The idea behind the Local Voices ad campaign is to capture the concerns that everyday Americans have about presidential hopeful Donald Trump in unscripted, personal commentaries that later air as one-minute ads in the same swing state communities where they were filmed. The key is to find voices who belong to community leaders who aren’t normal Hillary Clinton supporters, may they be conservatives or generally apolitical figures.
Read More about Local Voices: How Filmmakers Are Making a Difference in Swing States
In swing states where the voters have been confronted with constant barrage of political ads, the other key ingredient is authenticity, so they are not dismissed as just another manufactured political message.
To accomplish this, founder Lee Hirsch (“Bully”) turned to fellow documentary filmmakers and recruited some of the top filmmakers working in nonfiction, including Amir Bar-Lev, Amy Berg (“West of Memphis”), Marshall Curry, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady...
Read More about Local Voices: How Filmmakers Are Making a Difference in Swing States
In swing states where the voters have been confronted with constant barrage of political ads, the other key ingredient is authenticity, so they are not dismissed as just another manufactured political message.
To accomplish this, founder Lee Hirsch (“Bully”) turned to fellow documentary filmmakers and recruited some of the top filmmakers working in nonfiction, including Amir Bar-Lev, Amy Berg (“West of Memphis”), Marshall Curry, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady...
- 11/7/2016
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
The idea behind the Local Voices ad campaign is to capture the concerns that everyday Americans have about presidential hopeful Donald Trump in unscripted, personal commentaries that later air as one-minute ads in the same swing state communities where they were filmed. The key is to find voices who belong to community leaders who aren’t normal Hillary Clinton supporters, may they be conservatives or generally apolitical figures.
Read More about Local Voices: How Filmmakers Are Making a Difference in Swing States
In swing states where the voters have been confronted with constant barrage of political ads, the other key ingredient is authenticity, so they are not dismissed as just another manufactured political message.
To accomplish this, founder Lee Hirsch (“Bully”) turned to fellow documentary filmmakers and recruited some of the top filmmakers working in nonfiction, including Amir Bar-Lev (“Happy Valley, “The Tillman Story”), Amy Berg (“West of Memphis”), Marshall Curry (“Street Fight,...
Read More about Local Voices: How Filmmakers Are Making a Difference in Swing States
In swing states where the voters have been confronted with constant barrage of political ads, the other key ingredient is authenticity, so they are not dismissed as just another manufactured political message.
To accomplish this, founder Lee Hirsch (“Bully”) turned to fellow documentary filmmakers and recruited some of the top filmmakers working in nonfiction, including Amir Bar-Lev (“Happy Valley, “The Tillman Story”), Amy Berg (“West of Memphis”), Marshall Curry (“Street Fight,...
- 11/7/2016
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
The idea behind the Local Voices neighbor-to-neighbor campaign is simple: use a documentary approach to capture the concerns every day Americans have about Donald Trump in unscripted, personal commentaries and then air them as one-minute ads in the same swing state communities where they were filmed.
Filmmaker Lee Hirsch (“Bully”), who started the Local Voices Democratic Super Pac in 2008, has spent the last three election cycles studying and experimenting with how best to engage and motivate voters.
Read More: The Presidential Debate ‘Late Night’ Helped Prove That Seth Meyers is the Host Network TV Needs
“I’ve seen the same thing over and over again,” Hirsch wrote IndieWire, “election season is intense, and perceived community norms lead to an almost palpable intimidation that suppresses an honest public dialogue about the presidential candidates, and has the deepest affect on those who might be leaning towards the democratic ticket.”
See More Local...
Filmmaker Lee Hirsch (“Bully”), who started the Local Voices Democratic Super Pac in 2008, has spent the last three election cycles studying and experimenting with how best to engage and motivate voters.
Read More: The Presidential Debate ‘Late Night’ Helped Prove That Seth Meyers is the Host Network TV Needs
“I’ve seen the same thing over and over again,” Hirsch wrote IndieWire, “election season is intense, and perceived community norms lead to an almost palpable intimidation that suppresses an honest public dialogue about the presidential candidates, and has the deepest affect on those who might be leaning towards the democratic ticket.”
See More Local...
- 9/27/2016
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
A Democratic Super Pac founded in ’08 by documentary filmmaker Lee Hirsch (Bully) today is launching on TV a series of anti-Trump political ads in battleground states. The first spot, featuring Republican grandmother Joan Powell of Butler County, Ohio, was created by Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp, Norman Lear). Predominantly Republican Butler County, just north of Cincinnati and within close proximity of Kentucky and Indiana, went 61% for Gop hopeful John McCain in ’08, and…...
- 9/7/2016
- Deadline TV
Read More: 12 Must-See Films at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival In the public's eye, the Tribeca Film Festival is synonymous with Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese and celebrity-strewn red carpets. But for the indie film industry, there's something far sexier to see in New York City starting this week: New documentaries. Over the last 14 years, Tribeca has soared to become one of the top nonfiction film markets in the United States. Ever since claiming the premieres of eventual Oscar nominees, such as Marshall Curry's "Street Fight" (2005) and Alex Gibney's "Taxi to the Dark Side" (2007), and box-office winners, such as Lee Hirsch's "Bully" (2011) and David Gelb's "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" (2012), the festival has become a significant destination for documentary filmmakers. Now, the blossoming nonfiction industry has sprouted up to support them. Embracing their position as a premiere documentary platform, the festival has given its opening night...
- 4/15/2015
- by Anthony Kaufman
- Indiewire
We the Economy: 20 Short Films You Can't Afford to Miss is a project tackling 20 essential questions about how money works—and for whom. The films, running between five and eight minutes, are viewable for free via multiple platforms and have been directed by Ramin Bahrani, Bob Balaban, Joe Berlinger, Jon M. Chu, Marshall Curry, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, Adrian Grenier, Catherine Hardwicke, Mary Harron, Chris Henchy, Lee Hirsch, Albert Hughes, Steve James, Barbara Kopple, Adam McKay, Jehane Noujaim, James Schamus, Morgan Spurlock, Miao Wang and Jessica Yu. » - David Hudson...
- 10/21/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
We the Economy: 20 Short Films You Can't Afford to Miss is a project tackling 20 essential questions about how money works—and for whom. The films, running between five and eight minutes, are viewable for free via multiple platforms and have been directed by Ramin Bahrani, Bob Balaban, Joe Berlinger, Jon M. Chu, Marshall Curry, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, Adrian Grenier, Catherine Hardwicke, Mary Harron, Chris Henchy, Lee Hirsch, Albert Hughes, Steve James, Barbara Kopple, Adam McKay, Jehane Noujaim, James Schamus, Morgan Spurlock, Miao Wang and Jessica Yu. » - David Hudson...
- 10/21/2014
- Keyframe
There are few aspects of modern life as crucial to the day-to-day of lives of Americans as the worldwide economic system, but with so many figures, numbers, and phrases thrown out in headlines and turned into soundbites, it can be difficult to understand what the conversation is really about. But the upcoming web series "We The Economy" hopes to change that. Featuring twenty short films directed by Catherine Hardwicke, James Schamus, Chris Henchy, Morgan Spurlock, Jon M. Chu, Ramin Bahrani, Adrien Grenier, Lee Hirsch, Joe Berlinger, Jessica Yi, Barbara Kopple, Marshall Curry, Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing, Bob Balaban, Albert Hughes, Miao Wang, Jehane Noujaim, Adam McKay, Shola Lynch, Steven James and Mary Harron, "We The Economy" is using some major names to help make the issues a whole lot easier to digest. Actors such as Kerry Bische, Judah Friedlander, Adam Goldberg, Patton Oswalt, Lili Taylor, Werner Herzog, and Isaiah Washington will appear in short.
- 10/3/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Did you know that a crazy fad once took over the 1920s by storm? No, not flappers, and not any of the other things we generally associate with the ’20s. The fad I’m talking about is pole-sitting. What exactly is pole-sitting? Just take a look at the latest video from the Vanity Fair Decades Series. The video “Pole Royale,” directed by Lee Hirsch, takes a documentarian approach to researching this wild and quick-lived fad. The fad–which is exactly what it sounds like–created stars out of ordinary citizens, similar to how fads like planking and the YouTube “Harlem Shake” craze have taken over our lives today. Check out the video below [ Read More ]
The post Lee Hirsch Rediscovers Pole-Sitting in ’20s-Themed Vanity Fair Decades Series Short Film appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Lee Hirsch Rediscovers Pole-Sitting in ’20s-Themed Vanity Fair Decades Series Short Film appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 9/19/2013
- by monique
- ShockYa
Bully
Review by Dan Clark
The topic of bullying has become quite a hot button issue in the last few years. We as a nation and as species have seen the horrific effects bullying can cause. With such an onslaught of tragedy the world has conducted a ceaseless debate and examination into what could possibly be done to counteract such a hostile concern. Lee Hirsch latest documentary Bully takes on that task by examining the lives of the children and families that have been affected by bullying. It paints a comprehensive picture of the victims by showing a wide range of those who have been negatively impacted by it. Although Bully does succeed at putting a face on this universal dilemma, it falters at providing any type of insightful context on the issue. While it will no doubt elicit an emotional response with its depiction of the absolute cruelty of human nature,...
Review by Dan Clark
The topic of bullying has become quite a hot button issue in the last few years. We as a nation and as species have seen the horrific effects bullying can cause. With such an onslaught of tragedy the world has conducted a ceaseless debate and examination into what could possibly be done to counteract such a hostile concern. Lee Hirsch latest documentary Bully takes on that task by examining the lives of the children and families that have been affected by bullying. It paints a comprehensive picture of the victims by showing a wide range of those who have been negatively impacted by it. Although Bully does succeed at putting a face on this universal dilemma, it falters at providing any type of insightful context on the issue. While it will no doubt elicit an emotional response with its depiction of the absolute cruelty of human nature,...
- 3/11/2013
- by Guest
- Nerdly
If you haven't taken the time to watch the documentary Bully, you're missing out on a compelling probe into the world of adolescents, the sad, unnecessarily dangerous lives of those who are bullied, and the effect is has on their families. The documentary from Lee Hirsch followed five kids and their families over the course of a school year and highlighting a variety of stages each is enduring in the face of and in the wake of bullying that has gone too far. It's heartbreaking and inspiring, and every parent, child, teacher and student should see it. Now journalist Anderson Cooper is following up with some of the subjects for a CNN special called The Bully Effect, and thankfully, it shows the progress of some of these bullied kids. Watch! Here's the trailer for The Bully Effect, premiering tonight on CNN at 10pm Est: The Bully Effect reveals how individuals...
- 2/28/2013
- by Ethan Anderton
- firstshowing.net
This Thursday join The Bully Project and CNN for a day of action against bullying! Set your DVR’s for 10pm Est, as CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 will be debuting the hour long special “The Bully Effect”, a chronicle of how Bully as a raw, powerful documentary helped ignite an inspirational, grassroots anti-bullying social movement over the course of a year. Last spring, tastemakers around the globe joined together to amplify the message that bullying impacts over 13 million children per year. That action in partnership with Twitter reached over 232 Million People – making it one of the most effective organic actions ever on Twitter. We must continue building on this momentum to help end bullying and this Thursday, we will do just that with your help. Be a part of the conversation by getting on twitter and tweeting the following throughout the day on Thursday: I’m standing with @AC360 & @bullymovie...
