News

The stunning fall of the Syrian government early Sunday — a bloodless coup by Islamist rebels that ended the brutal 50-year rule of the Bashar Assad regime — has been reverberating across the global film community. There’s widespread elation among displaced Syrian filmmakers, but also fear about what the future holds.

All are happy that Assad is gone. But some are weary that rebel Islamist leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who managed to overthrow the Syrian dictator, could lead the country into more mayhem — even though things can’t get much worse than than they already were.

“This is a dream that we have all had; something I’ve been seeing in my dreams since I was a child,” said multi-hyphenate Orwa Nyrabia, outgoing artistic director of Amsterdam’s leading documentary festival IDFA. “And it’s come true.”

“It’s painful to see this after all of these losses. All of this displacement.

Grain Media, the two-time Oscar-winning British documentary company behind acclaimed titles such “The White Helmets,“ “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)” and “Virunga,” has restructured its operations in order to weather the ongoing challenges facing the doc world and, it claims, continue to make the sort of socially conscious films it’s renowned for.

Grace Labs — the development hub that sits within Grain and is funded by philanthropist Jorge Villon — is set to expand with several key hires. Grace, which until now has primarily focussed on projects connected to environmental and biodiversity, will now become the home for all of Grain’s socially-conscious filmmaking, which will also adopt Grace’s strategy of positioning each concept in a more commercially-focussed manner to appeal to commissioners.

“We make films about issues that we believe are important,” says Grain co-founder Orlando von Einsiedel. “But they’ve become very hard to get commissioned,...

Exclusive: Netflix is to tell the miracle story of the four children who survived 40 days in the Colombian jungle via a feature doc from Oscar-winner Orlando Von Einsiedel, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Documentaries, and Grain Media.

The streamer has confirmed The Lost Children, which will air next month. The doc brings together those who were closely involved with the incredible, headline-grabbing story – the Colombian Army, Indigenous volunteer rescuers and the children’s family.

After a small plane crashed last year in the remote Amazonian jungle, killing all adults on board, the only survivors were four indigenous children aged between 11 months and 13 years old. The Mucutuy siblings were forced to rely on every survival instinct they had and somehow survived for 40 days before being rescued.

The doc has been in the works for a little while and von Einsiedel, who won an Oscar for The White Helmets and was nommed for Virunga,...

UK-based sales firm Together Films has acquired worldwide rights to The Walk, the second film from Honeyland director Tamara Kotevska.

Documentary The Walk follows a young Syrian refugee in Turkey who processes the trauma of losing her home and family through a gigantic puppet named Amal.

It debuted at Doc NYC in November. The Walk is produced by Harri Grace, David Lan, Tracey Seaward and Orlando von Einsiedel, for Grain Media, the UK firm behind Oscar-nominated Virunga and Oscar-winning short The White Helmets.

It was made in association with Participant, The Walk Productions, Handspring Puppet Company, Good Chance Theatre, Loft Films,...

Juliano Ribeiro Salgado directs with Ivi Roberg.

Orlando von Einsiedel’s UK production company Grain Media has boarded documentary The Mother Of All Fights, co-directed by Oscar-nominated Brazilian filmmaker Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.

Currently in post-production ahead of completion in 2024, The Mother Of All Fights follows Brazil’s social change through the figure of indigenous activist-turned-politician Sonia Guajajara. von Einsiedel and Grain Media’s Chloe Leland will executive produce the film, in collaboration with producers Alice Aedy and Joi Lee of UK production company Earthrise.

The film is directed by Salgado and Ivi Roberg for their Brazilian firm Uacari Films. Salgado...

The U.K.’s Documentary Film Council (Dfc) is seeking funds to support the independent documentary sector, which is under “existential threat.”

The Dfc was formed in response to a three-year study on the U.K. feature-length documentary film industry and co-designed by several organizations in the field, including Doc Society, Sheffield DocFest, the Grierson Trust, The Whickers, Scottish Documentary Institute, Docs Ireland and BBC Storyville.

An open letter to the U.K. screen industries compiled by the Dfc states that the formation of the Dfc is “based on the recognition that independent documentary in the U.K. faces an existential threat and that there is urgent need for coordinated, long-term interventions across the sector.”

“Films at the independent end of the spectrum – creative, observational, character-led films, films that originate outside of a commissioner’s brief or which explore difficult-but-vital political or cultural questions – are increasingly hard to get made,” the letter adds.

Signatories include Kim Longinotto, Sean McAllister, Orlando von Einsiedel, Jeanie Finlay, Jerry Rothwell, Andre Singer, Mark Cousins, Andrew Kötting, and Mike Lerner.

