documentaries – Page 2 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

WEEK IN WOMEN: Theatrical Premier for Lisa D’Apolito’s SHARI & LAMB CHOP

July 11, 2025July 13, 2025 Brandy McDonnell biodoc, children's television, documentaries, female film director, lisa dapolito, Shari and Lamb Chop', shari lewis

Best known for Love, Gilda, the very insightful and moving tribute profile of Gilda Radner, documentary filmmaker Lisa D’Apolito has focused her lens on another beloved female performer in her most recent film. Shari and Lamb Chop is an in depth and insightful chronicle of the life and career of ventriloquist Shari Lewis, and of her best loved and most famous sock puppet companion, Lamb Chop. Their charming and inspirational banter was the very essence of children’s television programming long before the introduction of Mr. Roberts or the Muppets. Lewis and her ensemble of dummies (most of whom were actually quite smart) were beloved by children of all ages, but as is shown in the documentary, she was often given typical short shrift by the male dominated television industry because she was female.

Festivals News

WEEK IN WOMEN: Female Filmmakers at OKC’s deadCenter Film Festival – Brandy McDonnell reports

June 11, 2025June 14, 2025 Brandy McDonnell amy scott, deadcenter film festival, documentaries, female filmmakers, film festivals, Native American filmmakers, Oscar-qualifying film festivals

Oklahoma’s largest film festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary with an eclectic lineup of 200 independent features and short films, with a strong slate of projects directed and/or produced by women, particularly Native American women.

Festivals

HOT DOCS 2025 WRAP – Emma Badame reports

May 7, 2025May 8, 2025 Emma Badame Aisha’s Story, Amalie Atkins, Angela Carabalí, Asia Youngman, Chen Wang, Delta Dawn, displacement, documentaries, Elizabeth Vibert, Hot Docs, Sasha Wortzel

Every spring, documentary fans set their sights on Toronto and the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. This year’s event, the 32nd annual edition, which ran for 11 days from April 24 to May 4, brought audiences 113 non-fiction offerings from a whopping 47 countries. Add to that the 150 featured Q&As, and it’s not hard to see why Hot Docs is a mainstay of the annual cinematic circuit. Despite a turbulent year behind the scenes, festival programmers managed to bring another impressive programme of films from a wide range of filmmakers and backgrounds. With their latest run, Hot Docs upheld their mandate of presenting a wide swath of points of view, ensuring representation from across a spectrum of marginalised voices, including women, the queer community, filmmakers in exile, and more.

Festivals

TRUE/FALSE Film Festival 2025 Overview – Diane Carson reports

March 3, 2025March 9, 2025 Diane Carson documentaries, Land with No Rider, Middletown, Requiem for a Tribe, Seeds, The Wolves Always Come at Night, True/False Film Festival 2025

Begun in 2004, the 2025 True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, offered its always impressive international selection of documentaries championing (per the T/F mission) “the challenge of interpreting reality on screen with playfulness, sensitivity, discipline, and daring imagination.” This year’s 30 new features and 24 shorts represented an educational, inspirational, and entertaining treasure trove of international films anchored in historical and personal experiences. A bonus of the True/False Festival is the attendance of directors and/or producers and sometimes subjects, with post-screening Q&As that add background information and update the films’ content. Exploration of the past emerged as a significant theme, perhaps unsurprisingly given the world’s varied crises. Throughout analytical, extraordinary stories, directors consistently emphasized the critical importance of informing the present by incorporating lessons and insights from previously challenging as well as uplifting events.

Reviews

PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES (2011) — RetroView by Jennifer Merin

November 11, 2024November 13, 2024 Jennifer Merin andrew rossi, documentaries, page one inside the new york times

Shooting solo over a 14-month period at the NYT offices, filmmaker Andrew Rossi claimed unprecedented access to our nation’s newspaper of record. Rossi chronicled high-level daily editorial meetings, focused on Media Desk Editor Bruce Headlam’s anxious efforts to navigate the famous wikileaks story, and covered the various reportorial forays of Media Desk journalists Dave Carr (stalking the Tribune Media Company bankruptcy), Tim Arango and former blogger Brian Stelter. In concentrating primarily on the NYT’s Media Desk, Rossi seeks to reveal how the newspaper is covering and coping with current changes in the business of news gathering and publishing.