- 2/27/2013
- by hnblog@hollywoodnews.com (Hollywood News Team)
- Hollywoodnews.com
The subject of bullying in America’s schools has received lots of press in the last few years thanks in large part to the internet video movements offering support to gay or otherwise unfortunate youngsters in need of reassurance that there’s a light at the end of the sometimes dark, lonely tunnel of adolescence. Director Lee Hirsch’s documentary, Bully, claimed it wanted to shed light on the hostile conditions in our academic institutions and raise awareness so that some real change could occur—but it never really does that. All we really get are the neutered, fractured stories of a few youths reacting to bullying in different ways and the very unhelpful tactics of incompetent school administrators who come within inches of telling victims “they were asking for it”. Bully doesn’t break any new ground and it certainly doesn’t show us anything particularly shocking to move...
- 2/14/2013
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
Far more insidious than strep or the flu, Lee Hirsch’s Bully investigates a different sort of contagion infiltrating classrooms across the country. Centering on the South and Midwest — Georgia, Iowa, Texas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma — Hirsch and his crew peer into the lives of families and children that are dismantled and uprooted by relentless acts of bullying. While most surrender to the cyclical ostracizing, downplaying the shame before their parents and superiors, others seek solace in suicidal measures. Following its premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, Bully shocked and educated audiences with its frank portrayal of the ramifications …...
- 2/12/2013
- by Sarah Salovaara
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
One of the most popular and powerful documentaries of last year, Lee Hirsch’s Bully is a film about the continuing crisis of bullying, which affects kids nationwide. In our own review, we call it “an intense, heartbreaking movie that every parent and school official should see.” Now it’s also a particularly important topic relevant to discussions of school violence. And it finally arrives on home video this Tuesday (February 12) on the heels of winning the Audience Choice award at the 2013 Cinema Eye Honors and finishing out the year as the fourth highest-grossing doc of 2012. You can go ahead and buy a copy right away, or you can try to win a DVD from Film School Rejects, and we’ll throw in a couple promotional anti-bullying rubber wristbands, on which are printed “It’S Time To Take A Stand.” The DVD, from Anchor Bay Entertainment and The Weinstein Compay, features...
- 2/9/2013
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
The Producers Guild Awards were awarded on Saturday (Jan. 26). Often considered the precursor to the Academy Awards, both the television and movie producing awards were handed out at the Beverly Hilton.
Among the big award winners of the night were "Argo," "Homeland," "Wreck-It Ralph," "Modern Family" and "The Colbert Report."
Check out the full listing of winners here.
Special awards
Norman Lear Achievement Award
J.J. Abrams, presented by Jennifer Garner
Stanley Kramer Award
"Bully," producers Lee Hirsch and Cynthia Lowen, presented by Bradley Cooper
David O. Selznick Achievement Award
Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title, presented by Anne Hathaway
Visionary Award
Russell Simmons, presented by LL Cool J
TV awards
The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama
"Homeland" (Showtime)
Producers: Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Michael Cuesta, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Michael Klick, Meredith Stiehm
The Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television,...
Among the big award winners of the night were "Argo," "Homeland," "Wreck-It Ralph," "Modern Family" and "The Colbert Report."
Check out the full listing of winners here.
Special awards
Norman Lear Achievement Award
J.J. Abrams, presented by Jennifer Garner
Stanley Kramer Award
"Bully," producers Lee Hirsch and Cynthia Lowen, presented by Bradley Cooper
David O. Selznick Achievement Award
Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title, presented by Anne Hathaway
Visionary Award
Russell Simmons, presented by LL Cool J
TV awards
The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama
"Homeland" (Showtime)
Producers: Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Michael Cuesta, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Michael Klick, Meredith Stiehm
The Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television,...
- 1/27/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
PGA Awards 2013 winners Update: Ben Affleck’s Argo wins Theatrical Motion Picture PGA Award. Argo producer Ben Affleck tells Steve Pond “I had totally convinced myself they were going to read another name.” Affleck’s fellow Argo producers are George Clooney and Grant Heslov. The Producers Guild of America is currently handing out its PGA Awards in a handful of film and television categories. Contenders for the PGA Award in the Theatrical Feature category include Ben Affleck’s Argo, Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, Sam Mendes’ Skyfall, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, and David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook. [Note: This post will be continually updated, as more PGA Award winners are announced.] [See also: PGA Awards predictions and the possibility of The Weinstein Company threepeating this year.) Robert De Niro, one of the Oscar-nominated stars of The Weinstein Company's Silver Linings Playbook was one of the presenters of the Milestone Award to Bob and Harvey Weinstein. As quoted by TheWrap's Steve Pond on Twitter, De Niro explained, "When (the Weinsteins) came to me with a movie about mental illness, I thought, which brother do they want me to play?" As for fellow Weinstein admirer Quentin Tarantino, whose Django Unchained was also distributed by TWC and whose Pulp Fiction was distributed by the Weinsteins' Miramax, he let the crowd know that "As far as I'm concerned, [Harvey Weinstein] is the only game in town.” In his acceptance speech, The Only Game in Town called Steven Spielberg’s 20th Century Fox-distributed Lincoln a masterpiece, and added: “For everybody whose movie I didn’t acquire over the years,...
- 1/27/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Sorry Oscars. But after the Indie Spirit Awards, the number two spot in terms of Award Season importance are the Cinema Eye Honors. Seems like it was only yesterday when Aj Schnack & Thom Powers teamed up for one basic, logical concept: an event that would reward yearly output of documentary film in a rightfully sound manner. With the wind in their sails, the 6th annual edition was held last night and deservingly so, adding to its double wins at the Idfa and Sundance, it is 5 Broken Cameras that took the top honors for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking. Co-directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi – political activism via you guessed it, five video cameras. The film was released via Kino Lorber.
The night’s only double winner, could be regarded as the silver medal doc film of the year: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Detropia grabbed the Outstanding...
The night’s only double winner, could be regarded as the silver medal doc film of the year: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Detropia grabbed the Outstanding...
- 1/10/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Vol. I Issue 5
Join us twice weekly. Send us links to your sizzle reels and film sites.
Two Short Listed Documentary Features
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, directed by Alison Klayman
Ai Weiwei is China's most famous international artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. Against a backdrop of strict censorship and an unresponsive legal system, Ai expresses himself and organizes people through art and social media. In response, Chinese authorities have shut down his blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention.
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is the inside story of a dissident for the digital age who inspires global audiences and whose actions blur the boundaries of art and politics. First-time director Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to Ai while working as a journalist in China. Her detailed portrait of Weiwei’s life and work allows us to follow Weiwei’s journey and his transformation of his life and works are perceived. Few artists have been able to use their public stature to help cause political change. Clearly this is the story of a giant killer. Regrettably the story continues and China continues to repress its people.
What’s special about Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is that the filmmaker was able to follow Ai Weiwei over several years. We are able to see a Chinese dissident whose home is watched by 1984-like cameras hung from telephone and power poles. We can only assume his home is bugged, his cell phone is bugged and all of his computers are bugged. The power of this work is seeing an artist functioning in this environment. Shocking. His spirit is best shown in his defiant art, his raised middle finger in the foreground of many still images of iconic monuments to the Chinese peoples’ struggles. He dares to challenge America’s biggest trading partner, debt holder and, by the end of the film, he is shown silenced, unable to comment because he was released from detention. The irony of this powerful work is that we and the world are shown to be complicit.
While the film lacks the slickness of many of the Academy’s short listed docs, its power flows from the subject. Clearly an artist whose work reflects his life experiences and struggle is a difficult subject. Weiwei constantly tweaks the authorities who clearly fear its citizens being free to express themselves and their feelings about their government globally. Yet the world is silent about this repressive government that spies on, beats up and terrorizes its citizens. This is another film that should be nominated. Its construction, score, shooting suggests that Ms. Klayman can, with some more experience, become an extraordinary filmmaker.
The Filmmakers
Alison Klayman, Director, Producer, Cinematographer
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorryis Alison Klayman's debut feature documentary, which she directed, produced, filmed and co-edited. She is a 2011 Sundance Documentary Fellow and one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film". She has been a guest on The Colbert Report, as well as CNN and NPR. Klayman lived in China from 2006 to 2010, working as a freelance journalist. She speaks Mandarin and Hebrew, and graduated from Brown University in 2006.
Adam Schlesinger, Producer
Adam Schlesinger is an award-winning independent film producer based in New York. He produced the Sundance Film Festival selections: Smash His Camera, which won for Best Director; Page One- Inside the New York Times; and God Grew Tired of Us, winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award.
Credits:
Director/Producer/Writer/Camera: Alison Klayman
Producer: Adam Schlesinger
Contributing Producer: Colin
Executive Producers: Andrew Cohen, Julie Goldman, Karl
Music: Ilan Isakov
Editor: Jen Fineran
Production Companies: Expressions United Media, Muse Film and Television, Never Sorry
Distribution: Sundance Selects, Artificial Eye
Bully, directed by Lee Hirsch A Case Study: How to be Short Listed and Gross $3Million
Bully, directed by Lee Hirsch
A Case Study: How to be Short Listed and Gross $3Million
Bully is a character-driven documentary that looks at how bullying has touched five children and their families. The five stories each represent a different facet of bullying. Filmed over the course of the 2009/2010 school year, Bully opens a window onto the lives of bullied kids, revealing a problem that transcends geographic, racial, ethnic and economic borders. It documents the responses of teachers and administrators to aggressive behaviors that defy “kids will be kids” clichés, and it captures a growing movement among parents and youths to change how bullying is handled in schools, in communities and in society as a whole.
Bully is a case study of how The Weinstein Company can take what would be a traditional non-theatrical documentary feature and turn it into both a cause and a theatrical event and, because of the rule changes at the Academy, have it come to be short listed for an Oscar.
Bully is an excellent film, it is well made, directed, edited and scored. Its characters and stories are well done. It’s just not in the same league as many of the documentary films short listed for this year’s Academy Award nomination.
When the film was released with an “R” rating, appropriate and consistent with the MPAA guidelines because of language and violence, the Weinsteins used the R rating to create a controversy which enabled the film to become a box office success and was the basis of a brilliant Academy campaign for a documentary nomination. This is one of the best examples (since Michael Moore and Roger and Menot being nominated for an Oscar) of creating a box-office success with a documentary. (Roger and Mewas distributed by Warners.) As of December 30, 2012 Bully had grossed over $3.5 million. (Box Office Mojo)
The MPAA gives an automatic “R” rating to films that use the “F” word. It has done this since its inception. This makes sense. The “F” word is inappropriate for children. But wait, Bullyis for middle and high school students! These schools can’t (or should not) show “R” rated films.
The MPAA rating system has never been particularly clear to Americans. Developed by the Motion Picture Association to prevent local and/or regional ratings it has always been “advisory”; however, some media outlets will not accept advertising or promote films with some of the harder ratings. The Weinsteins knew that this film would get an “R” rating because of the “F” word. No surprise. Yet how could this “important” film for school children to see be blocked from its audience?