Leading figures from the UK documentary world have thrown their support behind an open letter from the Documentary Film Council (Dfc) raising the alarm about the predicament of the UK indie doc sector.

Despite rhetoric about this being a golden age of documentary, the letter claims the sector “faces an existential threat”. Production funding for indie docs has plummeted and chances of distribution and exhibition for many are “non-existent.” Broadcast slots are also dwindling as are deals with...

Before every world-class title, Prince Harry is a loving father.

Wednesday saw the Netflix debut of the Duke of Sussexx’s limited series, “Heart of Invictus”, which saw him pay a heartfelt homage to his two kids – whom he shares with Meghan Markle – Prince Archie, 4 and Princess Lilibet, 2.

Read More: Meghan Markle’s Wedding Dress Designer Reveals The ‘Something Blue’ Included In The Gown

The docuseries follows competitors from six countries prepping for an international adaptive sports competition for service personnel and veterans at Invictus Games in The Hague in April 2022.

Harry began the series with a sunny-side interview of himself, stating: “On any given day, I’m a dad of two under three-year-olds, got a couple of dogs, [I’m] a husband, I’m founding patron of Invictus Games Foundation. There’s lots of hats one wears, but I believe today is all about Invictus.”

Having served in the British Army...

Prince Harry is returning to Netflix.

“Heart of Invictus,” produced by the Duke of Sussex’s Archewell label within the streamer, presents a view of Harry’s advocacy work. Director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara — past Oscar winners for the 2016 documentary short “The White Helmets,” and nominees for the 2014 feature “Virunga” — knit together the stories of multiple participants in the Invictus Games, the athletic competition Harry founded for wounded veterans around the world. It’s a five-episode docuseries with uplift that can also be at times startlingly raw: Among the participants in the doc is a veteran in Ukraine, trying to move into civilian life; as Russia invades, she’s drawn back into the conflict.

For Harry — who is one among von Einsiedel’s and Natasegara’s subjects, and gets equal time, but not star treatment — this is a chance to do advocacy work for his most passionately held cause.

Netflix on Tuesday unveiled its full fall slate of films, touting the release dates of awards contenders like Pain Hustlers and The Killer, among other titles.

A crime drama starring Emily Blunt and Chris Evans that adapts the book by Evan Hughes, Pain Hustlers has been set to open in select theaters October 20. Directed by David Yates from Wells Tower’s script, the film will make its debut on Netflix October 27, as previously announced. Marking David Fincher’s return to the genre that put him on the map, the thriller The Killer starring Michael Fassbender will bow in select theaters October 27th, having already set its streaming premiere date of November 10th.

Among other buzzy titles coming to the platform that could factor into the awards race is Thom Zimny’s doc Sly, examining the life and career of Hollywood legend Sylvester Stallone, which has been dated to hit Netflix November 3rd.

Netflix has unveiled its complete film slate for this fall, including Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire,” Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Wes Anderson’s short “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” and much more.

The fall film slate features 28 movies that will be released on the streamer beginning in September. Anderson’s short Roald Dahl adaptation will drop on Netflix Sept. 27 following its limited theatrical release on Sept. 20, while “Maestro” and “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire” premiere in December. Other notable features include “Reptile,” “Rustin,” “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” and Sylvester Stallone’s documentary “Sly.”

Take a look at Netflix’s 2023 fall film slate below.

September Releases

Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America

Release Date: On Netflix September 6

Genre: Documentary

Director: Brian Knappenberger

Producers: Conor Fetting-Smith, Sabrina Parke, Clive Patterson

Executive Producers: Brian Knappenberger, Orlando von Einsiedel...

Gala screening will play at Southbank Centre and venues around UK.

Aardman animated feature Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget will have its world premiere as a Gala screening on Saturday, October 14 at the 67th BFI London Film Festival (Lff).

The stop-motion sequel will play at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank Centre; and simultaneously at multiple UK cinemas.

Dawn Of The Nugget then debuts globally on Netflix on December 15.

Following the death-defying escape from Tweedy’s farm in the first film, Dawn Of The Nugget sees Ginger and Rocky seemingly happy on an island sanctuary with their...

Elevation Pictures to distribute in Canada.

Quiver and WestEnd have announced international deals on the upcoming TIFF world premiere and Second World War true story Irena’s Vow starring Sophie Nélisse and Dougray Scott.

Deals have closed with Dea Planeta for Spain, Outsider for Portugal, United King for Israel, and Cinesky for airlines. Quiver will distribute in the US.

Irena’s Vow will premiere in Toronto on September 10 at 3.15pm Et at TIFF Bell Lightbox, with a second public screening on September 11 at 3.35pm Et at Scotiabank Theatre.

