deadline understands that the streamer has ordered 90-minute doc Kangaroos from Ample Nature, the nascent natural history division of the 9 Months with Courteney Cox producer.
The film has started production in Australia and it will film down under over a lengthy period of time, as is usual with all major wildlife projects.
It is Netflix’s latest natural history project, having launched Our Planet, its David Attenborough-narrated series from Silverback Films, in 2019, as well as Night on Earth, the Samira Wiley-narrated series from Plimsoll Productions, and Absurd Planet from Conde Nast Entertainment and Love Productions USA.
The streamer has also ordered Oceans from Freeborne Media, the production company set up by Blue Planet II creator James Honeyborne, as part of an overall deal.
It marks the first commission for Ample Nature,...
- 1/28/2021
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
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