Reviews

BARBARA LEE: SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER – Review by Lois Alter Mark

October 29, 2024November 3, 2024 Lois Alter Mark Abby Ginzberg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, alice walker, Authorization for Use of Military Force bill, Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power, documentaries, John Lewis

This documentary about Barbara Lee, the highest ranking Black woman in Congress, is so inspiring, I -expect a future President of the US to one day say she was motivated to run for office after watching it. Directed by Abby Ginzberg, the film features an eclectic group of celebrities, including Danny Glover, Van Jones, Alice Walker, and politicians from the late John Lewis to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cory Booker, all singing the praises of the California Congresswoman who has been fighting for racial and economic justice for more than two decades.

Reviews

THE HERRICANES – Review by T.J. Callihan

October 16, 2024October 16, 2024 T. J. Callahan documentaries, Olivia Kuan, The Herricanes, Title IX, women’s football

Hurricanes have been front and center in the news of late. Towns and people’s lives have been devastated from Texas to Florida to North Carolina. But in this article we aren’t talking about Beryl or Helene or Milton. The well deserved spotlight is on Monkey, Peaches, Basia, Jane, and the rest of The Houston HERricanes. They were part of a groundbreaking group of women who played full tackle football in the largest city in Texas during the 1970’s. Their story is finally being told in the new documentary The Herricanes, produced and directed by Olivia Kuan, daughter of Basia, who played safety and corner for the team for 3 seasons.

Movie of the Week

MOVIE OF THE WEEK September 6, 2024: LOOK INTO MY EYES

August 31, 2024August 31, 2024 Jennifer Merin a24, betsy bozdech, Cate Marquis, documentaries, jennifer merin, lana wilson, leslie combemale, liz whittemore, look into my eyes, loren king, motw, Movie of the Week, nell minow, Nikenya Hall, nikki fowler, psychics

Whether or not you believe that psychics truly have the ability to channel the dead or intuit the future, you’ll be hard pressed not to appreciate the comfort and empathy they offer the people who seek out their services in the poignant documentary Look Into My Eyes. Writer/director Lana Wilson captures intimate readings and personal stories without judgment, holding space for the feelings of both the psychics and their clients.

Reviews

LOOK INTO MY EYES – Review by Leslie Combemale

August 26, 2024August 31, 2024 Leslie Combemale documentaries, lana wilson, look into my eyes, motw, Nikenya Hall, psychics

What if being hoodwinked meant feeling better and more at peace? That’s one question that provides the major undertone for Look Into My Eyes, the newest documentary from award-winning filmmaker Lana Wilson. The answer depends on the perspective of the viewer, but one thing’s for sure. Look Into My Eyes will definitely evoke strong emotions from its audiences. The film profiles a collection of psychics in and around New York City, as they ply their trade and make a living. As they do so, they really seem to help their clients get closure, feel comforted and get some some measure of peace.

Reviews

SKYWALKERS: A LOVE STORY – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

July 12, 2024July 14, 2024 Valerie Kalfrin Angela Nikolau, documentaries, Ivan “Vanya” Beerkus, Jeff Zimbalist, Maria Bukhonina, Merdeka 118, Renato Borrayo Serrano, Rooftoppers, Skywalkers: A Love Story

Any relationship involves trust—a metaphor that the documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story makes dizzyingly literal. Following two daredevils who scale rooftops and spires around the world, the film boasts breathtaking views and vertigo-inducing point-of-view shots, yet holds its subjects at arm’s length. Not for viewers with vertigo, Skywalkers: A Love Story is best appreciated as a travelogue rather than as a high-flying romance, with a few pointed observations and sweet moments, such as when Nikolau says to Beerkus, “I felt so safe in your hands.”