Louise Archambault (TIFF 2019 entry And The Birds Rained Down) directed the feature from Dan Gordon...

UK’s Grain Media, Sweden’s Kalabati Pictures are producing the film.

Production is underway in Sweden on Cycling For Love (working title), the new documentary from Virunga and The White Helmets director Orlando von Einsiedel.

The latest film from UK director von Einsiedel tells the story of Indian street artist Pk Mahanandia and Swedish tourist Lotta von Schedvin. The pair met in Delhi in 1975 when von Schedvin asked Mahanandia to draw her portrait; with Mahanandia ultimately making a journey from India to Sweden by bicycle for love. It will use verite documentary, interview and archive techniques, blending dramatic re-enactments with animation.

Both Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will hold events at the Invictus Games, taking place in Dusseldorf, Germany, next month.

The Times of London reports that Harry will give a speech at the closing ceremony on September 16, where Markle will host a segment demonstrating the servicemen’s courage and resilience.

The Games follow the release of Heart of Invictus, Harry’s Netflix documentary set to premiere on the platform on August 30.

As the trailer for the doc was released this week, Harry – who appears on screen as well as being executive producer, said: “The games don’t focus on what causes the injury, but about the recovery and how to be part of a community again.”

Directors are Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara, who previously won an Oscar for The White Helments, a documentary about rescue workers in the Syrian civil war.

The Games’ closing ceremony will also feature...

Prince Harry is shining a light on the Invictus Games in a trailer for his new Netflix documentary series.

Premiering Wednesday, Aug. 30, Heart of Invictus “follows a group of extraordinary competitors from around the globe, all service members who have experienced life-changing injuries or illnesses, on their road to the Invictus Games The Hague,” per the official synopsis. The series chronicles the competitors’ training, revealing “powerful stories of resilience and hope,” in addition to spotlighting “the organizers as they work to prepare for the Games alongside each nation’s team, supporting the competitors as well as their friends and families.

Prince Harry gives a rallying cry to war veterans preparing for next month’s Invictus Games competition in the teaser trailer for the Heart of Invictus documentary series, from his and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Productions, for Netflix.

‘It is here at Invictus Games that you realize whatever you carry was the springboard that propelled you to the next level. The Games doesn’t focus on what causes the injury, but really about the recovery and how to be part of a community again,” Harry says of the project from Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara, the Oscar-winning director and producer team behind The White Helmets short film, also for Netflix.

The five-parter, to bow on Aug. 30, looks at the human stories behind the Invictus Games, the international sporting event founded by Harry, who also executive produces the series. The trailer captures the Duke of Sussex encouraging service members who...

A documentary about the Invictus games from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle finally has a premiere date.

Greenlit in 2021, Archewell Productions’ Heart of Invictus will bow Aug. 30. The five-parter was directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and follows a group of service members-cum-competitors who have experienced life-changing injuries or illnesses.

Prince Harry has been instrumental in the launch of the Invictus Games, which kicked off in 2014 and was inspired by the Warrior Games attended by a number of injured officers. The deal was inked six months after The Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed a multi-million-dollar deal with the streaming service.

The Duke of Sussex will appear on camera and serve as Executive Producer on the series alongside The Invictus Games Foundation. Other EPs are Joanna Natasegara, Ben Browning, Chanel Pysnik, Lord Allen of Kensington Cbe, Sir Keith Mills Gbe Dl, Dominic Reid OBE, Orlando von Einsiedel and Abigail Anketell-Jones.

“Since...

The first project that Netflix greenlit after inking a mega-deal with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, is finally coming.

More than two years after the streamer gave the go to “Heart of Invictus,” the docuseries will debut Aug. 30 on Netflix. The five-part doc will follow international competitors at the Invictus Games, an international sporting event that Prince Harry founded in 2014 for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women.

“Our Invictus Games community represents some of the bravest and most dedicated individuals from 23 nations across the globe,” says Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, in a statement. “‘Heart of Invictus’ is the incredible story of competitors brought together through service, who are now united through sport. While in various stages of recovery from both visible and invisible injuries, these competitors and their loved ones give a compelling look at their journey to the Invictus Games, in...

A Netflix documentary is exposing the Boy Scouts’ child abuse scandal.

The documentary feature Scout’s Honor (trailer below) details “how the Boy Scouts of America attempted to cover up one of history’s most horrific child sexual abuse scandals” through “exclusive interviews with whistleblowers, survivors and former employees.”

The trailer notes there have been a documented 82,000 abuse claims against former scout leaders who were entrusted to teach and protect children enrolled with the personal growth program, which was founded in 1910.

“I don’t care if I bring the whole temple down, this is an abomination,” says one interview subject in the trailer. While another claims, “I know kids are still at risk in Scouting.”