“Bully's R ratingsparks a nationwide protest. ...stars, theater owners, and Members of Congress have joined forces to protest the film's R rating as a result of the film having six swear words.” This is in the industry press. (Deadline)
The Weinsteins, of course with great fanfare, appealed the rating decision which got the film more press. They decided to release the film in just two markets to qualify for the documentary Academy award, without a rating, but continue the press-push to have the rating changed.
On April 5, The Weinstein Company announced that their doc, Bully, was to receive a PG-13 from the MPAA, with some minor cuts. After removing three uses of the F-word it was re-released in the new PG-13 version on April 13 and shortly after the run was expanded to 55 theatrical markets.
Deadline reported, “The big victory, even though they had to remove three F-words, was that they could keep the controversial school bus bullying scene unedited and uncut, which (the director) Hirsch continuously refused to edit, "since it is too important to the truth and integrity behind the film." Hirsch states: "I feel completely vindicated with this resolution. While I retain my belief that PG-13 has always been the appropriate rating for this film, as reinforced by Canada's rating of a PG, we have today scored a victory from the MPAA. The support and guidance we have received throughout this process has been incredible."
Let’s note that the MPAA is an industry trade association. The Weinsteins are members. It’s not exactly a group that battles. The ratings are advisory only.
The Weinstein press release continued the illusion, This decision by the MPAA is a huge victory for the parents, educators, lawmakers, and most importantly, children, everywhere who have been fighting for months for the appropriate PG-13 rating without cutting some of the most sensitive moments. Three uses of the 'F word' were removed from other scenes, which ultimately persuaded the MPAA to lower the rating. Hirsch made the documentary with the intent to give an uncensored, real-life portrayal of what 13 million children suffer through every year. The new rating, which came about with the great support from MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd, grants the schools, organizations and cities all around the country who are lined up and ready to screen Bully, including the National Education Association and the Cincinnati School District, the opportunity to share this educational tool with their children.”
It needs to be pointed out that this controversy was a set up. When The Weinstein Company released Bully "unrated" in theaters in New York and Los Angeles it barely earned $150,000. The film might be seen by a few hundred thousand people in theaters which is a theatrical success but not the millions of kids the filmmakers are on record to reach. (A $3.5 mil gross suggests at a $6 admission fee perhaps a half-million tickets were sold.) Millions of people don’t usually go to theaters to see docs. So a $3.5 mil theatrical gross makes this film a major theatrical success. It puts this film in the top 50 or so theatrical documentaries of all time.
But all along, the Weinsteins knew that the film can easily be provided in DVD and in video-on-demand to schools, teachers, students and families in an “Educational” version without the R rated language being included. The use of an educational version would totally serve the school market. This version could be provided for “free” or even for a modest fee if the Weinsteins were really interested in this aspect of marketing the film. The Bullybook is available now for sale and soon the Blu Ray and DVD. Seeing the film in a classroom and then talking about it is what educators do with films. There are over 100,000 school, church and other groups (like Girls Scouts) that can show this film to groups of kids.
Note: Full disclosure, I started a Move-on Campaign and petitioned the Weinsteins to offer
Bully for a Buck! after I saw the film. More than 480 people have signed the petition to date. No match for the hundreds of thousands who signed the rating controversy petition but I did not do any publicity. As a parent of two teens, I felt this was a far more logical thing to do to get the film out to children without the strong language. This petition continues on Change.org.
Bully Short Listed for an Academy Award
With the rule change at the Academy this year, the documentary branch is working as a committee of the whole to do both the short listing and the nomination. The committee members were sent 125 documentary features, mostly arriving at the tail end of the deadline, to review. The committee was made up of both documentary branch members and Academy members who have been nominated or won documentary Oscars. Obviously, few members saw all 125 documentaries. The short list of 15 films was made from tallying the results of each member’s list of their 15 top docs. I think the publicity for Bully insured it would make this list.
The Weinsteins also had it screened at the Academy as part of the Academy members screening program, one of the handful of documentaries that were screened as part of the weekend program. This also will likely help the film get on members’ radar. Smart. Last year, The Weinsteins’ film The Undefeatedwon the Documentary Oscar. They do a great job getting their films out.
Credits:
Directed by: Lee Hirsch
Produced by: Lee Hirsch, Cynthia Lowen
Written by: Lee Hirsch, Cynthia Lowen
Executive Producer: Cindy Waitt
Cinematography: Lee Hirsch
Edited by: Lindsay Utz, Jenny Golden
Original Score by: Ion Furjanic, Justin Rice/Christian Rudder
Consulting Editors: Enat Sidi, Cynthia Lowen
Music Supervisor: Brooke Wentz
Running Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some language
Short Notes and Update:
WGA Announces Nominees for Documentary Screenplay Award
The WGA announced six nominees for its documentary screenplay award: War, Mea Culpa and Sugar Man also are on the Academy shortlist of feature docs hoping to score an Oscar nomination.
Winners will be honored by the Writers Guild of America, West (Wgaw) and the Writers Guild of America, East (Wgae) at the 2013 Writers Guild Awards on Feb. 17 during simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York.
Documentary Screenplay
The Central Park Five, written by Sarah Burns and David McMahon and Ken Burns; Sundance Selects
The Invisible War, written by Kirby Dick; Cinedigm Entertainment Group
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, written by Alex Gibney; HBO Documentary Films
Searching for Sugar Man, written by Malik Bendejelloul; Sony Pictures Classics
We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, written by Brian Knappenberger; Cinetic Media
West of Memphis, written by Amy Berg & Billy McMillin; Sony Pictures Classics
Sundance Announces 2013 Documentary Competition:
U.S. Documentary Competition
The world premieres of 16 American documentary films.
99% - The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film/ U.S.A. (Directors: Audrey Ewell, Aaron Aites, Lucian Read, Nina Krstic) The Occupy movement erupted in September 2011, propelling economic inequality into the spotlight. In an unprecedented collaboration, filmmakers across America tell its story, digging into big picture issues as organizers, analysts, participants and critics reveal how it happened and why.
After Tiller/ U.S.A. (Directors: Martha Shane, Lana Wilson) — Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009, only four doctors in the country provide late-term abortions. With unprecedented access, After Tiller goes inside the lives of these physicians working at the center of the storm.
American Promise/ U.S.A. (Directors: Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson) — This intimate documentary follows the 12-year journey of two African-American families pursuing the promise of opportunity through the education of their sons.
Blackfish/ U.S.A. (Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite) — Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.
Blood Brother/ U.S.A. (Director: Steve Hoover) — Rocky went to India as a disillusioned tourist. When he met a group of children with HIV, he decided to stay. He never could have imagined the obstacles he would face, or the love he would find.
Citizen Koch / U.S.A. (Directors: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin) — Wisconsin – birthplace of the Republican Party, government unions, “cheeseheads” and Paul Ryan – becomes a test market in the campaign to buy Democracy, and ground zero in the battle for the future of the Gop.
Cutie and the Boxer/ U.S.A. (Director: Zachary Heinzerling) — This candid New York love story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of famed boxing painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko. Anxious to shed her role of assistant to her overbearing husband, Noriko seeks an identity of her own.
Dirty Wars/ U.S.A. (Director: Richard Rowley) — Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill chases down the truth behind America’s covert wars.
Gideon's Army/ U.S.A. (Director: Dawn Porter) — Gideon’s Army follows three young, committed Public Defenders who are dedicated to working for the people society would rather forget. Long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads are so common that even the most committed often give up.
God Loves Uganda/ U.S.A. (Director: Roger Ross Williams) — A powerful exploration of the evangelical campaign to infuse African culture with values imported from America’s Christian Right. The film follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting “sexual immorality” and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow biblical law.
Inequality for All/ U.S.A. (Director: Jacob Kornbluth) — In this timely and entertaining documentary, noted economic-policy expert Robert Reich distills the topic of widening income inequality, and addresses the question of what effects this increasing gap has on our economy and our democracy.
Life According to Sam/ U.S.A. (Directors: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine) — Dr. Leslie Gordon and Dr. Scott Berns fight to save their only son from a rare and fatal aging disease for which there is no cure. Their work may one day unlock the key to aging in all of us.
Manhunt / U.S.A., United Kingdom (Director: Greg Barker) — This espionage tale goes inside the CIA’s long conflict against Al Qaeda, as revealed by the remarkable women and men whose secret war against Osama bin Laden started nearly a decade before most of us even knew his name.
Narco Cultura/ U.S.A. (Director: Shaul Schwarz) — An examination of Mexican drug cartels’ influence in pop culture on both sides of the border as experienced by an La narcocorrido singer dreaming of stardom and a Juarez crime scene investigator on the front line of Mexico’s Drug War.
Twenty Feet From Stardom/ U.S.A. (Director: Morgan Neville) — Backup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight. Their voices bring harmony to the biggest bands in popular music, but we've had no idea who these singers are or what lives they lead – until now. Day One Film
Valentine Road/ U.S.A. (Director: Marta Cunningham) — In 2008, eighth-grader Brandon McInerney shot classmate Larry King at point blank range. Unraveling this tragedy from point of impact, the film reveals the heartbreaking circumstances that led to the shocking crime as well as its startling aftermath.
________________________________________________________________________
Credits: Editing by Jessica Just for SydneysBuzz
________________________________________________________________________
Block Doc Workshops in Los Angeles February 2013
The International Documentary Association will be hosting Documentary Funding and Documentary Tune-Up Workshops with Block on February 9/10. http://www.eventbrite.com/org/169037034
Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).
Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program. ______________________________________________________________________
©2013Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited.All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.
Join us twice weekly. Send us links to your sizzle reels and film sites.
Two Short Listed Documentary Features
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, directed by Alison Klayman
Ai Weiwei is China's most famous international artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. Against a backdrop of strict censorship and an unresponsive legal system, Ai expresses himself and organizes people through art and social media. In response, Chinese authorities have shut down his blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention.
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is the inside story of a dissident for the digital age who inspires global audiences and whose actions blur the boundaries of art and politics. First-time director Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to Ai while working as a journalist in China. Her detailed portrait of Weiwei’s life and work allows us to follow Weiwei’s journey and his transformation of his life and works are perceived. Few artists have been able to use their public stature to help cause political change. Clearly this is the story of a giant killer. Regrettably the story continues and China continues to repress its people.
What’s special about Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is that the filmmaker was able to follow Ai Weiwei over several years. We are able to see a Chinese dissident whose home is watched by 1984-like cameras hung from telephone and power poles. We can only assume his home is bugged, his cell phone is bugged and all of his computers are bugged. The power of this work is seeing an artist functioning in this environment. Shocking. His spirit is best shown in his defiant art, his raised middle finger in the foreground of many still images of iconic monuments to the Chinese peoples’ struggles. He dares to challenge America’s biggest trading partner, debt holder and, by the end of the film, he is shown silenced, unable to comment because he was released from detention. The irony of this powerful work is that we and the world are shown to be complicit.
While the film lacks the slickness of many of the Academy’s short listed docs, its power flows from the subject. Clearly an artist whose work reflects his life experiences and struggle is a difficult subject. Weiwei constantly tweaks the authorities who clearly fear its citizens being free to express themselves and their feelings about their government globally. Yet the world is silent about this repressive government that spies on, beats up and terrorizes its citizens. This is another film that should be nominated. Its construction, score, shooting suggests that Ms. Klayman can, with some more experience, become an extraordinary filmmaker.