In a statement released in 2021, the Boy Scouts of America said they were “devastated by the number of lives impacted by past abuse in Scouting” and “the response we have seen from survivors has been gut wrenching” … and,...

On Sept. 6, Netflix will debut Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America, a documentary about how one of the largest youth organizations in the U.S. — with over 700,000 members — tried to cover up one of the most widespread child sexual abuse scandals in history.

Directed by Brian Knappenberger (The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez) and executive produced by Orlando von Einsiedel (The White Helmets), the doc features exclusive interviews with survivors and ex-employees, including the first interview with Michael Johnson, the Boy Scouts’ former youth protection director turned whistleblower,...

Netflix on Tuesday unveiled five filmmaking teams who will receive funding and professional support to make short documentaries on the theme of “Connection” in the second year of the global streamer’s U.K. Documentary Talent Fund.

The winners were selected from thousands of applications, with a shortlist of 12 teams invited to Netflix’s U.K. headquarters to pitch their projects in front of a panel of industry experts.

The five projects and filmmaking teams selected are:

Anna Snowball & Abolfazl Talooni – Iranian Yellow Pages.

Iranians in London, trapped between two cultures, search for connection by placing weird and wonderful adverts in the Iranian Yellow Pages.

Anna Rodgers & Zlata Filipovic – Two Mothers.

An unusual bond compels an Irish mother of twins to travel to war-torn Ukraine in order to rescue the woman who carried her babies.

Caroline Williamson & Troi Lee – Turn up the Bass.

This is the remarkable story of Troi...

Director Kartiki Gonsalves and producer Guneet Monga became the first Indian filmmakers to claim competitive Oscars after their short documentary The Elephant Whisperers won the Academy Award tonight.

Gonsalves gave thanks to “my motherland, India,” as she accepted the award.

The Elephant Whisperers revolves around Bomman and Belli, an Indigenous couple and their “large” family – orphaned elephant calves that they help raise in the Theppakadu Elephant camp within the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in South India. Gonsalves spent five years following this human-elephant blended family for her Netflix documentary.

“I stand here today to speak for the sacred bond between us and our natural world,” Gonsalves said as she began her acceptance speech, “for the respect of Indigenous communities and empathy towards other living beings we share our space with, and finally, for coexistence.”

She added, “Thank you to the Academy for recognizing our film, highlighting Indigenous people and animals, to...

Netflix has launched its second documentary talent fund for emerging filmmakers in the U.K. – and this year the streamer is extending applications to Ireland.

The fund will again be produced by Elisabeth Hopper with support from supervising producer Georgie Yukiko and assistant producer Daisy Ifama.

Open to everyone – even those with no experience – the fund provides filmmakers with a budget of £30,000 as well as guidance from Netflix executives and other industry professionals to enable them to make a documentary short. Among the support offered by Netflix is a series of production workshops covering legal, creative, Hr and finance, among other things.

The theme for this year’s documentaries is “connection.”

The chosen applicants will present their final documentaries at a showcase in early 2024. Applicants must be a resident of the U.K. or Ireland.

Each filmmaker will come away with an 8-10 minute documentary that will be pushed on Netflix U.

Bastille has hope that there are better days to come. In the newly released music video for “Hope For The Future,” written for the forthcoming MSNBC documentary From Devil’s Breath, the British band narrates the colliding stories of survivors and activists coming to terms with the immediate and future aftermath of the deadly wildfires that blazed through Portugal in 2017.

“Thought that I could hear you whisper softly/Can’t be only me that hears the sound,” frontman Dan Smith sings on the bridge, highlighting the strength of a collective...

Trevor Noah is behind a series of documentaries that highlight a range of hot button issues in the United States.

The comedian, who recently announced his exit from The Daily Show, is exec producing The Turning Point for MSNBC, which will feature a slew of standalone films.

You can watch the trailer for the series above and a clip of Shouting Down Midnight, the first film to launch which is exec produced by Richard Linklater.

MSNBC Films has set the premieres for the first three films in the series; Shouting Down Midnight will launch on October 23, From Devil’s Breath, which is produced by Leonard DiCaprio, launched on November 13 and Split Screen, which is based on a story from Noah, comes on November 20.

The films will feature issues such as the January 6th capitol riots, reproductive rights, climate change and the refugee crisis.

Shouting Down Midnight, which is directed by Gretchen Stoeltje,...

Click here to read the full article.

The Miami Herald is partnering with 101 Studios and Grain Media on a documentary that will investigate the deadly 2021 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida.

Surviving Surfside will interrogate the failure of the 12-story building in the early morning of June 24, 2021 that left 98 people dead and is still under official investigation, the companies announced on Tuesday. The documentary will build on the Herald‘s coverage of the tragedy, which won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news earlier this year, and it will feature survivors, first responders and Herald journalists who worked on the story, among other subjects.

As the documentary looks into the collapse and potential contributing factors, it will examine “the turbulent history of Miami – the riots, the drugs, the bribes and the condo boom” and examine “all the prime suspects that may have contributed to the condo collapse,” the companies said.

101 Studios has partnered with two-time Academy Award winner Grain Media and the 23-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Miami Herald on the feature documentary Surviving Surfside, which promises to tell the definitive story of the Surfside, Florida condo collapse and the crucial journalistic mission to search for the truth behind it, via unique access and never-seen-before perspectives.

It was in the early morning hours of June 24, 2021, that the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida suddenly collapsed, becoming one of the deadliest building failures in modern history. A fortunate few would be extricated alive, but 98 victims—including children as young as one—were pulled lifeless from the ruins.

The Herald’s coverage of the disaster—recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the Breaking News category—will serve as the basis for the doc, which will go to the visceral heart of the disaster—sitting alongside survivors, first-responders and desperate relatives; reliving journalists...

MSNBC Films has boarded Trevor Noah’s documentary series The Tipping Point and will air on it on its linear news channel and Peacock this fall.

The series brings together a number of independent films about tipping points that created significant changes in the world from directors and executive producers such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Angelina Jolie and Kat Graham.

The Tipping Point is produced by Time Studios, Noah’s Day Zero, Sugar23, and P&g Studios.

Films also come from the likes of Orlando Von Einsiedel, Sam Feder and Daresha Kyi.

Topics include: How is the growing American political divide-fueled by partisan television and disinformation–threatening to upend our time-honored democracy? How is voting legislation currently being introduced in states nationwide threatening to disenfranchise millions of voters? How have the growing number of internally displaced people–partnered with burgeoning anti-immigrant sentiments-created a condition of crisis around the globe?

The series is...

Story Syndicate, the production house founded by Oscar and Emmy-winning documentary powerhouse couple Dan Cogan and Liz Garbus, is bulking up its development and production team with a new hire, a promotion and a first-look deal with producer and investigative journalist Amy Herdy.

The New York-based production company, which launched in 2019, was behind several popular docs and docuseries in 2021, including Garbus’ “Becoming Cousteau” (National Geographic), Orlando von Einsiedel’s “Convergence: Courage in a Crisis” (Netflix) and John Hoffman and Janet Tobias’ “Fauci” (Nat Geo).

Jon Bardin, most recently Story Syndicate’s head of creative, has been named head of documentary and nonfiction. Bardin, who has been at the production company since its inception, has served as a producer or executive producer on Story Syndicate documentaries including Jesse Moss’ “Mayor Pete,” Erin Lee Carr’s “Britney Vs. Spears,” “Fauci” and Ry Russo-Young’s docuseries “Nuclear Family.” Currently Bardin is working on...

Back in the 1980s, former HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins saw an opportunity in the nonfiction short format.

“I was watching the Academy Awards one night and there was this category called best docu short and the people who made them were getting Oscars,” Nevins says. “At the Emmys, docus were kept hidden and given out on a special day. Docs were all by themselves in a corner at the Emmys, but at the Oscars doc filmmakers went up on the stage and they won. So, when I learned that we could qualify for this thing called a short and play with the big boys, I did it.”

In March 1989 HBO garnered its third Academy Award for “You Don’t Have to Die” — a 27-minute doc about 11-year-old Jason Gaes’ successful bout with cancer. It would be the first of 15 Oscars HBO nabbed in the documentary short nonfiction category...

“And the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature goes to… My Octopus Teacher… to American Factory… to Icarus.”

The Motion Picture Academy has enveloped Netflix nonfiction features with love again and again in recent years, rewarding the streamer with three trophies since 2018, not to mention half a dozen nominations overall.

But the story this year seems less Netflix and more National Geographic.

In a typical year, Netflix might easily boast five contenders. But this time around it’s Nat Geo with a quintet of competitors: Torn, The First Wave, Playing with Sharks, The Rescue—directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin—and Becoming Cousteau, the film about celebrated French marine explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau directed by two-time Oscar nominee Liz Garbus.

“Nat Geo has taken the scene by storm,” Garbus concurs. “The films are really, one and all, so different and so beautiful.”

When Disney acquired most of the Fox assets...

Netflix has bolstered its slate of Oscar short hopefuls with the acquisition of “Three Songs for Benazir.”