The Filmmakers
Alison Klayman, Director, Producer, Cinematographer
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorryis Alison Klayman's debut feature documentary, which she directed, produced, filmed and co-edited. She is a 2011 Sundance Documentary Fellow and one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film". She has been a guest on The Colbert Report, as well as CNN and NPR. Klayman lived in China from 2006 to 2010, working as a freelance journalist. She speaks Mandarin and Hebrew, and graduated from Brown University in 2006.
Adam Schlesinger, Producer
Adam Schlesinger is an award-winning independent film producer based in New York. He produced the Sundance Film Festival selections: Smash His Camera, which won for Best Director; Page One- Inside the New York Times; and God Grew Tired of Us, winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award.
Credits:
Director/Producer/Writer/Camera: Alison Klayman
Producer: Adam Schlesinger
Contributing Producer: Colin
Executive Producers: Andrew Cohen, Julie Goldman, Karl
Music: Ilan Isakov
Editor: Jen Fineran
Production Companies: Expressions United Media, Muse Film and Television, Never Sorry
Distribution: Sundance Selects, Artificial Eye
Bully, directed by Lee Hirsch A Case Study: How to be Short Listed and Gross $3Million
Bully, directed by Lee Hirsch
A Case Study: How to be Short Listed and Gross $3Million
Bully is a character-driven documentary that looks at how bullying has touched five children and their families. The five stories each represent a different facet of bullying. Filmed over the course of the 2009/2010 school year, Bully opens a window onto the lives of bullied kids, revealing a problem that transcends geographic, racial, ethnic and economic borders. It documents the responses of teachers and administrators to aggressive behaviors that defy “kids will be kids” clichés, and it captures a growing movement among parents and youths to change how bullying is handled in schools, in communities and in society as a whole.
Bully is a case study of how The Weinstein Company can take what would be a traditional non-theatrical documentary feature and turn it into both a cause and a theatrical event and, because of the rule changes at the Academy, have it come to be short listed for an Oscar.
Bully is an excellent film, it is well made, directed, edited and scored. Its characters and stories are well done. It’s just not in the same league as many of the documentary films short listed for this year’s Academy Award nomination.
When the film was released with an “R” rating, appropriate and consistent with the MPAA guidelines because of language and violence, the Weinsteins used the R rating to create a controversy which enabled the film to become a box office success and was the basis of a brilliant Academy campaign for a documentary nomination. This is one of the best examples (since Michael Moore and Roger and Menot being nominated for an Oscar) of creating a box-office success with a documentary. (Roger and Mewas distributed by Warners.) As of December 30, 2012 Bully had grossed over $3.5 million. (Box Office Mojo)
The MPAA gives an automatic “R” rating to films that use the “F” word. It has done this since its inception. This makes sense. The “F” word is inappropriate for children. But wait, Bullyis for middle and high school students! These schools can’t (or should not) show “R” rated films.
The MPAA rating system has never been particularly clear to Americans. Developed by the Motion Picture Association to prevent local and/or regional ratings it has always been “advisory”; however, some media outlets will not accept advertising or promote films with some of the harder ratings. The Weinsteins knew that this film would get an “R” rating because of the “F” word. No surprise. Yet how could this “important” film for school children to see be blocked from its audience?
“Bully's R ratingsparks a nationwide protest. ...stars, theater owners, and Members of Congress have joined forces to protest the film's R rating as a result of the film having six swear words.” This is in the industry press. (Deadline)
The Weinsteins, of course with great fanfare, appealed the rating decision which got the film more press. They decided to release the film in just two markets to qualify for the documentary Academy award, without a rating, but continue the press-push to have the rating changed.
On April 5, The Weinstein Company announced that their doc, Bully, was to receive a PG-13 from the MPAA, with some minor cuts. After removing three uses of the F-word it was re-released in the new PG-13 version on April 13 and shortly after the run was expanded to 55 theatrical markets.
Deadline reported, “The big victory, even though they had to remove three F-words, was that they could keep the controversial school bus bullying scene unedited and uncut, which (the director) Hirsch continuously refused to edit, "since it is too important to the truth and integrity behind the film." Hirsch states: "I feel completely vindicated with this resolution. While I retain my belief that PG-13 has always been the appropriate rating for this film, as reinforced by Canada's rating of a PG, we have today scored a victory from the MPAA. The support and guidance we have received throughout this process has been incredible."
Let’s note that the MPAA is an industry trade association. The Weinsteins are members. It’s not exactly a group that battles. The ratings are advisory only.
The Weinstein press release continued the illusion, This decision by the MPAA is a huge victory for the parents, educators, lawmakers, and most importantly, children, everywhere who have been fighting for months for the appropriate PG-13 rating without cutting some of the most sensitive moments. Three uses of the 'F word' were removed from other scenes, which ultimately persuaded the MPAA to lower the rating. Hirsch made the documentary with the intent to give an uncensored, real-life portrayal of what 13 million children suffer through every year. The new rating, which came about with the great support from MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd, grants the schools, organizations and cities all around the country who are lined up and ready to screen Bully, including the National Education Association and the Cincinnati School District, the opportunity to share this educational tool with their children.”
It needs to be pointed out that this controversy was a set up. When The Weinstein Company released Bully "unrated" in theaters in New York and Los Angeles it barely earned $150,000. The film might be seen by a few hundred thousand people in theaters which is a theatrical success but not the millions of kids the filmmakers are on record to reach. (A $3.5 mil gross suggests at a $6 admission fee perhaps a half-million tickets were sold.) Millions of people don’t usually go to theaters to see docs. So a $3.5 mil theatrical gross makes this film a major theatrical success. It puts this film in the top 50 or so theatrical documentaries of all time.
But all along, the Weinsteins knew that the film can easily be provided in DVD and in video-on-demand to schools, teachers, students and families in an “Educational” version without the R rated language being included. The use of an educational version would totally serve the school market. This version could be provided for “free” or even for a modest fee if the Weinsteins were really interested in this aspect of marketing the film. The Bullybook is available now for sale and soon the Blu Ray and DVD. Seeing the film in a classroom and then talking about it is what educators do with films. There are over 100,000 school, church and other groups (like Girls Scouts) that can show this film to groups of kids.
Note: Full disclosure, I started a Move-on Campaign and petitioned the Weinsteins to offer
Bully for a Buck! after I saw the film. More than 480 people have signed the petition to date. No match for the hundreds of thousands who signed the rating controversy petition but I did not do any publicity. As a parent of two teens, I felt this was a far more logical thing to do to get the film out to children without the strong language. This petition continues on Change.org.
Bully Short Listed for an Academy Award
With the rule change at the Academy this year, the documentary branch is working as a committee of the whole to do both the short listing and the nomination. The committee members were sent 125 documentary features, mostly arriving at the tail end of the deadline, to review. The committee was made up of both documentary branch members and Academy members who have been nominated or won documentary Oscars. Obviously, few members saw all 125 documentaries. The short list of 15 films was made from tallying the results of each member’s list of their 15 top docs. I think the publicity for Bully insured it would make this list.
The Weinsteins also had it screened at the Academy as part of the Academy members screening program, one of the handful of documentaries that were screened as part of the weekend program. This also will likely help the film get on members’ radar. Smart. Last year, The Weinsteins’ film The Undefeatedwon the Documentary Oscar. They do a great job getting their films out.
Credits:
Directed by: Lee Hirsch
Produced by: Lee Hirsch, Cynthia Lowen
Written by: Lee Hirsch, Cynthia Lowen
Executive Producer: Cindy Waitt
Cinematography: Lee Hirsch
Edited by: Lindsay Utz, Jenny Golden
Original Score by: Ion Furjanic, Justin Rice/Christian Rudder
Consulting Editors: Enat Sidi, Cynthia Lowen
Music Supervisor: Brooke Wentz
Running Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some language
Short Notes and Update:
WGA Announces Nominees for Documentary Screenplay Award
The WGA announced six nominees for its documentary screenplay award: War, Mea Culpa and Sugar Man also are on the Academy shortlist of feature docs hoping to score an Oscar nomination.
Winners will be honored by the Writers Guild of America, West (Wgaw) and the Writers Guild of America, East (Wgae) at the 2013 Writers Guild Awards on Feb. 17 during simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York.
Documentary Screenplay
The Central Park Five, written by Sarah Burns and David McMahon and Ken Burns; Sundance Selects
The Invisible War, written by Kirby Dick; Cinedigm Entertainment Group
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, written by Alex Gibney; HBO Documentary Films
Searching for Sugar Man, written by Malik Bendejelloul; Sony Pictures Classics
We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, written by Brian Knappenberger; Cinetic Media
West of Memphis, written by Amy Berg & Billy McMillin; Sony Pictures Classics
Sundance Announces 2013 Documentary Competition:
U.S. Documentary Competition
The world premieres of 16 American documentary films.
99% - The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film/ U.S.A. (Directors: Audrey Ewell, Aaron Aites, Lucian Read, Nina Krstic) The Occupy movement erupted in September 2011, propelling economic inequality into the spotlight. In an unprecedented collaboration, filmmakers across America tell its story, digging into big picture issues as organizers, analysts, participants and critics reveal how it happened and why.
After Tiller/ U.S.A. (Directors: Martha Shane, Lana Wilson) — Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009, only four doctors in the country provide late-term abortions. With unprecedented access, After Tiller goes inside the lives of these physicians working at the center of the storm.
American Promise/ U.S.A. (Directors: Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson) — This intimate documentary follows the 12-year journey of two African-American families pursuing the promise of opportunity through the education of their sons.
Blackfish/ U.S.A. (Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite) — Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.
Blood Brother/ U.S.A. (Director: Steve Hoover) — Rocky went to India as a disillusioned tourist. When he met a group of children with HIV, he decided to stay. He never could have imagined the obstacles he would face, or the love he would find.
Citizen Koch / U.S.A. (Directors: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin) — Wisconsin – birthplace of the Republican Party, government unions, “cheeseheads” and Paul Ryan – becomes a test market in the campaign to buy Democracy, and ground zero in the battle for the future of the Gop.
Cutie and the Boxer/ U.S.A. (Director: Zachary Heinzerling) — This candid New York love story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of famed boxing painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko. Anxious to shed her role of assistant to her overbearing husband, Noriko seeks an identity of her own.
Dirty Wars/ U.S.A. (Director: Richard Rowley) — Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill chases down the truth behind America’s covert wars.
Gideon's Army/ U.S.A. (Director: Dawn Porter) — Gideon’s Army follows three young, committed Public Defenders who are dedicated to working for the people society would rather forget. Long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads are so common that even the most committed often give up.
God Loves Uganda/ U.S.A. (Director: Roger Ross Williams) — A powerful exploration of the evangelical campaign to infuse African culture with values imported from America’s Christian Right. The film follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting “sexual immorality” and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow biblical law.
Inequality for All/ U.S.A. (Director: Jacob Kornbluth) — In this timely and entertaining documentary, noted economic-policy expert Robert Reich distills the topic of widening income inequality, and addresses the question of what effects this increasing gap has on our economy and our democracy.
Life According to Sam/ U.S.A. (Directors: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine) — Dr. Leslie Gordon and Dr. Scott Berns fight to save their only son from a rare and fatal aging disease for which there is no cure. Their work may one day unlock the key to aging in all of us.