Directed by Gulistan and Elizabeth Mirzaei, the 22-minute docu tells the story of Shaista, a young man who is a refugee living in modern-day Afghanistan. Newly married to Benazir and living in a camp for displaced persons in Kabul, Shaista struggles to balance his dreams of being the first from his tribe to join the Afghan National Army with pressure from his father and brother to start a family.

“Three Songs for Benazir,” which is set to stream on the service in 2022, is qualified for Academy Award consideration in the documentary short category.

The directing duo, who are married and split their time between California and Afghanistan, filmed the short during a four-year period.

“We’re thrilled to add ‘Three Songs for Benazir’ to our Original Documentary Shorts slate,” says Chloe Gbai, Netflix manager,...

Trailer

Variety has been given exclusive access to the international trailer for “Into Dust,” an upcoming dramatic short from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel produced by Grain Media, Rideback and Fuse Entertainment. The short will launch this Friday on streaming platform WaterBear and be available to watch on Apple TV and Roku devices.

“Into Dust” is the true story of Perween Rahman, an activist who was murdered after she stood up to Karachi’s water mafia in the South of Pakistan. Set against the growing global water crisis and its impact on food, health, energy, governance and political stability around the world, the film not only depicts Rahman’s inspiring work, but the fight by those close to her to continue that work after her death, and to battle the forces who cut her life short.

In the trailer, we’re introduced to Rahman, played by Indu Sharma, and...

Exclusive: In a pre-emptive situation, MGM has secured a deal for the feature film project Jim Jones, with Leonardo DiCaprio in final talks to star as the 1970s religious cult leader who was behind the Jonestown mass suicide on November 18, 1978 that took more than 900 lives. The Oscar winner will produce for his Appian Way company alongside Jennifer Davisson.

MGM scooped up the Scott Rosenberg-penned script in what we hear was a seven-figure deal. The Venom scribe will also executive produce Jim Jones.

Jones founded the Peoples Temple in Indianapolis in 1955, and hailed it as a fully integrated congregation promoting Christian Socialism. By the 1970s he openly rejected traditional Christianity and claimed that he was God. He constructed Jonestown in Guyana in 1974 and spurred a following to live with him there as he touted a socialist paradise free from U.S. government oppression.

Amid rumors of human rights abuses, the American...

Exclusive: Story Syndicate, the New York-based film and television production company founded by Oscar- and Emmy-winning filmmaking couple Dan Cogan and Liz Garbus, has added four executives to its growing ranks.

Joining Story Syndicate in the newly-created role of COO is Mala Chapple, a Peabody-winning and Emmy nominated executive producer and production executive who previously held the title of SVP of Content Strategy, Operations, and Media Partnerships at Viacom. Chapple will be tasked with overseeing “the company’s growing production slate as well as its business operations,” according to a release.

Nell Constantinople and Jack Youngelson will take on the roles of SVP of Current, while Shane Tilston joins in the position of VP of Production, reporting to Chapple. All the new hires will “work directly with Cogan and Garbus to continue to expand and build out the company’s production and development content slate.”

Story Syndicate, which describes itself...

Exclusive: Oscar winner Orlando von Einsiedel’s (The White Helmets, Virunga) latest documentary short, From Devil’s Breath, will air as part of The Tipping Point, the upcoming docuseries from Time Studios, Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions, Sugar23 and P&g Studios announced back in July, which is focused on the rapidly shifting developments that are promising to reshape our world.

The climate change doc produced by Leonardo DiCaprio tells the unlikely first-person story of two remarkable narratives that come crashing together—that of the community of survivors of the deadly 2017 wildfires in Portugal, fighting to ensure what they’ve lived through can never happen again, and a revolutionary, world-changing scientific discovery which could help protect us all from the climate emergency.

From Devil’s Breath recently completed an Oscar-qualifying theatrical release and has also screened as part of the IDA Documentary Screening Series, spotlighting the most acclaimed documentary films of the year.

The International Documentary Association came out with its shortlist of the year’s best documentaries today, a list as notable for what was left out as what made it in.

A total of 29 feature films earned a spot on the IDA shortlist, including some considered Oscar frontrunners: Summer of Soul, Ascension, and Flee—each of which earned nominations last week for both the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards and the Gotham Awards. But several other films making a strong bid for Oscar attention were snubbed, among them The Rescue, Becoming Cousteau, Attica, Procession, and My Name Is Pauli Murray.

The IDA gave recognition to several documentaries with an international dimension, like Faya Dayi, from Mexican-Ethiopian director Jessica Bashir, Chinese-born filmmaker Nanfu Wang’s Covid-19-related doc In The Same Breath, and Miguel’s War, the story of a gay Lebanese man who exiles himself to Spain. The IDA-shortlisted President focuses on...

It’s been just over two years since documentary power couple — director Liz Garbus and producer/financier Dan Cogan — launched Story Syndicate, and already the production company has four films contending for Academy Award consideration this awards season.

In addition to producing Garbus’ National Geographic doc “Becoming Cousteau,” opening in theaters today, Story Syndicate is also behind three additional Oscar qualified documentaries: John Hoffman and Janet Tobias’ “Fauci” (National Geographic), Orlando von Einsiedel’s “Convergence: Courage in a Crisis” (Netflix) and Jesse Moss’ “Mayor Pete” (Amazon). The company also produced Ry Russo-Young’s “Nuclear Family,” an HBO three-part series about lesbian moms facing a paternity lawsuit, and Erin Lee Carr’s “Britney vs Spears,” a Netflix title investigating Britney Spears’ conservatorship.

Garbus and Cogan launched the Brooklyn-based production company in June 2019 with just three projects in the works – HBO’s “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” Amazon’s “All In:...

A resident of Wuhan, China volunteers to provide transportation for medical workers caring for Covid-19 patients. A Syrian refugee in London goes to work as a hospital cleaner and ends up British government to task over an injustice. A Miami doctor not only takes care of those in the hospital suffering from coronavirus he also works tirelessly to help the city’s homeless. These are just three of the nine compassionate stories chronicled in the new Netflix documentary “Convergence: Courage in a Crisis,” which was released globally by the streaming service on Oct. 12.

The documentary from Oscar-winning director Orlando Von Einsiedel (“The White Helmets”) and 10 co-directors spans eight different countries and focuses on how during the darkest days of the pandemic in 2020, people put aside often widespread differences to aid those suffering.

In a recent Film Independent Zoom interview, Von Einsiedel explained the genesis of the project: “As any filmmaker,...

While the Covid-19 pandemic may have seen many filmmakers forced to drop their tools and wait for production to start up again, for a number of documentarians it was an opportunity to chronicle the events going on outside. Among those was Orlando von Einsiedel, the British director behind 2017’s Oscar-winning short The White Helmets and 2015’s Oscar-nominated feature Virunga. Now, 18 months on from when he first began filming Convergence: Courage in a Crisis, his feature is ready and being released on Netflix on Tuesday.

A hugely collaborative effort, the film saw the London-based von Einsiedel team up with nine co-directors ...

While the Covid-19 pandemic may have seen many filmmakers forced to drop their tools and wait for production to start up again, for a number of documentarians it was an opportunity to chronicle the events going on outside. Among those was Orlando von Einsiedel, the British director behind 2017’s Oscar-winning short The White Helmets and 2015’s Oscar-nominated feature Virunga. Now, 18 months on from when he first began filming Convergence: Courage in a Crisis, his feature is ready and being released on Netflix on Tuesday.

A hugely collaborative effort, the film saw the London-based von Einsiedel team up with nine co-directors ...

In a new Netflix documentary, the stories of activists and volunteers who stepped up to help during an impossible time are celebrated

The film-makers behind Convergence: Courage in a Crisis set out to make a documentary on the pandemic, not politics. But separating the pandemic from politics can be as difficult as convincing your anti-vaxxer aunt to log off Facebook.

Director Orlando von Einsiedel, alongside an ensemble of co-directors spread across the globe, from the US to India, began collaborating on the kaleidoscopic film in early April last year. They were capturing the uncertainty and the chaos, the apocalyptic emptiness of lockdowns, and the people who stepped up to help their communities; not just medical staff in underfunded and overwhelmed healthcare systems in places like Lima and London, but also those who stepped up to alleviate their burden.

Netflix’s awards hopefuls Robert Greene’s “Procession” and Alonso Ruizpalacios’ “A Cop Movie” are heading to Manhattan’s Paris Theater as part of its “New Directions in Documentary” series.

Both hybrid features, which are vying for a spot on this year’s Academy Award doc shortlist, will screen alongside previously celebrated form-bending docus in the upcoming series beginning Oct. 15.

Since 2019 Netflix has operated the 571-seat venue, which the streaming company uses year-round for exclusive theatrical engagements, premieres, special events, retrospectives, and filmmaker appearances.

Curated by Paris Theater programmer David Schwartz, the five-day public event will highlight and celebrate docus that combine elements of fiction and non-fiction into the fabric of their storytelling.

“ ‘Procession’ and ‘A Cop Movie’ are exciting and inventive movies that heighten the documentary form,” says Schwartz. “They find innovative ways to explore truth through deeply personal and dramatic subjects. Their work transcends the formulaic with rigorous fidelity to vision,...