Manhunt / U.S.A., United Kingdom (Director: Greg Barker) — This espionage tale goes inside the CIA’s long conflict against Al Qaeda, as revealed by the remarkable women and men whose secret war against Osama bin Laden started nearly a decade before most of us even knew his name.
Narco Cultura/ U.S.A. (Director: Shaul Schwarz) — An examination of Mexican drug cartels’ influence in pop culture on both sides of the border as experienced by an La narcocorrido singer dreaming of stardom and a Juarez crime scene investigator on the front line of Mexico’s Drug War.
Twenty Feet From Stardom/ U.S.A. (Director: Morgan Neville) — Backup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight. Their voices bring harmony to the biggest bands in popular music, but we've had no idea who these singers are or what lives they lead – until now. Day One Film
Valentine Road/ U.S.A. (Director: Marta Cunningham) — In 2008, eighth-grader Brandon McInerney shot classmate Larry King at point blank range. Unraveling this tragedy from point of impact, the film reveals the heartbreaking circumstances that led to the shocking crime as well as its startling aftermath.
________________________________________________________________________
Credits: Editing by Jessica Just for SydneysBuzz
________________________________________________________________________
Block Doc Workshops in Los Angeles February 2013
The International Documentary Association will be hosting Documentary Funding and Documentary Tune-Up Workshops with Block on February 9/10. http://www.eventbrite.com/org/169037034
Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).
Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program. ______________________________________________________________________
©2013Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited.All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.
- 1/8/2013
- by Mitchell Block
- Sydney's Buzz
1. Searching for Sugar Man (dir. Malik Bendjelloul) Because it's a joy of a film - wonderful music, a fascinating and dramatic story, and a pure celebration of individual talent. Remember to shush anyone who even tries to tell you anything about Rodriguez! 2. The Waiting Room (dir. Peter Nicks) As nail-biting as any Hollywood thriller, Nicks' riveting doc brings the viewer into the waiting room of a public hospital in Oakland CA - and shows us why our country's health care system is very much in tatters. 3. Bully (dir. Lee Hirsch) Because now, more than ever, this is essential viewing for each American family (and young people everywhere). The bullied kids that Hirsch follows convey such raw emotion in their testimonies that it's hard not to feel personally connected to their stories. The film is beautifully executed, and it's both infuriating and at the same time therapeutic. 4. The Imposter (dir. Bart Layton...
- 12/28/2012
- TribecaFilm.com
Vol. I Issue 3
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Chasing Ice directed by Jeff Orlowski
Chasing Ice is the story of James Balog’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.
In a year where the Short Listed Academy documentary features deal with issues ranging from sexual harassment in the military to the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexually molesting children, Chasing Ice deals with arguably the most important issue proving that the ice caps are melting and that the warming of the planet will have a catastrophic effect. But this is a year where the MPAA rating of a film about bullying school students has seemed to get the most press. That’s a shame. Chasing Ice needs to be seen. It is the most important short listed documentary film of the year. Like Davis Guggenheim’s Al Gore PowerPoint presentation, this film is scary. With never-before-seen time lapse photography we can dramatically see the ice caps and giant glaciers shrinking. A chunk of ice the size of lower Manhattan crashes into the sea. The ice flows like a river into the sea. We all know that when the ice melts, it releases its fresh water into the sea and that the water will rise. In time a few feet. Say good bye to land that several hundred million people live on.
So what’s the problem? They don’t have the press machine of Bob and Harvey Weinstein that makes a mountain out of an MPAA rating. Can the Oscar nomination go to the most important film? (could this paragraph go after next paragraph?)
But wait, there is more. This is a strikingly well made film. It has a compelling character, James Balog, who is giving his body to science and this cause. The cracks we hear are not chunks of ice but his knees disintegrating as he scales cliffs of rock and ice. The filmmakers really are risking their lives making the film, the ice takes no prisoners, the small planes and helicopters regularly crash. The film unfolds with precision; we are moved and awed by the characters and the stunning photography. The score is first rate as is the editing. This is a work that should be short listed but might be overlooked because it lacks the political coolness of some of the other films. This would be a shame.
The Filmmakers
Chasing Ice is directed by Jeff Orlowski, cinematographer for the Extreme Ice Survey, and an award-winning filmmaker. A Stanford University graduate, he has been working with Balog since 2007 and has shot over 300 hours of footage of Eis in the field. His work for Eis has screened on NBC, CNN, PBS, National Geographic, and hundreds of other venues around the world.
The film is produced by Paula DuPre’ Pesmen, the winner of the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary and 2010 Producers Guild of America ‘Producer of the Year’ for her role on The Cove. She has also served as producer on three Harry Potter films, Rent, and Mrs. Doubtfire. The film is also produced by Jerry Aronson, nominated for an Academy Award for the documentary The Divided Trail, and the director of The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg.
Credits:
Director/Producer: Jeff Orlowski
Producers: Paula DuPre’ Pesmen, Jerry Aronson
Executive Producers: David and Linda Cornfield
Writer: Mark Monroe
Cinematography: Jeff Orlowski
Music Composer: J. Ralph
Editor, Mark Monroe
Production: Diamond Docs (in association with)
Exposure Production, Exposure
Distributors (Us): Submarine Deluxe and National Geographic Channel
Maggie Simpson a short animated film by David Silverman
The Longest Daycare is a four-and-a-half-minute-long animated 3D short animated film based on the animated television series The Simpsons.
Directed by David Silverman The Longest Daycare is one of my favorite short animated films short listed for the Oscar this year. Silverman, credited with creating the look of the Simpsons, has directed numerous episodes of this hit series. Daycare has no dialogue. It is hilarious in part because of its silent film style. It is smart and fun. Maggie is a delight. This short film is really special. Between the 3D, the super clever writing and the stunning animation style, it is one of the very rare animations that can be enjoyed by any audience. Silverman’s work deserves an Oscar.
Scored by Hans Zimmer, best known for his work on Hollywood blockbusters, the score references numerous films scores and adds another layer of meaning to this magnificent (really?) work. Silverman attended the University of Maryland College Park and studied animation at UCLA.
Credits:
Directed by: David Silverman
Produced by: James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Richard Raynis, Richard Sakai
Written by: James L. Brooks, Joel H. Cohen, Matt Groening, Al Jean, David Mirkin, Michael Price
Music by: Hans Zimmer, James Dooley (addition music)
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Running time: 4:30
Academy announces 15 feature documentary films shortlisted for the Documentary Film Nomination
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced the short listed documentary features on December 3, 2012. Under the new documentary branch rules all of the branch members as well as documentary nominees and award winners from other Academy branches could vote for the short listed films. About 180 Academy members participated. Dropping the committee process where four committees would screen one quarter of the submitted films, Documentary Branch Governor Michael Moore pushed the branch to use a preferential voting system with all branch members and other qualified Academy members participating. As this writer expected, works with a lot of hype, such as Bully, were short listed. One can wonder how many members who voted for this film actually saw it. In addition to changing the short listing process, the branch demanded that films had to have been reviewed in either the New York Times or the Los Angeles Times. Voters received 126 DVDs in the mail.
A number of worthy films were omitted, as is always the case, including: The Central Park Five (directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon), West of Memphis (directed by Amy Berg), The Queen of Versailles, directed by Lauren Greenfield. I also really liked Bad 25 (directed by Spike Lee) and Love Marilyn (directed by Liz Garbus). Samsara (directed by Ron Fricke) is the year’s best documentary for its sheer poetry
The Academy can choose to nominate up to three people. However, only the director has a lock on the nomination. Individuals credited as “Producer” are vetted by the Producer’s Guild. Each must prove that they did a majority of the producer roles. This is the third year that this rule has been in force. Many of the films have multiple “producers” so it remains to be seen who will receive nominations. The decision of the Academy will be announced once the films are nominated. This has been somewhat contentious in the past.
AMPAS rules follow:
The nominee(s) should be the individual(s) most involved in the key creative aspects of the filmmaking process. A maximum of two persons may be designated as nominees, one of whom must be the credited director who exercised directorial control, and the other of whom must have a producer or director credit. If a producer is named, that individual must have performed a major portion of the producing functions, in accordance with Academy producer criteria. No more than two statuettes will normally be given in the Documentary Feature category. All individuals with a “Producer” or “Produced by” credit on films that reach the semifinal round will automatically be vetted. The Documentary Branch Executive Committee will determine which producers, if any, are eligible to receive an Oscar. In the unlikely event of a dispute, filmmakers may appeal the committee’s decision. In extremely rare circumstances, a third statuette may be awarded. Production companies or persons with the screen credit of executive producer, co-producer or any credit other than director or producer shall not be eligible as nominees for the motion picture.
The Short List:
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, directed by Alison Klayman
Bully, directed by Lee Hirsch
Chasing Ice, directed by Jeff Orlowski
Detropia, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Ethel, directed by Rory Kennedy
5 Broken Cameras, directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers, directed by Dror Moreh
The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki
How to Survive a Plague, directed by David France
The Imposter, directed by Bart Layton
The Invisible War, directed by Kirby Dick
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, directed by Alex Gibney
Searching for Sugar Man, directed by Malik Bendjelloul
This Is Not a Film, directed by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and Jafar Panahi
The Waiting Room, directed by Peter Nicks
The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards will be announced at 5:30 am (Pst) on Thursday, January 10, 2013. The awards will be handed out on Sunday, February 24, 2013.
Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).
Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program.
______________________________________________________________________
©2012Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited. All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.
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Chasing Ice directed by Jeff Orlowski
Chasing Ice is the story of James Balog’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.
In a year where the Short Listed Academy documentary features deal with issues ranging from sexual harassment in the military to the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexually molesting children, Chasing Ice deals with arguably the most important issue proving that the ice caps are melting and that the warming of the planet will have a catastrophic effect. But this is a year where the MPAA rating of a film about bullying school students has seemed to get the most press. That’s a shame. Chasing Ice needs to be seen. It is the most important short listed documentary film of the year. Like Davis Guggenheim’s Al Gore PowerPoint presentation, this film is scary. With never-before-seen time lapse photography we can dramatically see the ice caps and giant glaciers shrinking. A chunk of ice the size of lower Manhattan crashes into the sea. The ice flows like a river into the sea. We all know that when the ice melts, it releases its fresh water into the sea and that the water will rise. In time a few feet. Say good bye to land that several hundred million people live on.
So what’s the problem? They don’t have the press machine of Bob and Harvey Weinstein that makes a mountain out of an MPAA rating. Can the Oscar nomination go to the most important film? (could this paragraph go after next paragraph?)
But wait, there is more. This is a strikingly well made film. It has a compelling character, James Balog, who is giving his body to science and this cause. The cracks we hear are not chunks of ice but his knees disintegrating as he scales cliffs of rock and ice. The filmmakers really are risking their lives making the film, the ice takes no prisoners, the small planes and helicopters regularly crash. The film unfolds with precision; we are moved and awed by the characters and the stunning photography. The score is first rate as is the editing. This is a work that should be short listed but might be overlooked because it lacks the political coolness of some of the other films. This would be a shame.