"It's a crisis. But opportunities are born from crisis." Netflix has debuted the trailer for a documentary film titled Convergence: Courage in a Crisis, created by Academy Award-winning doc filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel. Debuting on Netflix this October. While Covid-19 exacerbates vulnerabilities across the world, unsung heroes in all levels of society help the tide turn toward a brighter future. The film examines the pandemic-related crises occurring around the world and how communities are coming together to solve major problems and make a difference - from a Syrian refugee fighting the UK government to include hospital cleaners and porters in bereavement pay to a doctor committed to serving Miami's homeless community. "Activists and volunteers work through the darkest days of 2020, galvanizing social change amidst chaos as governments start to fail local communities. This epic, globally spanning and deeply passionate documentary serves as a clarion call that great change can be born of crisis.

HollyShorts Film Festival Announces Dates and Lineup

Short films starring Taika Waititi, Jessica Chastain, Tiffany Haddish and those produced by Octavia Spencer and Leonardo DiCaprio are among highlights of the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival, running Sept. 23-Oct. 1 at the Tcl Chinese Theatres and online.

Selections include Spencer Susser’s “Save Ralph,” starring Zac Efron, Waititi and George Lopez; Aneil Karia’s “The Long Goodbye” starring Riz Ahmed; Orlando von Einsiedel’s “Into Dust” produced by DiCaprio; Aidan Tanner’s “The Sands Between” starring Chastain; Minsun Park and Teddy Tenenbaum’s “Koreatown Ghost Story,” starring Margaret Cho; Zeberiah Newman’s “Right to Try,” produced by Spencer.

Other films on the slate are: Geoff Dunbar’s “When Winter Comes”; Lindiwe Suttle Müller-Westernhagen’s “Desmond’s Not Here Anymore;” Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman’s “Life Unexpected,” Julien Joslin’s “No Longer Suitable for Use,” Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe’s Oscar-Winning “Two Distant Strangers,...

Archewell Productions, the Netflix-based shingle launched by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, is getting into the animation business. Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, is the creator behind “Pearl,” described as a “family series that centers on the adventures of a 12-year-old girl, who is inspired by a variety of influential women from history.”

Credited as The Duchess of Sussex in the release, Markle will executive produce “Pearl” (which is a working title) with David Furnish, Carolyn Soper, Liz Garbus, and Dan Cogan. Amanda Rynda has been tapped as showrunner and executive producer.

“Like many girls her age, our heroine Pearl is on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to overcome life’s daily challenges,” Markle said in a statement. “I’m thrilled that Archewell Productions, partnered with the powerhouse platform of Netflix, and these incredible producers, will together bring you this new animated series, which celebrates extraordinary women throughout history.

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American distribution rights to The Phantom by BAFTA-winning director Patrick Forbes (The Force).

The Phantom tells the story of a dark episode in the history of American justice, the execution of Carlos DeLuna who was arrested in 1993 aged 21 for the murder of Wanda Lopez. DeLuna protested his innocence until his execution, declaring that it was another Carlos who committed the crime. The prosecution insisted that this other Carlos was a “phantom’ and didn’t exist. Through interviews with witnesses, Carlos’s family members, and legal experts, the film asks whether the judicial system wrongly executed an innocent man, and whether a poor Hispanic youth had any chance within a justice system and a society that by it’s actions seemed to regard him as disposable.

The Grain Media and Oxford Films documentary will have its world premiere at the upcoming virtual Tribeca Film Festival...

The Bench, Meghan Markle’s first children’s book that’s set for publication on June 8, was inspired by “the special bond” husband Prince Harry and son Archie, the publisher said Tuesday.

The book, with watercolor illustrations by Christian Robinson, began as a poem that Markle says she wrote for Harry on the first Father’s Day after Archie was born. Said the Duchess of Sussex in a statement, “That poem became this story. Christian layered in beautiful and ethereal watercolor illustrations that capture the warmth, joy, and comfort of the relationship between fathers and sons from all walks of life…”

Markle continued, that “this representation was particularly important to me, and Christian and I worked closely to depict this special bond through an inclusive lens. My hope is that The Bench resonates with every family, no matter the makeup, as much as it does with mine.”

The book will...

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's first project under their expansive Netflix deal has been announced.

Archewell Productions, in partnership with The Invictus Games Foundation, announced today that Heart of Invictus is coming to Netflix.

The docuseries hails from the OscarⓇ-winning team of director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara, and will follow a group of extraordinary competitors from around the globe, all service members who have suffered life-changing injuries or illnesses on their road to the Invictus Games The Hague 2020, now set to take place in 2022.

The series will" join the competitors as they train, and along the way reveal powerful stories of resilience and hope," reads the official logline.

It will also chart the organizers as they work to prepare for the Games, postponed until next Spring, and as they partner with each nation’s team to support their competitors over the coming year.

“Since the...