The Filmmakers
Chasing Ice is directed by Jeff Orlowski, cinematographer for the Extreme Ice Survey, and an award-winning filmmaker. A Stanford University graduate, he has been working with Balog since 2007 and has shot over 300 hours of footage of Eis in the field. His work for Eis has screened on NBC, CNN, PBS, National Geographic, and hundreds of other venues around the world.
The film is produced by Paula DuPre’ Pesmen, the winner of the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary and 2010 Producers Guild of America ‘Producer of the Year’ for her role on The Cove. She has also served as producer on three Harry Potter films, Rent, and Mrs. Doubtfire. The film is also produced by Jerry Aronson, nominated for an Academy Award for the documentary The Divided Trail, and the director of The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg.
Credits:
Director/Producer: Jeff Orlowski
Producers: Paula DuPre’ Pesmen, Jerry Aronson
Executive Producers: David and Linda Cornfield
Writer: Mark Monroe
Cinematography: Jeff Orlowski
Music Composer: J. Ralph
Editor, Mark Monroe
Production: Diamond Docs (in association with)
Exposure Production, Exposure
Distributors (Us): Submarine Deluxe and National Geographic Channel
Maggie Simpson a short animated film by David Silverman
The Longest Daycare is a four-and-a-half-minute-long animated 3D short animated film based on the animated television series The Simpsons.
Directed by David Silverman The Longest Daycare is one of my favorite short animated films short listed for the Oscar this year. Silverman, credited with creating the look of the Simpsons, has directed numerous episodes of this hit series. Daycare has no dialogue. It is hilarious in part because of its silent film style. It is smart and fun. Maggie is a delight. This short film is really special. Between the 3D, the super clever writing and the stunning animation style, it is one of the very rare animations that can be enjoyed by any audience. Silverman’s work deserves an Oscar.
Scored by Hans Zimmer, best known for his work on Hollywood blockbusters, the score references numerous films scores and adds another layer of meaning to this magnificent (really?) work. Silverman attended the University of Maryland College Park and studied animation at UCLA.
Credits:
Directed by: David Silverman
Produced by: James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Richard Raynis, Richard Sakai
Written by: James L. Brooks, Joel H. Cohen, Matt Groening, Al Jean, David Mirkin, Michael Price
Music by: Hans Zimmer, James Dooley (addition music)
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Running time: 4:30
Academy announces 15 feature documentary films shortlisted for the Documentary Film Nomination
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced the short listed documentary features on December 3, 2012. Under the new documentary branch rules all of the branch members as well as documentary nominees and award winners from other Academy branches could vote for the short listed films. About 180 Academy members participated. Dropping the committee process where four committees would screen one quarter of the submitted films, Documentary Branch Governor Michael Moore pushed the branch to use a preferential voting system with all branch members and other qualified Academy members participating. As this writer expected, works with a lot of hype, such as Bully, were short listed. One can wonder how many members who voted for this film actually saw it. In addition to changing the short listing process, the branch demanded that films had to have been reviewed in either the New York Times or the Los Angeles Times. Voters received 126 DVDs in the mail.
A number of worthy films were omitted, as is always the case, including: The Central Park Five (directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon), West of Memphis (directed by Amy Berg), The Queen of Versailles, directed by Lauren Greenfield. I also really liked Bad 25 (directed by Spike Lee) and Love Marilyn (directed by Liz Garbus). Samsara (directed by Ron Fricke) is the year’s best documentary for its sheer poetry
The Academy can choose to nominate up to three people. However, only the director has a lock on the nomination. Individuals credited as “Producer” are vetted by the Producer’s Guild. Each must prove that they did a majority of the producer roles. This is the third year that this rule has been in force. Many of the films have multiple “producers” so it remains to be seen who will receive nominations. The decision of the Academy will be announced once the films are nominated. This has been somewhat contentious in the past.
AMPAS rules follow:
The nominee(s) should be the individual(s) most involved in the key creative aspects of the filmmaking process. A maximum of two persons may be designated as nominees, one of whom must be the credited director who exercised directorial control, and the other of whom must have a producer or director credit. If a producer is named, that individual must have performed a major portion of the producing functions, in accordance with Academy producer criteria. No more than two statuettes will normally be given in the Documentary Feature category. All individuals with a “Producer” or “Produced by” credit on films that reach the semifinal round will automatically be vetted. The Documentary Branch Executive Committee will determine which producers, if any, are eligible to receive an Oscar. In the unlikely event of a dispute, filmmakers may appeal the committee’s decision. In extremely rare circumstances, a third statuette may be awarded. Production companies or persons with the screen credit of executive producer, co-producer or any credit other than director or producer shall not be eligible as nominees for the motion picture.
The Short List:
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, directed by Alison Klayman
Bully, directed by Lee Hirsch
Chasing Ice, directed by Jeff Orlowski
Detropia, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Ethel, directed by Rory Kennedy
5 Broken Cameras, directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers, directed by Dror Moreh
The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki
How to Survive a Plague, directed by David France
The Imposter, directed by Bart Layton
The Invisible War, directed by Kirby Dick
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, directed by Alex Gibney
Searching for Sugar Man, directed by Malik Bendjelloul
This Is Not a Film, directed by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and Jafar Panahi
The Waiting Room, directed by Peter Nicks
The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards will be announced at 5:30 am (Pst) on Thursday, January 10, 2013. The awards will be handed out on Sunday, February 24, 2013.
Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).
Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program.
______________________________________________________________________
©2012Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited. All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.
- 12/27/2012
- by Mitchell Block
- Sydney's Buzz
Two documentary films were among the 14 winners of the 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, making them the first theatrical releases to be honored with the prize. USA Today also won its first duPont award. "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," Alison Klayman's profile of the Chinese artist-activist, and Emmy-winning filmmaker Lee Hirsch's tale of schoolyard torment, "Bully," won alongside reporting from Current TV, CBS News, NPR, PBS's "Frontline" and USA Today. USA Today was honored for multimedia reporting on abandoned lead factories, and NPR's "StoryCorps" will win its first silver baton. Five awards...
- 12/19/2012
- by Alexander C. Kaufman
- The Wrap
By Mark Johnson
Hollywood News
***
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced today that critically acclaimed documentary feature Bully will be honored with the 2013 Stanley Kramer Award at the 24th Annual Producers Guild Awards ceremony. Director Lee Hirsch and producer Cynthia Lowen will accept the award on Saturday, Jan. 26 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
Read the rest of this entry…...
Hollywood News
***
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced today that critically acclaimed documentary feature Bully will be honored with the 2013 Stanley Kramer Award at the 24th Annual Producers Guild Awards ceremony. Director Lee Hirsch and producer Cynthia Lowen will accept the award on Saturday, Jan. 26 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
Read the rest of this entry…...
- 12/18/2012
- by Melissa Buckman
- Scott Feinberg
The Producers Guild of America (PGA), announced today that critically acclaimed documentary feature Bully will be honored with the 2013 Stanley Kramer Award at the 24th Annual Producers Guild Awards ceremony. Director Lee Hirsch and producer Cynthia Lowen will accept the award on Saturday, January 26 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. The Stanley Kramer Award was established in 2002 to honor a production, producer or other individual whose achievement or contribution illuminates and raises public awareness of important social issues. Stanley Kramer created some of the most powerful and acclaimed works in the history of American motion pictures, including such classics as Inherit The Wind, On The Beach, The Defiant Ones, and Guess Who’S Coming To Dinner. Previous recipients of the Stanley Kramer Award include such films as The Great Debaters, An Inconvenient Truth, Hotel Rwanda, In America, Antwone Fisher, Precious and the 2012 honoree In The Land Of Blood And Honey.
- 12/18/2012
- by mjblog@hollywoodnews.com (Mark Johnson)
- Hollywoodnews.com
Bully will be honored by the Producers Guild of America at its annual awards show in January. The 2011 documentary directed by Lee Hirsch, which tracks the tragic impact that bullying has had on five students throughout the nation, will be given the Stanley Kramer Award, which honors productions and individuals that "illuminate and raise public awareness of important social issues." Hirsch and producer Cynthia Lowen will accept the award. "The social action campaign for Bully raised significant funding that allowed for over 250,000 students nationwide to take field trips within an educational framework to see the film,
read more...
read more...
- 12/18/2012
- by Jordan Zakarin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Producers Guild of America will honor the documentary "Bully" with the 2013 Stanley Kramer Award at its January awards ceremony, the organization said Tuesday. Director Lee Hirsch and producer Cynthia Lowen will accept the award. "Bully" follows five high school students as they are subjected to taunts and ridicule and examines the impact their mistreatment has on their lives and their families. "'Bully' is a powerful and inspiring film that brought much-needed attention to an issue that just about everyone can relate to at one point or another in their life,"...
- 12/18/2012
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
The Producers Guild of America (PGA), announced today that critically acclaimed documentary feature Bully will be honored with the 2013 Stanley Kramer Award at the 24th Annual Producers Guild Awards ceremony.
- 12/18/2012
- by Sasha Stone
- AwardsDaily.com
The MPAA certainly gave the documentary Bully a hard time with its rating, but the Producers Guild of America is showing the anti-bullying documentary some love: It has awarded the film its Stanley Kramer Award, bestowed on a film which raises public awareness on an important issue. The film, which initially received an R rating until filmmakers cut a few cuss words to get the PG-13, is shortlisted for Best Documentary in the Oscar race. This comes months after The Weinstein Company‘s Harvey and Bob Weinstein were selected to receive the PGA’s Milestone Award, which will be presented at the same event January 26. Here is the PGA’s official announcement: Los Angeles, CA (December 18, 2012) – The Producers Guild of America (PGA), announced today that critically acclaimed documentary feature Bully will be honored with the 2013 Stanley Kramer Award at the 24th Annual Producers Guild Awards ceremony. Director Lee Hirsch and...
- 12/18/2012
- by MIKE FLEMING JR.
- Deadline
"The Imposter" and "Searching for Sugar Man" each received 5 nods from the Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking. 31 features and 5 shorts will vie for the best of the best in documentary filmmaking. Check out the full list of nominees below including the Audience Award and Heterodox Award.
Winners of the 6th Annual Cinema Eye Honors will be announced on January 9, 2013 as Cinema Eye returns for a third year to New York City.s Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
5 Broken Cameras
Directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Produced by Christine Camdessus, Serge Gordey, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Produced by Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady and Craig Atkinson
The Imposter
Directed by Bart Layton
Produced by Dimitri Doganis
Marina Abramović The Artist is Present
Directed by Matthew Akers
Produced by Jeff Dupre and Maro Chermayeff...
Winners of the 6th Annual Cinema Eye Honors will be announced on January 9, 2013 as Cinema Eye returns for a third year to New York City.s Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
5 Broken Cameras
Directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Produced by Christine Camdessus, Serge Gordey, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Produced by Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady and Craig Atkinson
The Imposter
Directed by Bart Layton
Produced by Dimitri Doganis
Marina Abramović The Artist is Present
Directed by Matthew Akers
Produced by Jeff Dupre and Maro Chermayeff...
- 12/11/2012
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Once considered by many as either high art, propaganda or educational videos, documentary film has developed into a popular and visible form of entertainment, sometimes breaking into the mainstream, and often having a greater effect on society. Every year it seems more and more docs are produced and thus not even our hard working staff can manage to get around to watching them all. But we try our best, and so every year we publish a list of the docs that received high praise from our team. This year, the films appearing range from poetic, semi-expository, strictly observational, participatory, reflexive and even groundbreaking. Here are the 20 best documentaries of 2012, list in alphabetical order, with one special mention. Enjoy!
****
5 Broken Cameras
Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
5 Broken Cameras is a cinematic achievement, a homemade movie and an extraordinary work of political activism. Co-directed by Palestinian Emad Burnat and Israeli Guy Davidi,...
****
5 Broken Cameras
Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
5 Broken Cameras is a cinematic achievement, a homemade movie and an extraordinary work of political activism. Co-directed by Palestinian Emad Burnat and Israeli Guy Davidi,...
- 12/6/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Chicago – The short list for Academy Award contenders in the Best Documentary category have been announced. 15 potential nominees were selected with the utilization of new rules spearheaded by Academy Governor Michael Moore. Each entry was required to have screened for at least one week in Los Angeles and New York, and had to be reviewed by at least one newspaper.
Making the cut this year is Alison Klayman’s inspiring profile of the titular Chinese artist, “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” Lee Hirsch’s Weinstein-distributed doc, “Bully,” Jeff Orlowski’s chilling account of global warming, “Chasing Ice,” Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s timely exploration of Detroit’s manufacturing collapse, “Detropia,” Rory Kennedy’s intimate ode to her mother, “Ethel,” Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi’s look at a Palestinian farmer’s nonviolent resistance, “5 Broken Cameras,” Dror Moreh’s discussions with the former heads of Israel’s Secret Service agency, “The Gatekeepers,...
Making the cut this year is Alison Klayman’s inspiring profile of the titular Chinese artist, “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” Lee Hirsch’s Weinstein-distributed doc, “Bully,” Jeff Orlowski’s chilling account of global warming, “Chasing Ice,” Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s timely exploration of Detroit’s manufacturing collapse, “Detropia,” Rory Kennedy’s intimate ode to her mother, “Ethel,” Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi’s look at a Palestinian farmer’s nonviolent resistance, “5 Broken Cameras,” Dror Moreh’s discussions with the former heads of Israel’s Secret Service agency, “The Gatekeepers,...
- 12/5/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
The Documentary Branch screened 126 films and will now watch the 15 contenders listed below again to determine the final five which will be revealed on Jan. 10, along with the rest of the Oscar nominations. -Insertgroups:8- In alphabetical order: "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" Directed by Alison Klayman. Synopsis - Chronicling artist and activist Ai Weiwei as he prepares for a series of exhibitions and gets into an increasing number of clashes with the Chinese government. "Bully" Directed by Lee Hirsch. Synopsis - A documentary on peer-to-peer bullying in schools across America. "Chasing Ice" Directed by Jeff Orlowski. Synopsis - Follow National Geographic photographer James Balog across the Arctic as he deploys time-lapse cameras designed for one purpose: to capture a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers. "Detropia" Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. Synopsis - A documentar...
- 12/4/2012
- Gold Derby
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Feb. 12, 2013
Price: DVD $24.98, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $29.99
Studio: Anchor Bay
The critically acclaimed 2011 documentary Bully sparked a national dialogue and movement that rallied people to stand up to bullying, hate, and intolerance.
Directed by Lee Hirsch, Bully follows the lives of five students whose stories each represent a different facet of America’s bullying crisis, and the families that fight for them. A call to action, the film not only captured the attention of the country, but fostered that aforementioned national dialogue about bullying, uniting parents, teachers, and students in the fight against the violence that has gone unchecked for too long in our schools.
Offering insight into different facets of America’s bullying crisis, the stories include two families who have lost children to suicide and a mother awaiting the fate of her 14-year-old daughter, who has been incarcerated after bringing a gun on her school bus.
Price: DVD $24.98, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $29.99
Studio: Anchor Bay
The critically acclaimed 2011 documentary Bully sparked a national dialogue and movement that rallied people to stand up to bullying, hate, and intolerance.
Directed by Lee Hirsch, Bully follows the lives of five students whose stories each represent a different facet of America’s bullying crisis, and the families that fight for them. A call to action, the film not only captured the attention of the country, but fostered that aforementioned national dialogue about bullying, uniting parents, teachers, and students in the fight against the violence that has gone unchecked for too long in our schools.
Offering insight into different facets of America’s bullying crisis, the stories include two families who have lost children to suicide and a mother awaiting the fate of her 14-year-old daughter, who has been incarcerated after bringing a gun on her school bus.
- 11/14/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
The remake of the 1990 action sci-fi film Total Recall has opened well at the top of the box office over the weekend.
The film, directed by Len Wiseman and starring Colin Farrell took $2.337m.
Distributed by Sony Pictures it averaged $6,916 across 338 screens, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.
The plot is based on a the Philip K.Dick story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.
Also in its opening weekend, Hope Springs, distributed by Roadshow and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep and directed by David Frankel, took $1.167m.
Opening across 273 screens, the film averaged $4278 per screen.
Australian film The Sapphires, distributed by Hopscotch/eOne added another $1.444m to its total box office over the weekend. Across 279 screens the film averaged $5,178.
The film, in its third week now, has a box office total of $7.841m.
Two Australian documentaries are in theatre release.
Storm Surfers 3D: The Movie,...
The film, directed by Len Wiseman and starring Colin Farrell took $2.337m.
Distributed by Sony Pictures it averaged $6,916 across 338 screens, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.
The plot is based on a the Philip K.Dick story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.
Also in its opening weekend, Hope Springs, distributed by Roadshow and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep and directed by David Frankel, took $1.167m.
Opening across 273 screens, the film averaged $4278 per screen.
Australian film The Sapphires, distributed by Hopscotch/eOne added another $1.444m to its total box office over the weekend. Across 279 screens the film averaged $5,178.
The film, in its third week now, has a box office total of $7.841m.
Two Australian documentaries are in theatre release.
Storm Surfers 3D: The Movie,...
- 8/28/2012
- by Colin Delaney
- Encore Magazine
Thanks to Lee Hirsch's unblinking documentary Bully and The Weinstein Company's tireless efforts to promote the picture as well as battle the MPAA for a PG-13 rating that would allow the film to play in schools, the topic of bullying drew a lot of attention this year. Now first-time filmmaker Ajay Giunta will attack this topic in his directorial debut, a narrative he penned called The Contest. Percolate Productions, a New Jersey-based production company whose emphasis is family-friendly films with socially conscious themes, is backing the picture, which centers on two students.one a bully, the other one of his victims.who are forced to find common ground when they are teamed up to compete in a cooking contest. THR reports Kenton Duty of Disney's sitcom Shake It Up!, Katherine McNamara (New Year's Eve) and Dan Flaherty lead the cast that includes Kyle Dean Massey (Hart of Dixie), Mary Beth...
- 7/2/2012
- cinemablend.com
Exclusive: Lee Hirsch, whose feature documentary Bully became a cause celebre when it received an R rating, has signed with ICM Partners. Bully premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival and was released by The Weinstein Company. Hirsch’s feature debut came on Amandla! A Revolution In Four Part Harmony, which won the Sundance Audience Award in 2002. He also produced and directed Act Of Honor for the History Channel, and episodes of the Discovery Channel series Nextworld. Hirsch is also the founder, director, and producer of the Local Voices for Obama project, a series of ads featuring supporters of President Obama. His ads garnered him several 2009 Reed Awards, including Best Presidential Ad and Best Independent Expenditure.
- 6/20/2012
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
And so, the war over The Weinstein Company’s provocative documentary, Bully, ends – to use an exhausted cliché – not with a bang, but with a whimper. Since its release at the end of March, the doc has grossed approximately $3 million; not bad for a reality piece, and, measured against the flick’s $1.1 million budget, it means TWC will go home with some money in its pocket. But considering the thundering opening bombardments which accompanied the film’s debut, it’s hard not to look at that sum as a bit of a disappointment. After all, Disney’s warm and cuddly and topically irrelevant doc Chimpanzee, released almost three weeks later to a lot less fuss, has earned over $27 million.
Undoubtedly, there are going to be those who think Bully was hobbled at the box office by its nasty run-in with the MPAA. But I keep looking at Bully’s $3 mil,...
Undoubtedly, there are going to be those who think Bully was hobbled at the box office by its nasty run-in with the MPAA. But I keep looking at Bully’s $3 mil,...
- 5/24/2012
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Bully documentary director, Lee Hirsch, has called for the Republican presidential candidate to take a genuine stand after stories emerge of the latter's behaviour in high school
The director of high-profile Us documentary Bully has called on Mitt Romney to take a stand against bullying following revelations that the Republican presidential candidate made life a misery for a fellow pupil as a teenager.
Lee Hirsch, whose film examines the deaths of Us schoolchildren Tyler Long and Ty Smalley, who killed themselves after being bullied, said Romney's failure to issue a genuine apology for his actions were a missed opportunity that he hoped the former Massachusetts governor would reflect on. "This could be a true presidential moment for Mitt Romney," he told the Hollywood Reporter. "My hope is that he would recognise that we are past framing bullying as horseplay or pranking around. We need our leaders to call it as it is.
The director of high-profile Us documentary Bully has called on Mitt Romney to take a stand against bullying following revelations that the Republican presidential candidate made life a misery for a fellow pupil as a teenager.
Lee Hirsch, whose film examines the deaths of Us schoolchildren Tyler Long and Ty Smalley, who killed themselves after being bullied, said Romney's failure to issue a genuine apology for his actions were a missed opportunity that he hoped the former Massachusetts governor would reflect on. "This could be a true presidential moment for Mitt Romney," he told the Hollywood Reporter. "My hope is that he would recognise that we are past framing bullying as horseplay or pranking around. We need our leaders to call it as it is.
- 5/15/2012
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
If Emmy-winning filmmaker Lee Hirsch needed a real-time example to make the case he advances in Bully, his moving and deeply disturbing documentary on a shockingly ignored social problem, it’s the controversy surrounding a distasteful incident from Gop presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s prep school past. Bully follows the lives of five families in four states and documents both the misery and mistreatment of their children at the hands of other young people and the denial and indifference with which adults in positions of responsibility treat the problem. In two of the documented cases, the stories end in the
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- 5/15/2012
- by Tina Daunt
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Following our chat with screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher last week on his involvement with the film competition Bombay Sapphire are running this year (for more info click here) we spoke to one of the other creative forces behind the project, the director of the Tribeca Film Festival, Nancy Schafer.
What struck me about the involvement of both Fletcher and Schafer is the different qualities and experiences they bring. The premise is that writers and directors are asked to interpret a script written by Fletcher and to pitch their ideas to the panel. Coming from the background Schafer does, as well as being a champion of independent film, I wanted to find out what she was looking in the submissions, and if audiences are finding that there is life beyond the multiplex.
HeyUGuys – Can you tell us about your involvement in the Imagination series and can you tell us how you got involved in it?...
What struck me about the involvement of both Fletcher and Schafer is the different qualities and experiences they bring. The premise is that writers and directors are asked to interpret a script written by Fletcher and to pitch their ideas to the panel. Coming from the background Schafer does, as well as being a champion of independent film, I wanted to find out what she was looking in the submissions, and if audiences are finding that there is life beyond the multiplex.
HeyUGuys – Can you tell us about your involvement in the Imagination series and can you tell us how you got involved in it?...
- 4/30/2012
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Mix equal parts Kill Bill, Kick-Ass, and Lolita, and you’ve got Hick, though they may imply more glamor than is really there for the Chloë Grace Moretz film, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. Moretz plays 13-year-old Luli McMullen, who hits the road and finds herself tangled up with a grifter named Glenda (Blake Lively) and a handsome drifter, Eddie (My Week With Marilyn’s Eddie Redmayne). See the trailer below.
Hick was one of two controversial films to emerge from Tiff in 2011. But unlike the embattled Nc-17 Killer Joe, one finishes Hick’s new...
Hick was one of two controversial films to emerge from Tiff in 2011. But unlike the embattled Nc-17 Killer Joe, one finishes Hick’s new...
- 4/27/2012
- by Lanford Beard
- EW - Inside Movies
It took five weeks, but box offices are beginning to get full on Katniss Everdeen as The Hunger Games fell to third place this weekend. Taking the top spot was Think Like a Man with a big bank of $33 million in estimated domestic gross. Director Tim Story showed that he could overcome disappointing fans of the Fantastic Four franchise and get back to making good films that African-American audiences (though let’s remember, not exclusively) can be excited about like his debut film, Barbershop. It’s good to know that black audiences don’t always have to wait for Tyler Perry to make or produce a film even though it seemed like that was the case for many years. Believe me that’s a good thing because Perry doesn’t always make good films. Think Like a Man opened bigger than any Tyler Perry film with the exception of Madea Goes to Jail...
- 4/23/2012
- by Ernie Estrella
- BuzzFocus.com
The Time 100 list, Time magazine's annual countdown of the most influential people in the world, arrived on newsstands on Wednesday, and of course Harvey Weinstein made the cut.
Harvey had a tremendous year in 2011. The Weinstein Company CEO brought Best Picture-winning "The Artist" to American shores and helped Meryl Streep break her 29-year Oscar statuette drought by producing "The Iron Lady." Streep won Best Actress for playing Margaret Thatcher in the film, beating out Viola Davis, who also made the Time 100 list.
Weinstein has long been known for his cantankerous attitude, something Johnny Depp -- who wrote about Weinstein for the issue and starred in the Weinstein-produced "Finding Neverland" -- noted in his piece.
"No one gets to the top without the occasional scrap," wrote Depp. "While he's certainly the charming servant to film he purports to be, Harvey isn't afraid of a duke-'em-out. (I've had the pleasure of being...
Harvey had a tremendous year in 2011. The Weinstein Company CEO brought Best Picture-winning "The Artist" to American shores and helped Meryl Streep break her 29-year Oscar statuette drought by producing "The Iron Lady." Streep won Best Actress for playing Margaret Thatcher in the film, beating out Viola Davis, who also made the Time 100 list.
Weinstein has long been known for his cantankerous attitude, something Johnny Depp -- who wrote about Weinstein for the issue and starred in the Weinstein-produced "Finding Neverland" -- noted in his piece.
"No one gets to the top without the occasional scrap," wrote Depp. "While he's certainly the charming servant to film he purports to be, Harvey isn't afraid of a duke-'em-out. (I've had the pleasure of being...
- 4/18/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
Not since James Cameron's "Avatar" has a movie been No. 1 for fourth consecutive weekends. That is, until, "The Hunger Games."
Moe, Larry, and Curly were beaten to a pulp, and Joss Whedon's "The Cabin in the Woods" was ultimately scared to the No. 3 position by the phenomenon known as "The Hunger Games."
Based on Suzanne Collins' young-adult novel, "The Hunger Games" stayed at No. 1 with $21.5 million. So far, the film has accumulated $337.1 million at the domestic box office and has earned $531.1 million worldwide!
Meanwhile, the re-imagined "The Three Stooges" from the Farrelly brothers, debuted at No. 2. Starring Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes and Will Sasso as Moe, Larry and Curly, "The Three Stooges" nyuked nyuked its way to No. 2 with $17.1 million.
At No. 3 was the fantastic horror film "The Cabin in the Woods" from producer/co-writer Joss Whedon and his partner-in-crime, Drew Goddard. The R-rated film, also from...
Moe, Larry, and Curly were beaten to a pulp, and Joss Whedon's "The Cabin in the Woods" was ultimately scared to the No. 3 position by the phenomenon known as "The Hunger Games."
Based on Suzanne Collins' young-adult novel, "The Hunger Games" stayed at No. 1 with $21.5 million. So far, the film has accumulated $337.1 million at the domestic box office and has earned $531.1 million worldwide!
Meanwhile, the re-imagined "The Three Stooges" from the Farrelly brothers, debuted at No. 2. Starring Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes and Will Sasso as Moe, Larry and Curly, "The Three Stooges" nyuked nyuked its way to No. 2 with $17.1 million.
At No. 3 was the fantastic horror film "The Cabin in the Woods" from producer/co-writer Joss Whedon and his partner-in-crime, Drew Goddard. The R-rated film, also from...
- 4/16/2012
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
“Bully" Director: Lee Hirsch Documentary Rated PG-13 for intense thematic material, disturbing content, and some strong language -- all involving kids (initially rated R for some language) “Bully” follows a group of tweens and teens who've dealt with persistent bullying: lonely 12-year-old Alex faces daily physical and verbal abuse (particularly on the bus) in Sioux City, Iowa; out-and-proud 16-year-old Kelby is constantly besieged by the homophobia of her classmates and teachers in Tuttle, Oklahoma; and two sets of grieving parents attempt to honor their sons, who each committed suicide rather than live another day with the merciless taunting of their peers. Since Hirsch's documentary explores the many ways that bullying can affect and damage kids, I took two 13-year-old girls to see the film and discuss what they thought of the heartbreaking stories, and ultimately, the hopeful message. Which of the stories affected you the most? “The girl who came...
- 4/14/2012
- by Sandie Chen
- Moviefone
I salute Lee Hirsch! He created a documentary that is timely and much-needed. That movie, of course, is .Bully.. The Weinstein Co. film that was previously in limited release is slowly spreading across North America. So if it.s in your town, go watch .Bully!. ("Bully" Movie Review)
In this interview, we talked about:
*** The beginning of making the movie . how did .Bully. come about?
*** How did he choose the brave kids to be featured in the movie?
*** Why Alex.s story resonate the most
*** The MPAA battle . from R to PG-13
*** The film.s hopeful message . can we, as a society, really get over bullying?
But it.s all not dire seriousness in this interview, in the beginning, we were having mic issues, and Mister Hirsch blurted out that I have a lyrical voice, Ha!
In this interview, we talked about:
*** The beginning of making the movie . how did .Bully. come about?
*** How did he choose the brave kids to be featured in the movie?
*** Why Alex.s story resonate the most
*** The MPAA battle . from R to PG-13
*** The film.s hopeful message . can we, as a society, really get over bullying?
But it.s all not dire seriousness in this interview, in the beginning, we were having mic issues, and Mister Hirsch blurted out that I have a lyrical voice, Ha!
- 4/14/2012
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Chicago – The age-old problem of bullying has reached epidemic proportions. Or is it simply more openly discussed? It seems that for once a light is being pointed at the dark corners of this punishing coercion, and the perpetrators and enablers involved – the bully, his parents, school administrators – are scurrying from that light. The new film “Bully” is an illumination.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Hardly a complete documentary, the film projects a point-of-view by telling stories around the country about school kids in the middle of a bully situation, and families who have been affected by the actions of bullies. At the same time, these stories also showcase the underlying issues surrounding the bully situations – blind mice school systems, frustrated parents, the crueler outside world and a justice-system-by-way-of-no-justice. The stories are fraught with sadness and suffering, and have a emotional gut kick. The question after watching this is, who will be most affected by it?...
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Hardly a complete documentary, the film projects a point-of-view by telling stories around the country about school kids in the middle of a bully situation, and families who have been affected by the actions of bullies. At the same time, these stories also showcase the underlying issues surrounding the bully situations – blind mice school systems, frustrated parents, the crueler outside world and a justice-system-by-way-of-no-justice. The stories are fraught with sadness and suffering, and have a emotional gut kick. The question after watching this is, who will be most affected by it?...
- 4/14/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
In Alex Libby’s school, the principal is just as big a bully as the ones who victimize him on a daily basis, as shown when two of his classmates come back from recess soon after an altercation. One is a nice boy, offering his hand in apology, the other refuses to extend his hand or be sincere in returning the gesture. The principal pats the nice boy on the shoulder and sends him on his way and then proceeds to scold the other–the boy who was originally picked on. When he explains himself, he is denigrated while the guilty boy goes unpunished. That’s the tag team that plagues so many schools–bully and teacher–and is just one of the several real stories exposed in Lee Hirsch’s documentary Bully.
David and Tina Long, hail from Murray Country, Georgia and found their 17-year old son Tyler hanging...
David and Tina Long, hail from Murray Country, Georgia and found their 17-year old son Tyler hanging...
- 4/13/2012
- by Ernie Estrella
- BuzzFocus.com
Bully
Directed by: Lee Hirsch
Running Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: April 13, 2012 (Chicago)
Plot: A documentary that tells the stories of American youth who are bullied in their middle schools.
Who’S It For? Bully is made for both kids and their parents, but will provides little answers about dealing with such problems to either of them. The film’s main focus is to share horror stories (which are sadly true) about the damage that bullying does not just to children, but their parents as well.
Overall
For a “character-driven drama,” Bully is full of too many weakly developed subjects to squeeze much out of its audience other than relatable sympathy. We watch in anger the episodes of relentless bullying in Alex’s life, but showing a conclusion or a solution to his problems seems out of the question for the filmmakers. In not providing us this satisfaction,...
Directed by: Lee Hirsch
Running Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: April 13, 2012 (Chicago)
Plot: A documentary that tells the stories of American youth who are bullied in their middle schools.
Who’S It For? Bully is made for both kids and their parents, but will provides little answers about dealing with such problems to either of them. The film’s main focus is to share horror stories (which are sadly true) about the damage that bullying does not just to children, but their parents as well.
Overall
For a “character-driven drama,” Bully is full of too many weakly developed subjects to squeeze much out of its audience other than relatable sympathy. We watch in anger the episodes of relentless bullying in Alex’s life, but showing a conclusion or a solution to his problems seems out of the question for the filmmakers. In not providing us this satisfaction,...
- 4/13/2012
- by Nick Allen
- The Scorecard Review
Bully Directed by: Lee Hirsch Written by: Lee Hirsch and Cynthia Lowen This year over 13 million kids will be subjected to bullying in one form or another. The problem has increased in magnitude with the advent of social media, allowing kids to attack one another from behind a keyboard or phone. Lee Hirsch tackles the hot button issue in his new documentary, Bully. It follows the stories of five families who have been directly impacted by bullying. No doubt Hirsch knows the best way to engage viewers in this type of issue is to put a face on it. Hirsch and producer Cynthia Lowen “embedded” themselves at a middle school in Sioux City, Iowa in order to chronicle the life of Alex, who is relentlessly bullied at school. He suffers physical and mental abuse from schoolmates, and is essentially ostracized by the entire student body. Alex was born prematurely and...
- 4/13/2012
- by Shannon
- FilmJunk
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